The Dale House Project

Please take time to here the heart of the Dale House Project.
Each year Dale House takes in hundreds of troubled young people. Most are referred by the Department of Human Services or the Division of Youth Corrections. Funding for the Project comes from government agencies who place children at Dale House and contributions from churches, civic organizations, and individuals.
Joey and I wanted to keep everyone updated on what was going on at the Dale House Project.
So please read below what Joey's great frined and staff member at the Dale House Project says




Today is april 21st, 17 kids live at dhp.

I think i will start with kind of a broad overview.

DHP is a home for kids age 16-20, most are 17,18, or 19. The kids are either here from department of youth corrections or department of human services (dyc or dhs). These kids are getting out of jail to come to dhp. and are moving from some type of foster home.
Each kid is about to be on their own.
They come to dhp to find a job and save 2 thousand dollars, an educational goal usually for community college, to complete lifeskills packets, and be involved in idividual therapy.
Therapy is around drug and alcohol abuse, family stuff, and other baggage life has given them.
The staff consists of eight training staff. They are called training staff because the training is ongoing and lasts all year.
The staff come here after graduating college, and agree to serve for a year.
They are divided into two teams.
Each team has a team leader.

The ts take graduate level classes at fuller seminary. They juggle this with a very intense schedule. As a staff member, we meet every monday and thursday mornings for devo and core. We come together on these days to share our hearts, our struggles and to read the word and pray during devo.
We lift the kids up, or i like to think sometimes, we lower them through the roof to the Savior.
We then have our core meeting, where we sit around a large round table and talk about each kid. This time is used to keep us on the same page with what each of these entrusted souls need from us.

We spend alot of time here pursuing realationships.
We have a saying "rules without relationships equals rebellion".
Tonight we have wednesday night family night. There will be one team on duty, plus all the permanent staff come as well. We will eat a big meal, buffet style, due to large numbers.
Residents fam and friends can also come on this night. We have a planned activity on these days.
Since today is earth day we will be planting flowers and such.
The kids won't necessarily like this but they dont really know what they like sometimes. We make it fun though. There is no telling what tonight will bring, some nights are pretty chill. some are not, either way i am certain both kind of nights are needed.

This is why we are raising money.
This is why we are climbing Pikes Peak.
This is the reason we are asking you to get involved.

If you are interested in learning more about the Dale House Project, or financially helping them, climbing with us, or praying specifically for needs, please contact me and I will help you make that happen.

Stay tuned for further updates from Ted. And, also stay tuned for updates on how Joey and my training for the climb is going.
Yikes!!!

The Longview Video

Ok, sweet family. I put together a little mini video of our fabulous weekend together!! I love these because they are easy, fun and really capture some sweet and funny moments! Anyway, we had such a great time and hope this video captures that! Love you all!

Family Fun In Longview

So, I needed to blog the funtivities we had in Longview a few weeks ago. We had such a great time with the family. And with my camera in tow, I tried to document all the fun that we were having. Come with me and lets experience the fun again through pictures!

This was actually the only picture of all three boys that I got where you could see all three faces. It was NOT easy!!!

This clarifies for you all WHY it wasn't easy! That would be cuz Jackson is a little afraid of Kingston, so he really didn't want to be sitting so close to him. Hence, the oldest cousin trying to help me out by yankin' him back in the picture. (please also note how, through all the madness, sweet Kingston is still in model mode!) :)

Speaking of sweet Kingston.....What a precious little family!!

All the boys. Notice my son again....anti photo! He will not look at me anymore when I have my camera.

Again....the one who wouldn't look....

And, yet again.....but check out Carson...I think he is ready for the beach!

Uh Oh, look out Carson, Kingston is one tough kid!

And this is where the insanity really happened! But, again please check out Kingston, STILL in model mode!

Sweet father son photo.


So sweet...momma and baby!

B..E..A...UTIFUL!

sweet cousins


Carson, with one of the two ducks he got for Easter!

Kingston and his momma and daddy...well their legs anyway.


Sweet Gran and Kingston photo


Another cute family pic.

Gran and Kingston lookin' at the ducks.

Beasch and Kingston hangin' out

Jackson and his best bud, Max. He LOVES this dog!!

The only pic I really got of Jackson with anyone 'holding' him. He's not into being held much.

And, I leave you with one that just melts my hear! Kingston, sweetie, don't you worry, I promise my son won't be scared of you forever and we will get plenty of these pics with you too!! :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this. I really loved reliving these sweet memories. I am working on the video so hopefully I will get that up here soon. I will send all the family a cd of pics and a dvd of the video soon. Love you!

The Water Hose

Fun in the water hose. Here are just a few sweet pics I took the other day while Jackson went to town in the water. By the way, this has become a daily thing that we do now. He loves water!!!

Gracie Rae

I had to make a video of little Gracie, and her first few weeks of the world. Unfortunately it wasn't uploading to Blogger so I had to include a link instead, so click on the link below to see it. Hope you have as much fun watching it as I had creating it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIGjnzv83aQ

Easter Recap

I was looking through all of my pictures of Easter and decided to put together a little fun movie slideshow of the festivities. Thanks Kranky for the idea! I love this new creative thing I can do with my pics!!!!
Take a look!

The Sprinklers

Joey, Jackson and I were enjoying a beautiful day outside last week when the neighbors turned on their sprinklers. Jackson wanted to get in them sooo bad but wasn't ready when it snuck up on him. Watch the video below for some sprinkler fun!

Highland Village Easter Egg Hunt

Jackson's first easter egg hunt this year was done by the city of Highland Village at some baseball fields. They had the Easter Bunny, a fire truck and lots of eggs and candy. The hunt was right next to a great park, so after the egg hunt he got to see the ducks in the pond and play at the park. He had a blast!!

I asked Joey to take some pics of Jackson and I since I am always the one behind the camera, but as you can see, he was more interested in swinging his easter basket everywhere.




Here we are lined up at the 3 yr and under field. Lets just say sticking sixty 3 and unders in a field inches from eggs and making them wait 5 minutes was just plain CRUEL...for both the kids and their poor parents. Lots of melt downs.


And we're off!! He definately had the hunting part down and was actually double fisting it, so he was making me hold the basket. He's a smart kid.


In the end he got plenty of eggs with tons of candy and stickers and he even had picked up a prize egg, so he ended up winning some side walk chalk that we used when we got home. It was a good day.


Stay tuned for LOTS more Easter fun!