Moments of an incredible weekend

wow. What a weekend. Atiras birthday is coming up, the big one four. I told her she's grounded from getting any older. I cannot believe how quickly my kids have grown up. Each year for their birthdays they have a choice, a party, cash in the amount we would spend on a party or a gift. Or something in between, but we have a dollar limit each year. This year, Atira decided in lieu of a party, she wanted to see her long time very close friend Maddie. We met Maddie 5 years ago at a love for Israel conference. She and Atira hit it off right away and became good friends. Thanks to technology, they have maintained that friendship even though they have not met since then until this weekend. Amazing. Maddie lives about 3 hours from our house, across a ferry, which makes for a full day. We decided to meet up in a small town on the other side of the ferry. It was a wonderful first meeting. The girls hugged and smiled and chattered away. We spent time getting to know her family a bit before whisking their daughter away for the weekend. Our day was full! We headed back for the ferry, and made our way to American Girl for some lunch. We dinked around the mall some as Maddie had not been in a large mall before, found some fun stuff we needed and decided to head out. Since it was Friday when we picked her up we came home to have Scott BBQ burgers, baked up tater tots and had corn on the cob. The birthday girls requested dinner. :) as sundown approached we had an erev Shabbat service and then had a quiet fun evening together. Shabbat was wonderful! We headed out to the beach took a long walk, looked for sea life, rocks and shells. Played on the rocks and logs and took loads of pictures. Sunday the girls enjoyed some time playing with makeup, talking and doing generally fun girly things. In the afternoon I took them out for coffee and a trip to the pet store. Sadly, Atiras fish Kitty died so we decided to get some new fish. The girls and I enjoyed looking at the puppy, and then trying to figure out what fish would be a good new addition to the family. She finally settled on a pair of beautiful guppies. Sunday night the girls asked me if Maddie could cut Atiras hair, specifically bangs. I said yes. They both looked so shocked, it was priceless. I was honestly shocked myself! We decided to sleep on it and decide in the morning. Well, I still said yes!! We went outside and Maddie cut bangs in to Atiras hair and did a fantastic job! We finished off our time together with a trip in to Snohomish for some shopping fun. We got home, and headed out again all together to get on the ferry and head back to take her to her family. While we were making our way over, another friend of ours, Hana, who we have not seen in a few years happened to be in the area we were heading to! We decided to surprise Atira with a meet up there! While we were in the store waiting for Maddies family to arrive, Hana comes jumping up behind Atira, completely and totally surprising her!! Her shock and surprise were evident! She was nearly speechless. She laughed, she cried...she muttered. She hugged. It was precious and overwhelming for my sweet souled daughter. Truly a cherished moment. We enjoyed visiting with Hana and her mom and wen Maddies family showed up we had a wonderful time sitting, talking and getting to know one another. We have been blessed with some wonderful new friends, an amazing weekend and memories to cherish for our lives. God has been so good to us. ❤️

She's a published author!!

Wow!! Last November Atira participated in the NaNoWriMo challenge. She wrote 50,000 words in one month!! Her story titled "The Life of Alexandria Maroney" is now in print and available for purchase! One of the many perks of meetng the 50.000 word challenge is having your book published for free!! This smart young lady took advantage of that prize and decided to self edit her book. She did not allow anyone in the family to read it first, she wanted it to reflect who she is, how she wrote and where she was at this age for a future memory. The book has finally arrived and I am personally gearing up to read what I'm sure is a most amazing tale!! We could not be more proud of this accomplished, brilliant young lady!! We love you Atira!! Congratulations and The Lord bless you in all you put your hand, heart and mind to!! ❤️

Moments in Leavenworth

What a beautiful day for a road trip! The Fourth of July was perfect for getting on the road and heading in to the mountains. We enjoyed a beautiful drive up hwy 2 to Leavenworth where we spent the day. It was 85 degrees and sunny! Here is a bit of our adventure....

An early stop at the fudge store. I think they had a sample of nearly everything in there! In the end we walked out with a pound and a half, yes A POUND AND A HALF of fudge!! Our day was dominated by sweet treats and junk food. 

Lunch was at Gustavs, where else?!?! Of course we needed a shot of Gustavo under the sign of Gustavs restaurant. :) yummy food and we were able to watch the end of the soccer game!! 

The Welcome Wagon! I love this family picture!! 

This family picture, on the other hand, absolutely cracks me up!! Gustavo is the goat, Scott is the man, Atira the lady, Jordan the little boy and I'm the little girl. 😝

Love these kids. My favorites. ❤️❤️❤️

The guy who toted this crazy group into the mountains for an adventurous day. I love him. 😊

Sadly, by the time we were about done with our adventure we learned that my Aunt, mi Tia, Gustavo's precious Grandma had passed away this day. May The Lord bless her and her family and bring them peace...shalom ❤️

Shining star moments!

What an amazing day this was!! Atiras first time performing gymnastics!! Her gym had an event called "mini Olympics". Each class put together routines and performed them for families. She did an amazing job and we are so very proud of her! Her skills are amazing and she is learning so much every day!! Way to go Atira!!! 💜

Rainy moments

I love going for walks. I also love hiking. During the week we are either too busy or too tired for a hike, but walks we can squeeze in here and there. I really enjoy the times when Scott and I get out together for a bit. Just a little time together, it's sweet. This particular day we headed out for a neighborhood walk, gray skies, clouds, but dry. You just never know what your gonna get. About five minutes in it began to sprinkle. Not too bad. We made it a few more minutes away and the heavens opened up and water gushed forth. It dumped on us!! We huddled under a tree and debated, do we keep going or head home? We decided to keep going. We were soaked through by the time we made it home. It definitely made for a good memory. ❤️

Annnnd...he's driving!!!

Jordan got his license yesterday!!! He passed his test and he's off and driving! We are so proud of him and happy for him. Congratulations Jordan!! Another milestone met! 

Passover 2014

What a wonderful time we had this year. We had about 18 people sitting around our table. Scott was given this beautiful tallit from our sweet Shelly. Scott led the Seder and did a fantastic job. My mom was able to join us this year and that was a double blessing for us!! Love Passover season...looking forward to the upcoming holidays that complete this season! 

Cat moments

We've discovered that our goofy cat loves to watch the iPad or an iphone like television. We have found bird and fish recordings that he will literally watch for up to half an hour at a time. He touches the screen, peeks behind the device and even looks up to the sky as birds fly off the screen. Watching him is way better than television! This morning Atira and Jordan put the fish show on for Shaggy on the iPad, Atira decided to lay by him on the floor t watch gymnastics videos, pretty soon shaggy liked her gymnastics video playing on her touch better than the fish one on the iPad. So here they are, head to head watching gymnastics together. So cute! 

Bounce!!

We have had such a fun time since we found the homeschool hour at our local trampoline place! The kids love flipping into the foam pit, playing dodge ball and just general bouncing around. I had a great time too! What an amIng workout! We plan to visit on a regular schedule. 

Rock and worship roadshow

What a memorable night!! We were blessed with a gift of some extra money, we decided to pool it together and buy some tickets to the rock and worship roadshow!! We had amazing seats, RIGHT UP FRONT!! 

We all had our favorites, mine being Third Day and I think the kids would easily be Skillet, maybe even Scott too. We made our way down to the Tacoma dome with plenty of time to look around at the vendors. We then got to our incredible seats and the fun began! The concert was fantastic, each musician and band brought something fun and different. Scott brought earplugs. We were all thankful for that! :) We were able to find several friends that came to the concert too and meet up for a quick hug and hello. The family got tshirts and a few other concert collectibles and we made our way home tired and happy. A very memorable family event. 

Almost forgot to record the best part!! The kids went right up to the stage during Skillets performance, and they were high fived by John Cooper!! That last photo is of them looking at each other in excited shock after their high fives!! FANTASTIC MOMENT!! 

Hmmm....

It's been far too long again. I love keeping up this little blog, not just to update family but because it keeps a wonderful sort of virtual scrapbook of our lives. Facebook has a way of doing that as well, but I prefer keeping our memories here. I love going back over time and see where we've been. 

Most recently, Jordan's in college. He is involved in the running start program, praise God, he is getting his first two years of college paid for outside of books and some fees. What an incredible blessing. The above photo is how we often find Jordan, laptop, books, earbuds plugged in. He studies in the living room with us. We tried having him studying in his bedroom but that really didn't work for us. It felt like we were never together. Nobody liked that. So, this was our solution. Shaggy was watching a video of birds flying on Jordan's iPad, it was great fun and entertainment. 

Atira has been enjoying a lot more time spent studying and pursuing new interests of her own. Above she is spending an afternoon ice skating, it was a fun day out with friends. She has also been in gymnastics for the last few months. She loves it! She's very good at it too, practices regularly at home and has made great improvements in a short amount of time. 

As for Scott and I, we have had our own adventures. Scott has recently joined a gym and is working out regularly. We celebrated his birthday today too! He is working regularly as well. I have been schooling Atira, chauffeuring the kids to classes (Jordan jiujitsu, judo and college; Atira gymnastics, piano lessons and social engagements), I'm leading a meeting for codependants, I still lead a on e a month dance worship and we open our home twice a month to our home fellowship. We are busy, happy and doing well. God is at the center of our home and he has blessed us greatly.