FREEDOM!

Well, Kyle is back in Missouri again this week working on the rental house. This is the second time he's gone back since my last post when we went back together. The re-model is coming along very nicely and we've decided to put the house on the market to sell instead of continuing to rent it out. Thank you all for the prayers! The reason for my post this evening is to share something very good and exciting that has come from this whole experience...

Most of you all know that I have struggled with fear for a very long time. Not just a normal fear that most people feel every now and then, but I'm talking about a tormenting fear that takes over my mind, makes me crazy thinking unrealistic thoughts of scenarios that would never actually happen! As a child, I was always the brave one who wasn't afraid of anything. This slowly faded and a fear of everything began to set in as a teenager. Often times my family would find a knife either in the shower or somewhere near my bedside... in my nightstand or hidden between the mattresses somehow or even tucked away under my pillow (very unsafe, I know). Although I always had a plan in my mind of how I would use these weapons if an attacker came along, the truth is I would probably just start screaming, throw the knife at them and run as fast as I could the other direction. So, I believe these weapons were more so a "security blanket" than something that would actually help me if harm ever came my way. They did just that though, they helped me sleep at night and gave me a sense of security. I have to add that it did not end there... since being married and living on our own in a city far away from home, knives weren't quite enough to make me feel "secure" anymore when Kyle wasn't at home. It quickly turned into me keeping a loaded gun in my nightstand. Sometimes I would carry my gun with me throughout the house just so I could do my housework, even in broad daylight on occassion. There were a few instances where I had my gun cocked and ready to fire because someone was at my door unexpectedly. This fear didn't only strike when I was home alone, but also out in public... for example, at the grocery store at night having to walk out to my car alone and very frequently at work... being in my industry, there are many times when I'm alone showing a home to a man/men I don't know. I've walked around in a complete state of paranoia my entire adult life.

Ok, now that you get the picture of what this fear looks like... I have to share that I am completely 100% FREE from this bondage of fear only by the power, authority and love of my almighty Father in Heaven!!!!!!! For years I have prayed for freedom from this fear. When fear overcame me I would speak the name of Jesus into the situation, recite scriptures and tell myself how crazy I was being, but nothing seemed to shake the fear even though I was "technically" doing everything I knew I should be doing. Although I've always believed that I'm a child of God and that He would protect me and that He COULD protect me... I would still allow this demon of fear to torment me. I've also received prayer many times from others to break this bondage and today I'm here to testify how powerful our prayers are! God hears our prayers and HE KEEPS HIS PROMISES! It's our job to trust in Him and believe in His promises!! His word says that He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind. His word says to not fear who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. His word also says that NO weapon formed against us shall prosper! He and His promises are unchanging... these words have been true all along, but I was choosing to believe the lies of the enemy rather than trusting and believing the word of God. When Kyle left for Missouri on April 26th, I prayed yet again for peace and protection over me and my home. God did exactly what He had always done when I prayed this prayer... He provided peace and protection. The difference was that I CHOSE TO BELIEVE I was being protected which in turn gave me the peace I had been searching for. When I went to bed that evening, I thanked God for the army of angels He had surrounding my home, I praised Him for His love and for keeping His promises. For once, I did not strategically place chairs or other large items in front of every door in case an intruder entered nor did I take my gun out of my nightstand to ensure it was in close reach. Instead I layed my head on my pillow and was filled abundantly with peace and a feeling of "security"... REAL SECURITY! Then, I slept soundly through the night knowing that NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST ME SHALL PROSPER, THAT I SHOULD NOT FEAR WHO CAN KILL THE BODY BUT CANNOT KILL THE SOUL AND THAT GOD HAD GIVEN ME A SPIRIT OF LOVE AND OF POWER AND OF A SOUND MIND... NOT OF FEAR!

Now I lay alone in bed at midnight almost one month later feeling that very same peace and again thanking my Father in Heaven for His protection and peace in my life. Thank you Father for showing me what FREEDOM feels like!

my new do

Before...

and after...

It kinda feels like I'm wearing a wig... I've never had my hair this dark before or even close to it so I'm still adjusting. It's a fun change though!

Have a very blessed day today!!

BRACE YOURSELF: lots to say!

Since it's been a little while, I'll start from the beginning...

Easter Weekend: We went to church Saturday night and met up with our friends Gabe and Cori there, then the four of us went out for pizza. The Easter service was awesome as usual... Pastor Morris has been teaching a series titled My Best Friend, The Son and he spoke about Jesus as "the lamb". It was a great message and worship was powerful as we celebrated our Savior's resurrection! Thank you Jesus for doing what we could not!! Click here to watch this sermon!

I spent Sunday morning at the church working with the little kiddos who were all so adorable dressed in their Easter outfits! I've been working with the 2 and 3 year olds and it's such a blessing and a great learning experience spending time with these precious young hearts!

After that, Kyle and I headed over to the Allgoods for Easter dinner, along with Gabe and Cori! Jeff and Jen made a fabulous meal... we're very thankful to have such great friends here!

Now getting to the really fun part of the week and the reason I haven't had much time for blogging lately...

We've been in the process of evicting the tenants in our house in St. Joe for some time now and were finally able to get them out of the house this past week. We drove up to good ol' St. Joe, MO on Monday, April 13th so we could meet the Sheriff at our house Tuesday morning to get these tenants out once and for all. Dad Fadell, Mom Fadell and Sailor also drove up from Omaha to help us out with the house, so we all spent time together Monday night at Justin, Kari and Lucy's, along with Dad and Mom McClain. It was fun seeing everyone despite the circumstance.

Tuesday morning we all headed over to the house to meet the Sheriff and to start cleaning out the house that the tenants had left in complete shambles, to say the least. Here is what we were faced with...

Front Door was not exactly in working order...

Front Window busted...

Living Room (if you could call it that)...

Kitchen...

There are other areas of the house that were not photographed and that's probably to your benefit. All interior doors were kicked in or broken in some way, shape or form to where they all had to be replaced. The backyard was covered in trash, both sheds out back were full of trash bags, as well as the "laundry room". As far as the bathroom is concerned, I'll just say this... I've never seen or smelled anything so awful and disgusting in my life. The commode and tub were both filled to the rim with who knows what... I'd rather not know myself, but I'm sure we can all use our imagination and the smell sorta gave it away. Dad Fadell certainly came to the rescue on that one... he voluntarily spent time emptying out the icky tub and plunging the commode. I really don't know how he did it, but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!

Ok, getting a little off track here... So, we all arrived at the house at 8:30am to meet with the Sheriff as scheduled. The Sheriff walked through the house, no one was inside and he declared there was nothing of value in the home, so he served notice that we were given back possession of the house and all items remaining, then the Sheriff went on his way. Not 30 minutes later, one of the tenants showed up to the house claiming there was a backpack inside the house that she needed. Well, by this time we had already filled up an entire trailer with things from inside the house so the backpack had most likely already made it onto the trailer somewhere. The Sheriff ended up coming back out along with two more police officers to control this situation because we obviously didn't want to undo everything we had just done to try and find this woman's bag when she was supposed to had moved out days ago. The police decided that if the tenant wanted to take everything off of our trailer, take it away from our property to go through it on her own time to look for her bag, they would allow that. So, the tenant called a friend with a truck to come get her things and for at least three hours she continued to tell us that her friend would be there in 10 minutes with a truck to get her things... during that time, she carried trashbags one by one around the corner to a friend's house to look through them. The tenant's truck never came so the Sheriff finally allowed us to haul everything off to the dump. Turns out the tenant found her backpack in one of the trashbags she had carried off. The day turned out being much longer and more hectic than we had anticipated. The worst part was that our tenant seemed to have no shame at all in the way she had been living which was a little concerning, but at least she got her backpack!

Here is what the scene looked like for the majority of our first day trying to get the house back in order...

Kyle and I trying to remain joyful under all circumstances... ;o)

Needless to say we faced a few obstacles on that first day, but we were able to get the house entirely cleared out and also got most of the house cleaned up to begin repairs. I don't know what we would have done without the help of Dad Fadell, Mom Fadell, Justin and Sailor! Kyle and I returned to the house Wednesday. I touched up paint while Kyle cleaned up the kitchen floors, which was quite the job! Thursday and Friday; Kyle, Justin and Nick worked on replacing all the doors, did some plumbing work and other odd jobs while I continued cleaning and doing paint touch ups. Saturday, Kyle and I had a day of rest and spent time with the family, then we left to come back home early Sunday. There is still work to be done on the house so Kyle will be traveling back to St. Joe to complete the work next week :(

We did get to have a little bit of fun while we were there. We spent a lot of time with Miss Lucy Ellen and I was even able to go to her ballet class!! She did so good! We also got to hang out with the whole McClain crew quite a bit!

Here is the little ballerina...

Snuggling up w/ Uncle Kyle ;o)

Ok, I hate to go back to the bad stuff but I felt I should share this article ABOUT OUR TENANTS, just to give you the whole picture. They were arrested last month for vandalism and it was a pretty big story all over town...

Police arrest three in vandalism spree Each charged with felony property damage by Marshall White Thursday, March 12, 2009

A St. Joseph trio learned that it really isn’t all fun and games after their arrests for allegedly participating in a recent rash of property damage. One of the people arrested was a mother wearing what turned out to be a prophetic black T-shirt with the words “It’s all fun and games until the cops show up.” The state charged Joanne Nelson, 39, Brett Liechti, 18, and Lucas Pace, 17, each with one felony charge of first-degree property damage for their alleged involvement in multiple acts of vandalism. The case broke open following a traffic stop. Shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday, officers stopped a van in the 4000 block of King Hill Avenue. The driver, Ms. Nelson, was taken into custody for a city warrant alleging stealing, investigation of property damage and a summons for possession of drug paraphernalia, said Capt. Kevin Castle, a police spokesman. The van’s other occupants, Mr. Liechti and Mr. Pace, were taken into custody for investigation of property damage. Officers were able to locate a number of vehicles with broken windows in the South Side, as well as numerous damaged mailboxes in the Garfield Avenue area, Mr. Castle said. Investigators estimate at least 25 to 30 reports of a similar nature were received between Saturday and Tuesday throughout the city. Those incidents included damage to windows of houses and cars, spray painting and throwing paint on houses and cars, and damaging mailboxes, Mr. Castle said. Officers believe there may be more incidents not yet reviewed or reported, he said.
Associate Circuit Judges Keith Marquart and Ronald Taylor set bonds for each person at $35,000. Ms. Nelson and Mr. Liecti, Ms. Nelson’s son, will be arraigned before Mr. Marquart at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Mr. Pace will appear at 8:15 a.m. Friday before Mr. Taylor. All three remain in custody in the Buchanan County Jail.

Joanne Nelson is the tenant who returned to our house the day we were moving all their items out. Clearly, we picked some winners! One reason I've gone into so much detail about this situation is because I would like to ask that you pray for these people. Trust me I know how difficult it is to have compassion for them, especially when they have wronged us the way they have, but there is more to it... While Kyle and I were working at the house, we spoke with one of our neighbors there who gave us a little more insight into these people's lives. There was a young girl around the age of 6 years old who lived in this home. This poor little girl came knocking on the neighbor's door one evening asking to use his phone so she could call her mom. She tried and tried to get a hold of someone, but no one ever answered and the little girl had been home all by herself for who knows how long. Not only that, this little girl acted as though she had not been fed in days when the neighbor offered her something to eat. Apparently, she inhaled the meal he gave her and then also ate seconds. If you remember, the bathroom at the house was not in working order, so I can only imagine what that was like for this poor little girl, let alone living in such a disgusting mess with people who obviously had no concern for this child's life what-so-ever to raise her in such an environment. Some other neighbors let on to us that there were around 15 people who seemed to live in our tiny home over these last few months, so who knows what this poor little girl was exposed to and what her life is like. I do know that one of the bedrooms that an 18 year old boy lived in was covered in pornographic photographs and magazines and judging by the above newspaper article it seems they did drugs. Please pray for these people despite the feelings our flesh might like to have for them. Most of all, please pray for this poor little girl.

Also, please pray for Kyle as he heads back next week to complete work that needs to be done on the house. We also need prayer that we get some good tenants in the house this time around!

Now, on a MUCH MUCH MUCH happier note... Kyle and I were water baptized this past Sunday!!!! Neither of us had ever been water baptized and it's something that had been on both of our hearts. We'd been wanting to for months and finally got the opportunity where we could go at the same time. It was a wonderful experience and an exciting step in obedience to what had been put on our hearts to continue our growth in Him!

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:1-14

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Have a fabulous day!!

Good for a Friday Giggle!!

Our next door neighbors and good friends, Daniel and Lucy, sent these pictures to Kyle and me today from home...

Here is Jedidiah, their 1 & half yr. old daughter...

here is Jedidiah w/ their dog Conan, and...

CHIEF! ha, he's just seeing what they're up to.... ;o)

These pictures were certainly good for a laugh in the middle of our work day!! Chief... he's always up to something!!

Weekend Wrap-Up...

Saturday was a typical day... Kyle and I both worked as we do every Saturday, then came home and hung out with Mr. Milo and the Chiefers.

Good-bye to the Gottes...

Sunday after church we spent the day over at the Allgood household with Jeff, Jen and Xander for our last hang-out with the Gotte family (BJ, Lisa and little Miss Keegan) before they make their move back to Houston this Friday... :(

It has been such a blessing knowing this beautiful family and we will certainly miss having them around... Milo and Rylee had become great friends! Keegan is such a sweet, happy baby who is always smiling and is such a joy to be around!

BJ and Lisa

Their little super-star, Keegan Grace

We pray many blessings for your family and ask for God's protection over you as you make this journey back to Houston and in all that you do! We'll miss you Gotte family!!

Weekend Kick-Off: Friday Night Prayer!

Friday night prayer was awesome as usual! We had fun fellowship time with friends over pizza, praised God together through song, then had great conversation and powerful prayer time! We talked a lot about angels. There's a spiritual battle going on around us constantly... why is it that the demons in the world are so apparent, but no one seems to recognize the angels? So many of us believers walk around not knowing that we have access to angels through Jesus and we don't realize the authority we're given to defeat these demons. It's a dark world out there and Satan doesn't want us knowing the true authority we have over him through the blood of Jesus. Just as Satan has fallen angels who continually torment us and try to tempt us into sin, we also have angels on our side to fight this spiritual war with us! The important thing to know is that our angels are more powerful than Satan's!! When we pray all we have to do is ask for God to send these angels wherever we need them! Our angels will protect us, but they will also aid us in spiritual battles against the enemy. For instance, I've struggled with a demon of fear for a long time... I no longer deal with this because I know that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind, 2 Tim 1:7. However, there are still times when I feel fearful so all I have to do is ask that my angels surround me and protect me... they do protect me from harm, but not only are they protecting my physical body they are also aiding me in the spiritual battle by not allowing the demon of fear to torment me into feeling fearful!!
Here are just a few scriptures/stories that talk about angels: Hebrews 1:14, Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 19, Daniel 6, Acts 12

I love this acronym for "pray" that was shared with us by a very wise man of God one evening...

P - persistence/perserverance

R - revelation

A - accessing angels*

Y - yield

These are all such key components for prayer. We certainly want to be persistent and seek revelation! We want to call upon angels to help us in our struggles and to protect us! Yielding is so essential too... just sitting back quietly, waiting on the Lord and listening for His voice rather than feeling like we always have to say something!

So, just remember... we are not alone in this world!
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Psalm 91:11-12

Spoke too soon...

Lesson learned: it doesn't matter how long the hail lasts... it only takes one to break a window!

This morning after Kyle left for work, the boys and I were hearing some pretty unusual sounds from all this heavy wind we're getting. So, we did some exploring only to find this broken window out back. Apparently, it was damaged by the hail the other night and the sound I was hearing was the wind making the broken outer pane of glass crash into the interior pane of glass. We didn't think to check all the windows since the hail didn't last very long. I'm just glad we found it now before we had to start plucking glass out of Milo and Chief's wittle tootsies! ;o)

CRAZY WEATHER

Yesterday was a beautiful day.. 70 degrees and sun shining! Around 10:30 last night, Kyle and I were getting ready for bed when all of the sudden it sounded like there were baseballs being thrown at our house from every direction! Poor Milo and Chief didn't know what to think about this, ha! We opened all the blinds so we could watch and sure enough there was hail bigger than golfballs coming down! The hail only lasted for about 15 minutes thankfully!! We were afraid we'd have some windows to replace if it had lasted any longer. Here is a pic of the hail... you know Kyle, Mr. Explorer, he had to go out and grab some! ;)

As you can see, the hail wasn't quite baseball sized, but a little larger than a golfball!

FIREPROOF "The Love Dare"

Kyle and I watched this movie Sunday night. Although the quality of this movie was not great (the acting was pretty awful actually), overall the movie was really good! The message was awesome and very inspiring. It's a movie about a young married couple on the brink of divorce. As this husband and wife are both at their wits end and about to call it quits, the husband's father challenges his son to a "love dare" that lasts 40 days. He gives him a journal with specific instructions on what to do each day. These "instructions" are all Biblical principals on how to treat your spouse and really just how to treat people in general by walking in love. The husband is not saved at the start of the movie and ends up surrendering his life to Christ about half way through this "love dare". I don't want to spoil the movie, but I think this is a great movie for everyone to watch. As I said before, it's certainly not oscar winning material, but it had me in tears by the end of the movie... I know I know, it doesn't take much to make me cry! Kyle got quite a kick out of looking over at me with mascara running down my face, as he often does when we watch movies together!! He enjoyed the movie as well and we both give it a two thumbs up for its uplifting message. Check it out the next time you're looking to have a movie night in, but to all you sensitive ladies out there.. make sure to keep some kleenexes handy!

PINK IMPACT 2009

This weekend was A-MAZING! Pink Impact is a women's conference put on every year by our church... Gateway Church in Southlake!

The theme of this year's conference was "and then..."
"In every life story, there are moments when the sky of our situation grows dark, ominous clouds of despair roll in, calamity appears certain and then God steps onto the stage of our story, the potential outcome is altered, the conclusion is changed, a new chapter begins. Throughout the ages, women have waited with anticipation for God to enter the arena of their circumstances. Today, the story continues.. the plot thickens… and we eagerly await our next “God-moment” to unfold."

The conference started Thursday night with a welcome party, then we began by worshiping with Kari Jobe who is such an amazing artist and worship leader. She is one of the associate worship pastors at our church and also just released a new album, self-titled Kari Jobe. This CD is being sold nationally and she has traveled internationally to share the gospel and the love of God through music. She is truly anointed and has such a beautiful heart to serve God, so needless to say worshiping with her is always absolutely incredible.

Click on Kari Jobe to get more info or to listen to some of her songs. Her music has been such a blessing to Kyle and me both! I encourage everyone who enjoys peaceful and uplifting music to grab one of her CD's!

Also on Thursday night we had the pleasure of listening to a message from our Senior Pastor, Robert Morris, who never fails to deliver something powerful and straight from the heart of God. On Friday, we were so priveleged to have Marilyn Hickey speak at the church! This woman walks with such authority and had a great deal of wisdom to share through her message. It was truly a blessing to have her... wherever she is, His presence is also!Friday evening we worshiped with Miriam Webster of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia; yet another amazingly talented worship artist whose voice and energy I am positive touched the heart of every woman in the room as we praised God together!Next up, Holly Wagner was with us Friday evening as well as Saturday morning. Holly Wagner has a women's ministry in CA called "God Chicks". She had such an incredible amount of energy as she spoke about fighting the fight as women of God and standing strong in our faith. Her words were so full of life and she was a true inspiration!I ended this experience on Saturday for lunch at McAllisters with my good friend, Lucy! We chatted the afternoon away over a couple of "spud ole's" (humungo "Texas-sized" baked potatoes smothered in chilli, cheese, red onion and jalepeno)... mmmm, gotta love McAllisters! We of course solved all the problems of the world over lunch... like us women always do ;o)

Lucy, Heaven and I... Pink Impact Day 2

Again, I'll say this weekend was AMAZING! I definitely walked out of the conference feeling empowered and knowing the authority I have in Christ over the situations in my life! This was my first Pink Impact and I can say for sure that I'll be attending again in the future! The next one is in April 2010 and you can get details about the conference by clicking right here! So all you ladies in my life who don't live near, start planning your trip now!! :o)

FACES & PLACES (this post is super long!)

I thought I'd fill everyone in on what's been happening over the past year or so, since I've been procrastinating at starting this blog for so long now!

BEAUTIFUL NEW BABIES OF 2008

Jeff and Jen's handsome little man, Xander Allgood, was born on January 2nd, 2008!

XANDER'S 1st BIRTHDAY! January 2nd, 2009

CONGRATULATIONS to THE ALLGOOD FAMILY, who are expecting baby #2 this summer 2009!! We love you guys and can't wait to meet the next Allgood!Abbey Sky Contella, cousin Jen's sweet baby girl (whom I have not met) born in September 2008!

BJ and Lisa's princess, Miss Keegan Grace Gotte, was born on September 30, 2008!

Sophia Molina, Daniel and Lucy's 2nd little angel, was born on October 17, 2008!

Jedidiah, their 1st little miracle, turned 1 in August! (happiest baby you'll ever meet!)This family is such a huge blessing in our lives! God is so good for placing us next door to each other!! We love you guys!

Adam and Meredith's studly little man, Mr. Joseph Jon Taylor "JJ", was born on December 31, 2008!

Welcome to the world kiddos!!
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Our sweetie pie niece, Lucy Ellen, turned 3 in October!! Here's a picture she emailed to her Uncle Kyle for his birthday in November...

She's such a big girl!! :o)

MORE EXCITING NEWS!

Congrats to my big brother, Bill, and his beautiful wife, Ashley who were married in September! I now have a wonderful new sister-in-law and a precious niece, Eva Marie, who is 4 years old!They are such a beautiful family! We love you guys!! Here I am w/ the handsome GROOM...

Another congrats to our good friends, KJ and Mandy Bohn who were married on December 1st, 2008, an amazing couple who we love dearly!More congratulations to my dear, sweet friend who I love and miss so much, MISS KYLIE MAGEN MCGONIGAL and her new fiance, MR. KRIS BYMAN! Kylie and Kris will be married on August 22nd, 2009 in Omaha, Nebraska! We could not be more thrilled for this couple!

TRAVELS, VISITORS, etc.
In May, Dad, Mom (Fadell), Matty and Sailor all came for a visit! Then in the same month; Justin, Kari and Lucy came out! It was such a fun month... we love visitors!! We went to Lewisville Lake with the Fadell crew and played some sand volleyball! Then, while Justin and Kari were here, we took Lucy to the Fort Worth Zoo and had a great time despite the 100 degree Texas heat.. we also spent some time poolside with both families!!
Dad and Mom McClain also visited in 2008! We had a fun time with them relaxing around the house, Mom made some killer meatloaf and we did some shopping together too.. as usual!! ;)

Here we are at the Fort Worth Zoo!

In June, Kyle and I made a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks with the parents!! The six of us had such a wonderful time... we spent our days relaxing on the water and our evenings grilling out! We also hit up Randy's a couple times for some frozen custard (no surprise) and had dinner at the Horny Toad! We love and miss you all!!

In August, Kyle and I made a trip to San Diego, CA! We got to spend time with Grandpa and Grandma James, Uncle Mark, Aunt Shannon and their precious kids, Aunt Kristy and Jessica, Grandma Ancel, and also little sis Sailor and Mom Fadell were there! We got to see Uncle Tom, Aunt DeDe, Kyle and Danielle too! It was such a blast shopping and soaking up some California sun at the beach with family... if it weren't for Milo and Chief, we may never had come home! Kyle also spent time surfing with his Uncle Mark! One of the highlights from the trip was spending an entire day at Sea World with Mom Fadell, Grandpa James, Sailor and cousin Bailey. We all had so much fun going to the shows together then Kyle, Sailor and Bailey soaked themselves on all the water rides! We will never forget having frozen yogurt at Yogurtland every day and sometimes twice a day... best frozen yogurt on the planet! We also spent our two year wedding anniversary night in LA!! We stayed at Hotel Palomar where Lynae works... had a fabulous time with Lynae who was such a great tour guide, ha! Miss you friend!!

Here we are at breakfast w/ Mom, Grandpa and Grandma at a yummy French Bakery in San Diego!

At Sea World... Dinner w/ Lynae in LA!

Then, Lynae came to visit us on Halloween... we did what most grown ups who don't have kids do on Halloween... CARVED PUMPKINS!! ;o)Our final products...This holiday season was such a blessing getting to spend time back home with both the McClain and Fadell crews! Not only that, we all got to go to the MIAMI/KC game together in KC while we were home!

DAD (McClain) TURNS 60!!!!!!!!!! January 16, 2009

For Dad's 60th, Kyle and I drove home to help in throwing him a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY! It was such a fun evening and Dad truly was surprised!!

(pictures to come... somehow they are missing from my computer)