Prayer Request for Travel for Jerry and Matt

Please pray for Jerry and Matt as they are traveling over the next week. Jerry is already in Tennessee, and Matt leaves Wednesday morning for Los Angeles to visit Koury. They will both be flying home next Monday.

Camping

Hi, everyone! Tyler and I went camping this weekend with our Small Group from church. And when I say camping, I mean the REAL thing, complete with spiders, sweating while sleeping and an all-out Texas thunderstorm last night. All kidding aside, we thought you might like to see a few pictures from our adventures in Tyler State Park! We had a great time with our new friends! Among other activities, we went hiking, paddled our way through the lake on a paddleboat, went swimming, cooked out and had s'mores around the campfire. To top it off, one of the couples (Nathan & Elizabeth) braved mother nature with a 21-month old! We are thankful for a weekend out of the "city" and the wonderful people we went with...

Aldo, Tyler and Nathan (with Benjamin on his back)

Erica, Mary Helen, Gracie, Rebecca and Elizabeth (who is preganant with a little girl and due in August)

Birthday dinner delight

Now isn't Nana BEAUTIFUL!

We had a lovely evening tonight eating, telling stories, laughing and just enjoying each other's company. The menu was honey lemon chicken, mango salsa, Rome salad, oven fries, focaccia bread, ratatoui, lemon pie and coconut cream pie. NO SAUSAGE WRAP!!

Okay we were all miserably full and wished we hadn't eaten so much !!! Perhaps Monday we will start our diets.

Saturday Fishing

Daniel & I went bass fishing this morning to our favorite spot called Bear Pond. His bass is 2.7 lbs while mine came in at a wopping 1.5 lbs (hey, at least I caught one). We had a wonderful time on a beautiful Saturday morning. You all may remember that Tanner is the one who got Daniel started on fishing by teaching Daniel how to fish many years ago in Bird creek. Fishing is by far Daniel's favorite thing to do. Thank You Tanner for giving us a fun hobby to enjoy together.

Kyle

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to you...Happy birthday to you ...Happy birthday Dear Nana ....Happy birthday to you!!!!! You were perfectly made and one of the most beautiful woman I have ever know. You are irreplacable ...a true one of a kind. I hope you know that you are greatly cherished by this family.
Now for the birthday dinner...I have a reputation to uphold!!! Do you really want sausage wraps and chips ??? You can bet there will be a few side dished to the sausage wraps as I have a few ideas of my own. I will post some pictures of the birthday girl

As Requested: Boys and their Snakes

Nick and Hobbes are on the left, Ben and Striker on the right.

We've been Mr. & Mrs. for a year!

I can't believe Cody and I have been married for an entire year already! Time flies when you're having fun! We had such a nice anniversary. We decided to cook dinner at home. Cody made dinner for me! We had steak and potatoes, and it was delicious! We saved the top tier of our wedding cake, and had that for dessert. It tasted ok. The cake was a little dry, and the icing a little soggy. Cody had an edible arrangement sent to me, with all kinds of chocolate covered fruit! (Just in case our cake was not as good as it was a year ago.) The arrangement was beautiful and delicious. I would recommend sending this to someone instead of flowers! It's so much fun to receive and eat! :)

Cody and I decided to stick with tradition and exchange gifts related to our "paper" anniversary. Cody gave be a Bible with my name engraved on it, and a lovely note inside. I made Cody a "time capsule" box. I bought a wooden box, glued pictures from our wedding and honeymoon over the entire box, and then coated it with a sealer. Inside the box, I filled it with memories from when we first met, when he proposed, our wedding, honeymoon, and details about our present lives. Then, I had us both fill out a questionnaire about our future. The answers were fun to compare. For example: I asked how many kids we would have. We both answered 4, 3 boys & 1 girl. However, we did not write down the same answer, regarding the names of our children. Cody thought we would name our kids: Roger, Randy, Ralph and Rita!!! I can only hope he was joking!

After dinner, we watched our wedding video! It was fun to look back and see all of the flowers and decorations, and how beautiful/handsome everyone looked. I want to take to time to thank everyone again for everything you did for us while were were engaged and planning the wedding, during the wedding, and for being there to support & love Cody and me during this first year of marriage. It means more to us than we can explain! You're all amazing!

FUN FACE PAINTINGS !!!

GO TEXAS !!!

Amy's surgery

I talked to Kyle today. Amy had "out patient" surgery this morning to remove the screws from her ankle. Everything went well and she is home. She will be in a walking cast for 6 weeks. Pray that the healing will be perfect and that she will be running around soon. Nana 1

Another prayer request

Please keep Nate and me in your prayers as we are trying to lease our house again in Belton. The woman renting it backed out of her lease 6 months early and so if we don't get it rented by July 1st, we will be paying our mortgage in Belton and our lease in Austin. As I'm sure you can imagine, this would be really hard for us financially. Pray that we find a renter before July 1st and that if we don't, Mindy will fulfill her responsibility to pay the rent until someone else moves in.

Thanks!!

New Prayer Request: Pat's Knee Surgery

Good morning! I have a prayer request to add to the list...

My dad is having knee surgery today and I would appreciate if all of you would pray for wisdom for the doctor (Dr. Hamilton), comfort for my Dad (for both nervousness and pain) and strength for both my mom and dad during his recovery. He will have to be on crutches for at least 6 weeks after the surgery. This was an unexpected procedure (they found out he needed it on Monday). Please keep him in your prayers! I appreciate it so much and will keep you updated.

Love,
Mary Helen

Today is Lee's Birthday

Today is Lee's birthday today for anyone that wants to send him a birthday text or give him a call his cell # is (469) 834 - 3535.

1st Picture Post

Let's see if it works!

WooHoo! It looks like it did!

Just in case you need a laugh

The story can only be told by SuperNana. Click the link:

(Click right here Nana)

GREAT DAY at the Horse Races

Kirby told the Tyler, Mary Helen, Tara and Cody that we would drive up to Dallas on Saturday to visit for Father's Day. They were left with the challenging task of finding something "fun to do" for 8 people with varying likes and dislikes. Not an easy assignment BUT they met the challenge with flying colors. We went to the Lone Star Horse Races in Grand Prairie. Then to top it off we were treated to box seat!!! Thanks to Tara's boss (part owner).

We all bet on 8 races with varying degrees of success. The ones that walked away with a little extra $$in their pockets were Mary Helen, Cody and ME!!! Let me tell you it is a lot of fun as you can see by the pictures. Big SHOUT OUT for the "Dallas crew" with horse races, lunch and dinner!!! You all ROCK!

THANKS

"A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society." -Billy Graham

It appears that there aren't too many fathers that get on here and read this so if you have a father, husband, brother, son or in-law that you feel has been a good father figure, relay the message...

I just wanted to wish all of the fathers in our family a Happy Father's Day. To my Dad in particular...I love you and you have been a consistent, loving, solid, strong, loyal, courageous and selfless influence in my life. You and mom have had unwavering faith and for that, I am thankful. It is because of you two that I have the foundation of faith, morals and values that I do. I know, I know. I didn't always act like it...but I came back around to what you had instilled in me.

Happy Father's Day JJ,

Meliss

What a great family I have!!!

Well, after Natalie told me how much fun she had reading all the past posts and how this was going to become a way we could pray for each other, I decided I needed to do the same thing. I had accidently deleted the invite and had not done anything about it until yesterday. Thanks, Tyler, for sending it to me again. Anyway, I have spent hours catching up on everything going on and will definitely keep up with the prayer requests. Okay, I have one...I am going back to Chappell Creek to be the manager there since the one now resigned. My supervisor gave me the choice of staying at Chappell Oaks or going back to Creek. Even though I love Oaks, I decided that with gasoline prices, etc. it made more sense for me to be closer to work. I loved it at Creek while I was there also. It is a bigger property with more responsibility and the assitant mgr. is due to have a baby in August so just pray the transition will go smoothly for me and for the residents.

Al ...The neighborhood bully

This is Al and he thinks he is ..."all that!" He often comes home stratched up and looking like a mess. This week was particularly bad, but Kirby is convinced the other cat looks worse.

Let's be a family that prays for each other!

I was thinking last night that there is no reason why we can't use the blog to share prayer requests and pray for each other. Given that we are a family of believers who understand the power of prayer, I figured that it makes no sense why we couldn't consistently pray for each other. I'm open for suggestions, but I was thinking that I could add a "Family Prayer List" to the right side of the blog as a permanent fixture. If anyone has a prayer request just post it as a comment, and I'll be sure to add it to the list. Then when God answers the prayer or the event is over you can provide an update. I know one prayer request off the top of my head would be for safety for Justin as he serves in Iraq.

God is Good!

Pictures Anyone?

Mom/Kim, will you please post pictures from Taylor's prom and graduation? I think I speak for everyone when I say, we would really enjoy seeing them.

Thanks.

Nana's first blog

I have now joined the 21st century...sort of. Retirement is great!! You will all be hearing more from me now!
Love to you all!!
Nana 1