How to Build a New Ministry Building (Part 1)

 Last month the old building came down, and now we'll share how the new building goes up!  Here's how we started...

...With prayer and a very special group of ground-breakers.

This was the ground-breaking crew, ready with the little shovels to dig in.  They were an enthusiastic and thorough bunch.  No spot was left untouched!

Even little Abby got in on the action.

Let the construction begin!

How to Demolish a Sunday School Building

 The day we've been waiting for - especially certain little boys who love heavy machinery - the demolition of the old Sunday School building!  It started out a bit less exciting than we anticipated, though.  Asbestos abatement was the first step.  Naomi put up this sign to remind everyone to go to the sanctuary for class, because the building became off-limits while all the building materials containing asbestos were pulled off.

After a week of abatement, the building looked like this. 

And then the exciting part!

In less than 20 minutes, the site looked like this:

And the excavator spent the rest of the day scooping up the mess.  And we spent the day watching out the window!

And that's how you demolish a building!

Happy Birthday, Momma

My very happy birthday with my sweeties (and some chocolate cupcakes!).

Snow Day!

It's been an unusually cold winter across the country, and for us here in southeast Texas, that means...

A snow day!  So we pulled out the box of boots, hats, and gloves that we used to wear a lot more often, and sorted it out.  Of course, now Ezra and Abby are the only ones who can wear the little boots and snowsuits.

Colorado and Wyoming friends and family, I can feel your laughter as you view the following pictures.  I know!  But this is as good as it gets around here, snow-wise.

Here is the snowman we managed to scrape together.  As some Casper friends commented when they saw this picture, everything is bigger in Texas - except for the snowmen!

And Ezra was so intrigued by the snow that he had to sit down at the picnic table and sample it.

Refreshing!

Before Building

It's almost time for a big change in our backyard.  The old Sunday School building and playground is making way for a new ministry building.  We'll miss the old stuff - Ezra even cried in bed the other night because he wanted his old Cubbie room back.  But it'll get exciting when the demolition and construction start.

Window Spelling

While trying out a new box of window markers to practice our spelling, we discovered a few pros and cons.

The pros: 

1.  Its fun!  No one minds practicing spelling words on a window.  

2.  It forced me to clean my windows.

The cons:

1.  Abby felt she needed to taste-test them.  

Overall, though, I suppose the benefits of window spelling mean we'll be doing this again.  But maybe during nap time!

Sunset

One of our beautiful sunsets we've had lately