The Hofschroer's Baby Shower

picture by Trever Hoehne

Last Saturday, we had a baby shower to celebrate Logan Christopher Hofchroer who is expected to arrive sometime around October 25th.  The shower was an ice cream social and included cotton candy, a popcorn machine, a snow cone machine, a lemonade stand, carnival size balloons, a photo booth station, croquet along with a few other games, and of course, an ice cream sundae bar.  It was a lot of fun getting friends and family together to celebrate with Chris, Amy and Logan.

A few of Logan's soon-to-be friends:

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the event a success!

Now if Logan would just hurry up and get here.

Mr. Personality

Our family has already given Hudson a nickname, "Mr. Personality".   He is such a happy baby and so expressive.  I am so thankful the Lord has blessed me with Travis and Hudson.  They bring so much joy to my life.

Hudson's new Aunt Valentine

In May '08, I was privileged to be a part of a team of people who spent some time in Rwanda.  It has since left an imprint in my heart and given me a deep love for the people of Rwanda.  After my time there it wasn't long before Travis and I knew we were going to begin the journey of having a family.   As excited as I was, I knew I wouldn't be able to return to Rwanda for a season.

Through the grace of God, Travis and I plan on raising our children in a home where the number one desire is for God to be glorified.  A huge passion of ours is to spread His glory throughout all the earth.  I want Hudson, even as a child, to be able to have the chance to serve God in other nations since this is a clear commandment laid out in scripture. However, for now we are going to do that in our own backyard.  I am excited to share that God has brought Rwandans to us!

Below is a picture of Hudson with Valentine and Hope:

Valentine and Hope both just moved here from Rwanda about 3 weeks ago.  Our alma mater, California Baptist University, has a program which allows for the students who tested the highest in Rwanda to come on a full ride scholarship to study here.  The goal for the program is to educate and enable the Rwandans to go back home after they graduate and to help to continue to rebuild their country.  

While they are here for the 4 years, different families in surrounding churches adopt the Rwandans as part of their families.  My mom and step dad... and well all the rest of us.... have adopted Valentine.  She will be with us on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and just times when she will need to get off campus.  Hope is one of her friends, whom I am sure we will get to know as well. 

Hudson and Valentine:

Hudson and Hope:

I am so excited to be around these amazing girls and for Hudson to see how big our God really is.  My prayer is this will be the beginning of planting seeds in Hudson's life for people of all nations. We have so much to learn from them and I can't wait to see what the next 4 years hold for us.  Who knows... maybe one day we will get to take Hudson to see where Valentine is from. 

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great and relaxing labor day weekend filled with a couple of barbeques, some time at the Orange street fair, lunch with friends and just time relaxing at home.

We started the weekend off with going to lunch with Summer and Bryan at this adorable restaurant in San Juan Capistrano.

Hudson now has mastered the death grip... whether it be your hair, your ear, or your cheek... he will grab and hold on for dear life.   Below he is showing off his skills:

Hudson trying on Bryan's hat:

We ended up making it to the Orange street fair on the last day it was open during the last hour.  We tried to go earlier in the weekend, but due to the heat and the traffic we decided to make it late night event.  After the last service Travis led worship for on Sunday night, we hopped in the car to head to the fair.  It ended up being perfect timing because all the vendors were selling their food really cheap in efforts to get ride of most of their supplies.  We basically walked around allowing BD and Nat to show us the great food spots and eating everything in sight.  We ate hot dogs, Italian sausage, Indian tacos and funnel cake.  Besides the food it was great to spend time with Brandon, BD and Natalie.  I think it might have become a tradition to go every year.

Hudson slept through most of the fair, but he woke up towards the end of our time there to take in a few of the sights and sounds.

Natalie and I eating funnel cake... it was sooo good. 

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend!

Casino Royale

Last weekend we went to Brandon Pentz's birthday party which was "Casino Royale" style.  Our good friends Natalie and BD threw the party and I think I need to take lessons from them.   From decorations to food to entertainment... everything was amazing!  When we arrived we were given fake money to play games.  They even brought in real dealers who were able to teach us a few of the games.  It really was a fun night and we were so glad to help celebrate Brandon's birthday.



London is totally starring down Hudson:


Brittany and Taylor playing black jack:


The birthday boy:


Miss London has sooo much personality... she knew exactly what to do with the microphone:



BD and Travis:


Sweet Hudson was so tired from all the excitement:

Our walk to the beach

Tonight before dinner we took a walk down to the beach.  We both are trying to learn how to use our new camera and figured Hudson is a good model to practice on.  Although the lighting in this picture isn't the best, I love what I see.  I am reminded of how important it is for us as parents to expose Hudson to things that would teach him about his Creator.  Creation declares the glory of God.  If His creation is this amazing, how much greater is our Creator?

More from our family photo shoot with Trever

Trever posted a few of these pictures on his blog, but here are a few more of some of our favorites. I will never take for granted how talented my brother-in-law is. He is constantly blessing us with pictures that will last a lifetime.

Between my dad and step mom there are 7 kids + 7 significant others + 8 grandkids... I can't even imagine how many grandkids they will end up with by the time we are all done having kids.

the original 7:

the 8 grandkids:

the girls:

the boys:

one of my favorite pictures of Hudson (these pictures were taken the day after he turned 3 months):

Hudson definitely has the "old man" look with his shorts hiked up and his little hat.

the 4 of us [watkins] girls:

Brooke and Trever:

Brittany and Taylor:

Summer and Bryan: