2016: A Year in Review

(A note from Roma: for many years, my sister Bianca was the one who ran our family blog. But she has moved on to the college and adult stage of life. So I have been asked to take over. Let’s see if I remember everything she taught me about how to launch a post! J)

2016 really was a great year. There were unplanned adventures for some of us, uneventful days for others, and plenty of going about the usual mundane routine around the house. Which is not a bad thing. Sometimes the day-to-day things seem small and insignificant, but God can use those times to teach you lessons, give you peace and rest, or whatever you need. The days are long but the years are so short! Which is why I hope and pray that we all “fix our eyes on the things that are unseen, because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18.)

We siblings kicked off 2016 by ice skating with Bianca’s special man, Jessie. What a fun way to start off year! Winter was spent driving around doing photo shoots (our favorite thing to do around here); a surprise trip to Texas for us girls; hanging out with friends; hosting a really sweet missionary family from Ethiopia (another thing our family likes to do as often as possible—we love missionaries!) and celebrating our Mom’s birthday. And Josiah was playing a lot of basketball as well. (And still enjoys it today! A post about that will be coming up soon!)

Bianca and Jessie on a cold photo shoot I took them on. But worth it!

Going to Texas to reunite with friends was the best Christmas present from sissy ever. Thank you Bianca!

SPRING TIME came, which meant joining a large homeschool coop for the first time in a long time. This coop has come in handy for doing fun classes and educational classes (so that if we cover those subjects there, we don’t have to cover them at home!) We’ve made new friends, gone on fun field trips, and have done other fun activities such as bonfires and barn dances. It’s a very neat group with lots of God-fearing home school families. We celebrated Easter and Josiah’s birthday, and for spring break, my Mom’s parents came for a nice long visit. We watched the amazing film: RISEN. (Joseph Fiennes.) If you haven’t seen this film, it’s a must. Then came Ruby and my birthday, and what our recent blog post was about—the awesome road trip U.S.A to Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, and…I’m pretty sure we hit other states too. That was a highlight this past year, seeing and meeting relatives and friends. Read about that here.

Barn dancing with homeschool kids and parents. We got lots more people to come out on the floor later—don’t let the picture fool you! J

This was Easter Sunday. What you don’t know is that I had to walk across the street, climb a big ladder, (first carry the big ladder up and down our super long curvy driveway) and cut this branch from a high tree to capture this photo. The things I go through to get the perfect picture that says SPRING. J

SUMMER TIME! Sports camp at our church; Bianca going to Colorado with her man and his entire family on vacation; and Ben doing ministry in Guatemala for a whole month! Life changing for him. Halfway through his internship, I Face-Timed him and showed him my passport. I was going to join him for one week! It was unexpected—I went with our old church in TX, replacing someone who couldn’t go, so I went for free. I was thrilled! Other summer activities included more photo shoots just for fun, and splashing in the sun at a water park. We experienced crazy weather and having to take shelter in a public building as soon as we had finished swimming; a 4-day power outage in the heat of July; and car problems multiple times, including when we were all dressed up for a photo shoot. But it was still a fun summer. We even got to visit the people who now live in our old house in TX and saw the house again!

Ben and I at the top of Cerro de la Cruz in Antigua, Guatemala, Sacatepequez. My most favorite part of 2016!

Josiah, Mom, and Rubia cooling off one warm July day. Perfect weather. Right before the weather drastically changed and we took shelter at the drug company Bianca works at because of tornado warnings, some serious strong wind and rain. J

FALL TIME brought us enough left-over vacation days to head to Ohio in September to spend time with the Puerto-Rican relatives. It included a day in Amish Country, a wonderful stage production, good food, a cute market and hiking. Still very hot weather at this point, and not very many fall colors yet, but that’s okay. In October, we had our Third Annual Cobbler party at our house and it was delightful! Perfect. Our favorite outreach that we do every year. It included over 80 guests, a tree swing, two piñatas, cobbler and ice cream and fellowship. I pray that the Lord uses these events for His glory! For Thanksgiving, we had all the relatives come and see us again just like last Thanksgiving! So fun to have all these people in the house, reflecting on the goodness of God and Jesus Christ.

Cobbler party fun—breaking into the piñatas!

“Bio” (Abuelo) and Rubia enjoying guitar together over Thanksgiving break when all the relatives flew down. Mikey is enjoying a snooze.

And now I will just skip over to Christmas vacation in Ohio with the relatives, amazing Puerto Rican food, (are you starting to see a pattern here?) chocolate, lights, music, laughter, my teenage cousin doing that weird dance he used to do as a toddler, and singing and candlelight service and telling the story of the birth of Christ…I didn’t want it to end, but it did and we just got back recently and have unpacked and are doing a lot of laundry!

Everyone in Abuelo and Abuela’s living room after presents had been opened.

So, that was 2016! I realize most of our blog readers have probably read a lot of these things in the beautiful Christmas letter my Mom composed and mailed to all y’all, so this post is mainly for people who don’t get our letter, and also to just sum up this past year.

To close, I will share with y’all my personal goal for 2017. I want to write down on blank sheet calendars for 365 days, 12 months, 52 weeks—what I am thankful for. I am learning how thankfulness can fight so many sins—anxiety, worry, jealousy, covetousness, selfishness, etc. It can also humble me, as I realize how much God provides, protects, and blesses in one single day. It helps me to not focus on what I don’t have, but on what I do have: this peaceful, 10-acre lot with cats and a dog, chickens and roosters, lots of wooded areas, gorgeous sunsets, my parents, four best friends, and friends coming to visit soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, and I hope 2017 is filled with blessings, life changing moments, adventures, hope, peace, love, and joy, and a deeper relationship with God.

~Roma (and the rest of the clan)

Virginia 2016

~Posted by: Roma

We recently got back from a really awesome vacation! It was a much needed one. J I am so thankful we were able to finally return to Virginia after six years. If you have been reading our blog for a really long time, you may remember that we all went to VA in the spring of 2010. We spent one whole week visiting family (many were relatives we kids had never met before) and exploring Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, and then another week in Washington D.C seeing all the sights. Since then, we often talked about going back to Virginia, but hadn’t been able to for various reasons. Well, six years later, we were finally able to pack our bags and take a road trip! Praise God!

This time we did not go to D.C at all, nor Williamsburg or Jamestown. This time, the main goal was to see our dear Aunt Gladys, who is now 91 years old, and there were also lots of other relatives and friends we wanted to make sure we would see! Most of this trip was time spent in the car driving—from OK to MO, from MO to TN, from TN to VA, driving from town to town in VA (because the relatives are spread out) and then driving from VA to TN, then TN to HOME! (Yes—a lot of driving. In a minivan with exactly seven seats and a trailer hitched to the back. But we made it! t’s a good thing we love each other because we needed to be squished together for days--ha!

Our first stop was…Branson Missouri! For awhile now, we have been wanting to go to the Sight and Sound Theater in Branson to see the production of “Moses.” Sight and Sound is incredible—they have a theater in Branson and in Lancaster PA, with Christian actors and actresses who do a fantastic job bringing the Bible to life! Our good friends, the S family from Texas, wanted to see Moses as well, and so we road-tripped up there with them to see the production, and hang out together afterwards. We had so much fun with the S family, we are determined to make this a tradition! J After the show, we all went out for BBQ together, and then since we were all staying in the same hotel, we hung out in the lobby late into the night playing a card game. So much fun!

The next day, the S family headed back to TX and we hit the road again and headed to TN for one night, and then on to Virginia.

The first stop in VA was Danville. We went to my Dad’s cousin Bill’s house to have dinner with him, his wife Becky, their daughter Monica, Monica’s three girls Kayla, Bethany, and Hannah, and Kayla’s daughter Logan. Lots of family! J We hadn’t seen Cousin Bill since our Grandma Ruby’s funeral and so it was a happy reunion to see him again. As for everyone else, it had been six years and so everyone has grown so much!

We had a yummy cookout that night and caught up on all the news. Next morning, we all went to Cousin Bill and Becky’s church and then out to lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant.

After saying our goodbyes to Cousin Bill, we headed over to see Aunt Gladys. When we got to her house, however, we saw a note taped on the door. “I’ve been waiting to see you all since noon. It is now 4. I am at ______ restaurant if you want to meet me there.” Apparently, there had been a miscommunication, and while we were still hanging out with Cousin Bill, poor Aunt Gladys was all ready and waiting for us! (Southern people are very patient.) So Dad found the restaurant on his GPS and we were off to chase down Aunt Gladys, LOL! We found her and her daughter Patsy and our Cousin Cynthia all at the restaurant. So we sat down and ate, and afterward we all went back to the house to visit.

This is a blurry picture, but it is precious. Aunt Gladys is one special lady! All of her siblings, including our Grandma, have all passed on, and she is the only one left in that generation. She is strong-spirited, candid, southern, and full of spunk. And we love her! She still drives her own car, lives alone, walks around with no cane or walker or anything, and when I started to feel nauseous that evening and was sipping water, she came marching into the room and declared, “She shouldn’t be drinking water! Diet Pepsi will help!” So she gave me some and sure enough I felt much better! How did she know Pepsi would help? J I miss chatting with her and Patsy and Cynthia about politics, religion, family, and memories already.

On Monday—Memorial Day—it was time to go see cousin Em! We checked out of our hotel in Danville and started driving towards Richmond. Last time we came to VA to see Em, his wife Lois was still with us. Cousin Lois passed away a few years ago, but Cousin Em recently remarried, to a wonderful woman named Irma, and he moved out of his home into Irma’s condo. So we were reunited with Em and met Irma for the first time. We love her! She is a very pleasant lady with a neat background so we enjoyed talking with her. After dinner at Cracker Barrel, we took a tour of their beautiful home and landscape outside, and spent some time just visiting. Then goodbyes were said.

Ruby trying to get near the baby goose at Cracker Barrel. I don’t think mama goose appreciated that as much so she and Ruby are making eye-contact right now. J There were also lots of ducks there that cousin Em and we kids enjoyed watching while relaxing on the rocking chairs!

And that wraps up Dad’s side of the family. Now it was time to go to bed and get ready to meet our friends the W family the next day!

Enjoying time with the W family in the living room—here Bianca and Rubia are with Alexis, Kimber, Cassilyn, and Lydia. They were the sweetest girls!

Dad and Bianca met Mr. W and Alexis at a Father-Daughter Retreat in Georgia many years ago, and we kept up with their family through social media for many years, but it was so wonderful to finally meet them all in person! They homeschool like us and we are similar in many ways. My parents really enjoyed talking with Mr. and Mrs. W, Caleb got to hang out with Ben, and Josiah loved playing with their son Josiah!!! J They showed us their rabbits, cats, dog, chickens, and cows—we took a walk together to a horse farm and back, and enjoyed lots of fellowship. I hope we see their family again!

We have gained lots of new friends. J

And last but not least, the next day we drove to Quantico to see some of Mom’s side of the family. After 6 years, 5 months, and 5 days (YES—I figured out exactly how long it had been) we got to see Mom’s Marine cousin Matt and his family again! We love our cousin Matt and we were very excited. We went to their house and saw Matt, his wife Courtney, and their kids—sweet little Cross and precious baby Charlie. Cousin Mark (Matt’s brother) was also there with a friend, and our Titi Wanda, Matt and Mark’s Mom, lives there as well.

Besides Matt and Courtney’s house, we also toured Titi Wanda’s apartment next door, saw the chickens and horses, and then all went out to eat at Golden Corral. Afterward we came back to the house to visit for a while.

Our time with all our relatives was definitely too short. L But I am still so thankful we got to see so many of them. (Despite the fact that Josiah and I sat in Urgicare during this vacation due to bad coughs and congestion, and I struggled with motion sickness on Day One of the trip. But God is still good! We made it through the whole road trip A-Okay and had lots of fun.)

We also turned the road trip home into a fun occasion! Driving out of VA, we stopped for a tour of Michie’s Tavern, which was fascinating! Next we stopped in the music city for a whole day of family fun! Our day in Nashville included: getting a tour of the Carnton Plantation, owned by the wealthy McGavock family during the civil war; eating lunch at a delicious local bbq place; exploring a toy store with over 20,000 toys in it, and relaxing outside over refreshments at a very hipster coffee shop.

When we got back to our suite, we all jumped into the outdoor pool and hot tub and then got into an intense volleyball game in the water—just the seven of us! It was so nice! That day made me very grateful for the family God has put me in. I love all of them!

This GPS (Maggie) really came in handy during our road trip. If you look closely, my Dad turned the little car on it into an airplane. That is the inner private-pilot coming out in him. J

So, after 10 days, thousands of miles, 6 hotels, family, friends, laughter, lots of food, and making new memories—our road trip came to an end. We have so many other GREAT pictures I would post here, but it would make this blog post way too long. I hope we get to see all those people again soon, Lord-willing, and it was great to just be able to get away from normal life for awhile and do something different! And, to combine Ben’s, Rubia’s and my birthday trip all into one trip. What a great vacation.

Birthdays and Spring Break

~Posted by: Roma

I hope everyone reading this finds themselves well! Life has been very busy, exciting, and full, and our calendar is filling up fast. Here is some of what we’ve been up to…

Last time we posted was around the New Year. Later at the end of January, we celebrated our wonderful Mother’s birthday! (And I’m sure she would rather I not mention how old she is now—I mean [clearing throat]—how young she is now.) J We kids did the very special thing we’ve been doing for 9 years now—got up while it was still dark, decorated the whole house with strings and balloons, and made Mom breakfast in bed! She loved it, as she does every year. We went through the whole day playing her favorite jazz CD’s, and later that evening she opened her gifts. She wanted orange marmalade cake so we enjoyed that as well. (Delicious!)

Relaxing in the living room, digging into the orange marmalade cake.

Early in March, another special person needed to be celebrated: Josiah! He brings joy and life and energy to this family—being the youngest—and was definitely a happy gift to my parents from God! He asked for a day off of school just to relax, play basketball and watch movies or play games, and he wanted Hot Fudge Sundae cake this year! (Yummy choice.) For his birthday dinner, he requested grilled garlic-lime chicken, our Mom’s wonderful garlic mashed potatoes, salad, and rolls.

Later that week, all seven of us got into the car and went on a surprise birthday trip! We ended up at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium! It was really fun and educational. Afterward, we all enjoyed great food and service at Carrabbas Italian Grill. When we lived in Texas, we usually ended up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on surprise birthday trips. Now that we live in a new state, there are so many new places to explore and look at for future birthday trips!

Hot Fudge Sundae cake for Josiah’s birthday.

Opening gifts. He loves his Star Wars glow-in-the-dark T-shirt!

All of us kids pose in front of the MD-80 donated by American Airlines, at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum.

The celebrating continued…a few days later, we went to the airport to pick up my Mom’s parents—“Bio” and “Bia”—who flew in from Ohio to spend a week with us!!! I put together a big ‘Welcome!’ banner to hold up at the airport, and after they arrived, off to Panera bread we went, in the pouring rain. (We had a lot of rain during their visit, but nice warm temperatures and a couple of sunny days mixed in.) What a blessing to have them with us! They are amazing. When Abuelo and Abuela were here, everyone enjoyed a spring break from school, sleeping in, drinking Puerto Rican coffee, and spending time together as familia. Later that week, Bianca’s man, Jessie J came for a couple of days too.

Josiah with Bio and Bia. They brought gifts for him to open the first night. Then everyone wanted to exchange spring break gifts to each other. Bia gave all of us clothes, and we gave both Bio and Bia T-shirts with quotes on them: Bio’s T-shirt said something he always says: “The best is yet to come!” and Bia’s something she always says: “You make my heart sing.” They were tickled to get T-shirts with their famous quotes on them.” J

Spring break was a time for rest and relaxation, family time, and reflection.

Mom made so many healthy nutritious meals for us that week, since everyone has been trying to eat healthier. Some of us enjoyed lots of evening walks too.

Then one day, after church, we went unhealthy. J Jimmy’s Egg is good.

Most of the time we just stayed at home chilling. But one day we decided to go out to the movies and watch “Risen.” What a powerful movie. A must see! From left to right: Jessie, Bianca, Josiah, Bia (Abuela), Mom, Rubia, and Bio (Abuelo.) Ben and Dad both had to work that day, and I’m taking the picture.

Bio and Josiah play basketball.

Jessie and Bianca walking, while I’m on chaperone duty taking pictures. J)

Saying goodbye to all our guests we host in our home never gets easier. We are already looking forward to the day they can come back. We thank the Lord for the blessing of getting to be a blessing to others by opening our new Oklahoma home to them! We had a wonderful spring break!

The Past 10 Weeks of Being Okies

~posted by Roma

We have lived in northeast Oklahoma for almost 10 weeks now. I don’t know about the rest of my family, but I know I have days when I still miss Texas so badly. I’m having a lot of fun here in OK, making friends and making great memories already. But sometimes I have days where it would be amazing to wake up in my old bedroom, and look out the window to see an incredible Texas sunrise peeking up from behind the pecan trees. To go to our old church on Sunday, and hug people because you know them. To see familiar faces and sights. But we serve a great God who has provided for all our needs. Our Dad, Bianca, and Ben all have jobs now and all three of them work for Christians. Ruby and I are learning really well how to drive cars. Josiah has a basketball game coming up soon. And on and on.

This is a blog post that will go over all the fun highlights we’ve had here the past 10 weeks and what we’ve done. Enjoy!

So, I should start with some pictures of the moving process…

This van looked really familiar to us. It may look familiar to you too. The van that had just moved us 32 months prior (from MI to TX) was now moving us again! The funny part is they could never bring it up our narrow driveway so they always needed a shuttle. These guys worked hard! 

Great place to play hide and go seek!

Lots of neighbors and people from church came over to say goodbye, bring us Starbucks, give us gift baskets, or take away our basketball hoop. J (We didn’t need it.) I took some last TX sunset pictures that were gorgeous, and wrote about this whole journey in my journal.

The next morning we had cereal but no milk, so I ate cereal with vanilla ice cream. J The boys took one car full of stuff, Ruby and Bianca took one car full of stuff and the two dogs in the back, and Mom and I took one car full of stuff and the tranquilized, terrified cats. I took a video with my camera of us driving away. Ben was in New Mexico hiking 100+ miles with the Boy Scouts at Philmont, so he missed the whole moving process!

And then in just 3.5 or so hours, we were there!

The house is beautiful. It has a lodge/cabin/dark lodge-y kind of feel, with 10 acres, a pond, and woods with a small trail going through them. (The dogs were--and still are-- having the time of their lives!) The front porch is really wide and has been a great place for morning devotions. The driveway is super steep and crazy to bike or roller race down. We live on a big hill, so going down the hill is amazing and going up is a physical challenge.

One thing we’ve had to adjust to is all of us kids having our bedrooms on the first floor. (Except Bianca, who is on the loft on the second floor.) But now the boys and Ruby and I share a Jack & Jill bath attached to our rooms which has been nice! There are pros and cons about every house, but overall, we really like it here! We have pretty much unpacked every box now and cleaned up, so come visit us! J

Alright, some fun things we’ve done here the past 10 weeks…

…Found a Christian soda fountain and a job for Bianca on the same day….

…Visited with missionary friends that we’ve known for a whole decade now…

Bianca got a visit from her man J and we celebrated his birthday. We went tubing down the Illinois River one day, had a picnic by the river, went out to dinner, and explored the town. I’m thinking it’s about time to go on another photo shoot in this cute town soon!

Josiah’s got this. He doesn’t need help. J

We’ve been trying different restaurants, going for evening walks, visiting coffee shops, and more. There are a lot of festivals that go on here, with lots of activities. So after we ate we enjoyed the different tents set up outside—one tent had knives, so the boys were drawn to that tent right away. J

Just beyond the tents, two guys were playing  with fire—literally!

We look forward to the other festivals that our different towns here in Okie will have in the future!

Lots of families from our new church have so graciously invited us to their homes, or to different restaurants with them to eat lunch together after church! That has really helped us get to know the families better and we’ve enjoyed the fellowship so much! This home above is the R family’s home. Mr. R is a deacon at our church and while Mom and Dad were enjoying talking to them, Ruby and I talked with their grown-up son S and his wife M for probably an hour, about different hobbies, Lord of the Rings, and more!

Then there was that one time we went with our youth group to watch the movie “War Room.” If you have not seen this film yet, it is a MUST SEE.

Ruby and I went camping in our front yard one night; then a couple days later we started school, which hasn’t been bad so far. I enjoy doing and learning new things and so far it’s not crazy or hectic--it’s pretty relaxing. We also went back to the Illinois River a few weeks ago for a church picnic! We used our Youth Pastor’s canoes and kayaks, went swimming, and had hot dogs, homemade chips, and oatmeal cream pies. Bianca and Ben were at a college conference in TX, but the rest of us enjoyed that picnic! Recently, Ruby and I went to a girl’s pajama party with our youth group girls and we had fun doing that too!

So hopefully that kind of sums up EVERYTHING. Any questions? Just kidding. J

Daddy and Bianca's Birthday

~Posted by Roma

(Before I start this post, some good news for our readers: our family has finally moved from Texas to Oklahoma, and are reunited with my Dad after 9 long months! J Things are going very well, and we are getting settled in to yet another new home and new adventure. We will do a post about that move soon!)

The last two birthdays of the year are my Dad’s and Bianca’s! Their birthdays are only a little over a week apart! So, back in July, we celebrated Dad and Bianca. We decided to combine Dad’s birthday and the 4^th of July together. So, we not only had traditional birthday cake and gifts, but we also set off fireworks and had friends from church over. (This was all while we still lived in TX) One very special thing we did for Dad this year, was creating a binder full of letters from us, family, distant relatives, friends, co-workers, pastors, and mentors. There were quite a few letters! Then I decorated the binder and Mom put it all together and we presented it to my Dad on his special day! He appreciated it so much since we had done the same thing for Mom a few years ago. The Reverend that married my parents even wrote a letter! J

In addition to the binder, we made a “Blessings of Mark” framed picture.

 We had a fun time with family and friends and Mom’s famous double chocolate ring cake and really enjoyed the day. (And now that we live in OK it has been so nice seeing Dad every night!!)

Then came Bianca’s birthday. We celebrated that everywhere! We celebrated it in Ohio, in our home in northern Texas, in Dallas Texas…so we celebrated around 3 times. J First, Mom had decided we needed to take a spontaneous trip to Ohio to surprise the family, since we hadn’t seen them in so long. Of course we were thrilled to do this and it was so hard to keep it a secret! (My Mom’s parents knew we were coming but her younger brother and his wife and two boys did not know at all.) I recorded a video of us walking into the kitchen where our Uncle J, Aunt C, and cousins E and J were sitting, and it was epic! J We had a wonderful visit! Besides doing a lot of catching up, visiting other distant relatives, going to the movies, swimming, etc., Bianca enjoyed birthday peach cobbler and ice cream, and presents.

Bianca with Uncle J and Aunt C in front of Cracker Barrel on a Sunday afternoon.

Our Mom just loved getting to see her brother again—and he loved seeing her! Here are the two of them at our cousin E’s baseball game one day.

When we returned safely from Ohio, our home-away-from home brothers K and O came over one day so we could celebrate Bianca’s birthday…again! We had a yummy dinner and ended it all with Carrot cake, German chocolate cake, ice cream, and more gifts. (We can’t celebrate enough. J)

Bianca with her favorite OLDER brothers. J

But the celebrating wasn’t over yet. We had to take Bianca on a surprise birthday trip, of course! So we piled in the minivan one day and found ourselves at…the Cowgirl Museum in the Dallas/Fort Worth area! It was the coolest museum! They showed a lot of short videos, displayed cowgirl clothes, guns, had a station where you could sit on a fake horse and watch yourself ride a “bucking horse” on the screen in front of you, and of course, there were plenty of exhibits on the history of cowgirls. We enjoyed going to a pretty unique museum for a change. Pictures were not allowed, so we got pictures of the outside. J

Then after eating a snack at Taco Cabana, we drove over to our next surprise. And boy, were we surprised! We pulled into the driveway of the H family’s house!!! We haven’t known the H family for very long, but Bianca and Ben had met their oldest son through a college gathering and they are just the sweetest, Christian homeschooled family with five kids just like us! (More like teen/young adult kids.) We spent the evening with them. They made us the most delicious meal; the fellowship was wonderful; the cake, the 10 different flavors of ice cream (YES!!); the gift basket they lovingly put together for Bianca; the rose bush they gave us to take to OK—it was such an awesome evening! We 10 kids probably enjoyed the game of Capture the Flag outside the most. Girls against boys. And the girls WON!

All of us kids posing with the H kids before we all got sweaty playing.

We ended Bianca’s sweet birthday celebration by going on a photo shoot with this guy right here being one of the photographers.

This is Jessie. Bianca recently announced on her blog that she is being courted by this godly young man. Go to her blog here for the details. I snuck this picture of them and really like it. I’ve been a pretty sneaky chaperone for the last few months haha!

Bianca

So, there you have it. No more birthdays until 2016! J There were so many great pictures of Bianca, and Jessie did a great job, but I’m going to run out of room here. Now, for a blog post about MOVING from TX to OKIE……

Have a blessed day!