Happy Halloween!

The kids have been sooooo excited for Halloween, and I think they had a good night!
We went to Trunk or Treat at church and then went around with some friends in their mothers neighborhood. It was fun to see the kids so excited and dressed up.
Jaysa was so cute as after about 4-5 times of seeing people put candy in her bucket she started to get the hang of it and put it out for them herself. And boy, she did not want anyone touching her bucket! John has been really excited as I have been making his Thomas the Train outfit this week and he was watching every thing I did. We were so surprised by some friends of ours who made the buckets for the kids and gave them to Jim at work. What a cute gift!
Jim's parents have been here for a bit helping out with things around the house and with the kids. It was a lot of fun to have them here and we were sad to see them go, especially John as he spent his last week working with Grandpa and having the best time. This week we also went to a Japanese steak house and the kids loved our funny cook. They couldn't believe he cooked right in front of us.


Trick or Treat














John helping Grandpa

OK, OK, OK

I have been receiving many emails requesting an update :) I am so sorry to our faithful readers, that there has been no update for so long. So where to start? Juliana has been doing really well in school. She is surprising everyone at how fast she is learning and catching up to other students. She really is a very smart girl. On her report card she had 1 A 2 B's and a C. And she has continued to do better in her spelling and vocabulary which has been her hardest subject. Her favorite day is Monday because that is music day and she is learning to play the recorder. She is not allowed to bring it home, so I have not heard her play but she talks about it all the time. She has played soccer this fall and we are so proud of her. Her games have been fun to watch and she says she likes it when we are yelling at her from the sidelines helping out. I never thought I would be a mom that does that because I always hated it when my parents did it, but there I am jumping out of my seat and shouting, (sometimes) :) She still has her moments of testing us, but she is such a beautiful, sweet, smart girl and we have continued to be amazed at what God is doing in her life!
John is such joy! It has taken him a little longer to catch up understanding and speaking English but he is off and running now. He is such a talker and talks about everything. There hasn't been a day though that he hasn't gotten in trouble for doing something crazy like, putting rocks in the toilet or hanging on the towel rack and pulling out of the wall and making a big hole. One day he decided to go through the mail on the counter and riped everything up. We are on number 6 times of writing on the wall or couch with whatever he finds. He is definitely a boy. He too has been playing soccer, if you can call holding hands with his girl teammate and running up and down the field, playing soccer :) The one time he actually kicked the ball it was into the other teams goal. I think we will wait a little bit longer before we put him in another sport. I just don't know that he will be playing many sports. He is very good at putting things together like puzzles and loves to help his Dad work out in the yard. He goes to preschool one day a week and loves it!
Jaysa has started the terrific 2's. She had a birthday 3 weeks ago and we have started getting her interested in potty training. I have discovered this is going to be fun (not). She is such a cutie though and is interested in everything. She loves her brother and copies everything he does. One great praise report is that a few weeks ago I took her back for more x-rays of her hip and the Doctor said she is fine, no more hip dysplasia!! She has been sleeping great without her brace.
Jim and I have been enjoying being parents to these three wonderful kids. I don't think we could have been blessed with better kids. With every new day we feel more and more like we have been together all along. I will admit that some days have been tough for me. I thought I would immediately feel like a mom and it has taken me a little longer to get settled into my new life as a stay at home mom to 3 kids. I have been learning so much and I love that Gods mercies and grace are new every morning! Especially when I have a bad day, it gives me such joy knowing that tomorrow is a new day and new opportunity to do things differently!
Here are some recent picks!

At a friends wedding


Happy B-day Jaysa!









My parents stayed with the kids while I went on a business trip with Jim to Arizona. Our first time without the kids. They did great and it was such a fun time for us!




My mom had a bag of figs and Jaysa preceded to eat the whole bag by keeping her mouth full of them. It was quite funny:)


My happy Boy!


A good friend of ours brought home there 2 precious jewels from Guatamala and we spent some time with them playing at the park. This is her oldest Fernanda! Isn't she a cutie :)

First Day of School!

Friday was Juliana's first day of school and she was SO excited. The night before she could not sleep and was up at 5:30 in the morning ready to go. She wanted to ride the bus but I had to talk with the bus driver to see where and when she would pick her her up so we all took her. It was a little strange being at home with just the younger 2. It felt like I had more free time but I didn't really. What I had was more individual time with my youngsters. It was a nice change that I have been looking forward to, but also sad as we said goodbye to our 3rd grader.
I went to pick her up and she was all smiles. The teacher had walked her out of school and talked with me for a few minutes and said that she did really good! I really like her teacher and am so thankful that she got her for her first school experience here. We definitely have a social butterfly on our hands as we went to the store afterwards and she saw someone she just met today and she was waving and saying hi like she was a long lost friend :)
Since I picked her up, she has been talking non stop about her day. While we were at the school I talked with the bus driver and Juliana wanted to get on it and ride it home instead of coming with me. I hope she continues to keep up her enthusiasm for school!
What a great blessing as we were a little worried how things would go for her, but I think she will do just fine!

Maybe we are doing something right.......

I know we have only been parents for 3 months now, but we often get hard on ourselves and wonder if we are doing anything right. Well tonight was a special night as Juliana said she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart! A few days ago I was having lunch with the kiddos and was talking to them more about Jesus and asked them why he died and where He lives. They didn't seem to know so we talked about it for a little bit. Later on Juliana said that she wanted to ask Jesus to come live in her heart. I told her that we can talk with Jim tonight and she said ok. When we were going to bed she didn't want to say anything about it so we just said ok. We were really wanting to make sure she understood and wanted to do it for her and not because we told her to. So we have been praying for her for a couple days and tonight she told Jim that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart to live. We prayed with her and used her spanish and english bible and read some verses to make sure she understood as much as posible. It was a precious moment!! August 2 2008. What a great day!

2 posts in 1 night!

There is just to much to share! So there has been a name change. 2 weeks ago Catalina came to Jim and told him she wants to be called Juliana. So we have been going back and forth with the 2 names. We finally told her she needed to decide which one she wanted and stick with it. So she said she wanted to be called Juliana! Of course we love the name and we all have names that start with a J so that worked out great. We haven't leagally changed her name yet so when we do we will be changing it to Juliana!
I also wanted to share some other pics of us on the water. The Sunday before last some friends invited us over for dinner and took us out on the water. We had a great time! Thanks guys!!

Road Trip # 2!

Can you believe we are at it again?! Jim had to work in Canada this last week so we decided to take another road trip and visit the other half of the family. We had a great time visiting with lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. The kids did great again in the car as we drove through the night they slept almost the whole time and then when we got to my In-laws we slept a bit while they watched the kids. The next day we went to church and they met lots of new people that had been praying for us and following our journey. On Monday Jims 2 brothers and their families came over and we had a crazy fun day as we had 10 kids under 8 running or crawling around. The kids had so much fun playing with the cousins!! We had one crazy day when myself my father in law and my oldest 2 went with my sister in law Heather and her 2, her sister and her 2 and her parents with 3 of her nephews to an awesome theme park. The only draw back was when it started to down pore and the kids only got to ride 3 rides. The rain never let up and of course me from the warm states thought it is the summer and it is always hot in the summer. Well it was cold and the kids and I were shivering in our shorts and t-shirts. All other canadians had pants on and had brought jackets. I ended up buying the kids a jacket, poor things. I guess I will be prepared next time :) We went to the mall for lunch and then went back home. We will defiinatly have to try it again some other time. It was great just spending time with family and made for some good crazy memories!





The fun hats Aunt Heather and Uncle Joe got :)



Dancing with Cousin Leila


Ten of the G-kids, Sorry we missed ya Nathan, Steven and Jessica


Learning to ride a bike on the second try!!!




At the park, the stores ran out of ponchos so the lady gave us bags :) The kids were such troopers!

Our sweet dog

Road Trip!

Man, I can't believe it has been this long since I posted last. I have been getting emails from friends telling me I better update or else.... :)
So, I took the 3 kids and the dog on an 11 hour road trip to Orlando to see my family. Everyone kept telling me I was crazy, but the kids did so good! Jim was very busy traveling to 5 different states in the 1 week, so I thought it was a good time to go. We left at 8:30 in the morning and got in at night with Jaysa sleeping only 20 minutes and listen to this, No TV (DVDs). I didn't really plan it that way but I started out wanting to see how long they could go before breaking out the dvd player and before I new it we were there! Jaysa did get fussy at times but I kept pulling out different toys and little snacks and for the most part that seemed to work.
My mom and I took the kids to Universal and Islands on monday only hitting the things for kids and they Loved it! I loved the fact that when we saw Shrek and Donkey, Donkey spoke spanish to them! It was so cute!! We had 2 days where we just stayed at the house, swam and did a little shopping. One day we had a lot of family and friends come by to meet the kids during the whole day, and the last day we went to Aquatica, which is Sea Worlds new water park and it was SO much fun!
We are back now and my mom is here for a few days. It feels good to be back home and the kids did pretty well. So here are some pics!









My Little Princessa


Catalina dancing in the streets with the entertainers waiting on Shrek








The 2 kids with Tio Shaun


They had a lazy river where you went by a fish tank and also the dolphin area and Catlaina and Mami Loved watching the Dolphins!!