Young Life is winding down for the semester & looking back I am seeing many ways that God worked in the lives of kids' these past couple of months. Club in the spring is always lower numbers than club in the fall, but that does not mean it is any less fun! The kids that have been coming have been so excited to be there & have been so attentive to the Gospel. There are several kids that have changed so much from the kids that we knew last year & even last fall. Cody & I were talking about it last week & we could not believe that change that we have seen in the lives of some of our high school friends. We hope & pray that this change in them will be something that is real & something that will last forever.

Keith is one of our amazing volunteer leaders who seems to always be getting hurt at club, but most of the time it's because he just wants kids to laugh! This particular club Keith was somehow trying to get kids signed up for camp by putting football pads on & jumping over a row of folding chairs. I guess it worked - kids laughed, Keith didn't get hurt & we have 50 kids signed up for camp! You never know what Keith is going to do at club!

Cody & Jenna, otherwise known as, Polly Pocket Protector, & Dexter Q. Cosine, were are game characters for the semester. Polly & Dexter were mathletes who always came out with really fun games up their sleeves. It was fun to see the kids respond to these games characters. Kids love & respect Jenna & Cody so much that the practically laughed at everything they did. These game characters brought lots of laughter & joy into our clubs, all of this so that the walls of kids' hearts would be broken down so that they would be more receptive to the gospel.

Ice Cream anyone??
The night of the NCAA national championship game. We got together with a bunch of kids & leaders & had basketball & big scoop. We gather & watched the game (well, mostly just the boys watched the game) & gave everyone GIANT scoops of ice cream. Not only did they get giant scoops of ice cream but we had tons of tons of toppings to choose from. We had everything from cereal to M&Ms to crushed up cookies. It was all a heart attack waiting to happen but kids' loved it! We wanted to give them giant scoops of ice cream to make the night memorable for them. We hope that they will look back on the semester of YL & have many memorable nights & hopefully those memorable moments will draw them closer to the savior.

Happy Easter!

Hopefully everyone had time this weekend to sit and reflect on what this weekend means. Every year I wish that my heart was more prepared for Easter weekend, for the weekend that means more to me than anything else. Because of Easter we are able to have a relationship with the Lord and be with him forever. What a glorious day!

This weekend was busy, but Cody and I got to spend a lot of time together and it was so sweet.

Friday I had to work all day as it was the day of our huge flower sale to raise money for summer camp. Our YL kids sold flowers and for every flat of flowers sold they got $8 off their trip. We had over 500 flats of flowers delivered to our office Friday morning and spent all day sorting and helping folks who came to pick them up. It was a long day, but we made over $8,000 all going towards our summer camp trip!

Friday night the weather was amazing so Cody cooked out an amazing dinner for us. He found the recipe for Houston's (a yummy restaurant in Dallas) marinade and made it for some steaks and chicken. He also did some potatoes and veggies - Good job Cody!

The grill master at work!

The finished dinner...yumm....

Sunday morning we woke up early and went out to breakfast. Going out to breakfast is normally something we only do when we were out of town, but we decided to treat ourselves since it was Easter. The restaurant was totally empty and we enjoyed a very filling breakfast before an amazing church service.

Church was amazing and we enjoyed a time of reflecting on the cross. Here are some of the lyrics to a song that we ended the service with and has been in my head all day -

"Glorious Day" by Jeff Johnson

Living He loves me
Dying He saves me
Buried He carry my sin far away
Rising He justify
We live forever
One day He's coming
Oh, Glorious Day
Oh, Glorious Day

One day they lead Him
Up calvaries mountain
One day they nailed Him
To die on a tree
Suffering anguish
Despise and rejected
Varying my sins my redeemer is He

One day the great could sealed Him no longer
One day the sorrow wave from the door
Then He a rose oh
Death He had conquered
Now my sin is ended
My lord forever more

Fun Weekend

Last weekend we drove down to Austin to do the capital 10k with my parents & Hannah & Drew. I ran this last year with my mom & Dad & I love that it is becoming a family tradition. I ran/walked the race with my mom, while Dad, Hannah, & Drew ran it, & Cody was our official chauffeur.

We enjoyed a great weekend together starting with a dinner at a local Italian restaurant, then some NCAA basketball, breakfast with Einstein's Bagels, the race, & lunch at fun Austin restaurant.

There were about 18,000 people participating this year!

Right before the race was about to start

And, of course we had to stop in to see our one week old neice, Harper, she has grown a lot in a week!

Harper Belle

Welcome to the world Harper Belle! Cody's sister, Cayce had a sweet baby girl on March 18th & we could not be more excited. Since last week was spring break we were able to make the short trip down to Austin to greet Harper.

Here are some pics of our new niece!

Proud Aunt & Uncle

Cayce & Matt ready to take Harper home!

Harper's Shower & Happy Birthday Hannah

Last weekend we took a short trip down to Boerne on Friday night & then to Austin on Saturday for Cayce's baby shower. Cayce is doing great & Harper is probably going to arrive earlier her due date (March 22). Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend, it was great to see family, even if it was only for a few hours.

Lots of family at the baby shower

Cayce with Harper's new bumpers - I love the fabric!

Yummy shower sweets

Happy Birthday Hannah! We had a birthday brunch for her on Saturday (hence the early morning look - sorry hannah) & I got her some yoga pants.

A Weekend To Remember

Happy Valentine's Day (a few days late)!

We really didn't have plans for Valentine's Day, until about a week ago when some friends offered to send us here:

And they even gave us a 2 night stay here:

We went to a marriage conference called, "A Weekend To Remember" & it was really great. The weekend was held at the Gaylord Texan (amazing place) & featured great speakers, like Dennis Rainey, and a couple other people.

I was definitely a little bit surprised when we got there on Friday night & there were about 2-3 thousand people there just for the conference. It was neat to see so many couples coming together seeking to have a Godly marriage in a world that doesn't support lasting marriages. Everything we learned there wasn't really anything that no one has ever heard, it was all just presented in a great way & spurred on a lot of great conversations between Cody & me. They also had everyone make individual goals & goals as a couple on things that you can do to help your marriage this next year. All that to say, it was really good & every couple should go to one of these weekends, they are so healthy. Thanks Brenda & LJ for making this happen for us.

More Gaylord pictures: