Mother Bear

About once a month a group of Stony Hill ladies get together for our Mother Bear Project. The Mother Bear Project is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear. The simple gift of a hand-knit bear with a tag signed by the knitter has touched children with the message that they are unconditionally loved! We usually got together on Friday evenings for a few hours, ate snacks, knit, crocheted or sewed bears and had a great time of fellowship too! The last Mother Bear event I was able to attend was themed "snuggie, pajama & slipper night", it just happened to be extremely cold that evening so it worked out perfectly! Here are some of our students during one of their "commercial breaks"... And I'll leave you with us taking a nap after all of our hard work!

Find out more information and how you can help get involved or start a Mother Bear Project in your church or community by checking out the Mother Bear Project link HERE.

Breakfast Gals

Before we left NC, I had the privilege of getting together with some of our "old" youth, all these ladies are in college now! Can i just add that Lauren was in 6th grade when we came to Stony Hill!!! It was a fun breakfast at Briggs, a restarant in Wake Forest, super yummy waffles and great conversation :)

Sparks!

Wednesday was my last night as our AWANA Sparks Director! I've had the privilege of being the Director since we started the AWANA program at our church several years ago!

Last nights theme was "Beach Party Night", all my leaders wanted to make sure everyone knew that they weren't crazy for wearing beach wear in the middle of January :)

I love my Sparkies and am really going to miss all of them :( I couldn't do it each week without all my fabulous leaders too :) They give their time and energy each week, what an awesome group of people!!!

Crazy Hair Night

Last Wednesday was crazy hair night at AWANA! My kiddos love the theme nights and were super excited to wear crazy hair!!!

The back of Emma's hair...

The top of Anna's hair...

Lizzy really didn't have crazy hair, she just had piggy-tails :) She didn't want me to get a picture of her hair :(
Jody wore a crazy hair wig since he has a bald head and my hair was crazy too, didn't get pictures of either of us, not on purpose of course!

Harvest Day 2009

Yesterday we celebrated 125 years of existence at our church, "Harvest Day"! Every year on Harvest Day the congregation dresses up in their old-timey clothes then we eat a huge meal after the service, what a fun day :)
Here are some pictures of our family on Harvest Day!!!

God made Animals

This week in Puggles Lizzy learned about how God made the animals. They were supposed to bring in their favorite stuffed animal. That night they were going to have a Puggles Circus Parade with their animals, pulling them along in little shoe box type circus cars! Lizzy was so proud of her bunny and his "new house"! She got to decorate it all by herself with stickers too :) They even had little blankets for their animals because it was cold outside! She's been pulling it all around the house since we got home last night and right away this morning, it has quickly become a game of keep away from Jack too :) She wanted me to take lots of pictures to show everyone....

Bible Quiz Bowl

We had a bible quiz bowl last month at church, I forgot I didn't post the pictures!
Jody was the MC and Emma was a contestant! She was the only girl in her age group. She was so nervous she looked like she was going to cry the entire time, but she did awesome! Takes a lot of guts answering questions in front of a crowd of people!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

SWO

We are at camp this week, i'll be updating the youth blog every day...check out what we're doing at SWO, click HERE!!!

Golf Tourney 2009

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen!

What a powerful statement that we often take in stride...He triumphed over death!!!

We had a fantastic Easter Sunday. Jody went to the sunrise service...I haven't been in a few years, but may attempt next year when Jack is a little older! We had an awesome 11 am service, just singing the old hyms and the magnitude of what we celebrate on Resurrection Sunday hit me like a ton of bricks! How often we take the fact that Jesus took upon ALL (everyone's) sin, was crucified and killed, then 3 days later rose from the dead, just as He promised, all for US?! WOW, what a loving and powerful Savior we have!

We were so happy to have my dad, brother Matt, his wife Diana and my niece Ashtyn come celebrate Easter with us at our church! My mom had to work this weekend and the kiddos sure missed their Wanka!!!


Livingston kiddos in front of the church after Easter Service...

My parents bought the grand-girls their Easter dresses...
(we had to snap a picture of them all together!)

along with Jack's outfit to go along with our red & white theme...
(he was asleep when we took the ladies in white picture)

After church we headed to my Uncle & Aunt's house is Louisburg to have Easter Dinner with my dad's family! Here are my grandparents, with the kiddos and I...

The girls had an easter egg hunt too...there was a smal glitch when the goats started eating all the loot though!!! Yummy food and lots of fun with family!!!

Sweet Sisters

meets the first Monday night of the month for fellowship, food, and fun! All ladies (young and old) are invited from 7:00 to 8:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall at our church. We learn new things, share stories, and enjoy “girlie stuff." This month's theme was Gardening Tips, I am not a gardener so this was a great one to come back after having Jack! I kill basically every plant that is given to me (not for lack of trying) and I learned so much in the hour we were there! It was a great time of fellowship with ladies, young and old! Now we'll see if I have a beautiful garden with all the information I absorbed, I took a whole page of notes too!!!

Yard Sale, Preaching, VW show & World Changers...

Yes we accomplished all of the above (except Jody did the preaching) this weekend!

Saturday we had a yard sale to get rid of a lot of "stuff" we have accumulated over the years in preparation of our move in the next few weeks! The girls surprisingly have been very helpful in going through their old toys and clothes to give to other little girls who aren't as fortunate. Jody and I were also able to donate a lot of our things to those in need!

Sunday Jody preached at our church for our Pastor who was out of town, he really enjoys preaching given the opportunity! After church we headed to meet Jody's dad in Farmington, NC for a Volkswagen show! Pictured is one of one Jody's favorites. This has become an annual event for the two VW enthusiasts! Jody's dad lives in Tennessee so it's kind of a half-way point too! Although the girls and I enjoy going to the shows, we were able to spend time with a friend and her little girl while Jody was at the show! That evening Jody had an opportunity to speak at a church for a World Changers event coming up this summer!

The weekend was great, busy and fun spent with family, our church family and old friends!

7 years ago today...

Jody became the Youth & Chidren's Pastor at Stony Hill Baptist Church! We are so thankful and blessed to work with the students, children, parents, grandparents and church members of Stony Hill!!! We truly are grateful and privileged to minister to such a loving group of people!!!

Sunday our fellow AWANA workers threw Jack a baby shower! It was so much fun! We ate yummy food, played games and the girls were able to help open all of Jack's gifts! We received so many nice BOY things! We are very thankful for all that we received. Thank you to everyone who helped coordinate, plan and attended the shower! Here is a slide show of the event...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

1st Trip to Church

Here are my two favorite Guys, all dressed up for church...Jack took his first trip to church today, he looked so cute in his "little man" outfit, cords, long sleeve button-up shirt and sweater vest!
In his bouncer seat, ready to get buckled in his car seat...

Here are a couple more we snapped this afternoon...

So sleepy and cute!!!

Harvest Day

Yesterday was Harvest Day at our church. Everyone dresses up in their old fashioned garb and we have a huge "potluck" or "covered dish" lunch after wards! The girls and Jody dressed up in their old fashioned clothes, I couldn't find any old fashioned maternity clothes so I wore jeans! Here is a picture of Jody and the girls I snapped really quick before we left for church with my phone...
I of course forgot my camera and by the time we got home everyone was looking pretty rough...I wanted to mention Emma's dress she is wearing, it was a hand me down from a family in our church. They have 4 girls and every year they make dresses to wear to harvest day. I believe Emma's dress was the oldest daughter's (she's 17 now) dress when she was small! I wish I had gotten a picture of their dresses along with some of our other youth and younger girls who dressed up. They are so talented! If you went to the state fair you may have seen our youth girls handiwork...they won!

AWANA

Here are some pictures of the girls I thought I would post...

On our front porch before AWANA wednesday...Anna & Lizzy had a fishing theme tonight, Emma had a regular club night. Anna & Lizzy love their Puggles shirts and Emma is so proud of her Sparks vest she had to earn!!!

Our Two Puggles, all dressed up for the theme "fishing" in their Puggles shirts of course!!!

They had to stand up and show you their entire outfits, rain boots, fishing poles, hats and all!!! Don't worry I made them wear a coat to AWANA...it was in the 50's during the day and it got much colder once the sun went down!!!
The girls and Jody too are so excited about next week's theme "Favorite superheo night". Jody was even telling me last night what he planned to wear! Anna is excited to show everyone her " SuperGirl Cap", she means the cape I made her for her birthday...you'll have to wait until next week to see them all dressed up!!!

We have arrived...

home safe and sound from another fall retreat with our Youth!!! We (4 adults & 9 students) left Friday afternoon, traveled to Alta Vista, VA to a camp called The Master's Inn. The second half (2 adults & 5 students) of our group arrived Saturday morning at 8:00am! We all got back about 2pm this afternoon! We had never been to this camp before and there were some bumps in the road...1st bump was getting there, it took us 3 hours when it should have taken only a little over 2 hours! Mapquest did not give very accurate directions (we never did find 265?) and we ended up using the GPS on Jody's cell phone to get us there! We were traveling with a van load of teenagers, loaded down with luggage on a trailer hooked to the back of the van, it was night time and it was Virginia!!! The weekend was packed with sessions, game times, worship sessions, down time and of course meal time!!! We always do a campfire and roast marshmellows too, my favorite! This year they also had the option to go horseback riding, roller skating or playing paintball. Skating and horseback riding are not really my thing, but I'm all about paintball, I was quickly reminded of my large belly and had to say no (like anyone would really let me play paintball!!!). I did promise the kids after January we would go by ourselves and play, I'll stomp them all!!! All in all it was a great weekend, many students "Refueled, were Refreshed & Refocused" (our theme for the weekend)! I'll get some pictures on here as soon as I can, just wanted to give a quick update!!!

AWANA time....

We started AWANA at our church about 3 1/2 years ago and tonight was our first AWANA meeting for the year! The girls were so excited and couldn't wait for tonight. Emma moved up from Cubbies (3 & 4's) and is now with me in Sparks (K-2nd grade)! She won't get her uniform, book and bag until she earns them by reciting a few verses (probably next week). Anna and Lizzy were also able to join AWANA this year as we added a new program called "Puggles" for 2 year olds (because of the cutoff ages they are both in the same class this year)! Anna and Lizzy looked so cute carrying their little bags and tried on their new t-shirts as soon as we got home tonight, they even went as far as wearing them to bed as jammies!!! I'll get a picture of all of them in their uniforms as soon as Emma gets hers....Here is a picture of them in the car before we left our driveway...

We are looking forward to another year in our AWANA program! Click here if you wondering what AWANA is!

Health & Wealth Gospel

They showed this video at camp this past week...