Bradley's Birthday Party

We had Bradley's birthday party today. We celebrated with a few friends and their kids from church. The kids had a blast playing on an inflatable water slide that our friends Mike and Lori let us borrow! You guys are awesome! Thanks so much for the use of your slide. Here is a picture of Bradley getting ready to blow out his candle.

Bradley only asked for a few things for his birthday, but this was his favorite. Can you tell by the look on his face??
Brandon & Bradley racing to the finish! What fun!!!

The slide was even better sliding on one of these tubes!

Little Swimmer

Here is a cute picture of Bethany swimming!

Happy 7th Birthday Bradley!

What a fun day we had yesterday! Bradley turned "7" and we celebrated his birthday as a family! We started our day at a small water park in Round Rock. Bradley loves to swim. I think that is his favorite thing to do in the summer. This picture is of Bradley swimming at the water park.
After coming home to rest a little while, we spent the next 4 1/2 hours at Austin's Park & Pizza. There, we played miniature golf, rode bumper boats, rode go-carts, rock climbed, played video games, ate pizza, and lots more things. What fun!!! The kids had a ball!




I think Bradley had a wonderful day! We called it "All About Bradley Day!" We served him on his special day! He didn't even have to wash his own dishes. His big brother washed them for him. Way to go Brandon!!!

Our Bradley is a special little boy! We thank God for him and the blessing he is to our family. We will have his birthday party on Sunday afternoon, so watch for more pictures to come.

Aloha! from "Outrigger Island"

This past week, we had Vacation Bible School at our church. It was our first experience of having VBS in the morning, but it went very well and we enjoyed it! We had a fabulous team of people who planned and prepared! It was very organized and ran very smoothly. Our kiddos had a very fun week! We travelled to "Outrigger Island" all week where we learned about "Living God's Unshakeable Truth". I worked in the 4th grade class where we averaged about 30 4th graders, Wow! My leade teacher was so organized though, that it went very well. Way to go Sandra!!! The highlight of my week was on Wednesday morning. John presented the gospel to our 3rd-6th grade students and then gave them the opportunity to stay behind and talk to someone if they had questions about becoming a Christian. He asked me if I would stay and counsel if he needed me too. I was nervous about doing that, because I always want to be very cautious when children respond to the gospel. I prayed and asked God to help me discern whether or not the children that I would counsel with, were ready to receive Jesus, or if they were just curious and asking questions. I had the opportunity to counsel with a little girl named Makalah who prayed to receive Jesus as her Savior. She was so certain and very sincere about what she was doing. Also, it was very clear to me that she was ready. Thank you Lord, for answering my prayer. As she and I were walking back over to our Bible study classrooms, she said with a big smile, "I feel like a whole new person!" We had about 10 students receive Jesus as their Savior during the week. Thank you God for working in the hearts of our students, but especially for allowing us to play a small part in what You are doing. Aloha!!

The Woods' Gang at VBS Family Night

Brandon enjoying Crafts!
Bradley enjoying Crafts!

Father's Day

Hello Everyone! It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I would catch up a bit. I wanted to share some pictures with you from Father's Day! The kids and I decided to honor John with some pictures of them dressed in their Daddy's clothes. I got the idea from my Family Fun magazine and thought it was a good one. So, the boys decided to dress in some their daddy's church clothes and the girls dressed in some of their daddy's casual clothes. Since John likes baseball, Brenna dressed in his Texas Rangers baseball jersey, shorts, tennis shoes and baseball glove and hat. Cute, Cute!!! John is a Texas Longhorns fan, so Bethany wore one of his Longhorn shirts, hats, and flip flops. They thought it was so fun to dress like "Daddy". We framed the pictures and gave them to John to hang in his office. John, you are a wonderful daddy to our 4 children, and I'm so proud of you! You take every opportunity to fill our children's hearts and minds with the truths of God's word. Thank you for leading our family in the ways of our Lord! We love you!!!

Brandon smiling proudly, dressed like Daddy!

Bradley sporting Daddy's Sunday clothes!
Brenna in Daddy's Ranger clothes
Bethany in Daddy's Longhorn clothes!
We love our Daddy!!!!!!!

4 Years.....Wow!!!

I want to back track a little bit. I emailed some of these pictures to family and friends a few weeks ago, but wanted to post them anyway. June 1st was a very special day in the Woods' house. We celebrated the 4th anniversary of Brandon & Bradley coming to live in our home permanently. For those of you who may not know, we adopted Brandon & Bradley in 2004 through Child Protective Services. They are amazing boys and have grown and changed so much in the last 4 years. You will see below in the pictures how much they've changed. The first picture you will see was my first introduction to my sons. While waiting at the CPS office on April 21st, 2004, the adoption case worker walked into the room carrying these pictures. He handed them to me and said, "Congratulations! You've been chosen to adopt Brandon & Bradley." We were overjoyed and overwhelmed at the same time, because on the same day, we were picking up 3-month old Brenna as a foster child who would later become our daughter as well. That's a much longer story for another time. Maybe one day, I will post our adoption journey to our 4 amazing children. Until then, hope you enjoy the pictures.



Look how much they've grown! Time is flying by way too fast!
Two handsome brothers, with their 2 beautiful sisters!
We celebrated by going to Dairy Queen for ice cream and some fun play time!

Surprise!!!

I've just celebrated my 37th birthday. My sweet husband, John, planned a surprise party for me at our church. My parents and sister travelled in for the weekend which was a special treat. Thanks Mom, Dad, & Kimmy for giving up your weekend for me. John surprised me with 2 movie tickets for Mom and I to go to the movie on Sat. morning. I didn't realize at the time that he was using this to get me out of the house so he could finish gathering supplies for the party. To make a long story short, we saw the movie and then made our way to the party (not knowing I was headed to a party), where I was greeted by friends from church, and my family. The biggest surprise of all was when my 2 dear friends Meredith and Kristi came into the room. They travelled all the way from Paris to be at my birthday party. Thank you my dear friends for making the trip. It meant more to me than you will ever know.

John read many email messages to me from family and friends who could not attend the party. I know I have special friends who wanted to be there but for many reasons could not be. Thank you for your phone calls and emails wishing me a happy birthday. I love each of you dearly. To all my Dairy Queen buddies, thank you for coming to my party and showering me with wonderful gifts. You guys are great!

And last, but certainly not least, Thank you to my wonderful husband, for planning and pulling off a great party. I loved every minute of it. Thank you for all the work you put into it and also for the work you did keeping the kids quiet. That's a huge job in itself. I appreciate you and all you do for me. You are awesome and I love you!!!

Getting Started

Hello to everyone in blog world! I've decided to start a family blog so our friends and family can keep up with all that is going on with the Woods' family. So, sit back and enjoy the journey, as you take a "Walk with the Woods"!