Exciting News!

So to make a loooong story short, back towards the end of June we noticed that a house that we had been eyeing was on the market. We love our current house but with the kids getting bigger, we were thinking a bit more space might be nice. We decided to put our house on the market. We had several showings and ultimately someone made us a great offer on our house and we in turn made an offer on the house we love. The appraisals have been done and turned out well. We decided to wait to share any of this because there were so many little details that needed to fall into place to make this work. We are scheduled to close on August 14th! Eeek. :)

The new house has several perks that we are so excited about. It has more sq footage than our current house, its across from a nice park and walking paths, it has a pool, more garage space and a big courtyard where the kids can ride their bikes, we could put a basketball hoop up, etc. We'll share more pictures once its officially ours. 

Happy 6th Birthday, Rowan!

We went on Rowan's special birthday outing the day before his actual birthday. We had a baby-sitter stay with Cruz and Cora and we spent some quality time with our big boy at a local waterpark. We had a blast and Rowan was so brave and tried some scary slides.

The birthday boy was very excited when he got up! I forgot to get a picture of his decorated door before Cora tore it down.

Birthday donuts and candles with colored flames.

Excited to open his presents.

He had a lot of helpers!

So excited once they realized what the gift is. Cora broke their Mario Kart Wii game so this was the replacement. He also got some legos.

Lunch at McDonald's (Rowan's choice)

Children's Museum!

Rowan picked ravioli for dinner and we finished it off with chocolate cake! 

Sweet Rowan, I can't believe it's been 6 years since I became your mom. I am in awe of you every day. You are so smart. Your mind is always working, thinking and connecting. I love your questions and you're so much fun to chat with. You are so sweet and helpful with your sister and brother. You play so sweetly with Cora even though its never your first choice of games. You and Cruz love to make up games together and its fun to watch you two. You love legos and can finish a set by yourself in no time.  I am so proud of the way you are growing in your faith in Jesus. You apply God's Word to your situations (and to your siblings). You love to pray and encourage Cora to be respectful during prayer time. You are a great leader! I am so proud of you, Rowan. I just can't believe you're six. While I'm sad to be losing my little boy, its so much fun to see who God is making you to be.

Happy 6th Birthday! 

Birthday with G&G

We celebrated Rowan's birthday with Grammy and Grampy a couple of weeks ago while they were here baby-sitting the kids. Rowan chose Chuck E. Cheese and then a fun dinner and presents at Red Robin.

The birthday king

Playing Games

Cruz and Grampy

Coco and Grammy played a lot of ski ball. Love Cruz and Grampy's face in the background.

Lego stash! 

So glad we got to celebrate Rowan while you were here! 

Thank You!

Anyone who has listened to Rowan one bit for the past two months knows that his birthday is coming up! He was so so so excited when I gave him his first gift from family. 

Thanks Aunty Jill & Uncle Jim

Its safe to say....

..he loves it!

So excited!!

He's been working on it since he opened it. :)

22 Months

Happy 22 months sweet baby! 

All three sweet babies at 22 months. So fun to remember them at the same age as their sis. 

Love how she says her name. :) 

D-Backs/Cubs Game

Roger got Diamondbacks v. Cubs tickets from work so we got to enjoy the game as a family on Sunday. The boys are starting to really understand the concept of the game and enjoy watching the action. Cora mostly enjoyed eating the popcorn and climbing in and out of her seat. 

Ready to go! Coco's baby of the day had to come with us as well.

On a side note, please pray for this little guy's eyes. At his check up, his dr. noticed his eyes are now slightly turned OUT. The opposite of his original problem. She's just watching them for now but he has mentioned occasionally seeing double. Its possible another surgery is in his future so I would appreciate prayers for him.

Rowan the D-backs fan. He made the red/black/white bracelet specifically for the game. :)

I'm always thankful for special family time. 

Pawn to Knight

Rowan has been taking group Chess lessons this summer. He started off in the lowest group, the Pawns. There was a list of 30 concepts or activities that he had to complete to be able to move up to the next level. Two weeks ago, Rowan was promoted. He was so excited to become a Knight. It was fun to see him so proud of his accomplishment. 

Great job, Rowan! 

A Donut Day

is a happy day! 

Cruise 2014

Honestly, I can't even talk about our trip without getting a little teary or thinking about what we were doing this time last week. We had an amazing time. We were both completely relaxed and we thoroughly enjoyed being together. We took most of our pictures by ourselves. :)

Boarding

Right after we departed. Enjoying the water and the sunset.

This was the view from the window of our room when we woke up Monday morning.

The boat docked a little ways from shore and we took smaller boats to the island. This is a view of our ship from shore.

Ready to get off at Catalina Island

We visited every store on the island trying on straw hats.


We finally found some we liked.




The unlimited frozen yogurt on the ship was one of our favorite parts and we each ate several cones a day. This was a time when we always thought of Cruz and how much he'd love the cones! :) We had our formal dinner on the ship this night but didn't get a single picture of us. Oops.


The next stop was  Ensenada, Mexico.


We walked around the cute town, ate cheap tacos, found free wifi and bought Rog a cuban cigar. We also bought the kids souvenirs at this stop.


Happy Anniversary! :)


Winery tour.


Wednesday was our day at sea. We spent the day doing nothing. We laid out all day only getting up to move to a different deck or location on the ship. :) We took some pictures with the giant chessboard for Rowan too.


A little sunburnt!


Last dinner. I haven't said anything about the food but it was amazing and so much fun. We ate in the dining room every night and you could have as much as you wanted. During the day there were various buffets open for snacking or eating any time. During our day at sea I had lunch at the Mongolian Wok which was amazing. My favorite dinner was our anniversary night when we had steak and lobster.


Our ship docked on Thursday morning and we were off by 9:30 or so. We weren't quite ready to end our time away together yet so we impulsively decided to call Mom and Dad and see if they minded if we didn't get home until late. They were totally fine with it (of course) so we decided to go to Universal Studios for the day.


We had so much fun and finally headed home around 7. We didn't get home until 1 am but it was totally worth it. We got the most amazing hugs and snuggles from our sweet kids in the morning.

Mom and Dad, there are no words to thank you for all you did for the kids while we were gone. They had a blast, they were well taken care of and the house was spotless. I know how much work they can be and you did it will smiles on your faces the entire time. I didn't realize until we were gone how necessary a trip like this was for us. Thank you for making it all possible.