Welcome to the World

Adelaide Mackenzie Jenkins ("Addy") was born this morning!
Here she is: ("stats" to follow)

And here is Mark Alan Jenkins, III ("Tre") being the Big Brother!
I hope more pictures will follow these-be on the lookout!

New song

I heard a song on the radio today, it is fairly new and they DJ was predicting it to be a future hit on the Christian radio stations. I agree. I really liked this song, more than the music or this guy's voice (I've never heard of him-have you?), but the words really grabbed me. This is truly something I think more people than just me are struggling with-looking beyond oneself, seeing the people around you, really seeing them, and loving them. What a great song-go check it out! Here are the lyrics:

Give Me Your Eyes

by Brandon Heath

~

Looked down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights

My world from a mile high

Best seat in the house tonight

Touched down on the cold black tile

Hold on for the sudden stop

Breath in the familiar shock

Of confusion and chaos

Are those people going somewhere?

Why have I never cared?

~

Chorus:

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

Wasn't it far beyond my reach?

Give me your heart for the once forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

again

again

yeah

yeah

~

Step out on a busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide whats underneath

There's a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

To ashamed to tell his wife

Hes out of work

Hes buying time

Are those people going somewhere?

Why have I never cared?

~

Chorus

~

I've been there a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just moving past me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

Well I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way you see the people all alone

~

Chorus (x2)

Big Helper

The buzzer went off, and Luke excitedly shouted, "DRYER!". He broke into a run-down the hallway-threw open the laundry room door, opened the dryer with gusto and began. It was several trips of unloading clothes, carrying them down the hall to mommy's bed, but he did it all-and by himself! What a big boy. I'm so proud!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my kids' daddy, our Fathers, Grandfathers and all them other folks out there we know and love who are fathers. Have a great day!

quickly

A quick change of information--"new baby" has a new due date. January 6, 2009. Only a couple days difference but significant-that is my sister Amanda's birthday! And the next day is Aaron's dad's birthday...hmm...

New Video-NT

Luke is able to learn and retain so much information! It is very exciting, here is the most recent video of him. He is saying the books of the New Testament.

He's pretty good isn't he?! By the way, that was "not Titus", then "not Peter", in case you were thinking maybe it was Titus or Peter-it wasn't. haha-he cracks me up!

Graduation Sunday

I didn't get to go (waiting for the air conditioner man to come fix our air), but we had three graduates this year, Melinda, Brad and Matt.
Congratulations guys, welcome to the college age Sunday School class and Bible Study!

SBR Family Camp, Part 4

Madison and her new friend Patty tubingThis was Madison's first time to go tubing!Tubing was Aaron's thing he did with his nieces, here he is tubing with HannahIt was Hannah's first time also (and by the way, they said that water was cold!)Amy riding on a very pretty horse named "Stormy", she got to ride just about every dayOur cabin-the Texan.The woods next to our cabin-very pretty.As you can see, the weather warmed up again. Luke loved to swing on the swingsLast day, Bonner Family pictureSickles Family PictureAnd all together
BONUS: these were on our way home, crazy dust storm!

It didn't last very long, but it was notable.
Thank you very much for making through all our pictures from camp. We had a good time. The best part was getting to spend time with family.

SBR Family Camp, Part 3

Aaron and Luke, watching the go-cart races a bit closer-so cute!The crowd.looks fun doesn't it?Every family from the winning team got a trophy...our team didn't win, but we did pretty good.Luke and Aaron playing basketball-Luke is no longer content to just watch.And he's pretty good!But however much he wants to be-he isn't this good, yet. But he tried.Luke swinging with his friend PhoebeAnd playing a new game-Tether ball
Part 4 to come.

SBR Family Camp, 2

As you can see the weather got cooler (and chased away most of those pesky mosquitoes!), here is Luke looking all handsome in his 'fishing vest'Another speciality breakfast, this time the Logger's Breakfast. We are down by the lake getting blueberry pancakes made for usLuke playing Putt-putt with Aaron. According to Aaron, it isn't much fun to play putt-putt with Luke right now-unless he can have all the balls!Luke playing the fun bean bag game (its rules are similar to horseshoes)One of Luke's favorite things to do at camp! He would say, "Ready, Set, Go!" and then run up and down this ramp at the entrance of the dining hall.It wasn't too long before everyone could see that this was SO much fun, and Luke had his friends playing with him!One of the family activities was with an old car! You had to decorate it with spray paint first. Madison and Hannah had tons of fun with thisAnd as you can see, they weren't aloneThis is all the kids from our team who helpedLuke really wanted to help, but he couldn't. And when Aaron was helping Luke was pretty distraught-in comes Michael Scarb. to the rescue! Our car completed.Team number 1!

Keep a watch for SBR, 3.

SBR Family Camp, 1

vAaron was asked to be the speaker for a week long camp in Wisconsin. The camp's name is Silver Birch Ranch, and the week we were to go was a camp for families. And, by God's provision, Amy and her daughters were able to come with us!
I am going to attempt to share with you some of the highlights of the trip-a slew of pictures to follow! Enjoy.

Aaron as the speaker.
Madison going up the climbing wall

Aaron coming down the wall

Hannah on the climbing wall

The rock wall climbers!

Aaron and Luke on the swings

Luke watching Jonah in his room

a view of the camp from the dining hall

a hayride on a *gasp* TRACTOR on the way to one of the speciality breakfasts, the Buckboard breakfast. We had eggs and potatoes and fried PBJ's cooked by our "Wranglers"

One the way back from the Buckboard breakfast in the woods, driven by the horses-so exciting

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2!