Some recent pictures of the kids...

Evelyn's new word is "bee-bee" (baby). She loves her baby dolls! I have found her reading books to them, wiping their bottoms with baby wipes, feeding them, rocking and singing to them. Today she proudly carried one of her dolls around in her sling. It was too cute!

Fun at the park!



Cheeeese!!

Susanna from Estonia

We had the privilege of hosting an exchange student for the month of July through the international program, EF. Susanna came to us from Estonia to get a little taste of life and culture in America. We loved getting to know this very smart, very sweet 15 year old who loved shopping, cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast, diet coke anytime, and a nightly bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. We got her rocking with Guitar Hero, had a fun trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, picnicked at Montana de Oro State park among many other fun things! We said a sad goodbye to her today. On the way home from dropping her off Jonathan said, "I wish she could stay for ALL the nights!" I think this was his way of describing 'forever'.

Triathlon Man

This Sunday Phil participated in the annual SLO triathlon (sprint course) and came in 412th place out of 1,200 people with an overall time of 1:51:04. Unfortunately the kids and I weren't there to cheer him on because of other engagements, but our dear friends David (pictured here) and Lindsay were there to count laps for, run along side of, and cheer on Phil at the finish line.
Way to go Phil!

Super Hero Wife

No pictures this time.

I just wanted to spend a few words praising my superhero wife. This morning, Tuesday morning, she babysat two young kids of a friend of ours (yes, in addition to watching our own two youthful and trouble-making kids), then made lunch for the whole group and the other mother. Then she cleaned the house and prepared a delicious taco feast for some dinner guests, complete with brownies, ice cream and coffee for dessert. And now that the dishes are done, she's out running errands with our foreign exchange student, Susanna.

Isn't she amazing?

This very bright, very beautiful, and very energetic servant wife that God gave me is my true love. I thank her and thank God for her.

The Beach!

This beach, Avila Beach, is one of our favorite spots, and we count ourselves very blessed to live so close to it. Evelyn is walking now, so it's roughly a thrill-a-minute around here, and her smile and laughter are priceless. As we discovered on this beach day, there is no such thing as a little bit of beach - both kids were soaked and covered in sand by the end.

What are little boys made of?

...snakes, snails and puppy dog tails. Jonathan can't get enough of the snails in our backyard. He knows where they all live and checks up on them daily. Many weeks ago he introduced me to a mommy and baby snail, and when I asked him how he knew which one was which, he looked at me blankly, pointing at the smaller snail and said, "This one's Which."
It takes hard scrubbing with soap and a scrub brush to get the snail goo off of his hands. Yech. Em does this several times a day, but it is absolutely worth the hours of free entertainment.




Note big bruise on forehead and hot new haircut!

Camping Trip!

Last weekend I took Jonathan on his first camping trip! We left the girls at home and went up the coast to spend the night at Cerro Alto campground. On our long hike up Cerro Alto mountain we encountered many friendly dogs and fellow hikers, we talked about pollination and "pinching crabs", and Jonathan slipped and, as he recounted to a friend later, "hit his face on a mountain rock". The weather was amazing, and the cool creek felt nice on our sore feet. That night was one of the rare nights when Jonathan begged to go to bed. Our tent was awesome! When he woke up in the morning he jumped out of his sleeping bag and ran (three steps) to the window of the tent and declared loudly, "Daddy look! It's ... it's summertime!"

Miss. America

Jonathan turns three.

Jonathan's birthday celebration began Tuesday night. Before Bible Study we had a little party for him and Shannon (who just turned 21)! Jonathan and I made a chocolate cream pie for his birthday this year. His favorite food is whipped cream, so he was pretty excited about this pie!

"Happy Birthday to you..." (Jonathan helped me make an apple pie for Miss. Shannon)

Blowing out the candles

His actual birthday was Wednesday (April 23rd). Instead of having a big party in the park this year we decided to do a bunch of little fun celebrations. Two of his favorite people are Caleb and Ezra, so we picked them up from school on Wed. and took them to lunch at Carl's Jr.


When Phil got home from work, we went to Applebee's for dinner where Jonathan made a tortilla mask and got his very own icecream sundae.

After dinner we went to the pet store, and then home to play with his cool remote control car (thanks Grandma and Granddad!) before bed.

A great bedtime story to end a great day!

I had a cute video of Jonathan saying, "I'm three!" that I was going to put right here, but my camera battery just died! I'll post it later...

Wedding in Tuscon

This weekend we ventured to Tuscon, AZ for a friend's wedding. We weren't sure how the kids would do on the 10 1/2 hour drive (which ended up taking 16 hours!), but were so relieved to discover we have natural born travelers. We had a fun time visiting friends and family on the way there and back. Here are some pictures to tell the story.

(Friday morning)
Off to a good start!

Jonathan enjoyed following along with books on tape I got from the library. This was his favorite: It's dinosaur time!

We stopped in Pasadena, CA to have lunch with Aunt Lorraine - a long time friend from Emily's years in Chad

We arrived at our hotel at 1am Saturday.

Saturday was so nice and warm, and the wedding wasn't until 5pm, so Daddy took Evelyn to the pool to work on her tan.

The wedding was beautiful! Here we are with Hannah and Steve.

...and with our good friend, Ron and his girlfriend Tamaki.

Jonathan made a best friend at the wedding.

We left the wedding right after the cake was served so the kids could get a good night's sleep before our return journey the next day...

(Sunday morning)

We stopped in Phoenix to have brunch with Jeff and Tricia (Henry) Pina.

About 30 min out from our destination we got a flat tire. We stopped in a very fancy neighborhood to put on the spare. While we were stopped Jonathan declared he urgently had to go to the bathroom. I took him and knocked on several doors, but no one would answer, so...

...we made a makeshift potty. Here I am smiling at a rich lady passing by in her fancy car.

We spent Sunday night with Phil's sister, Rebecca, and family. Phil had a site visit and work to do for his company's office in LA on Monday, so the kids and I hung out with the family. Bethany, Tony and the kids came over for dinner and we all had yummy hotdogs before heading home.

Here's Jonathan saying goodbye to his cousins, Elliana and Madeline. On the way home he said, "I miss my cousins and I love them VERY much."

Easter in Avila

Well, it's been far too long since I've posted pictures. I have a whole stack to put on here from our visit to Grandma and Granddad in FL (while Phil was in Sudan), and from our time with my sister (Beth) and her family. But instead of trying to do it all, I'll just post the most recent photos from Easter. We had a great Easter celebration with our friends, the Hendersons. They used to live 3 feet away from us in our mobile home park and now live a 10 min. drive away in the beautiful hills of Avila. Jonathan did his first Easter egg hunt and met the real Easter bunny, Robby, and Evelyn impressed everyone with how cute she looked in the dress my Mom made her. Thanks, Mom!