First day of school breakfast. Pancakes and sausage!!

Ready to go!

We are excited!

I love my new backpack!

By Mommy! I'll be okay!

Off I go!

I keep posting these quotes from Luke because I don't want to forget them. During bath time," Mommy, I'm sorry I'm going to kindergarten and growning up. I'll be okay. You need to go back to your old life." Me, " I don't want to go back to my old life. I want my life with you." Luke," You need to go back to your life with Daddy because he is your husband."

I asked Luke today, "What am I going to do tomorrow without you?" His reply," Mommy you are going to go to the gym and spend time with Daddy." Such a sweetheart!!! I was giving him another speech this morning about being good and listening and he says, "Okay (pause), Mommy (pause), (in my tone of voice) tomorrow at the gym, I want you to be brave and when the teacher tells you to turn the dial in your bike class I want you to be brave and work hard."

okay, so, meet the teacher didn't go so well for me tonight. I was doing pretty good until the teacher told me we could not walk them to their class and we have to drop them off at the playground. The tears started flowing and they are still going and hour and a half later. The teacher aide did tell me that there are moms that park and walk their child to the playground and stay with them until the teacher lines them up to walk inside. That will be me!!!! I know I have to let him go and let him grow up. Why does it hurt so bad????He is my precious angel that God blessed me with but made me wait 10 years for!!! I will be strong for him though! Hopefully I am getting all of my tears out tonight and Wednesday won't be so bad.

So I have had a TON of anxiety about Luke starting school. He is not a good eater & very picky & if he doesn't eat enought he gets really fussy. Everyone says- oh he will eat when he is hungry. Well- no he won't. If he doesn't like something he will not eat. It was okay when he was in preschool because I was working there and I could get him something else if he didn't like the lunch. Yes- I have catered to him but sorry he is my baby that I waited for for 10 years for him and yeah I coddle him maybe too much. So- I have been trying to figure out what to send him for lunch. He likes turkey sandwiches but can't send that everyday. So I got him a luchable yesterday to see if he would like it. I was showing him how to open it and he says, " I think I can handle that". Juven and I just look at eachother and grin. I am also grinding into his head how to be a good friend and if there are mean kids to go play with someone else. To treat others the way you want to be treated and to always listen to his teacher and not let other kids get him in trouble. He has memorized this speech because when I go to give it he says, "I know, I know. I'm a good friend Mommy." Priceless. We go to meet the teacher tonight and see his classroom!

I have had a lot going on lately... Luke is starting Kindergarten in 3 days, and we are moving back to Texas! Juven and I decided it was time to go back. We have had so many wonderful experiences here, done so much traveling, and done so many wonderful things. But- we really miss our families and want Luke to grow up around our parents, his cousins, aunts & uncles. He really doesn't have any business here and just needs to be close to an airport. So- we have been searching & searching & searching for a new place to call home. We have been planning and will be going back in about 8 weeks! We will truely miss this beautiful place and all of our wonderful friends but are excited to go back home!

We went to Sea World San Diego and had soooo much fun!

Splash pad with Tracy and her boys

One of the twins with his Woody towl on. So stinkin cute!

Luke starts Kindergarten next Wednesday!!!! He is super excited!!! I just can not believe it is time for this new chapter in our lives. It has gone by so fast! We have had a wonderful summer & Luke has made a lot of accomplishments.

He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. He stayed with my sister and his cousins for a week while we were in Europe and he did GREAT! We are still working on swimming. He is still fearful of the water but that is okay with me. I rather he be fearful than fearless!! He rode the big roller coaster at Sea World! When we go to the bottom of the first big hill he yells out, " That wasn't so bad! I think I'm gonna through up!" Juven and I were laughing histerically!!

We are making big decisions that I will post soon!

I forgot to post earlier our experience in the Marsaille airport. We were delayed in Germany for 8 hours because we missed our connection. So when we finally get to Marsaille it was like we were famous. There was our travel guide, airport staff, 2 porters to get our 4 bags, and a driver... all talking to eachother on walkie-talkies. Everyone was looking at us trying to figure out why we were so important. It was rather funny!

After the Olive Mill tour we toured the village of Le Baux. It is an 10th century village and castle up on a mountain side. Amazing views of the countryside!

Above was our tour guide for the village.

Exploring.

We were here the next day also and it was pouring rain. This street looked like a fast flowing river!

One of our friends bought some "Rum Balls". Bisquits soaked in rum. They were HORRIBLE. We took them back to the others to try and everybody had the same reaction- tried desperately not to spit them out!

Juven trying the "Rum Balls".

I want to get all of our trip details down so I don't forget anything. I told myself I would journal while we were there but of course that didn't happen.

We left on Saturday from DFW at 2:45 and of course somehow we were running late and had not eaten anything when we go to our gate. Luckily we were in the new terminal of DFW and found Cousin's BBQ and slammed down BBQ sandwiches. I had been planning what to pack for several weeks and didn't want to forget anything or be withought anything. I packed us a DVD player and movies and a blanket and pillow for out 9 hour trip. When we boarded the plane each seat had a blanket, pillow, and individual TV's. First lesson learned for next year.

When we landed in Frankfurt Germany it was 7 am there and we had an hour to catch our connection to Marsaille France. We had to stand in line for customs with only 40 minutes to spare. By the time we got through security and to our gate our plane was not suppose to take of for 5 minutes but they said the gate was closed. I almost lost it. I was freaking out we were in another country, stranded, and very tired. There was not another flight for us intil 4:30 that afternoon. I held it together, kind of. We had 8 hours to kill! We were able to go into the admirals club in the Lusthana airline because we had business class tickets. We spent 4 hours in there and decided to go find a restaurant and blow a couple of more hours. We walked, and walked, and walked. No restaurants in the Frankfurt airport. Only sandwich shops.

By the time we got to our hotel in the country side of Provence we had been up almost 30 hours! We did sleep about 30 minutes on our last flight but not much to help. We went directly to a group dinner where everyone was meeting. We had the best white wine I have every had! The wine all came from local vineyards and was amazing. We were the last ones to leave dinner!

The next morning we took a tour of a loca olive mill and learned all about the olive oil process and got some great pictures of the countryside. I am going to finish in another post because I'm not getting the pictures where I want them.

My little Lukey graduated from Pre-K on Thursday. I know it probably doesn't seem like a big deal but it is a HUGE deal for me. It is the start to a brand new chapter in his little life. He will be starting Elementary school in August and the beginning to many years of his education and the end to his carefree days. He is so bright and eager to learn and I can't wait to experience his new adventures with him.

I just love that amazing smile!

Miss Wilson- his teacher for part of Pre School and all of his Pre-K. She was so amazing and really helped prepare him for Kindergarten. We will truely miss her : (

While Mom was here we took a road trip to California. This is a picture of us in Palm Springs having margaritas and mexican food. We had so much fun!!

Here we are just finishing lunch and getting ready to go shopping.

We visited Santa Monica pier. It was really neat to see all the things we have seen in movies and music videos in person. Luke loved it too! We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's restaurant and the waiter quizzed us on Forrest Gump trivia. We did pretty good.

After visiting the pier we went and layed on the beach while Luke and Juven built sand castles and played in the waves. We then drove up Highway 1 through Malibu and the Malibu hills. It is just sooooo beautiful! and worth the 450 miles to drive home!

Luke and I at my Mother's Day Tea Party. So sweet!

The class playing musical chairs. Luke did pretty good!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Soooo relaxing! I didn't want to do anything but stay at home. Juven cooked all our meals and cleaned up. We swam and laid out in the sun. I loved it!! I feel like for the past couple of months I have been going, & going, & going... So today I extened my relaxing day and after going to the gym this morning have done nothing but sit on the couch. It has been wonderful!

I am (hopefully) almost done with physical therapy. My therapist told me to try pretty much whatever I wanted at the gym within reason to see how I hold up. So far, so good.

We have 5 more weeks left until our trip to France !! : ) We are sooooo excited.

Juven has been crazy busy with work and it won't slow down anytime soon, but he loves it and is doing great things for the company!

I'm excited for Luke to be done with school for the summer. Excited to not have to be anywhere at any time. He is starting a new chapter this August with going to Elementary school! We are excited but a little sad. He is soooo ready though. He is super bright and loves to learn and read.

My grandaddy passed away Saturday morning. Even when you think you are ready it is still hard. He was 90 years old and had a great life but I am still sad. I'm so happy to have so many wonderful memories of him and will always cherish them. We will be headed to Texas for the funeral. Glad I get to see my family and friends though.

It is heating up in Arizona and though it is only April I am sporting a pretty good tan so far. Way more than I ever got last year! Yes- using sunscreen!

So I've been fighting with this damn back injury for several weeks now. I have seen a spine specialist and doing physical therapy. I was feeling soooo much better until.... at the gym warming up on the eliptical and this trainer comes over to Heather and myself and wants to know what we are doing in thirty minutes. We are doing Body Pump class we tell him. Want to do something new?? Ok... what. The gym is doing a new class put on by personal trainers. A group personal training class. Ok. no biggie. We'll try it. Hard as HELL and I have never been so close to throwing up when working out before but a great work out. Until... the next day when my back is FREAKING out! I was almost cleared and done with physical therapy. What was I thinking??? So I am now getting a little better from that - 8 days later! I get to go to the gym tomorrow for the first time since my episode but can only walk on the treadmill (can do small incline) or do eliptical. Well its a start. This has been the worst thing! You just can't escape back pain and trying to be a mom, wife and take care of yourself on top of that is very difficult. I've been tring soooo hard to get some weight off and be healthy but with this pain and not being able to go to the gym all I want is to drink and eat cookies!

Luke coloring Easter Eggs : )

Pool pics.

Luke and Juven playing "Jedi Light Sabers".

wow. so much has changed since my last post... we have decided to wait on the adoption for a couple of reasons. We had some concerns about the agency we choose and we are going on a big trip to Europe in June and we didnt want to be in the middle of paperwork and homestudies while being gone. So we are just waiting for God to tell us what to do. Also- I had gotten motivated to get back in shape for our trip and was working out quite a bit. I started have really bad back troubles and ended up at a spine specialist. I was diagnosed with spinal arthritis. I am on medication for now and doing physical therapy. I'm really depressed about it because even though I'm no spring chicken I am still relatively young. I'm gonna fight through it though and get back to the gym!
Luke is doing great!! We got him registered for Kindergarten and he is starting in August! I can't believe it!! How did that happen??? He is super excited and we LOVE his new school! He will have a couple of friends from Primrose going there with him and they will even be in his class so hopefully that will help with the transition.
That's all I got for now.

I am about to fill out the paperwork to start our homestudy! I am already a nervous wreck! Last night I found a cup of milk and leftover Ravioli and peached in the pantry!! I will be a little scatter brained through this entire process but hopefully it will be painless! Juven is in Salt Lake City today and Seattle tomorrow. He is spoiled with the warm weather here and tired of the cold! More to come!!

Luke has changed so much this last month since turning 5. It's no secret that he has slept with us since he was a baby. But- he has gotten really big and keeps us up at night and I knew it was time to work on him sleeping in his own room. So- we redid his room for him and made a big deal about him being 5 and being a big boy now & talked up how his buddies sleep in their own rooms. So we finally convinced him & have been successful with no one being tramatized! I am so proud of him!! He is also such a sponge & we really have to be careful about what we talk about in front of him and what is on the TV when he is in the room. I have always been careful of those things but now even more.

I was picking him up from school the other day and he likes to go in the infant room to see the babies and my friend Karen who is the teacher. He told Karen we were getting a baby and she asked him if he wanted a brother or sister and he replied he would be happy with whatever God gave us. So precious!

Another accomplishment for him is that he finally went to the gym kid play area! He is known to not to anywhere without me especially a place he has never been before. I have been running a lot but decided to join the gym with my friend Heather to take my workouts up a knotch. I told him he was going to get to do rock climbing and play basketball and play with Evan, Heather's youngest and he said, OK! Usually there is resistance but he did great! He ran right in with Evan and had a blast! YEAH!

So I'm getting very eager to start our adoption process. We are just waiting for our funding to come through to begin. Any day now! I'm excited this time to know what to expect and to know how God will guide us the entire way! It's been raining the past couple of days so we have been stuck inside. We are not use to that in the desert. We are so use the sunshine and warm weather! I'm getting cabin fever!. Hopefully we will have the sun back soon!

Happy Birthday Luke!!

While in Texas over the holidays we were all able to get together in Abilene to see my Grandaddy. He will be 90 on February 5th. It's so neat to see him with all of the great- grandkids.

We were so fortunate to have a white Christmas! The kids had sooo much fun!!!

Opening presents at Aunt Jenny's.

This was before presents. They were bouncing off the walls!!!

Little cuties!

On our way to Texas!!!!

Santa came early to Arizona.

I had been bugging Juven for years to get blow ups for Christmas. While at Lowes Luke and I were looking at all the selections and I made a big deal about him picking one out. He LOVES penguins for some reason and picked out this one. Juven tried to over rule it but got some tears from Luke. So- we got the penguin.

Luke writing Santa a letter.

Juven and Luke checking the lights to decorate the house.