Mckenzie lost her first tooth!

Matt and I went hiking one day. It was a lot of fun! We got rained on though!

Matt had the great privilege of baptizing Kaitlyn. What a special day!

Cousins having fun!

Fun at the lake!!!

Fun in the sun!

We took a family trip to Disney World! We had a blast!

Disney World here we come!!!

Mckenzie caught her first fish in Grandpa's pond. Her Uncle Shannon mounted the fish for her. She is very proud of it!

We have had a great summer while on stateside! We have done a lot of things! We have had a lot of fun times with family and friends. We also have had some great one on one times with the girls.

It has become a tradition now to make a gingerbread house every year at Christmas. We had a great time doing it. The girls did a great job!

As a family, we all made cookies and goodies to take around to various people for Christmas. We had a great time together making everything. The girls were troopers as we made about 140 cookies.

Kaitlyn turned 9 in December. She had a fun birthday party. We had it at our house and rented an inflatable bounce house. This is very popular here and is also pretty inexpensive. Kaitlyn wanted a Barbie cake so I attempted to make one for the first time. She was very happy with it. Of course we had to have a piñata. It was a big hit.

Kaitlyn and her music class at church had a concert before Christmas. Kaitlyn played her recorder and also sang some songs. They have all really improved since they first started the class.

One sunny day, Kaitlyn and Mckenzie had fun in the backyard drawing themselves with chalk.

A group of lady missionaries and I went to León for an international hot air balloon competition. There were over 100 balloons. It was really neat to see. We had a great time. It was very cold though.

I was able to go on a retreat to Cancun with Women of the Harvest. It was such a blessing. They minister to women oversees working on the field. It was a wonderful time. I came back very rested and relaxed and renewed. It was wonderful getting to know other ladies doing the same thing we are doing.

The Caribbean ocean is amazing! I have never seen such blue water! Pictures just don't do it justice! It was gorgeous! Unfortunately, it was kind of stormy and the ocean was very rough with big waves, so we couldn't enjoy getting in the water. But, we loved looking at it!

About a week ago, I helped Becky (another missionary) with a women's retreat at their church. We had a wonderful time together! The ladies are precious. We enjoyed hearing from a National speak, playing a game, and eating tamales together. With some support from our church we were able to give each lady a little bottle of lotion as a gift. They really appreciated it! Thank you!