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baking cookies, losing teeth, getting braces, presents, pies, trees, rain, tamales and more rain, rain, rain...our awesome Christmas 2010 in a nut shell!






waking up Christmas morning



everyone opening our family present(LA style snowboarding!)


our sweet mess!

getting ready for a yummy mexican feast with our neighbors on Christmas eve!!

making cut out cookies for our neighborhood!



there's a song about this one, right?

hope your day was just as sweet!
love us 6

Emmanuel...God with us

welcome to our Christmas 2010 family photo attempt...





what the day was really like


loved this one...till i realized we were missing someone!



finally!

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, but are those words accurate?
One snapshot can lure you into imagining the moment was warm, loving, and gentle.
In reality, at least in our reality, surrounding this photo were moments of screaming, laughing, arguing, playing, crying, fighting, and giggling!
Convincing six people to hold still, and look cheerful was not so easy.
I hesitated to use this picture, feeling it was a “misrepresentation” of our life. On further consideration I realized it actually sums us up pretty well.
Times of laughter and love mixed up with moments of turmoil and tantrums.
Tough are the days.
Emotional are the nights.
Many tears are spent.
Endless are the things to be done, cleaned, fixed, put away, thrown away, bought, brought, dropped off or picked up.
Our life can definitely be chaotic.
But it is always sweet, tender, joy-filled and rich!
We are far from perfect and miss our mark often.
But, as each day closes, we rejoice and take heart in the truth that though we are far more sinful that we could ever imagine, we are also far more loved and forgiven than we could ever dare hope.

Feliz Navidad y Prosepero Ano 2011!!

traditions

we officially celebrated elia after thanksgiving, trying to create some space between our back to back november birthdays...

she picked a purple cake with orange sprinkles(she asked me to buy the sprinkles in october!) and invited her best little pal clark over for pizza

she loved every minute of the day, especially the singing

she loved her great gifts from her Nana, Gram, Papa, Grampy and Gramy...

a totally cool pink bike made especially for her from our sweet friends...

and carrying on a special tradition that aunt anissa started with selah 5 years ago now...

purple earrings!!

selah, elia and i went to get them pierced and then called anissa to tell her all about it, since anissa is a few states away these days!

elia was very tough, and says it only hurt "a lot!" :)

happy rest-of-your-birthday-little!

3

can it be???the youngest of our sweet mess is three!!


in many ways she seems to be opposite of "others" around here...

but she fits right in, bringing us much Energy, Love, Inspiration,and Acceptance.

our youngest blessing from God,

every day is sweeter with you!
happy happy happy birthday elia!
we love you

5

five years of fire!
five years of passion, willpower, drive, tremendous arguing capabilities and strong-headeness second to none...except maybe me!



five years of intense love, laughter, joy and excitement...the wild, unbridled kind.


five years of screaming louder than i thought possible, praying harder than i thought i would, loving more purposefully than i ever thought i could.


five years of a wild, at times scary, roller coaster ride.



five years of life made more spicy!



sweet, passionate miguel...you continue to be absolutely tremendous!
your spirit is deeply inciteful, perceptive, intense...beautiful!
happy number five buddy!
we love you!

wink!

cement jungles

friday afternoon, probably the worst time to attempt an escape from this southern city known for its outrageous freeway congestion. but we were driven to get out.

i prayed as dan drove, listening to the kids listen to "the silver chair" on cd, asking God for some I-10 east bound grace...i wasn't asking for much, just that our 90 minute drive would take no more than 180 minutes (we didn't want to miss dinner!!)

we left at 4:30pm, and arrived at 7:00pm, on the dot!:) seriously no small feat if you know the I-10...and dan didn't break any traffic laws!(wink wink)

so, are you wondering where we escaped to??


here are some hints...

there were more trees than people, more rocks than my kids could climb and WAY more acorns than one mom could hold in her, ehem, purse!

yup! we went to the mountains (san bernadino to be exact)for the weekend!!!



we joined our amazing church family for a retreat...our family's first time ever!



two awesome people we know from church decided to give our family a HUMONGOUS gift and paid for our entire trip! it was AMAZING! we stayed in a wonderful cabin, all to ourselves, with two bedrooms, a big bathroom, beds for all 6 of us, a fridge, coffee pot, microwave and even a fireplace!







our attempt at making a fire...i actually got it going too! :) the kids helped by blowing on it!


every moment of our 2 1/2 days in the mountains was AWESOME! our kids had an incredible time climbing and jumping off huge granite rocks, running up and down mountainsides, laughing, stuffing their faces with more s'mores than any child should ever eat, enjoying a huge bonfire, collecting acorns, praising Jesus with their friends and sleeping in a totally cool wood cabin in four cozy bunk beds all in the same room!





TC and DR we send you both a HUGE thank you!!! You have no idea how special this weekend was for us...thank you so much for making it all possible. May God bless you both, a hundred times over, for your huge generosity!