Am I a slacker or just to busy?

Ok so it's been a while since I last put anything up on my blog....so I'm going to try and condense what has happened in the last 2 1/2 months into a few brief paragraphs. Here goes...

Our camera broke and I have yet to buy a new one.. hopefully my family will get us a nice one for Xmas. The kids had a great Halloween, Kaitlyn was Dorthy from the Wizard of OZ, and Mackenzie was Tinkerbell... they were soooo cute, but you will just have to take my word for it.

As most of you know, we were trying to get on staff at the US Center for World Mission... we have been through the hiring process since Oct. 2nd and just found out that we have not been accepted...another long story but for our purposes here I won't go into it.

We have been trying to raise money to go on a short term missions trip in January...that's going ok...but not great, it might be only Aaron going unless we get another $900 in a week...we will see what the Lord provides.

I am now a MOPS table leader, and that has been going well, they all came over to my house for a pizza party..but I was feeling sick that day, go figure...the way of life...I really do love my table group.

My Wednesday night women's growth group is going slow, we are down to only four women, but we are able to have a lot of really good support and connection time so that is nice. We are going through the book of James and we find it VERY encouraging and helpful. Faith without works is meaningless.

Aaron is taking a staff position at the Refuge House of Prayer. He will be praying about 20-30 hrs a week as well as setting up the internship program and teaching on missions.

Kaitlyn is excited to be in the Christmas musical tomorrow at church...as is our entire family!! :-) I'm also excited that she is growing..she is 39 1/2 inches...just a half inch more(or some good shoes) and she will be able to ride Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Star Tours and Sorin' over California at the Disney Theme Parks!!!!! :-)

Mackenzie... I am just amazed at how much she is growing and changing every day. She loves to were shoes, especially her sisters, and she is quickly out growing everything. She loves to run and dance and spin around, and just be involved in everything. She is my cutie pie! So adorable.

Ok well that's it for now. I will post some pictures as soon as I get a camera or my mom sends me some from hers. Love you all - peace out!

Running on Thyme

For those of you interested.... my sister Amber made Kaitlyn's birthday cake. As most of you know, she started her own catering company but is focusing on pastry orders right now. She finally has her website set up, not perfect yet, but in running order. Check it out at www.runningonthyme.com you can view a better picture of Kaitlyn's cake. Anyone who wants to order something from her, I can negotiate a deal. :-)

PS: It took her 4 hours to make that cake!

Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday

Thank you Everyone for coming! Kaitlyn had a blast at her Princess Party! I know you all were looking forward to seeing the pictures, so enjoy! Thanks again for coming and celebrating with us!

Mackenzie's 1st Birthday!!!

These first two pictures are from Disneyland at the Plaza Inn on Mainstreet. This was the Tuesday before her birthday. For thoose of you who don't know, for $10 per person, you can decorate your own cake and get to see Mickey and Minnie here. (On the plus side, kids under 3 are free!) She was unsure of that we put in front of her, it was great to watch her discover the tastiness of suger filled frosting!
Look mom! This is sooooooooooo yummy!! And I get to make a mess too!
Everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to Mackenzie at her Nemo party. She had a lot of fun! For some reason, I didn't get any pictures of all the fun that was going on in the backyard, so if by chance someone got some pics, I would love to have them. Thanks!
Here she is with her icecream cake in her Nemo hat

Kaitlyn's first Haircut

Kaitlyn got her first haircut on June 28th 2007!!! She did wonderful, she was such a big girl, and sat perfectly still. I was so proud of her! :-) Anyway, here are some pics of the major event!

MeMe - 8 Random Facts About Us

The Meme Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Random fact #1
I was in a wheelchair for my wedding. I fell down the stairs in my house the day before and severely sprained my ankle; you could hear the "pop" when I landed on it. The ER doctor told me to lay down and keep my foot elevated for 3 days... that wasn't going to happen, so I got vicodin.

Random fact #2
I've been to Hawaii 6 times, none of them with Aaron. On that same note, I've been parasailing 6 times but not all of them in Hawaii. I love it.

Random fact # 3
I can play the Piano. I can still play "The Entertainer" and "Fur Elise" without sheet music. (and yes, "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks" too)

Random fact #4
I have 75 units and no degree. If I enroll at Chaffey. I could apply my credits and have an AA in Business. I just never filled out the paper work, because I transferd to UCCS (Univeristy of Colorado, Colorado Springs) in January of '01, but then my Grandma died, and I was in the middle of planning a wedding, so I freaked out and moved back home and never finished. If my Grandma hadden't died, Aaron and I would probably be in Colorado.

Random fact #5
I only have 4 1st cousins, and they are all on my mom's side of the family; however I have over 100 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins on my dad's side.

Random fact #6
Aaron's mom and dad are technically step siblings. They met when their parents got married. Debbie was 19 and Cliff was 21, they never lived in the same house, they didn't even like eachother at first.

Random fact #7
Aaron can recite long passages of Shakespeare. Go ahead and ask him to quote "Hamlet" or "A Comedy of Errors."

Random fact #8
Aaron is partially color blind; he can't tell the difference in darker shades. i.e.: he thinks his dark blue jeans are black.

The 8 People I Tagged:
1 - Jenn Reynolds - you still need to do yours
2 - Jenn Corbett - see above
3 - Brianna Whitehead - see above
4 - Jenn Langford - you need to get started
5 - Ana Eshoo - I would love to see yours
6 - Pam Smith - I would love to see what you have to say
7 - Melani Betbadal - Why don't you have a blog yet??
8 - Esther Nair - see above

Our Team

OK so this was our team going to Morocco. First you have my mom Mary Ann, then Liz, Amy, Kaitlyn, myself, Aaron, and of course little Mackenzie. We all got along so well on this trip, it was amazing really... no fighting... no hair pulling... even the kids got along well! :-) It was sad to leave Liz and Amy in Texes, we miss them. Kaitlyn is still asking me where they are, and I have to keep explaining why we can't just drive to their houses to see tham. Liz lives in Indiana, and Amy in Kentucky so obviously, it's only a 10 or 15min drive like everyone else she knows. Hopefully one day not to far in the furture they will be able to fly out here and we can show them the wonderful things Southern California has to offer them... like Disneyland... and the Pasific Ocean.. and of couse Flipside!

Villages outside Izmourren

This is the same site that Aaron was at last year. This is the "Community Center." Last year there was only one story and no roof yet... very exciting to see the progress!

The FOR on the Building stands for Friends Of the Rif (pronounced reef-i). It is wired for electricity just not hooked up yet, it is also ready to be hooked up to a septic-tank and have running water. This will service as a house upstairs for one of the Long Term workers and a believing Moroccen family, the downstairs will be a "community center" where they will also hold classes on a marid of topics, ranging from hygine to language learning.

This building is a barn that holds sheep, chickens, and rabbits. Aaron helpped lay the foundation for this last year. This allows them to keep and care for a large number of animals.

Kaitlyn standing next to a baby olive tree. They planted 200 olive trees on this property and in 3 years time they will bring in $30,000 USD worth of profit for them! This is amazing.

This is a cistern that will collect rain water and allow them to use it

This is a photo of how the local village people have been living the past 3 years since the earthquake. A lot of people died because the houses were structually unsound, so they have been fearful of rebuilding.

Here is a picture of a house currently being built by the organization. So far they have built, I think, around 70-75 homes in 3 differant villages. They are now starting to work in a 4th village. It is simply amazing the differance in quality of life they are supply for these family's.

We are home! (Too much traveling in too short a time)

Traveling with children is a challege..... hahahahhaha.......

The kids were actually very good, it was just amazingly impossible to lugg all of our luggage and hold kids and car seats while trying to run to catch our next flight.

Our flights to and from Dallas were the only ones where we sat together, we always had to ask people to move so that Kaitlyn didn't sit by herself... on our way there from Dallas to Chicago, we sat on the plane for an hour before we took off, and then were in a holding pattern waiting to land for a half hour....so by the time we landed and got off the plane we had to RUN through the terminal before our flight to Madrid took off without us...we were the last people on the plane, they even started taxiing before we took our seats! Needless to say we are glad we packed clothing in our carry-ons because it took a day before we got our luggage.

It took three days for the kids to adjust from Jet Lag...that was fun.... they did really well in the car rides to Izmourren(2hrs) and Fez(5hrs) and back, praise the LORD!

Flying back was worse then getting there.... Kaitlyn got sick as we landed in Miami (3 times) so we ran out of clothes and had to get her one of those "some who loves me went to Miami and got me this shirt" and I needed a new shirt...you did not want to have to sit next me after Kaitlyn threw-up on me either..... and then...

....on the 19th... Mackenzie took her first steps!!!!!!!...(then later got hurt really bad by a door incedent and was crying so much she threw-up right down my shirt.....gross!!!)

So......note to self so much traveling in too short a time.....not the best for kids. :-)

See below for some great pictures of the kiddos sleeping while traveling!

Mackenzie asleep in the wonderful lifesaver of a backback that the Smarts let us barrow! (Thanks!) This was on the beach in Melilla.

The kiddos asleep on the mattress in our room in Izmourren, Morocco

Kaitlyn fell asleep on a chair in a resturant our first night in Melilla (we stayed there for 2 nights before driving to Izmouren)

Kailyn asleep on the plane from Madrid to Miami... on the floor.

Mackenzie asleep on the Plane from Madrid to Miami in this really cool bassenet... very handy!

Getting ready for Morocco!

Hey everyone!

Ok so I wanted to set this up before we leave for our trip. I don't expect to have internet access while we are gone, but I will post a bunch of stuff when we get back. Aaron and I will be keeping seperate journals, so I'm sure we will have plenty of stories to tell!

In the meantime, here is a cute picture of Kaitlyn washing her sister in the sink!