Happy New Year!

And I guess Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas too! These last few months have gone by so fast. I keep thinking we forgot to celebrate Christmas even though I know we did. So, we went to Florida and had Thanksgiving with my(Jaime)family. It is a lot of fun celebrating the holidays with kids. The kids got to experience the Beach for the first time and loved it! Juliana turned 9 on the 11th of November and I can't believe it. She seems like she has grown up so much in the 8months we have had them. She is coming along well with her English and as her New Years resolution she said she wanted to learn Spanish! We are sad that she has lost so much of her Spanish, but we were told they would, so we practice what we can.

The month of December was a lot of fun teaching the kids Christmas songs and reading the story of Jesus Birth over and over. The day before Christmas I was going over the gifts for the kids and I saw the gift my mother in law had bought the kids about "What does God want for Christmas?" And I thought wouldn't it be neat to leave it under the tree and say it was a gift from Jesus. So everyone got in the car for Christmas eve service and I quickly laid it there on my way out. When we got back the kids noticed it and they were so surprised that Jesus would give them something. They opened it up and there was a story and 7 little boxes and each had a character of the manger scene, except for the last one. It was getting to the point about What God wanted for Christmas and when they opened the last box it was a mirror. God wanted them for Christmas! They were so excited and continued to talk about and tell everyone that Jesus gave them a gift and that what he wanted for Christmas was them. That had to be the highlight for Jim and I!
My parents came up after Christmas and stayed for the week and had a great time spoiling the kids. Between them, Santa, In-laws and other family the kids got a trampoline, train set, baby dolls, clothes and many other things. They had a great time celebrating their "first Christmas with their family."
We rang in the New Year with Fireworks of course, even though we didn't make it all the way to midnight. We are excited to see the new things that God is going to do with us this year. We are taking a group from our church down to Guatemala in April to work in an orphanage of about 400 kids for the week and are very excited. Juliana is looking forward to helping the kids and to learn Spanish again :) John is such a happy kid and so sweet. He is speaking English very well and continues to amaze us. Jaysa is still in the terrific twos and I am really struggling with the potty training thing. I didn't realize how difficult it can be. One week she does great then the next she refuses it. So I am starting something different that will hopefully help. She is growing up fast and through her sometimes gibberish she is speaking a lot now. One of the best days I have had with the kids so far was the day that it snowed and school was cancelled. There wasn't a lot of snow where we were but 10 minutes in town there was a lot. So I got the kids ready and we went to the park and played in the snow for about 2 hours. Juliana said "you must be the only cool mom around here" because there was nobody else out there having fun. I was so surprised there wasn't anybody else out, but after a couple hours of fun we went back home, cleaned up a bit, had lunch then snuggled on the couch with hot chocolate and watched a movie. It was the perfect day! No fighting or disobeying, just pure fun!!
We are continually challenged yet incredibly blessed raising our kids. We are just amazed looking back at how far they have come. Thank you all for your love and support!

Happy B-day Juliana!

John loved the Giant sandbox :)


My Perfect Day!





Merry Christmas!