A Christmas to remember...

We celebrated the first Penton family Christmas on Dec 20th, then travelled to Cincy for 4 days, then Van Wert for 4 days.

In Cincy Joel had a great time with his cousins, here is a video of the Groskopf family Christmas: http://blip.tv/file/3019808

Also in Cincy we attended Crossroads Church and the program 'Awaited' which was amazingly well done. The show included "snow" from some type of bubble machine above us, a full choir and band, sweet audio and visual effects, and best of all - a huge focus on the coming of the Messiah and the reason for our celebration - Jesus! My husband even became quite emotional during the hymn 'O Come O Come Emmanuel,' it was awesome. Speaking of awaiting and my husband... Joel has been planning an awesome and much needed get-a-way for the two of us that is coming up soon and I'm really looking forward to it. A supporter and friend of ours approached us recently and urged us to take a vacation, not only that but he wanted to fund it! This is a huge blessing and extremely thoughtful of him... he is right on, we need to invest time in our marriage and spend time with the Lord. This get-a-way will provide the time and atmosphere to do both of those very important things.


In Van Wert Joel had an awesome time hanging out with more of his cousins including Lizzie who is almost exactly his age. Joel and I also had fun playing games with the fam. Here is a video of the Penton family Christmas: http://blip.tv/file/3019721

and here is a video of Joel Playing with cousin Ethan Crummey: http://blip.tv/file/3020325

So... Joel's first Christmas turned out to be momentous in many ways! He took his first steps the morning of Dec 24th (mommy was asleep!) and has taken many since then, he was officially weaned from nursing on Christmas day, just in time because.. his mommy will be leaving him overnight for the first time ever on Dec 28th (for our get-a-way), and... his Uncle Mike finally proposed to Lindsey, Mike's girlfriend of 5 years!



Here is a video of part of the proposal and a pic of the happy couple, congrats!
http://blip.tv/file/3015427

Penton Family Christmas

Sunday the 20th, we had our first family Christmas! Little Joel had absolutely no idea what was going on, but we took pictures and videos so that we have proof for Joel when he gets older that we did in fact celebrate Christmas!

The ministry is taking a little break,.. Ryan and Emily are in Florida visiting their grandparents and we are in Cincy then Van Wert to celebrate the holidays. Of course there are always things to do, right now we are trying to think up new ways to stay in touch with our supporters, and preparing to send out a marketing push to 6 new states (that will hopefully result in more assembly bookings and then comeback events for the Spring of 2010.)

Here is a video of the beginning of our Christmas celebration:

http://blip.tv/file/3008871

Here is another video of our 'favorite' gifts:

http://blip.tv/file/3008990

O Christmas tree (again)..

Here is a pic of the tree.. we finally got it in the house, and decorated with lights only bc it will only be in the house for 3 days, then we are going to put it back in the garage bc supposedly that is a better 'climate' for it.

here is the video of us driving home with the tree in the Moose, Joel III isn't happy, I think it might have poked him in the face at some point - http://blip.tv/file/2991961

off topic... Joel III can do 2 things consistently now, watch video - http://blip.tv/file/2991902

O Christmas tree..

This is Joel III's first Christmas.. so we bought a tree for him and are going to plant it sometime in March to give it a better chance of living.. we just purchased the tree on Tuesday and drove home with it in the Moose (if you aren't familiar,.. the "Moose" is our ministry vehicle.. it is a 15 passenger van that is huge) Joel III had to be quite close to the tree and didn't like it very much. Here is a pic of him and the tree..

Tonight we are having the FCA Community Ministry Christmas party.. we are going over to the Holliday's house to eat. I'm excited bc Emily always cooks great food, and we got them some good gifts to thank them for all the babysitting they have done this year!

this week...

The assembly at Mohawk was great! Joel stayed shockingly quiet (but was awake!) for the 1 hour and 40 minute car trip and then was also amazingly quiet during the assembly! we only had to leave the auditorium bc his little 'da, da, ga, ga' noises drew some attention and stares as high schoolers and teachers were a bit shocked to see a baby crawling around. also notable - I got quite the frown from the school secretary as I walked in with the baby and asked if I could see the assembly, she answered (speaking to little Joel) "Where is your hat and gloves?" see a video of our drive to Mohawk HS here - http://blip.tv/file/2969796

This pic is from Joel's first Thanksgiving, 'Baby's first Thanksgiving' is written on his bib... you can bearly see it bc it's covered with green beans. He loves green bean casserole.

This week is turning out to be crazy, We have 2 comeback events - Centerburg (Centerburg, OH)on Monday night and Mohawk (Sycamore, OH) on Wednesday night (our Comeback events start at 7pm). Even though these two are somewhat close (1 hour and 1.5 hours, yes that is considered close for us!) Joel and Ryan leave insanely early to leave enough time for set-up, meetings with volunteers and some practice runs. This means Joel will for sure be gone from 2pm-12am both Monday and Wednesday nights. Fortunately most of my Christmas shopping is done and I don't have a ton to do this week other than cram in my 16 hours at the hospital (I only work 16 hours/month as an RN at Nationwide Childrens) and oh yeah, buy a tree, keep it in the house for a few days, dig a big hole, and then plant it and hope for the best. This will be 'Joel's first Christmas' tree,.. hopefully it will grow big and strong like him.

Travelling all over Ohio today

So little Joel is finally over his 2.5 week sickness (fevers and wheezing) just in time for another fun travelling trip! today we are leaving at 12:30 to travel up to Sycamore, OH for an assembly at Mohawk (1.5 hours), we will arrive just in time to see daddy speak! then, we will wait for daddy to pack up and leave again around 3:30 to travel to Van Wert (2 hours from there) for a family night out to see the play Annie. (leaving little Joel with a babysitter) Because we need to get to Van Wert by 6pm, it would have been impossible for Joel to drive home and make it in time so we needed to meet him there - I am excited as I haven't actually seen an assembly in almost a year! Joel of course said "so.. there's going to be a crying baby at the assembly?" "just make sure you sit by the door" ...as if he had to tell me that!