Happy 1st Birthday Catia!!!

Our sweet little neice turned one today! She is so adorable and I just want to kiss all over her every time I see her. She is such a precious gift from God and I am so thankful to have her in our lives. Today was her birthday party and Michelle and Juan had a little sunshine party-since Catia is their sunshine :). These pics are from when she was first born and then just a week ago at the boy's birthday party. Isn't she just the cutest thing? She looks like a little doll!

You are loved!

I have some friends and family going through some difficult times right now and just know you are so loved. I hope this song reminds you that the Lord loves you so much and will always be a light in the darkness.

Our big girl is officially a 3rd grader!

Thursday was Lauren's last day for her home school class. She is officially a 3rd grader now!!! We still have some things to finish at home and will continue with some school over the summer, but she is a 3rd grader! I just have to share how amazing God is in the way he blessed us with her teacher. Last year when Lauren was in first grade she had a different teacher at the beginning of the year. Well about 1/2 way through her teacher had to leave which brought Rosemary to us. She was a home schooling mom who ended up taking over the home school classes and putting her kids in full time at Surrey. Lauren was crushed at first when her previous teacher left, but she fell in love with Mrs. B in no time. It turns out that Rosemary's (Mrs. B) husband is active duty Air Force, is a pilot and we have mutual friends in the Air Force! We were both actually stationed at the same base in OK. At the time I was really struggling with missing the active duty military life (the community and friends...not deployments). It was like God placed her in our path at just the right moment...not just for me :), but for all of our children. She is truly a blessing to Lauren and to our family. This will probably be her last year here, because they will most likely be moving next year. We are enjoying every second we have with her! She makes Lauren's class so special and truly loves each of the children. Thanks Rosemary!!!

Video Reminder!

For those of you who want to watch the videos...don't forget to turn off the music that is playing so you can hear the video. I try to change out the song every couple weeks, but you can't miss hearing the funny stuff on the videos!

Peach Picking with the kiddos!

2 Fridays ago we went peach picking . It was great, because we could drive right up to the orchard, grab a box and start picking. The kids had a fabulous time. The boys especially enjoyed finding sticks and digging in the dirt. We found some peaches that looked like 2 that had actually grown together and so they kept saying "let's find some interesting ones". It was a fun morning.

Swim party for Lauren!

The school where Lauren attends the home school program had an end of the year swim party. Lauren had the best time! Her friends are so sweet. The little girl in the red swimsuit is the sister of baby Briannah (the one I talked about in the previous post).

Happy 3rd Birthday to Cousins Dominic and Brennan!

Last Saturday we had Brennan and Dominic's 3rd birthday party! They are exactly 4 weeks apart, so we decided to do a joint party at Roly Pollies. Brennan's birthday is actually June 6th, so I am going to put the rest of the birthday pics and some pics of him as a baby on a slide show that day.

Creative Walmart Outfit for Joshua!

Joshua and Lauren had some quiet time together the other day. I gave them a whole box of dress up clothes (boys and girls) and this is what they came up with. I'd have to say they get an A+ for creativity! We were cracking up!

The Olsen Family and baby Briannah

I wanted to let you know about some friend's of ours...the Olsen Family. We met them this year when their 9 year old daughter Savannah joined Lauren's 2 day home school enrichment program this year. Lauren and Savannah became instant friends and we have just fallen in love with this precious family. Both Savannah and Hannah (her older sister) always have smiles on their faces. Anyways, their youngest daughter Briannah was born with an inoperable brain tumor and is now 2 1/2 years old. She is truly a miracle. She has been recieving experimental treatments that have actually been shrinking the tumor. Insurance will not cover it, because it is an experimental drug, so their costs are $6400/month. Mark (the Dad) just lost his job, because his comany just shut down his department. The Olsen family started a foundation to help raise money for these monthly treatments, but because Mark just lost his job it is going to be increasingly hard on them. Their faith never waivers though and they know that God has something better in store for them! I have a link to their website down on the right of this screen where is says the Olsen Family. When you go to their site there is a donation tab and there is also a section under "News" where it says "How you can help Briannah". They have a lot of needs, so if you feel led in any way to help I know they would be so grateful and blessed.

Day 7- Windsurfing lessons in St. Thomas

Eric planned for us to take wind surfing lessons in St. Thomas. I have to say..I think St. Thomas was the prettiest island. We didn't get a lot of pictures, because we were using our little water cameras (thanks Knights!) and I have to get them developed. The guy who taught us took pictures, but I don't see them on their website yet. Let me tell you...windsurfing is hard! We took a lesson for about an hour and then spent about 3-4 hours on our own practicing. My arms were pretty tired after, but it was a blast...at least for me and Katrina. For some reason the guys had a harder time turning it back around to get back to where you started. I think the guy that taught us (the girls) explained things a little differently and so it made it a little easier for us. Greg and Eric were determined though and didn't give up...I just think they didn't want us to show them up :). J/K- they were great! We saw a sea turtle, a couple star fish and I saw a sting ray.

This trip was such a blessing-especially knowing that our babies were well taken care of at Gramma and Papa's house! I was very ready to come home to them. The staff on this ship-especially our waitress Lui and our waiter Onur were just amazing-they truly had servant's hearts and made us want to come home and serve our families with that much joy and enthusiasm! Thanks Lui and Onur!

Day 5 and 6-Sailing and St. Maarten

Day 5 we sailed all day to St. Maarten. I actually took about a 3 hour nap that day! We were tired from staying up late and being so busy on the islands! I am definitely not complaining though! St. Maarten had beautiful water, but we decided that day to do a treetop adventure. We took a bus ride about 30 minutes to the French side of the island (there is a Dutch side and a French side). The bus ride alone was an adventure as the driver made it through these windy tiny little streets. The drivers are crazy there! I don't think I could drive there. Anyways, the place we went had zip lining and all these different cable bridges that you would cross over. We were with a huge group of people and of course being with the "IRONMEN" they wanted to go fast and time stuff, so we went to the front of the line and went first. I am scared of heights, but you are really well hooked in and I ended up really loving it. Here are the pics.

Day 4- Craziness is Curacao! If you want to laugh watch this video!

Greg planned the excursion in Curacao. We did an off roading tour of the island in these little dune buggys. It was so great, because we didn't plan it through the ship, so there were only 2 cars on the tour...ours and the tour guide with 2 other people. We went to a really neat cave and saw a ton of bats. Greg and Eric had us screaming for our lives while doing donuts in some flat areas. I was seriously praying that God would protect us. It was one of those times where you are screaming and laughing all at the same time. Our tour guide took us to the this private beach as well which was beautiful. We were absolutely disgusting after the off roading. You could carve pictures on our skin with all the dirt that was piled up! Here are the pics and the video of me screaming.

Day 3-Aruba..sailing, swimming, snorkeling and swinging

I planned the exursion in Aruba. We went on an 85 foot schooner that looked like a pirate ship. We got to swim, snorkel in a couple places, view a German ship wreck from WWII and then swing off of the side of the boat into the water. It was great! The water was actually pretty chilly-at least for me and Katrina. It was colder than I was expecting to be...but that is coming from an Arizona girl who is cold in water less than 85 degrees. Unfortunately our friend Eric busted his ear drum trying to do a back flip into the ocean off the swing. Eric knows that he perforated it, because he payed $200 to the ship doctor for a 5 minute visit to confirm it. Hopefully their insurance will reimburse him for it! He and Greg almost did the back flip, but finally ran out of time to keep trying. The staff of the boat were amazing with all the flips they did off this swing!

Day 2- Sailing to Aruba

This ship is beautiful. It was so nice to just relax at the pool. I can't remember the last time I did that. Fortunately there were 2 pools..one was just a quiet relaxing area and the other one was very loud and more of the party side. Not that we don't like the music, but let's just say it was a little more wild over there. SIDE NOTE-traveling with little eyes is probably not a great idea on a cruise, unless it is a Disney cruise. I was really glad we didn't have the kids on this cruise...I would have had to do a lot of explaining about what they might have seen on the cruise. Anyways, it was great to just relax that day, because all the other days we were just so busy on the islands and doing excursions. The ship was like a mall inside of it with shops on either side. It was HUGE! OH-yes it was very windy a lot of the time..that is why in most of the pics on the ship my hair is just out of control.

Day 1-Hiking..well running through the Rain Forest

The first day we were there we spent hiking through the El Yunque Rain Forest. Actually we ended up running most of the time (about 6 miles), because of limited time. We had to get to the ship that evening. It was beautiful and we got completely soaked! We thought we might see some really neat animals, but all we saw was a crab (??) and a huge snail. Oh-we did see a few birds too. It truly was amazing. We showed up at the ship looking awful..wet and muddy.

Our 10th Anniversary Cruise

We got back a week ago from our cruise to the Southern Caribbean. It was amazing! We had such a wonderful time traveling with our 2 precious and crazy friends Eric and Katrina. We were on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas ( 3rd largest cruise ship in the world). We flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico on Saturday May 3rd, spent the night and then left on our cruise on Sunday May 4th. I will fill you in on what it was like traveling with 2 ironmen (well one ironman and one ironwoman :)). If you don't know what the Ironman is...it is a GIGANTIC TRIATHALON THAT ONLY CRAZY PEOPLE DO! Just kidding! It is a race that is first a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and then a marathon. Both Eric and Katrina have completed them and we are so proud of them and of course they are both very competitive...sooo everything we did there had to be timed! Even going up the stairs was timed. I have to say I was just happy that I survived the first day of running around with them! OK- so here we go...Day 1.