YoungLife Camp 2011

Camp this year was wonderful, exhausting, emotional and so much fun! God did some amazing things, like always. Why do we always underestimate Him?! He is a big God, so why not expect big things?!
I love when I go to camp and not only does God work in the kids' lives but He works in mine as well. I got to spend an entire week with Him, who made me and who loves me more than I can imagine! I left even more grateful for what Jesus did on the cross and I also left with an appreciation for what a huge responsibility it is to be a parent. Some of the stories I heard were heart breaking and most stem from broken homes, God gives us these kids for such a short time, why not do the best you can with the time you have?! I would have taken all these kids home if Greg would have let me! :)

Night 1- To much fun getting ready for an obstacle course

To say that I laughed a lot with these girls wouldn't be too accurate. I laughed more with them then anything other cabin I've had. They were too funny!

We had a "messy games" day. Our clothes were a little crispy afterward!

Loved the swing!

One night we had a carnival. The kids have to play games to get tickets to make their leaders to things...they were pretty gracious with me I only was in the pie eating contest and the dunk tank! Not a good combo when pregnant but still fun!

80's night...Please take notice of my cut off sweater with the GIANT baby belly underneath. Super classy!

I always love going on the hike, usually most years its a pretty brutal hike. This year they decided to make it a little more mild, it was still tough but I couldn't pass up the chance to go with them!

The ropes course is my favorite thing to do at camp, I was bummed that I couldn't do it this year but getting to see these girls experience it from a different angle and cheer them on was really cool!

All dressed up on the last night together!

If you can imagine this pretty much sums up the way they were the entire week...too funny!

I was blessed with 12 wonderful girls, that's right 12 girls in one cabin with only 2 leaders...oh yeah and only 3 bathrooms. I was so blessed with Jenna, the leader from Eagle High, she was such a trooper her first year at camp! I literally don't know what I could have done without her! Thank you for all who prayed for me this week, God defiantly heard your prayers. I didn't get much sleep and came back with a terrible cold that almost turned into pneumonia but it was worth every minute! Each one of my girls made a commitment at camp, either to start following Christ for the first time, re-commitment to Christ, or they already were following but they had personal commitments they wanted to make. It was so refreshing and convicting to see God working in these girls lives and them in return responding and listening to Him.

I'm not sure if I will ever have the opportunity to go to camp 35 weeks pregnant again, or if I do call me crazy x2. It was nice to take a step back and get to experience camp in a different way. But Next year I'm getting on that ropes course!

One of my favorite places

Well, you won't be hearing from me in awhile, I guess I really don't post that much anyway...I like to think that people are sitting around just dying to read what I might post next...Ha, right!

On Sunday at 6:00 am I will be taking 6 teenage girls to the best week of their lives here...

I can honestly say that Young Life camp at the Washington Family Ranch (the WAFARA as we like to call it) is one of my favorite places. To be surrounded by other leaders who want nothing more than to have kids know and fall in love with Jesus is an absolutely amazing experience. This place will be filled with hundreds of teenagers from all over the North West and each one of them is guaranteed to have the best week of their life! They might not come back accepting Jesus, but they will leave knowing who He is and what He has done for them. I feel honored to be a part of that in their lives.

I might also be a little crazy going this summer. "Why?" You ask? Well, if you will remember I'm about 34 weeks pregnant and it's the middle of July, in the middle of a canyon, in the middle of Oregon...yeah I might be a little crazy. But alas there is a GIANT pool, GIANT lake, AMAZING food and 6 FABULOUS girls that I get to take with me...what more could a 34 week prego ask for?!

Please pray for these kids going to camp this summer. Pray that God meets them right where they need Him. And if you could send a little prayer my way for strength and energy to be a light for these kids that would be great! :)

I will most defiantly be posting a lot of pictures and I'm sure I'll have a lot of great God stories for you! I know you'll be waiting with bated breath...

Oh Baby!

Well, I can officially say that I feel and if I'm honest look pregnant... I'm not sure when it happened, but I woke up one morning, my belly was staring me in the face and Greg had to roll my out of bed!

The last month has filled with getting ready for this little girl. Who will be here in about...umm...7 weeks!! Yikes! My wonderful "in-loves"( as we like to call each other) have helped me so much, getting the nursery ready and with the help of my wonderful friend Megan, threw me a beautiful shower... I don't have a lot of pictures from that morning yet but here are a few.

If you will notice we finally decided on a spelling... Everlee Lynn Taddicken. I love it because it has both my mom and Greg's mom in it. Lee is my mom's middle name and Lynn is Julie's middle name. I really like it! If other people don't, I don't care :)

Smell-O-Vision is needed here. YUM!! Can you tell they know the way to my heart?

To say that these women are amazing would be an understatement! I feel so blessed that Everlee will have such wonderful women surrounding her throughout her life! 

In addition to these lovely ladies, Miss E is blessed to have some great men in her life as well. We are missing 2 of her uncles in this picture who I know she will get a lot of lovin from...

I'm 8 months pregnant here with the 5 generations of Taddicken's!

I'm a little worried that she won't have anyone but Greg and I that will want to be around her... HA! I'm actually more worried that once she gets here I won't see her...only at night when they give her back :)

I still have some work to do before her arrival, the nursery is so close to being done. I will post pictures when I'm finished...I had a little incident with some paint color that seems to be the most popular color in all of Lowe's history since every time I go back to get more its always sold out. Honestly, I feel like these things only happen to me! :)

I will also be posting soon about our wonderful 4th of July weekend...filled with family, fireworks, yummy food and a special brother in law who has come home for bit of R&R from serving our country in Iraq. It's going to be a great weekend to celebrate our freedom and independence!