Jonathan turns 4!

Although his birthday is actually on the 8th, we decided at the last minute to just have a party for him today. We invited one family over, and kept it really simple. Cook out, cake/ice cream, piñata, and swimming in the pool. It was so hot, I even got in for an hour, and it felt great! Hard to believe my baby is 4 already! The last picture is of Jonathan, at 8:30pm...he fell asleep on the living room floor. Looks like the fireworks are going to have to wait until next year! Happy birthday Jonathan, and Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Whoa Baby!

I received a phone call from a woman last night, whom we met just weeks ago at a wedding that Luis helped officiate. She called me from the hospital...in labor with their first child. I could tell she was very uncomfortable, and she was not progressing very quickly at all. She only spoke Spanish, and there was no one at the hospital that could communicate, so we offered to go and help translate for she and her husband. I was so thankful for my years of translation experience at the clinic in Arizona, and the times of working closely with the doctors and nurses back then, that put me at such ease for this. The attending nurse was SUPER!! I am so convinced that nurses are angels, now more than ever! It was such an awesome experience!! I have never been in any delivery other than my own children, so it was such a blessing to watch the miracle of birth! Finally, at 2:19AM, baby Alexis (boy) came out to see us all! God is so good...how He can put people in the right place at the right time...and we are so fortunate to play a small part in His big picture!

I came, I saw, I ran out of gas...

I woke up this morning with a burst of energy. (Hope that doesn't mean that Little Lily is coming sooner than expected!!) Anyway, so I ventured out to the yard, and decided that I would surprise Luis by cutting the grass. When I was a teenager, Dad used to let us cut the lawn with the John Deere, so it's not like I have never used a riding lawn mower before...but in the whole 12+ years of our marriage, I have never cut the lawn...Luis always does it. I think he enjoys it and he relaxed while getting the satisfaction of having a nicely trimmed yard. So I grabbed the key and went outside. I climbed on the tractor, and being the logical, pragmatic woman that I am...I looked for directions...sure enough...right there in front of me. So I turned the key...nothing. I thought maybe I grabbed the wrong key (Luis is a mechanic...we have thousands of keys!) so I went in the house to search again...then I remembered, there's a safety mechanism on the tractor...I forgot to push the brake to start it. I finally got it started, and began in our "soccer field". It's the largest, most rectangular section of our lawn. I tried to remember how Dad used to tell us to cut, so we didn't leave patches of tall grass...Dad's lawn always looked so beautiful! I got to the last part of the field, made my final pass...then sput, sput, putter, putter...I ran out of gas! So much for my surprise. So, to console myself, Josh and I subsequently consumed almost an entire half of ice cold watermelon by ourselves. (Jonathan detests the taste...more for us!) It's so hot lately, but still nothing compared to Arizona.

Do you ever get the feeling...

...like you are being watched???



We did, tonight, while Luis and the boys were swimming, this owl flew over us three times...kind of freaked us all out. He called out a few "Hoo, Hoo's", and went on his way toward a neighbor's house. We're not sure if he thought that we were edible, or if he was just overly friendly, but we didn't stick around to see if he would come back. This is the third time we have seen him in our yard at dusk. The first time, i just about jumped out of my skin, as I walked by our satellite dish and saw two huge eyes staring at me about 5 feet away. Good thing we are not superstitious, because I think there are some old wives tales floating around about owls and bad luck!

Night Swimming

It's been a HOT weekend, and we are very thankful for our little pool! Ali, Robbie and Matt came over yesterday for some water fun and Josh and Jonathan loved spending time with their cousins!(of course, I forgot to take pictures!) but here are some from tonight's late, after-dinner swim. Halfway through, Luis banished the squirt guns, as he was on the receiving end of most of the squirting!