One AMAZING Family!!!

This is a picture of my AMAZING nephew Tristan (we call him "T"). Last April we found out he had a malignant brain tumor. The cancer was called medulloblastoma and after 9 months of a battle he was said to have killed all the cancer cells. Just last week we found out he relapsed and that it has gotten a lot worse. Please keep T and his family in your prayers. They have showed so much strength in all of this. I'm so thankful T knows the Lord and that his family can truly rely on God for the strength and peace that can only come from Him in times like these.

T I never wanted to be a cheerleader until now. I guess I finally have something so worth routing for. Go T Go!!!! I sure love you T. I'm so happy to be your Aunt and I only wish I could be with you everyday. I love your hugs and your smiles and I can never get enough. Thank you for teaching us grown ups how to be strong and how to trust God even when things get tough. I've learned so much from you and I praise God that he choose me to be your Aunt... how did I get so lucky?


Here is T's amazing mom Allison with her boys. She is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out. You would be so taken back to hear her faith in God through all she has been through. May God bless you Allison and may His peace that surpasses all understanding pour over you in this time. I'm so proud of you and so thankful to be your sister. Thank you for 6 wonderful nieces and nephews. Also thank you for helping me embrace motherhood to the fullest!

And last but not least is a picture of my big brother and his precious girls. Jr. I love you and know that God is in this. Thank you for being such an amazing father to these kids and for leading them and loving them so well. I look forward to hugging you and being with your family soon. I pray God will hold you up as you try to be strong for your family and that you will also be overwhelmed by the Love of Christ at this time. Know that I love you and my heart is with you every minute of every day.
The Howell Family consist of Jr (old), Allison (not as old), Hailey (almost 13!), Adrian III (11), T (9), Madaline (6), Clara (5) and Presley (21 months). They truly are an amazing family!

3 Kids on Bikes!

Kyle decided to teach Avery to ride her bike with no training wheels. Avery was a bit nervous and when she decided she wanted a break Kenyon said he wanted to try. It was so funny because he literally just took off riding. There was no teaching! He looks so cute on the bike and within a minute he already was holding his feet out to the side saying "look at my tricks mom" then he said "this is how dad rides" and stood up. Obviously seeing her little brother was just the motivation Avery needed and now I have three kids that can ride bikes! Wow... they really are getting big! Oh it was so funny too because Kenyon took a hard fall soon after he started and got a bloody nose. When Kyle grabed him to help stop the bleeding he starts crying "but I want to ride my bike". What a difference this experience was then the hours it took with our Drama Queen (Adia) when we taught her to ride at age 5! So much easier with boys!!! This is the ugly bike Avery picked out for her birthday. She had a barbie bike picked out then when she started looking at this Kenyon said "you can't get that bike, it's for boys" and of course that is all she needed to make her mind up that this bike was the one. I was so annoyed! The big thing sticking up is just a gimmick for old guys who don't want to run leaning over while they teach the kids to ride. I'm so happy we had to return the bike already and we found her a nice blue and white bike with sharks on it. So much better!
Adia being the bike pro that she is decided she would practice on her heelies. She has had these for a while but her mean mom won't let her wear them anywhere so she hasn't had a lot of time to learn all the cool tricks just yet. And here is our little trouble maker enjoying the show! Her crazy hair is due to the fact she just got up from a nap. I swear it looked cute when I did it.

Kaden's Here!

We are so happy to have another little boy in our family and wanted to share a few pictures of the little guy with you.

Kaden John

born... April 21 @ 3:39 pm

weight... 7.2 pounds (our smallest baby)

height... 19 inches
Adia and Kyle entertaining themselves while I'm in labor... annoying!

The boys!
Adison's not the baby any more and she isn't too thrilled!

Happy Birthday to Avery and Kaden!!!!

What's Happening To My Babies???

Well, I figured I should get the kids pictures taken before Kaden comes since they are all in need of an updated shot and I didn't want to do it when I go in for Kaden's first pictures. The kids did so good. Not one of them took more than 3 snaps... I was so proud of them! Now, as I sit here looking at these pictures I can't help but thinking "what happened to my babies". They are so beautiful and so BIG!!! The picture of Adia is so precious and I can't believe that beautiful young lady is my daughter, I'm only 28! As for Adison's picture I wish I would have kept her hair down but I wanted to show that she has enough hair for pigtails, something none of the other ones were even close to at that age. Kenyon looks like a handsome goofball as always and Avery looks like my cute, sweet little Avery. I'm very happy with all of them. Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures of my first 4 blessings... hopefully very soon baby/blessing #5 will be ready to be seen by us all.

Adia 9 years...

Avery 5 years (almost)

Kenyon 3 years

Adison 18 months

Middleton/Carter Family... I have wallets I will get in the mail to you soon.

Restoration Ministries in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Well, as of 4:30 this morning Kyle and Adia, along with a team from our church, are headed to Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was hard to say good bye, for 12 days, but we are all willing to do it because we see what God is doing through Restoration Ministries for the people of Sao Paulo and through the lives of people who take the step to go on trips like this and have their eyes opened to so much more than you can see in the western bubble we live in. Kyle has worked so hard preparing to lead the team for this trip and I am so proud of all the effort he has given this. For those of you who are just checking this out to see what the prayer needs are I posted a few pictures from the trip last year so you can get a glimpse of what they are doing. Thank you for the prayers and for all the generous donations from so many!
When the team arrives they will head straight to Camp California, a camp the ministry owns but can not afford to run without teams coming and hosting the weekend. They bus in about 70 kids who have a chance to run, play, swim, feel loved and feel safe for a whole weekend with no worries! The theme of the weekend will be God Is Extreme! this year so all the lessons they teach will be geared around the x-game sports (God's love is extreme, God's word is extreme and God's followers are extreme).

From Camp CA they head back down to the city where they spend half the days visiting people in their homes who want prayer and want to share their story. It was a heart breaking experience for them last year as they met children in prostitution, single moms struggling to take care of their sick children and so much more. Also by the picture above you can see the living arrangements are awful and it can really make you think twice about our petty complaints when you realize how many people around the world live like this. Oh what we take for granted!!!

The other days of the week the team will spend time at day centers around Sao Paulo where kids know they can come for fun, love and snacks. They have a small lesson at these and then do crafts, play games and just love on the kids. This picture was from last year when Adia participated in skit. She will do the same this year. The topic they asked us to teach on is God's Love and what that is. The team will really try to hammer home the point that God's love is a free gift we can do nothing to earn and nothing to loose. A lot of these children have no concept of what unconditional love is and so it can be tricky trying to explain that.

Some of the other things the team will be doing are cooking the staff and church families an American Breakfast, teaching a Biblically based view on personal finances, painting a day center, teaching a painting class for some of the kids who have shown artistic talent and so much more.

Thank you for checking this out and for your prayer support. I look forward to updating on how it all went when they return April 7th.

There will be an update meeting on April 20th at 1 o'clock at Oak Hills Church in Folsom.

February Fun (this is long... sorry)

Avery's latest obsession is finding hidden picture books. She started with some Highlight magazines which prooved to be way too easy for her and has now finished all the I Spy books and 2 Where's Waldo's. I love this picture because she fell asleep doing her favorite thing and she happens to be wearing her favorite color.

This one is of Kenyon doing one of his favorite things... oh the joy of being a boy! I thought it would be easy to remove his hand after the picture but I was wrong. I'll save this for future blackmail.

This is what happens when you don't come the first time your son says "mom, I need your help". I guess Adison was really jealous of Kenyon's bath and she just couldn't wait to get her clothes off.

Getting ready for Valentine's Day. Anything with paint is always a hit!

Adison enjoying the park. She is way too cute huh?

Waiting for dad to get out of the shower so they can open the Valentine's Day gift from us.

Leaving for our V.day Party at the park.

We had a wonderful candle lit family dinner made with love for Daddy on Vday! We all had to go around the table and say one thing we love about each person it was tons of fun and really cute to hear what the kids had to say. The kids enjoyed having sparkling cider (or "spicy" as Avery calls it) and homemade lava cakes for dessert.

Here is our newest toy (a late b.day gift for Adia made for ages 8 and up). It looks innocent but this thing goes 10mph and is an accident waiting to happen. The funniest thing is that Kenyon is way too young for this and his hand isn't even big enough to reach the brake. He is also too light and everytime he takes off the thing does a wheelie. I haven't decided if it is funnier watching Kenyon on it or watching Kyle trying to catch him and keep him safe.

Family Fun

We enjoyed a quick visit with my wonderful cousin (more like a brother) OJ and his son Kolton/Trouble. Thanks for stopping by OJ and we look forward to seeing you in July. For those of you wondering where I am in the picture... somehow I was forced to take it instead of being in it. I'm so bummed.

Something New:
This is a picture of Monavie and all the fruits that are in it. Monavie is a juice that OJ's family spends mucho money on for all the amazing health benefits. Kyle already is in love with acai berry and that is the main ingredient. He left Kyle and I a bottle and we will report later if one month of 4oz a day has any noticable benefits for Kyle (I'm letting him have the whole bottle... aren't I nice?).