SPRINGTIME MEMORIES

Fun times in Oklahoma. Our dear friends Joanna and David, who we know from Phoenix got married at the end of March. We were blessed to be able to travel up for the wedding and participate in all the festivities of the weekend. It was a much needed break for us.

Here we are hanging with the Phoenix crowd who made it to the wedding in Oklahoma. We had so much fun reconnecting, laughing and eating really good food. We love you all and miss you!!!

Lily and Silas were invited to a very special birthday party. It was Amelie's 3rd birthday and she had a farm animal theme with a real petting zoo. Amelie is the daughter of Jessica and Joe who we have known for almost 10 years through Food for the Hungry. Jessica was with us in Bolivia during our first 6 months and she was a huge blessing and we have stayed close friends through the years. Now, to our surprise and delight, we all live in the same city.

Lily's favorite animal at the birthday party was the 4 week old sheep named, "Ba-Ba". She could have petted that sheep for hours.

Silas is loving his new room with his big boy bed. A huge praise regarding Silas is that he has transitioned well to sleeping in the new house. For three months, while living at the apartment, he cried every night when he went to bed and he woke up early. Now we are once again experiencing peaceful evenings and he's sleeping later in the morning. Praise God!

Lily showing off her new room with a big girl bed and sparkly, pink walls. For the past 2 years she has shared a room with mommy and daddy and she is now very happy to have her own space, and so are we! :)

The "new" kitchen, minus the countertops (what you see in the picture is a temporary plywood countertop). Pete worked very hard putting in new cabinets, scraping off the popcorn ceilings, putting in new lights and fixing the broken appliances. Well done Pete!

We are loving all this space in the family room. The kids have so much room to run and play chase and we are looking forward to hosting friends, family, small groups, etc.

One more look at Lori's belly: 1 1/2 weeks away from the due date.

Lily and Silas reinacting "Palm Sunday".

We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Newell. They helped us with lots of projects, but we were also able to do some exploring around Austin. Here we are enjoying a hike through the woods. Thanks for coming to see us Newells!