Picture of the Week-3

For those of you who don't know... I have the cutest little nieces in the whole entire world. :) Thought I would give them a little feature. Here they are, Abby(5) and Ellie(3) Howell.

They are so precious! Their family lives in Mozambique, Africa doing mission work. We are so proud of all the work they do, but miss them terribly!! I love when they get to come visit, although it is not often enough.
Here are a few little snapshots of their life in Mozambique. I love these pictures!

Makua Team

Picture of the Week-2

Ok so I am officially one day late on doing the picture of the week... but life is crazy. It may just have to be a picture of the month, or random picture time. I dunno. For now I'll try to keep it going once a week.

So here it is....Yep, it's me in an Orange Crush can!! For those of you who don't know, I was in a social club at Harding called Shantih. Our colors were orange and white, so of course we played off Orange Crush a lot. One of our traditional functions was to have a tacky function during the fall semester after the new members had joined. That year was a tacky formal. I was decked out from head to toe in my teal 80s prom dress. It was quite awesome. I decided that the crush can made for a good photo op. I even got featured in the Harding yearbook in that can once! (thank goodness it was a different event....)
Here's another picture from the night, just so you can see how ridiculous my outfit was. I really went all out for the tacky function...

Picture of the Week-1

Well, I've decided to try something new called Picture of the Week. This weekend I was trying to organize some of my old pictures and I kept coming across different ones that I would love to share. Usually I use this blog to post photos and write up a little tid bit on things that have happened.... however with busy season upon me, I'm not quite sure how much exciting stuff I will have going on to blog about.. so this will give me a little something to do. Hopefully I will remember to actually follow through with it. We'll see...

So for my 1st Picture of the Week....

I have been blessed to be able to go to the Village of Hope in Ghana, Africa twice and I pray that someday I will be able to return. The Village of Hope is an orphanage sponsored by the churches of Christ. At the orphanage there are homes, a clinic, a church, a school, and much more. There really are so many good works that are started from the VOH. We were able to participate in quite a few things on our trips there. We taught in the school, conducted a VBS at a nearby village (the orphanage kids helped us organize and put on skits), conducted a clinic in a nearby village, visited the streets program in the city of Accra, and of course, our favorite, spent quality time playing with, tutoring, and learning more about the kids at the VOH. I really do love those kids...

and of course, since I pretty much stink at narrowing down pictures, here's a clip of a few more pictures that I love.

Nephew on the way!

For all of you who don't know, Aaron and I have a nephew on the way! Andrew and Krystle are having a little baby boy, Ethan Parker Howell. The due date is March 10th! Look for a post in March with more info and pictures. Anyways, so I decided to make A&K a baby book. It's a prescrapped scrapbook that all they have to do is add pictures to. I got the idea from some ladies at work and thought it was a neat idea. I can't wait to see it all filled up with pictures.
Here's a little slideshow of the pages in the book... the lighting was quite horrible, but you get the idea.

I had also purchased multiple odds and ends for baby Ethan, such as little outfits, socks, toys, etc.. and decided it would be cute to fill up a little basket with all the gifts. Luckily A&K had registered for two cute baskets so Jeanette and I each bought one. We decided to be a bit more creative and went and bought some of the coordinating fabric that they are using in the baby room and made some cute basket liners, with button holes for ribbon, completed with a hand painted hanging letter. I think they turned out great and Krystle was quite surprised!

I love my sister-in-law!
Complete A&K Baby Shower Album