This past Monday and Tuesday the Nevada Baptist Convention held their annual Evangelism Conference at our church, and I was the Music Director for the meetings. I always enjoy this conference, especially when we are asked to host, which is about every other year.
This year we had amazing speakers- Dr. Dwayne Mercer, pastor of First Baptist Church, Oviedo, Florida; Dr. John Franklin; and Henry & Richard Blackaby. Henry Blackaby is sort of a Southern Baptist icon, thanks to his incredible book, "Experiencing God," which has had hundreds of thousands of copies printed and read all over the world. But after hearing him speak, I discovered he was much more than an annointed author. He is an effective communicator, in a very soft spoken way. His son was equally persuasive, and preached a sermon that greatly moved me. The other men were amazingly effective and used of God.
I showed the video of Connor as Billy Sunday in the afternoon session, which went over extremely well. Connor followed that with his solo, "Everybody Ought To Know." Afterwards, I introduced him to Henry Blackaby, and took this photo.
It's been a long time since I last posted- I have lots more coming soon, but bear with me. it's the last of January, and- I'm not kidding- I'm sending out Christmas Cards this weekend.

Today was one of the most historic weather days in Vegas history. Snow, snow, snow!
I was peparing for our Living Nativity at the church when it started to come down- and then, it just didn't stop. I was real non-chalant about the drive home when I started out of the parking lot, but was very grateful to be home, safe and sound, by the time it was over. People were stranded and stalling, and sliding all over. We had a tree in the front lose several BIG branches when they snapped under the weight of the snow. I went around to all the trees in the front and the back and tried to relieve the weight by knocking off the snow, and had some luck. I hope they make it throught the night. Connor and I went out in the middle of the street for snowball wars and to build a snowman. It's been a lot of fun!

Connor was assigned evangelist BIlly Sunday for Famous America Day at his school, so we decided that in addition to giving his speech, he would recite a portion of one of Billy Sunday's sermon. He was terrific!

Dad took Connor out for a fun day after he did such a great job at school. First, it was lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. Second, we went to Ceasar's Palace to walk around and for Connor to play on the giant floor piano like the one in the movie "Big." We went by Field of Dreams, where Pete Rose usually is, and there was Pete- and Kenny Stabler, the Snake, former Crimson Tide and Raiders quarterback- a big-time favorite of dad's. Connor had on his Alabama hat, andd when we walked in, Kenny stuck out his hand and said, "Hey young man- Roll Tide?" Connor responded, "ROLL TIDE." He then told Kenny that he was born in Mobile, which made Kenny laugh and say that he was from Mobile too.





I told Connor to look at the ring on Kenny's hand, which prompted Kenny to do something I never thought he would do- he handed Connor his ring. Dad was a little bit excited at that point.






Pete Rose was sitting there atching all this, and so when Connor was passing him, he said, "Here, I want to show you this." It was a novelty World Series Ring that was huge. He told Connor is was from when he was fat.




Pete and Kenny Stabler couldn't have been any nicer to a couple guys not buying any of their product. I told Connor to shake the hand o the greatest baseball player of all time (he of the hated Cincinnati Reds, but I didn't say that out loud).



We finished up our day with a trip to the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame. Connor and I go there occasionally, and it is really great- over 200 pinball games from the 50's to today, and you can play 'em, for what they cost at the time.

Here are several photos from the past few days... Chloe had a birthday October 28. My baby girl is now 3! We had a party with her best friend Chuck E. Cheese. Hooray!




Connor and Chloe went trick-or-treating and had a great time. Connor was Bibleman, and Chloe was a fairy pixie princess... something or other. She sure was cute!






Finally, here's a photo of Connor with our congressman from Henderson, Jon Porter, taken at a John McCain rally at the Henderson Pavilion the night before the election. It was an exciting rally- 11,000 strong cheering on our candidate. We really like our congressman, and support him, but sadly, he lost his bid for re-election Tuesday, along with so many other Republicans in Nevada.

My baby girl Chloe turned three Tuesday, so I took the day off, and declared her birthday a holiday. Except we went to Chuck E. Cheese, which for me was like a day in jail, or worse. But Chloe loved it, and I guess that's what's important, right?
She is my baby doll from heaven.

Took a trip to the Pumpkin Patch this afternoon, and got a couple of photos. I am thrilled that Chloe is finally smiling when I ask her to, no small feat for the past couple of years. I had to trick her to get a smile shot. Caleb was sick this past weekend, but rallied enough to go with us. What am I saying- he had to go because Annette is out of town with the Wayne Show, and the cats weren't up to babysitting.















Connor and I went to see Mac King at Harrah's on a Friday afternoon a week or so ago, and had a great time. I had never seen Connor so excited- we had front row, aisle seats. Connor saw all the tricks close-up, and we were entertained. I was har-de-har-harring at all the juvenile innuendo in his act that was flying over Connor's head (Sir, did you just feel the first card jump into your pants pocket? No? How about the second card? Sir, did you just feel number two drop in your pants?) Mac King is a nice guy, and has a really pretty good show.

I made this last week in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of my high school, Yuma High in Yuma, Arizona. I am proud to be a Criminal! Let me know what you think of my story... I really enjoyed making it.

Connor sang in our Gospel Service last Sunday morning, and really did a great job with the old classic "It Is no Secret (What God Can Do)." Sure wish my dad was still here- he would have been so pleased, and so proud of Connor...