Crazy Driver

Here's a hilarious video of Mariah driving her Jeep and Robbie 'mowing the lawn' - or should I say pavement -with his bubble-making lawnmower. This was taken after a several incidences involving the lawnmower and Jeep, hence Robbie acting terrified of Mariah's driving. They have so much fun together - and they loved playing with Daddy and Nina and their Aunties & Uncles in Tennessee. Nancy has a gorgeous peice of property that the kids ran all over destroying things and collecting tons of bugs. Sorry for the messes Nancy =) We miss everyone already...

Gattlinburg

Gatlinburg was awesome, as I said before. We stayed in a great cabin with Josh's mom, two sister's and their significant others... We had a blast. They were having a fine arts fair and they had a huge area just for kids with face painting and different art projects. Here's some pictures from our face painting frenzy. It was so much fun!!

We're (kinda) Home

Well, we made it safely back to California and all I have to say is I am SOOOOO happy to not be on an airplane right now. The first stint of our flight - the longest one - was COMPLETELY full, meaning I had to have Mr. Robbie on my lap for over FOUR HOURS while sitting in between some lady and Mariah. Mariah was amazing, as usual, having only a couple 'difficult moments' and Robbie was really as good as I could ask for, but even that was rough.

But the ending of the story is happy because we all made it and we were so excited to see Nona pull up and jump out to see us. The kids were so excited to see their Bob-o, Aunts and Uncle, but they sure miss their Daddy, Nina and Aunts and Uncles in Tennessee too. So even though we're not all the way home yet... it feels good to be kinda home and even better to be on the ground. =)

Bummer

Our trip is still going great - I can't believe that we're flying back to California tomorrow - it's gone by sooo fast! We had a great weekend in Gatlinburg, TN which is a really cute tourist town up by the Smoky Mountains National Park. It was gorgeous and we had a great time. I'm working at getting those pictures ready...

On Thursday I got a call from poor Taraleigh who has been so sweet to water my plants and check my mail for me while we've been gone. She told me that our house had been broken into and that it was completely trashed. It definitely came as a huge surprise and also a big time bummer... I don't think I've ever been robbed before. I still don't know everything that they took, but it sounds like they took quite a bit.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately and two things about this situation have come to my mind that I thought I'd share: 1. I am so grateful that prayers are answered. The kids and I weren't there - and how grateful I am for that! Soooo completely grateful. Every day I pray for safety and I feel that those prayers have been answered. Sometimes we don't know how our prayers will be answered, but I do know that they are. And 2. stuff is really just that - stuff. Yes, things are important, but when it really comes down to it - it's the simplist of things that are the most important and nothing else really matters. So what if all my jewlrey is gone, I never wore it anyway!

Luckily Josh's Dad was able to come down and help out with everything and Trent and Taraleigh helped out a ton too. Thanks you guys - so much... I feel terrible that I'm not even there to deal with all this, but in a way, grateful too. Everything will work out just fine, as it always does - but don't you hate when life throws you a curve ball?

I should be back around the 26th. We're staying up at my parents house for Memorial Day weekend and my Dad's birthday, which will be fun. We've missed everyone while we've been away and are looking forward to seeing you soon!!

Family Pic

It's been a while since we've gotten a picture with all four of us in it. This one isn't near perfect, but it's what I've got. =)

We Made It!

We finally made it!! I've taken so many pictures since we got here it's overwhelming, so here are some of my favorites for now. We're having a great time and can't believe we've already been here a week! We miss everyone back in Cali! Enjoy the pictures - there will be more to come...

Practice Makes Perfect

We're leaving on Tuesday morning to fly out to Tennessee to visit Josh and his family for about two weeks - the kids are so excited! I know that the ONLY way for us to make it through the 7 hour flight is... MOVIES! So we went to Target and picked up some headphones for the kids. I learned so many lessons the first time around flying with them and I intend to not make ANY of them again. One of them was that they weren't able to hear the movie from just the speakers. So before church this morning I let the kids "practice" for the airplane. As you can see, things went pretty well and don't they look so cute with their headphones on? (The pink ones are Mariah's by the way). Now I just need to pack...

Sunshine and Flowers

I love watching my yard transform as the weather gets warmer. Who would have known that I'd be such a gardener one day? Go figure. I love it though! If I had it my way, I'd be out there for hours every day... even pulling weeds. That's how much I love it.