Monthly Archives: December 2009

December 23, 2009 · 4:24 pm

Our Year in Pictures, Part 2

Here’s a continuation of yesterday’s post. Here are more pictures from this past year.

Eli was potty trained this year, but learned quickly the multiple uses for underwear and discipled his brother.

We also discovered 1st Saturday’s Home Depot Kids Workshops. It’s free for everyone and it’s a great family activity. He’s already learned from tv that real carpenters work without their shirt…

This month we discovered that couch pillows are best used for forts.

In July, Amber and I along with 5 of our friends visited Boston and New York for a week long vacation and trip to get familiar with church planting in Boston. It was an amazing time and we got to meet with amazing people.

Calvin joyfully inherited his Red Sox fandom.

Before the water restrictions kicked in we loved visiting the triangle fountains.

And we got a tiny gumball machine for the boys. It was a huge hit.

Eli turned 3 in September and we celebrated with cake for breakfast

Which Calvin loved…

Because he likes to party in a tuxedo t-shirt

Eli started preschool as well.

Poor Handy Manny didn’t have a chance…

October was crazy for us, but we found time to visit the pumpkin patch in Elgin with our friends. As you can see the boys loved it…

We also visited another pumpkin patch, because you really can’t visit too many of those…

For Halloween, Eli first wanted to be a tiger, but settled on a skunk…

Calvin loved Halloween…

Those are the pictures through October. I hope you enjoyed them. After Christmas, I’ll post the November and December pictures.

Have a Merry Christmas!

2 Comments

Filed under Church Life, Life, Parenting

Tagged as , , , ,

December 22, 2009 · 4:43 pm

Our Year in Pictures, Part 1

This weekend we went back through our pictures this past year and found some absolutely great photos. Hope you enjoy.

We kicked off 2009 in Houston with our friends and family, the boys stayed home with GranGran and Papa and partied the night away.

Calvin has changed so much from a cute 6 month old to a crazy 18-month old.

Look at this baby face…

The whole fam at the Houston zoo back in January

Later in January, we made a trip to Washington, D.C. to be with the family as Amber’s Nana, Marie, went to be with Jesus. She was an amazing woman and is definitely missed. It was good to be with the family and the boys enjoyed being in a place that had snow.

Eli wore his first suit proclaiming “I’m a meeting guy”. He apparently has seen me attend a few meetings…

And Calvin refused to crawl until he could walk, meaning he would hold our fingers to walk.

We were also able to enjoy Hawaii again this year with the Robinsons. Calvin enjoyed eating sand and rocks…

Eli loved the sand and the pool, but didn’t care for the ocean so much…

They must have enjoyed themselves because they were exhausted for the 12 hour flight home.

The boys have started playing together a lot more, especially once Eli figured out Calvin’s head doubles as a drum.

But Calvin remains just a cute and happy kid

We spent Easter in Pennsylvania with the boys great-grandparents.  The second picture is NoNo, Amber’s grandfather Tercizio, who also passed away this last year. A former principal in New York and great father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, he is missed.

With May brought the record setting Texas heat that eclipsed 100 for 68+ days. Lots of backyard pool and neighborhood pool time.

We celebrated Calvin’s 1st birthday with a backyard bash and he thoroughly enjoyed his cake.

With June, also comes great minor league baseball at the Dell Diamond

And Chick-Fil-A dress like a Cow Day

And apparently wear your hair like a rockstar day

There’s part 1. Yes it was mostly our children, but Part 2 will include more family photos as well. Look for that tomorrow.

5 Comments

Filed under Life, Parenting, Summer

Tagged as ,

December 18, 2009 · 3:56 pm

Fall Review, Part 2

Here’s a continuation of our Fall Review, Part 1 is here.

Halloween

This October, we visited the pumpkin patch in Elgin and Terrytown to make sure we got the best pictures and the best pumpkin for carving for Halloween. At the beginning of October Eli wanted to be a tiger and wanted Calvin to be a leopard, special thanks to Kung Fu Panda. We found great costumes for both of them that they wore most of the month, Calvin’s was really a dalmation but is looked close enough to a white leopard for Eli.

Then the week before Halloween, Eli wanted to be a skunk because they are stinky. Obviously. So my gracious wife went and bought black sweats and a black hoodie and sowed white fur on them making him a skunk.

We joined a Wild Thing and a Max from Where the Wild Things Are, our SWAT team neighbors, and a 6’6″ Oompa Loompa with a 18-month old mini-me Oompa Loompa and Dora the Explorer as we celebrated Halloween over at the Lopez’s. It was awesome and pictures are sure to follow…

November is for house work…apparently

November we took care of some much needed work around the house that I avoided in October for my PE Exam. Eli was able to pretend our back yard was a jungle thanks to the 2.5′ high grass. So we took care of the backyard, I replaced a garbage disposal (special thanks to Michael Swanson), we painted the trim on the house and the front door.

Needless to say, I feel infinitely more manly.

Turkey Day!

We had the blessing of hosting Thanksgiving at our house again and welcomed my Aunt Gladys and our good friend D to join both of our families at our house as we celebrated the last year together. It was incredibly delicious.

That night, Amber and I went to the A&M-Texas game in College Station. It was one of the most exciting games to see in person despite the disappointing result.

The only good thing to result from the Aggie defeat was that Colt McCoy’s dominance of what was formerly know as the Aggie Defense basically guaranteed my win in our College Fantasy Football League and the trophy now resides proudly in my house where it belongs.

Eli Started School!

This past fall, Eli started attending a local preschool. He’s doing great at school and talks about his friends and even a little crush he has. He’s talking marriage and rings, so he’s definitely girl crazy which is half-hilarious and half-scary for what the future will bring…

We’ve also stumbled upon a great kid’s leaning website, Starfall, that has great interactive learning games online. It was recommended by our teacher friends and it’s been awesome.

Finally Alive

Amber also concluded the class she assisted in teaching at our church called Finally Alive. The class is based on the book by John Piper that you can download from their website. Amber described it as one of the best and most refreshing books she’s ever read. It has helped explain how people are saved by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ alone and clearly articulates God’s work in our salvation.

It’s a great read for those who may be interested.

Headed toward Christmas

It’s Christmas time and we’ve been enjoying various holiday activities from getting and decorating a Christmas Tree (live and from Home Depot), walking around the neighborhood looking at lights, ice skating, even taking in a hockey game (I’ll admit, I’m now a fan) and listening to an overdose of Christmas music.

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed catching up on a lot of our life. The plan is to post pictures sometime soon.

2 Comments

Filed under Life, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 11, 2009 · 11:05 pm

Fall Review, Part 1

Well, I haven’t posted in about 3 months. Let me catch you up on all that has gone on (my excuses for not blogging).

College Ministry

August and September are always incredibly busy around churches, but especially busy for college ministry as the new school year starts and ministry begins anew. This year our leadership team added Tyler David as a college resident. He brings fresh passion and ideas to our team as my good friend Todd Engstrom transitioned out of college ministry to continue benefitting the church as Pastor of Missional Communities.

Transitions amongst a team are always difficult, but God has been faithful to grant us unity and help us work together well. This past semester has been amazing to watch God move through students to see a number of their fellow students come to believe in Jesus and begin following Him with their lives.

Testmasters PE Exam Review Course

At the end of September and through most of October, I started preparing for Professional Engineer’s exam. It’s an 8-hour exam that I must pass to become a professional engineer and be responsible for stamping plans as final and become liable to get sued (woohoo!).

To prepare for this exam, my company pays (reimburses when I pass) for a Testmasters review course. The review course consisted of 3 consecutive weekends (Thurs-Sun) of class all day long. So I would work Mon-Wed and have class in San Antonio from Thurs-Sun. Needless to say, it was trying for all around the Gentry home. But I got through it and took my PE exam on October 23. I’ll find out the results around Christmas time because it takes 60+ days to process a scantron apparently.

New Braunfels – My Spiritual Birthplace

One benefit of going to San Antonio on weekends was staying with and reconnecting with old friends. Kimo Aleman and Justin Smith are two guys I met working at T Bar M Christian Sports Camp and they opened their homes for me to stay closer to San Antonio for the review course. It was quite refreshing to catch up with old friends and here about what God is doing in their lives.

While I was there, I went to visit T Bar M. It’s my spiritual birthplace. At that camp when I was 13, I was praying to God when I felt Him asking me to give Him my life and to follow Him forever. I could no longer take the label of Christian, but only live it at camp, God wanted my whole life.

So I went back and it was completely empty since it’s not the summer and I enjoyed just walking around and remembering God’s work in my life through the many summers there as a camper, an all-star (work crew), and a counselor. If you haven’t, I strongly encourage you to remember often God’s work throughout your life. It’s quite refreshing.

BYX Retreat – A preaching first…

The weekend before my PE Exam, I spent in the middle of nowhere Texas, 2 hours west of San Antonio with the Christian faternity BYX chapter from A&M. They asked me to be their speaker and I spoke 4 times in 2 days. It was one of the first opportunities I’ve had to preach and especially to preach that much. My topics were the following:

  1. Knowing and Enjoying the Gospel – It is often assumed Christians know the gospel, but knowing isn’t enough. You only give your life to things you enjoy. The gospel is most enjoyable and deserves your life.
  2. Gospel Repentance – When we recognize sin, we either ignore it or beat ourselves up over it. We rarely acknowledge our wickedness, get to the root of why we do it and then embrace the work of Jesus on the cross and in the ressurection to give us forgiveness and victory.
  3. Gospel-led Community – Fighting for your brother’s love for Jesus as much as your own.
  4. Gospel-led Mission – The gospel saves us to send us out on mission. If we aren’t evangelizing, we don’t believe the gospel.

It was an amazing time with a good group of guys from A&M including my brother-in-law, Dan. I loved it and God did great things.

To be continued…with pictures…

Well, I caught you up through October. Next time, I’ll include some pictures of the family and finish the fall review. Probably next week some time…or in 3 months…

1 Comment

Filed under Life

Tagged as , , , , ,