Pictures from Houston

Holden found a comfortable spot on the couch. Hard to believe that this little guy is five months old!

Happy Birthday to David Neyland! Celebrating with all the kids.

This is the life! Enjoying a popsicle while swimming in the pool.

Labor Day pool party!

Collins and Emily had a great time.

Sweet pictures of Collins and Holden.

Totally different expressions here, but a funny picture!

First Day of School

We started school this week. I can hardly believe that this is our seventh year of homeschooling. It seems to get more challenging each year, but overall I love the time that it gives me with the kids. This year I had each of the boys design their own first day of school poster. It just had to have their name and grade, the rest of the design was up to them.

Colton Rapp - First Grade (fingers covering up the F)

Carter Rapp - Third Grade

He wanted one more picture with this helmet and jersey to represent the Texans!

Connor Rapp - Fifth Grade

Hunter Rapp - Sixth Grade

Collins Rapp - Just plain cute!

Recently funny...

I have three funny stories!

Tonight in the car, Collins was holding an apple. She began to say, "Open, apple. Open, apple." We all started to laugh when we realized that she wanted to eat the apple, but thought that it first had to be opened. Hunter was ready to help and since he doesn't eat apples, he handed it to Todd to take the first bite. When Hunter handed the apple back to Collins, she politely told him, "Tank you Unter," and then began to eat the "opened" apple.

Right now we are living in a part of Houston where all the streets have names like: Concord, Bunker Hill, Williamsburg and Valley Forge. Recently I told the boys, "Isn't it cool that all the streets are named after things pertaining to the Civil War?" Hunter politely said, "Mom, I think they are all named after stuff from the Revolutionary War." He was right of course. My brain was so confused. And right now you are all thinking, "And she is home schooling her kids this year?!"

Todd will readily admit that he can't tell which clothes belong to which boy. Well Collins had Todd laughing so hard tonight as we folded a load of laundry. We would hold up a shirt, a pair of shorts, etc. and ask Collins who that item belonged to...she was right 98% of the time! What a smart little girl. She definitely pays attention to her brothers.

These guys...

have been so fantastic to our family! Robert Hurley (Small Groups Pastor) and West Brazelton (Senior Pastor) helped us unload all our stuff this week in Houston.

Saturday Fun

The Rapps spent Saturday afternoon at the pool. It was great fun for the kids. Here is Colton with Neyland's dog, Leo.

Collins enjoyed a lime popsicle.

Four handsome boys!

This next sequence of pictures made me laugh. We told the boys to jump on the count of three and I would take their picture. 1, 2, 3,...JUMP!

There they go!

Three boys into the pool.

Hunter said, "Mom, you just said jump. Not jump into the pool." So he jumped - in place.

As they emerged, all three scolded Hunter for messing up the picture.

The Kids are Back!

What fun it was to be reunited with our kids today. The collective Fort Worth Rapp family did a great job keeping the "Branson" Rapps. The boys had rave reviews of their time with Grandad and Baba. Collins was so excited to see mom and dad - and her excitement only grew when she saw the Neylands dog. She is both thrilled and frightened whenever she sees a doggy.

Here are pictures from today. Collins, Emory and Dalton posed for a picture this morning.

Girl cousins have to stick together!

Shortly after the kids arrived in Houston, the Neyland kids + the Rapps boys took a walk around the block. It was quite a gang! Carter is the one on the Green Machine.

What a trooper! This is Emily Neyland in the midst of nine boys. Three Neyland boys, one Neyland cousin, and all five Rapp boys. Yep, Emily took Holden in his stroller on the walk. She is amazing!

Welcome to Texas!

The events of the past week could fill up several blog posts, but I will keep it to one. We are officially in Houston, TX and are slowly trying to put together the pieces of life here. Here's a quick recap of our last seven days.

8/22 - Holden had an EEG and it was NORMAL! Praise God. Our little guy is doing so well and now that his EEG looks good, the neuologist told us that we can begin to wean him from the Phenobartital. Movers arrived at our house early this morning and quickly got to work packing up our stuff. In fact they moved so fast that all my clothes were packed up before I made it home from the doctor's appointment. I had to tear into some boxes so that I could have shoes and clothes to pack for Texas. We had a fun evening/ good-bye dinner with all the Kanakuk directors. As we sat in Joe and Debbie Jo's living room, I looked around and thought about these incredible families that we have done life with for the past 13 years.

8/23 Movers arrived promptly at 8:30 AM for more boxing and moving furniture. The boys + Collins spent the day with friends and it was so helpful to have them out of the house as we packed. No food in the house so we grabbed dinner at Wendy's and then drove to the Rec Plex for a farewell party with the dearest of friends. There were several families who couldn't be there, but just look at this picture! It makes me happy and sad all at the same time. I love these parents/ kids - each and every one! It is no fun to leave friends, but we want to follow where God leads our family.

8/24 - We woke up after spending the last night in our house. We loaded up our cars, double checked the house and then locked the door about 10:00 am. Our family spent some sweet moments remembering highlights from 378 Woodson Bend, thanked God for all He had done and is doing, cried a little and then Todd let the boys zipline one more time. We had to end with fun!

On our way out of town we stopped by to say good-bye to the Engram family. Oh how we will miss these friends! Matt and Amy managed to get pictures of all the buddies!

We made it to Fort Worth late Saturday night. We were all exhausted and glad to be at Grandad and Baba's house.

8/25 - Sunday was a day to relax and enjoy time with all of the Rapp family Fort Worth. The boys played with their cousins and got to go swimming. The movers were at our house today to begin loading the trucks. Jennifer Ford was our "eyes on the ground" as she supervised the move and directed the movers. Amazing! We can't thank her enough for what she did for us.

8/26 - It was finally the day to drive to Houston. The four boys would be staying in Fort Worth with Grandad and Baba. Collins was also staying in Fort Worth with David, Nikki, Dalton and Emory. Todd and I left about 10:45 with Holden and made it to Houston by 4:00. I still felt like we were just on vacation and would be returning to Branson very soon. The movers spent a couple of hours finishing loading and then they left Branson around lunch time. An unbelievable family in Houston (the Neylands) are allowing us to live in their back house right now. They have been so generous to share their home/ etc. with us. 

8/27 - This was a long, hard day. We finalized details at the storage facility just in time for the movers to arrive! The next 3-4 hours were spent unloading the trucks. This was a difficult task as I tried to keep Holden happy and yet really wanted to be helpful. Plus, I know it is just stuff, but it was hard to watch all of our belongings get stuffed into two storage spaces. I quickly realized that I would not be able to get to most of the stuff in storage until we move into a house. So, we are going to learn to do without lots of items. A praise: Todd and the guys from Grace Bible Church who were helping unload had a chance to talk with the moving guys about the Lord. Ministry can happen anywhere and Todd seems so energized to talk to people about the Lord in this new role. Todd and I went out for dinner this evening and had a chance just to download about the day. It seemed so surreal to be unpacking in a new city. For dinner we ate at the yummiest Mexican restaurant - delicious fajitas. Come visit and we will take you there! 

8/28 -Todd's first day at work! He only worked 1/2 a day but after six months of looking for a job, it was a good feeling to go to work. I joined Van Neyland and another friend for a morning walk. So this is what moms get to do when they send their kids off to school?! Ha! I worked on first week lesson plans for homeschool and ran to Costco. In the afternoon, Todd and I went back to the storage facility to search for a few things, ran some errands and then had dinner with a really fun family - Robert and Tricia Hurley. Robert also works at Grace Bible Church. They have five kids and the commotion at dinner made me miss our kids. They will join us in Houston on Friday!

8/29 - My goal today is to finish preparations for school and get some more stuff organized before the kids arrive tomorrow afternoon. This afternoon Todd and I are planning to drive through some neighborhoods.

Our kids are having the greatest time in For Worth. They have been enjoying some field trips with Grandad and Baba plus lots more swimming. 

My heart has been full of lots of emotions this week. Some sadness, a bit of hardness toward Houston and all the changes in our life, joy as I see Todd's excitement at being a Texan and excitement for his new job, humbled by the kindness of people who barely know us (unloading out moving trucks/ offering to drive me around Houston to find places I need), thankfulness for the way God is taking care of us, and realizing that I need to surrender it all to Him. 

If you are reading this I know that you have certainly been praying for the Rapp family over the past six months. Thank you! If you want to keep praying, here are some things you could put on your list.

• Our kids' transition to Houston.
• Peace for my heart - I long for routine and feel like life is upside-down right now.
• For our home in Branson to sell or that we would find great renters.
• Ease of finding my way around Houston.

Love from Houston! The Rapps.