Mississippi Fun

Hello from Sunny Laredo! I realize it's been a while. We had a GREAT time in Mississippi over Spring Break and are getting back into the routine of things here in Laredo. We visited with many family members and even made a special trip to the Gulf Coast to see my Aunt and Cousin whom I haven't seen since one week before Hurricane Katrina hit them. My Aunt has a neat new "round house" on stilts!! This was my first trip to the Coast since the Hurricane and I couldn't not believe all the damage. We had a great time visiting with them. My sister Amber was able to come down and spend 3 days with us. Birte was exposed to a whole new way of life. I ask her what her favorite Southern dish was and she said she didn't know...we ate to many!! She was kidding either. We stuffed our faces the entire trip. She really seemed to enjoy MS. and all the open spaces. She got to do alot of firsts on this trip. Visit the South, eat Southern food, ride a 4-wheeler, ride in a golf cart, ride a horse, put her feet in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sure I am forgetting something. We had FUN!! Here are a few pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoy!!

March Madness

It's been a while since my last post. I said I wasn't going to do that. Sorry!! Anyway, I am updating this as I wait to go to the airport in an hour and visit family in Mississippi for Spring Break. Gavin, Birte and I have been looking forward to this visit for a couple of months now.

Just wanted to update a few photos of Gavin enjoying popcorn about as much as his Dad. The funny thing is when Randy came and sat down with his popcorn bowl, Gavin quickly took it and put it in his lap. I think Randy's going to have a little competition on his hands! March has been pretty quiet for us so far. Gavin & Avery have been having their play dates twice a week and as you can see he's working hard to push her on the lion. She does the same for him. It's really cute to watch them play. Well, I'll be back in a week with more photos and updates to share from our trip home. Have a good Spring break.

Snowy Colorado

I've finally made it with the Colorado pictures. We had a great time visiting our "second parents" in Colorado. Unfortunately, Hilda (mom ) fell 2 days before our visit and cracked her hip. She had to have surgery and have pins put in. She is still in the hospital. Brit (dad) wasn't feeling so well and stayed in bed for most of our stay. With all that said, we still had fun!! Randy and Birte went to Breckenridge skiing on Friday. Gavin and I stayed home and did a little playing in the snow ourselves. We got to eat at a few of our very favorite restaurants. I recommend if your ever in Colorado Springs to have breakfast at King Chef in downtown and dinner at Wild Ginger (Thai food). The very best anywhere.

Birte and her bear at balancing rock in The garden of the the gods.

Gavin playing in the snow for the first time.

We really do miss Colorado, but not the cold. Had a great time being back in our home of 7 years.

San Antonio weekend

I'm a bit behind on this with all the going we've done the last 2 weeks. We took Birte & Gavin to the Stock show and Rodeo on Valentine's Day. It was Birte & Gavin's first Rodeo. They both seemed to enjoy it very much. There were lots of other things to do at the Rodeo. We went through the barns and saw lots of pigs and then the petting zoo and many other fun activities for kids. Gavin loved the animals. We stayed on the River walk and Birte enjoyed the many pretty sights of downtown San Antonio. We also managed to sneak in a little trip to the Outlet mall in San Marcos. We all enjoyed that one!! Lastly, we took Birte to a Mexican restaurant on the river walk for dinner and had the mariachi band play a tune for her and Gavin. Gavin was mesmerized by it. She also enjoyed her first fried ice cream. It was a fun weekend!!

Cake classes

Here is a picture of my latest project. I've started taking the Wilton cake classes at Hobby Lobby on Tuesday's. There are 4 other ladies that I know taking the class with me. It's fun and stressful!! I've never made butter cream icing before or tried to frost a cake with it and it's a JOB to say the least. I'm hanging in there so far. This is my first days homework. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no plan on the decorating. It should be edible at least!

Things are going well here. It's gotten colder again and rainy today. Gavin is amazing us everyday with new words and actions. I've been trying to teach him to bow his head to pray before the meal and now when I say let's pray he puts his head down and starts mumbling words. Then when we are done he says AMEN! To cute!!

Birte is doing well also. She started soccer this week and has practice everyday after school unless it's a game night. She's also started playing her saxophone with the praise band at Church. Here is a picture of her first performance. So, we are staying very busy these days. Gavin still adores her!

Randy is doing the usual work, work, work. However, the next two weekends we plan to go out of town and so he'll get a little much needed time off. Will update you with our trip details when we return next week. Guess that's all for now. Hope everyone is doing well.

Busy Days

This morning I did my first 5K walk for the Laredo Life Center. My friend Nicole came along with Gavin and I for the walk. It was 41 degrees when we started the walk at 8:00 a.m. That is COLD for Laredo and needless to say we almost froze. Of course I managed to forget my camera and so no pictures were taken. We had a great time chatting even though our jaws were almost froze shut!! And Gavin didn't say one word the entire walk.

Birte and I went to a double baby shower this morning after the walk. It was her first official baby shower and I think she enjoyed it. I know she enjoyed the yummy chocolate cake!!

This afternoon we went to our first Laredo Menudo bowl. In case your wondering, menudo is cow intestines and no we didn't have any. HA!! We just went to see what it was all about. For dinner we introduced Birte to her first Chick-fil-a sandwich, which she enjoyed. It's been a great day!! We even got to spend a little time with the Poteets when they came to pick up the remainder of there things from our garage. I sure do miss seeing them and having them in Laredo!

Well, since I managed to take no pictures today, I'll leave you with a couple from last nights bubble bath and one from play time yesterday. One of Gavin's favorite things, bubbles.

Our new daughter!

Hello out there. So it's been a while, I know. But not 9 months! We have a new family member for the next 4 months. Birte, our new foreign exchange student from Germany. She's 16 and joined our family 1 week ago today. We are enjoying her being here and Gavin is already a big fan. He was already calling her name by the 2nd day. The first afternoon she was here he would go into her room and tell me bye-bye and shut the door. I hope he doesn't drive her crazy before May 29th.

Your probably wondering how did we ever get involved with something like this. We know a lady in town that works with the program and she called us out of the blue about 3 weeks ago and ask if we would consider hosting a student. We thought about it for like 2 minutes and Randy said let's do it. I knew he would. He loves doing things to help people, so I knew he would jump at this opportunity.

Now that she's here and settling into "Laredo, TX" of all places, Randy has insisted that I plan some trips to show her a little more of the U.S. I've just finished booking our travels for the next 2 months. We are taking her to the San Antonio Stock show and rodeo on Valentines Day. This will be her first rodeo. Gavin will enjoy it also!! Later in February we are all flying to Colorado Springs to see our "second parents" as we call them, the Britton's. Then in March for Spring break I'll be taking her with me to Mississippi for a full 5 1/2 days of nothing but Southern Hospitality!! Hope she likes fried chicken and collard greens. :)) She's in for a treat!!

Well, that's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures, this is all I could manage to get in short notice.