Baptism 2010!!

This was, hands down, one of the best Thursday nights of the semester!

9 of our very own students were Baptized. Tears of joy filled the room like never before.

There were 7 girls that were baptized and 2 guys.

Will spoke on baptism the week before this, and on this night, our dear friend, Mo Asaad came and shared more on baptism. The students learned what it is, what it isn't, why we do it, and just what it means to be baptized.

The reason this is so great, is because each and every one of those students knew exactly what they were doing. They weren't doing anything blindly, they had all of the information and they were very excited!! :)

Below is the video from the baptism that our very own, Chris Hundl made for us.

Isn't that incredible!!!! Now, over the next few months, I look forward to sharing with you different stories from these students!

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" Phil 1:6

I read a commentary on this simple verse...and it talked about how important these words are. "It means here that Paul was entirely convinced of the truth of what he said. It is the language of a man who had no doubt on the subject." -therefore, there was no question in his mind. Then, "Paul affirms here that that work was begun by God. It was not by their own agency or will. It was on the fact that it was begun by God, that he based his firm conviction that it would be permanent." They weren't messing around here. And finally, "Will perform it - means that he would carry it forward to completion; he would perfect it. It is an intensive form of the word, meaning that it would be carried through to the end. He would not leave it unfinished."

Now, thats exciting! This semester God began some incredible things in these students (and many more of course) ... but most of these students just became Christians THIS semester...and a few, just within the last couple of weeks!! :) This, my friends, is why we are here...and we absolutely love doing what we do!!!

Merry Christmas ...

Or so our Christmas Cards say! I'd like to make an announcement, to everyone listening...reading!...Our Christmas cards went out "on time" this year! :) That is relative, of course, but... people will receive them before Christmas. What more could you ask for! :)

I knew I was running late on the cards...and the pictures for the cards, when I got 3 Christmas cards in the mail yet I hadn't even scheduled our photo shoot for ours! Ooops. But, when you have friends in high places (Heather Babbitt with MyRandomShotsPhotography.com) you get the job done! :) We took pictures on a Friday, got the CD full of photos Wednesday night @9. Ordered Christmas cards @midnight, then received them Friday...We got them out Monday...I'm pretty sure that's a first. As a matter of fact, I still have about 50 cards from 2009 that I never sent out. LAME, I know...but true.

Thanks for coming back to our family blog...I do hope you find what you are looking for ;) ... updates on our Family and what's going on @ Texas A&M - Corpus Christi.

Bald headed daddy!

Emma loves her daddy! And anyone who is around them for more than 30 min can tell that. So tonight we were driving home from Chi Alpha, here is the conversation that went on between the 2 of them

Emma - "and daddy I want to be like you"

Will- "you do? well that's so sweet of you Emma."

Emma - "yeah, after I pull all my hair out I will!"

Jen- HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

I hope Lilly has the same "funny gene" that Emma has. It makes days go much more smoothly when she's cracking jokes! But don't misunderstand, the days go pretty smooth still when she is visiting her BFF Joan for the day...or outside playing with her daddy ;)

Now - on to Chi Alpha. What a great time tonight! This was our last Chi Alpha of the summer. Fall Chi Alpha (from now on referred to as XA) will start Aug 26th. So we have a few weeks before we all get to come together for a worship service again. Tonight, our dear friend, Mo Asaad, spoke. He shared with us what it means to be Christ's Ambassadors and letting your actions speak to those around you. It was such a great great time to be together and I couldn't have thought of a better way to "end" the summer. God is moving in some pretty huge ways here and I can't wait to come back in just a few weeks and tell you all the great things He is doing! -Before you get too excited, I will be back before the few weeks is up. There are sure to be some pretty great things that need to be shared with you guys (cough cough...all 5 of you!)

A few pictures and a video ... if you're lucky!

Believe it or not, but this is the best family picture we had during our month away! :) sweet, huh? :)

Will, James, and Chris sitting on a tree limb...they think they are cool. Their children agree!

This picture needs no caption. The kid is a natural :) The funniest part of this, though...on our drive to California (yes, you read right...DRIVE) I kept showing Emma the mountains and her reply was always "I wish my daddy could help me climb that mountain tomorrow!" Well here she is, with her daddy's help!

Here she is again...ah she is a joy. If anyone needs a laugh or just some sweet fun Emma is available (anytime, day or night!) :)

Me and my sweet baby at the wedding. Would you believe that this was an amazing and beautiful wedding and I had 0 pictures of the bride and groom? Well I don't. Call me selfish. Go ahead do it. (PS please don't judge me) :)

The cutest ring bearer in the world :) I mean come on...look at those shoes! :) And there's Emma getting him in the head lock...ooh I mean hug!

Isn't she precious? :) ahhh...I love her. So do you, I bet. I mean look at those curls...and that 1/2 smile she has. Looks more like her daddy every day.

What's that you say? ... Oh yeah, it's just Lilly sleeping under the table at the reception, on the grass, on daddy's suit jacket! :) ha ha ha!

Emma was having so much fun on this piano. Maybe we should get her some lessons... There is a really cute video on facebook of her playing "oh the Lord is good to me...and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need...the sun and the rain and the appleseeds. The Lord is good to me" - trust me, it sounds so much cuter when she sings it!!! :) go listen

So good to be home!

Well we are home! A month away and our house never looked better. But I will say that the great thing about being gone is that there is no house to clean! How awesome is that. I mean yeah you basically live in your truck, but thankfully that's Will's job ;)

The kids had so much fun being away - and I wish I had a video camera on my forehead 24/7 so that I could show people the joy and laughter that these 2 girls of mine bring! :) I will post a few stories and videos asap...but this post isn't about that. or is it? nope...it's not.

OK so school...Chi Alpha...it's coming up SOOO SOON! Next weekend we are having our leadership retreat! I can not tell you guys how excited I am about this! Just today I was grocery shopping with a sweet sweet friend and I got all excited about it again...and she was excited. woohooo! I wish you guys would get excited about all the specifics too. If you did, I would share them....but since you prob don't care, I will spare you the details!

Point is, we are meeting together.

Lake Corpus Christi.

2 nights together.

planning like nobody's business.

kayaking galore (for those of us/them who are brave).

and so much fun will be had, you will be wishing you were a leader with us! :) so there!

God is so faithful to us and I am excited to see what is in store for us all!

Remember at the beginning when I almost wrote a story and whatnot about my girls, but I said that wasn't the point of this blog? Well, just to be honest, I have no clue what the actual "point to this blog" was...in fact there wasn't one. ha!

Family Night!!

Yesterday was family night in the Robinson house! :) What a fun night we had.

After a quick dinner, we headed outside to swim (atleast Emma and Lilly did) So we fought the mosquitos and other flying insects for over an hour. Here are a few pictures from then...

Also, while I was at Target the other day I found the perfect birthday gift for Lilly (Yes, can you believe she is almost 1) I wanted to get it out and make sure she was interested in it before I decided to keep it for sure

....thankfully she was loving it! :) Don't worry, we put it back in the box and in the closet for another month ;)

What an exciting weekend we had!

We just had the last Chi Alpha of the semester! It was awesome, but bittersweet. The summer is definitely a necessary time for us. In many ways. We have tons of ideas and plans floating around for the fall...this is a time we can all come together (as in our family, the Hundl's and our student leaders) and figure out what will really work next year.

This Thursday we are having a BBQ for our leaders and most recent LTC class. It will be a great time for everyone to be together and have a good time together.

After that, we are having a game night. We do this every semester before finals. Everyone seems to enjoy it...so why not?

Yesterday was especially exciting. Some very talented and sweet friends met us in Victoria to put together a video for TAMU-CC. We are so very excited to see how it turns out!!!!!!!

This Sunday is Mother's Day - and the day before that (Saturday) is Parent's Night Out at our church - sounds like 2 awesome days rolled into one weekend!!!! can't wait for Saturday.

Resilience Theorem...

Was AWESOME!

Last night was so much fun. This was our 2nd week to meet outside. Someone donated a ton of money to the University, so they built these huge, very nice gazebos between the classes and dorms...so we are taking advantage of them! :) What a great place to meet. We will actually be meeting there again next week for our final Chi Alpha meeting.

Tonight was great though. Eli Stewart, from SHSU, came down and did an outreach for us. It was awesome. God has given him such a gift, in playing the guitar and writing/singing songs. He spoke truth into the lives of so many of us last night.

We are so excited to see what next week holds for us. This is such a wonderful ending to a super year!!!

COFFEE HOUSE!!!

Tonight was awesome!

Pictures to come...but soon, promise!

Just wanted to share what I read on one of our International friends' facebook status

"Tonight could be the greatest night I have had ever in the U.S."

Enough said! Thank you Jesus!!!!

Can you read my Bible?

So Emma got a Bible for Easter. She loves the thing. I will share a few moments we have had with the Bible :)

This morning Emma says "Daddy will you read my Bible?"

Will says "sure, you want to read about Jesus"

Emma - "No I don't want to read about Jesus"

Will - "Well then we shouldn't read the Bible."

Emma - "I just want to read about when God made the moon." :)

About an hour later Emma brought me her Bible - she said "Will you read me a story about Jesus"

me - "Sure, let's find one"

Emma - "No, I will read to you"

me - "OK, go for it"

Emma - opens her Bible to a random page and "reads" "Jesus is alive, the end"

ha ha ha - she remembered something about that Easter story we read 400 times on the way home Easter Sunday.

After she was finished reading about Jesus she said she needed to put her Bible up - so she took it to Daddy's book shelf (normally a no-no for her) and she put it with his books and said that thats for the good books.

My Emma...

...The one that pays the closest attention in our house :)

My sister gave me a necklace charm for Christmas, as did my husband...I didn't want to wear 2 at once, so I wore Will's for a bit. On Saturday night I put on the one my sister gave me...I left for Houston Sunday morning before Emma woke up (and before the chickens I'm sure) so I didn't see her until Monday when I got home. As soon as we sat at the table she said Mommy did you get a new necklace?? :) I was so surprised! :) I'm not even sure that I would have noticed if someone got a new charm! :)

And if this is any indication of how they will act when they are older, I am afraid. This is a crop out of a picture we were taking for Easter. Instead of looking at the camera, Emma decided she would pull her headband over her eyes and look at Lilly. And Lilly, instead of looking at the camera, was laughing at Emma. oh boy.........

Both girls had checkups today...Lilly's 9 month (even though she is 10 months Friday) and Emma's 30 month (I had no idea there was such an appointment until the office called me and told me "I missed it") So here we go into the office for an extremely long wait. Turned out to be not too bad. We had enough time in the waiting room for Emma to eat some cereal (out of a bag! HA!) and Lilly to eat a baby food. :) The appt was at 9:30, so there was no time to squeeze breakfast in before :) Lilly got weighed...27 pounds!! WOW!! I honestly have no idea how long she was or anything else. I was in awe at the weight. Emma was only 30 pounds...ha ha ha. If this isn't a repeat of me and my sister I don't know what is.

I love their Dr. :) His wife (who also works in the office) was a YWAM missionary back in the day. She actually was at the same camp that Will went to when he became a Christian. :) What a small world. Anyways, they know what we do and all that jazz...it's nice to actually know a little about your Dr. ...especially when you trust them with your children's health! :)

That's all for now...gotta run to get some Zyrtec for Lilly, then it's time for some baking! :) Biscotti, cookies, ... and something else I'm sure, for Chi Alpha "Coffee House" tomorrow night!

What a week...

What a week it has been!

Sometimes it is just so good to have dinner at home!!! What a whirlwind of traveling this week. First, we were in San Antonio for District Council ...spending time with some of our most favorite people. :) We were with "Chi Alpha Family" and thats always a great time. On Wednesday afternoon I was able to sit in a living room and sip coffee (errr .... water) with 3 of the wisest women I know. It was so great...and refreshing! :) Will got to hang out with some guys too, and he said that was the best time he has had in awhile! :)

We came home just in time to spend some time with my family. Went to the Trade Center ... not my favorite place :) But I got to get some bows for Emma, and some ant chalk for Bo & Kim. I just hope it works, they were 2 for $1...and I really can't afford to buy them anymore ;0)

I also got to go visit a friend in Houston. She and her husband just had a sweet baby girl! :)

No, that isn't a baby doll, thats a real baby!!! :) Kaylyn!! She is a little angel.

Will stayed home with the girls on Sunday while I went to Houston to visit for the day. When I got home on Monday, I was welcomed with a very happy husband, 2 sweet girls with matching outfits on (I LOVE IT!!!), flowers that matched their outfits, cooked dinner, cookies, and sweetest of all, a "Welcome home mommy" sign made with markers by my one and only. It was awesome.

We are getting ready to start a book together, 10 great dates for your marriage or something like that. We did one before we got married called 10 great dates before you say I do.It was great, so we are expecting the same out of this one. I will let you know how it goes.

Our newsletter will be going out tomorrow!!! :) If you'd like one, or an email version of it, email me or comment on this blog and I will send it to you. :)

That's all for now...off to clean the kitchen from dinner! :)

The last year...

Wow...it's been over a year!

Don't worry, I will not go into detail about the last year of our lives.

But I should highlight one thing before I talk about this last weekend...Lilly was born. HA HA. I feel silly writing that, it was nearly 10 months ago! :)

But she was, and here she is now..

.

This is her most recent face - no idea what it meansThis is her first falling asleep in the high chair experience!And for some reason, Will thinks this is the cutest picture, ever.

Talk about a chunker! :) Nearly every outfit that you see her in is 18 months, with the occassional 24 months! :) Isn't that nuts? The great thing about this though, is that she can fit into all of Emma's summer clothes from last year. Who cares that when Emma was in those clothes she was 20 months, not 10! :)

So this last week was Easter! What a fantastic weekend it was. We missed our church family, and close friends this year. We weren't able to spend this weekend with them. However, we are thankfully that our location did not determine the attitude in which we celebrated!

We actually went to Louisiana for an Easter Excursion with some of our International friends. It was awesome! There were 21 of us total! 2 sweet guys, Tony and Yin, rode there with Will, the girls, and I - unfortunately for us all, Lilly hated the drive. oops. Hope they aren't scarred for life now. (However, I may be!)

This weekend was spent telling the international friends what Easter is all about. They got to get into smaller groups with other students and listen to different stories. Then they went to a museum, learned some Louisiana heritage and do a little dancing! They were thrilled to learn a new move or 2. Later that night, we had a crawfish boil (none of them had experienced this before) and there was a great band there, playing some traditional Louisianan (?) music, so they got to practice their new skills again!

Everytime I post I would like to leave you with an "Emma quote" of that day. This time, I will give you one that I remember from this weekend. ... As we were getting ready to head out for Louisiana (10 hrs in the car) I was explaining to Emma that it was going to be a long ride. She told me that she was going to go potty real fast before we go see Louisiana. Then she told me that she was so excited to go see Louisiana's rug??? ha ha. Weird, I know. Once we got to the hotel, she said that she needed to go play in the living room, cause it was too small and none of Louisiana's toys were in that room.

Here she is trying her first crawfish, ever! Thankfully our sweet friend peeled it for her...