Go Tigers!!!

We took Asa to his first (and the first of the season) Tiger Football game in Lawrenceburg last Friday night.  Asa is a huge fan of "baseball game" - I mean, football.  :)  Every time we drive past the stadium he asks if we can go to a "baseball game".  By the way, it's really hard to explain to a 2 year old the difference between football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. when he really likes to call them all baseball.  Last week Lawrenceburg won 63-13.  This week the game is away so we won't be there tonight, but we look forward to the next Home Game!!!

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!

Arr.  (Imagine Asa saying that in a cute little kitten voice and clawing at you.  It's pretty funny.)

A Wreck... and a New Vehicle...

Asa and I were rear-ended on August 1st.  

It was pretty scary, and I still freak out often when I'm driving and come to a stop.

Fortunately, neither of us were hurt, though we both had to have some xrays done....

...Unfortunately, our car was totaled and we had to say goodbye to our beloved Malibu...

...And we had to get a new car.

The white rental was pretty sweet and very nice to have for several weeks while we transitioned to a new vehicle - though we miss our Malibu a lot.

Here's a few of the rental...

It's really, really hard to figure out what kind of car to get.

Used, new, price range, same as last car, bigger, smaller.

We finally decided on...

...a 2012 Chevy Equinox!

We love it.

Come over and we'll take you for a spin.  :)

Asa Sings

Asa loves to sing.  He knows lots of songs.  This is him singing ABCs and The Wheels on the Truck go Round and Round while also playing the piano.  He usually sings at your request, so ask him sometime to sing you Twinkle Twinkle, or the Follow Song, or Jesus Loves Me, or the Servant Song.  He's so sweet to listen to.  Enjoy this little video - sorry it's sideways.

Asa goes to Jimmy Johns

Ryan's 30th Birthday Celebration!

Ryan turned 30 on August 8.

Asa and I had to throw him a party.  We went all out, even though we didn't invite any of you to be here with us as we now live so far away and we celebrated his birthday on a Thursday.  Asa was so excited about the party - we worked on Ryan's gifts for 3 days together and every day when Ryan got home I would find Asa in our "hiding spot" - the suitcase in my closet - ready to bring Daddy in and show him everything.  He did pretty good at keeping the surprises a secret - the only thing Ryan figured out was that Asa was getting him a "Choo Choo Train Thomas Balloon".  He never guessed it would be as big as Asa!  :)  Along with our little party, 30 of you sent me sweet encouraging notes for Ryan that he opened throughout the day.  Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness!  Ryan really appreciated this gift and it was really fun leaving envelopes for him to find all over the place.  (In the car, in his lunchbox, in the bathroom, etc.)  :)  Here are some pictures of our birthday party.  Asa talked about it for days.  When the balloon popped we hung it up on his wall and he still talks about Daddy's Party.  You can see in the pictures just how excited he is!

Happy Birthday, Ryan - here's to 30 more!!  :)
Love you,
-Kara

This is Asa in the car right after we bought the balloon for Ryan.  He literally cried big alligator tears in the parking lot when I was putting the balloon in the car because he was afraid it was going to fly away!

Here's Asa in "the hiding spot" - my closet - getting ready to get everything out to decorate for Daddy!

All decorated and ready to go!
"PAR-TY!" yells Asa over and over again while jumping all around!

Helping Daddy open the present Asa made for him...

He couldn't WAIT to "Drive choo choo on Daddy."

This is Asa giving the Choo Choo Thomas Balloon to Ryan - isn't Asa so excited?
Don't you think this was exactly what Ryan wanted for his birthday?!?  :)

I forgot again this year to get boyish birthday hats.
Ryan did not appreciate wearing the Birthday Princess hat that I fixed to say "Birthday King"...

...but Asa didn't mind the princess hat...

In fact, he tried them all on!
Next year I promise we will have boy hats!

Reading stories with Daddy before bed...

A great end to a great day!

Happy 30th Birthday, Ryan!  We love you so much that it never ends!

                                            :) Kara & Asa

hello again!

I haven't been a good blogger lately.  But I don't want to apologize, because I just haven't been able to sit down at the computer consistently lately and I'm not going to feel guilty about it.  :)  But I do want to get back into the blogger world... so, welcome to a fresh new look, some links to some cool pages, and a few recent pictures of Asa.  As always - there's more to come, and I hope to see you again soon right here!

Love,
Kara Joy

Update!

It has been way too long since I have posted updates for you.
I'm sitting at my Mom's house while Ryan is in Lawrenceburg working on our house and I finally have a chance to upload some of our pictures from our camera.  And I also have some time to reflect a bit on all that has happened this past month.  It has been phenomenal - we have seen God working in mighty ways, he has answered prayers and we have had to trust him in ways we never have before.  A few answers to prayer...

1. A place to live.
The house we are moving into had not been lived in for at least 2 years - and it's in pretty rough condition.  The Indianapolis COTN District has been extremely supportive to us and are helping us with remodeling the home.  Brand new floors throughout the whole house should be completed tomorrow (maybe even today... I'm in Ohio so I'm not sure what went down today).  A renovated kitchen should be completed in 3 weeks.  And in the mean time - Ryan was in prayer before we moved realizing we wouldn't be able to move in right away.  God answered that prayer and our friends brought their horse trailer - it's incredible and for sale if you're interested - for us to live in as long as we would have need.  Here are a few pictures of it... it has been an incredible blessing and definite answer to our prayers!

2. A job.
Ryan was hired at Lowes the day we moved to Lawrenceburg.  Crazy cool answer to prayer, great way to get to know some people in the community, and you can't forget the sweetness of an employee discount when one is in the midst of remodeling!  ;-)

3. Lots of Little Things.
-We have health insurance!
-A friend knew of an electrician who needed community service hours, and he spent 8 hrs. at our house free of charge helping us with some pretty critical electric needs.
-The basement of the house used to be a church fellowship hall, so it's massive and has a mini kitchen and toilet... we use it regularly, but it's really cold.  One particular morning, the coldest I have yet spent in L'Burg, I prayed for a warm basement - and when we arrived - it was WARM!  I took Asa's coat off!  That was a God-thing.  :-)
It's late so my brain isn't working... but I know if Ryan were nearby helping me with this post we would list so many more!

I'm so excited to see more of how God is working.  We want to throw at least one party a month, so I'm anxious to be in our house so we can start party-planning and get to know our neighbors and community more!  I will leave you with pictures... I have taken so many in the past several weeks, so I will categorize them, but enjoy... there are a ton here.

Love you!
-Kara Joy

Last Days in Canton

The Moving Truck

Our New House

Sweet April Asa Shots