The End of Summer

            Summer in Seattle (July, Aug, Sept) has been beautiful. It has rain one day in the past 60+ days and the temperature has ranged from 65-85 with no humidity. Pleasant. We are still soaking up the sunny, warm days and nights that now have a little fall crisp in the air. My mother-n-law sent me an email saying I hadnt blogged in over 2 weeks and that I must have done something interesting in that time span... well no trips for the Moores the past couple of weeks, but a lot of quality time with the Hallows church and new friends/co-workers.
            In the past couple of weeks we have been spending quite a bit of time with some of my co-workers, and Wes has spent some time with his SADH group during the day. I really like the people I work with and enjoy hanging out so hopefully those friendships will continue. This past week we were fortunate to spend time with our friends Elena and Brad Collins from Birmingham who were in Seattle for a week. Brad's sold, we just need to work on Elena to move here.  : ) They are awesome people and we just wish we lived closer to them!

              All I can really think about right now, update-wise, is a few prayer request and praises to share:

Elena and Brad with Leighton when she was a couple weeks old in AL

• Elena, Brad, and Eli: Elena and Brad are adopting Eli. They have pictures and videos of him but are still waiting for the official word to be able to go get him! Just pray for patience for them and also comfort as they know who their son is but have to wait hopefully only a few more months. Pray that God continues to protect Eli, keep him safe, healthy, and that he will transition smoothly. Also Brad left today to go to India on mission, so for his safety and the evangelism they will do there. 
• Relationships, relationships, relationships to grow deeper! We are trying to be intentional in all aspects of our life but we know we are only the feet and that we need the Holy Spirit working in our friends lives. So pray that God will grab the hearts of the people we come into contact with and whatever words we blubber out will be turned into words from Christ.
• Leadership in the church: as you have heard me say before church planting can = burnt out; just pray for the current leaders, Andrew and Kim, all the missional community leaders, woman's/men's bible study leaders, praise team, sound ministry, nursery ministry, and all the servants who wear many hats in the church. I have been guilty already at times of not serving joyfully for whatever reason... tired from work... etc. Prayer that we can all encourage each other, disciple each other, support one another, and most importantly depend on Jesus for strength. 
• New Missional Communities (MC): The Hallows calls small groups/bible studies "missional communities" in hopes we will be a group of people living life together outwardly (serving others/discipling others). So Wes and Sam have led a MC for the past year, but our group has grown so that we were able to multiple to two groups! Praise! Wes and I will begin leading one at our house and the other half will be lead by the Morgados' and Sam. All MCs will start the Tangible Kingdom Primer which Wes and I just finished going through with the other MC leaders... it is great and as I mentioned before I highly recommend it for a small group study. We pray that the multiplication of MCs continue....the Hallows currently has 4 and possible 1 more in the works! 
• Wes' new leadership role: This Sunday Wes will be appointed as an elder in the church. He will start as the new Pastor of Missional Ministries. I am of course very proud of him but also excited as he  already enjoys helping/serving the church anyway he can. Andrew is very busy and hopefully Wes will be able to relieve him of some workload. Basically Wes will be overseeing the missional communities, recruiting/working with the short-term mission teams, and any outreach done here in Seattle. He told me to tell you all to please pray for him but also to hold him accountable. Though Wes will have more responsibility, fortunately this job's hours are flexible and will still allow Wes to continue to be home with Leighton while I am at work. 

Here are some pictures of a recent church wide BBQ we had at the Hartman's house....(pictures curtesy of Kari)

Wes really enjoyed paddle boarding 

What has the coolest member of the Moore family been up to over the past 2 weeks.... talking talking talking! I promise every day she says a new word and is now putting a couple words together to make small sentences such as "hold me", "bite please", "call Papa", and she even said "i love Mommy" (best day ever). She is a small sponge right now which also means Mommy and Daddy have to watch what we say! 

take out all her toys from her wagon then get in = fun game

mini gray jeggings needed to be shared

 Leighton also began school this fall (yes school at 15 months) for year 2 in the Ballard Co-op program. Just like last year the parents stay the entire 2 hours and we attend once a week. She is in the toddler class and most of the kids returned from last year so it was neat to see how they all had changed over the summer!

1st Day of school 

at school with Ty

Snack time

looks like Leighton got all the boys to get in the boat with her... Im surprise her Daddy allowed this... 

Lastly, cheerios never get old with Leighton. Goldfish are still the preferred "crackers" as she calls them but cheerios take a close 2nd. 

 And bath time is still fun! 

Have a good weekend! Wes and I have talked friends from Hallows into going on a camping trip with us this weekend so hopefully we will all have a safe and fun time... Ill post pictures of it when we get back!
Here are a few videos I received at work today. You can see her little personality. She is sweet but also can be  aggressive and forceful with talking about animals or pointing out things. She repeats what she says till we say the word back to her, confirming her.