Brinley's 9th Birthday!

Brinley turned 9 and got the biggest surprise ever for her Birthday! Actually, Quincy and Brinley both got a big surprise! We had a moment of weakness and somehow decided to build a rabbit hutch and give Quincy and Brinley baby bunnies for their Birthday's!! They were so so surprised and excited. Brinley got her small surprises in the morning before we went to church. After church we had them both close their eyes and Kylee and Emilee brought in the 2 bunnies and sat them in their laps. They opened their eyes and couldn't believe it! We then led them to the garage to show them the hutch that Chris and I built. It is awesome if I do say so myself! It of course turned out gigantic, because we don't make anything small, and took us forever to make! We finished it..minus the shingles on the roof at 1:00am the night before. Later that night everyone came for her party. Her favorite part of party was her dessert of choice...dirt cups!

We are so glad Brinley is a part of our family. She is so fun, smart, super creative, always on the move, funny and a wonderful little sister! 

Happy Birthday Brinley!

We love you!!

Em's Sweathearts Dance!

Emilee's friends talked her into asking a date to Sweathearts. There were 4 couples and I think they had a great time together. We got to host the dinner at our house. The greatest thing about our new addition is that we now have room to have people over. It's great! This was such a cute group of kids. Em's 4 best friends and their cute dates! Kylee and I decorated with a Valentines theme and served them a turkey steak dinner...of course! 

Good High School Memories for Em!

Kade's 15th Birthday!

Kade's Birthday fell on a Sunday this year so we got to party on his actual Birthday. We had dinner with the family. He wanted money this year so there weren't any exciting presents to open. 

Kade is a great kid. He loves to ride the 4-wheeler with his friends, play his computer game, be on his phone, still loves to tease his sisters, eat pizza and Arby's, eat any kind of sour gummy candy, and he still loves to make money and decide what he's going to spend it on!

Happy Birthday Kade!

We love you!

Guatemalan ties!

Chris and Kade wearing these awesome ties that Betty made for them. That was so nice of her. Notice the Guatemalan belt Kade is also wearing. Great souvenirs from our trip! 

Guatemala!

In January we were lucky enough to take Kylee, Emilee and Kade and travel back to tour Chris' mission in Guatemala! It was a most amazing experience for each of us. It turned out perfect. It was such a great thing to have the kids along. They loved everything about it. We helped Kade because he is not old enough to have a job yet, but Kylee and Emilee paid for every penny of the trip themselves. It was $1600 each and they thought it was worth every cent.

 Chris planned the trip and he did an amazing job. We toured Guatemala City, Lake Atitlan, Quetzaltenango, Antigua and the Jungle in Peten. It is such a beautiful country and the people there are amazing. We were able to spend time with Anna and her family as well as Betty and her family. We also met Teresa who was a lady that Chris baptized 25 years ago on his mission there. He was able to reconnect with the companion that he served with when they baptized her as well. It was a wonderful experience for him and we loved seeing the sweet reunion as well.

We spent 9 days doing some amazing things. Highlights were...

Watching the sun rise over the Jungle in Peten

Seeing the beautiful old buildings in Antigua

Being near Lake Atitlan, thought to be the "waters of Mormon"

LOTS of shopping from vendors on the street. So cool!

Being on the grounds of the Quetzaltenango Temple!

Attending a session and doing baptisms in the Guatemala City Temple

Watching monkeys swing through the Jungle

Touring the amazing Mayan ruins and pyramids

Meeting and being in the home of a sweet single Mom and her girls that Anna introduced us to

Shuko dogs at Anna's parents home!

Following "chicken buses" as we drove along the roads

Taking our lives in our hands by driving ourselves all over Guatemala!!

It was definitely a week that we won't ever forget!!

Now we've joined Dad in loving the beautiful land of Guatemala!

Out to Dinner with these 2 cute girls!

Since we were taking the oldest 3 kids with us to Guatemala we decided we should at least spend a fun night out with Quincy and Brinley. They were well aware that this didn't make any comparison to an 11 day trip, but it was fun just the same! We took them to "Texas Rhodehouse" for dinner. They tried some new things and loved the food they ordered. It was a super fun night!