Howdy Y'all! We're Back :)

We are finally back after a very full two years of silence! Our apologies are extended to those of you who have tried to keep up with us but haven't found anything new posted! Since the publishing of the last post, we have added another member to our family, Daniel Nehemiah, in September of last year! It is a very interesting story with a humorous account which I may briefly recap around his first birthday for those of you who did not receive our family news letter for 2012. He is doing very well and is absolutely adored by us all :).

For a recap in a nutshell of what the past few months have been like for us, I'll start with March.

MARCH ~

The first week of the month our church hosted a missions conference with 10 missionaries from about 8 different countries. Smack-dab in the middle of that conference fell Josiah's 16th birthday. Soon after that, Elisabeth, Josiah and Laura went to the Grand Canyon with a group of young people from our church as a reward for the winners of a program called Battle of the Ages.

The day they got back, Elisabeth and Josiah began a 2 day process of obtaining their driver's permits!

APRIL ~

Joshua's 10th birthday fell in the beginning of April! Yes, I suppose we're all growing up! About a week later we held the 2013 spring recital for all of my violin and piano students. It went very smoothly and was fabulously wonderful! All the students are progressing rather rapidly and from what they have told me, they are enjoying the lessons as much as I am! :) Then the last week in April our family headed down to Big Sandy, TX for a week of camping and attending the ATI regional family conference.

 We very much enjoyed getting to see friends that we hadn't seen in a good while, making new friends, hearing uplifting and inspiring as well as convicting messages and great singing! I was able to play the violin in the orchestra while Elisabeth, Josiah, Laura and Christina all sang in the choir.

 Charity and Joanna very much enjoyed attending Pre-Excell, and Joshua thrived in ALERT Cadet that week!

 Our cousins, the "J" Linzey's (Ron's brother, Jeremy and his family of 11 children) were there as well, so we enjoyed camping right next to them and having a lot of fun interaction between our two families!

MAY ~

Now we are currently in May and there have already been some very memorable incidences that have occurred. My Grandmother had her 70th birthday towards the beginning of this month, so all of her children, their spouses and all the grandchildren were together for the celebration. It was the first time in around 12 years that everyone had been together like that. We had a great time of fellowship, activities, and, of course, food :).

Then there was Mother's Day and our little PeeWee group of about 40 children, ages 4-7, sang in the evening service. Meanwhile, Elisabeth stayed at the "J" Linzey's a few more days experiencing the farm and making soap. On Tanya's (Mama's) birthday, Christina, Charity and Joshua left with Grandma and Grandpa to go to their place for two weeks.

We celebrated my 20th birthday!

 Mama and I went to lunch and had a good time talking :). Also, everyone pitched in and got me a beautiful emerald necklace, so with Mama's recommendation, we went back and got the matching ring :).

Then Caleb's 7th birthday was on Saturday,

so we all went on a Friday-Saturday camping trip to Red Rock Canyon. We had a great time celebrating Caleb's birthday, being together, talking, eating, sleeping :), and exploring God's creation.

When we got back home, we were alerted that bad weather was on it's way and would probably be very bad Sunday, and possibly worse on Monday... Sure enough, there was a tornado in Shawnee, OK on Sunday that demolished a mobile home park. Then Monday proved itself worse as one of the largest and most violent tornados in US history, rated as an EF5 and reaching 2.3 miles wide in some places swept across Moore, OK, about 6 to 6 1/2 miles south of us, destroying hundreds of homes. Thankfully, we were not affected by it other than water rationing for the purpose of reserving water for the city of Moore. They are definitely under emergency circumstances, but is beginning the process of recovery as people from all areas have flooded to that location seeking to be of aid in any way they can. Ron, Josiah and Laura will, Lord willing, be joining some volunteer groups going down to Moore tomorrow for the day. I'll be posting about their involvement later on. Thank you to all who contacted us concerned about our well being! It really meant a lot to our family!

We are looking forward to using this blog as a way to keep y'all posted on what's going on with us on a more regular basis than once a year :) We are going to see if this works for the second time and whether or not we will be able to keep up with posting as life is constantly on the go around here!

~ Anna* for all