Equador!

We had felt God leading us for almost a year to go to Quito, Ecuador for our first experience with family missions. We prayed about it with much questioning from others on why we would take our young kids with us. We finally got to go June 7th through 17th and had such a great time! Our friends Larry and Amanda Castro live there and we had such a great trip and experienced so much of God's perfect timing and planning throughout the whole trip. We were blessed with a great team and such great friends. Can't wait to go back. Here are my favorite pictures...


Don't know what we would have done without Dominica!



Pete and Larry's wall.










Who knows....lol.






Our awesome team!







Dance party! Happy to be together!

Finished classroom...

She got really good at this!

Normal Afternoon Happenings

Happy Birthday Peter!

We invited some of Peter's friends from Mother's Day Out over to our house for Peter's 3rd birthday. Peter had asked for a Thomas the train cake and a pinata so that's what we did! Easy enough! Peter got all kinds of fun stuff and then we ended the night by bringing out his new bicycle. It was a good time and we are thankful to those who were able to come!

Peter had his 3 year well visit at the same time Hadley had her 9 month.
He is 30 lbs - (25th-30th percentile) and 37 inches tall (50th percentile).

Hadley 9 months

Here's what Hadley was up to at 9 months!

-Almost 17 lbs - 25th percentile

She has one tooth so far and I am expecting another one soon. She still doesn't crawl on her hands and knees much although I have seen her trying it more lately. She scoots on her bottom or one hand, one foot, and one knee. She is always dragging some toy around in her free hand. She has completely stopped eating any baby food unless it is the kind that she can hold in the little pouch and squeeze into her mouth, and rarely takes anything from a spoon. She eats about anything she can pick up by herself. Her favorite thing to do is hide behind the living room curtains or the couch and play peek a boo with us. She thinks she is hilarious, really she is. Especially when we can see her smiling behind the sheer curtains...lol. She still doesn't sleep through the night but is only waking up usually one time (only in the last month or so!). Which also means I have still not had a single full nights rest in over 9 months. It is really starting to wear on me! She is a pretty happy girl though and LOVES her big brother!

Time flies when you are crazy. :)

I have been trying to take some pictures of the kids lately because I have been so bad about it since Hadley was born. I was just looking back at some of the old pictures and it all seems like such a blur! Peter will be three in May and Hadley already 8 months old tomorrow. Peter says the funniest things and I really need to start writing them on here so I can remember them...so we will start with today. Earlier today I put him in time out and the whole time he was yelling from the other room, "MOM! I'M PRETTY SURE I WILL LISTEN THIS TIME! MOM, I'M PRETTY SUURRRRE!" lol. Peter I love you, but "pretty sure" will never get you out of time out early. Oh and I have to write this down too. I picked Peter up from Mother's Day Out last week and the teacher asked me to talk to him when we got home because he peed in the front yard of the Methodist Church on Main Street! Good gravy..I have been trying to explain to him that he can do that at Gaga and Pa's house in the country, out at the farm, or even in our back yard I don't care. But nowhere else. I keep getting "BUT Mooooom." No buts or butts...lol.

Hadley has learned to army crawl for a few weeks now but never very far. Today Peter and I were making Jello in the kitchen and I found Hadley by the front door eating leaves. Guess my days of leaving her on the area rug are gone. Want to know what we did after we made jello? Yep..Swept up all the leaves and mopped. :)

Enjoy the pics!

February Fun

I started this last month and never got around to publishing it until now.....sigh..

It seems like since I have started staying home with the kids that I rarely know the day of the week, the date or the time. It is hard to believe February is about over and that this week Hadley will be 7 months old. This month started off trying to get her to eat some solids. She has finally decided that she likes them and regularly eats sweet potatoes, avocados, banana, carrots, and most of the other normals so far. She loves the mum mum rice rusks or anything she can do by herself.

We were able to take the kids to the rodeo a few times thanks to some sweet friends who gave us tickets and of course I took no pictures. Peter loves the horses and bulls and probably the popcorn just about as much. Our good friend Hesbon came from Kenya to stay with us for about 5 days and the kids loved him. It was his first trip to the states and not at all what he expected he said. He had a good time and it is always an honor for us to spend time with him. Here are some pictures from the week! Here is Hesbon on the fake bull at the rodeo...lol.


My sweet Valentine balloon from Pete. I kept this balloon as long as I possibly could. It just made me laugh every time I saw it.

Hadley pooped out from eating her weight in carrots.



Hadley and Hesbon at the rodeo.

Videos!

I think I finally got my video uploading from the Flip camera figured out. Here's a few..more to come!