No news yet... just some pictures for you.

Hello Everyone,

No news yet on the job front except for some contract work up in Flagstaff. Julio has a 6 week contract and he is 3 weeks into it. He is there about 3 times a week and we are very grateful for the money coming in. He hasn't gotten any calls for interviews and he has his resume out all over the country. Please continue to pray that he will get some interviews soon!

We have been doing a lot of fun stuff lately! I have a bunch of pictures that I want to share with you but no time to upload them all so I'll just start you off with a few from the Phoenix children's museum. Enjoy!

Here' s Michaela after she got done painting the play house in the arts and crafts room...I love the guilty look on her face.

and here's Marina AFTER I washed her hands!!


This was the best part of the museum, the noodle forest!! The kids just ran around in there like crazy people and I even took a turn running through it.

Making "play" pizza's in the brick oven.

playing in the kitchen.

grocery shopping.

Playing on the front lawn of the museum.

Lunch!

washing windows with squeegie's. I gotta get me some of those for the kids to play with. They loved it!

The trees out front were filled with these bird houses and I thought it was adorable! I wish I had a tree in my yard....

sitting on the front steps. Marina was already inside running around with her little friends.

This thing was really cool. The kids would put a scarf in one of the holes at the bottom and it would be sucked through the tubes and come flying out of the top. Loved it! (That's our little friend Hannah in the picture.)

I have a lot more pictures to share but I'm going to have to post them later. I know I haven't been a very good blogger lately and I will try to post more frequently...

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Love you,

Mar

Pray for us!

Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted! Sorry.... I've been putting all of my pictures on facebook and I haven't had time to keep up my blog. Well... a lot has been going on around our house. We had a wonderful, quiet, peaceful Christmas and then we got to take a nice vacation to Michigan to have Christmas all over again with our extended families. Unfortunately, when we got back to Phoenix, Julio got laid off.... he is searching for a new job right now and Lord willing he will find something soon! And to top things off, our landlord wants to put the house that we're living in up for sale so we have about 3 months to find a new home. Needless to say, we are under a little bit of stress....but surprisingly we both feel really at peace knowing that the Lord will take care of us and He knew our situation even before it happened and He has a plan for us.... it's just hard to wait....We've been through this before and we really saw the hand of God lead us to Arizona, we don't know if these new circumstances are going to lead us out of Arizona but wherever He leads we will follow. I feel like I'm just getting used to things around here and I really love all of my new friends. I would love to move closer to family but I would have liked a little more time here..... Julio asked me the other night if I would like to stay here or move closer to Michigan and I said I would really like the Lord to choose for me... so that's what my prayer has been, that the Lord will choose whatever job and location is best for our family at this point in our lives.

Please pray for us.... I'll be posting a ton of pictures very soon.

With love,
Marilena

Yee haw!!

We had a great weekend! We went to a Christmas party for little Julio's boy's club "Contenders for the faith" and they had a square dance caller there. It was so fun!! It was at our friend's pastor's home. They have a great backyard and it was a beautiful sunny day.

Marina wouldn't dance with anyone besides her daddy. She wouldn't switch partners when it was time and she was making it a little bit difficult for us. So she sat out for most of it...

here she is clinging to daddy's arm...

That's Julio and I at the end of the line.

Julio didn't like the partner dancing, but he got down during the line dancing!

he was concentrating on the steps so hard. See his little tongue sticking out.

That's me and the girls doing the boot scootin boogy!

Mr. Green getting his groove on!

Julio is pretending like he has his hands on his belt buckle.

Michaela just looking cute!

The kids love the great climbing trees!!

and chickens.

At the end all of the boys got certificates for completing the fall semester of Contenders.

Afterwards we had 2 families over for a barbecue. Fun, food, and fellowship, that's what weekends are all about!

hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Love you,

marilena

It's been awhile...

We've had a rough couple of weeks around here. I was sick with a head cold for about 2 weeks and then this past Monday night all three of the kids got the stomach flu! We were all fine on Wednesday but Thursday morning I came down with the nasty bug too. Let's just say it was a very long day!! I couldn't wait for Julio to get home so I could just go to bed. This morning I feel like a new woman!! Lord willing we will get a ton of school work done and no one else will get sick!!

I have a bunch of pictures to share with you from November.

Julio's little league season ended on November 22nd. They were so cute!!

The girls made friends with all of the other players sisters. They looked forward to the games so they could play with their new friends.

Coach Doug gave each boy a medal and said some nice things about each one of them. It was really sweet.




We 've been potty training Michaela and it's going really well. She is beginning to tell me when she has to go. Yeah!! We've had a few interesting accidents along the way, like the time she climbed onto the counter to get a cup and peed...

My neighbor Kim and I took the kids on a field trip to the Challenger Space Center.

here are the boys listening to a story about the planets.

Marina dancing to a song about the planets.

My little astronauts.

The boys putting a puzzle together.

They made their own space suits.

Pretending to walk on the moon.

At the end of the class we all got to go in a rocket ship simulator and take a ride around the earth. It was really great and the kids loved it.





I just had to share this picture. I was making hard boiled eggs and I turned around to see Marina like this...

She said "Mommy, I'm sitting on my egg to see if it will hatch!"




It never did...

We went to Tucson for a church conference at the beginning of November. We stayed with a wonderful family who was very generous to open up their home to us. We had only met them one other time but it's so cool how the Lord brings people together and makes them family. No matter where I am in this world I will always have the body of Christ as my family.

This is the beautiful sunrise that we woke up to on Sunday morning.

Michael and Michaela at church. Isn't he the cutest with his little bible?!

Look at the mischeif just brewing in Michaela's eyes.

Julio got a roping lesson from Mark after chapel on Sunday.

Mark teaching the guys the correct technique. he grew up in Kansas and Montana, so he's got the whole cowboy thing down.

Marina had to join in on the fun.

Michael was torturing Michaela on his lawn mower. I had to get a picture in before I saved her. It was so funny!! If you click on the picture you can see it close up.

Well, that's all I have time for right now. I'll have to share Julio's birthday pictures later. I'll be sure to make it soon because I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting for my next post. Just kidding! I wonder if anyone at all even reads this.... That's okay because I like to keep a journal of what we are doing and blogging is a great way to do it.

Love you,

Marilena