Emma school program

Emma had a school program last night. Here are a couple of the songs the third grade performed. A few of my favorite things (partial) I made a little dreidel Hippopotamus for Christmas

Guatemala 2012

Matt and I and 24 of our closest friends were able to travel to Guatemala City, Guatemala last week for a Mission Trip. We were gone from Saturday July 7th - Saturday July 14th. Our trip had 3 major jobs to do. 1. build a roof structure for a church plant about an hour outside the city. 2. Have a VBS each day for the Kyrios Kids school we help support, and 3. Paint as much as possible the building the downtown church is now using. I am happy to report we accomplished 1 and 2 and we got a great deal painted and were able to financially support a local painter to finish what we ran out of time for.

We met at the airport Saturday morning at 3:30 am! Matt, Taylor, and I didn't sleep any friday night. Matt and Taylor went to a Red Sox game while I snuggled my kids and quadrouple checked my own packing. :) The flights went smoothly with only minor annoyances. Once we arrived in Guatemala City we were driven to our hotel to check in. Then it was time to head to the Teacher Appricipation Dinner at the Kyrios Kids school. It was a good dinner with some funny and some heartbreaking stories from the teachers.

Day Two: Sunday
Lukewarm shower. Then a van ride to the downtown church for breakfast then church services in Spanish and English. (part of our group went to the church service at the Kyrios Kids building) We began learning a few Spanish songs. Loved the singing! After services we went on a walk down the road to the fountain center. It was interesting to see the marketplace in town. Then it was back to the building for Lunch. More time to get to know people. Then Dinner. Then bed.

Day Three: Monday
Cold shower. Breakfast at downtown building. short devo/songs with BICA students. Then one van headed to Kyrios Kids to do the VBS, one van headed out of the city to work on the roof building, and one group stayed to begin the painting. VBS went well (Thanks to Iiliana - she Translated all week and saved us non-Spanish speaking gringos!) There were 137 kids. (5 classes) Each day we read a Bible story and talked about being super for God/ Then we sang a couple songs. They taught us one of their Spanish bible songs and we worked on teaching them Jesus Loves Me in English. After our big group time we split into their classrooms for crafts and coloring and handing out silly bands. We were there about 2 hours each day. Then it's back to the building for lunch then to help paint. We painted until dinner. Had dinner. Finally, went to the hotel where I went to bed and Matt stayed up playing cards for a while.

Day Four: Tuesday
Mostly same as Monday. Fun was had by many while painting. Jokes played. Paint roller wars. Pictures taken. Songs sang.

Day Five: Wednesday
Mostly same as Monday and Tuesday.

Garrett's 6th Birthday

Garrett celebrated several times for his 6th Birthday.

The first Party was singing and cupcakes at Small Group.

Next was Donuts brought to Bible class to share with friends.

3rd was Family dinner with all the family up here. We had pizza/cake and presents. It's been great for the kids to get to share these things with family up here for once.

4th was Mommy surprising him at school to read books as pass out Spiderman stickers.

5th and final celebration was an actual party at Fun and Games here in town. All in all he had 8 kids. a couple school friends and a couple church friends. It was a blast. They played arcade games, did some laser tag, ate cake, won prizes, and had a blast being boys (with Emma and Daisy being the only girls). He loved it and keeps asking to go back again.

All in all he had a great time turning 6!

Emma and Garrett sing at church

December 18, 2012

This past weekend was our church's Celebration of Jesus program.

Emma helps sing Feliz Navidad Emma, Garrett, and the rest of the 1st - 3rd graders sing Candle of Hope

Winter Break 2012

The school system up north has breaks split up differently than in the south. Down south we had 2 weeks at Christmas and 1 week of Spring break. Up here they have 1 week at Christmas, 1 week in Feb deemed "winter break", and 1 week in April as Spring break.

For winter break, the kids and I (w/o Matt) fly back to AR for the week. They did great on both flights, even if Matthew did book us on a night flight on the way there and a super early flight on the way back. :) We got into LR about midnight and got to our rental car. The whole rental car thing was new for Me, usually Matt does all that. Thankfully he'd reserved it, confirmed our flight time with them so they'd still be there, and told me what to do. We drove to Tanya's new house and crashed. Of course she had two blow up mattresses with Gender appropriate bedding complete with a toy for each child on top waiting. What an Aunt!

We spent the week relaxing with Tan. She took the kids on a hike up a mountain (while I stayed home and napped/read) the first day. Come to find out they ventured off the trail and actually climbed rocks and all that jazz. The kids loved it.

We went for a tame walk around the base of the mountain another day.

Shared in an interesting Sonic eat in-open air lunch.

Went to the movie- Big Miracle.

The kids and I went to Texarkana for a day to visit with Big Daddy and Mepo.

We were honored to be asked to attend the awards ceremony for Peyton's cheerleading career.

Emma had a sleepover with one of her really good girlfriends.

We went to church and confused several people.

We went to a Japanese Grill place where Tanya ruined my daughter by introducing her to Shrimp. yuck!

Tanya cooked us breakfast and several dinners. Plus we went out all over too. One dinner was deemed Family Game Night and Tan brought out some weird game the kids really enjoyed.

It too was too short but not nearly as rushed as Christmas. We loved getting to spend so much time with Aunt Tanya. We miss her!

Christmas 2011

This Christmas had us waking up in Mass. The kids put their stockings upstairs at Jesse's house since she had a fireplace and the Christmas tree. My kids slept good. Jesse kept trying to make noise so Emma would wake up, but she didn't. :) I woke Garrett up and we all went upstairs and opened stockings and presents. The kids loved their presents! Emma loved getting an American Girl doll and Garrett loved getting his own DSi. (Mommy got a Kindle Fire- Thanks Matthew!. Daddy got an iPad- thanks Matthew! err Marti :) ) After presents were done, we hurried downstairs with our loot. stacked it in a corner. Got on the road to get to church in time, with a stop at Dunkin Donuts of course! Had a great Sunday school and service. Had about 20 minutes of snow flurries. Then we booked it back to Natick for the family lunch. We enjoyed our extended family time. Came back to the house. Went to bed and got up early the next morning to fly to AR.

Our AR week went as follows:

One night/day in Memphis visiting old friends . . .well not OLD, just friends we've had a long time. :) The kids enjoyed the DS bonding and marshmallow gun fights.

Two days in AR at one of our Big Kids Houses. A night at Larry's with 1/2 NLR to see and visit with quickly.

Two days in Texarkana with the Pope side of the family. Loved getting to see everyone and have the kids play together! Santa visited again and the kids got spoiled with more presents. Which we left there for them to ship up to us since we flew down and didn't have the space to bring it back with us.

It was a way to quick trip! Though we're so glad we were able to visit even if just for a little bit with many friends and family we've left back in AR. Love and miss yall!

Emma's 8th Birthday

My baby girl is 8! She seems too young to be 8 yet she tries to act like she 18. ;)

She had a lot of fun this year. She got to celebrate 4 times! The first time was with our church small group. Ms. Jolie busted out party hats and a candle to make her feel special. She loved it!

The 2nd party was with our MA family. This was the first year they have been able to attend one of her birthday parties. That alone made it super special for her. We had pizza upstairs at Aunt Jesse and Uncle Jeff's house. We had all the family over and she received several awesome presents!

Her iPod Shuffle from Mom and Dad!

Bonding time with Uncle Rob

Her 3rd party was at school. (sorry no pictures)

Her 4th and final celebration was her actual party. She had it at Snip-it's Salon. She invited a few of her friends from church. All the little girls got their hair done, nails done, did a fashion show, and got to color a take home bag. It was a special time with new friends.

NYC at Thanksgiving!

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we loaded up and went to NYC! We went to see Peyton, one of our favorite "big kids" from Ar. She was there to preform (Cheer) in the Macy's Day Parade. Peyton and Mrs. Heather let us tag along and spend their off day with them. The kids (and Matt and I) were so excited to see Peyton again! We'd missed her. We booked a room in the same hotel as her and booked tickets to se the Rockets at the same showing as her.

We got up and got ready and met them for breakfast. We had to walk because of the crazy traffic. We walked around a few blocks looking at stores and seeing sights. Emma fell in love with The American Girl store and begged for a doll. Garrett had to be dragged out of the Lego store. Then we walked to the Rocketts show. It was wonderful! Emma left saying "I want to be a Rockett when I grow up". After the show, we walked around some more. Peyton found some bling she needed at Tiffany's. Matt found his one Christmas wish at the Apple store. By then it was raining pretty good and we got soaked! We walked to a lunch spot and ate some warm soup. Then it was back to the hotel to chill with Peyton until it was time to drive the 4 hours back to Natick. :) It was a great time with two special ladies!

Garrett's 1st lost tooth

Garrett finally lost his first tooth! He was not excited about it being loose. He was so worried it would fall out in the middle of the night and choke him he wouldn't wiggle it or show it to you. I tried to explain that even if he did accidentally swallow it, it's too small to choke him. Yet, he still worried. So, needles to say we were all excited when he finally lost it! He lost it on the school bus one morning. It was pretty loose already and he was leaning forward and the bus hit a bump and he bumped his mouth on the seat in front of him. According to Emma he "freaked out" and was "crying a lot" because it came out like that. I was at his school later that day to participate in his Christmas Party and he was proud of it by then. He was ready for the tooth fairy! What I find interesting are all the similarities between Garrett and Emma's 1st lost tooth stories.

1. Both lost it because it was real loose and was accidentally bumped

2. Both lost it around Christmas time

3. Both lost it near Grammie and Jesse

Garrett put it under his pillow and woke up to $2!! (Emma only got $1 for her first)

Halloween

This year Emma dressed up as a Vampire and Garrett was a Blue Ninja. They were super excited about wearing their costumes to school! Mommy was glad their classrooms are only around the corner from each other. I went from one to the other and back again at least 4 times to be able to see everything they both were doing. :)

Here's a few of the highlights:

This was also the first year the kids have ever gone door-to-door trick-or-treating. Usually we have Trunk or treat at church and are done for the night. They were super excited to try this new adventure. Of course it snowed the day before so it was super cold! Welcome to New England! :)

Family Apple Picking

We went on our first Family Apple Picking trip! We went with 3 other families from church that we've become good friends with. It was a lot of fun!

Kindergarten Field Trip

Garrett's Kindergarten took a class trip to the Apply Orchard. He was so excited to 1. ride a school bus for the first time, 2. go on his first school field trip, and 3. go apple picking for the first time.

Apple donut and apple cider snack

Getting ready to feed the goats

Class photo