He's Walking!!

I think I may have figured out this video thing. Here is a short clip of Caleb walking.
It is short but captures so much.

YEAH!! It's fall

Well this past weekend on Saturday we went to a place close to us called Hillridge Farms. I think that was the name. It was in Youngsville, NC which is right down the road. Our friends Steve and Jennifer and their crew, Carson, Campbell and Madeline came down to go to the farm. It was a fun time. The kids loved it. Next time we will have to go a little earlier so we can do more of the things offered. I'm going to post some pictures so you can see all the fun we had. It was a beautiful day.

This was just outside the entrance. It was cute so we took a picture. You will see where we took some other pictures here later in the post.

This was a cool maze. The kids and should I say Steve had fun in it.
This was a little duck race. You put this little duck in the pipe and you had to pump the water and see who's duck got around the pipe first. The kids were so funny. I also should put here that I beat Dale. 2 to 1
Caleb wasn't interested in the water part, but he loved to chew on the duck.

This was the train coming in to pick us up. The kids couldn't wait.

These next couple of shots was me trying to get all the kids in the picture and actually look in the same direction at the camera. Impossible!! But we know they were all there.

Here is Caleb and Daddy. He was having a great time!

Here is this long tunnel slide that the kids would have stayed on all day if we let them. The adults I would say were done after a few trips up the LONG hill. Caitlyn had no fear she went right up the hill and down the slide.
Here is Caleb and Madeline at the bottom waiting for everyone to come out the big black hole.

Dale and Chloe coming out the slide. It took a couple of times before Chloe went by herself. Once she did ,she did not want to stop.

Here is a good daddy climbing up the hill for the 20th time. :) This was a corn playhouse they played in. It was just a lot of hulled corn. They loved it. Here they are burying Carson in the corn.Steve even got in on the fun.
Steve, Carson and Campbell.

Here we are on the hayride.

Here is Caleb and Dale. Caleb was so fascinated with everything around us.

This is us going into the forest. The kids were all looking on as if something was going to pop out at them.Caleb on the other hand just sat back and enjoyed the breeze and scenery.

He didn't want to get off the wagon when we got to the pumpkin patch.


The kids all went running to pick out their favorite pumpkin!

Here they are amongst the pumpkins. It was such a cute site.Jennifer, Campbell and Madeline pose for a picture while on the hayride.

Caitlyn was so funny. Madeline spit up while holding her. Her face was so funny.

Here they are carrying their pumpkins back to the wagon. Look closely and see Caitlyn carrying her own pumpkin. How strong!The kids were all about done by this point. They were tired of pictures and were hot and thirsty.The Lloyd family: Steve, Carson with Madeline, Campbell and Jennifer

Here is our family. I thought I would put a picture of us all in. Just to prove I was there.

Here are the kids after church yesterday. The girls are wearing their dresses grandma made them. Caleb was a hoot.

Here are the girls with their tattoos. They look so tough. Watch out world, here they come!

We had gone over to some friends house, The Gunnells last week for dinner. Here are the girls after playing a princess game. Vivian is in the white shirt, then Chloe and Caitlyn. They had a blast!

Well I know this has been a long blog, but I know you will enjoy seeing the pictures of the kids. Later I am going to try to post a video. I have to figure that out first. Caleb finally has starting walking this week. YEAH!!

Interesting week

God has shown me some interesting things about myself over the past week. The first happened at a conference that I attended last weekend. I must admit that initially the only reason I was going to the conference was to get an extra hour of credit for school but as of the start of the conference last Friday I had purposed to have a heart that sought to see what He would challenge me with and seek tools that will be of use in whatever context He places us in the future. I was definitely challenged and it happened on the initial night, Derwin Gray a former NFL All-Pro and now pastor/evangelist in Charlotte made the statement that your postion/ministry can become an idol. This fully smacked me upside the head. Since we've been married (9 1/2 years) we've been at churches where I've been on staff and now that we are here in Wake Forest we are "normal" people as Jill calls us. I realized when that statement was made that being "Pastor Dale" had been an idol. It was a subtle thing but subtle or not it was in a since what my identity had partially become. This floored me and to tell you the truth I remember little of the rest of that night except that I was repentant of this. What a huge challenge He posed! When you go from being on staff to not being on staff there is a detox process that you go through and this was a huge step in this, I praise Him for this painful challenge. The second thing that He challenged me with happened on Monday morning. I was to preach in my sermon delivery class. Starting on Saturday evening I started feeling sick but didn't say anything and on Sunday night I was feeling terrible. What was happening throughout Sunday night wasn't pretty but I had to preach and the sermon was worth a big hunk of my grade so I had to go. Fortunately I was to preach first. I got to class and told my professor what was going on and we prayed then went right up to preach (this was also the first time I preached without notes). During the sermon I had cold sweats and then started feeling nauseous. I finished and bolted to the bathroom let's just say that I'm glad the bathroom was not far from the class and that I had my hand over my mouth (Jill is so cold - she thought it was hillarious!). I learned that God is bigger than me and any sickness I may be experiencing. I say this because I was praying throughout that nasty night that I could make it through preaching without puking and more importantly that He would be glorified as His Word was put forth and He was faithful in allowing me to get through and share His Word (which is the most amazing privilege and humbling responsbility that I know beyond being a husband and father). Well, these are some interesting and humbling things that have happened over the past week or so. We will have more pics for everybody soon.

MR. JOE GOT SAVED!

Our dear friends in Conway the Smith's have had an amazingly tough 6 months. Merlin lost his step dad, Stephanie's dad was diagnosed with cancer, and their son left for Clemson to go to school. Their prayer has been for Stephanie's dad, Mr. Joe, to come to know Christ as his Savior. Well Merlin called today and Mr. Joe repented of his sins and did just that! I know on two different occasions that God granted the opportunity to share the gospel and many other times tell him that Christ loved him and I praise Him for those open doors. This morning Pastor Rodney from our former church visited and shared the gospel and he responded! I'm so pumped and happy for our friends and for the fact that Stephanie can know her daddy knows Jesus! We love you guys!

Reflections on the week and my birthday

This past week has been trying one marked by awesome glimpses of God's goodness. Last Friday Steve and Jennifer Lloyd visiting along with their family and newborn daughter (you can see pics posted by Jill in the blog she posted earlier). Their visit was great and it served as a reminder of how blessed I am to have him in my life he is a truly tender-hearted man of God who challenges and loves me and I love him and pray that I challenge him as well. Their daughter Madeline is beautiful. This also served to remind of the amazing fact that all of the guys in my wedding 9 1/2 yrs ago are still in my life. All with the exception of my dad are serving the Lord in ministry and I truly love and cherish them all. Our hope is that while here in Wake Forest we can establish lasting relationships such as these. I did run the dishwasher for the first time this week and Jill was pumped! I will tell you that this whole staying at home thing is definitely rough especially since we've been so good at Gen.1:28 to this point (you know the whole being fruitful and multiplying thing not to mention that we've done this every other year - Jill said we'd better slow down and that 3 is awesome for now). I can't get anything done with school because every time I try to study some kid catastrophe happens, at least with any paid job I've had there has been some aspect of leaving a portion of the stress "at the office". That said though this is the first time in a while where I feel like my time with the kids is really producing fruit spiritually and I know that these seeds planted now will be of huge benefit later on in their lives, my prayer is that they will be on fire soul winners that love and live out His Word! God has definitely moved us here at the right time because my classes this semester are more time consuming than previous semesters (like His timing is ever off). As for turning 34 today I have found that getting older isn't necessarily what I thought it would be at 18, 21, or 25. I find myself more in awe of the cross and more dependent on the Lord for everything. This awe and desperate need have humbled me and keep me wanting more of Him each day. Thank you for the calls, texts, and messages today especially those from my family (they rock!) and from everybody at Juniper Bay - we love you all.

A Friends Visit

Well it has been a week since posting anything. It has been a busy and tiring week. Last Friday our friends,Steve and Jennifer Lloyd and their children stopped by to visit. They have 3 children as well. Carson who is 5 yrs old, same as Chloe, Campbell is 2yrs old and their newest addition and I mean new. Madeline Grace. She was 1 week old and so beautiful. Just look at how beautiful she is. So you can only imagine how crazy our house was. We loved it!

Chloe did so well with Madeline. She loves being around little children and she is a big help. I told her not to get any ideas!!



To think about another child and what it would be like to have 4. Here is Dale with our kids and Madeline. Dale thinks he is busy with 3 imagine 4.

Well this week Dale has adjusted a little better to being Mr Dad. He actually learned how to run the dishwasher. YEAH!! What a difference a clean sink makes!! This coming week we will be working on the kitchen floor, keeping it mopped and cleaned. He is doing an AWESOME job. It is a lot harder than people realize. With 3 little ones in the area it is a lot harder to keep things cleaned and actually put away. We are a work in progress.
Caleb finally took 4 steps last Friday to Uncle Steve as we call him. I didn't catch it on film but I will. Then I will post it.
This is Carson and Campbell playing in the kitchen and making dinner for us.

Steve with baby Madeline. Caleb loves playing with this little house. I think this is the best toy item that we bought throughout all the kids. They have all loved it and all 3 still play with it. Great Christmas gift for anyone with smaller children.
We went to the park last night to play with the kids. Here is a few shots from that. Chloe loves to pose. This is how she likes to play ball. Caitlyn on the other hand likes to run and kick the ball.

Here is Caleb playing with daddy. He loves
to chase the ball.

Well I guess that's about it for now. Today is Dale's birthday so we will have more pictures later of our dinner. Today he started his birthday out with the girls giving him his card. It sang Go Daddy O. He loved it and the girls thought it was great. It took us probably a half hr to pick it out. They really put some thought into it. Then we were going to breakfast and our car had a flat tire. So we spent quality family time changing out the tire. We would definitely not make the NASCAR tire changers. We made it, then we had to take the car to the radio shop to find out that the reason our radio wasn't working is because our sweet little Caitlyn had inserted a penny into it. So at least it works now and we didn't have to buy a new one like the toyota place told us.

Isn't this so sweet

Well it has been a busy and tiring week. Especially with work. I haven't been working 3 twelve hr shifts in a while, so after this week I feel like a truck has ran over me. But I have survived and I really think I am going to like my job. The best part of all is when I get home and Caleb comes to me and I pick him up and he gives me the biggest hugs. That makes my whole day no matter how tired I am. Here are some pictures from the week. Here it looks like Caleb was as tired as mommy was. I love this picture. He actually fell asleep eating.

The girls have been into playing frisbee this week. Dale decided to take them over to the seminary one day and play. These are some cute pics of the action.

Go Caitlyn you can get it!

When Caitlyn throws the frisbee, you have to be on the look out or you might get smacked in the head. She is still working on her aim.

This is probably what Caitlyn does best, retrieving the

frisbee or so Chloe likes it. Poor Caitlyn!!

Chloe does pretty good throwing it. She has such a look of determination.

Here Caleb is the bystander. He is taking it all in. It won't be long and he will be throwing frisbee.

Here are the girls being cheeseballs as I call it for the camera.

Didn't daddy do a good job of taking pictures for mommy.

Good job daddy!!