Bridging the gap between city and small town...

We had a great time last weekend taking our church family to Indiana to spend time with the Lahr fam and experience small town Indiana.
Chris had brought this idea months ago to the church to have a mission trip to his home town. Over the past 6 months, chris has learned a lot about some of the history and the present of his huntington home. Some of his learnings have been disturbing to say the least. He knew that the town he grew up in didn't have much racial diversity but he was blind to the racism until recently. Huntington University, a small Christian university that his mom works at, has been working toward gaining diversity while some in the city have not been so open to this. Chris has been writing letters to the editor for a few months and getting some interesting responses. So, we took the Sanchez and Ortiz families to visit with his home town and share with his parents church. It was awesome. Ruben did an amazing job of speaking to this all white congregation and Zoraida and Eunice did a beautiful job of leading two bilingual songs in worship. I was blessed and I think many others were too. I was so excited to find out that after the sermon a woman came up to ruben and chris to say that she grew up at K @ A 20 years ago. this is right around the corner from our old house and our church!! She doesn;t even go to that church but just happened to come. hmmmmm.

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The girls loved the chicks more than anything else but I loved the pigs. I don't know what it is about the pigs. Even though they stink and are loud. I just think theya re so cute. href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCPtDjoJzBvLVsfnLtQ0oy1LikGBtd6j8cIsVWb6ZJzMVzlxUXfCBYayrBhso8cI-vZADJPQEhtclr3Hy5RkF5OAK19icp5DGg6q2thWMYNso44lju5IZnLHjpFaXrtzugpz6aLA/s1600-h/lex+chic.jpg">

We took the gang to 4-H fair. a first for me and for the gang. The loved the corn dogs, shakes and tenderloins.

Happy Half-Birthday to India

I wanted to make a cake with the words happy birthday cut in half but it is too hot to bake.
I can not believe that my baby is already half way to being a toddler. Dang, that went too fast. Two teeth, sitting up (for short amounts of time), standing with furniture and eating cereal and bananas. She is such joy. I was checking on her the other night before I rolled into bed and she just turned over and looked at me with the biggest smile and then rolled back over to sleep. New vocabulary: "bababababababmamabababababaabmmmmmaaaaa" I am pretty excited about the "mama" part since I have been trying diligently to get her to say mama before she says dada. I have to have at least one mamas girls.

All she wanted was her 2 front teeth...

and she got them. That's right. It is hard to get a picture of them yet, but as soon as I can, I will, and post it, because this baby isn't staying a baby for long. Good grief, how did these past 5 1/2 months go by so fast!!

A day at the beach

We took the kids to atlantic city to beat the heat a couple of weeks ago. It was relaxing to just lay in the sand and listen to the waves. I LOVE the beach even when it is atlantic city. The kids are getting more brave with the water too. Chris took them in an dunked them a couple of times. India just chilled in her stroller the whole day and didn't fuss at all. Man we have awesome girls!

Alexa and Ballet

Alexa was so beautiful for her recital last week. She did a great job despite the fact that her partner didn't show up. She got a trophy and is looking forward to taking tap next year.