For Taylor

There was once a girl who could write
So much that she'd stay up at night
Her mom started a blog
To help keep a log
And now you can see Taylor write.

Merry Christmas Taylor :)
Love, Dad & Mom.... and all your fans!

Grace Church Feast

This past weekend we threw the party of all parties. The Grace Church Christmas Feast! Man, oh man, was it a feast. Some members of our church love to cook, they are REALLY good at it and offered to cook for everyone. I offered my kitchen and house :) The night before we had a crew come and chop, slice, dice ect! Here's the menu just to give you an idea of what a feast it was:


Homemade egg rolls (that fried in their turkey fryer)
Grilled & Breaded Shrimp
Braised Ribs
Grilled Fish (with the head still on! I guess guys think that's cool)
Cashew Chicken
Korean Pork
Basil Fried Rice (my personal favorite)
Stir Fried Veggies

Then a whole slew of desserts! The group went caroling beforehand. Sorry no pictures. I stayed behind to get the house & dinner ready. But I've heard stories, it sounded like fun! Ok so back to the food.... the feast!
Here's the mastermind! Well part of the mastermind. Her other half is missing from the picture.




Afterwards the kids went upstairs and worked on a craft. A present for Dad & Mom!


They also prepared a little re-enactment of the Christmas Story. So cute!







Trevor was a wiseman, more like a wiseguy :)




The church surprised us by honoring Chris for the way he has lead the church plant/church over the past couple of months. Sarah took my camera and snapped some pictures. I'm such a proud wife :)



After that it was dessert and coffee. People hung out and fellowshiped into the night. Chris had put lights out on the trampoline and that kept the kids busy for quite some time!









Jim, with the Santa Hat, is the other half of the mastermind behind the Feast!



Jeff, our friend & Grace Church member, built two snow machines from scratch. The kids loved all the fake snow. It's not quite the same as the real thing.







The after Christmas party consisted of Dale, our worship leader, playing songs he wrote! He's so gifted!




The after, after party consisted of Chris & I playing some songs.



Then it got late. And we laughed, and laughed.





And Jeff got it all on video... which is scary :)



Then I realized it was 12:30 and ALL of our kids were still up!



We kicked everyone out and slept for days :) No, actually we went to bed and celebrated Christ birth again at Grace Church the next day! Ah, it's good to be apart of Grace Church!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

The Lines Have Fallen

"The Lines Have fallen for me in pleasant places Psalm 16:6"

These days it's hard to tell exactly "where" the lines have fallen. It seems a little less clear with modern day technology. The lines can extend oh so far with facebook, twitter, e-mail, cell phones and cars. All of which I take advantage of and enjoy greatly. But still the lines fall and one must pray for wisdom to see where.

When we first talked about moving to the west side, one thing I kept hearing and telling myself over and over, was that Gilbert was only 45 mintues away. Just a car drive. Pop on a sermon, give the kids some good snacks and bam, I'm back to the home I love. This helped soothe the pain of moving. A few months back, actually shortly after I wrote "confessions of a church planters wife", I felt the Lord challenging me, where had the lines fallen for me in this new life? We have lived in Peoria for about 6 months now and I think it's fair to say that I spent the first half working hard on my home, getting school work done with the kids, then spending my extra time driving to Gilbert visiting my friends. I could drive and see my friends once a week! Who wouldn't?! But was that what God was calling me to do? Did we really move to Peoria so that I could spend what very little spare time I had driving back home? Is that where the lines had fallen for me?

I committed this to the Lord and felt like almost everything changed in a week. I began to connect more with a neighbor down the street who doesn't go to church. We had a great lunch together which extended into the afternoon. I hosted a playgroup for some awesome moms on my street. We hosted a block get together with some more neighbors at our home. I joined a P.E. group for Taylor & Trevor where I made friends with even more new people! Not much time in that week to spend a whole day driving back and forth to Gilbert. I remember driving home from the P.E. group so encouraged and full of faith for all the new friendships the Lord was bringing my way. I felt like that week I had committed to the Lord that I would indeed embrace the west side like I hadn't before and he above and beyond blessed my efforts. I drove and wept. Moving became real like it hadn't before. There was this strange sense inside of me that I was betraying my friends in Gilbert. Like somehow making new friends was saying I didn't need them too. And nothing could be further from the truth. I'm thankful that not only is that not true but that none of my friends ever make me feel that way. They too know that lines have fallen for us in Peoria. And if we are ever to build a church out here we need to take full advantage of every opportunity we have to get to know believers and unbelievers. I used to run into friendly faces everywhere I went while living in Gilbert. Having roots and pouring your life into an area will do that. I long for that here. I can't wait to for the day I go to the store and run into a friend. I know that will come but it can only come if I invest.

Here I am on the later half of our six months here and I can't imagine my life outside of Peoria. I am coming to treasure my new friendships and the strengthening of my friendships with those in Grace Church. Not at the expense of my dear friends in Gilbert of course, but in addition too. The lines have truly fallen for me in pleasant places. It's just taken me awhile to embrace them.

Family Pictures

I've spent quite a bit of time taking family pictures this season for people and last week it was our family's turn. Our friend Luz came and stayed thanksgiving week with us. We've been hosting her stuff for her while she's traveled back and forth to Seattle. She graciously agreed to spend one of her AZ afternoons snapping some family pictures for us and I've spent the past week editing them.

Often the night before I have a family session scheduled I'll sit and think about everything that could go wrong. It's a curse I have. Thankfully I have yet to have a nightmare of a time with any of the kids I've worked with. The afternoon at the park I felt like I was living out my nightmares out with my own children! Little Rylee had no desire to sit still and smile. Quite the opposite. Thankfully on the way to the park, I said to Chris, "I just want to have fun with them and if we get some pictures too, then great." He had to remind me of that a couple of times as the afternoon went on :) And even though some of the kids were less cooperative then others we still got pictures that I will treasure for this lifetime!

So brace yourself here comes 100 pictures. Maybe all these pictures will make up for my lack of blogging :)

Let's start with reality first


grateful for the effectiveness of ice cream bribes...


Fun in the rose garden:






After some more attempts at posing with pouting it was time to break out the guitar & bubbles.


Oh how I love this one... she just adores her daddy!


This is our family. Taylor dancing and singing, Trevor staying close by and keeping busy and Rylee off doing her own thing in the dirt :)




Forget the uncooperative kids :)



Chris and I are coming up on 10 years this summer!

A few more favorites...







Another attempt at a family photo. This was a change. Rylee looking and the others, who knows what they are doing :)


Thankfully with the help of photoshop we did get one nice family shot!


Thank you Luz for blessing us with your friendship and blessing us with your gift of capturing people through your lens! Our friend Sarah came and took some video while we were there. I look forward to seeing and sharing that soon!

Taylor's Before & After

Here she is so sad...



Her hair is long again and getting hard to brush without tears. She's been begging her mom to let her get side bangs for some time now. Poor girl with long beautiful hair. I don't feel sorry for her. But I feel sorry for myself and the work I have to go through to get her long beautiful hair brushed out. So off we went to Arizona Hair Company.

She told the lady exactly what she wanted...


and I think she likes it...


really likes it :)


and so do I.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Well this is the first official Christmas season for my Tara D Photography business and things are in full swing! I been enjoying the challenge of large groups, making kids laugh and then going home to do my best to edit the photo's that captures the mood and feel of the session.

Apparently I'm good for only keeping up one blog for the time being :)

Check out www.taradphotography.wordpress.com for my most recent work.

Trick or Treat

This year we spent some time trick or treating with our neighbors! It was lots of fun seeing all the kids dressed up and their wide eyes when candy was poured into their bag :) Although we can't and don't support halloween and what it stands for, we do enjoy decorating pumpkins and taking the opportunity to build relationships with our neighbors. I mean really how often can you go door to door with your kids, meet your neighbors (I even got some phone numbers & e-mails) and have that not be weird!


Look at all my candy!!


Costumes in Action :)


these little ones were precious... two different grandma's bought the same bee costume for their granddaughters, who happen to be next door neighbors :)


"H" wanted to be in front directing everyone for our group picture



mom got her to move :)

Sticker Craft

I loved this idea from bkids! My kids LOVE sticker art and it always feels like a waste to throw sheet after sheet away once they pile it onto blank paper!

Check out her pictures of the craft...





It gives me another reason to buy a glue gun :)

For specific instructions go here

Celebrate Jesus

Today I'm starting over in Comforts from the Cross, by Elyse Fitzpatrick. The women of Grace Church have been reviewing her messages together she gave at Gilbert back in April. They are just as outstanding as I remember and it has encouraged me to throw myself back into the Gospel and less on myself. How my soul needs to be reminded of it's truths.


"I think it's very easy for me to focus my attention on myself. I don't mean that I just sit around thinking about me and how wonderful I am (although I'm not about that!). No, I mean that I tend to focus my thought on my Christianity- how I'm doing, what I'm learning, how my prayer time was today, how I avoided that pesky sin or fell into it again. I think about what I'm supposed to accomplish for Christ, and I interact with others on that same works-oriented ground. But this day isn't about me at all. It's about him: his sinless life, death, resurrection, ascension, and reign and the sure promise of his return. It's the gravity of his life that should attract my thought toward him.

Plainly stated, let me encourage you to proclaim the gospel to yourself today and every day. Our poor burdened hearts are in such need of a gospel celebration. When you fail today, you need the comfort of this proclamation: he died for that very sin. Tell yourself about his death. When you feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities, remember that he is ruling sovereignly over every facet of your life, and soon he will return to right every wrong and relieve you of your trouble. When you wonder if you life will ever change, he wants you to remember that he is coming back and that this life as it is won't last forever. Make a proclamation! Celebrate! "I'm forgiven; he's paid the penalty for all my sin; he's my husband and soon he'll return to take me to our heavenly home!"

I pray today would be a celebration of the gospel!

Daukas Reunion

It've been a couple years since all four daukas brothers and their families have been together. This past weekend Chris' twin and family flew in from Seattle and stayed with us for the weekend. Saturday night we had everyone over to our house for Chili.

We had 9 kids 7 & under in our home! They did great too! We recently got a trampoline which has provided hours of entertainment for the kids. It was so fun seeing everyone together again.




We tried getting one of all the kids by themselves but that didn't work so well... so we threw the dads in :)

Just the Boys


Afterward dinner the kids decorated pumpkins:

Thanks again guys for coming over! Hopefully it won't be two more years till we're all together again :)

Jump

We've been doing a lot of this lately in our perfect 80 degree weather :)








gotta love craigslist!

Grace Church Update

Yesterday we finished 2 months of meeting together as Grace Church. I wanted to share some ways the Lord has been at work among us in our early days as a Church.

Here are a few highlights:

1. People are growing in their knowledge and understanding of the Gospel and love for their Savior. We have begun the Gospel of John as a church and each week we are left with such a high view of Jesus. He is over all and all of creation points to Him. The opening chapters with John the Baptist, He must increase and I must decrease. That is the prayer of so many, Lord increase in our lives! Help us to see Jesus more!

2. People have embraced having community with one another and doing life together in deeper ways. One book we went together as a team was Total Church. Although we may not agree with "everything" in that book it has deeply influenced how we live together in community. Every Sunday I make extra for dinner looking for people to invite over and most weeks I'll start asking people only to find they've already been invited over by someone else in the church! You've gotta plan ahead in this church if you actually want to have company. I have loved getting to know the people in our church and it's brought Chris and I so much joy to see them loving one another!

3. People are growing in their love for the lost. Each week we set out lemonade and water in the lobby of the Rio Vista with a sign that says "compliments of Grace church". Let's just say we have no shortage of people coming through getting drinks! There's a skate park right outside and lots of the youth come inside to cool off. Young and old, many conversations about church and the Lord are had around this table. Also last week one of our Grace Church community groups set out a lemonade stand out by the Rio Vista Park on a Saturday and the reports were hundreds of people coming through getting drinks and invite cards. One of our guys had an hour long talk with a man about the Gospel and Christanity. The Lord has given us new names of lost people to pray for through these simple means!

Growth in personal evangelism has also been really encouraging. We hear reports in our community groups of the gospel being shared with co-workers, neighbors and unbeliving family. Chris has meet a young guy at the gym while working out and the two meet up a couple times a week to workout together. We've had him over for dinner a couple of times and Chris has developed a friendship with him. We've invited him to church and he hasn't said no but he also hasn't come :) Pray that the Lord would save him! In addition many doors have been opened to get to know our neighbors better. We've hosted dessert for our blocks progressive dinner party and a bi-monthly playgroup will be starting up tomorrow! Pray that God would only increase our ministry to the Lost!

Thank you all for the encouragement and prayers that have been sent our way. It means so much to us. Let it be known we are having a blast!

Confessions of A Church Planters Wife

Church planting is thrilling, it's exciting, it's scary and sometimes it can try your faith. Ok, so sometimes it can try my faith. I think recently it's become more "real" that we've moved. I am thankful that I can visit my parents and friends without buying a plane ticket. But I've found that finding 2 1/2 hours of driving time in a day can also be hard to do. Especially in the midst of the demands of schooling and building new relationships here in the west valley, which is what I'm really called to be doing. So suddenly the thought, it's only a 1hr away, doesn't change the fact that Gilbert is no longer my home and well, there are days I still wish it was.

It's been about a year since the announcement of our church plant was made at our home church in Gilbert! Hard to believe. Since that time I've found fear and anxiety slowly creeping in. Suddenly I don't feel so secure. Even though the God I worship hasn't changed certainly something I had misplaced faith in did. And now I fear God would suddenly stop being God! "What if the church plant didn't succeed what would happen to us? We have three kids, a house payment!" What if, what if...

"Be Still and know that I am God"

I read recently that "Be Still" translates into "Be quiet". So I have fought to quiet my thoughts and dig deeper into finding my security and joy in Jesus alone. It's a fight some days I feel like I'm just beginning.

"if you have thrown your lot in with Jesus, everything he has is yours even the Kingdom itself. It would be impossible to ask for more!" Running Scared; Edward Welch


I think the number one question we get asked is "Are you growing?" This was brought to light again at our West Pastor's Retreat last week. It's a normal question. The very nature of church planting is adding to your number. We weren't a terribly big team to start with, so clearly for pure financial reasons we need to grow. But it doesn't help that this very question can reveal where I'm placing my hope. More people do not equal security. Each week I walk onto stage with the band and we begin our first song. Pretty much each week the fight in my head begins.

"Where are all the people? What happened to last weeks visitors, I thought they said they loved it and were coming back? No seriously... we have like 10 people here."

I worship and look at the hundreds of people outside of the Rio Vista Park and think how can we get all of them out there, in here?! Not so we can be a cool, happening, place, although I'm sure there's some of that in my heart but I know that God is a God who saves and I want to see his saving power displayed in our church! It's a battle and it's my battle. I've come to anticipate it, making it easier to fight but some weeks I'm weary of the fight and long for it to just go away. I know it's God's kindness that he won't let it "just go away".

"If your hope disappoints you, it is the wrong kind of hope. You see, hope in God never disappoints, precisely because it is hope in God. This means that hope placed in any other thing will always end up disappointing. When I place my hope in something, I am attaching my sense of well-being, identity, meaning and purpose to that thing in some way. In this way I "need" my hopes to become realities because I have connected my life to them" Quest For More; Tripp

"If your life is defined by how many of your little kingdom purposes you can realize, you will tend to be stressed, controlling, anxious, disappointed and fearful. You have defined your life by what you cannot control and by what God has not promised!"
Tripp

"Bad things certainly can and will happen but there is a resurrection ending. So your task is not to transform into a superficial sunny optimist. It is to grow to be an optimist by faith. The kingdom is advancing, God's reign is spreading, there will be justice and when we belong to Christ, it will end with joy!" Welch


The result of my fighting looks like this. I want to see God glorified in my life and in His church, the bride of Christ. If God sees it best to glorify himself by building Grace Church in the west side then so be it. If not he will make his plan clear when the time comes. Whatever his will is will be good and His best for my life. In the meantime I want to come alongside my husband and faithfully serve. I do not live for Grace Church, my joy is not found in Grace Church and my life as a Christian will not be defined by the success of Grace Church. At the end of the day I can only live for God's kingdom that will come. I am an imperfect person, going on an imperfect church plant with more imperfect people BUT I have the promises of God from His word that he WILL perfect his bride (the church) on the last day. I praise God for these truths. His love and acceptance of me is not based on my performance. It is a love that was and is secured in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.


"Big kingdom hope is about entrusting my past, present and future, my identity, meaning and purpose, and my motivation for daily functioning to God and resting unafraid in him. Sure I will still face the disappointments of life in this fallen world. But, I will not panic, I will not run, and I will not quit, because my God is present even in my disappointment, and he will never change!" A Quest For More; Tripp

I will post a "real" update on Grace Church soon as there are many exciting ways in which the Lord is at work among us!

A Garden Surprise

I've talked about starting a garden in the back yard ever since we moved in. We even had the place picked out in the side of the yard. The yard got finished and the space has just sat and sat. It grew a few weeds. Not exactly what I had in mind. It got too hot in the middle of the summer and it's been a crazy september. I had began to think that planting a garden would fall into one of those great ideas that I never find time to do.

Thankfully because of my wonderful husband and children this great idea no longer fits in that category. While I was gone he built me a garden, following the square foot method. He got me started with two tomato plants, one basil and I have LOTS more soil just waiting for seeds!! I'm so happy :) And the weather is just perfect outside for gardening!




My basil plant looks a little sad. I think it needs some basil company. Or it knows it's going to get eaten later that night...


So much potential!


Trevor got to start his own garden. A flytrap!



Here's hoping my thumb turns green!

A Retreat & A Wedding

This last week Chris and I attended a Pastor's & Wives retreat for the west in Gilbert. It was such an encouraging time of worship/teaching & fellowship! Then thursday morning my dad & I flew to Florida to see my cousin Chrystal get married! It was great catching up with relatives I haven't seen in over 12+ years. My Uncle Bob & Aunt Leah put us up and I enjoyed our late night conversations. My body never could adjust to the time difference so I probably kept them up REALLY late :) The jones' are always entertaining to be around...




Here's a picture of all three Jones boys! Been awhile since they've all been together. This one is definitely going to Grandma Jones who was unable to make it!


You can visit my photography site for more pictures from the weekend.

I came home to a wonderful surprise. More details to come!