mid-summer in texas

just wanted to put up a few photos of ava lately. it's been nice to play with her as she learns to smile. but she is also learning how to cry and scratch. ha ha. i guess we take the good with the bad.

i pulled something in my back pretty bad recently. i'm hoping that heals up really soon.
the gospel for asia renewing your passion conference went great this past weekend! it was great to hear about the tremendous harvest that is happening in asia right now. i'll put up some photos of that soon. ava did really well and since there was a family room set up off to the side, we were able to watch most all of the sessions along with her. the fellowship there was such a blessing too. having about 1,000 people gathered together to give praise to Jesus and who are encouraging each other to live for eternity.

been reading a lot of thomas a kempis's stuff lately. heres a section that i have been thinking of lately. "as long as you find suffering a burden and try to escape it, things will go badly with you, and you will always be running away from trouble; but if you once accept that suffering and the killing of the old nature are what you have to face, your state will soon improve and you will know peace."

yesterday, we went out to dinner with some good friends from ohio. the mother asked teressa if she thought ava looked like me or her more. tress said that ava probably had her mouth and chin, and the rest was mine. their young daughter, i think about 7, then asked, "what do you mean, 'she has your mouth?'" after teressa explained, she said "i think ava's mouth is cuter." ha ha. kids are fun.

enjoy ava's mug. (a.k.a. cute face)

big girl yawn

grandma mary last week

blue eyes

if you give her car seat a little wiggle... you get this face. thats what i learned last week. :)