What has been going on!

So it has been a while since we have blogged. Not much has been going on. Ken has been working non-stop but things are getting a little better. He had worked 18 days or so without a break. That makes for a very grumpy Ken. So Ken has been working and I have tried to work some extra too. We have been busy with church friends and family too. Here are some pictures to get us caught up.

Valentines night at the church. A christian comedian came to our church and the sanctuary was transformed into a dinner comedy club. It was lots of fun. We got to sit with our friends and enjoyed a great night!!
Ryan and Samantha and us:

Heather and Luke:



This is a typical evening--sitting on the couch after dinner, watching tv, and cuddling with Lily!


Ken got a new stereo for his car. He decided that he was going to do it himself. He did a good job but it took him 3-4 weeks to get it done.
Before:

During:

I guess i don't have a picture of the finished product. I will take one and post it soon.


We kept Ryan and Samantha's little girl (Ryleigh) while they took their other little girl Rowan to the doctor. That girl loves shoes and purses. She can also walk better in those high heels than I can!!!


So it snowed one Saturday. Lily did not like it but it was nice!


This is a picture of our friends Brian and Maria's baby--Barrett. He is so cute!!


I got to to keep Eli yesterday while Robyn went and got her hair done. He was MAD at first but once I got a bottle in his tummy, he slept for over 2 hours all snuggled up on the couch. Later, we had mom, dad, Karl, Robyn, and Ross over for dinner. Ross is getting so big. He is not a baby anymore!



My friend O'Neal and I went to the woman's event at New Life Church. O'Neal and I went to LPN school together. She worked at Stonehaven when my granddad was there. She would always check on him and give him a little extra time--even when he wasn't her patient. She would send me updates too. I really am glad that she was there. She is also an RN!!! She passed her boards several weeks ago!!

Our new nephew

Our new nephew Eli is here! Our sister-in-law Robyn had her second son early this morning. She was at the hospital all day Wednesday, but the baby did not come until just after midnight this morning. Rachel was at the hospital all day and night - we were still in Georgia when Ross was born, so she did not want to miss being there when Eli was born.

Christmas Time

Here are some pictures from December:

Our friends Brian and Maria are having their first baby in March. Ken and I helped put together baby furniture and rearrange rooms to get it ready. The pictures are from my cell phone so they are dark and grainy.


One Sunday afternoon we kept Ryleigh so Ryan and Samantha could finish Christmas shopping. We also babysat one night so they could have a date night. Ken loves to cuddle with Rowan!


This is our Christmas decorations that we did this year. The mantle wasn't as nice as I would have liked it to be but I got some decorations on sale after Christmas for next year.


Ross and his favorite hat this year!


I always do my hair in a towel after the shower. Ken was being silly and making fun of my towel head. We were cleaning and he decided to put my hair twist on his head. He can be so silly!


Here are some pictures from Christmas. Our memory card in our camera messed up and we lost a lot of pictures. Ken was able to recover most of them but I know there a quite a few missing.:( Here are some of them that we recovered.
Ross helped pass out gifts. Ross got a new hat.

Dad got a new hat too

Mom got a Wii from my dad for Christmas. Ken set it up and it was family bowling time!


We got Ross a tunnel. He is also obsessed with trains--so here is a picture of him playing trains in the tunnel. We had "Christmas Eve" on Monday the 29th with all my cousins and their kids. Ross and Caleb played trains together.


Lily was worn out! Ken and Ross playing


Ken's parents came to visit after Christmas. See the previous blog entry for more pictures but one afternoon we were driving to get the supplies for painting. It had been raining and we saw the double rainbows (enlarge and look to the right of the other rainbow). It makes me think--we were stepping out in faith and aren't rainbows a sign of God's promise?


Another day we went to the Big Dam Bridge. Dick was so excited to go on it that he locked his keys in the trunk of the car. AAA was called and an hour later someone came and popped the locks!

Stepping Out In Faith

Back at the end of November, our pastor's brother came and spoke at our church. The sermon was called "The Power of Prayer". At the beginning of the sermon he asked us to thing about a particular issue/problem currently in our life. The first thing I thought of was trying to get pregnant. (Ken and I have been trying just under a year.) The points were:
1. Powerful prayer will speak positively about the situation
2.Powerful prayer set our focus on God, not the obstacles
3. Powerful prayer stays committed even in difficulties
4. Powerful prayer sees miracles
If you want to watch the sermon-email me and I can give you directions on how to get to the website to watch it. (raebarnes@hotmail.com) It was a really good sermon. I am watching it again right now. I wish I could find the sermon notes so I can put some scripture up too. I will have to keep looking..........

At the end on the sermon he was giving example of things people have done to show their faith that God would answer their prayers. One example was: Tithing where you would like your income level to BE, rather than were it was currently at. Another was--GET THE BABY'S ROOM READY. As soon as I heard that, I knew that is what I wanted to do. Ken was working up in the sound/video booth that night. I immediately sent him a text message saying "Lets get the baby's room ready". He sent one right back saying "I was just thinking the same thing!". I have to say that I loved Ken so much more in that moment. We went home and discussed it a little. There was a lot to do before we could even think about that room being ready to paint. I did go and pick up some paint samples and we picked a shade of green that we both agreed on.(Ken was a little disappointed that I wouldn't allow "panthers blue") When Ken's parents were in town after Christmas they asked us if there were any house projects that needed to be done. We told them about getting the baby's room ready and they jumped at the opportunity. Dick did all the painting--he doesn't like to share! Ken and Dick got new shelving put up in the closet. Paula and I rearranged several rooms and reorganized things. That was a big help. We also went to Babies "R" Us and bought some gender neutral baby clothes.

So Ken and I are stepping out and faith. We are getting our baby's room ready. We are getting it ready and waiting on God to do the rest. Soon we will start looking at furniture and deciding on cribs. We are going to get everything except the baby bedding. That will be decided when we know what we are having. Here are pictures from that fun time!

BEFORE:


DICK GETTING STARTED:


KEN AND PAULA LISTENING TO THE PANTHERS GAME
AND LILY WANTING TO PLAY!:


THE AIR MATTRESS ON TOP OF OUR BED:


ONE GREEN WALL AND ONE WHITE WALL:


GETTING THE CLOSET DONE:


FINISHED FOR NOW!:

Advent Conspiracy

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Snow Day (for some)

Today was a snow day for most of central Arkansas. The temperature began to drop yesterday morning, and misty light rain began around noon. Soon after, the rain began to freeze and the rest of the day was a mix of sleet and a few snow flurries.

Schools and many businesses are closed, and Rachel was already off today. She is spending the day making and baking Christmas treats with her mom. The roads are not really that bad, especially because every TV and radio station tells people to stay home and do not get on the roads unless absolutely necessary. They think that the first sign of winter weather must be the beginning of an ice age (like the movie Day After Tomorrow). But hotels are still open and it is business as usual for me. I'm not thrilled about driving home on these roads in the dark, but since the roads should be pretty empty, I have no reason to be worried.

It was nice to get up this morning and see our first snow and ice at our house.

We finally have our garage back!

Ever since buying our house in May, our garage has been full of extra stuff. Boxes and boxes of stuff. Most of which was in storage for over a year - we didn't need it then and haven't needed it since being in the house.

We finally set a date for a garage sale and Rachel's brother, Karl, helped to split our garage into things to keep and things to sell.

Karl and Robyn had a lot of things to sell and we had a combined garage sale last Saturday. Being a holiday weekend and the day after Black Friday, we didn't know what to expect. Then it was rainy on Friday and early Saturday morning.

We were very surprised at how much we were able to get rid of! We started out with a HUGE mountain of clothes and ended with enough to fill only two boxes. Altogether, we made almost $500 and now there is room to get a car in the garage.