Kids say the darndest things...

Jonas is becoming such a big boy and such a BIG talker.  We laugh a million times a day over some of the things that come out of his mouth.  He really is the funniest kid EVER.  Here are a few examples.  While my dad and step-mom(pa and me-me) were in town we took Jonas to the zoo for the first time.  While we were there we went into this monkey house.  In the monkey house on one side they had an enclosure for the lion and lioness to be held after their feeding.  So there they sat behind glass with a wall in between them.  I guess they felt lonely because they started roaring at each other...it was so loud.  Jonas was a little scared, but very intrigued.  Finally they stopped roaring and we started to leave just then Jonas turned, waved and said "ok bye, bye dinosaur." It was hilarious.  Another funny example happened just this week.  Our church held a CPR class and since we forgot to get a sitter Jonas had to go with us.  He mainly just played around until we got to the AED (Automated Electronic Defibrillator)  training portion.  For anyone that doesn't know an AED is a device that shocks a persons heart back into a normal rhythm...it works pretty much like the paddles in the movies, but anyone can operate it because it has voice prompts that tell you what to do.  So anyways once these were brought out Jonas totally wanted to play with one and since they are just training AED's and don't really work the instructor gave him one to play with in the corner of the room.  All of a sudden in the middle of Andrew's CPR test Jonas looks up and says "don't touch the patient" (which he had heard from the voice prompts on the AED) everyone in the room busted out laughing...we laughed so hard we were crying.

Other cute phrases he is saying now is:

"hold you" this is when he wants to be picked up

"your funny" or "that funny?"

"Uh-oh what happened?"

"Where IS it?"

He is also singing all the time.  He usually starts with a song from a show or that we sing to him and then does what Andrew calls the remix and just sings it however chooses.

babies, adoption, and fundraising...Oh My!

Well we are starting our adoption process again and we are SOOOO excited! Jonas is 2 1/2 now and he is ready to be a BIG brother. It has taken a while, but we have decided to use an agency called Adoption Options World Wide that is based in Detroit. They only work with ten families at a time so they are a small agency but we have heard GREAT things about them. We are just now starting our application process, but we are already thinking about fundraising. (if its anything like Jonas' we need to start now...7 months total that was crazy). My (Crystal) friend Amanda is helping us with a lip-gloss fundraiser through Arbonne where we sell lip glosses and all of the proceeds go to us. We also plan on setting up a website or someway where people can just send donations if they want. Please let us know if you have any ideas, would like to help sell lip-gloss, or want to help in any way. We are really excited, but the cost are quite a burden...for this agency their fees range anywhere from $8,000-11,000. We know that God has opened this door for us and we know that He will do it!...thank you all so much for your prayers for our family and we look forward to sharing our journey as we embark on a new path for our family. Again we are SOOOO excited ( I guess I do say that a lot:D)

This is the website to our new agency: http://www.adoptionoptionsworldwide.com/

I love to ride my bicycle... I love to ride my bike....

So as you can see Jonas got a "new" bicycle thanks to our wonderful neighbors and their generous grandchildren. He just got it yesterday and he looks so grown up on it. He doesn't understand the concept of peddling at all and he doesn't even really like it for anyone to push him on it. So basically he climbs up on it, sits there, smiles for a while, gets off, and pushes it around the yard. It is so cute, and he looks so sweet in his little helmet which he calls a hat. He is getting so big...its so crazy to think that just 2 yrs ago he only weighed like 5lbs and was so dependant. He is really turning into such a big boy now. Its exciting, but a little sad too. We love watching him grow and seeing all the new things he learns and figures out each day!

iShine Live

So I mentioned iShine Live in my earlier posts, but I don't think you grasp the magnitue of 800 eight to fourteen year olds gathered to rock out to students their age who are using their talents for the kingdom. It was pretty awesome and I am attaching some pics below so you can catch the vision a little more. 

Jonas and Waking Up

So we have discovered through trial and error that Jonas is not a morning person. He is not really an afternoon person either if he is woken from his nap abruptly. Jonas is...how you say...someone who requires a waking up period before direct interaction.  On average this time can be from thirty minutes to an entire hour. Only after this time may you interact with our little angel. Otherwise you may be interacting with a little devil.

Things have been fun here the last week. We had a v

isit from Crystal's dad and stepmom (Meme and Paw per Jonas) and everyone had a great time. We all went to the zoo in Lansing on Friday (pictures below) and we even got two new shower heads out of the visit. :) I was able to enjoy the visit Sunday, but was also wrapped up with the iShine Live tour (www.ishinelive.com) that came through on Saturday. Imagine a concert with 800 8-14 year olds and an 18 hour day. But I had a blast. 

Jonas sentence str

ucture has been improving but his favorite phrase has become, "Are you excited?" Evidently Crystal says this a lot. So whenever we are about to eat, go somewhere or do something it is preceded by the phrase, "Are you excited?" So yes, we are excited.

Grace and Peace

So what good is a blog...

So I am asking myself this morning, what good is a blog if you don't maintain it? So from here on out it is now my goal to update the family blog at a minimal, once a week. That way you can still know what is going on with the Arp clan way up north. So here we go...

Crystal is full swing in school. This is her last quarter before the summer so we are excited about that. We just found out this quarter as well that she can take most, if not all, of her classes on the Flint campus instead of having to drive to Auburn Hills all of the time. FLint Campus 2 miles; Auburn Hills campus 45 miles. Woohoo! We have also had visits from Crystal's mother and stepfather twice in the last month or so and her Dad is coming in two weeks. Crystal also hosted our first ever ModesTea (pronounced Modest Tea) at church for our 5th - 8th grade ladies as a Self-Esteem workshop/Big sister pairing day...yes, you read right. Hosted, as in stood up front for about two hours and facilitated. She is Awesome! 

Jonas is going and growing like crazy. As I tell everyone lately, Jonas has two speeds...fast and sleep. He really wouldn't stop if he didn't need sleep. Even two weeks ago when he was battling rotovirus, he really didn't want to stop. He has begun to sing quite a bit and rarely lets Crystal and I get a word in edgewise anymore. His animal noises are his greatest feat as of recently and he particularly has mastered the pig and the llama. He also decided the sound that a truck makes is the hissing sound of air brakes because that is what the garbage truck in front of our house says every week. But Jonas continues to be a blessing even on his most typical terrible twos days.

As for me, things have been busy. At the church, we just opened up our new "Stuck in the Middle Youth Ministries" room for our fifth through eighth grade students. The following week was m Ordination service and I am now an ordained elder in the church of the Nazarene. Otherwise we are just staying busy at the church. We are still looking for that lag/down time in our schedule, but it doesn't really seem to exist. But God has been good to us with a great church family and a great place to minister. We just wish it were a little further south.

Grace and Peace

PS Enjoy the pics:)