My New Football Player
Over the past few months Corey has been playing football. This was his first year and he did great trying to learn the game and plays. Their team did great over the season and won the playoffs and the championship at the NAU Dome




























Long Time No Write
Wow its been forever since I have been on here and alot has been happening. Its been a couple months and the year is almost over and here I am finally getting back on to blogging. I'm including below all the things that have been going on and some new adventures right now..... read on and see whats new ....

ONE EVENT
In September we had an awesome worship event out at Pine Mountain Ampitheatre. It was a worship service and we had over 1,000 people out on the lawn on that beautiful day. The band, full choir and vocalists were there and lead the music. Im going to upload some pictures and a link to watch some videos of the event on here soon.



new pics on here of the One event at Fort Tuthill. my visit to McCains party in Phoenix, Coreys football shots, more songs being recorded back in the studio and the book. Do I dare mention the book. The project I've been working on for four years now... I am so close...... Im shooting for it to be out by Christmas. Its November already. Its crazy and we got snow here last night. What the heck is going on?? Check back... more pics and info very soon....

My New Instinct Phone
Ok so I just got the new Instinct phone from Sprint. Ive had the Treo for a year but this definitely beats that hands down. You can't get away from the ads and commercials for it. They are everywhere. First of all I got it at Best Buy and amazingly it was quite a bit cheaper than the Sprint store (not to mention that the Sprint store didn't even have any in stock yet and it would take 3 days for them to get it in once ordered.) Anyway this phone is pretty amazing, full internet access, email GPS Video and photo & video capabilities with 2.0 megapix and a storage card with 3gigs that is included. Its a full touch screen set up with visual voice mail and lots of other new calling features. One of my favorites is the mp3 player and mobile tv that comes with it. Lots of channels for videos, weather, entertainment news and music. I have had it for about two weeks now and am still learning all the features. I took it out the other day to try using the GPS system. I set it up and typed in the address and to my surprise another awesome feature... not only is the GPS 2d and 3d but yes... it talks. The features are endless. Its all touch screen. Its small enough to fit in my pocket and not rip a big hole in my jeans and best of all it even makes smoothies. I love this thing!

Our Visit to Saddleback & Laguna Beach
We just got back from a week in California. I went to the Saddleback worship arts conferecnce and the fam hung out at Laguna Beach. We all had a blast and it was a great week. I spent the week at the conference and a part of the worship choir that helped out with the worship sets. Pictured below are some of the pics from the week and Ethan who just got his casts off today!

Michigan in June
We just got back from a week long trip to Michigan. We left on Sunday afternoon and drove to Phoenix and then flew into the wee hours of the night. We arrived in Detroit at 2 and then actually met up with some friends for a late night breakfast at Dennys!!! and of course I made my trek to Tim Hortons to stock up on a couple cans of coffee to take back. About 4 in the morning we drove over to Jackson and slept for a few hours at my brothers house. From there we picked up my Nephew Tyler and drove over to Michiana Christian Service Camp. Talk about a long night. About 18 hours later we arrived at our final destination. Below are some of the pics from camp that Corey and I were at. Ethan and Tyler visited the grandparents a few miles away.
It was a great week. The weather was amazingly nice (until the huge storm on Sunday morning on the way to church) Corey sang some of the songs with me and the band during the week and started a surprise fan club. On Wednesday we spent part of the day looking at stars in a portable planetarium and focused on Gods awesome creation in space. During campfire the speaker shared with us amazing facts about the universe and the pic at the top is me singing "Starmaker" from the Cd overflow at that event.

To see more pics from camp CLICK HERE

To see our canoe trip with my dad on the St. Joe River CLICK HERE

To watch Corey singing "Might To Save" CLICK HERE

Young Life Rally In Williams
Its been a crazy couple months however yet alot of good things have happened. Here are some pictues from the Young Life event we had out in Williams. Over 450 youth showed up as we rocked out and had some special guests show up to speak for the day. (pictured are some of the Cast from the movie "Facing the Giants", Tina Marie and Kath (above) , Former Indy Colts player Shawn Harper and me and the crew that put the event together. The last pic is the club house at Lost Canyon.)

Joy Hankins
Last week as soon as I got back into the office I got the call that my Aunt had died. She has had heart trouble for quite some time. When we were home last December to visit the family for Christmas we wanted to go and visit as she had recently moved out of my home town and to the east side of Michigan with her oldest son. Unfortunately we didn't make it over. I hadn't visited with her since last summer when she was still in town and made her regular visit to see us. Joy was a cake decorator for most of her life and I can't count how many cakes she made for my brothers and I as a kid, even as an adult, let alone my wedding cake and graduation cake that I still remember very well. I also remember her for her very powerful opera like voice that she was very proud of. She would sing an old hymn or favorite classic and literally raise the roof off the place. I know because I always sat next to her at church and even though I loved to hear her when she sang and did solos in the service my ears would ring all day long after-words.

The funeral was Saturday in Michigan and I needless to say spent my whole day at church here in Northern Arizona fulfilling my responsibilities for our 7 weekend services including our Good Friday set, Sunrise service and regular Easter services. I was happy she was in a better place and not in so much pain anymore but felt bad that I wasn't able to make it to the funeral services which put a damper on the weekend as a whole and was a big challenge. I just wanted to be present for the service and celebrate her life there in person.

Saturday evening in our first service I reached my point and I began to think about the events of the day as I was leading worship. Aunt Joy had always been a huge encouragement to me in my music ministry. Even when I left to go to college to study music I remember her excitement about it. As part of our worship we sang "How Great Is Our God" with the chorus of the old favorite, "How Great Thou Art" at the end. It was at that moment that I had an amazing thought about what was happening right there in the middle of our worship.

As I was singing and leading l could picture her also singing before God and belting out those high notes as she has always done. But now she like so many others was able to sing those praises to the Lord face to face. (luckily I'm sure God enjoys praise even if it makes His ears ring.) Amazingly enough at that same time I was also there singing too. Somewhere in that crowded throne room I was there leading my congregation in where she already was before God in ultimate worship of Him.

It sounds very strange and Sci-Fi I know but as I continued to think about it I realized how true it was. Through worship we all have access to the throne room and come together with everyone on earth and those who have gone before in a supernatural way to meet for the same purpose. To worship the King. We all can gather together in that place, before God, at anytime.

Both of us were in the presence of God, in worship and that was very awesome. I didn't get to visit her over the holidays or be there for the celebration of her life but in that moment we had the honor of doing something even greater, together.

So there we were on that Saturday.....
Joy face to face with God.
Me, singing & leading others in music to God and being surrounded by His presence.
Joy celebrating a new life in heaven and
me, celebrating new life through the ressurection and the Joy we've been given over death.

Thank You..... for Joy.

My Adventures of January/February 2008
It's February of 08 already and I just noticed it's been quite a while since I blogged last. The past two months have flown by since we got back from out visit to MIchigan and we have had a continual dumping of snow here in Arizona. Who would have figured. We've gotten at least 12 to 17 inches 4 different times and I think the end is near.

In Michigan over the holidays and into the first week of January we visited family and friends in Buchanan, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Woodhaven and Corunna pretty much covering the whole bottom half of the state but never had as much snow as here. We actually sepnt alot of time sledding on many different hills but when we got back home we got another several days of sledding time and the kids about 5 days off school. I have never been sledding this much in my life. (can you make a living doing this?) We have an awesome hill on the 14th hole of the golf behind our house and if you get a good start you can make it literally about halfway down the fairway. Pretty hilarious.

This past weekend I went with some friends up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado to Ski at Wolf Creek. Skiing was a blast but the road trip part in itself was worth it all. I had never been to Colorado before and it was beautiful and snowy. Then I made a wrong turn on the way back into New Mexico and we got to see alot of great views up by Monument Valley. Cruising through the northern Arizona stretch was pretty different. On the sun setting on the snowy mountains on one side and the rocky monumental pillars on the other. Stars were glowing through the sunroof and David Crowder playing on the car stereo. It was a pretty amazing setting to say the least.

There is a whole lot of nothing out there. Open land and random gigantic rock formations that make you stop and think how in the world did this happen? God certainly had something different in mind when he laid all this out. In fourth grade I remember hearing about my principal's visit to the four corners and on our way back we stopped there. Speaking of nowhere, its amazing how exactly in the middle of nowhere this place is. I wonder how many people actually visited this spot and stood on this small marking on the ground to make their claim to fame that they stood in four states at one time. Whatev(then I wonder how long it took them to actually find this location.) Whatever the case. I was one of those people and enjoyed the stop and the road trip with everyone. Below are a handful of pictures and some of the group at each place.