It's not even Mother's Day.....

I ask for no expensive jewelry, clothes, or something else I have to wash... Bret knows that when Mother's Day comes all I want are those little things around the house that never seem to get finished to be finished....usually it's outside and we are prepping for summer. The past two weekends the three of us have been outside doing major demolition on our yard. Bret has been a huge trooper and has made me the happiest wife around!

It seems I have turned into my father when I just sit and stare at my plants and grass, Ha! and KK has turned into a mini me when I was younger...Loves gardening right along with me and is singing Jesus songs the whole time!!

She looked so darn cute after church I just HAD to take a picture!

The Cross in Kenya Africa

This is the video of a prior group carrying the Cross through the slums of Africa...it just gets ya going!

In two months

In two months Bret and I have...decided to go to Kenya, sent out 150 fundraiser letters, received passports, had six shots, had a dinner raffle, purchased plane tickets, had a huge garage sale, and have accumulated $5,500 dollars and have officially reached our mission trip total with 24 days to spare!!!

Saturday we had a group meeting for the trip, which made it all official. We have a great group of people going with us and can't wait to get to know them all some more. As of right now this is what our time in Africa will look like...

-We will be staying at an Ostrich farm. There are multiple tents that will have a shower, bathroom, and bed. Meals will be provided there and from what we hear are pretty tasty. Water will be provided but if we want a coke it will be an extra .70! Crazy how different the economy is.

-We will be carrying a cross through the slums of Africa. Nothing dangerous, we are told that there might be slanders toward us but nothing too violent. Besides holding those sweet kids, this I think will be what Bret and I look forward too.

-We will go to two church services at the orphanage. I hear that these are AMAZING. Looking forward to being apart of something so great.

-A lady who is probably in her thirties, lives in Amarillo, started an orphanage with her husband, not far from ours. Her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident a couple of years ago. The orphanage is named after her husband. She will be traveling with us, she seems like a super neat lady. From what I hear we will be doing quite a bit with her orphanage as well as ours.

-Dedicating our orphanage. Since the bus accident the building of the orphanage slowed down, so no huge production will be made like previous plans were.

From everything I have been told I'm starting to think that for me personally God is using this experience for me to learn something. I think I will learn far more than I will teach!!

Drum roll please....

This past weekend we had our garage sale for our Africa trip. It took me all week and in between naps and meals to get it all together but the sale was a success!! The grand total.....$643.00!!!!!! Bret and I joined forces and made the sale happen. The sale opened at eight but those early birds were coming at seven thirty.
We estimate over fifty dollars on just donations!




Coffee in a texas mug, donations, and my meme's money box=good luck:)


We literally used every table in our house

Airplane ride home...Check

Our plane from England arrives in Dallas May 20th at 3:40 p.m. Bret and the rest of the group will be driving from Dallas to Amarillo but I will be hopping on plane in Dallas at 5:30 and arriving in Amarillo at 6:30. That gives me thirty minutes to get in a car and race to Canyon for my friends wedding rehearsal. Whew! I have faith that I can do it!!!

From the very beginning not knowing any details I told myself that there is no way that I'm going on this trip if its during my friends wedding, which I am the one and only bridesmaid. I prayed about it that it would all work out....come to find out it will be extremely close but I think it is once again reassurance that we need to be on this trip.

I have a photoshop class every Wednesday and while at class Bret and KK go to church. Last night he picked me up and told me about some news about Africa. The village that we will be visiting...many women and children were in a bus when it flipped over injuring over 14 of them. The small church is devastated and trying to pick themselves up from this earth shaking incident.

Think about it....there are say thirty people in your village and church and fourteen of those people are badly injured, that could completly change a church. This means our main mission will not be to go dedicate this new children's home but to help pick up these people from such a horrible incident. God called us on an ever greater mission that what we first realized.

Raffle for Africa

Our dinner raffle was a success!! We sold a ton of tickets, and by we I mean our families;) I come in contact with a minimal amount of people a day, so thank the Lord I have a popular family! The winner was MaryAnn Thompson. She is the secretary for Chatty's school and a mom of one of Chatty's friends. I wish I could have given everybody a dinner for just buying a ticket. Everyone was so generous!! This Saturday we have our first and only meeting at the church discussing last minute details. Also, hoping that we can squeeze in a huge garage sale. Bret seems to think that this weekend would be the best so garage sale this weekend at mi casa, tell all of your peeps to come and support our Africa trip!!

Easter isn't all about eggs and the Easter bunny...

It is a great thing when your hear your child spreading the story of Jesus. We were in the car the other day and she started sharing the story of Jesus to Dean, and when He died on the cross for our sins. Her details were right on! The two of us want Easter to not be all about the Easter bunny and hunting eggs but about Jesus!!

Easter

We came home last night and started to unload the car...it seams almost as bad as Chrismtas. Tons of candy and a ton of eggs!! The Easter bunny came to our house and left KK with some goodies, her favorite being a zhu-zhu pet mouse. You all know how she is with her "imaginary mouse". After all of the Easter hunts we gathered all the change and KK decided to go buy her mouse a cage with her own money. Starting early on the whole saving and buying your own toys:)

The weather was beautiful and we could not have asked for a better Easter...


Chatty came over and we dyed Easter eggs. I asked KK which one she wanted to leave the Easter bunny and she picked the brown one out of all that color. It made us laugh.




KK and her mouse..



Doesn't she just look precious in the dress we made?

Give your heart to Jesus

Everyone knows how much KK loves to sing....well church has only made that love for singing grow even more. Every Sunday she comes home with a new song or learns the words just a little better to a song. The Hokey Pokey, Kennedee style



Wednesday Bret and KK went to church while I went to my Photoshop class and when I got in the car she was so happy because she learned the "real" ending to the Hokey pokey.

Work of Art

There have many many pictures that Kennedee has painted and even more drawings. She paints whenever she gets the chance and is drawing every time we get in the car. Painting is usually a mixture of paints and her drawings look more like oceans, just waves of black ink. Lately we talk about her drawing "objects" if that even means anything to a four year old. Flowers, people, whatever she wants. Today we ran an errand and of course she wanted to draw. She hands me her paper so I sit it in my lap while I finish a talk with Bret. I look down and see her first drawing of a person!!!! He had arms, eyes, smile and dimples. I am so proud of that little girl. Enjoy her work of art, because it will be on the fridge for a long time and then possible even framed!

Making new from the old

You hear it everytime. Your a bridesmaid in a wedding and the bride wants to get something you can "wear again someday". I said it myself when I was a bride. The truth is, you won't wear it again. As much as you try to find somewhere to wear it, chances are very slim. So after a year and a half with this beautiful dress in my closet, then in storage, then in my closet again I became to the point that it had to go. My little bitty house can only hold so much and I have seem to have allready reached the limit with two kids that aren't mine, one that is, a dog, a husband, and all compacted into 1,000 square feet. I have lately enjoyed sewing almost as much as scrapbooking so that led me to my project. Repurposing my bridesmaid dress into a pillow. Yep, I cut up the dress and made it into a pillow. I have a great pillow for my bed that matches perfectly and no longer have to mess witht the hassle of storage of the dress I will never find a place to wear:)

BEFORE:



AFTER

You are my Sunshine

Today and yesterday are supposed to be record high for this time of year. I LOVE it!! The sunshine makes for one happy child and mom. We spent the early morning yesterday playing with chalk and riding her bike. She just had to have her glasses because the sun was just too bright without them...diva:)

Moving Along

This week we received our passports in the mail! It is one of those things that we had been anticipating getting and crossing our fingers that we got them in time! Passports, check. Bret and I also went to get tetnus shot and Bret had to get his Hep A....check. Two more things off the list. Tickets will be paid for this week, only thanks to the gratitude of family and friends and the grace of God that this is coming together so beautifully! The next two weeks Bret and I will be getting yellow fever, tiphoid, and malaria prevention...not wanting to bring anything home with us except Love of Jesus and memories of an awesome experience:)

New things at the Huey house

I have been putting the whole blog posting aside for awhile for two reasons....one: we have been incredibly busy and two: I have been so darn mad because I haven't been able to figure out my photo shop enough to start designing my own blog background. Yesterday I had no kids and I just figured it was about time that I bring back our family blog!! So here are some updates of what are family has been up to the past couple of months.....

Kk and I have been busy crafting. This was her Valentine skirt that we re-did from an old pair of jeans that her legs grew out of.

We have been spending as much time as possible outside on the trampoline. The trampoline has proved to be the best investment (beside our leather furniture) that we have made. KK and I and daddy are out on the trampoline whenever possible. It seems to be a great time to spend with KK AND talk about a good workout for mom!

After lots of praying Bret and I will embark on a journey in Africa in May. We will be going with our Church to move in children into their new home and will also have the opportunity to plant a Church there in the village. Details on the trip are very minimal so this trip is all about following the Lord! Isn't that how God intended it to be?

KK is in her third semester of gymnastics and is loving it even more that she did in the beginning. This semester they added an assistant coach Ms. Shana...KK LOVES her! Every Monday she comes home and says "Mommy, I just love her, she is SO nice!"



This lady is on the "Love of my life" list...The Pioneer Woman's cookbook just makes me happy. I stumbled upon her blog one day and have been in love ever since. Her recipes are great and at the same time easy. She has to work with what she has, which is my kind of girl...no random ingredients or fancy lingo. Just plain jane country. I have been lucky enough to have a little girl that enjoys cooking with me, which just thrills me! KK could very well be the next Pioneer Woman, or Taylor Swift, or gold medalist. She is a girl of many traits:)

We have been very healthy in our house lately (knock on wood). When Payton the three year old left our house it was like all the noses dried up and all the coughs dissapeared. Amazing isn't it? A new baby Eli has started coming to our house along with Dean. We have just managed to get thru our first week and think that it will be smooth sailing:)

Kennedee is officailly enrolled in Kingdom's Kids preschool, starting in August. Mom is hanging in there, Kennedee is ready to go TODAY. We went and toured it a couple of days ago and she has been anticipating it ever since. They will have field trips, cooking, playing, learning, and a daily bible lesson. I can't wait to see KK in her preschool setting....guess this means school shopping will take place very soon!

Last but not least Bret has a little baby...reading thru the Bible while blogging about it! www.thejourney365.blogspot.com
It has become apart of our whole family and we are enjoying every bit of it!

Whew! I think everyone should be caught up on the Huey household and are moving right along at full speed. Looking forward to the future!!

A new blog home

We have switched blog addresses due to the fact that our Favorites tab has accumulated a ton of blog addresses..I figured this would be one way to get the list of favorites down. I also have been wanting to get into my Photoshop and loved the idea that I could create our very own blog background and header. Bear with me as I learn...there will be lots of changing of the layout:)Also, Bret has decided to do his very own blog on blogger as well. The two of us will be reading thru the Bible in one year. I know that it will be a great journey for the both of us and hope that the blog is one way for our family and friends to see what the Lord is teaching us and what we learn as we go thru the Bible. Bret's blog will be up and running soon.