"family" party

have you ever had "family" that wasn't blood related to you? i think we all do! there is a family here in california that have adopted my parents as their "parents/grandparents." it is SO cute. joe is the children's pastor & worship leader at the church and his wife crystal helps him in his ministries. they are such a cute couple! they have so much in common w/ my parents- they have 2 boys & a girl and my parents have 2 boys & a girl, and in both families one of those 2 boys is named timothy! anyways, through their relationship we have gotten to know them and fall in love with them too. in fact, the big joke is that pastor joe is just dathan in about 6 years ;) they are two peas in a pod! and i am loving having crystal as another sister!

my parents are the best surrogate grandparents ever- they go to the kids open houses at school, watch them in plays, and get invited to all the family birthday parties. it warms my heart since sean & nolan are their only grandkids and we live in alabama. timothy's birthday happened to be when we were out here (even before brian & candace left!) so we ALL got to go to the family birthday party.

timothy turned 11 and had a phineas & ferb party :) he is also a talented drummer. several months back someone came to the church and ministered using a cajon drum. apparently timothy drooled over it and thought it was the coolest thing ever. so my parents, being the amazing grandparents that they are, got their friend (who is the same one that hosted this party we went to) who is an incredible carpenter to build timothy his own. dan even branded timothy's initials in the box. it was beautiful!

of course after timothy played it for us for awhile then all the other kids had to try! this is jacob, timothy's younger brother (so that makes both these handsome boys my "nephews")

sean had to take a turn, of course

this is little nathan, who is crystal's nephew. he's a doll!

yep, even nolan had a turn. the kids were just fascinated with it!

then jacob had to entertain us with a song he wrote. it probably had something to do with Jesus and chicken nuggets. he's a crack up.

cake time. isn't timothy cute? he's gonna break some hearts in a couple years....

timothy loves the new alice in wonderland, especially the mad hatter. so does my older brother brian. so he had to steal this hat and wear it for awhile. dork.

we are truly blessed to have so many people in our lives who love us! i love having "family" all over the place :)