Can We Say Bargain?

Hope and I went shopping today at Old Navy. I was looking for something to wear to the wedding we're going to next weekend...my poor old body...4 babies have done their work...I need to get to that gym! Anyhow, we found costumes for 75% off. Hope got the pink princess dress (got one for Emma too), Owen got the frog and Emma got an indian dress...all for $3.97 each. How fun for dress up. Enjoy.



~Rose

SIX...a good age...

Today Hope turned 6 years old. I really cannot believe how fast the past 6 years has flown by. Here below is a pic from Hope at 1 month old.

She's grown a bit, don't ya think? We went out to Spaghetti Factory for lunch to celebrate. YUM!

This is a pic that Hope took of me and Levi...he's sucking his thumb...too cute!

~Rose

The Roll Over!

This morning, during our worship time, Levi rolled over for the first time! It was so exciting :) He did it twice more tonight before going to bed. This is a pic of him right before a roll over. I didn't think I'd be so excited about these little things with my fourth child, but I am! Thanks for the little blessings God!

~Rose

APC Keystone Retreat

We just got back tonight from our church retreat tonight. Here are a few of my favorite pics. Check out our church website for the full album of pics. www.denverchurch.net

Tubing in Breckenridge. The most fun we've had in a long time. Hope went down all by herself many times.

The best was getting a big chain going. We were so worn out after climbing that hill!

What a blessing to be able to get away together. God is good and we are basking in His goodness!

~Rose

Ancient Paths Church Update

Desi and Rose Starr ~Ancient Paths Church~ www.denverchurch.net
~Inner City Urban Missionaries Phil. 4:16b-17, 18b

October 2006 Update~ Fall is upon us once more! Isn’t it amazing how fast this year has gone?! September saw the beginning of regular meetings for our youth group. Carrie hosts it at her house, while Desi and Bruce facilitate rides and teaching. We have 8-10 regulars that come ranging in age from 14-17. For now, it’s all girls and boy does it get loud at times! The girls have told us that they love youth group and really enjoy having Desi and Bruce there (which was a surprise to us). This is probably because all but 1 or 2 of these girls have no healthy relationships with men and greatly desire examples of godly father/older brother type of relationships. Pray for these girls. They lead such challenging lives. They all live in ungodly homes, most with adults who model unhealthy behavior regularly. They are constantly tempted to indulge in drugs, alcohol, and sex (even the 14yr olds!). It’s common for them to experience hate and anger filled relationships with their friends and family. Many of them have been through abuse of all kinds and some still fear it. Pray for us as we seek to reach them with the love of God, a clear understanding of sin and what it means to really follow Christ.

Last Sunday we went to a corn maze together as a church family. What fun, even when you end up getting totally mixed up! We are planning a church retreat for the end of this month. We’ll go up to the mountains for the weekend. Pray for unity, encouragement, love and fun! For many of our youth who will be coming (most of whom either come with Carrie to our worship gatherings or only come to youth group) we are the only Christians they come in contact with.
Also continue to pray that people embrace our vision of reaching friends and neighbors all over Denver’s inner city by planting house churches that will function as vibrant families of Jesus in each neighborhood of urban Denver. The people of inner city Denver have very little understanding about how authentic church families should function (in love, of God and each other and embracing God’s mission of making disciples). We have a few families and singles that are prayerfully considering starting churches in their homes to reach people who are outside of our spheres of influence. Desi and Bruce continue to pray Luke 10:2b together daily and look forward to be able to coach people in the process of loving and pastoring their neighborhoods to see life transformation take place and to see God glorified amongst the poor and hopeless. Please join us in prayer for workers for the harvest because the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.

Rose’s Reflections~ For those of you who read my blog (www.starrjrfamily.blogspot.com) you know about our intruder. Basically, we left our back door open all day, while we were home and at some point, unbeknownst to us, a man climbed our back fence, came in and went down to our basement. I found him coming up the stairs about 9pm (Desi was gone). He was out of it and left quickly (after I yelled at him), the police came, and nothing was touched. God is so good, and I have learned and grown through this. God has taken away my fear and caused me to grow in trust and faith in Him.
I began home schooling Hope last month. We use a Bible based curriculum called My Father’s World, and we absolutely love it! Hope is working on short & long vowels right now, memorizes a proverb a week, and does art, science, math and reading. I do a preschool program with Owen and Emma 5 days a week as well. I am really enjoying my Life Transformation Group (LTG). I meet with two other gals every Sat. morning to pray and discuss Bible passages that we’ve read over the week. I am amazed at how God uses us even when we don’t think it’s happening. I have a very small sphere of influence, and yet God is answering my prayers that He would use me to reach my neighbors. He has deepened my connections with our homeless friend “Aunt Debi” who we see every few days, as well as Nafisa, a Muslim neighbor from Ghana who is a new mom and lives around the corner. Both of these women have told me in the past few weeks that we are family! What a compliment! I need to trust in God’s promises more and rely less on what my thoughts are saying. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:34-35 Please pray for me that I would love in not only words, but actions as well! Thanks for reading, praying, your friendship and support! We are blessed indeed!
Love, Desi, Rose, Hope, Owen, Emma & Levi Desi: 720-629-3149 starrjrfamily@yahoo.com

4 Months Old Today!

Time flies when all you do all day is eat and sleep! Well, Levi does a bit more than that lately. He is getting a lot happier during his awake times. He enjoys the excersaucer, where he can watch the drama of the household unfold. Levi takes 1-2 long naps a day, which really helps his mama :) He also likes to watch me cook (sitting in the bouncy seat on the kitchen counter). His new skills this month include drooling like a mad dog (maybe a St.Bernard) and sucking his thumb. I don't know why it's so cute to watch him suck his thumb, but it really is! Must be a mama thing.


Couldn't resist these two pics...Emma just threw her arm around Hope tonight and I grabbed the camera.

Emma is such a cutie...really at the pinnacle of cuteness I think. She has this huge vocabulary, a strong, low voice, round belly and she's short....all a recipe for cuteness...in a child at least! She's showing off her "CARS" tattoo here.

~Rose

Winter Wonderland

We awoke to a winter wonderland this morning. Everything covered in a few inches of snow. I love, love, love waking up to this! There is a beautiful peace and quietness in the early morning or evening when everything is covered in snow. It's so beautiful. The ugliest scene...garbage, alley, dumpster, is somehow beatiful with all that sparkly snow. Now, mind you, the sun shows it's face quite often here in Denver and the snow is usually gone within a few days of it's accumulation. I'm sure if I lived somewhere where there's always snow on the ground, I would get tired of it quick, but I don't think I'll ever grow tired of it here! It helps that I can stay home too :) I don't like driving in that stuff! I was doing laundry today and after pulling out some clothes, Bedhead jumped in the dryer. Nice and warm in there...it was hard to get him out!



~Rose
"Come now, and let us reason together," says Yahweh: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18

Owen's Prayers

It was my turn with Owen tonight. We sang "He's got the whole world in His hands" again (he sings it every night and makes up his own verses...like 'He's got the snakes and the cars in His hands' and 'He's got the boxes and drawers in His hands'). I always ask Owen-Who are you going to pray for and what are you going to thank God for? Tonight he prayed for Grandma Kate to not get sick and he thanked God that God would help us find all the hidden money in our house. I asked him about the money and had he seen it, or does he know where it is, but couldn't get any solid info out of him. Bummer. I wonder if there is money hidden all over our house?! Kids are funny. Good night.
~Rose

Our Memory Verse This Week

This is Hope's memory verse for the week. Every Tuesday she copies the verse from my teacher's guide onto a piece of lined paper. It's amazing to see how beautiful her writing is getting! The verse is good too...one I need to apply in my life! Lord, help me to use more healing words with my family!

~Rose

Time Flies!

I was looking at a friend's blog recently. She had taken her son to Bate's Nut Farm to pick pumpkins, ride ponies, pet goats, ect... We took Hope and Owen about a year before we moved to Colorado. I keep these pics with our fall decorations and pull them out each year. I scanned them in today to share with all of my co-bloggers! Hope is just under two and Owen is about 2.5 months old. I think Emma and Levi look so much like their older siblings. Enjoy!


~Rose

Happy 6th Birthday Hope!

The castle cake-too fun to decorate...Owen & Hope helped.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey!

Hope loves My Little Pony!

More gifts, thanks everyone!

Blowing out the candles...

Eating the yummie strawberry cake!

Rose, Levi, Jayla & Nafisa (Our neighbors)

Hope and her new baby.



We had a great party. Thanks everyone who came and Hope loves her gifts! We miss and love you all who couldn't make it :)
~Rose

CARS!

We just happened upon these CARS in front of the children's museum on Thursday. The kids loved seeing them in real life!
Lightning McQueen

Mater

Sally

How fun when things like this happen!
~Rose

Mt. Rushmore (Part 3-road trip)

Well, here they are: a few pics from Mt.Rushmore! It was amazing to actually be there! The facility is beautiful. We had lunch and explored the museum. After a few hours we got back in the surburban and drove through Rapid City and on into Deadwood. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and had a much better night's sleep. It seems the whole town of Deadwood is old (and new) hotels with casinos in the lobby. One hotel was a sort of museum with cars, motorcycles and clothing worn in movies. Notice Herbie the Love Bug and Magnum PI's Ferrarii. On Friday we headed back home down through Wyoming. We got back into Colorado just as the sun was setting. Thanks again for the great trip Tim.
~Rose

Road Trip Part 2

These pics are all from day 2 of our trip (except for the first one-we rented this fun little cabin the first night). Tim drove us to Crazy Horse and we opted to take pics from the side of the road instead of paying the outrageous $25 to get closer. I took a pic of Tim's flier to give you an idea as to how far the project has come and how far it has to go. Maybe Levi's great grandson will see it's completion. Check out www.crazyhorse.org for more pics. We continued on our journey and Tim drove us to this beautifully scenic lake. We decided to take the short hike around it. Most of these pics are from that hike. I couldn't stop taking pics. The kids loved the hike, except at the end when it got pretty cold! Since we were in a protected area, the wildlife weren't really scared of our vehicle, so we got pretty close. The Black Hills of South Dakota are incredible...really more amazing that I would have thought! I'll be back for sure :)
Part 3 (Mt. Rushmore) coming soon...time for bed!
~Rose