Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

From

Russell, Susan, and Bauer Stanphill

Sergeant Bauer Stanphill-The Puppy

The month of October has been a fun month for us as a family. We bought a puppy!!! He is a German Shorthaired Pointer, and is one heck of a lot of fun. We got him at 4.5 pounds six weeks old, and tomorrow he will turn 11 weeks old and way close to 14 pounds. He is a growing wonder dog. Here are some pictures!

The car ride home asleep!

Awake and almost home!
Home with Susan

An afternoon of playing

Sleepy puppy

Random Acts of Kindness

Towards the end of April the whole church had a mission invovlement day for the community here in Humboldt. The student ministry served the community through random acts of kindness. They were given 20 random things to do for others; it was an absolute blast. Here are a few pictures of the day.

Scooping Poop in someone's yard...

They made me hold it!

Pick weeds from a staff members home! Senior Pastor's home.

The tough senior high boys.

The tough boys acting as if they were picking our flowers.

Thrive Student Weekend

We had our first Thrive Student Weekend back in Febraury. I know it is late, but I lost our camera in November and we just got some pictures from a youth leader. We are currently in talks about buying a new camera. Any suggestions?

We had an incredible weekend with 45 students, and many many leaders. We brough Joey Hill and Fatal Formality as our speaker and band. The students were brought the word of God from both. It was an amazing weekend, and I am looking forward to next years event. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

Smoky Mountains

This past weekend we went to the Smoky Mountains to camp in the forest! It was a blast for both of us! We stayed two nights and had a great time. It was a great first time trip for both of us! It was so beautiful seeing fall for the first time in Tennessee.

We had a great opportunity to hike three miles into the mountains and back on Friday and see some beautiful country. We had a great time waling in the mountains and hanging out together. Next time we go we will hike into the mountains and camp.

This was the end of our big long hike into the mountains. We climbed to the top of two mountains on our trip! Here are some more for you!

Yard of the Weekend!!!

There is a Dogwood!

This weekend we spent it with Russell's Mom and Jim landscaping the house. It was a lot of fun molding and shaping the house into what we wanted it to look like. When we bought the house we opted out of the landscape so that we could later do it ourselves. It was a lot of fun and we made some good purchases. It is a great thing to get connections! Here is what we did! You can go back earlier in the blogs and see the before.

The other side of the front door!

A Pin Oak Tree-Susan's pick

Red Maple-Russell's Pick


We were even able to put in a mailbox-we stained it and everything else!!


Hydrangeas


Knock Out Roses

Pansies-or as Russell likes to call them Dannies!

Russell was nice and postponed Russellpalooza for one night!

This week we went out with our good friends Lyle and Melissa and Warner and Hannah for Hannah's birthday. It was a lot of fun as you can tell. We went to the Olive Garden and had some good times. Russell usually celebrates his birthday all month long in September, but was nice enough to share a night of celebration with someone else!

Some of you have been worried about us connecting and surviving way out by ourselves. Hopefully these pictures will give you an understanding that we are making it. We have had an interesting time starting the Stanphill family. We are just glad that in West Tennessee there are two couples that will be seen on the town with us!

In all honesty it is going really well for both of us and we are enjoying life in West Tennessee. We thought we would put just a few pictures up to show how we are enjoying life. Hopefully you are having as much fun as we are where ever you are!!!