Memorial Day Weekend

Here are some pictures from our Memorial Day weekend with the Clarks. Steve, Rachel and Theresa came to PA from WV for the weekend! We enjoyed having them around and wish we could see them more!!

Rachel playing with Nora

Pa-Pa and Nora playing outside

Just after her nap...already looking mischevious

Here she is all dressed up! Such a girly-girl

Rachel, Steve, Mom & Dad

Abby & Dad

Theresa

Rachel & Steve

Here's Nora in a water battle with Aunt Rachel

The Boys

All the kids

The whole Family

Monday

Here's some pictures of our day on Monday. I drove the Browns to tennis and Nora played on one of the half courts. She loves tennis balls, so she spent most of her time throwing the balls and going after them!!

I have NO IDEA what she is doing in this picture!!!

WE ARE MOVING!!!

2 weeks ago, Tim and I decided to start looking for a different living situation. We aren't in a place, where we can purchase a home yet, so our idea was to look for something more permanent till we are able to purchase our own home.

So, we started looking at the local papers with a few things in mind. We want a 1st floor apt (currently living in a 2nd floor apt.), NO MORE COLLEGE STUDENT NEIGHBORS, we want a YARD for Nora to play in, we want a larger living space and 2 or 3 bedrooms and we wanted to stay in the Elizabethtown area.

So, we responded to a house for rent between Hershey and E-town. We went to see it and fell in love with it! It's old, but has a lot of potential. It had a HUGE yard (more than 1/2 acre), 2 bedrooms, wood floors, open living space, large kitchen, small screened in patio, garage, basement, fireplace...and it's surrounded by tree's and fields! We left saying...we love it, but we won't get it.

So, we prayed and prayed. Asked our friends and family to pray! Sent in the application, got our credit report and talked with the owner numerous times. This past Friday, he called again and said he was trying to make his decision, and was picking between us and another couple.

Yesterday, we got the call....we got the house! We have a YARD! We have only 1 neighbor!! No more 3 AM parties!!! We have a fireplace in our living room! We have hard wood floors! We have room for Nora to play!!

We are SO EXCITED!! :) I get to pick out colors to paint the walls! We've never been aloud to paint our walls before!!!

God truly answered our prayers. We really didn't think we would be able to get this place. We applied, thinking we would be denied! But, God had other plans. He gave us the desire of our hearts!! He gave us the push to apply when we thought it was pointless! What a gift he has given us!


Thanks to all our dear friends and family, who prayed that Gods will would be done, but that He would show us favor in this area!! :) We sign the lease tomorrow!

We will let you all know when we move! :)

Arts in the Park

Last Saturday, we headed out to Elizabethtown's "Arts in the Park" with a few friends. As always, we had a great time with the Eckels, Bells and Gables.

Afterwards we made our rounds, stopping at Mike & Destiny's for a few hours and ended up at Kirk and Amanda's for pizza and games! We really needed some time with friends, so it was good to kick back, relax and have fun!!

I didn't take many pictures, but here's what I've got! :)

Dan and Amy, as always, kids at heart!

How cute!

Here, everyone is laughing at a little boy who's covering his ears! A Band was playing and one instrument was VERY HIGH and VERY LOUD!

Amy, Dan, Kirk & Amanda

Mike & Destiny

Thanks for a great time everyone!

What Nora's been up to in May

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past 2 weeks. Tim and I took Nora to the park last week and she was the only child there, so she had FREE REIGN! She loved it!

Here she is sitting on a bench, she THOUGHT we were at. But, we were directly across from her! This is her response when she finally realized we were in front of her!

Here she is in the tunnel!

Here she's just being a goof-ball and running around

She inherited my "whispy" hair. It's always a mess, of course it was cute BEFORE she took out her pigtails!

Here she is at church getting ready to give Janelle and Matthew their balloons!

Mom and Dad's Reaction

So, when Mom, Dad, Joel and Liz came home from Florida, we were all there waiting.

Mom's original reaction was excitement to see her Grandkids. She noticed the front flowerbeds, but thought that we had just planted flowers.

So, Dad started pointing out the things that we did. He showed her the Patio and she exclaimed...it's clean!!! Not even noticing the new door and walkway! It was pretty funny. She eventually started taking it all in.

Here's a few pictures of when they came home.

Nora running over to Mimi for hugs and kisses

Mom's surprised to see everyone

Dad is pointing her towards the back to see all the clearing that was done

Here is Mom noticing the CLEAN patio...and then Dad pointing out the new door, doorstep and painting

After Nora's birthday party, the boys (Cole & Spencer) wanted a helmet like hers, here is Dad giving them to the boys! They were SO EXCITED!!! I'll put that video on soon.

After we walked around the outside of the house, Mom and Dad went inside, we opened the garage door, so that when they came outside again, they would see the empty and CLEAN Garage...you can see by Mom's reaction, she wasn't expecting that!

Mom and Dad were definitely blessed and were still taking things in. Thank you so much to all our Living Hope Family for making this possible!!!!