Surprise!

Ok, so I haven't kept up with the blog as I had hoped to.

I'll give you a quick update... since I haven't updated you since November... yikes.

 On December 3, we celebrated Isaac's 

one year "gotcha day".

 On the 10th of December, we celebrated Jennai's

one year "gotcha day".

 Christmas came a little early at our house

since we would go to Florida to see

Abuela and Juani. 

They had not met Isaac and Jennai yet.

 On our way to FL, we stayed at a hotel in GA.

We got up and were getting ready to go down for breakfast

when the fire alarms went off.

The firemen let us look at the truck and took a picture with us.

No, the hotel was not really on fire.

 We spent Christmas day on the beach.

We had so much fun and want to go back.

Isaac keeps asking when we are going to the beach...

which in Indiana... it may be a while.

 We had a good visit with Abuela and Juani.

January 5, Guille lost his first tooth!

We were all beginning to think he was going to 

keep his baby teeth forever.

He lost his second tooth on Feb. 5.

The rest of them are hanging tight... not even loose!

 I have to brag a bit on Guille's math abilities.

He is in first grade and one day I taught him

multiplication 1 x 5... 3 x 5.  

The next day he asked for a piece of paper but didn't want 

me to watch what he was doing.  He said it was school work.

About 15 minutes later he brought me this paper.  

Not bad, huh? 

 Jennai got her FEET in January!!

She is SO excited to have feet and be able to wear 

SHOES!

She is still working on walking by herself. 

Nothing bends from the hip down, so it requires a

lot of muscle.  She will walk holding onto one hand,

but is still not quite ready to let go. 

I think once she does... she'll be running!

IF she's walking by herself by June 20, they said

they will get her knees this summer.  

(Yep, learn to walk all over again!)

So, we're praying that she'll decide to walk soon.

 Three in a row

 Chinese New Year

Getting them all to smile at the same time

can be challenging!!

 Jennai and Isaac

 Guille STILL likes shoveling.

He made an "adventure path" to the front door

this winter.  Lots of twists and turns.

In February, we were visiting in PA and Jennai

learned how to go up and down the stairs.

She's got quite the stomach muscles!

We got a used playset from the neighbors.

It needs quite a bit of work done,

but we are all working on it.

We will sure get a lot of use out of it!

"Cleaning" the back of the slide.

A little mud, a little water....

 I like this picture.

No special occasion, just "lined up" and being themselves.

Silly Easter picture.

 In PE class, the kids did rock climbing.

Guille quickly scaled the wall and rang the bell.

 Isaac was a bit more timid, though this picture

looks like he's getting right up there.

Jennai even got to take a turn.

Today we celebrate Guille's FIVE YEAR Gotcha day.

I have a picture of then and now, but I can't figure out how to add it.

Oh well, you can look back at his pictures from gotcha day

by clicking here:

2009/May/ GOTCHA.

That's all for now.  We'll update again SOMEDAY!

We're hoping to be able to do some fun things this summer, 

so until next time,  take care.

So much catching up to do...

OK, so I said I would try to update this blog a little more regularly.  Hmmf!

I don't know that ANYTHING has been "normal" for a very long time. 

But, we continue to press on with our daily lives.

I know I can't update on everything, but for starters, we have moved.

I don't remember if I mentioned that in the last post, but we listed our house in May and had an offer on it 10 days later.  We then began house hunting in Indiana and found a house that we all liked.  We didn't get possession of it until September 1, so it has been a loooooong summer of transition.  

Though we have boxes on boxes on boxes... we are starting to settle in.  

Here are some pictures from the summer.

 Safety first!

We spent a LOT of time in the car, traveling back and forth 

between PA and IN (with trips to IA and MI in there too).

Before we moved we spent as much time as we could with our friends.

 Picking dandelions

 These are for you.

 The kids set up their own farmer's market.

 We celebrated Isaac's 4th birthday with friends.

 We played with our speech therapist and friend, Gail.

 Gail even got into our "rocket" with us.

 We had picnics with dear friends.

 Decorated cookies together.

Took pictures of the fish, just in case they didn't survive the move.

Jennai was using a little refrigerator magnet as her camera.

She kept saying "Cheese, fish!"

Thankfully, the two fish that we brought, are fine and happy.

Then it was time to load up the car and head out.

It was a hard day for Guille and me, but we knew

we'd see our friends again... because we had left

a BUNCH of stuff at their house!

 July 4th weekend Isaac and Jennai met 

Gramma, Grampa and some of their cousins

for the first time.  

 We got to spend an afternoon with our friends,

who were also moving... from the west coast to the east coast!

I don't suppose they left a bunch of stuff at a friend's house

saying they'd be back to get it before long.

 We got to spend some time with some of the 

"second" cousins while we were at Gramma & Grampa's house.

The "oldest" and "youngest" of the cousins.

 The boys were happy to pick up walnuts.

 And Guille had fun swinging from the walnut tree branches.

 All three had fun playing at the playground near Gramma & Grampa's house.

Jennai even climbed steps so she could go down the slide by herself.

I took a movie of her sliding down, but can't play it on the computer.

Hopefully I can figure it out soon. I know you'd enjoy watching it.

Not liking the feel of mulch on her legs, the desire to play 

in the mulch won out.  She had such a fun time.

Isaac had fun playing, climbing and sliding too.

 SWEET corn!  The farmer gave Guille his own special ear.

 Fishing with Grampa and learning how to bait the hook.

We didn't catch anything, but had fun trying.

After not catching any fish, Guille and Isaac decided 

that playing in the lake was more fun than watching 

a fishing pole that didn't catch anything.

Jennai kept Gramma and Grampa entertained 

while the boys played in the lake.

 We went on a hay ride while visiting some friends

in IA and both Guille and Isaac got to drive the tractor.

Of course, Ray was right there with them. 

 We picked fresh tomatoes at Gramma and Grampa's.

 I found an old baby blanket and showed the kids how to wrap up the babies.

They thought it was quite fun.  So, I wrapped up ALL of my babies.

We drove out to see a wind farm.  Those windmills are quite tall!

 We finally got to start moving in to our new house.

Grampa and Jennai checked the damper on the fireplace.

 On our trip back to PA to get more of our "junk",

we decided to celebrate Jennai's 3rd birthday with our friends.

 The first snow of the season fell the day before Jennai's birthday.

The boys built a snowman as Jennai watched from the kitchen window.

Happy birthday, princess!  

More to come... I promise.