Welcome to 2007

Well, first of all I haven't had a chance to wish you a Happy new Year, so Happy New Year everyone!!

So far this month we've been to a wedding in Minden. Two of our youth got married. We had fun seeing lots of people we went to church with up there. We stayed with our friends Shane and Jeannine and had such a nice time catching up.

My birthday was the 5th, and that was the day we traveled to Minden. I had a nice day and don't really feel any older. (I thought I better address that because everyone always asks you if you feel any older on your birthday).

Then last weekend we went to Jay and Danielle's in Houston with Jon and Rachael. The guys all went hunting in Marble Falls and the girls, and Preston, went shopping. We had a blast. The guys shot some deer and tried not to freeze since that big cold front came through, and we went to the Katy Mills Outlet mall. I didn't have any trouble spending my birthday money. We also had fun cooking, and Danielle took us to visit Second Baptist Church. One word for ya....HUGE.
Preston is sillier than ever and keeps us laughing. Back in December he went for his 9 month check up and was 29inches and 17 pounds. He's our very long and slim boy. If he would ever stop moving I think he might put on some more weight! I guess he's about 18 pounds now. He's getting a new car seat this week because he's too long for the infant carrier. He's cutting 2 more teeth right now, and we can hardly wait for them to push through. They've been giving him a lot of pain. Right now he's really into rubber duckies, green peas, bananas, anything we eat, making funny noises with his tongue, peek-a-boo, and babbling back and forth with anyone. He's also attracted to the broom, shoes, and purses, especially if they have straps or anything shiny on them. He's really good at feeding himself and chewing. We haven't found anything he doesn't like to eat so far. In the last 2 days he's gone from taking a few steps to taking up to 10. He gets really excited when he does this. I don't think it will be much longer until he's walking around everywhere, unless he decides it is too much trouble and goes back to crawling. He's also started waving his arms kind of crazily. It looks like he is a serious band director! Its really funny. He will wave bye-bye sometimes, but we're still working on that one.

My parents are coming home February 8th and staying for a little over a month. We've very excited to see them and catch up on everything.

We have some exciting CWOW news. This summer, actually starting June 1st, we have 600 volunteers coming to build our church!!! It is an organization called Builders for Christ. They organize volunteers to build only 3 selected building projects a year, and CWOW was one of their choices, wow! The volunteers come from all over the nation in one week shifts. The last group will come in the first week of August. We have some responsibilities of our own before they come, and we are doing everything as fast as we can. We have to have all our final plans ready, our building permit, etc. coming up pretty soon. Then we have to have our foundation poured and a large tent and outdoor kitchen built for the volunteer's use while they are here for 9 weeks. We also have to research hotel accomodations for the different groups. The volunteers will cover the cost of their stay and also all of their food. Isn't this wonderful? We are so excited to see God going before us and preparing the way. All we have to do is follow and be obedient to what he has shown us. The other huge task is to be prepared financially for the project. Our goal is to have 1/3 of the cost raised before we break ground, the second 1/3 raised when we move in, and then finance the final 1/3. The same week we received news our the volunteers coming, we received a $50,000 check in the mail. Now that's of course only a small portion of the actual cost of the building, but still, $50,000 is a lot of money. We know this is God's plan for CWOW, and we are so excited to be in the center of his will and on task to what he has called us to do.

Enjoy the pics until next time.

Love to all

The Kopps

Hi!

Playing with ice cubes, great entertainment!

Danielle and Rachael and a chocolate shake

Preston thought the shake was pretty good too!

Me, Rachael, and Danielle enjoying our swiss steak dinner we cooked for ourselves.