Update on Life

I don't have any cool pictures to post, but I'll give you all a quick update on our life nonetheless and hopefully it's appreciated. :)

Book of Revelation Seminar:

This last weekend Me, Dalton and our friends Dave and Karina traveled down south to Hawkes Bay where Dalton and Dave spoke/taught/preached at a seminar on the book of Revelation. We've been building relationship with a group in Hawkes Bay over this last year and have made some very dear friends that are pretty much becoming family. The Lord is doing some great things in that place and we feel privileged to be a small part of it. The seminar went great. I especially loved this one because I know it's probably the last weekend away where I'll get to just listen to Dalton since we have our precious little one on the way.

Internship Graduation:

Our current internship graduates this Friday. There are 10 on the internship and all 10 of them have decided to stick around! We're SO excited about that! They have been a great bunch and we're so glad to have them join us on staff. Now our Staff classes will increase by 10 - woo hoo! Graduation is always a fun little celebration. Everyone gets dressed up (which to be honest, I'm not that thrilled about this time around - the basketball in my tummy makes the fashion department a little more difficult these days :)), we eat good food and reflect on what the Lord has done in the lives of these young adults over the last 3 months. This internship FLEW by!

Break:

After each internship we try to take a small break just to rest up and get ready for the next term. We'll have a 5 day weekend which Dalton are hoping to use mostly to get our lives organized around our house. Get things set up for Baby, clean/organize things we've been wanting to get our hands on for sometime now...etc. But we also want to take a couple of nights and just go away somewhere just the two of us. We're on a hunt to find a cool but affordable place. We just want to get some time away together before our lives are dramatically changed! We're very excited and expectant for this dramatic change, but it will be great to have some time to just talk, pray and enjoy each other before he joins us - precious little boy.

Baby Lifsey:

He's supposed to be just over 3 lbs now - which is probably right on the money so my midwife tells me. He's growing at a steady pace and it feels as though he's beginning to lose space in there - and my ribs are feeling the reprocussions of that. :) He's in the right position he needs to be in, still has a boney butt my midwife says but he's in the process of fattening up right now. :) He's moving LOTS and feels much heavier than 3 lbs. My tummy muscles are getting their work out for sure. I'm becoming less mobile (funny how you feel like your body ages 20 years when you get into that last tri-mester) and am beginning to get tired a lot more - but it comes with the package so I don't mind. In a couple of weeks the girls are throwing me a shower which should be fun and by then I'll know what all I'll still need for the little guy before he comes - but honestly, the Lord has blessed us SO MUCH. I can't believe how much has been given to us or practically given to us because it was sold to us so cheap. It has been such a blessing to watch the Lord just give us everything we need and really, more than we need. We're so grateful and truly humbled. Still deciding on a name - if you think of it, throw up a prayer for us. We really want to hear from the Lord about his name, just for peace in my heart and Dalton's heart.

That's all my pregnant brain can think of right now - but hopefully I'll get some pictures of my fat belly and put them up here so that you can all see - sometimes i look at myself in the mirror and think "Who on earth am i looking at?!" I can't believe that our bodies can stretch and mold into something so different and then go back to normal (maybe not completely the way they were before, but certainly less like a watermellon). The human body is so incredible, which just makes me marvel at the Lord even more. I'll end it here - stay tuned for more exciting blogs to come!

Camping for Easter

We had a little break for Easter and we went camping with our new friends from GA. Zach and Mallory are from Alpharetta, GA - so close to home!!!! They also are mutual friends with some of my good friends from Columbus so when we met we sort of felt like we already knew each other. Anyway, when we met, we became instant friends which was inevitable really. :)

We went camping together at the famous Piha site which is just West of Auckland. Piha is generally a surfers dream which is why we chose that spot - however, it wasn't so much the surfers dream over Easter. Dalton didn't surf once. The only day the waves were good, EVERYONE went out. No fun to surf crowded waves. Luckily, Piha is still an extremely cool place even if you don't surf. Lots of fun walks, beautiful scenery, quiet little family campsite and the local Piha shop (which is the only shop in Piha) with their freshly baked cinnamon donuts and the infamous custard loaf - that is literally a bread brick with custard in it - heavy as a car but sweet on the tastebuds.

It rained a little while we were there but our new mansion of a tent kept us nice and dry. Dalton froze the first night, but we remedied that up quick the next two nights with more blankets. Baby Lifsey really enjoyed his first camping experience - he thought the food somewhat different, the sleeping arrangements a little more uncomfortable than what he's used to, the walks nice - but kind of hard work for the little guy - all in all, quite enjoyable. He's a trouper!

Here are some shots from the trip - enjoy!

We camped pretty much on the beach - we could hear the waves at night - delightful

Proof that I did make it to the top, belly full of jelly and all!

Our awesome timer photo - the waves crashed right when the camera went off - epic

Feedin' little bub some good campin' grub

Chef Zach cookin' the grub

Walk number two - the beginning of the adventure

Mal and I psychin' ourselves up for the journey ahead of us

The top in all it's glory - ah the serenity

Zach filling up his water bottle with "Pure Dew" - not ordinary water - super natural one might think.

Walk number three - destination - bottom of the waterfall

We watched some folks repel down from the top - which wet Dalton and Zach's appetite for some good climbing. They began planning our next camping trip right after watching them.

Dalton giving me a "I'm so proud of you honey" kiss on the forehead for all my intense outdoor excursions over the weekend.

And there they are - The Wheelers - you can see why we like them so much can't you?

Fish and Chips - we'd be crazy not to - the best chips in the country in Piha - they were outstanding.

The End.

*I also find it important to note that pretty much the whole weekend we put on our thickest southern accents possible. I know you're thinking we're all from the south so what do I mean "put on" - unfortunately, none of us really have southern accents - Zach probably the most out of all of us and he's not even originally from the south. But we all love and appreciate them and there's just somethin' about being out in the wilderness - it just brings the southern out of ya. In fact, while I was typing in all of those captions under the pictures - they were southern in my head - so, it's probably best that all readers read them with a southern accent to get the full effect. Also, not just any southern accent lest you begin on the wrong foot and end up sounding like a southern bell - if this is where you end up, you've missed it. It's okay, just try again. It's more of a smokers southern accent - a little rough, a little grungy - a good ol' boy if you will. Go on, give it a try, you won't regret it.*

Happy Birthday Moma!

Some pictures for your birthday! We love you!

27 Years Young

That's right, I had a birthday..."I" being Anna, not Dalton. My birthday was last week and this one snuck right up on me! I didn't forget that my birthday was March 3rd, however...I did not realize that March 3rd was so close! Thanks to a friend who shares my birthday, I was reminded just in the nick of time. :)

It was a crazy week for us last week, mostly for Dalton but I always feel it when things are full for him...we are one flesh you know. :) We went to Hawks Bay, a town about 4 hours south of Tauranga, last weekend where Dalton and a couple of other guys from the House of Prayer taught at a seminar on the book of revelation. It was a wonderful weekend and so rewarding for all of us, but I won't go too much into that now. When we returned Dalton kicked off the week leading an intercession set Monday morning, then we had staff class Monday afternoon and then he taught the internship Monday night. He taught the internship the rest of the week and he is also teaching through the book of Revelation (which he is loving...and so am i!) at our Wed. night meetings. Over the weekend a good friend of ours got married and Dalton and I sang at the wedding...it was a beautiful wedding! Then Sunday, we made an effort to clean our house! It was a very rewarding week, but certainly a full one.

With all that being said, my husband is wonderful and still managed to make my birthday memorable and very special in the midst of all that he had on his plate. I am a blessed woman. :) Since I didn't realize how soon my birthday was, birthday presents were not on my mind at all. But Dalton still managed to pick me a WINNER of a present! We don't have closets in our house so organizing our bedroom has been quite a task for me and we have had boxes with clothes and shoes laying around our room since we moved in. Well, Dalton remembered this cabinet that I had noticed in a store a while ago and snuck out and came back with a large thing covered with a white sheet in the back of our car. After class on Monday night some friends followed us home and helped lift it out of the car (it's pretty heavy) and bring it in the house. Here are some pics of the unveiling of my present!

Drum role please...

Of course I had to put on a performance...

She's a beaut'!

Yep, that's right, I decided to just get dressed up and take a picture with my new present. Actually, my wonderful husband, as mentioned before, took me out to dinner to a restaurant that we have been wanting to try for some time now and afterwards he took me to see "slumdog millionare"...pretty good movie. Every morning for the last week I have woke up to Dalton telling me happy birthday. He decided that my birthday should be celebrated all week long, so today was officially my last day of my birthday week. It was a great birthday and I felt very blessed.

Later on in the week some of my girl friends made me a mexican feast and we celebrated some more. Good food, good company...what else could a girl ask for?

I also must make mention of my awesome family in GA and FL. My parents and sister sent me incredibly cool birthday emails and made me feel real special in the facebook world...which is a pretty big deal! My brother and sis in-law made me a video with my precious niece and nephew wishing me a happy birthday...it was amazing. And my mil (mother in-law) sent me an awesome b-day package making me quite the stylish pregnant mama. How blessed am I?!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my family for still making me feel loved and connected even with oceans between us. It means more to me than you'll ever know!

It's a BOY!!!!!

Before I clean the kitchen...I just realized that I haven't made the official "blog announcement" that we're having a baby boy! We are so excited!!!!! I have some fun little videos to share with you of the little guy movin' around in my tummy! I'll put one of my personal favorite pictures up of his little mouth and nose...we'll see if you can make it out. It's very precious to me.

His sweet profile

His cute little feet that kick me all day long

My favorite pic...little nose, little mouth. Can you see it? He's laying on his left side. It's not his whole face.

Big stretch!

Isn't he precious? We love him so much already!

"Farm Livin' is the Life For Me"

Today our family grew. We adopted 11 chickens! I tried my best to get some good pictures for you all to see, but it was in a real shady (literally, not morally) area and the little guys are still pretty scared of us and kept running away! And I'll be the first to admit that I'm no photographer. They're so cute! Come April they should be producing more eggs for us than we need! We're still unsure of how many females we have, they're still too young to tell. They've already escaped three times today. I get so worried about them. Supposedly after a couple of days the place will become home to the little guys and even if they do escape, they'll wander back home when they need food or water. Hence the term "free range". :) We have some neighborhood cats that come around so we're praying that they stay away from our chickens!

A nice little video of our new chicken family.

I also added this picture because it was left out of our house pics.

This is one of my favorite places in the house. I'm going to do a little work

to make it a little more comfortable, but I'm thinking I'll spend many early mornings here,

especially when baby is up and at 'em real early!

Not the most flattering picture I know, in fact, Dalton completely

dissaproves that I put it up...but I know my family appreciates any glimpse

of our faces that we'll give them. So here we are in our "chicken yard".

We do generally look better than this, but notwhen we're "workin' on the farm".

We don't really live on a farm, we're justpretending we do. :) And hey,

we have chickens and grow our own veggies...we're doing a pretty

good job of pretending if you ask me. :)

This morning we ate some tomatoes out of our garden...they were so yummy, and I don't even like tomatoes. They really do taste different from the garden vs. the grocery store. It's been a good Saturday. Now I'm off to clean the kitchen!

Mexico

I just did some research and Mexico's independence day is actually SEPTEMBER 16th...not February 16th. This could be news to all of you though, seeing as how we always celebrate it on May 5th...but the actual independence day is September 16th. I thought it important to clear up my mistake...BUT...we can always take time to salute Mexico for it's glorious food. Every day is a day to celebrate good mexican food.