Awana celebrations

I can hardly believe it's time for year-end celebrations already (uh, maybe since I have another MONTH of school to do?!) but it is, and we celebrated at Awana for the last 2 weeks. Elizabeth got her first book award for Sparks. She's a good way into her second book for next year when she'll have her last year of Sparks.



Caleb also got his first book award for Cubbies. There are only 2 books in Cubbies and they do one each year. So next year will be his second year of Cubbies. He just loves it, and I am so thankful for the leaders and everyone who invests in him, because he is often shy and Cubbies has helped him overcome that tremendously. He loved his leaders too.

So Wednesday nights will be free for awhile....

PE for today

It's only mid-May and we're being bombarded with the 100's already. Ugh! So I finally decided it was warm enough to let the kids swim in their inflatable pool. (ya think?) These two love it. But...Emma screamed when I put her in. So she stayed in the bucket that we use to wash off feet. Maybe next time.... All was fine and dandy till I decided it was time for Emma's nap and we tried to go in the house. Luke had been home for lunch and when he left he locked us out! I always have my phone and keys, but I had put on my swimsuit too and so they were in the house. Not very helpful. So I told the kids we were not going to wait outside for 4 hours in 100-degree heat for Luke to return. We (not too gracefully) climbed over the fence and walked to the neighbor's house to use their phone! Hey, maybe it's God's way of nudging me to visit my neighbors more. After we got home I decided it's just too stinkin' hot and I turned on the air conditioner. Usually I try to wait till mid-June. At least I will enjoy the coolness for a few lovely hours and then turn it off in the evening.

why I don't blog more often...

So earlier I was getting ready to post about our trip to the beach house (which began 2 weeks ago...), when in walked this:

Luke and the kids were outside repairing the chicken coop on his day off. And apparently digging in the mud too.

And now it's entirely too late...

Trip to the ranch!

The next morning after bowling we took a field trip to a ranch where the kids learned a bit about ranch animals and also got to ride on horses. In her continuing spirit of trying new things, Elizabeth climbed right up on that horse. At first, they even let her walk the horse on her own, as you see above, which made me nervous because she's never been on a horse before. Eventually someone came and led the horse. Caleb also got to have a ride although he was led the entire time. They loved the animals and whole ranch scene, so I'm considering enrolling Elizabeth in a little day camp there this summer. They do have a homeschool class there on Thursdays, with more ranch learning and horsemanship. But right now we're committed to ballet, AWANA, T-ball. I think that's enough, but am willing to consider it for next year.

Emma loves birds. She followed the "quack quack"s (ducks) all around and then she saw these geese headed down the road and became extremely excited. She called them "quack quacks" too, and chased them until they ran into a horse corral. she was even flapping her arms. I think that in this picture she looks like she's one of their little gaggle waddling along. Very fun.

"Fun" activity...

Ian, Caleb, Elizabeth and Abby (Above)


A couple weeks ago our staff went bowling. We're trying this quarterly fun activity thing, so this was our first one. It was pretty fun, it was the first time our kids had been bowling, which means that I have not been bowling in over 7 years! So we went to the lanes at the student union at Fresno State, which are a good family place to go. At first Elizabeth said she did not want to do it, but since everyone there is like extended family, I said she had to She did, and she did so amazingly great! She beat everyone on her lane, including the grown-ups. Yes, the bumpers were up, but she still beat the grown-ups on her lane! And actually, she beat everyone on the staff except for Luke. Little miss competitor keeps saying that, sounding disappointed that she didn't beat Daddy too. I know as a child - and sometimes even now - I have a hard time trying new things, and I do not want her to have that same hang-up. So I am thankful that she was somewhat successful and also that she enjoyed it.


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A glorious day

Easter was truly a glorious day for us. I love celebrating Jesus' resurrection, and this year we satisfied my need for traditional celebration by attending First Presbyterian Church downtown on Easter morning. Most of the time I am fine with our very non-traditional church plant, but on Easter I very much enjoy celebrating with lots of people and singing joyous hymns. So we did! The kids even got dressed up in fun Easter clothes. Luke chose these dresses for the girls, and since he rarely expresses any preferences about the clothes I buy for them, I happily agreed and we bought them beautiful dresses this year.

The rest of our day was rather quiet at home, eating ham and potatoes and asparagus. Quiet, that is, other than the sounds of our neighborhood coming to life in springtime - people playing basketball at the park across the street and our neighborhood wheelchair man who blasts the tunes as he rolls by daily. (He won't speak to me, so I'm not sure what his name is.)

Our cherry tree is in full bloom and is quite beautiful and smells amazing. The bees think so too. Yesterday you could hear the buzz from several feet away, there were so many bees pollinating our tree. But on the day we took the picture with Elizabeth in the tree, it wasn't quite as warm out and not as fully blooming, so it was safe for her to climb in it.

A retreat

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we headed to World Impact's camp in the high desert, The Oaks for the W.I. West Coast Staff Retreat. This was the first one since we've been here (7 1/2 years). It was good, albeit tiring with three little ones who decided not to sleep well. There was a great speaker who is the director of YWAM in San Francisco but just returned from 25 years in India.

On Monday afternoon I got to hang out with Elizabeth and Caleb while Luke attempted to get Emma to nap. So we painted pottery, took 2 hayrides (we're on one above), decorated and ate cupcakes, and just enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. That was fun for me. I think we're finally about caught up on our sleep, although Elizabeth had to fight off a yucky cold after we returned. I hear lots of people in L.A. ended up sick too.

We also enjoyed yummy (and, I fear, very unhealthy) Oaks food and great child-care during the sessions by awesome volunteers. It was good to get away and fellowship with fellow urban missionaries.

Our little flower

Emma loves to dress up, so thanks to Target's $1 bins for these cute dress-up things. She's at such a great age - that I love anyway. And it's easy to enjoy her very laid-back happy personality. She's rarely angry - although she has started to express her will about things she can't have. She still loves to be the center of attention and to make us all laugh.

She is finally learning to talk, and it makes me laugh when she changes the way she says something. So far she can say words like "eye", "no", "bubble", "birdy", "baby", "what", and others I'm sure. She also says, "mmhmm" for yes right now.

There's also a picture here of Emma with Jonathan Zuniga, her "partner in crime". He's a couple months older than she is, and they take care of each other at babysitting, giving hugs and sharing toys. It's very cute. so enjoy our cutie!

A sad day.

I am feeling very sad about this still. Our dog contracted parvo virus and died Wednesday night. Apparently it can live in the soil or in rodents. So if he ate a mouse..... He was very sick Wednesday morning and some friends who had nursed their dogs through parvo gave us websites, medicine, etc. I knew we could not afford the thousands of dollars that vet visits for parvo would cost. So I diligently gave him his medicine and pedialyte hourly on Wednesday till bedtime. But during the night he took a turn for the worse.....

So Hines is buried with many chickens and bunnies and who knows what else in our backyard.

Sad days...

How could I forget....

When giving a recap of our week, how could I forget Caleb and Emma's nail polish adventure?! On Wednesday morning I was at women's covenant (our staff women's coffee time) and Luke was at home with the kids. He was on the phone talking with a guy from a supporting church when Caleb ran in with paper towels covered in bright red and yelling, "It's not blood! It's not blood!" He yelled loud enough that the guy on the phone said, "It's not blood?" So Luke got off the phone and went to investigate. They had completely emptied a bottle of red nail polish in the living room. I'm not sure what the extent of the painting was. I know there is still asmall spot on the rug because they ran out of nail polish remover. But at least it's not blood....

A week with us...

Sunday was a beautiful day with sunshine and 60+ temperatures, and a rare day when our whole family could spend a good amount of time together, so we decided to head to our favorite park, Oso de Oro. It was designed for the handicapped, so everything is very low to the ground - perfect for little tykes, too! Emma's favorite part was the duck pond. She stayed there just running around and laughing at the ducks for quite a long time. Whenever we're leaving the park, it's tradition for them all to climb on the bear. Yeah, it's not a golden bear (like the park's name), but it is a bear. It's always been a milestone when each one could climb on with no help. Emma's the only one who's not there yet. It felt like spring to me, ahhhh... But alas, the rest of the week has been cold and rainy. I know, I use the term "cold" like a Californian, because by that I mean highs in the 40's.

On Tuesday night after meeting with my LTG (Life Transformation Group, like an accountability group), I helped our friend Maytag roll egg rolls. Maytag is a junior at Fresno Pacific University (FPU) and grew up in the ministry of W.I. She's raising money to go on a missions trip to Vietnam this summer - as the group's translator! By the way, her name is Hmong. In Hmong, "May" means "girl" and "tag" means "last". Her dad was hoping she'd be the last girl, but she does have one younger sister - hee hee! Anyway, I love the egg rolls and she had to make 500 of them! We feasted on some at our house.

Today we enjoyed a field trip with Tower Christian to Young at Art, a kids' art studio. Our kids each got to work with clay and they were able to choose 2 pieces to fire. Next Thursday we can go and they can glaze them, then we have to wait another week to pick them up. I think they enjoyed it. Elizabeth loves anything "craft"-y, and Caleb just enjoys new things. Emma sat and watched wordlessly.

That was our week - oh yeah, interspersed with strategic planning meetings and work at the thrift store, and school.... Yikes! I was hoping life would slow down in January. Maybe February....

more pirate pictures....

Birthday Ahoy!

Caleb turned 4 on Wednesday and celebrated with a boys-only pirate party! He was very rigid about the boys-only rule and instructed me that even I could not attend. Even as I was making his favorite mac and cheese for them to eat, he told me, "Mommy, after you make the food, you have to leave!" So I took Elizabeth and Emma and went to the mall.

Meanwhile, Luke ran a pirate party full of "Aargh"'s and "Matey"s and he even said there were some English accents! They had a treasure hunt with a treasure chest of "booty" (candy) at the end, they played "walk the plank" and "sharks and pirates", both made up by Luke. Then they ate beans and weanies, mac and cheese, grapes, carrots and the pirate ship cake.

Caleb loved it. I think his friends did too!!

Christmas fun times

Last night we went to Tower Christian School's Christmas party held at a local church. It was a very fun family time, with a gingergread house-making contest (using graham crackers), a potluck, a "fruitcake" launching contest, and then family square-dancing! Sounds corny, but it was really fun for the kids from Caleb's age on up. And our house won the prize! A Starbucks gift card - yum. Elizabeth is holding our A-frame house above, and maybe you can tell that the night before she lost one of her top front teeth. The other is loose too. I told her she'll be able to sing, "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". The dancing was fun and probably kind of silly too. At the end we did the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance. The Chicken DAnce is not such a big thing out here, so can you believe that some people didn't know how to do it? Anyway, a great Christmas party!!

A new family member?

Okay, we got a dog! We haven't finalized the name, but it seems we're calling him Hines, after a favorite Steeler and also it's pronounced the same as Heinz, so it's like their stadium too! He's a black lab puppy. I thought he'd be an inside dog, but Caleb goes absolutely nutso when he's in the house-shrieking and crying and everything. So....I guess he'll be an outside dog. It's kinda sad for me, but oh, well! He'll protect our yard.

Elizabeth was on a First Lego League Jr. Robotics team this fall. They learned about alternative energy sources. They didn't compete like the older teams, but they did get to display all of the things they made at the competition. She really enjoyed it even though she was the only girl. It adds a different dynamic - her house didn't have guns and force fields like the boys' houses. Hers was the only one with a yard!!

Children's Museum of the Sierra

In November we took a field trip to this great museum in Oakhurst, in the Sierra foothills. Everything was hands-on, and the kids loved it. Basically it's just play time with lots of cool toys. Emma loved climbing on everything, Caleb enjoyed the fire truck and pirate ship, and Elizabeth just had fun doing lots of things with her friends.

More entries to come....

Harvest costumes

Okay, so it's been 2 weeks since Halloween! I couldn't get my pictures to upload into a slide show for some reason, so here's one picture of the kids dressed up. We went to 2 World Impact harvest parties in 2 different neighborhoods that night. The kids had a ball! They didn't get much candy, but the fact that they got some was enough for them. Elizabeth decided to be a ladybug using her costume from her ballet performance. I found Emma's bee costume at our thrift store very cheaply! Caleb wanted to be Jack Sparrow. I just happened to be walking through a store and saw a Jack Sparrow costume in his size on sale. It even included a head thing with hair!

Caleb was hilarious. He went around saying to everyone in his trying-to-be-menacing little boy voice, "I'm Jack Sparrow!" At the second harvest party it was run by teens from our teen club, and he recognized 2 teen girls who have been his babysitters, so he chased them all around the yard with his sword. He had a great time.

Emma just walked around kind of aimlessly in her little bee outfit. She loves men, so whenever she saw a man she knew, she was happy to get some attention.

Vacation!!

We just returned from a week of vacation at the W.I. beach house in...Southern California. Hmmm, what's been happening there this week? Oh, that's right, wildfires!! While we weren't close enough to be in danger of them, they were burning all around us. On our first full day, Sunday, those horrid Santa Ana winds were blowing so strongly that we could not be on the beach or even outside at all because the sand was whipping around and in our eyes. Then later that day the big black cloud of smoke rolled in. It was so strange and eerie. I had a bathroom window open and when I went in, everything was black! I cleaned it and when I swept up, it looked like ash from a fireplace. So we were stuck indoors for a couple days.

So Monday we decided to check out the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library nearby. It was so windy up there too. We wanted to see Air Force One, and by the pictures you can see that we did. That part was very amazing. The building that houses it is just awesome, it looks like the plane is going to take off out the window. The whole museum was pretty interesting and "impressive" to borrow a word from Elizabeth.

Finally on Wednesday the winds died down for us on the coast and it was a beautiful beach day - over 90 degrees I think! Our Elizabeth was in the chilly water in her wet suit forever. She got to the point where she can boogie board on her own. She's growing up... Emma chased birds all over the beach. she calls them, "Fwa fwa". I don't know why. Caleb just ran and ran and attacked the waves.

Thursday and Friday returned to normal beach weather - 60's and cloudy-ish. Still the kids loved it. Since Luke's sister Kate and her husband Josh joined us for the week from New Jersey, Luke and I got to ride in the sea kayak and see seals and go out for lunch one day too!

I love the beach. It's my most favorite place to visit...

A tiring morning....

Today we spent the morning at the pediatrician's office. No one is sick, it was just time for Elizabeth's well-child check-up. Of course we waited a long time to see the doctor and then she suggested that we do flu shots for all 3 kids today. "Sure, why not?!" I said. Elizabeth was the most nervous, but she hardly even noticed the shot and said it didn't hurt at all. Caleb was next. He started screaming and threw himself onto the floor. My tough guy. I finally wrestled him onto the table and he let out a bloodcurdling shriek that everyone in the office heard. Meanwhile, Emma stood and watched it all and looked at me as if to say, "Don't you dare get me up there, Mom." But she's little and I had no problem getting her onto the table. She made no sound at all the entire time.



Betcha didn't know that Emma had such big feet, huh? She loves shoes. She loves wearing her big sister's shoes especially. She actually CAN walk in them. She is a big ham and will smile and laugh at the camera. Emma loves to have everyone looking at HER.


We had an interesting weekend at the Oaks for the Directors' Conference. Lots of talking. It was kind of exhausting for me, an introvert, to make conversation all weekend with people I really don't know. But it is always good to be reminded of the big picture with World Impact. Keith reiterated our commitment to planting churches, which is always great to hear. Hey, if you haven't heard of TUMI, it is very exciting. Right now we have 35 TUMI satellites in 14 states and 6 countries! AND Prison Fellowship is using TUMI in prisons. That is so cool. If you want more info, check out http://www.tumi.org



The other picture is a view driving home from the Oaks. The wild west.

Six Great Years

Elizabeth celebrated her sixth birthday yesterday. She and I discussed several party options, and she chose to have a tea party with just two of her friends, Abby and Leanna. So they came for lunch (checkerboard PB& J, fruit salad, yogurt, pretzels) and tea (chocolate milk) served in a friend's Japanese tea set. Then they made tiaras and ate her teapot-shaped cake and ice cream, and played with her new presents. I think she felt pretty special, she said she wants to have a tea party again next year! it was fun, especially since Luke took Caleb and Emma on a picnic during the party. I especially enjoyed hearing the girls talk while they were eating - they are growing up!

Life has been such a whirlwind here lately. Last Thursday was our fundraising banquet, and things are usually pretty hectic around that time. It went pretty well. We haven't had one in a few years, so we are getting back into practice. I'm glad it's over for this year! Tomorrow Luke and I are going to tthe Oaks for the annual Directors' Conference. This year they invited spouses for a change. I don't have to go to all the boring meetings, so hopefully I will get some rest and quiet and also some time to fellowship with the other wives. I am going to miss our kids though. Especially Emma. She seems so little still...

A week after that we are headed to the beach house for VACATION!!! I am so ready for that....