State Fair

Cade and Brecklyn with their cotton candy.

Erika with this llama/goat thing. After I took the picture she said that she was afraid that "thing" was going to eat her hair.

Blake and Erika eating a funnel cake at the Arkansas State Fair.

Me at the State Fair petting zoo...I thought that sheep "thing" was so cute!

Blake's football pictures

Here are a few photos from Blake's first scrimmage and game in the last couple weeks. He asked if he could change his last name to "Ocho" and of course, we used our wisdom and all that we learned from the "Word Filled Family" course and said NO! All is good here -- we feel like we are up to our usual warp-speed that comes with a new school year!

It is starting to feel like we've been here in Little Rock for a long time now -- we even have pictures on the walls! (they went up about 15 minutes before my brother and his family arrived last week!) It sure didn't take long to get a routine going again -- although we'll admit it is much less involved than what we were doing before we left Bakersfield. We are trying to be careful about the things we commit to and get involved with.

Kelly and the kids start school tomorrow -- she says she's ready! Blake will help yank at our emotions as he is the first to go to school outside our home when he starts classes at Arkansas Baptist. He is loving football -- except when I reminded him that the $30 pair of "receiver gloves" better mean that he has no excuses for not catching anything he can put his "spidey-grip" on! We think we have found a dance studio for Erika and she is itching to start after Labor Day. Brecklyn is looking forward to joining Cade and Erika in AWANA at church this Fall. Kelly and I are enjoying just sitting back and soaking up some great teaching as they have a moratorium of 6 months in the church before you can serve or teach anything. (I did find out that they will allow me to mow the church lawn, though, so I am enjoying that!)

We are humbled by the number of great families we have met at our church and how much they have embraced our family. I had a friend tell me that we were blessed to make a move like this when we have young kids because the body of Christ is almost always quick to reach out to families but often ignores older couples or people who come to a church without kids. (A great reminder to look out for people like this who often get ignored.)

Below, I put up a few of our favorite pictures we have recently taken...


Here is Dad with his two girls at Blake's graduation - with Erika's good friend in the background!

Our second all-star (just ask Dad about his sports glory days sometime!) in the family, Cade (top row on the right)

Erika and her special ballet teacher Mrs Knight -- oh how we'll miss her! (except for Dad who can't be recruited for another role in her next big production!)

Blake on 8th grade graduation night -- we were thankful that he decided to continue his education. (He's a little bummed to learn that 9th grade is considered Jr High at Arkansas Baptist so he technically gets to graduate Jr High again this year!)

Great movie coming soon!

I wanted to share with everyone a preview of the movie that the owner of the company I work for is just finishing. We are all praying that it will have a huge impact for God's glory in this world. If you want more information -- you can go to the movie website at: www.nogreaterlovethemovie.com

Moving Day!

Well... we did it! It could not have gone better thanks to the body of Christ both in Bakersfield and Little Rock coming around us and supporting us in one of the most challenging times for our family. We have been humbled by the outpouring of love for us and are reminded of our responsibility to look for opportunities to serve others as well. (Thank you all for the very practical lesson!)

We are slowly getting unpacked and settled here in Little Rock. We enjoyed seeing Kelly's parents (aka Papa and Mumsy) this weekend and pick my Mom up at the airport tomorrow. Church on Father's Day was great and although the depth of relationships will take time to develop, all of us felt we will soon have another church family to serve with. It was interesting that Lance just finished Romans last week and we sat through one of the adult Sunday School classes that is about half way through John. So many opportunities to learn and serve -- we will need a lot of wisdom to know where we should be...

Wow -- our church family is incredible!

I know I can speak for my whole family that we were blown away by the attention and words expressed to us today. All the work that went into the scrapbook will be cherished by us as we move on to a new body of believers. We are humbled by all of you and will keep GBC in our prayers regularly!

want to visit us in Little Rock?

Ok, so we really hope this doesn't stop many from coming in person, you can get a street level view of our new home by clicking on the link below:


View Larger Map