We had some great friends, Nathan & Rachel Allen & their girls, head down from the Bible school in Michigan, to visit for Thanksgiving. We had a blast. Rob and Nathan made a turkey in a trash can for a Thanks Giving Day pot-luck meal we had. Rachel and I spent the morning and early afternoon cooking, hanging out and watching the girls. 

Rob got his first deer this season. He was invited to go with a man on staff here to his firend's land. They froze the first day and saw only 1 deer. The second day they were walking out on the trail when Rob saw and shot the deer. We have really enjoyed and been thankful for the meat from that deer. He hopes to go out hunting and get one more deer when doe season starts this weekend. 

Hope you all are having a great week.

The Love of a sister...priceless!

Rob's fishing adventure started off slow here in Missouri. He didn't catch anything for the first two weeks of fishing. Then he would catch one here and one there. Finally, a couple of weeks ago the fish started biting, and he has caught several since then. Today he caught two 14 inch Hybrid Bass, along with 4 others that were good sizes. He enjoys providing food for our family. The girls playing with their friend Eythan and his daddy.
Rob's work detail to on the grounds crew. He has done many jobs. On this day he was mowing the grass. It was a big job that needed a big tractor.
Shelbyanne and Emily are doing great. They are having a blast in their classes. Shelbyanne is learning so much. She love to sing and make up her own songs. Emily is sliding down slides and climbing on things. She is still a busy little girl.Amy went to Branson, MO, for a moms-night-away with 5 other moms in her class. We stayed at a "resort" for only $20 each. One of the ladies that went had a time-share with the resort chain. It was a great night for fellowship, getting to know some of the other moms, and rest.
Amy is bringing home a package from the mailbox, which is in the Administration building on the other side of the road behind her. Rob is taking the picture from the kitchen window.

Amy has started walking/running for exercise. (I need a lot of accountability in this area since it is not my favorite thing to do. I would rather play soccer but they play at inconvenient times for me, so I walk. Please feel free to ask me how I am doing in this area the next time we talk.) The girls are playing dress up. Emily is wearing the hula outfit we got for Shelbyanne's one year pictures. Shelbyanne is wearing the Dora costume we got her for halloween last year. She would not wear the wig last year, but had a blast with it on this day.
This is where we have chapel. We have worship and then a speaker. It is a nice chance for the students from all the classes to meet together.

We're Back...

After a 2+ month sabatical from updating our blog, we're back. We have enjoyed getting updates from family and friends, and hope to be more consistent now that we have settled into a routine.

We had a great summer of traveling to visit with family and friends. It is nice to be home(even though its a new home) and settling into our little slice of normal life again. (at least for now)

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to the last month. Enjoy!

Lunch with our classmates. Let's wash up for dinner! This is our bathtub for the time being. We have a half bath in our apartment, and a shower house next door. We have staff and student friends who have bathtubs, so the girls get "real baths" in a bathtub about once a week.
Emily loves playing with her new friend, Eythan.
The girls got so wet while playing with their water table that we decided to have a picnic dinner outside. They loved it. Daddy had a fire ready to go in the fire pit, so we could make smores with our friends later.

This is a group activity that our learning styles group did in class . Our group was told we were riding down the road at 35mph on a long narrow skateboard. We instructed to get into order according to our birthdays. The only problem was that we were all mute. It made for an interesting activity. We worked together as a team and accomplished the task without anyone falling off.

Rob found a stick bug. Pretty Cool! He has also: found snakes & turtles, caught 2 fish, and seen a fox, some deer, and lots and lots of bugs. He's having a blast.

Rob built a fire pit in our front yard. Hanging out and roasting marshmellows with our friends at the campfire that daddy made.
Aloha Friday

We have been having a great summer. We have made many memories with our families and friends, and are looking forward to making many more. We are now in Alabama staying with Nana and Pawpaw. It is not often that you have so much vacation time to spend with those you love. We only wish we could be visiting with everyone. We are heading to the Missionary Training Center in August. We will have 1 & 1/2 years in our next phase of training in Missouri. We are very excited about all that we will learn and experience there.

Here are a few pictures of our summer fun.

Swimming at Meme & Granddaddy's house.

Eating dinner with our cousin, Emily, and the rest of the family.

Here are our biggest cousins, Grant, Kyle, & Emily.

You guessed right! This is the actual Bat mobile. It is parked at the Chick-Fil-A headquarters near Atlanta, GA. Truitt Cathy, the owner, collects cars, and this one is part of his collection. He actually drives it when he does events for the kids in the foster homes that he started.

Mommy, Shelbyanne, Nana, and Emily all matched last Sunday for church. What a fun day.

Sometimes blessings come in big packages...

We're a mini-van family now!

We traded our Escape in for a used minivan. It will be much more spacious for our cross-country travels.

The girls have really enjoyed spending time with their newest cousin, baby Trystan. The girls have gone on lots of treasure walks. A nice place to walk to is the bridge over the canal where we throw bread to the fish and turtles.
We went to Lion Country Safari last week and had the amazing experience of feeding giraffes. That was the closest we have ever been to giraffes. They are incredibly large animals. I can't even imagine how Noah and his family felt when these huge animals began to come to the ark. Shelbyanne was mesmerized with them, but she would not feed them a cracker. She wanted to pet them but she was too scared to get too close.

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer. We are doing great. Rob spent the day cleaning out our van. We all have enjoyed the many opportunities we have had to swim in the pool. Shelbyanne has really enjoyed swimming with her floaties, and is doing a great job. We will be in Florida for another week. Then we will head to Atlanta, and onto Daphne, AL to visit with Nana & Pawpaw.

Many Blessings to you all, Amy

On Wednesday most of our class went on a hike. We didn't think it would be good for the girls, so we took them to the toystore in town. We also went to a McDonald's that had 2 Bill Elliot NASCARs in it.

Last night the school took us all out to dinner at Country Cupboard restaurant. It was a great buffet and had a neat gift/souvenir shop. In the picture below Shelbyanne is playing on a churn. At first Shelbyanne was pretending to churn butter. Then she wanted to churn cookies.

Today we had more classes where we heard about learning languages, pre-evangelism, and teaching through the Bible Chronologically.
This afternoon we had a fun cultural experience in something they call the "Village" here. They have a large room set up to look like authentic Yanamamo and Yuana villages. They had missionaries that formerly lived in those villages dressed and acting like real tribal people from those villages. We were supposed to observe their cultures and ask them the name of some of the items around them. We had a good time there.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We are really enjoying our time here. This area is so beautiful. Hope you all have a great weekend. Please pray for safe travel for all tose returning to school on Saturday.

Blessings and Aloha, Amy

This week we are on our Senior retreat in Jersey Shore, PA. We left Michigan on Sunday, with its unusually wintry weather (for this time of the year). I think they are under a freeze warning this week. We are enjoying the crisp cold mountain air of Pennsylvania. It Rained all day Monday, but was an incredibly beautiful day today.

While we are here we are taking our Intro to Tribal Missions class. This is a picture of Greg Sanford, one of our speakers for the week. We are learning many of the things involved in acclimating to a new culture and language.

I hope to have more time to send out some more updates over the week.

Hello Again! We have had a great month. We found out that we are accepted to the Missionary Training Center with New Tribes Mission in Camdenton, MO. We will be moving there in August and beginning the year and a half training. Here are some pictures of what we have been doing lately.

Emily playing with her toys.

Check out the hair!
Watch where you are going. I hope this isn't a foreshaddowing of the future.
Shelbyanne wanted to send herself in the mail to someone.
Easter Day
The "Tree of Life" at the Creation Museum in Indiana.

Emily's 1st birthday dessert after a day of traveling. Pops came for a visit!

Well, I will try to update more often. It is great to hear from you all.

Blessings and Aloha,

Amy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEME!

LOVE,

ROB, AMY, SHELBYANNE, & EMILY

They grow up too fast, don't they? It seems like just yesterday that we were heading home from the hospital with our new little bundle of joy. Just in the last week or two she has started walking. She still falls and crawls, but she gets herself back up and keeps going. I think she is realizing that she can get to her destination faster if she walks. She has started saying sentences. I think today she said, " Da da ba da ga ma!" I know she had something on her mind.

Shelbyanne is growing up so fast as well. She loves to sing and play. She soaks up information like a sponge. Everyday we see a new aspect of her personality. Rob likes to joke with her a lot and today in the store their conversation went like this...

DADDY: We need to get a buggy. (referring to a shopping cart)

SHELBYANNE: That's not a buggy you silly monkey, that's a cart.

We cherish precious moments such as that one. She is at the age where she has started saying the funniest things. Both girls have such cheerful dispositions. They are incredible blessings to us. We are so thankful that God has given them to us.

Shelbyanne said she doing her homework.

If you look closely you can see Emily's teeth coming in. I think she has about 7 or 8 coming in all at the same time. Fun Fun Fun!

February Flew in Like a Flash

It has been cold and snowy here lately. Amy and Shelbyanne have been battling colds/viruses. We are on the mend. Emily has been starting to take a few steps at a time. Then she will stand there and clap her hands. Since the Christmas break Emily has been showing off her new teeth with the most adorable smile. Shelbyanne likes to cheese it up for the camera as well.
Daddy made a fort in their room that was so much fun.
We went sledding in the park on Saturday morning. This was Shelbyanne's first time sledding and she did great.

Hope you all are doing well. We finnish up our first block of classes for the semester on Tuesday. We have really been enjoying them so far. We will wrap up Philippians and I, II, &III John. Rob will continue on with Daniel/Revelation, and we will begin Colossians/Philemon on Wednesday.

We cannot believe that it is February already. It is so beautiful outside our window, as long as we don't have to go anywhere. heehee It really is not too bad if you are just going from place to place. I drove on more snow the other day than I have ever driven on, and I could see how easy it is to lose control of the car.
Have a Great week!
Many Blessings,
Amy

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful holiday. We hope you and your families did as well. Here are a few of the things we did while we were away.

Read books with Pops. Played with Pawpaw.
Hung out with Daddy.
Played with our Christmas presents.
Fed the squirrels.
Swang together.
Played with our cousins. Rode bikes.
Went down slides together.
Played dress up.
Built our annual gingerbread house.
Learned how to cook. Hung out with Bear.
Welcomed home a new baby.

And much more... Thanks for all the Christmas cards you sent. We love hearing from you all.