We r in the car racing for Kansas. 4 kids, 1 Melissa, 4 outfits each that we will wash multiple times, Tylenol for the kid with the fever, tons of bungeed down gear and care packages. So what do we do? We stop. We gotta eat, right? Texas Roadhouse is how we kicked off 24 hours of sitting. Snowing at home and we race for some thaw.

This picture is of Elliott at Texas Roadhouse experimenting with a lime. We cautioned him that if he kept it up, his eyes might actually fall out.

SWEET HOME ALABAMA
We are on our way south, ladies and gents.  We are on a two week spring tour with concerts in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.  Check our calendar to see if we are anywhere near you or anybody you can think of that might like to come out and see us.  Now for the etc….

ESTHER SPARKS

We have been working in the studio with our friend, Esther Sparks, this month and that has been a hoot.  She needed some finishing work on a worship project she has been cooking up for a year now and it is almost done.  We will keep you posted and you will love it.

MICHELLE'S PARENTS
Michelle's parents got to town last night!  They are going to live 6 months here in Colorado and the other six in Canada and we are so excited we could screeeeeeeeam!!! We have never had them this close before and it feels like a little bit of heaven on earth.

FREE DOWNLOADS
Make your way to our free downloads page and you can get a peek at some of our recent concert footage.  We have included one here as a sampler.  Tell us what you think.

COMING SOON-DOWNLOAD CARDS!!!
We are conducting an experiment in product sellage.  We have run out of stock of So High and Odds and Ends and will soon run out of Birth.  Rather than reprinting 1000's of copies of cd's, we have put together a couple of compilations (a worship/devotional one and a "best of" collection). We are printing download cards and selling these compliations only as the cards.  We wonder, will people like these as well as they like the hard copies?  We sure hope so.  They should be out within the week and we will let you know how to get ahold of some.  All of your favorite Barry and Michelle songs in one place….yessss!

More often than not, people are so kind to us.  We have experienced more generosity and kindness from a greater percentage of people than most.  Most times, we never get a chance to be as generous back.  We usually say a heartfelt, blown away "Thank you!" and that's about as good as we can do.  This year, that will be different.  We can feel it.  We get to start with Abigail Maynard.

Here's why we should be thankful to her….since she was a pre-teen, she has been giving us her time, love and help.  She is gifted with children and her parents would lend her to us for weeks at a time, to serve us.  She gave us her spring breaks.  She toured with us in an overpacked minivan.  She held, fed and rocked babies for countless hours.  She played toys and played toys and played toys.
  She stayed home when we played out.  She came out one Thanksgiving to help us pack up and move out of our home.  She spent a good portion of her teen years giving to us and living with us. (She is, BTW, one of 3 Maynard girls that have given to us this way – how did we score this?!)

Even though we are in denial about it, Abigail is all grown up.  She has been singing and writing songs for a few years now and has rapidly progressed as an artist.  We have been listening to her for the last couple of years and wanting to encourage her.  We love her voice and writing and believe in her abilities.

Finally, we have a chance!  She is here with us in the snowy woods for about 10 days to record her debut cd. 
We want you to get a chance to hear her so check this one out…g.l.u.e.  Thank you Abby and we are so excited to see you launched!  We'll keep you updated on Abby's cd release date.

On a sadder note, we have walked with close friends through some serious grief in the last weeks.  Our friends, Tony Vilgiate and Joy Oram lost their mother, Carol DePasquale after about a year long battle with a brain tumor and surgery repercussions.  Carol was Elliott's Cubbies teacher at AWANA's.  She also reached out to Michelle is a really personal way when Michelle's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of summers ago.  Carol invited Michelle over to spend some time with her, since she had been through breast cancer recently.  She gave Michelle peace of mind and heart as she explained the whole process and reassured her that is wouldn't be nearly as scary as Michelle thought. That visit was a gift.  We lost Carol on New Year's Day.  The memorial was one of the hardest events we have ever sung at, but it pushed our hearts towards our own families with new attention and love.  Tony, Christina, Joy, Ben, Timmy, Dominick, Christopher, Lily, Alex & Steve, we honor your Carol and pray for your grieving hearts.

Yesterday we arrived at The Abiding Place for a house concert with our friends, Bob & Teresa Nix. The Abiding Place is a retreat and counselling center set in woodsy beauty. The kids got a chance to run around outside and get in a quick paddle boat ride before dinner and they were elated.

As Sam has been rather distracting the last couple of nights, we tucked him into bed before the concert. We were halfway through our first song before we saw him. Sitting in a chair in the middle of the crowd, cleverly disguised as an audience member. Out of bed. Teresa managed to keep him happy for a while until he could no longer be contained and we let him go play upstairs. No sooner was he released than we heard a catastrophic banging that stopped our hearts. Sam had knocked a HUGE clock off of the wall and it was rolling down the stairs at high speed. He could have had his block knocked off.

Inspite of all of that, we had an awesome time with the folks at the concert and even got to hear from them about what God was saying to them throughout the evening. Some were hearing to trust God in a “lean back and enjoy the ride” kind of way. Some were worshipping him for His creativity. One kept hearing the word “adjustment”. Michelle was hearing that the desires of her heart were becoming earth shaking prayers as she began to speak them. It was an amazing exchange and we treasured it.

We ended the tour at Vinelife Church in Huffman, TX. Vinelife is an old stomping ground of ours and such a fun place to finish. We really feel like ourselves there and were able to worship and communicate naturally among friends.

Now we are back in the suburban on the way to a few days off. We are going to the beach to relax and play with our kids. They deserve it…so do we:)!