Katelynn's Earth Day Play

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Happy Easter!

We serve a RISEN SAVIOR!

Here in Saudi our weekends are on Thursday and Friday (the school/work week is Saturday through Wednesday), so we were off to work and school on Easter Sunday! In a way it was actually perfect...stuff them with sugar and send them off to school! So, albeit a very unusal Easter, we celebrated our risen King!

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Benjamin is 3!!!

Wow, here I am again blogging about another birthday in our family. Time goes by so quickly and the kids are growing up way too fast! In another way, it seems like Benjamin has always been a part of our family. God has given this precious boy such a sweet personality and an enjoyable character. I pray daily that God will develop strong character in him and He is an amazing little boy. I love to hear what people have to say about him because he makes us so proud.

Benjamin Teaches Mommy About Perspective: The kids were all peeling little oranges for a snack the other day and Benjamin approached me with his orange saying, "Mommy it won't work". I turned around to realize that he was referring to having trouble peeling the orange I had given him. I told him to bring it to me and I would help him. As he started walking towards me I noticed that he was dripping orange juice all the way across the kitchen so I said, "Oh Benjamin, your dripping juice all over the floor!" His response: "But Mommy, it's all a part of God's plan." All of the sudden I didn't mind that there was juice on the floor. :-)

February

I always have intentions of posting more pictures, then the time goes by so quickly!! I can't believe February is gone...and it's nearly mid-March! We have been keeping ourselves very busy. The kids are still loving school.

Katelynn has started taking piano lessons and is really enjoying that a lot. Olivia has become quite the reading machine around here, moving very quickly through her "word sets" and getting her name on the star! Benjamin is growing up so fast...and still making us smile. He says the funniest things - mostly because he sounds like a grown-up when he says it! His newest manipulation tool when we say something he doesn't particularly like is to cross his arms and say, "But that's gonna make me cry".

We've had a interesting few weeks with all of the Middle East protests. The only way we have been affected so far is that we haven't been allowed to travel to Bahrain. We've made regular trips to Bahrain every 3-4 weeks, just to get a break from the chlaustrophobia of Saudi. It's amazing what a breath of fresh air it brings to be able to do that. You may have heard about the "day of rage" planned for Saudi on March 11 and 20th. It's been a little unsettling and we're praying that it remains calm and doesn't go into chaos. Please pray for us to remain safe and feel God's presence with us here. We are not called to live in fear.

These are just a few pictures from this month. Enjoy them! We'll keep you updated on the situation here.

Yay!! Beach weather!

Olivia and her good friend, Taf.

We had our first Texas visitor!! Thank you Rick for coming to see us - it was SO FUN having you here and showing you around our new life.

Ruben has become the big brother Benjamin never had. He totally adores him! He most often refers to him as "my friend Ruben". Ruben skyped Benjamin one day and asked him to come over and play, so this is Ruben taking Benjamin to his house to play. It was the cutest thing ever and Benjamin will never forget the day that Ruben let him play in his room! (he's usually banned because he destroys all of his lego ships.)

January In Review

it was SO fun seeing all of our old friends - these kids have been together

since Benjamin was 5 weeks old!

bringing in the New Year with chocolate fondue

learning to drive at the Elswick's (in a Toyota of course)

some valuable time with the GREAT grandparents


our time with Morgan is always fun!

and finally....a grown-up dinner!

and top off our trip to Houston with a 15 hour flight back and falling asleep in the car!

We have now had 2 days with heavy rain here(a week apart)- it's just crazy! This was after 1 full day of rain in a city built with no drainage.

December Wrap-Up

Ok, so here we go with "December In Review" (beginning with our awesome Christmas tree in the last post):

some Arabic shopping

complete with niqab :-)

our first dust storm - which was much worse than it looks

a looooooong trip to Houston!

some great time with friends!!

and snuggle time with Gram


singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

celebrating His birth

and opening some presents!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Some friends of ours were given a Christmas tree and then received theirs in their shipment so they didn't need the one they were given. So WE inherited it! It came in 2 big boxes and we were so excited to have a Christmas tree. We took it out of the box to find that it was missing the center pole. I had the men come pick up some garbage today and when one of them saw the boxes with the branches that I was asking him to take away he said, "That's beautiful". So he told me he would make a pole to wire tie the branches to. So a couple of hours later the doorbell rang and it was him! He had made a wooden pole and stand to put the branches on. I think we are actually missing the middle of the tree, but he cut and tied and bent and turned.....and this is what we got!! :-) Oh the memories! Thank you Ejaz for making my family smile!!

My Birthday

We went to dinner with some friends for my birthday and had a great time! We left 8 kids with one babysitter at our house and they had a great time!

My wonderful husband got me an iPhone!!

Thanksgiving!!

This year one of the things we are most thankful for is the friends God has put in our life in Saudi Arabia. There are a few families that we have really connected with and been support for each other in this crazy life of ours. We feel like they are truly God-sent to us! One of those families came over for their very first Thanksgiving! They are from South Africa so we had them over to celebrate Texas style with all the fixin's! We had such a great time and are truly THANKFUL!!

Michelle and Olivia with the turkey!

Paul and Tim

Happy 6th Birthday Olivia!!

I can't believe our sweet Olivia is 6! She is so precious to us and has brought so much love to our family. Olivia, your hugs and cuddles are priceless and those dimples are irresistible! I love your heart - so soft, sensitive, and eager to do things that please God! You are such a great helper and always full of smiles!

All of our pottery ready to be fired in the kiln.

Our birthday girl!

Olivia and Sarah

Vittoria and Carlotta (friends from our compound)

Julie and Sarah (friends from Aramco)

Olivia painting her castle.

Lydia, Ruben and Michelle came by to bring Olivia a present and sang Happy Birthday in 3 different languages!! They got to have birthday donuts with us too!