Family vacation

In June, we took a road trip up to Missouri. Our first time to drive so far with all the boys. We broke up the trip and they did great. Our first stop was in Oklahoma city where we stayed with our friends Ryan and Dara Steward. Unfortunately this is another experience that I neglected to take pictures of. Thankfully Dara is much better at this than I am. If you want to look at pictures of our time with the Stewards, check out her blog. It was a great time catching up with them. Very restful and relaxing.

After a few days with the Stewards we drove to Pattonsburg, MO, to stay with Jeremiah and Kenan Bradford. I took a few more pics of our time there, but again, Kenan did a better job. You can look at her blog for more pictures. We were hoping to escape the heat and spend some time in a cooler area, but of course we would visit the weekend that happened to be the hottest of the whole summer. This was Mark's first taste of small town America. It was good times in the little farming community of Pattonsburg. We cooked out a lot and made our own fun. We really enjoyed getting to visit with the Bradfords.

We were also able hang out with the Comptons, see Mark's roommate from college, Cody Busby, and have dinner with Casey and Sarah Shutt. It was great getting to see so many friends.

Nathanael and Emsleigh (Kenan's little girl) having tummy time together.
"The Lone Ranger" or "The Lone Stranger" as Hudson called himself. He was a little confused by a Veggie Tales video, "Moe and the Big Exit."

Kenan took us to some friends' house who live on a farm. The boys had a blast on all the farm equipment. Hudson is pretending to drive "Frank the combine." (Frank is from the movie "Cars.")

Visit from Pop and Aunt Kelly

Mark's dad and sister came to visit us at the end of May. We had a really great time. I've realized as I've gone back through our pictures to catch up on this blog, I'm really bad about taking pictures. The only ones I have are a few from our trip to the zoo. I didn't even get a picture of Aunt Kelly's big belly. As you'll see in a few posts, she had a baby in July.

Hair Cut

We busted out the clippers since it's been so hot lately. I miss their long hair, but it's fun to see them with buzz cuts like daddy. Much easier in the bathtub too!

Cute Pics

Aren't these the cutest boys you've ever seen!? I know, I'm a little biased. :)

Visit to Kenan's

Nathanael and Emsleigh (Bradford) Hamilton. Just kidding...I know it's a little early, but a mom can hope, right? :)
Jeremiah, Kenan and Emsleigh.

Ah, so cute! Nathanael and Emsleigh are exactly a month a part.
Mark and my mom as well as sister and grandmother were all really gracious to let me take Nathanael to visit my dear friend Kenan. We had a wonderfully relaxing time. Lots of laughs and lots of good food.

Owen's 1st Birthday

We all had a great time at Owen's party. A wonderful way to celebrate April 15th. God has done so much to preserve his life. It was a great day of praise to our God. (Owen is my sister's little boy for those of you who might not know.)

Egg Hunt

So excited!!! One to hunt and the other to eat... I bet you can't guess which one... :)

Our boys are crazy... Elliot loves to run around with his shirt on his head so we decided we'd catch a pic of all 3 of them. Good times.
Nathanael is starting to smile all the time and it's soooo fun!

The Powder Bandit

I caught Hudson red-handed one day during nap time dusting everything in sight with a bottle of baby powder... including himself and poor unsuspecting Elliot who was honestly trying to sleep. I asked him what he was thinking and he said "I was laying in bed and saw some dust. I had an idea..." Obviously his idea was what took me an hour to vacuum up!

Crazy Clouds

The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

Elliot has decided that it's much more fun to paint yourself than paper!

I want to share with you a prayer a friend of ours wrote for Nathanael. What a blessing to have friends who share in praying for the souls of our children!

"My prayer for Nathanael Edwards Hamilton is that he would be like his namesakes. I pray that like Nathanael in the book of John, the Lord would call him out as one of His own, that there would be no deceit in him, that he would be quick to recognize Christ for who he is, and that the Lord will show him great things. And that, like Jonathan Edwards, he would be given the grace to say, 'Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.'"

Nathanael Edwards

We wecolmed Nathanael Edwards into the world February 18. He weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 3/4 in. Nathanael is the Biblical spelling and means God has given. He definitely is a gift from the Lord! His namesake is Nate Saint, the missionary pilot who was martyred with Jim Elliot (who we named Elliot after). Edwards shouldn't be a surprise to you who know Mark's passion for Jonathan Edwards. As these men lived and died for the truth of the gospel, the joy of Christ in us and the glory of God, may Nathanael count it all loss for the sake of the gospel.