Sarasota Invite 2016

This past weekend Seth and I went to Sarasota, Florida for a church invite! We began the eight hour drive early Friday morning. It was raining terribly when we left, but it cleared up after a couple hours and the rest of our trip went great!! The weather was between 75 and 80 degrees which was a nice break from normal, cold winter weather! I absolutely relished the sun, warm Florida breeze, and ocean air for the short weekend we were there! We enjoyed a painting service project, inspiring and convicting speakers, uplifting conversations, beach volleyball, worship, and many other things over the weekend. Personally, my favorite part was meeting new people and reconnecting with those I already knew or had at least met before! The trip fueled in me a desire to travel more, meet more people, and build more relationships. Likewise, the theme of the week was evangelism and sharing the gospel, which is what the speakers talked about. I was challenged to share more, step out of my comfort zone, and be confident in Jesus!

After supper and the speaker Friday night, we headed to the Streimatter's house for worshipping around a bonfire!

Only in Florida do you see birds like this walking around in January!;)




A group picture after the painting service project. Needless to say, some people had quite a bit of paint on them!

Heading to the beach! I just stood in the water and it was freezing!

An attempt to take a nice "selfie" on the beach!;)

A busy, yet gorgeous beach!!

Most of the Atlanta young group in front of the Siesta Key beach sign!

Atlanta/Athens group picture. I don't have one of the whole group in the invite t-shirts!

Pictures after church! I love these girls!

Most of the girls from the invite!! There were people from Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri!

An interesting part of the weekend were the storms on Saturday night! Four tornadoes touched down in Florida that night and one of them was two miles away from the house where I was staying! There was debris everywhere on the way to church Sunday morning! I'm so thankful that God protected us all! It could have been much worse, two miles closer and who knows what could have happened! Praise God!!
~Lexi



Sister Time/Cousin TIme

Mom and Megan traveled to Arizona for a long weekend about two weeks ago. They left on a Thursday evening and got back on a Monday evening. They had a great time in Arizona with my Rodney, Denise, and their girls. They even enjoyed some snow, in Arizona, no less! Those of us back home survived while they were gone and actually had some fun in the process!

One of my highlights was shopping at Maurice's with Denise & our girls.  Denise & I found all kinds we liked and ended up getting several matching tops.  We had a nice lunch at Olive Garden together and surprised the girls with pedicures.  Saturday, Denise had made appointments for her & I to get a massage and then we had a long breakfast of quiet talking time.  It was wonderful!!!  Our time together is so rare we treasured every moment.  I missed my family very much and appreciated all they did so we could go.(Dana)

A few pics from Mom and Megan's trip...Aunt Denise and Mom!

Kiley, Megan, and Trinity. It was great for Megan to enjoy time with her cousins again!

They also got to ride horses! Megan thoroughly enjoyed it!

Kiley riding!

Uncle Rodney took the girls sledding one day!

And snow angels!;) I think they had a good time...;)

 

And some pictures from our time at home...Paige and I went to get groceries and run some other errands one day while they were gone. Paige was a very "grown-up" helper!!;)





We then went to chick-fil-a for a little sister date! Paige's quote of the day after getting a milkshake: "Don't drink it too fast or you will get a 'freeze brain'!";) It was special time spent with my little sister!


~Lexi

 

 

A New Years to Remember!!

This past New Years weekend was wonderfully memorable! Even as I sit down to write this post, it is hard to put into words all the memories had, the jokes shared, the laughter, the enriching, spiritual conversations, and the unexplainable joy of being with people so dear to you. It truly was a highlight of my 2015 (and I don't know what 2016 holds, so we will see;). Anyway, some special family friends came down for about 4 days and just "did life" with us for awhile, celebrating New Years and just spending time together! It was absolutely wonderful!

 

We got back from being in Illinois for Christmas, Monday around noon. Kate got to come back with us for the couple of days before her family got there. We treasured those two days! 



Tuesday morning we enjoyed Starbuck together! It was so special to sit in the sun and share our hearts!

And then we got straight to work!;) Well, at least some of us did...just kidding!;)

 

Wednesday evening, the rest of the Stoller family arrived at our house. We had a relaxing evening and introduced them to Live Mofia, a new favorite game at our house;)!! Thursday was full of getting stuff together for Minute-to-Win-it and other games for our New Years celebration that night (Don't worry, I have pictures;). I also discovered that my mom is not the only one that does not know how to operate my computer...;);) We celebrated New Years that evening with the Lanzes arriving at 11:30, just in time to sing in the New Year! Our night didn't end when we got home though, some of us were up till 3:30 and others till 4:30! But why sleep, right?!?;)

The sky on the way to our New Years celebration was stunning!! The heavens declare His handiwork!

The next few pictures are of Minute-to-Win-it games! This is Kyle trying to knock over Gatorade bottles with a croquet ball in pantyhose! He was on my team and did great! In fact, our team name was the "Kyle-inators";) 

How many tortillas can you flip onto a paper plate on your head with flippers!;)

Megan trying it;)



How many Mentos can you drop into a liter of Diet Coke from the top of the ladder! I think this may have been cheating!;)

The right way;)

Uhh...this is embarrassing! My parents love capturing my "attractive" moments on camera!;) How many pom-poms can you get stuck on the Vaseline on your nose in a minute?

Sicily trying...the Vaseline got everywhere and was nearly impossible to get all off!

Shooting rubber bands...

...to see how many times you can break the toilet paper in a minute! Its harder than it looks!

How many Oreos can you get into your mouth in a minute without using your hands? I'm sorry, Bryan!;)

Like I said, "attractive", right?;) I thought that I was pretty successful just getting one Oreo in my mouth, but we had a eating-Oreos-without-your-hands master in our midst who managed to get 6 Oreos in their mouth in a minute! I'll let this talented individual go anonymous though!;)

How many Starburst can you stack on the popsicle stick in a minute?

It's painful! The highest scoring team for this part got 42 Starbursts stacked! It was such a fun night!

On Friday, we just hung out at home, playing speed euchre, relaxing, playing music, and other various activities. In the evening, we played a game involving New Years resolutions/what we wanted God to work in us in 2016. It stimulated a lot of great conversation and was neat to see what was on each individual's heart. Personally, all of the great conversations were my favorite part of the weekend! Then, we played some more Live Mofia! Let's just say that Gollum imitations, darkness, and friends make for a fun and interesting game!;)

Playing music together! We had a flute, a guitar, a violin, and a piano! It was so special and beautiful!

Saturday, we played Frisbee with some people from church (which was good since we had plenty of food over the weekend) and then had pizza and games later. My team won the Frisbee tournament...in case anyone was wondering!;) Sunday was spent worshipping together while enjoying lovely people and great food!;) And then it was over. It's hard to put into words what goodbyes are like, especially when it is said to people we love so much. Megan probably said it best when she mentioned how the goodbyes are even harder when we just "do life" together for awhile and just do normal things that we used to do together. We have lived in Georgia for nearly two years and each time I watch these special people drive away it is crushing. God has blessed our friendship in so many ways though, and for that I am so thankful!! Overall, despite the hard goodbyes, we had an awesome time and are hoping to make it an annual thing!!;)

Sunday on the way home from at interesting and laughter-filled grocery store experience after church!;)



All of the kids from the Stoller, Lanz, and Knapp families, plus an extra. It was so much fun and such a wonderful group of people to spend time with!


We love you all and miss you! Next year?;)

~Lexi


 

 

 



Christmas In Illinois

As I am sure is becoming apparent, life was crazy surrounding Christmas! About two weeks after our family Christmas, on Christmas Eve, we headed North. We actually made our record in driving time! We made it in 9 hours and 37 minutes, including one stop! I guess we will just have to make the trip more often...as if seven times this year wasn't enough! That doesn't include the trip to other states besides Illinois! Our time in Illinois for Christmas was great though! We were only there about 3 days, getting there Christmas Eve and leaving Sunday night at midnight. We enjoyed the short time with family and enjoyed seeing friends in church! We also enjoyed celebrating a long-time friend of Dad's 40th birthday with two other families. All of our Dads have known each other for years and our families have been friends for nearly as long. There are 31 kids between all four families!! It was a lovely Christmas trip!:)

 

Grandpa Knapp reading to the boys and Paige on Christmas Eve;)

Paige and Paityn wearing their new dress up clothes...oh dear...:)

They are the absolute best of friends!



Grandma was excited about her new knives!!

Precious Maddux and his new books!

Maddux and his toolbox and Paige and her "makeup." We may have a problem on our hands with her!;)

Jaxon and the boys with the gifts they gave each other.

Joshua and Caleb (featuring Drew;) with their new books! They have been reading quite a bit which makes me very happy!;)

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and New Years! I will hopefully have a New Years post coming soon! We had an absolutely wonderful New Years!
~Lexi



Family Christmas 2015

It has been a busy month around here, which is why there has been such little posting! Hopefully, I can get completely caught up in the next couple days! First of all, we had our own family Christmas on December 18. It was such a great time of games, fondue, gifts, delivering muffins, and just relaxing and being together. This Christmas was one of the most hectic we have ever had with traveling, helping a friend with her wedding, and more busy, yet special events, but our family Christmas was quiet and relaxing. We made memories and treasured this season of life.

 

After we delivered muffins to some of our neighbors, we enjoyed our family tradition of fondue!!

Then gifts...they were just a little bit excited!;)

Even more expressions of joy...;)

Our incredible parents and a very in control little sister!;)

You can never have too many books..right?;)

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Art supplies...

A bible adventure book! (So sorry for the poor picture quality! We really need a camera!;)

These are the gifts they gave each other! A gum ball machine and a foam football.

Our family definitely isn't perfect and we don't always get along. However, during times like our family Christmas we all feel very blessed. It was a time to remember.

~Lexi