happy birthday Francesca.....

One year ago today Francesca Isabella was born. I was so excited to get the call from Michigan and to hear the words "IT'S A GIRL" I couldn't wait to come home to meet her. I was so excited for Nikki and Matt!! Their family was complete, two sweet boys and a beautiful baby girl.....but I never got the chance to hold that little girl in my arms. 75 days later on January 7th I'll never forget the call and hearing "She's gone..." Those were some of the hardest days in my life. Not being able to go home and wrap my arms around Nikki and Matt and to just be with our family as we all mourned and celebrated Francesca's life. I hated being so far away...

I loved that little girl and even though I never got to meet her in this life she has a special place in my heart. I will never forget her and she will be one of the first people I want to hug after I meet the Lord!

Today as the kids and I were driving to bible study I was talking to them about Francesca and how today was her first birthday, Marina says from the back seat " Oh, I know! Francesca is having her birthday in heaven. Can we send her a card and balloons for her party and Jesus can catch them for her?"..... So that's what we did.

Francesca is celebrating her birthday with Jesus.

happy birthday sweet baby girl......

Babysitting, China, and The Zoo!

Wow, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I've posted! Life just flies by too fast. Anyways, we've been busy with our studies and lots of other fun stuff. I haven't been taking as many pictures but here are a few from the past two weeks.

We had the priviledge of babysitting our sweet little friend Clara. The girls loved having her over and they hardly left her side. She is moving away to Virginia, along with her mommy and daddy better known as Mr. Stephen and Mrs. Gracie. We are going to miss them so much!!!

What a cutie!


When she got fussy Julio walked her around the house. That didn't work very well so I took her outside for about a 2 hour walk! She was quiet the whole time.

We studied ancient China for a week. The kids made these paper dragons.

We celebrated the end of the week with a chinese new year party. The Chinese give their

children these red envelopes with money in them. These were Marina and Michaela's. The symbols each mean something. I forgot what Marina's was but Michaela's means fun.

The kids ate with chopsticks.

Michaela tried so hard to use them...

She finally just used her fingers along with the chopsticks.

Last week we took a field trip to the zoo.

They're supposed to be posing like flamingo's.

Nikky and Michaela.

Marina and her girlfriend's, hannah and Sarah.

On the train ride

There was a petting zoo and Michaela loved this little deer.

She chased the poor thing around the whole place.

There she goes...

Michaela and I in the parrot feeding area. I was a little freaked out with that parrot on my arm...

Sarah and Michaela waiting for our turn on the boat ride.

On the boat ride.

Michaela has hit a couple of milestones over the past 2 weeks. We finally took away her choochi's (pacifiers) and now she is in a big girl bed! We've had a few rough nights with each transition but finally last night she slept through the whole night. Yeah!!!!

Julio started baseball again. This was right before his first game. Isn't he so cute in his uniform? The team is called the Clearwater Threshers and there is a shark on his hat, pretty cool huh?

Well, that's pretty much what we've been up to around here. This week we are studying Greece along with going to 2 bible studies, a field trip to the State Fair, Wednesday night at church, baseball practice and 2 games, a fall festival and a Canadian Thanksgiving party. Whew! I'm tired already!!

Love you all!!

marilena

A Week in Egypt!

What a fun week! Ancient Egypt is so fascinating. The kids just loved learning about all of the strange customs and they had so many questions. It was really cool to be able to teach them why and how mummies were made and to ask them if what the Egyptians were doing was pleasing to God. We talked about when the Israelites came to Egypt and then how they came to be slaves to the Egyptians. They knew all of the answers when it came to Moses and the exodus. To top off the week we had an Egyptian feast at our house. We all dressed up, except for Kim(party pooper) and my husband even let me put make up on him. Here are some pictures.

We wrapped Julio up like a mummy.

A fun craft that we did. When you open one side...

the pyramid is filled with pictures from the kids life. Just like a real pyramid is full of pictures and artifacts from the pharoah's life who is buried in it.

Here's our hideaway. It was too small for the kids to fit into so we they used their lego guys and polly pockets to mummify and put inside.

this is a close up of their mini mummies. The pharoah was Indiana Jones and of course his pets and his horse were mummified along with him. He also needed food, furniture and toys to take with him into the afterlife.

An evening in Egypt!

Of course, I was Cleopatra.

Here is my king, or maybe it's just one of my many "man friends";)

He looks a little too pretty with that eye makeup on!


The three amigos, or should I say egyptians.

We had baklava and I made caramel stuffed walnuts from Cleopatra. Legend has it that she would give them to her "man friends" for energy.

The men awaiting their feast.

We ate shish kebab, hummus, tabouleh, falafel, cous cous, ful madammah, yogurt cucumber salad with mint and potato salad with lemon and olive oil. It was all really yummy!!

The men relaxing after the feast. They were waiting for us to fan them and feed them grapes......never happened.

The kids watched "Prince of Egypt"

Julio and Marina are asleep on the couch and Michaela is still going strong, dancing on the table!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Next week we're going to have a Chinese New Year party. Stay tuned...

Love ya,

marilena