Easter weekend

"He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. come and see the place where He lay." -matthew 28:6

this year I spent Easter at our house in holden beach with my parents and brooks. conveniently, the snipes family was also at the beach and the winters family were staying with them! it ended up being a very eventful, fun-filled Easter weekend. due to the fact that i spent most of my time doing things other than taking pictures, i mostly just have a lot of pictures of brooks around the house. but hey, he's always entertaining, right?

(p.s. for more pictures from the weekend, check out tara's blog: www.tarahope.com)

here is brooks brushing his teeth after eating pizza at patronie's on friday night with the whole gang!

the next morning, he ate breakfast with pops.





and this is where brooks spent the majority of the weekend: in his swing. "mo sweegen? mo sweegen!?"



hey, at least he was happy.



we also played some ball

and loved on mimi.



later that day, sydnie taught brooks how to hit a tennis ball

while the rest of us played a heated tennis match.



my teammate rocked!



the tennis crew!

and.... another swing picture.



pops bought brooks an awesome turtle sandbox, but apparently the swing was just much more appealing.



and THIS is henry. my beautiful friend chelsae green found henry the turtle in a parking lot and brought him to the dance studio for safety. when she couldnt take care of him, i agreed to take him home with me. however, we quickly realized that taking care of a turtle is not as easy as it sounds.

here was henry's travel home (we took him on the beach trip, of course).

all he wanted to do was escape. we ended up letting him go as soon as we got back to raleigh. :(



what an amazing Easter weekend! i loved spending time with my parents and taking care of brooksy - he is speaking full sentences now and is absolutely hilarious! cant wait to have the whole juengel fam back at holden this summer - thank you Jesus for family, friends, and holden beach!

roadtrip to MD

"take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." -psalm 37:4

this past thursday, i took a road trip with one of my best friends, ann bradey lewis. we hopped in the car at 8:00am and arrived in baltimore, MD around 1:00pm. we first made a stop at my aunt connie's house and spent the afternoon with her. it was so great to see her and i wish it would happen more often! heres the unfortunate part - i completely forgot my camera, but thankfully she had one so that we could take a picture with each other. for some reason, we only took a picture of aunt connie and i, not ann bradey and i too, and we also failed to take another picture the rest of the night, but at least we got a couple great ones:





after visiting with aunt connie, AB and i drove to downtown baltimore to see the broadway tour of West Side Story. my awesomely talented friends nathan keen and grant gustin performed that night, and they were absolutely amazing! the show was great and i was such a proud friend in the audience. congrats to you two!

AB - lets take another roadtrip soon, but next time, lets plan it better AND actually take pictures. :)

aunt connie - cant wait to see you again so soon! LOVE YOU!

mercy conquers judgement

"therefore if any woman be in Christ, she is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." -2 corinthians 5:17

"develop thick skin, but always keep a tender heart." -ruth graham bell

this past weekend was filled with amazing experiences, from cooking and supercross to devotions and ninja wars. it all began in st. louis, where we traveled to the mercy ministries house after arriving that friday.

just a quick background, "since 1983, Mercy Ministries of America has provided hope and healing to generations of desperate young women who are seeking freedom from life-controlling issues." i had the opportunity to visit the women in the st. louis house that day, along with pam, tara and kim. we helped cooked dinner that night for 40 people - one of my favorite meals, chicken francaise!











the dinner turned out to be a huge success! everyone said the chicken was delicious, though i was partial to the awesome asparagus that one of the girls cooked. she was an asparagus-cooking expert!



now this picture requires a little background story. pam got 2 cakes made for the girls and we actually brought them on the plane from raleigh as carry-ons. these things were like our babies the entire day - we didn't let them out of our site for a second! and let me tell you, it was definitely worth it because these cakes were DE-licious! thanks francis!

after dessert and a tour of the house, we all gathered downstairs for a came of ninjas! i had never played this game before, but it got really intense really quickly.





here is a picture of the whole group - what an awesome night!

ninjas!



the next morning, it was time for supercross! i hung out with ricky at the rig while he got ready for his practices.



the whole winters fam!

that afternoon, we all gathered in the arena for ricky's qualifying practices.



here are a few pictures from the day:











that night, we all met up in the suite with all of the mercy girls! it was so much fun watching the races with them because they were all so excited to cheer on different racers!

this is my friend abigail - she loves ryan villopoto, and while i am not his biggest fan, i enjoyed talking supercross with her. and she got his autograph on her shirt!









all these people fit in one suite! it was a great night!

the next day, pam, tara, kim and i got on a plane to nashville, TN. as soon as we got there, we went to lunch at monell's (a family-style southern, home-cookin, all the fixins, etc type restaurant). we made lots of friends and ate our bodies' weight in carbohydrates. it was awesome. then we went to visit the parthenon - who knew they had one of those in nashville?!?

it was a lifesize replica! if you look really closely in this picture, you can see teeny little kim on the front steps!





on monday morning, we went to the nashville mercy headquarters. while we were there, we got a tour of the entire office and house and met with the staff, girls and Nancy Alcorn! i had never met her in person and she was absolutely wonderful, not to mention an amazing speaker and spiritual warrior.



i took a picture of this piece of art in the kitchen of their house because i thought it was so beautiful and inspirational. you probably can't see the words, but its filled with negative comments the girls have heard in their lives that they surrendered to the cross.

here is nancy alcorn introducing pam before she spoke to the group.



tara also got up to speak - it was so great to hear from all three of them!







what an amazing weekend! i feel so thankful and blessed to have had the opportunity to learn about and get an insider's view into such a life-changing ministry.



for more information on mercy ministries,
check out their website at: http://www.mercyministries.org/
and their blog: http://www.mercyministriesnews.com/2011/04/mercy-ministries-hero-pam-winters.html