Dear Ladies,
What a huge blessing and privilege it was for our family to host the Maxwell Family and their conference here in our area on October 29-30!!! (Yes, we are a bit behind on our blogging). We were extremely blessed by the message brought to us in Boise in August, that we asked them to come here and do a conference for us, and what an amazing turn out we had for only 2-3 weeks of notice!! The whole church was packed, and we girls were able to spend lots of time with the Maxwell ladies, Sarah and Mary!!! We were very sad, because their second oldest daughter (that I got to know in Boise), Anna, was sick and was not able to interact much with us. :( Poor Anna. She was not able to speak with her sisters during her sessions, (although she was able to get through the music with her family) because of some sickness she got that day. We missed her. But we had a lovely time with the other two ladies. That was such a delightful time we had with their family, and the time went much too quickly.
The Maxwell family, praying before their music
A couple pictures of their family playing and singing!
On the 29th, Dad drove the 4 of us oldest up to the church we had the conference at, and there we met the Maxwell family first. We were able to set up rooms, their book tables, chat, and get to know them better. That was VERY fun, and a huge blessing to us. We were there from 2:00-7:00 when the music started for the evening, just setting up, talking and eating a quick packed dinner. Then the Maxwell's played music for every one (and the church was FULL!!!) - MANY were blessed that evening. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell shared a 1 1/2 hour message after the music, and then we all went home to prepare for the next day.
Amanda - we were waiting in the car when we arrived at the church for a while, and we took a few pictures. :)
On Saturday, all 10 0f us got up early to leave the house by 7:30, and we arrived in plenty of time to help get last minute things set up. There was not much time for extra pictures which now I wish we had. But it was a special time.
The first two sessions we ladies went to were given by the oldest Maxwell girl, Sarah and her sister, Mary. They shared many wonderful points on living a productive life as a single young woman at home, respecting your parents, helping your parents, interacting with siblings, etc. Their main point was basically showing girls keys to a successful content life at home as we wait for God's plans. I was greatly encouraged and took pages of notes!!
Sarah sharing during her session
Lunch followed the two sessions and, after eating together in our van, we went in early to see if we could help the Maxwell's with any thing.
A couple of the Maxwell's did the same brother sister relationship session they did in Boise, which was very good to review and hear again. We all greatly enjoyed that one. :)
We girls had so much fun with Mary, helping her with the balloon session!!! :) We were able to help carry armloads of balloons to the correct rooms, then as one of the older Maxwell's taught the session, we helped go around to the little children to show them how to make balloon dogs and hats. It was a great experience to be part of the conference.
That was the last session, and then people started to leave. Our family got to help clean up with several other families, and we had planned to have dinner with the Maxwell's and our Bible Study group that we meet with on Monday. It was so wonderful to have that extra time to chat and fellowship. It was sad when the whole conference was over, but we were very blessed by every thing taught there and the encouragement they shared with every one.
Dinner time with several families
We girls got to take a picture with these sweet young ladies! We missed Anna.
That evening, a family from out of town was able to come stay in our home for 3 days, and what a wonderful time we all had with the R. family!!! They have 7 sweet children, around our ages. There were lots of good talks, laughs, and time spent together. That was a big weekend for us, but such a blessing to fellowship with the R. family more. :)
Leah loves little children such as herself! :)
Greg was SO much fun to play with, as all the R. boys found out! :) Lots of piggy back rides, stories and never a break in the laughter it seemed!!! :)
These girls helped us make some homemade ice cream!!! It was very yummy.
Their little girl is going to enjoy her bowl of ice cream and cookies we made as well.
The other little ones enjoyed the ice cream too!
Sweet Hannah, posing for Emily!
Here Greg was entertaining the little children. It was SO fun to see them all laughing. Greg is pretty creative and great with the children.
We girls (Em was taking the picture) had SUCH fun- we were laughing SO hard, because we were having a race to see who could roll their dough out first to 18 "!!! :) Wonderful memories.
We didn't get a picture of the final product :(, but here is the braided tea bread we made together!
We let the parents have a lunch together while the older ones took care of the little ones. They had some time to talk that way!! :)
Here are several of us at the dining room table. A yummy lunch that was!!
We were so sad to see the sweet R. family leave. What a blessed time we had with them.
The LORD blessed us in so many ways, and he continues to show His faithfulness and grace to us each day. I am thankful for all the godly people He has put in our lives, and for the blessings He showers on us all the time.
May the LORD bless you all as you seek to serve Him,
A couple nights ago, we had a snowstorm. Dad was working that day, and didn't want to try to come home in it, so the A. family graciously opened their home for him to stay that night! Thank you! :)
One of the drifts
There was a beautiful sunrise this morning
This was our first time making a lattice top- it was fun! :)
7 layer bars
Emily made us a gourmet lunch~ Mushroom Soup...
Our turkey for tomorrow- we tried to quickly defrost it, since we didn't take it out of the freezer soon enough! :)
