Pictures from the 4th of July

This last weekend Tony and I were given a scholarship by our church and able to attend a two day marriage retreat in Southlake. And Ava got to have her first slumber party at Casey and Summers house (thanks again Shorts!). We had a great time at the retreat and as much as we love Ava, it was so nice to be able to have those 24 hours to ourselves and not have to think about nap times, or feeding times or diapers.

We learned a lot to and were really encouraged. Our pastor and his wife were the guest speakers for the retreat. Pastor Rick taught from the story of the woman with the bleeding who reached out and touched the hem of Jesus' garment. Not your typical passage for a teaching on marriage, but all of his teaching centered around the principles in this story. Namely, our great need, our great Savior and reaching out in faith for healing and grace for our lives. We can't have "good" marriages by our own strength or willpower, we can only have the marriage that God's wants us to have, the marriage that represents Him and His love for His church, by the power that God gives us through grace and walking by faith in that. It was a refreshing to hear again this message of grace, so much of what we hear on marriage and Christian living is "do this and don't do that" and this weekend was just centered on Jesus and what He can do in us.

Pastor Rick's wife Mercedes also taught a session for just the ladies and it was really good. The two main things the Lord showed me through her teaching was 1) I need to go to Jesus first more often with things that concern me or cause me to be discouraged. Not that I shouldn't share my struggles with Tony. But how much better if I can go to him after I have taken them to Jesus first. Then I can share not only what I was or still am struggling with, but how the Lord answered my prayers or what He is teaching me and be an encouragement to Tony. And 2) the Lord made me specifically for Tony and although we all need to grow and learn and change, I am perfect for him. I should not compare myself to other wives and wish I was more like them. They are perfect for their husbands, not mine. I can apply this to motherhood too. God gave me Ava and so I am the perfect mom for her. :o)

Anyway, the retreat was a blessing and we are so glad we were able to go. We also finished up on Sunday a teaching series we've been watching online by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle on marriage and the Song of Solomon. The series is called the Peasant Princess and I highly recommend it to married couples. If you want to check it out, go here www.marshillchurch.org/media/the-peasant-princess

OK enough all that. . . here's pictures of our 4th of July. Beth S., for the pictures of your fam, if you click on the pics they'll open up larger and you can save those and they'll be big enough and good enough to print out pretty much any size you want.

Watching fireworks at the Ferguson's

Apparently that little dump truck was full of water and he's about to dump it on his sister.


Gotta love those toes

This is her "I'm hamming it up for the camera face" It's well known at our house . . .

And you gotta love those chubby fingers too. .
.

The Schwartz Family

dance babies. . . dance.

should have posted this sooner (pun intended)

thats right, you guessed it. we visited oklahoma for the weekend. but yes, it was a couple of months ago. but hey, ava's cute face doesn't really change that much month to month and we thought you might enjoy some of the photos.

we went with some friends - casey and summer and got to hang out with their awesome family. it was really nice and ava even got to see her first snow on that trip. granted, it wasn't quite 2 or 3 feet of snowfall, but it was definitley enough for her to scoop it into her hand and try to eat it.

heres some fun shots of ava as she was learning to feed herself.

here's casey. we drove his monster of a truck up there and then after the snow started to melt, we got to spin the wheels through some nice rich red dirt!

ava had some snow that stuck to the bottom of her bunny suit. thanks for the bunny suit amelia - that thing sure kept her nice and warm.

falling over.
don't worry. . . the mountains of fresh snow will catch her.

super cute, huh?

colton eating some food so he would have plenty of energy to play in the snow.

ava and colton - good ol' pals

she sure loved wearin daddy's hat.

look at those cheeks.
go ahead.
you know you want to pinch em' right through the computer screen.
you couldn't resist, could you?

she doesn't mind being upside down at all

ava in her jumper

playing with our old doggie jackson

our little packers cheerleader!
this year, she'll be doin double duty again - cheerin for the Skins and the Pack!

she had tons of fun getting to play with her friends - sarah, katie and emma, when they came over for dinner

who's babysitting who?

how cute is colton?!

casey next to his truck. big eh? the truck behind him was his old one. but you have to get something bigger when you move to texas i guess.

Summer time

Summer is here in full force with temps averaging around the high 90's to low 100's, but we've been dealing with the heat the best we can. Primarily by staying indoors unless it's before 8:00am or after 8:00pm. Here's what we've been up to lately . . .

* Taking bike rides on the new 3.5 mile trail around Lake Lewisville, the trail is just a few blocks from our house. We borrowed a friends bike trailer and Ava sits back and looks at books while we ride. Her feet are, of course, propped up on the seat . . .

* I tried to help out my roses in the backyard by spraying on some fertilizer which turned out to be heavy duty weed killer. I think my roses may be finished. This is why "they" always tell you not to have unmarked bottles around.

*Tony pulled out the fencing for the dog run in the back yard that's been here since we moved in. Our yard looks twice as big now. Yay!

* I spend most of my day cleaning up puddles of milk and juice off the floor after the super-duper-special-absolutely-no-leaks-possible sippy cups leak and Ava finger paints in it.

* I discovered a newly opened Rita's Italian Ice (the first in Texas) and surprised Tony by taking him there. He was not surprised that I also took us on the wrong highway and got us lost en route. I do that often.

* Ava watched her first fireworks and pointed, laughed and clapped.

* Our friends Andres and Katie stopped by and stayed the night at our house. It sure was good to see them again.

*Ava has walked a few more steps on her own but for the most part refuses to no matter how or what we tempt her with. NEWS FLASH!!! Just as I was typing this I looked over, and there's Ava WALKING all on her own across the room with her hands straight up in the air above her head for balance. She walked about 10 steps and then sat down to pick up her stuffed dog. I clapped and said "YAY! Ava! Good girl!" and made a big deal over it and she pretended she couldn't hear or see me. She's always like that. She likes to try new things in private.

* We hung some photographs of us and Ava in her room above her bed which look really great but have been a bit of a problem because she'd rather stand up in her crib and laugh and point and the pictures of herself than sleep. We're hoping she finally gets bored with them.

*We had to move her crib mattress down to the lowest level. Now she's just one step from a big girl bed. :o(

So that's about it. And now here's some pictures.

Ava enjoying her first spaghetti dinner. She loved it but I didn't particularly love the mess.

One evening (after 8:00 of course) we took Ava out to our front sidewalk to walk with her hippo. A friend of ours passed it down to us and Ava loves it. Her favorite thing is to load it up with her baby doll and her sippy cup and push it around the house. She was in heaven pushing it down the sidewalk with nothing to block her path and she cried like a baby when we got tired of following her and took her back inside the house.

Tony took these pictures after Ava had eaten a particularily large dinner. We were looking at and feeling her belly because it was so full and so she had to check out her belly too.

gfa is 30 years old today!

Happy 30th anniversary Gospel for Asia!