kylie's prayer: january run

last night we went out to serve with kylie's prayer & love on some good people that were down on their luck. kylie's prayer is a christian ministry dedicated to sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the homeless of downtown houston that was started with a 5 yr old's (kylie) prayer to help the homeless. now a few yrs later, the last saturday of the month a group of people meet together to help serve kylie's mission to spread the Word and Love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the homeless, through distribution of supplies, food, love, and prayer. the family that started kylie's prayer moved to louisiana some months ago so our very good friend lori took it over for them & is doing an AMAZING job! it's so wonderful going out with our old friends & helping new friends. we brought bags of clothes to pass out, a bag of blankets, tons of scarves & over 25 hamburgers. some amazing 1st timers ordered 20 pizzas with ice cold coca colas & water for to pass out. we also had a table set up with toiletries for anything they might need to get clean. there is also a woman that mommy has become friends with who is battling cancer & lots of other health problems so mommy brought her a box of vitamin c to help her stay healthier. next month we're going to bring her a nice water bottle that will keep her water cold, more vitamin c & protein bars with lots of nuts. she's so sweet, kind & full of hope. we love seeing her every month & giving her big hugs so she knows how much she means to us. we were extra excited because 2 teachers from our school came out to serve with us because they hear us talking about kylie's prayer every month... it was so awesome to have them their with us! they were so inspired that they're going to start coming on a regular basis, whoo hoo! 

after that we hopped into our cars & drove to star of hope. star of home is a Christ-centered community dedicated to meeting the needs of homeless men, women & their children. i'm so glad we went there because there was so many children there that were in need of things. livi really likes going to the star of hope because she likes talking to the little kids & babies. she'll read them books, make sure they get a stuffed animal or toy of some sort.

remember there are just so many ways to help & if you'd like to find out more about kylie's prayer or how you can serve please click here 
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me…” Matthew 25: 35-36

monster jam

last night was the lopez annual date to the monster jam & it was AWESOME!!!! this year we even brought mommy, she had never been & boy was she in for a treat! on the way to the stadium we tried to prepare mommy for how loud it was going to be once we got inside the stadium. because one thing to know for sure is it's going to be soooooooooooooo loud in there. thank goodness daddy picked up a pair of headphones for her because even though she's hard tons of stories & watched videos mommy still wasn't prepared for the noise level. there was so many things going on there, all sorts of contests...races, running over smashed cars, high jumps off dirt ramps, doughnuts, two wheeled handstands, the neatest was the freestyle. two trucks even caught on fire this year... it was the insane! then two trucks (of course grave digger was one) did back flips off a ramp... it was incredible.  grave digger won this year & we all were super pumped! we can't wait to go again next year because it's so so so fun, it's the best time ever!!!

personalized polka dot mug

livi's teacher's (mrs. tinker) birthday is today & livi wanted to make her a very special present. mrs. tinker loves hand painted pottery, coffee, the color purple & anything personalized so livi made her this adorable personalized polka dot mug with a starbucks gift card placed inside.

here are the 4 easy steps if you'd like to make one too...
1. wash & dy mug.
    place sticker letters onto the mug.
    tip: before placing the stickers onto the mug, place them on a piece of fabric & then pull off. this will help prevent them from permanently sticking to the mug.
2. add polka dots around mug, varying the colors.
    tip: it's best to avoid lip area.
3. pull off stickers while paint is still WET & the mug dry completely. we learned this the hard way & had to redo our mug because we had let the paint dry to long before peeling stickers.
4. to cure, place mug in a cool oven. turn oven to 350 degrees & bake for 30 minutes. turn the oven off & leave mug in the oven. once oven is room temperature remove the mug. the mug needs to heat up & cool off with the oven.
   tip: hand washing the mug is best.

two monkeys in a tree

since yesterday was such a beautiful day & we were out of school we decided that the best way to spend it was in the trees. we spent hours climbing our favorite tree in the backyard & we pushed ourselves to climb higher than we ever have before! of course once we got up that high it was a little scary & not as much fun coming down. livi took a lot of talking down, directions & many promised hands that would catch her with a few screams. i on the other hand got stuck in the tree & nobody could help me at first because they were to busy laughing. at least livi loves me & got the step ladder while mommy crying with laughter & snapping pics of me. i will say once mommy realized i was really struggling to get down she came over & helped. the best picture of course wasn't taken, but i ended up having to sit on the top of mommy's head while i adjusted my legs to reach the step ladder & to make it safely to the ground below... of course at this point we were all in hysterics about the situations i get myself into & the way mommy gets me out of them.