Our Three Sons :)

As you can see, our three boys have a lot of fun together, no matter what they are doing :) We were watching some old videos and it is amazing how quickly and how much they change. It is such a blessing to have healthy, happy boys who are learning to love the Lord and each other.

Florida Friends!

We had the pleasure of having some very dear friends from Florida visit us over the weekend. The Ramirez family was part of our church when we lived in West Palm Beach, FL and Nathan and their daughter Belinda were born only 15 days apart :) They were each other's first best friends and we had not seen them in almost 2 years. It was great to spend time playing and catching up with them. We certainly hope they come to visit again soon :)

First Day of "School" 2009

In addition to homeschooling Monday thru Thursday, we joined a homeschool co-op this year called Classical Conversations. Its meets for most of the day on Friday. This past Friday was our first day of "school" as we went for the first time to Classical Conversations. Both Nathan and Anthony are part of the program (Noah is along for the ride!) and they have lessons on History, Science experiments, Latin, Fine Arts, Language Arts, Writing, Spanish, and Math, and they also do weekly presentations. It will be a challenging program - for ALL of us - but we did have a very fun day and we are thankful to be part of a group of homeschooling Christian families who love the Lord and love educating their children.

Parablelooza 2009!

For the second summer in a row Nathan had the opportunity to participate in the children's musical at Open Door Baptist Church - our church. He always has so much fun learning the songs and the choreography. This year was no exception :) The children learned about many of the parables of Jesus through song and then performed for the public two times. Its a great time to learn God's word, have fun, and make some great friends!

A Swimmingly Good Summer!

We have truly enjoyed our community pool this summer and all the kids have improved their swimming skills greatly. Nathan is jumping in over his head and swimming the full length of the pool - we are SO proud of him. Anthony is dog-pedaling in the shallow end and running and jumping in and going under - a huge improvement from the beginning of the summer when he only wanted to sit on the steps and watch! Even Noah has become very comfortable in the water and likes to jump into our arms from the side and play Ring Around the Rosy :) We do our best to go several times a week because practice does make perfect, well, almost perfect!

Trip to Atlanta!

Although we didn't take the camera :( to prove we had this much fun, you just have to take our word for it. Amaury had business in Atlanta for a week and we decided to go along for the adventure. The boys love the hotel where we always stay because it is right next to the Atlanta airport and they can see planes coming and going - literally - all day and night! We were able to go to downtown Atlanta one day and visit the Olympic Centennial Park that was originally built for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. We played in the Olympic Rings fountains and the kids really enjoyed getting wet and guessing which would be the next fountain to squirt water. They also played in one of two playgrounds built in the park especially for the Olympic games. Another rainy day we spent 3+ hours jumping at Monkey Joe's - Atlanta's version of Pump It Up! - and munching on pizza, nachos, hotdogs, popsicles, and ice cream sandwiches! Not so nutritious, but a fun diversion. We really did have a good time and the pictures, though not on the blog, are etched in our memories :)

Power Camp 2009!

This was our first, but hopefully not last, year to participate in Open Door Baptist Church's - our church - Power Camp! It was a blast for the kids and a huge outreach to the community. Both Nathan and Anthony were able to participate Monday-Friday night. Each day the boys got to start the night off with a short skit in large group time, followed by Bible Study, and then to their specific track time. They each got to spend a full night working on learning and improving their Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, and Taekwando skills. Nathan was part of the Corn Chex group and Anthony was part of the Cheerios. Each night they also got to see Power Man who helped them learn the core values like Kindness, Honesty, and Unselfishness. On Friday night they capped it off with a time for the whole family to be involved, for the kids to get the camp completion certificate, and to see a camp video. The kids loved ice cream fellowship at the end the best!