Expanding our Family

Please help us welcome our newest family member, Flat Joe! Emily has established a blog for him so come on over to learn more about our new little guy. You can visit him at www.flatjoe.blogspot.com
Love and Hugs to all!

Grace, Pig Tails and Iguana Eggs

Hello, this is Kenny, Robin's son, and my Mom is letting me write the post today. I'm going to tell you about the trip I took with my Dad to Belize. We helped to construct a worship center for the camp down there that helps the locals and teaches them about Christ. We left on Sunday the 9th and after being diverted to Honduras for three hours because of bad weather, we landed in Belize City. We got a hotel because it was too late to continue on to the camp and our baggage was left in Dallas by our airline. After sitting in the airport, we decided to continue on and have our luggage flown out the following day. We took an island hopper to Punta Gorda and looked for someplace to eat. We ate in a place called Grace's restaurant and while we were talking about how God had been providing for us on this trip, the daughter of the missionaries who run the camp walked into the restaurant to get a drink of water. They didn't know that we had arrived early. So we received a little more grace at Grace's Restaurant. The next couple of days we spent working on the chapel and during that time we ate pig tail, which wasn't all that bad until you found out exactly what you we're eating, and then there was Iguana Eggs that are so disgusting that I won't talk about them on here because the description would be a little inappropriate. Another highlight was when we went into a cave and swam into it so far that no light could get in. We got to see all kinds of cool things in the cave. It was like Carlsbad's Caverns only you swim in it and there's a waterfall underground. We also had a cross-cultural day. We had a scavenger hunt where we had to interact with the locals to find allot of things. Finally, the following Sunday, we flew back home. It was a great trip and I hope to go again some time.
Thank you

Aloha from 37,000 feet!

After a fun filled week on the Big Island, Emily and I are on our way home. We had a wonderful week fellowshipping with our friends and discovering Hawaii. We visited 8 different beaches, snorkeling, swimming, boogie boarding, beachcombing for shells & coral & sea glass (Aunt Sue….you would have been amazed!). We saw a beautiful waterfall, lots of tropical landscape and many different kinds of lava. We also saw several sea turtles, manta rays, cool fish and whales. Wendy was a great tour guide and hostess and made us both feel right at home. Wendy & Dean have built a beautiful home overlooking the ocean. Deans craftsmanship is amazing. We were sad to leave but are looking forward to coming back again someday with our guys (miss you Steve & Kenny). I will let the pictures and their descriptions capture the rest.
Love to you all and Mahalo to our Hawaii friends!

UPDATE::::::: We arrived home safe and sound! Back to our busy schedule!

Aloha!

Our first set of pictures from Hawaii. We are having a blast!

February Highlights

We were so busy this month that I did not have time to post all of our fun activities until now! We started off the month with a great Super Bowl party and a fun evening in honor of my birthday. Emily made a beautiful lemon cake and we enjoyed dinner with Grams & Art. A few days later we picked Billy up from the airport and spent a little time with Grandma Richards. Always a pleasure. Billy looked good and be-still-my-moms-heart, he actually had a book with him and I got to see him read it! Not a book of my choice, but progress none the less. We enjoyed spending time with him, celebrating Valentines and camping too. The girls enjoyed fishing with Steve and our little friend, Miss MW, caught a HUGE rainbow trout! The boys enjoyed sleeping in the tent for the first time (too many kids, not a big enough trailer!) and we nicknamed it the Mancave. It was cold, but they had a blast. Our camping trip to Lake Skinner was sandwiched by two different tea gatherings. Emily and I hosted a tea class on Friday, before we left. The girls did a nice job of putting together all that they had learned in their previous class and then we came back from camping to a tea in honor of Miss Hawaii's birthday. It was a great month! We are now in full swing of soccer for Kenny and Emily's starts on Monday. Emily is continuing on with her Karate and just earned her second stripe. She also has started piano lessons and is loving that too. Next month will be a busy one! There will be lots of pictures to share! Until then.....

My Sweet Mimi

It was a wonderful week with Mimi. God turned the rain off and on for our many outings. We shopped on Wednesday, more shopping on Thursday and a visit to the San Marcos Cemetery to bring some flowers in honor of my Mom and Dad (today would have been their 45th Wedding Anniversary!). Then we went to lunch with some of Mimi's friends from her old apartment. She was so well loved there and everyone was really happy to see her. Friday brought a trip to the mall for more shopping (and more shoes!). On Saturday we shared an italian dinner, some fun games and lots of laughs with Grandma Richards, Connie, Dennis (or rather Denny, as Mimi renamed him), Dave, Karen, & Ronnie. We enjoyed watching the kids play with the Wii also. Sunday brought more shopping (and a new purse!) and some much needed naps. We also played lots of Rummikub. Mimi did not want to play Texas Holdum, since I put a cabosh on playing for cash (I am such a bummer) because she said it wasn't worth playing with just chips. Oh well. The week went by much too fast and she is now back home in Texas. We miss her already. Here are a few of the highlights of the week.

A New Venture for Steve

Steve has been busy working on his new business venture. After a 4 year hiatus, he is re-establishing his appliance repair business. Formerly North County Appliance, the new "Grant's Repair" is up and running. Steve still has the knack to fix most anything and with everyone tightening their belts these days, people are more likely to repair their appliances than buy new ones. Among the many changes that have taken place since the" North County Appliance" days, is the wide use of the Internet. Since we frequently use Google to search for our local business needs, Steve has put together a website for the new company that would direct potential customers to us via the web. The response has been great so far and he is busy dialing in all the details. Come on over to his new website , www.grantsrepair.com and check it out.
Oh and by the way, he is still a Loan Broker and does enjoy the financial industry a great deal, so he will continue to do loans as the need arises.
Talented man, my honey.