Savannah's Day!

by Amy

I can hardly believe my daughter is eight years old!!! I remember exactly where I was when I found out I was pregnant (finally!). I remember how swollen my ankles got as I traveled to Louisville, Nashville, and Texas a month before she was born. I remember being 38 weeks along and going to a youth retreat at the YMCA camp in Estes Park and falling down because I slipped on some loose gravel. We ended up at the hospital just to make sure everything was still OK. Then, I remember holding her for the first time on July 12, 2002 (after working for over 15 hour to get her out!)

Although I could go on and on retracing Savannah's eight years of life, I won't. I'm afraid even her grandparents would get bored! So, we'll move on to this year's festivities! When we were in the States last year, I found a crown cake pan to use on Savannah's eighth birthday! So, that what we used. This year she asked for a yellow cake, not chocolate (crazy, if you ask me!) And, she wanted to help me ice it, until her hands grew tired of squeezing, that is!

I think it turned out OK. I prefer brighter, bolder colors, but this is OK too.

On the morning of her birthday, after eating coffee cake for breakfast, we opened a few gifts. Then, while the kids played, I packed a picnic lunch so we could head to a local swimming pool for the day. This pool is about as good as it gets here. It's outdoor, so the water's not freezing (like most hotel swimming pools here.) But, being outdoors means it's pretty dirty. (One pool was so cloudy that even though it was less than 3 feet deep, we couldn't find the goggles Peter dropped.) But, my kids don't seem to mind the dirt or hazy water! They love it! Savannah's favorite part is the big "speed slide."

They only turn the water on the slides for about 10 minutes every 2 hours, but Savannah was quick to run over there and slide as many times as she could in 10 minutes! Peter and Alex did it a few times too, but they definitely didn't love it as much as Savannah did. They preferred the smaller slides. These slides didn't have water running on them continually either, but when they came on, they usually stayed on for 20-30 minutes.
They enjoyed making a "train" on the way down, but all three kids' favorite way to ride down was....

Yes, my boys are each sitting on Brad's back, riding down the slide. Crazy! What a great daddy! After sliding they had fun trying to catch the ring or ball as Brad threw it and they jumped in.


I think we stayed there for over four hours. Clearly fun was had by all!

When we got home, we showered up and ate nachos for dinner - Savannah's choice. Then, we enjoyed birthday cake and opened a few more gifts. I praise the Lord for my dear Savannah Lea. She's growing into quite a godly young woman!

Love is in the Air....

by Amy

For the last several months, we’ve had a budding romance on our hands…. Actually, one has turned into two.... As I look back, I’m not exactly sure when it began, maybe around Christmas? I began to notice Alex and Emma often choosing to sit together; Alex would tell her how pretty her clothes were and hold her hand as we walked places together. Then, he began to make comments like, “Mom, I really like Emma….I like to protect Emma, like I’m her big brother….Emma’s pretty….” And, from what I understand, Rachel was hearing quite a few comments at her house as well! (At first Emma claimed she liked to sit close to Alex because he had warm skin! -- it's true, he's my little heater!)

Over the last few months, as Emma and her family were preparing to head back to the States, our families have been spending extra time together. You know, we gotta get the play time in while we can! About two months ago, Rachel and I took our kids to a play place and out to lunch. I began to notice that not only were Emma and Alex walking and sitting together, but Samantha was calling after Peter, asking him to hold her hand, and sit by her. It seems that while the girls were at home, Samantha wanted to write notes and color pictures for someone special like Emma was doing for Alex. So, naturally, she chose Peter. (Thankfully, Savannah is taken with helping Aunt Rachel watch one-year-old Abby, so it all works out.) Peter happily went along with it all.

I cannot even begin to explain how many times the four parents have sat back laughing so hard as we watch our kids together. I guess the fact that they're all between the ages 4 and 6 make this kind of behavior funny, not concerning. Give them a few more years, and we'd have to set up some serious boundaries!

So when Rachel took pictures at the birthday celebration, she got quite a few cute ones of our kiddos together. These will give you a glimpse of what we've been seeing over the last several months..
This is our favorite! She didn't even see Alex and Emma in the background as she snapped this shot of Peter and Samantha! What cuties!
While most of the other kids sat on one row together behind the parents, Alex and Emma decided to sit together in front of us.

Even when we went to the park with all the kids, our kids chose to play together. It was sweet seeing them all laugh so hard together!

I know it's a long way off, but if I could somehow sign on the dotted line right now to insure that these are the girls my boys would marry, I'd do it in a heartbeat!

Birthday Fun

by Amy

On Monday, two of our dear friends went back to America. One family will be there for a year or so. The other family will come back in a few months, but then just a few weeks later, they’ll move to a new city. So, before everyone parted ways, we decided to have a party! This party was actually in honor of all the kids’ summer birthdays. We celebrated Peter and Alex turning 6, Savannah turning 8, and Chloe and Samantha turning 4. Makaria’s also turning 2, but she opted for a nap instead of the party!

The party began last Tuesday afternoon when we all met at a movie theater that was showing a 3D version of Toy Story 3 in English! What a great flick! All 10 kids and 8 adults thoroughly enjoyed it! I think Becky gets the reward for laughing the hardest! It was a super cute movie! Peter, Alex, Savannah and I enjoyed decorating brown paper sacks for each of the kids and filling them with movie treats before we met together! Fun times were had by all!

Here the kids are doing their best, Buzz Light Year imitation!

To Infinity and Beyond!

After the movie we headed across the street to play at the Five Dragons Park. Since it was a Tuesday afternoon, the park was fairly empty. This park is super fun because the kids can play in shallow spring water. (Our family went here last year to celebrate Peter and Alex's birthday.) After singing Happy Birthday and eating some rainbow cupcakes, the kids (and a few brave adults) enjoyed spraying each other and splashing around!

Here are a few pics of some precious kiddos! Our lives are so blessed by these families!

It was a super fun day! I’m thankful for the sweet memories we were able to make before our friends left town.

**All pictures on this post are complements of Rachel and her fancy, high-tech camera. I guess I'll have to start using my own camera now that you're back in the States.... ;)

The Things Kids Say.....

by Amy

So after taking our kids to see Toy Story 3 earlier this week, Brad asked each of our kids, “If you could only take one toy with you to college, what would you take?” Savannah thought long and hard, and finally decided on Amanda. Amanda is a baby doll that Grandma bought her when she was 2.5. Savannah named her Amanda after her newly born cousin. Alex decided he’d take Ringo the raccoon, his favorite little beanie baby. Peter had a hard time deciding and finally said, “I think I just want to take Alex. I like playing with him best!”

And, just a few minutes ago, when Peter finished playing with Legos, he came to tell me that Legos are his fifth favorite thing. Intrigued, I asked what was first, second, etc… This is the list I got:

1 1. God

2. 2. Snuggles

3. 3. Samantha

4. 4. Astros

5. 5. Legos

6. 6. His bike.

I’d say that’s a pretty good list!

Happy Astros Day!

by Amy

....Or should I say, Father's Day?

Brad always gets the shaft on Father's Day. We've usually done so much celebrating right before Father's Day that he's ready to be done. After Mother's Day (which never gets shafted) we have Peter and Alex's birthday. Two days later is Brad's birthday. Then, June 19, is our wedding anniversary. So, by the time Father's Day rolls around, we're all celebrated out, and he insists on not making a big deal out of it!

But this year, we did celebrate with more than our normal homemade cards. We had an Astros Party! A sweet friend in the States mailed us tons of fun Astros stuff for the summer birthdays in our family. (My birthday's in December, and I still got a t-shirt - and lots of other fun stuff!) But, instead of revealing the Astros goodies on their birthdays, I saved it for Father's Day. My kids thought it was pretty cool to get to open presents on Father's Day. :)

Clearly, Alex needs to get a few hat-wearing-tips! His ears don't normally look like that!

After eating breakfast and opening presents, we went outside to play baseball! - As everyone should when having an Astros party!

Then, we went down to a new restaurant that opened. It's called Dairy Kiss. They sell hot dogs and ice cream! So, once again, when celebrating Dad's and Astros, everyone needs to stuff a few hot dogs and enjoy some tasty ice cream! When we finally got home and took showers, everyone was pretty beat. After the kids played Astros UNO, we finished off our celebrating by drinking homemade lemonade in our new Astros cups, while watching the Astros Championship Season DVD!

It was a fun day and a great way to celebrate a such a wonderful daddy!

Happy Day!

by Amy

This past Tuesday we celebrated the SIX years of life the Lord has given my two boys! How in the world did they go from this:

to this:

It just doesn't seem possible that so much change can happen in such a short period of time! We praise the Lord for the ways our boys are maturing and growing in godliness. They have brought so much joy and fun into out lives! What sweet gifts from above.....

Enough reminiscing.... Let's get on to the celebrating part! I spent the better part of Monday (and some of Sunday) preparing for the fun! When we were in the States last October, I bought some red and black icing so I could make their cakes. (True red and black are hard to make on your own. My red either turns our pink or else I used so much dye that it tastes horrible.) The cakes didn't turn out perfectly, but my boys didn't seen to notice. They were thrilled! I didn't let them see me working on the cakes, so even though they knew the theme of each cake, they weren't sure how they'd turn out!

After looking at the cakes and enjoying a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, we moved on to opening gifts. Typically, gift opening is an all day event in our home. My kids don't like to rush it. They like to open, then play, open, then play.... So, that's exactly what we did. We opened a few gifts, then played until lunch.

After doing a Webcam call with Brad's mom and letting her see the boys open the gifts she sent, we ate lunch. I let Peter choose our lunch menu. He asked my househelper to make Sweet and Sour chicken. Brad and I had decided we'd let the kids eat a little cake after lunch and a little more after dinner. But, since my kids ate SOOOO MUCH lunch, they didn't want any cake! No problem.... we moved on to the next event of the day.....

Buying bikes!! When we were in the States, both Peter and Alex learned how to ride a bike (w/o training wheels.) So, since then, Savannah has been happy to let them ride her bike. Three kids -- one (pink) bike.... We decided that with summer here, it would be fun to let them all three have their own bikes. So, we took the boys to Wal-mart and found two fun bikes, just their size! Then, we walked over to the local square to ride around. It was super fun! They had a few spills, and Peter even ran into one old man, but all in all, they did pretty well!

After riding bikes and playing with a new SUPER COOL boomerrang, we headed home for showers, a few more presents, a dinner of spaghetti (Alex's choice!) and CAKE! Mmmm!!

We all had a great time celebrating Peter and Alex and praising the Lord for the life He's given them!

Playin' Hooky -- Again

by Amy

I'm not sure that I'm well suited for homeschooling. Don't get me wrong.... I love to teach and I love my kids BUT....I'm a sucker for a pretty day. When it's a nice day outside, I can't stand to be inside! So, I'll throw school out the window and go play! That's exactly what we did yesterday. It was sunny and relatively cool (not in the 90s yet), so it was the botanical gardens for us! We played, explored, climbed rocks, rode a few rides, ate a picnic lunch, and had a great time! Aunt Becky even came along for the fun! Since it was Tuesday, the park was not too crowded - always a bonus in my world!

So, here are a few pics for your viewing enjoyment!

I like this picture of Peter because he specifically called me over to take this picture. He's pretty cute, even if he doesn't show his teeth when he smiles. :)

Here's Savannah and Peter as their "roller coaster" is about to start moving.

I like this guy....

I didn't take this picture of Savannah while we were at the park, but it was too cute not to include on a post. I can't believe how my girl is growing up!