Still waiting, so excited!

We can wait no longer!

Dora is due here any minute!

Let the fun begin!

We are having a wonderful time at the Barcelo in Guatemala City. This place holds so many memories for our family. It is where We first met Lily. Also, this is where we handed her back to her foster mother for an unknown period of time until we could come back and bring her home forever.
The sun shinning and the pool is warm. This evening we will be having Dinner with Lily's lovely foster mother and her family. Lily is so excited, she has been asking "how much longer" about every five minutes . I plan to keep her busy swimming for the rest of the afternoon to pass the time.
Late this evening the rest of our group will join us here at the barcelo and tomorrow we will make the long bus trip to Panajechel.

Guatemala bound!

we are on our way! After months of Planning and weeks of work, shopping, laundry and much packing, we are waiting for our flight at the Muskegon airport. I am thankful for the great group of students from Forest park that prayed over some of us this morning. We are so excited to embark on this adventure.

You Might Not Get This, Unless You're a Homeschooler.

My kids showed me this video today, I love it!

Top 7 lies about homeschoolers.

All of these things are true for us, except for the last one. In fact, this is the one that tends to bother my kids the most (when people think we do this)!

Merry Christmas!

May the peace of Christ dwell in your heart this Christmas and in the New Year.

Mother's Day

Well, Mother's Day is fast approaching and I have been very blessed by my Mom, Mother in Law and Grandmothers throughout my life. But right now I especially thankful for the woman that I experience life with everyday. One of the many things that I love about Carrie is her passion for our kids EVERYDAY. She NEVER takes a break from being Mom. Here are some great pictures from throughout the year. Obviously, there is a lot to smile about in each of these pictures. Smiling's our Favorite. But that is the reward for the daily work that she pours into our family.

Thanks for all that you do, Carrie.

Chad

Thanks for all that you do, Carrie.

With Love,

Chad

2011 NAIAS

We had a great time at the Auto Show yesterday. Check out the link to see a cool family pic.

http://social-gen.com/chevy/?u=e2095

JOY!

check out this video!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

summer days

It seems like this summer is just slipping away from me, way too quickly. I am now realizing that all of the things that I thought I would Would accomplish this summer must be done in the near future, or I will soon be embarking on another school year with no time for all of these chores. However, our Michigan summer weather has been perfect this year, the sun is out, the water is warm, the waves are big, and the friends are close by. We are reminded that this is why we call West Michigan home!


We stayed at a cottage for a week with my family and found a cherry orchard nearby that was bursting with wonderful, juicy cherries that were crying out to be picked.

Sleeping Bear dunes must be one of the most beautiful places in the world, or at least in Michigan. We spent about 10 minutes to get to the bottom of the dune where this photo was taken. It took us about 45 minutes to get back up. Summer just doesn't get much better than this. If you haven't enjoyed the Lake Michigan lakeshore, come and stay with us in the summer, we would love to show you the sights.

Our adventure continues!

The kids and I are still enjoying ourselves in sunny Florida. We are schooling in the morning, and playing in the afternoon. Last week we were able to spend a lot of time in the pools and lazy rivers here at the resort. This week we are putting in time at the Disney parks. Despite a nasty virus that all of the kids have now had, we have been having a lot of fun. We are all looking forward to Chad joining us in next week.

Lily is quite pleased with her new pink scuba set. She has been working hard on some new water tricks with them.

Max and Lily were pleased to have a Mickey and Minnie made out of balloons. Oh, to be a kid again!

The rain did not keep us out of Hollywood Studios on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it didn't keep anybody else away either. Seriously, what does it take to slow down Disney???? If a bad economy combined with a lousy day in an off month will not do it, I don't know what will!!

Today it was sunny at Magic Kingdom. We were able to ride a bunch of great rides. Grandpa even talked Max into riding the Pirates of the Carribean ride with us. All it took was a promise to buy him a new pin for the lanyard that he his sporting in the picture. When Grandpa made the offer, I'm not sure that he realized that those pins cost a pretty penny!

Fun in Florida

I finally found my camera, so I thought I would post some pictures of the fun that the kids and I have been having in Florida. We are spending the month of February in sunny Orlando, staying with Chad's parents in a wonderful condo on Disney grounds. Chad will fly down in a few weeks to join us for some fun in the sun. After being away from him for a week already, we can hardly wait to see him.
There is more fun and entertainment around here than we can possibly take in on any day. Actually, we could probably fit it all in if we were on vacation, however, we are still schooling despite daily protests from the kids!

Here, Gabbie, Lily and Max had their faces painted. This was no ordinary face painting! The lady that did this works at Universal Studios painting faces on the characters there. She was amazing (and very fast.)
This seems to be the highlight of the day for Max and Lily. Unlocking the door with the key...the only thing that is as much fun is pushing the buttons on the elevator.

Here, Max and Lily were helping the magician do some magic. They were both so very excited!
Mini golf is right outside the door, so we have been playing a lot of it!
Now that I have my camera, I will keep you updated on our adventures!

Gabbie's Oil Painting

A few weeks ago, Gabbie brought this beautiful oil painting home from her art class. She had been working on it for weeks and it is now on display in our living room.

Nice work, Gabbie.

Thanksgiving Preparation

As you can see in the photos, we have been getting ready for Thanksgiving and Gabbie, Lily, and our neighbor, Claudia helped by decorating some special cookies.




Will and Jake "helped" with the cookies also.?!

It's always sunny in Michigan?

This weekend, our friends shared their kiddos with us while they were out of town. We decided to take them on a wild adventure to my parent's playland in their backyard. The kids had a blast and we felt like the day was a success because we all played hard and nobody got hurt! (Well, there we no serious injuries, anyway).

Gabbie and Sophie tear up the pavement on the go-cart.

Sophie takes a wild ride on the zip line.

Contrary to what you may think, your seat cushion will NOT serve as a life preserver on John Deere tractors.

Sara quickly got the hang of the dirt bike.

For more pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/ctiesma/20091110?authkey=Gv1sRgCLb4nOjC5KfSYA&feat=directlink

Trick or Treat

We had a ton of fun celebrating Halloween. My wonderful wife made a great meal and planned a whole day of fun with her parents and brother's family joining us.

This year, Lily was particularly excited about halloween. She has been asking for about three weeks "Is it Halloween today?" And finally, we could answer in the affirmative. When we went out to Trick or Treat, she would run between houses and yell "TRICK OR TREAT!!!!" Then, of course, all of our neighbors gave her candy.

Could life get any better?? I submit that it cannot!

Gabbie as Lucy Pevensie, Lily as a "Buzz Buzz", Max as Mr. Incredible, Will as Jedi Luke Skywalker. My neice, Sarah, dressed as an adorable HSM Cheerleader and Matthew dressed as Harley, the biker.

Twitter will kill you, DCB rocks!!!

Will's 10th!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Things have been going very well here. School has started. Summer seems to have finally arrived (I know it's September). And we celebrated Will's 10th Birthday!!!!
Will is such a great guy. He is fun to be with, confident and talented in many ways. We spent a lot of time this week remembering great stories from Will's first 10 years. What excites me more than looking back, is the thought of looking forward. I am confident that the next ten years will be full of even more wonderful stories.

More Wedding Pictures

Gabbie asked me to put some more pictures from Scott and Kim's wedding on the blog....

So here they are.