Finally

A Birthday Party for Alisia!
Yes, reality of being home quickly set in. The stress didn't actually hit me until Saturday as we were getting ready for Alisia's party. I started feeling like I had a week worth of work to do all in a few hours. My family rocks though, and put up with a gripey momma. We all pitched in to get it done. I'm so glad it was worth it! We all had such a fun evening!




Alisia's cake was sooooo good! My mom got it from Stone Cold Creamery. It's called the Cheesecake Name Desire.

No hard feelings!


This party was mainly for family and she invited 3 friends. The Meza's are long time friends of ours and count as family.


Boys will be boys! (Playing PlayStation)

After the party was over, we took some family pictures outside:

All the girls in our family!



Crazy friends


Or as they'd rather be called, "The Fabulous Friends."


After the party was over, 9 of us walked down to the church and played four square and then played hide-n-seek in the dark. I think that was the best part of the day for me! I haven't done that in such a long time! When was your last time?

Home Again

I love this sound of the kids playing and laughing outside. It is a beautiful evening and we are just enjoying it outside together. It's so nice to be home to my beautiful family.....

Birthday Wishes from Afar

Today Alisia turned 9 yrs old! It took all I had to concentrate in my training! I've never spent a birthday away from either of my kids and don't plan on doing it again for a long long time. I'm so glad that she had a great day! Once again I have to thank my husband for that. He took her bowling, out to eat and my parents and grandparents joined. My heart sank each text-pic I recieved throughout the day, but here they are! Tomorrow my mom's going to take her and Caleb to see Alvin and the Chickmunks! HAVE FUN GUYS! Of course, I wish I could be there! I can't wait to celebrate with you on Saturday!

DC Day Trip

Our family went to Washington DC to drop Julianne, a friend from church. We decided to make a day of it and walked around on the mall and toured some museums. We had a good day and Caleb was excited to compare some of the monuments to Popi's dollars. Then we just had fun taking some goofy shots! Just look what a beautiful day it turned out to be!


We got the kids some DC souvenir t-shirts.



DC Fun Pics

Reflections

"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done."
1 Chronicles 16:8

My heart overflows with thanksgiving as I count the many blessings the Lord has given me.

I wake up this morning to breakfast on the table and decorations by my seat. Homemade cards and carefully drawn pictures. My children's faces eager to make this a special day for me. I was off from work, Angel was off and we are all going to spend the day together. What more could I ask for? I am thankful.

I was surrounded this evening with love. My family around me. My husband and kids. My parents and grandparents. My sister-in-law and my nephew (and those who could not be there). The relationship I have with my family. Christian examples I look-up to for the example I am to my own kids. Generations of God's faithfulness. I am thankful.

Emails and voice-mails from friends. Encouragement. Love.

The gift of His son. The Ultimate Sacrifice. Dying on the cross for my sins is far beyond my comprehension. But I am grateful.

He has called me to Himself in a way I cannot keep to myself. Let the nations know of His mercies.

Thank you Lord for life in you. Thank you for another year.

A New Project

Not that we need anything else to keep us busy this summer, but we finally decided to go ahead and paint Alisia's room! When we moved in, we weren't sure how long we would be living here, but it's already been two years! We have no idea how long we'll be living here, so we just decided to go ahead and do it! We're not done yet, but it looks so good. Now the rest of rooms in the house look like they haven't been painted in forever. Check back later for the finnished product!

Work Hard, Play Harder

My wonderful, hard-working husband helped my parents mulch over the weekend. He was also busy teaching Caleb tricks of the trade. Caleb seemed to love it! Learning from Papi is the best!

It was so hot on Saturday I took the kids to the river to cool off while Popi was helping my parents outside. The water was ice cold and felt soo good.

Gracie Wants to Play!

We've been having fun playing with Grammy and Grandpa's dog named Gracie. I love being able to play with her for a while and give her back when we're done. Alisia has realized that having a dog IS a big responsibility! I think she likes Alisia the best because she sees her so much and Alisia does a good job giving her attention. She follows Alisia around everywhere. Here's some proof. I guess that since Gracie is a puppy she loves the swing and slide! It is so funny how she wanted to get on with Alisia!

Gracie wants to slide:


Gracie wants to swing:

Holiday Weekend Fun

I was trying to find something free to do with the kids on the 4th. First we went to the SPCA and it was closed. Then we went to the library and it was closed! SO right across the street from the Library, we checked out You Made It. It is rather expensive, but we decided it was worth it! We each made a plate. Alisia and Emily made flowers on their plates and wrote words. Caleb used stamps. He did the whole thing himself, except pushing the stamp on the plate. I helped him do that so it wouldn't smear over the whole plate. It was a lot of fun right before the parade started.

On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Hershey Park. It was a beautiful day! The whole family was able to go except for my dad because he had to work. It was everyone's first time there and we had a great time together. I love being able to have fun as a group, but also go off and enjoy your own thing.

We were thankful the lines weren't long! The boys did great waiting their turn!

Alisia tried her first roller coaster! I don't know if she was more nervous or if I was! I was squeezing her hand the whole time as she sat right beside me. I heard her screaming...then all of the sudden she stopped! She said she had to close her eyes.

Alisia ended up doing 4 more roller coasters after that. She's getting soo big!

It was such a beautiful day, the water rides felt soo good!

A Taste of Heaven

We have some fun updates from our weekend. But I probably won't get to it today.

Please take a moment and read this post from a dear sister in Christ. Years ago she was one of my youth group leaders and I've always admired her beautiful family, her beautiful voice and ability to lead in worship. Now, as a breast cancer survivor, I admire her even more for being so real in her faith and trials. This post is such a beautiful reminder of how much God loves us and that we don't have to go through trials alone. I'm so thankful for the glimpses of heaven God gives us such as the picture she describes of believers lifting eachother up in prayer. It makes me long for heaven even more. It drives me to "tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love."

A Message from Miss America

"Happy July 4th"

WALL-E

We took the kids to see WALL-E this past weekend. It was a cute movie that has a great theme that can really get discussion going about taking care of God's creation and what we can do to help. This evening, we walked up and down our street and took an hour to cleaning up trash! We turned it into a game and actually had a lot of fun doing it. What a great way to have some fun, and teach a great lesson about caring for our planet at the same time!