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!

Celebrating Ben and the Twins

~Posted by Roma

I recently told you about our Mom and Josiah’s birthdays all the way back in January and March, and now we are jumping forward to… this past May and June, when we celebrated Rubia’s and my birthday, and Ben’s birthday!

Ruby’s and my birthday was kept very simple, as all special occasions have been kept pretty simple this year. Dad and Bianca did not celebrate with us on our actual birthday, because Dad was working in OK, and Bianca was in Ecuador on a mission trip. But later, during Memorial Day weekend, we went to OK to visit Dad, pick Bianca up from the airport, and do more celebrating!

On our actual birthday, Mom invited two friends of ours from church to join us for dinner, cake and gifts. In the picture above, Ben is showing Jessie the architectural drawings that our Grandpa drew many years ago—really good drawings! Jessie enjoyed that. After a wonderful dinner and a beautiful sunflower cake, Josiah did a Tae Kwon Do show for all of us in the living room and Ruby and I opened a couple of gifts. We would open more in OK with Dad and Bianca later.

For dinner Mom made meatloaf, with sour cream or ketchup to dip it in, potato fries, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes, and the sunflower cake to finish it off. Daddy also called both of us on the phone that night to wish us happy birthday and talk to us. :-) It was a nice day and fun to spend it with friends as well.

Later in OK, Dad and Mom took us on a surprise birthday trip and we ended up at…the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah OK! It was neat to explore the village, have an Indian give us a tour and teach us to say: “Wado”, and tour the museum. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a restaurant called “The Grille,” and explored the downtown area. We also drove past our new house (which we had not yet closed on at the time). Unfortunately I have no pictures of all this, but it was a sweet birthday for Ruby and me!

After Bianca returned from Ecuador and we were back in Texas, she took all of us out on a birthday photo shoot! We needed new pictures of not only Ben and us twins, but new pictures of Josiah too. We love doing photo shoots and here are just a few photos of us:

Now we switch gears and talk about Ben. J Ben’s birthday was actually spent in Guatemala! He opened a few gifts before the mission trip, and then during our mission trip in Guatemala with our church, we celebrated his birthday, and another lady’s birthday from our team. The Guatemalans surprised Ben and our friend with candy, flowers for Mrs. H, cake for them both, and singing! It was definitely something memorable for Ben and Mrs. H!

Ben and Mrs. H at the mission house in Guatemala with their birthday cake!!! It was SO yummy with Oreos on top.

So, that wraps up a few more birthdays in the family! Still to come…Dad’s and Bianca’s  birthdays, and then we’re done for the year! J

Our Traditional Resurrection Celebration

~Posted by Rubia

This year was the 11^th year that our WHOLE family (all 7 of us) celebrated Easter together. That is, counting all the years since Josiah was born! J We were blessed to have a very traditional celebration, even in our current circumstances…hence the title of my post. J. Dad has visited us from OK every two weekends and planned to come the weekend of Easter. It was so fun to see such a full church on Sunday morning!

Prior to that, we experienced our first Good Friday service in a long time. What a wonderful time—especially since the quiet, solemn service was contrasted with a high-energy worship service on Sunday morning! I was reminded that we rejoice because the resurrection is what changes everything.

On Easter Sunday, we awoke extra early because we young adults and teens still hunt for colorful plastic eggs. J And the only thing we’re likely to be on the hunt for every year is whopper robin’s eggs! Mom and Dad have enjoyed hiding those yearly to help us celebrate--especially after many of us gave up sweets for the season of Lent.

We also like to wake up in time to have a non-rushed big breakfast together before going to church. This year we enjoyed cheesy bacon strata. We also had fruit, orange juice, and toast with orange marmalade. (The marmalade has become more popular since the movie “Paddington” came out, apparently.J)

Our Pastor preached an in-depth sermon from 1 Corinthians 15, and explained how the resurrection had to happen, and really did happen. There are some amazing evidences that back up the truth that Christ really did die, and that He really rose. His body was not stolen. One thing I remember Pastor G pointing out last year was that it has been recorded that women were the first to see Jesus after He rose. If the disciples had concocted a lie about the resurrection, they would have said that men saw Him first. This is because women were of little importance in that culture, and their testimony carried little credibility, so who would have believed them? Thus, this is one evidence that screams that the resurrection was not made up.

Creationist and speaker Ken Ham likes to say, “Christianity definitely requires faith, but it is not a blind faith.” He says this when talking about creation versus evolution, and then points out that the faith of the evolutionist (or atheist) is indeed blind. They ask how we believe what we do, but I ask, how do they believe what they do?

Totally switching gears again, we all appreciate having Dad come often and on Easter, we all enjoyed a day of rest. Living all the way down here in Texas, we are *physically* far from extended family, so there was not present the excitement and adrenaline of a big family gathering…..however, having simply our own immediate family present for board games, visiting, a movie, and late lunch was a great blessing! Daddy headed back to his “other home” after we had lunch, with the promise that we could come to visit him soon.

To explain the food pictures J...we had honey-roasted ham with pineapple, baked redskin potatoes, peas with mint jelly, dinner rolls, Jello beans with whipped cream, and “grasshopper” pie. (This pie has a layer of crushed thin mints, covered with minty green frozen cream, and drizzled with chocolate sauce on top. J)

In closing, I would like to share from 1 Corinthians 15:16-22 as well as verses 55-57, (NASB). These verses assure us that because of the resurrection, lives are changed, and people become completely different when they believe! May these verses be an encouragement to you!

“For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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!

Long Overdue Update

Yes, we are still alive! I can’t believe it has been so many months since we updated. That definitely falls on me as the main moderator of this blog. So I owe all of you an apology! Rather than make excuses about why I haven’t updated, I will give you an update on each of us. Then perhaps you’ll understand why we haven’t had many opportunities to post these days.;-) (I’ll give you a hint: we’re living a day-to-day adventure basically, and we never quite know what the next day will bring.)

Mark—Back in November, Dad started working his new job in Oklahoma. We have had a lot of drama involved with attempting to sell our house here in Texas. That drama has involved switching agencies, the District Attorney’s office, and other legal wrangles. Dad has been enjoying his new job, but wishes we could all live together. He had a surgery done on his torn meniscus in February, and unfortunately looks like he will need to have it done again. He is working on cleaning up our new home in the central/eastern part of Oklahoma so that we can hopefully all move in at the end of July.

Betsy—Mom has been a trooper the past seven months! She has continued to work to homeschool the four younger kids. It has taken a lot of patience on her part to deal with the frequent interruptions to show our home and still maintain a sense of order around here. It also takes a lot to keep up with 5 kids single-handedly!

Bianca—I have had a very challenging school year. I struggled to keep up with my classes last fall while I battled a 6-week illness (sinusitis followed by the flu and lots of misdiagnosis and issues with medicines along the way.) I worked as the assistant to our new student/college pastor from November until May. That was a stretching but very beneficial working experience. I was able to catch up on school, and now am only 3 credits away from being a junior. I spent 10 days in Ecuador in May, and 8 days in Guatemala with my family in June, doing missions work. In July, I will start working part-time at a local soda fountain. My dog Tex—a blue mountain cur that I acquired back in December--has kept me very busy with the various scrapes he gets into. Generally, he finds a skunk once a month.

I’ve had another big event this past year. ;-D You can read all about my courtship over here!

Ben—Ben worked very hard this fall and spring to wrap up his Eagle Scout project (landscaping several areas at our church.) Thankfully he completed the project before Texas turned into a swamp! Many people came to celebrate his Eagle Scout Court of Honor with us despite the monsoon-type rains we had that day. He is still finishing up his high school math and chemistry, and should graduate at the end of this year. He has been very busy keeping up house maintenance.

Rubia—Ruby has continued to be diligent with her school work this year! She has been a great help with taking care of our growing menagerie of pets (plus a few neighbor dogs that need a little TLC.) She is faithful to run with Roma and work out three times a week. She also keeps our refrigerator free of spoiled food so that those of us with poorer senses of smell don’t accidentally eat something bad. ;-P Rubia was ecstatic to go on a mission trip to Guatemala for the first time this year.

Roma—Roma continues to keep us all focused on the bright side of life. She has been very helpful and positive over the past several months. Like Ruby, she has been diligent in her school work, but also finds time to make treats in the kitchen for the rest of us to enjoy. She has been the most interested in continuing to blog, and you may see her start to take over some things here in the future as my life continues to get busier. ;-) Roma loved going back to Guatemala this year! She also went on a missions road trip through several large cities in Texas over Spring Break, along with Rubia, Ben, and me.

Josiah—Josiah has been busy this school year! He gets the majority of Mom’s homeschooling time since the older kids are mostly independent. He has also been hard at work in Tae Kwon Do. He may be able to test for his first brown belt before the summer is over! He has absolutely flown through the belt levels and receives lots of praise from his instructor. He had a blast on his first missions trip (our trip to Guatemala in June.) This week, he is enjoying sports camp at our church!

So there’s a small update on the family! Hopefully we’ll be able to post a bit more frequently here over the summer. Thank y’all for sticking with us during this busy season of our lives!

Valentine's Day 2015!

~Posted by Roma

(We interrupt the month of March to bring you this long-past-but-still-informative post from our family’s life back in February. Hope y’all enjoy! :-)…)

Times have been different here since we are in a moving process, and since Bianca (the one who usually posts) is busy with online college, etc. So I decided since y’all probably miss having updates, I would share our Valentine’s day with you. :-)

Our Valentine’s day was really nice. How about yours? It was a perfect warm day here in TX—in the 60’s or 70’s. Dad was here from OK, and we spent time with friends and each other, and enjoyed treats! Here’s all we did:

Friday night we had our usual Friday-night-pizza-and-movie, and a friend from church joined us for the evening. We played our *new favorite board game* “Ticket to Ride” and then Dad came in the door! There were lots of hugs. :-)

Saturday morning Ruby and I woke up early while the others slept in and we made from scratch cinnamon rolls! SO yummy! I had thought the whole time that Bianca was going to make them, and then the day before I asked her if that was true, and it turned out she was NOT going to make them! :-( I had to have cinnamon rolls and we hadn’t had them in a long time. So….the twins came to the rescue. :-) They were delicious.

We gave the siblings and Mom and Dad some little cards. I gave Mom and Dad hearts that had a picture glued on them of all of us minus Josiah in front of one of our MI homes, when Ruby and I were 4 months old. Here Mom is holding Ruby and Dad is holding me. :-)

Dad had a knee surgery recently, so he spent the day on the couch watching old TV shows while resting his knee. The rest of us did chores, worked on school, went outside, and enjoyed our Saturday. I watched part of an old TV show with Dad.

Meanwhile, Mom was cooking up the Red Feast…

We had cheese-stuffed ravioli with red marinara sauce on top; tomato-mozzarella-basil salad; crackers and red peppers with a radish dip; red punch; and for dessert—cherry cheesecake! The cheesecake was to-die-for and so filling! It was a great dinner. Then everyone opened Valentine cards and goodies. All of us kids got cute little baskets with homemade pink cream-cheese mints inside, a bag of chocolate balls with pomegranates inside, truffles and an Andy Griffith 50^th Anniversary Edition DVD!!! We’ve been watching Andy Griffith since we were kids!

This describes Bianca and Ben’s relationship.:-)

After the meal we all got cozy in the living room with blankets and goodies, and watched “Return to Mayberry” where Andy Taylor returns to his little hometown after 20 years of being away in Ohio. It was a good movie!

Valentine love…

Josiah

We had a wonderful day. One thing I love to remember about Valentine’s Day is how much Jesus adores me, treasures me, and lavishes His love on me! He adores you too and wants a relationship with you! Hope your Valentine’s Day was great!

My Belt Test

~ posted by Josiah

Recently I took my 5^th Gup Blue belt test for Tae Kwon Do. I tested with 9 other kids. The first thing we did was kicks and punches. I know one punch and 19 kicks.

Then came blocks and stances. I know 10 blocks, and I also know four stances. Next we did forms. The ones I know are : kebon-one, chonji, tan-gun, peon one, wonhyo, and peon four. Now I am working on a form named yol-guk.

After that we did self-defense. And then . . . sparring!!!!! I sparred twenty-seven rounds. :-O One of my last rounds was a four-on-one!

It was a great test! All in all, I tested for about 4 hours. It was my last test with Maxwell’s Tae Kwon Do (well . . . maybe!) So I finished well.

Merry Christmas!

My how time flies! We can hardly believe Christmas is already here and the year 2014 is drawing to a close. We apologize for things being so quiet here on the blog. Life has been full as Dad started his new job in Oklahoma and the rest of us have kept busy with school and showing our house. We continue to pray that God brings the right buyer to our house and shows us the right home up in Oklahoma. We’ve had some illness go through the house this winter, but at the moment, everyone is enjoying good health for Christmas! J

We pray this Christmas that you would be reminded of the greatest gift ever given: Jesus Christ. He was born to ransom us from our sins, and this time of year we celebrate that incredible gift! Merry Christmas and may God bless you and yours in the New Year!

~Bianca for the family