Christmas & New Year's

~ posted by Rubia

I would agree with my family that we had an especially sweet holiday season this year, mostly because we were all together, and were able to celebrate as we traditionally would! Last year, our immediate family was together for Christmas, but we had moving in mind, which made it a little hard…Dad was already moved, and we were unable to travel to see extended family. New Year’s was an adventure as well, with our family being in three separate locations that New Years Eve! We apparently didn’t have it in mind to take many pictures then—now however, we have pictures to share from this year!

Merry Christmas!!...From maybe some half-awake folks. J

“I’m awake now!!!” (Josiah gets Star Wars Legos.)

Josiah is a festive Texan that got into the Christmas spirit. J He did this next to his bed.

Zack and Zinnia like getting treats for Christmas too.

Early in December some of us kids did the Garden of Lights 5k race! We later drove back when it was darker to drive through the park. There were some beautiful lights!

Josiah’s Sunday school class sang Christmas carols at the church’s Christmas program.

Our family Christmas day was about a week earlier than the 25^th, as usual, because we would be traveling “Home to Ohio” for “the real Christmas”! J After early-morning gifts and hot drinks, we prepared our traditional French toast casserole for breakfast. That was accompanied by fruit and eggnog/or orange juice. Then we did our advent activity, where we lit the central white candle, representing Christ Jesus. We sang “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” The best part of such a joyous morning of the year is the Reason for it!!

The rest of the day we did both relaxed and exercised! While enjoying gifts and treats, we curled up and watched a new movie we received that morning: “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” It’s a funny and creative Ben Stiller movie, and I would recommend it for those who appreciate art/photography, and adventure. I enjoyed cuddling with my new panda pillow pet—probably my favorite gift! J Ben gave it to me. Later we took advantage of the beautiful day outside and went walking. That evening we ate Christmas dinner as a family, feasting on ham, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans almondine, green jello salad, herbed corn, crackers with artichoke dip, and Christmas cookies.

A couple of days later it was time to hit the road! We still manage in our little mini-van, even for long road trips. We also stayed safe, even through some serious flooding.

It’s so good to have coffee with Abuela!

We always eat so good at Abuela and Abuelo’s! And these boys are growing up! This year E will be 13, Josiah 12, and J, 8.

Look at this beautiful family! (And Josiah. J) L to R Cousin J, Josiah, cousin E, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Cindy.

Papo’s mouth wide open when he opens his new TV! Great Kodak moment! Mama and Papo’s old TV is 45 years old. It is a beautiful TV that they’ve had since my Mom was 7. It stopped working this past Christmas, but it will be kept at the house! It actually looks nice serving as a stand for the new TV.

The cousins! L to R in the back: Roma, E, Bianca, Ben. Front: J, Josiah, and Rubia. We’re so big we block the tree. (Notice to the right the new TV on top of the old one.)

On the way back home, the highway was a lake! We ended up taking a different route entirely due to lots of flooding problems.

Bianca and Jessie couldn’t see each other over Christmas, but afterward there were still several times they could visit before school started again. Jessie came up from Texas for New Year’s! Here they’re exchanging gifts. J

Pictionary on New Year’s Eve! We also enjoyed nice and hot chicken chowder with English muffin bread for dinner, chocolate cake for dessert, and watching “Beyond the Mask.”

The New Year’s day ice skaters included Josiah, Bianca, Jessie, Rubia, and Roma-who-took-the-picture.

I’ll end my post with this gorgeous picture Roma took on the kids’ photo shoot. A beautiful sunset wrapping up a great winter break for us. What awesome memories with family and friends we had over Christmas and New Year’s!

Birthdays!

~Posted by Roma

Well, hello again, blog readers! As Bianca mentioned in her post, things have been a bit crazy J. Our Texas home is back on the market (after we thought we had sold it) and just recently, we bought a new home in Oklahoma. We’re hoping to be packing boxes and moving very soon now! It’s a bittersweet feeling…continue to pray for us.

The first half of the year is filled with birthdays in our family, so I thought that I would give you a very brief sum-up of the first couple…my Mom and Josiah’s birthdays! It might be hard to keep this blog post short, but I’ll do the best I can!

Mom’s birthday was actually all the way back in January. I wanted to really surprise her and do something that she would always remember. So, I asked her parents (whom we affectionately call “Bio” and “Bia” ) to fly down to Texas for her birthday. They flew down, all the way from Ohio! (They are the best!) Bianca pretended to go to work but instead picked them up at the airport in Dallas, and an hour later they came walking into the kitchen. My Mom was so surprised she started sobbing. J Then my Dad came from Oklahoma later that weekend to join us for her celebration. We had turtle cake, went out to restaurants more than one night in a row; laughed, fellowshipped, Bio sang Psalm 121 to her in Spanish, our adopted brothers K and O came to see her as well… it was a wonderful week to celebrate our Mommy!

My Mom and her Mom playing a board game called: ‘Ticket to Ride’ back in January.

We kids did what we do every year and tiptoed down the stairs very early in the morning on her birthday, to make Mom breakfast in bed. This year it was crepes--one with a cream cheese filling and another with Nutella in it.

Mom opening presents with the whole family!

March rolled around, and…Josiah’s birthday! Believe it or not, Texas had an ice storm that day! Our plans changed, since we couldn’t leave the house, so instead, all seven of us went outside and had an awesome snowball fight! Afterward, we played board games, popped popcorn and made hot chocolate, watched movies, ate chocolate birthday cake, and Josiah opened gifts. It was a more simple celebration, and because of the bad weather, we postponed his birthday trip until April…

Out in the snow on Josiah’s b-day. It. Was. Cold.

And here he is—birthday boy opening presents.

April came around fast and Mom and Dad took us on a surprise birthday trip for Josiah! We all piled up in the minivan and ended up at…the Perot Science Museum in Dallas! There were four different floors to explore, with plenty of wonderful information on astronomy, biology, geology, the human body, life, hands-on things to do, and a 3D movie about the deep sea challenger!

Ben standing in the Perot Science Museum looking over Dallas during Josiah’s birthday trip.

After enjoying the Perot Museum, we went to Papasitos cantina for dinner. They came out and sang for Josiah and gave him ice cream and a sombrero. J

Josiah at the Mexican restaurant, being, well, himself. Happy Birthday, buddy!

So, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy celebrating more birthdays, doing fun things, and spending a few more precious weeks with our Texan friends before many good-byes will have to be said. But Lord willing, we will be moving soon and finally making that transition after waiting for so long…

All for now!

Open

“The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.”

Deuteronomy 28:12

Lightning

“When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses.” Jeremiah 10:13, 51:16

Weekend Youth Retreat

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to help lead a group of high schoolers to a youth retreat at a camp a couple of hours from our church. I wanted to go on the retreat as a camper last year, but I was saving money for my summer missions trip. Since I was asked to go as a leader this time, I didn’t have to pay. I can’t argue with that!

Eight of us (3 leaders and 5 high schoolers) met at the church Friday evening. Once we had things packed up in the two cars, we drove off! We stopped at Raising Cane’s for dinner and then arrived at camp around 8:30 p.m.

We checked in and unloaded our things to our cabins. Then the kids made their way to the sports field for a snack while the leaders had a brief meeting. We went to the gym for the first session.

Every time we had a session, we leaders formed what was called the “gauntlet.” We would line up on either side of the doorway and the kids would run through us to get in. Meanwhile, we were dancing, giving high fives, etc. J It was pretty funny!

After the camp staff welcomed everyone, we played a life-sized game of battleship!

The kids piled into the kayaks and played guys against girls. Several people on either team were blindfolded and had nerf balls to throw. If they hit one of the boats, they were out. The guys won of course!

After that we had a time of worship. The band—The Avid Light—is a local band, and very talented! They did a great job leading our group in worship. Next we heard the speaker. He was very good and engaging. His first session was focused on the gospel. He really knew his Bible well and had the kids constantly flipping back and forth between passages.

After the session, our youth group broke up for discussion time. Basically the girls went back to their cabin and the guys went back to theirs (it was a little too cold and late to stay outside for our discussion group.) We made it to bed around 12:00 a.m.

Saturday morning, I got up around 7:30 a.m. to shower and do my devotions before breakfast at 9:00 a.m. All the leaders came into the dining hall before the kids. We stood on top of chairs and they played “Good Morning” by Mandisa as the kids came in. J

The food at camp was quite good! After breakfast, the staff made a few announcements and then dismissed everyone. Campers went to have quiet time while the leaders had a meeting.

Then we all went back to the gym for our next session. The title of the message was “The Bible Isn’t Boring.” The speaker did an excellent job of making certain mundane parts of the Old Testament come to life! He even made a human timeline to illustrate some of his points!

We had our discussion time as a whole group. Pastor D really challenged us to think about how everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus. After that we went inside the dining hall for lunch. Then we were dismissed for afternoon free time!

About half of our group had signed up to go tubing on the lake. We donned swimsuits and lifejackets and headed to the dock. We had to jump off and swim out to the boat. It was a little bit chilly!

Believe it or not, I grew up in Michigan surrounded by the great lakes . . . but . . . I had never been tubing! I really enjoyed it! Since we were already wet, we decided to take a dip in the pool and go off the high-dive. Once we weren’t dripping anymore, we popped into the camp store.

Then we dried up and changed clothes. We still had a little time, so we headed over to the zipline. The only zipline I had done was very small and tight, so this was a new experience! It required me to temporarily suspend my fear of open heights and free falling. ;-)

Ready to go up the tower!

Getting ready to jump. I shrieked like a girl during the free fall. J (Those of you that know me know I’m not a screamer at ALL!)

Part of camp. You can see the sports field, the lake, and the dining hall.

After ziplining, we adults went to another leaders’ meeting while the kids in our group headed back to the cabins to nap before dinner. Dinner was quite tasty, and welcome after such a long, active day!

After dinner, we had another session.

They started off by asking for one leader from every church. Pastor D wasn’t in the room at the time, so I got pushed to the front by my group. Turns out, they wanted to have an Oreo-eating contest. Needless to say, I did NOT win! That was followed by having one girl from every church come up, get blindfolded, and then attempt to brush the leader’s teeth and gel their hair. Oh, and the staff was so kind as to mix chocolate syrup with the hair gel. :-P It was a memorable game for sure!

We had a session on God as our Father and how we are to view ourselves in relation to Him. We had a great discussion time as a group. Then we quickly ran back to our cabins to put on dark clothes for the upcoming game of Espionage.

The kids went out on the field for a snack and then into the gym for their instructions. We leaders went to the bottom of the huge hill in camp. In this game, the leaders take flashlights and go hide all over the hill. The kids receive a pinto bean at the bottom of the hill. Then—without flashlights—they have to try and sneak to the top of the hill without getting caught.

When they were noticed, a leader would shine their flashlight on them. The leader could either take their bean away (then the camper had to go to the bottom of the hill and start over) or they could make them do something before they let them pass. Most people made them sing something. I hid at the very top of the hill and was 50/50 mean/nice. J I sent about half of them back down and let the other half go after they sang something. The kids that reached the top got a wristband to commemorate their success. J

The game was really fun! Most everyone has some sort of bruise or cut to remember the night by. We went to our rooms to clean up and then headed to the bonfire where we enjoyed s’mores.

It was pretty windy that night, so standing around the fire wasn’t too pleasant. So our group went up to the game room and played Spoons.

Part of our group playing spoons.

I think we went to bed around 1 a.m. Of course, everyone wanted to shower after Espionage. We fell in to bed quite tired!

I slept in until almost 8 a.m. Sunday morning. I was so sore and tired from the day before! But I had to get up and pack since we were supposed to move out before breakfast.

Before breakfast we went out and took a group photo! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to get to know these guys a little bit better. J

After breakfast, we had one final session, which was on the Holy Spirit. We had one final group discussion, which was really good. I think a lot of us felt convicted over the weekend that God is so much bigger than we realize. He is in control! We all came away with a desire to spend more time in the Word and in prayer as well.

After a quick lunch of pizza, we left camp. We made it home later that afternoon, and were very thankful that we didn’t encounter any bad weather. I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on the retreat, and I look forward to going with the middle school group later this year!

Saturday Outing

~Posted by: Roma

Last Saturday, Bianca had the fun idea of going up to the Texas/Oklahoma border to the bluebonnet dam, to have a picnic and take early birthday pictures of Rubia and me. Of course we agreed to having a fun outing!! J We also decided to invite our two friends from church J and J for the outing.

 

When we got to the bluebonnet dam, the first thing we did was play baseball, smell the gorgeous flowers, and climb trees while we waited for J and J to arrive. When they came, we spread the picnic blanket ( actually an old electric blanket from Grandma and Grandpa’s house) and got ready to make our PB and J’s—the only problem being we had no peanut butter, and no bread! J So Bianca and I quickly drove to the gas station nearby to get some while the others ate some junk food and waited. We had a wonderful lunch and all kinds of goodies, like oatmeal cream pies, (we love those so much) and then we got ready to take the birthday pictures!

 

Here are a couple and please let Ruby and I know which ones were your favorites! J

After pictures we decided to go to the OK. beach and take a beach walk. And get our feet wet as well of course. It was wonderful after a long winter to feel the sand on your feet and jump over the waves and just run around laughing and throwing rocks into the water!

 

After the beach we went to Braum’s! Even though I gave up sugar for Lent, I was able to have ice cream that had no sugar added and I turned it into a milkshake. We had such a great time with each other as siblings, and with our friends from church and youth group. I want to go see the bluebonnets again sometime! It was a beautiful day!

 

P.S—All photo credit goes to Bianca J

5k Family Run

A couple of weeks ago, our family participated in a local 5k run! The company our Dad works for was one of the sponsors, so we were able to participate for free (a big plus! It’s expensive to register 6-7 people for a road race.)

 

So we all got up early on Saturday morning, donned our running gear and headed to the race! It was pretty cool that morning, but good for running.

 

Josiah participated in a 1 mile fun run. We were all surprised when he came in 3^rd overall in 8-some minutes! J

 

Then the rest of us (except Mom. She was the camera-woman. J) lined up for the 5k. Some in our family had been consistently running 3 miles a couple of times per week. Others—like me—hadn’t run that far in awhile. But we knew we would all finish the race, and were mostly in it for the fun!

Excuse my *terrible* form, but I was sprinting hard towards the finish line.

We all surprised ourselves! Ben came in first, finishing in 25:34 minutes and getting 3^rd in his age division. I finished in 26:23 minutes (a personal record) and received 1^st place in my age division. Daddy got 2^nd place in his age division with a time of 26:46 minutes. Roma and Rubia got 3^rd and 4^th place in their age division with a time of 28:15 minutes.

 

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and were quite happy with our times! We hung around for the awards ceremony and then went to Starbucks to celebrate. J It was a fun morning! 

 

My Favorite Season

Spring’s here! Though it’s technically been here since March 20^th, I can see with the changes around our property that it really, really is here! I’ve also been going through some pictures from last year that reveal exciting changes that may be yet to come around here. There are many ways (and way too many pictures to choose from) that describe why I love spring most.

 



I love the idea of water!

Much needed water!

Often times dark clouds promise refreshment for the earth

And who doesn’t love the growth that happens?