School's Out!! (post from June)

Woohoo!!!
This has been the longest school year..... ever!!!
All the girls were in up to 3 schools each... Somehow I think that may qualify as child abuse! Lol
We kicked off the summer with a family trip to Aspen...
Absolutely breathtaking. One of the most beautiful places I've ever visited in the US. We are NOT Aspen people... Aspen is geared for the rich, famous & beautiful people... But we didn't let that stop us!!
It was the most relaxing vacation out family has had in a long time. On Friday we visited Glenwood Springs Adventure Park which was sooo much fun! We had a ball! Then on Saturday we visited the Maroon Bells which is absolutely GORGEOUS, this is the mountain scene that you see in the beginning of some movies for Paramount pictures. Then on Sunday Greg, his Dad & Kara golfed while the girls & I shopped! Probably one of the coolest things we "did" was take the girls to the fountain in town. It was huge water sprinklers on the sidewalk that all the kids (and some adults) play in... Our kids were entertained for hours!
We valued every inch of Gods beauty during that weekend. It's amazing to see how majestic His creation is!
Enjoy the pics!!

It's been a while now....

So I've kinda dropped the ball on posting.. So much has happened!
My mom came for a 10 day visit it was very nice! We did some fun things.. See pics below!
In late April Kayla had cardiac ablation surgery. We praise God daily for keeping her safe & repairing her heart!
Life has been keeping us busy & at times we find ourselves pouting, frustrated as we search for purpose & direction. We are trying to look at life from a positive perspective. We know that God is working on something big for our family. He doesn't ever promise that life will be easy. In the meantime we search for ways to serve, take care of our crazy busy family & trust...& wait.
Here's a few pics...

Stepping out of his comfort zone

Last Friday, my dad, Dale stepped out of his comfort zone. He faced his fear.
My dad had never flown in his life, he & Liz came to visit for 5 days. It was nice!
We did several things, see in the photos below. A favorite was Beau Jo's... Yummy colorado mountain pie. The most delicious pizza I've had, they serve it with a bottle of honey to drizzle over the crust as dessert! Yum-o!!
I'm so proud of my dad for overcoming his fear to come visit his family!

A little DIY.....

After the move to Denver, our family purchased a house. We jokingly call it our "new old house"! It is a 1972 ranch home on 2.75 acres complete with a horse barn & arena! Initially when we decided to move, part of the motivation was to turn over the things that were important to us, worldly things, and to submit our trust in The Lord. We had a fantastic, big house in MD. We loved it, Greg and I built that house from trees to keys as he says. It's true. We cleared the wooded lot, worked long tiring days there and eventually moved in and made it our home. I loved ga house... Sometimes a bit too much! I said the words, lord I would be happy to live in a small rancher.
Well, fast forward to February 28, 2013. We were the proud owners of a small ranch. We are a big family... 6 of us & 3 dogs! The small ranch seems a bit optimistic at times. But the Lord has blessed us with a house that has 2 full floors of living space, each girl even has their own room! The house truly is perfect & has tons of potential! One truly important thing is that Greg has a workshop and we have a detached office to run our business from. Since it is a 70's house & people have different tastes we've had to change some of the paint in various areas. In addition to the paint, we decided to tear out the kitchen... It literally just didn't work and the cabinets had seen their days! So my hubby decided to tear it out and put in a new kitchen. That continues to be in the works!
However, Sami's room was formerly a boys room complete with large Ewok stickers on the doors & brown wallpaper! The words she chose were.... I will not sleep one night in this room like this! Lol! So we've done a complete makeover to her room. She was able pick her colors, brace yourself you may need sunglasses to enter this room! Sami is very expressive & if she chooses to express herself through colors than ill just choose to thankful, it could be worse!
By the way, wallpaper is a NIGHTMARE to remove... Thank God for my Shark steamer!
Here are a few pics of the before/after of Sami's room!

Emily...

Emily didn't have to be at school until noon last week so we had a little bonding time. Just Emily & me. It was GREAT!!
After dropping the other girls at school we went for a yummy breakfast. We went to Mimi's Cafe. The food was DELICIOUS!!!
Then we went for a little shopping at Marshall's & Kohl's. the time went by so quick, before we knew it we had to pick up Mira! I'm thankful for these times together, we've been blessed to have such a sweet girl in Emily!

Touched...

**Caution**
Mama bragging ahead!!

My daughter, Sami.
She's 11, going on 21. But VERY mature... Most of the time.
When we moved to Denver, the kids started school on jan7th after winter break. Sami went to school nervous but confident. Her primary goal was to make friends!
The first day of school she came home talking about random girls, she got a few cell numbers. Sami is a good student so I don't worry about this desire to be social. Soon after the first day of school, Sami came home talking about her new friend, Rika, she's from Japan. Sami continued to get to know her, quickly finding out that Rika is moving back to Japan in March. This didn't stop her & Sami from growing close... Like BFF close. If have to say I am beyond proud at the level of maturity it takes to grow close to someone you will likely never see again. To love with an unguarded heart. My prayer is that Sami & Rika will stay in touch, Sami's heart will be healed from the loss & that Sami will make more friends. Thank you Heavenly Father for teaching Sami to love beyond limits, just as you do.

The longest 2 weeks... EVER!

We made a commitment as a family, 2 years ago, to give Mira the best life possible.
Little did we know that we would move half way across the country!
On Saturday February 2nd Mira & I flew back to Baltimore to continue with corrective surgery.
As a family we are used to spending bursts of time apart. Greg has gone on several mission trips, hunting trips, 4 wheeling trips etc.
This time it has been extremely hard.
I think it is because we live in an unfamiliar place and we don't know anyone. For this reason we've become incredibly close! Greg & I are best friends, we are the only friends each of us have in Co. None of this is bad, it's actually been healthy for our relationship. It just makes it hard to be apart.
I miss my girls terribly too. We spend a lot of time together.
Greg is envious that I've been able to "come back". I got to go to church twice during my stay, which was nice. I miss my church family... A lot.
I've been able to spend some time with my parents too which was nice. To some it may sound a but vacation like but I can assure you it hasn't been. It's hard to be here, apart from my family, no place to call home, not enough time to visit some people that I truly miss...
It's funny, as I type this, I'm chuckling to myself about the title..."the longest 2 weeks EVER!" How soon we forget! It has been almost 1 year since I traveled to china to get Mira and I can promise you THAT was the longest 2 weeks EVER!!!
But in this particular moment, the past 2 weeks have been tough!
Tomorrow am Mira & I return home to be reunited with our family. It will be the sweetest Valentines ever!
I can't wait to hug my girls.