The Browns & our little brownies....

Audrey's Dedication

2011-10-10T13:21:00.006-06:00

We dedicated Audrey Grace to the Lord on October 2nd. She is 8 months old now, and is just the sweetest little girl. Since most of our family was not able to make it, here are some pictures and video from the day. As you can see from the picture below, Ady REALLY loves her sister :D.

Adalyn's 2nd Birthday and Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T19:24:00.017-06:00

This probably should have been broken up into 2 blog posts, so get ready for a lot of pictures... :) First are from Adalyn's 2nd birthday party with our families. Above is Ady's new bike.... she was pretty excited about it!

Audrey looking cute...

Two proud Grandmas.... Caleb's mom and Ashley's mom.

Ady with one of her favorite presents from her Aunt Stephanie (who also took all these great pictures!), Uncle Sam, and cousins Savannah and Daniel. She carried that balloon around till it died!

Daddy hugs are the best.

Opening presents...

Ashley with her mom and dad.

And below are some fun Easter pictures we got of the girls...

Welcoming Audrey Grace Brown...

2011-02-26T09:21:00.012-07:00

We are so excited to announce the birth of our new baby daughter, Audrey Grace, born February 1, 2011. She was born at a birthing center at 8:05pm, weighing 6lbs6oz and was 20in long. She is such a joy! Her personality is much more mellow than Adalyn, and is overall a very chill baby. Ady loves having a little sister, and Audrey watches everywhere Ady goes. Here are a few pictures of our growing family...

Another Ady photo shoot....

2011-01-13T16:33:00.010-07:00

For Caleb's birthday, we had a friend take some pictures of Ady to frame in our house, and here's a few of what we got!

Sneak Peak of Adalyn 19 months...

2010-11-05T18:42:00.004-06:00

My computer is currently out of disc space, not allowing me to add any more pictures... so hopefully that will get fixed soon! In the meantime, here is a sneak peak of Ady at 19 months....

Ady is growing up so fast. She surprises us every day. Her newest achievements are counting to 10, animal names and sounds, starting practicing her abc's, please and thank you's, and trying to say any other word she hears! Its pretty funny to hear her try to copy me when I say, "Oh dear" or "Oh gosh". Didn't know I said that very much, but she has picked up on it and it's pretty cute! She has all her teeth (except for the far back ones), and loves to try and jump and run. Veggie Tales are by far her favorite thing to watch... probably good we don't have a TV so she doesn't get to watch very much. :D

I think I can speak for Caleb when I say our personal favorite that she is doing right now is when we say, "I love you", she responds every time with "I too!!". It melts our hearts.

4 Year Anniversary

2010-09-27T13:50:00.005-06:00

We are pretty happy about being married for 4 years, and more in love than the day we got married!

Balloons!

2010-09-06T09:41:00.004-06:00

Photo Shoot by Josiah Ness- 15 months

2010-07-11T13:28:00.009-06:00

Caleb's Boss's son Josiah took a bunch of pictures of Ady the other night with his new camera.... and here are a few he took. She's pretty cute!

Having fun with Daddy...

2010-07-08T13:14:00.006-06:00

Picture quality isn't very good... the combination of the lighting and our camera (and possibly me :) ) but you can still get the idea. Ady was having a blast!

She's getting so big! And we are having another one! :)

2010-06-29T21:35:00.006-06:00

Ady is 15 months old now, and finally growing hair! Yay! Also, we found out recently that we are pregnant again, and our new baby will make its debut sometime the end of January/beginning of February. We are excited!

It's fun to take pictures of a cute baby.... :)

2010-06-06T21:32:00.006-06:00

And look at those teeth! Ady has a total of 9 teeth now (6 that decided to come in at the same time.... not fun) and 2 more closely following. She is around 14 months now, and a lot of fun!

Some new pics...

2010-05-03T17:01:00.006-06:00

Ady's First Birthday Party

2010-03-28T09:39:00.010-06:00

Ady's birthday turned into quite the event! We had a lot of fun hanging out with many friends, and were really blessed. Thanks everyone for being a part of celebrating with us! We had some of both of our families travel to Nampa for the party. Ady got a little overwhelmed with everyone there (there was over 80 ppl!) and didn't want anything to do with the cupcake, but did blow out her candle!

While opening all the gifts, Ady would go "oooooohhh" after seeing each thing... it was really cute!

Adalyn 11 months old...

2010-03-08T16:03:00.006-07:00

Ady's first time in a swing.... she wasn't really a fan, but we will keep trying! She is however a huge fan of being outside with this warm weather, and isn't afraid to get dirty....

Ady has a new love for rocks. We have started a little collection out in front of our house of all the rocks she finds when we go on walks. :)

10 months old!

2010-02-02T13:13:00.001-07:00

Our beautiful little monkey is 10 months old! She took her first steps on Caleb's Birthday on January 12, and is now walking. She now has 2 "toothins" as we call them (teeth).

The pic below, she does this with Caleb in the mornings while he is getting ready... pretty cute.

Here are some of Ady's friends.... Aspen, Brooke and Hannah. Aspen and Brooke are twins (obviously), and are about 3 months younger than Ady.

Brown's Christmas...

2009-12-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

7-8 month Ady Pictures...

2009-11-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

Adalyn is getting quite the personality! As her parents we are loving starting to see more of who she is going to be. Today she is a little over 7 1/2 months old, and for the last month has been crawling. She is still working on the hair thing... :) but we will be very excited to put a bow in there soon! Just a few days ago she started pulling herself onto furniture and walking around it. Where is our baby going?!

Random Adalyn 6-7 month pics...

2009-10-19T12:43:00.001-06:00

Ady's mini photo shoot...

2009-09-23T16:00:00.000-06:00

Just a few cute pictures taken recently...

2009-09-22T17:46:00.000-06:00

Ady will be 6 months old next week... oh how the time flies.... these are of her after we gave her a bath right before bed time. :)

Adalyn 5 months and Football

2009-08-30T17:39:00.000-06:00

Ashley's youngest brother Austin is playing football for Mountain View this year, and we went to watch the first scrimmage! Adalyn loved watching the cheerleaders pom-pom's as they waved them in the air.

She was pretty fascinated by the flowers... :)

Caleb has been roofing in Bend with his brother Brig for the past month off and on, so we have had lots of time to spend with family. Also, the Spedicks allowed us to stay out at the ranch where we got married for a special treat!

A busy little bee...

2009-08-06T15:10:00.001-06:00

Ashley's cousin Danielle came to live with us for a month this summer to come to camp with us. (above middle picture...) We all headed off for The NXT's Summer Camp "Collision of Worlds"... This was Adalyn's first summer camp... but for sure not her last :).

At the Brown family reunion a day after camp, she went in the river for the first time, and after getting over the initial shock of cold.... loved it!

And to end the week Ady was dedicated at church on Sunday....

4 months and first time trying rice cereal!

2009-07-23T17:26:00.001-06:00

So we tried giving Ady rice cereal for the first time on Tuesday... and not sure how much she actually got in her mouth but she seems to like it! (can't really tell from these pictures though... she was mainly confused I think :) )

Another trip to Bend...

2009-07-18T23:21:00.000-06:00

A little cowgirl... :)

Chillin with her Grandpa...

...and missing Caleb very much! Caleb had to stay and work in Nampa while we took a trip to Bend. We miss you Caleb!

Quick trip to Bend...

2009-06-23T12:17:00.000-06:00

We took a very quick trip to Bend to see family (we will take one again soon to show Ady off to all our Bend friends, don't worry! :) ) and had a great time! Not really sure how Ady would do traveling, but she ended up doing far better than we expected! Below are some pictures from the trip...

Ady and her cousin Israel (Brig and Bonnie's new little one)

Some of the cousins from Caleb's side... L-R: Daniel, Israel, Judah, Savannah, Adalyn

Some pretty blue eyes!

Ady with her Grandpa Ken

Ady with her Grandma Debbie

Just a LITTLE fascinated by the fish... :)

It's about time for a life update... or a little past time!

2009-06-09T14:12:00.000-06:00

My (Ashley) dad pointed out the other day that we no longer put pictures of ourselves on here, and I had to laugh a little bit... many people had warned us this is what would happen when couples start to have kids... all the wedding pictures come down and all of a sudden its babies everywhere! Well we still have all our wedding pictures on the walls, but our blog got taken over by little feet and cute dotted dresses. :) You have to admit though... she is pretty cute.

Here is a little bit about what we have been up to as the Brown family....

Since having Ady, I (Ashley) stopped my job as receptionist at our church and now gets to stay home with our daughter. Caleb is working as a manager at a little country grocery store called Ridley's Market, and with the rest of his time he is working on the Fundraising team through our church. This year we are doing multiple major fundraisers for the youth, such as a fireworks stand, Christmas tree lot, pumpkin patch, car washes, and sprinkler blow outs before the winter. Caleb's job is to organize teams, communicate with companies, and fix any loose ends so everything runs smoothly. He is a busy guy! On top of all that we are still doing life groups, discipling young people, and running a few other teams with Family Life Church.

In addition to our date night (which is still with Ady since she pretty much sleeps), we now have added a family night (which is pretty much just like our date night since Ady still sleeps, but still good habits to get into!). We love the adjustment from being a married couple to now being a family.

Ady is just starting to smile and make some cute sounds. She is 10 weeks old now, and can already hold herself up standing if we put our hands around her so she doesn't fall. She tries to crawl, but doesn't know how to move her arms which results in a face-plant in the carpet and cries for help. Her dad can get her laughing better than anyone, and she is pretty content as long as she is being held. :) She loves baths, and is starting to get aware enough to pick out her favorite toys... and pretty much just ignore the rest. We will take her to the front row during worship on Sunday's, and she will just stare at the worship team the whole hour or so of worship with her eyes as big as they can get! Kind of distracting to the people around us....

Hopefully a trip back to Bend will happen at some point this summer... we can't wait to show her off to all you Bend crew!

Hope you enjoyed the update!

Two whole months!

2009-05-29T12:07:00.000-06:00

Just had to add this...

2009-05-20T13:30:00.000-06:00

6-7 Week Pic's

2009-05-19T11:32:00.001-06:00

Hey again!

I took her on a outside adventure to the mailbox, and when I came back inside she looked like this... :)

After a bath...

And some more Daddy kisses....

5 Weeks!

2009-05-06T12:23:00.000-06:00

Here is our little 5 week old! She is becoming not so little any more! She now will occasionally give us huge grins while she is awake.

...And not sure why she sleeps most of the time with her hands in the air... but its cute!

One month old!

2009-04-27T14:12:00.000-06:00

Can you even believe it? Where did that month go? We love being parents, and it is incredible how you forget what life was ever like without a child... Here are some 1 month pictures for you to enjoy!

Caught in Action... :)

2009-04-18T10:36:00.000-06:00

This has become my (Ashley) new favorite picture...

Adalyn- weeks 1 and 2

2009-04-13T21:48:00.000-06:00

Adalyn after her first real bath...

She was so content just hanging out in the clean sheets while I folded all the laundry!

...and some daddy kisses...
:)

Welcoming Adalyn Caia Brown

2009-04-06T12:25:00.000-06:00

Born March 30, 2009

I think she's winning now... :)

2009-02-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Thought we would do probably one last belly picture (36 weeks today) for you all!

Notice how awake and energized we look... compare the pictures we will put on here 2 months from now... :)

Bend Trip and Life Update...

2009-02-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not updating in months! Part of it was we no longer have internet at our house, and the other part was our camera has been dead for about that long... but its been a while!

We took a little trip to Bend for Jesse and Taylor's wedding (didn't get any pictures of that, but it was beautiful!) and had a great time seeing old friends. We got to spend a lot of time with family, and Ashley got to make some famous "nut roll" cookies with her Grandma (pic's below, and if you haven't tried these before, you must!).

More recently, we have been working hard building some volunteer teams at church, and getting ready for a baby in 34 days! We are getting more excited to meet this little person who has been kicking harder and harder over the past few months.

We will get batteries for our camera so our next post will be far more interesting... and won't take another 2 months to happen!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

... and a 26 1/2 week pregnant picture for all the family and friends not living in Nampa... :)

24 Week Ultrasound

2008-12-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

We got to see our beautiful (still slightly alien looking) baby girl on Tuesday, some of these videos were really fun to look at as she was moving her mouth and folding her arms under her head.... enjoy!

It's a Girl

2008-11-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

It's official! We're having a Girl. We'd love to hear your ideas for a girl name!

Baby Brown Ultrasound Video #2

2008-10-24T20:21:00.000-06:00

Baby Brown Ultrasound Video

2008-10-24T19:37:00.000-06:00

2 Year Anniversary and Church Building!

2008-09-28T16:05:00.000-06:00

We had a great 2nd Anniversary, traveling to Bend for a sneak visit, and then to the Oregon Coast for some time to relax and be together. It was great!

Below, this Sunday we had our first Church service in our new building... no longer meeting in a Middle School. It was awesome, standing room only with a lot of hungry people and great worship.

AND we got to visit with Jesse and Taylor, who came up for Trevin and Stephanie Anderson's wedding.

September Update

2008-09-07T21:59:00.001-06:00

Hey there! We are very excited to be moving in to our favorite time of the year... fall! There is nothing better than pumpkin spice candles (you can tell Ashley is writing this) and seeing the leaves start to change... AND in a couple weeks, we will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary! Where did that time go!

We are also excited to be moving well into our 11th week of pregnancy (2 1/2 months). Only a couple more weeks before the nauseousness goes away. Keep checking out the bottom of the blog for details about that.

In the meantime... so far Caleb is winning the battle of the biggest tummy (see below)... and I know you are not really supposed to start showing till like month 4 or something... but I can already tell, and got 2 comments about it in church today...

So we will see! Either way, we are getting more excited by the day!

Love,
The Browns... and baby Brown coming soon...

Size of an Olive...

2008-08-28T14:57:00.000-06:00

Name Ideas?

Baby Brown ordered from the Stork Store

2008-08-11T16:05:00.000-06:00

Hey Blogging World!

After many months of marriage, countless searches, and some stalking we have found the Stork Store. We placed an order and are anticipating the delivery of one small bambino that looks a lot like a small version of us somewhere around the end of March 2009.

We are elated, joy filled, and really excited to decorate a room with pastel colors and buy tiny clothes.

Check back for updates on growing bellies (Caleb has decided to eat extra and try to keep up with other belly growth happening in the house), and you can also look at the bottom of our blog to see whats going on with the baby right now!

A shout out to Ky

2008-07-03T12:49:00.000-06:00

After the second time of doing this...

we thought it was time to let the blog world know what goodness was going on inside the Brown home...

made by the one and only Kyler Palmer!

Home made pasta... and the longest pasta noodles I have ever seen!

Quite possibly the best pasta we have ever eaten... right here in our little home. Want to join?
:)

Our Mini Vacation

2008-06-22T16:14:00.000-06:00

The beach is wonderful. (sigh...) Whenever I go to the ocean I always think about that verse in Proverbs 8 that talks about how God assigned the sea its limit, so the waters would not transgress His command. That amazes me that it would be deliberate sin if the ocean crossed past its boundaries set by God. Wow. We were blessed with a couple days on the Oregon Coast and time to just get some much needed rest...

(Our dinner one night... Caleb is a great cook!)

After the coast, we stopped in Bend for a few days to say hi to family and for Ashley's mom's 50th Birthday. We surprised her with some unexpected company... her best friend from California, and her cousin. She was shocked! Picture below, from L to R- Jane(Ashley's mom's best friend), Ashley's mom, cousin, and Ashley's Grandma.

Oh Brother... :)

And beautiful Bend... All for now!

Days 2-3 in Airports...

2008-06-10T07:42:00.000-06:00

We have had a wonderful adventure. Between seeing Jonathan and Sandy, the track meet... and our stay at the airport has been nice as well. :) We made it out of Dallas, and slept overnight in the Phoenix airport...

Caleb and Danny taking a little nap before we left Dallas....

When arriving at the Phoenix airport, they provided us with an "essentials kit" and showers! We were all pretty happy, and then proceeded to snuggle up on a little kids playground mat in the airport...

Danny and Ashley voted that it was the worst nights sleep they ever had, mainly because it was so cold. Caleb had a great attitude about it. Our hopes are pretty high to leave our airport vacation today...

Anyone else have any "trapped in an airport" stories?

More to come!

Texas with Danny, Jonathan, and Sandy

2008-06-08T21:55:00.000-06:00

There were way too many good pictures that we could place on this blog so here are just a few. We took a trip with Danny down to Dallas to watch Jonathan compete in one of the pre-qualifiers for the Olympics. We were going to put video on here (and might still) but for now take a look at Jonathan and Sandy's blog for more info- www.jonathandy.blogspot.com. Enjoy the pic's, and there will be more to come!

And this is after we just found out that we got our times wrong for our flight... meaning sitting in the airport for another 5 hours.

And then we got bumped from the next 2 flights...

Meaning we will be in Dallas for another night, held captive by the airport.

And there will be more to come soon! :)

Mudfest... Oh my...

2008-05-11T14:47:00.000-06:00

Wow 2 posts in a week... we are doing pretty good! We didn't think people would believe us unless we showed pictures to prove it. The NXT puts on an event for the youth every month, and this month it was Mudfest- mud volleyball, tug-o-war, and lots of other games. These pictures are actually clean from how we looked at the end! It was lots of fun and everyone got pretty beat up. Above is Caleb, and below is Stephanie Meistrell and Ashley. Enjoy!

Summer's Here!

2008-05-08T13:03:00.000-06:00

Open buttons and t-shirts...

Green Tea Smoothies...

Iced Raspberry Mochas...

Tulips and Fishies...

And growing businesses... Summer's here.

What are you doing with your summer? Tell all!

2008-04-01T22:47:00.000-06:00

Hello Friends, time for another fun leadership question.
Is tithing a new testament principle for today?

Dallas and the Africans

2008-03-24T12:01:00.001-06:00

While Brent, Virginia, and Josiah are here in Nampa, we got to sneak them over for a quick bite to eat and some great stories...

Ashley went to Dallas with SOE for the Battlecry Tour... there were about 20,000 Junior High through College age people there. The first night 4,000 youth came up for the alter call, giving their lives to Christ. Above is some of the team that went. Caleb didn't get to go because he was working hard getting us millions of new accounts for our business. :)

On a free day Pastor Steve took us to see the Potter's House, Pastor TD Jakes church. This place was huge!

We also got to see the Dallas Cowboys stadium.... here is Josiah Ness, one of the guys in SOE, playing on the field.

Visit to Bend

2008-02-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Bend for a surprise birthday visit for Ashley's Dad, and saw some great friends while we were there.

After driving through the night, stopping to put chains on our car for the first time, and finally getting to Bend after an 8 hour drive, we decided to start our morning (really afternoon.... but morning for us!) with some great morning devotions and Starbucks, where we also saw Katie Scott!

Then, Ashley spent the day with her mom, and Caleb with his sister and bro in law. After that we spent most of the night with John and Sonja Decker, taking a slight detour to play a game of Settlers of Catan with the Schulz, Earwickers, and a few other folks.

The following morning we went to coffee with Caleb's old small group gang....

...and Kaitlin and Elyxis Morrison! Followed by lunch with the Earwickers and baby Earwicker (no picture, sorry!).

Then got to snag Ashley's brother for a bit in Barnes and Noble.... :)

And after finally got to surprise Ashley's dad for his 50th birthday! Yay! He got a tattoo... he's really the best.

Until next time....

A few adventures...

2008-02-19T15:00:00.001-07:00

Here's a break from some fun questions for a few fun stories of things we have been doing.... :)

Our friends John, Christina, and Hannah took us snowshoeing and then fed us REALLY good soup. Snowshoeing is tiring but we had a blast!

At the end of January we went with The NXT up to Generation Unleashed in Portland. We went last year too, but this year was 10 times better. Our youth got rocked, the leaders got rocked, and we all left exhausted. Pastor Russel Evans (from Planetshakers in Australia) was our speaker. The last day all of Portland turned into a Popsicle and they closed down our route back home, so we took a detour through Bend, getting to see Ky Palmer as he bravely guarded 25 pizzas till we came to pick them up.

We both started small groups and they have been going for a couple months now. Ashley's is above (some are missing, sorry if your not in the picture!) Jennifer (far right) is Ashley's co-leader. Caleb is co-leading with John Daurer and a few weeks ago they got to baptize 5 of their youth in John's bathtub. Its great to see the radical change some of our "kids" have experienced these past couple months. We love investing our life into them and watching God transform them. It blows our mind every time to see how the Holy Spirit can change lives so drastically, taking them from a life filled with death into true life.

All for now!

Another Fun Question

2008-02-08T01:46:00.000-07:00

Oh faithful Bloggers O' Wisdom! My many thanks for not failing me in my last attempt to attain balance admidst a swirl of challenging and too often pertinent questions. Like Moses petitioning God for patience and yet another response, so I come to you. Pleading on behalf of the portion of the generation that often glances my way for wisdom on many and varied issues, I now invite you to join me in the latest quest for popular opinion (Truth is too controversial). The question at hand is this:

If I don't speak in tongues am I baptized in the Holy Spirit?

Friendly Questions concerning Leadership

2008-01-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

All this week I feel like I have had conversations with young people about spiritual authority and covering and proper response to those two. For those of you who know me, we could probably agree that I may at times, have strong opinions about what the Bible says on the issue. With the statement "error is truth out of balance" as a premise from which to work, I have determined to turn to the blogging community for possible balance on several issues.
What is the proper response to:
1. known sin in a leaders life?
2. said leader rejecting the Matthew 18:15-18 protocol (and if it is not a senior pastor, the senior pastor doesn't bring correction either...i.e., the sin is overlooked by leadership)?
3. alcohol consumption in the life a leader? (sin? not sin?)
4. leaders who continue in slander and gossip?

Knowing that I may be out of balance on any of the above enumerated, I appeal to you faithful bloggers o' wisdom to come to my aid.

- Caleb

New Home

2008-01-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here it is! We have an upstairs with bedrooms and a downstairs with a living room and kitchen. We are so excited to have our own place!

Christmas 2007

2007-12-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We went home to visit friends and family this Holiday. The best place to be to see people seems to be Backporch Coffee... we ran into most everyone there and it was wonderful! :) We got to meet with many of the youth (now turning into incredible young adults!) we used to help pastor while we lived in Bend. It was a great time with family....

Ashley's Brothers... Austin and Marc

Ashley's Dad and Mom

Seth came and hung out with us before he took off to Halfway Oregon!

And this is just a picture of us working hard on our new business... we don't have a place that has internet yet so we venture into coffee shops most days. Kyle (left) is our new and only employee! He has done so much for us already.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Update

2007-11-27T20:58:00.001-07:00

The School of Excellence girls- Pastor Taunia took us all out to lunch...

Hey from Nampa! We thought it was about time for another update... life has been so busy! Both of our computers decided it would be fun to crash at the same time- so we have been unable to do most of what we need to be getting done lately. We both went out for our first ever shopping experience (and possibly the last :)) the day after Thanksgiving to get new computers...

To answer the questions about the plant business from the last post, we are starting a business called Treasure Valley Plant Service where we will supply and maintenance plants for offices and other companies. Hopefully in a week or so we will have everything up and ready to start selling. We also just found a little apartment right next to the church offices, and will be moving in a couple weeks!

Love the Browns

A Week Alone In Nampa

2007-10-18T13:38:00.000-06:00

Somehow I managed (Ashley) to be in Danny and Jamie's house alone this weekend, so with all the extra free time I thought I would write an update! :) My wonderful hard working husband is floating down the Snake River for 4 days helping his brother Bo be a "swamper" (if I knew what that was I would explain in further detail...) and the Schulz's went on vacation! We are getting closer to starting our plant business... exciting! We just love being in Nampa. We promise to get better at taking pictures, but for now, here is our goodbye before Caleb went to work with his brother... :) Here is a fun thought to occupy your mind this week: Am I living an abundant life- one like it talks about in the Bible that I have access to with Jesus Christ? I am learning how easy it is to fall into a routine, and not allow my life to be directed by the Holy Spirit. I want the abundant life!

Ephesians 3:19-21 "to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Hopefully for all of our Bend friends and family we will get to visit very soon- we miss you all! Until then, blessings and much love!

Back West

2007-09-25T09:08:00.000-06:00

It has taken us a while to update... but here it is! After much prayer we have moved from Kansas back west- this time to Nampa Idaho to be a part of Family Life Church. It was a very hard decision, but we are confident this was the best decision and feel peace about it. Our trip back was great! We stopped in Smith Center KS to see Ashley's Grandparents, then stopped in Fort Collins CO to see some of Caleb's family. After that it was a straight shot to Nampa. It is great being closer to family- only a 4-6 hour drive to see either the Brown's or the Sears's. We are now serving coffee Sunday mornings for church, writing information for new believers in the church, helping out at the NXT, and Ashley is doing the internship here called the School of Excellence for 9 months.

Jake, Megan, and their handsome boys came and visited us on their way through to Boise. We had a great time hanging out with them!

We went to a seminar last weekend with Kevin Conner, the man who wrote many doctrine books that are very accurate and respected. I think he left most of our mouths hanging open because of the information he pulled out of the bible that we didn't know was there!

This is the NXT, the youth church of Family Life Church.

So there is the update! Our 1 year anniversary is today- we have no idea where that year went, but we are excited to see what year #2 has in store! Thank you all for your prayers during our transition- I wish we would have taken a picture of how our car looked on the way back west... we had many people pointing and laughing while they drove by us on the road. :)

Hawaii and Bend

2007-08-28T15:53:00.001-06:00

Our grandparents flew us to Hawaii 2 weeks ago to celebrate with them and the rest of Ashley's family their 50th Wedding Anniversary. We had a wonderful time snorkling, surfing, playing with fishes and great conversations with family! It was also great getting to spend a few days in Bend to see friends (for some reason we didn't get any pictures from Bend!). We really loved spending time with you all! And a big thanks to Seth and his travel buddies for giving us a ride to and from the airport in Portland!

Ashley's dad with his surfboard... :)

Ashley's grandpa at their Anniversary dinner in Lahina looking pretty tough... :)

The fam...

In downtown Lahina on Maui

Beautiful Grandma Helen and Handsome Grandpa Duane... Happy Anniversary!

To our friends and family, we feel like the Lord is moving us on from our time here in Kansas. In responce to what we feel like we have heard in our quiet time with the Lord, we will be leaving Kansas shortly to travel to the next place God is taking us. We are waiting to share where that will be, but we would love your prayers during this time of travel. Thank you! We will have another update soon...

Kansas Adventures

2007-07-16T10:32:00.000-06:00

Caleb and Seth back to together again after many months of separation. It was a real swell visit.

We formed a boy band this week. Here are the components needed in a boyband:
1. Someone with creapy facial hair and piercings - Clif with the piercing, Seth with the creepy facial hair.
2. A trendy metrosexual - Seth with his tight open shirts
3. A quiet handsome bald man with dreamy eyes - Jesse...enough said.
4. At least one member who's gender is not readily identifible - in this case, Ashley...an actual female.

The fella's from Oregon were a real blessings and a huge encouragement.

Our new Kansas friends and some old Oregon friends: Charity, Mindi, Jesse, Brandon, Ashley, Seth (Clif lingered just out of view of the camera...but he was there!)

Jesse, Mindi, Ashley, Caleb, Clif, Chris, Shaina

We took a trip to Smith Center Kansas (about 5 hours west from Olathe) to visit Ashley's Grandparents. They are Nazarene Pastors at a church in a town just outside of Smith Center. They took us to all the sites, and fed us incredible food!

Smith Center is right next to the geographic center of the USA.

The smallest church- 4 pews seating 4 people total. :)

Grandpa Keith and Ashley

The whole gang. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the great hospitality and conversations!

Roca Blanca

2007-06-27T09:30:00.001-06:00

We just got back from a Missions Trip with 13 of our youth to Oaxaca Mexico. There is a place there called Roca Blanca, where a couple named Duane and Sue Kershner have lived for 17 years- raising pastors and leaders, and sending them out to unreached people groups in the mountains of Mexico. This couple is amazing. They have completly given their lives to do what God has asked of them.
This lady gave us some bean tamales. We couldn't figure out what they were till later, but she wouldn't leave till we started eating them.

Here is our team!

Caleb preaching in the village Tiltipec.

A village.

Dramas with the kids.

This is Roca Blanca, where we stayed. Duane made it like a resort for all the people that come to serve.

All the girls...

Caleb with the kids. We saw over 40 first time salvations on this trip, 100s of healings, and many of our youth experienced worship for the first time. God showed up and really suprized us. It would be accurate to say that most of our lives will never be the same.

New Car, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Friends!

2007-05-31T12:25:00.001-06:00

Kansas is sure an interesting place! We have seen more rain and thunderstorms in the last few weeks than we have in our whole lives combined. We bought a car, a Chevy Colbalt, and Peggy Spedick came and picked up her van, driving it back to Bend.

We visited the Plaza, an outdoor mall here in Kansas City, and had quite the time! It is a beautiful place... Caleb made a new friend. :)

We found some new mentors! Winston and Lady Churchhill, although they could never be as good as the ones we had back home...

Our introduction to China!

Peggy and I, in front of a huge fountain at the Plaza.

Molly, Peggy, Gwen, Caleb, Ashley, Adriel in Starbucks... Gwen was out visiting Adriel and Molly, and we got to spend a few amazing hours with them catching up on all of our lives!

Although they wouldn't let us take any pictures, we took this one for proof that we saw the Scrolls. It was crazy reading the translations of these thousands of years old scrolls.

Thank you all for your continued prayers as we have been here. We have been gone a little over 1 1/2 months now. We will be back in Bend for a couple days in August, and hope to see you all then! We love you!

Our painting project... almost completed!

2007-05-10T13:13:00.000-06:00

We have spent many long nights (some till 4 in the mor

ning!) painting our youth room. It took 5 coats of primer to cover the black , red and blue.... We still have more painting to do (designs and such) and more decorating, so we will show some more pictures when we are done. We had some amazing helpers!

Mark painted all the hallways and down the stairs. This man worked for 14 hours straight!

Here is me (Ash) getting some more primer ready...

Our new friend Brandon... turns out he knows how to do anything, including electric work!

Here is Ray Raya. He helped us so much, and brought all the rad tools to make the painting easier!

Caleb and Ray's son, Josh painting the base boards.

One of the girls going on our missions trip- Cela!

Here is Steven, another guy going on our missions trip.

We are excited to be almost done. Brandon has volunteered to do some design work for us (he is an amazing artist), and we are going to build a sound booth. Until next time... We love you guys!

More about our new home...

2007-05-10T12:53:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of our new "home away from home", our new church! We spend more time here anyhow. :) This is a picture of our new friend Heather, who is also the assistant to our pastor. We really like her and her husband Seth!

Below are a few pictures of our "Fusion" youth room before we painted. About 4 years ago they had a grafitti artist come in and paint. He did a great job, but we sure had to use a lot of paint to cover it up!!!!

My incredible husband Caleb working hard in our new office.

Here is inside our temporary home with the Evelands. It's a rad home!

We are busy but doing great. We have started training our missions team once a week about how to preach, how to lead people to Christ, how to lead them in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and how to heal the sick. We are both being stretched in what we are comfortable with!

We miss and love you all at home!

Howdy from KANSAS!

2007-04-24T12:34:00.000-06:00

Hey Friends and Family!
After a very loooong ride we have safely made it to Olathe, Kansas. There were many sad goodbyes before we left, but in between all the goodbyes we had the opportunity to spend a weekend at the beach get rested before the long trip. It was such a blessing! We had the opportunity to sleep, eat tons of rice and gravy (one of Caleb's favorites) and frolic in the sand.

We also had the opportunity to visit Caleb's family in Halfway, Oregon for 3 days. Yolanda, as always, delivered in the food department...homemade everything and phenom jam for the bread! Yum. Dad and Mom hung out with us and
played a little baseball...great memories, and some good sun. The rest of the family spent a lot of time with us...great talks and good food. Thanks Jen for staying up late and talking to us. And thanks Mel for taking time during the middle of your work night to talk with us. We hope no patients died while you were with us instead of them :) Here are a couple of pictures of some of the bros, and then Dad and Mom with some of the grand kids on a hike up Clear Creek.

The Sunday before we left we preached in 180 for the last time, Ashley talked about redemption and I talked about Jesus...He's really the best and my favorite. We will miss Oneighty incredibly and our amazing pastors and students. On our way out of Bend we stopped overnight in Nampa, Idaho to visit Pastors Danny, Jamie, and David...he keeps getting cuter! They took us to breakfast and blessed us on our way. Friends are great!

We made another stop in Fort Collins, Colorado to visit Caleb's brother and sister in law Mike and Renee Brown. We had a great time playing games and seeing their town. We found out that Ashley was a Texas Hold 'Em ace (she cleaned us all out) and that Renee is an amazing chef! Thanks for the great hospitality!

Mike and Peggy Spedick blessed us so much by letting us use their totally rad beast...er...van to move out east with. We were able to fit every earthly possesion we own in one load...which was nice. We'll enjoy being able to move this way while we don't have kids. Almost every stop we had people (mostly men) wanting to know about the van, how high the lift kit was, what size engine, and on and on. Thanks Mike and Peggy for letting use your van...it was such a blessing...and a comfy ride!

When we got to Kansas we connected with some of the Elders from our new church and they invited us to stay with them until we got settled. We are staying on the bottom floor of a beautiful home of some of the elders in church, Bill and Pat Eveland. We have a gorgeous view of a lake out of our window. It has been a nice place to relax. No tornados yet. :) Our first few days in the office are going well. We are trying to catch up on our sleep, and we are excited and expectant for what God has in store. We miss you!

Thanks for all your prayers and support as we prepared to move. So many of you blessed us in so many ways. Thanks for the new computers, tons of money, more prayers, the hugs, the tears, the laughs, the food, and most of all for being our friends. We love you!

2007-04-02T01:15:00.000-06:00

Hola to our family, friends, and future friends (In Kansas)

Thought it was about time to check in again for the faithful blogger(s) among us. Several incredibly facinating developments in our life. Well actually we can't think of anything facinating...so the regular old update will have to do. Here is a picture of Ashley preaching in Ohio.

The going away party for Seth (www.missionaryseth.blogspot.com) was a real gas. Many of his friends and family congregated to wish him well, bring gifts, eat food, worship together, and pray over the man himself a day or two before he left. It was swell. It was. Man morning and the Turkish bath won't be the same without Seth. *All the men sigh.*

We moved out of our house today in preparation for our move to Kansas. (For those of you who don't know: we accepted an opportunity to move to Olathe Kansas to serve in a church there.This is Jonathan and Sandy Collins former church). Packing all of our many belongings filled up two truck loads (pickup truck loads). It's kind of fun not having a lot of stuff...I wonder what our moves will look like when we have kids. Speaking of which...still no baby on the way. That's swell...well, kind of....I guess...maybe...err...

The annoucement of us moving to Student Leadership and Oneighty went well...half of the kids were crying, and we tried not to. We'll really miss our incredible pastors, fellow leaders, and all the amazing students of Oneighty. Pastor Steve and Casey blessed and sent us from the stage in Tuesday's and Sunday's service. All the students prayed over us Tuesday and Student Leadership prayed over us Sunday during class. We love them and we already miss them.

We'll be moving to Olathe (suburb of Kansas City) before the first of May. If you choose to pray for us, please pray for supernatural wisdom, safety as we travel, and good gas mileage...

Fun survey question - how many of your relatives or close friends are from or have lived in Kansas (almost everyone we know has a connection there somehow)...let us know!

Weeee!!!!!

2007-01-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Quick update on our lives....

As we type we are stuck in the Redmond Airport because of a system failure with airport computers. Kinda makes you not want to get on the plane. :) So here is what we've been up to lately!

Behind you can slightly see our skinny, sparsley needled and somewhat insipid and anemic "Caleb Brown" christmas tree... named after Charlie Brown himself. We spent Christmas with Ashley's family.

Recently, we both somehow obtained a job for the same company. Caleb will be going in as a consultant, and Ashley will be the "office manager" while we take 90 days to re-work some of the old plans and implement some new ones to get the company running great.

We have also been to Nampa to visit Danny and Jamie a few times, hanging out with their youth. David is real, real cute. Those trips have been real swell!

We are currently still serving with Pastor Casey in Oneighty and helping lead Student Leadership/Service. That is going real swell as well. We are getting ready to go to Generation Unleashed (www.generationunleashed.com) in February.

We are still traveling with Deckers as often as we can. This weekend we are going to Ohio to help them run practicum times.

No baby on the way. I guess that's swell....yeah...maybe...ummm....

Well, we sure love you all and hope all your wildest dreams come true.

The much requested wedding pictures...

2006-12-05T11:08:00.002-07:00

This was a perfect day Before the wedding

No this wasn't planned, but it is sure a fun memory!

Weeeee!!!

Taking communion

Everybody worshiping the Lord. It was scheduled to rain 10 days earlier, but after everyone prayed.... :)

Best guys!

Best Girls!

Getting ready...

We have been married for a little over 2 months now. It feels like time has flown by, yet it also feels like we dated such a long time ago. I'm not sure how that works. :) Two weeks after comming back from our honeymoon we traveled with John and Sonja Decker to Fresno, California. The Deckers were preaching in a church there called Valley Christian Center, and invited us to come and hang out with them. We saw people get physically healed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and made some great friends. It is crazy to me how much faith people had as they were comming up for prayer. You could see it in their faces that they expected to be healed, which resulted in one case where a man came up who had a tumor on the side of his neck and the swelling actually went down as Caleb prayed for him. More recently (last weekend) we made a trip over to Nampa, Idaho to see Danny and Jamie Schulz and to check out their church. That was some good preaching! We also got to hang out with Trina and David Stephens and Lorelei.
Other than that, we have just been loving the Lord down here in little Bend Oregon, serving in church, working, and studying!

Honeymoon Bliss!

2006-10-19T21:32:00.000-06:00

Well hey there! The honeymoon was lovely. We spent 12 days basking in the light of our hotel room's lamp and under the Hawaiian sun. We spent 10 days on a cruise around the islands of Hawaii; where we ate ourselves into food coma's, and slept many hours a day. We did get the opportunity to wander through several little towns...eating plate lunches and shave ice, and going snorkling! We came back more rested, but still quite able to sleep for extended periods of time due to how crazy our lives were before the wedding. Now we are settled into our new house, and praying about what the Lord has for us next! Here are some pictures from our trip...

Wedding Invitation

2006-08-21T23:11:00.000-06:00

Hi friends... come join us at our wedding. We'd love to see you there!

Pictures....

2006-08-02T22:13:00.000-06:00

Engaged

2006-08-02T15:41:00.000-06:00

It happened! We finally got engaged. After many long hours of dating (7 months actually)... we got engaged on July 29, 2006 at 12:40 something am.

We will be married in Tumalo on Monday, September 25, 2006 at 11:30 am. All are invited. We'll keep you posted ;)