Greeley Stampede

Last Sunday we went to the Greeley Stampede! We took two full car loads with my parents, our family, Tim's parents, Tim's sister Karla and her kids.

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Grampa Day!

Last Saturday was a special day! We celebrated Father's Day and Grampa's birthday. We called in Grampa Day! It was fun to celebrate my dad! The kids loved having Grampa Day! Grampa's birthday is Friday, July 8th!! We're so thankful that he was born on this day...so thankful that God placed him in our family!

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Fourth of July!!

We had such a great time on July 4th!! We haven't been able to celebrate America's Independence Day in the States since 2006. It was extra special for us to be able to be in the States this year! We put on our red, white, and blue and went to the parade in Greeley, Colorado! We have enjoyed the parade in this farming community in the past and so we were looking forward to it! We met our friends, the Napiers, who had found us a good spot the day before! 

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Glenwood Springs

This week we had a special time with my (Jeni) side of the family! We went with my parents and my brother Andrew to Glenwood Springs, CO. Growing up we would drive up to this fun mountain town every once in a while. I have so many memories here and it was fun to go back with my kids!

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Father's Day 2011

We have a fun tradition of going bowling on Father's Day! The kids love it and so do we! :) This year it was fun to celebrate Father's Day in New Mexico with Tim's Dad too! (That's the New Mexico flag in the picture.)

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Family time

Last week we got to spend some more time with Tim's sister's family another time before we go back overseas. We're so grateful for the time that we got to spend with them!!
One day we went swimming. Another day we went to the children's museum and the last day we went to the splash pad. We also got to enjoy lots of hanging out time! :)

You can see more pictures of our time below...

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Surprising Kelly

We were so excited to surprise my cousin Kelly!! We happened to be in the same place at the same time and so we met up for breakfast. She was just telling my uncle, "I wonder if I'll get to meet Joseph and Faith before they go into highschool." Little did she know that they were waiting for her at the restaurant!!  

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Time with Nana and Uncle Dan

Last week we got to spend some time with Jeni's Grandma and Uncle Dan! They sure love Joseph and Faith. They spoil these two kiddos and Faith and Joseph love it!

They call my grandma "Nana" a name that Joseph insisted on when he was a baby! They have so much fun with Nana. She gave Faith a set of play jewelry, which was so cute! She loved wearing her tiara, earings, necklace and ring. Faith is such a girly girl!

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Papa's Birthday

It's not hard for us to remember Papa's birthday because it's the same day as our anniversary!! We were glad to get to celebrate his birthday with him this year! We celebrated a few days late since we were in Washington DC on June 3rd. We went to Chilis and introduced him to the Molten Chocolate Cake!! YUM!!


Below are a few more pictures of our time!

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Washington DC

Last week we left Joseph and Faith in Albuquerque with grandparents. We flew to Washington DC, just the two of us! It was such a nice time together!

We loved getting to catch up with friends!! We were close to Elizabeth when she was living in the Middle East in the same city that we were in. What a special friendship with a wonderful friend!

We also got to catch up with some friends we got to know in Albuquerque. Shaun & Anna recently adopted a precious baby girl! We got to meet this sweet baby and rejoice with them in how God has worked in their family!

I'm including a slide show of our pictures below.

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Friends & Family

In May we were blessed to get to catch up with some more friends and family! It was great to finally spend some time with Beth & Jamin Mayer and their five kids. Here is a picture of Beth and her two girls, Shannon and Renee. Jeni and Beth are childhood friends and then went to college together. That's where Beth met Jamin and Jeni met Tim. We have so many memories together!!

We were also so glad that Tim's cousin Valerie came to New Mexico. She lives in Lake Tahoe. Neither Joseph nor Faith have had the opportunity to meet her yet! The kids fell in love with her right away!! 

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Cabin Time

We were so thankful to be able to spend 5 days at a cabin near Jemez Springs, NM! Its a cabin that Tim and his family has been going to for many years. It was so quiet and relaxing! The trees and the mountain air were such a nice change of scenery. It was a nice time for our family! The last couple days we got to have Tim's parents around, which was a blessing!

I'm including a slideshow of the pictures below. :)

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Time to get away!

In the last last month we have had some opportunities to get away! We have had some quiet reflection time. It's been so nice! It's been such a nice time of renewing for us.

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Mothers Day!

Celebrating Mothers Day today was special! Tim was so good...he really made it a special day for me! The kids made a card that was really cute. They were excited to make it a happy day! :)

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About This Culture: Food

Some people have asked us about the kind of food we eat in the Middle East. We love the food that we get to eat! We haven't had much of it since we've been in the States and we miss it. 

Often times it is chicken or lamb with rice. Our Arab friends eat a lot of rice and they always tell us that we should eat some more! 

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Time with friends!

In the last week we have enjoyed some wonderful time with friends! 

Taz & Brandy Painter came to Albuquerque and we got to spend some great time with them and their kids! 

We also got to have some great quality time with Mark & Renee Horlbeck and their boys! 

We're really so thankful for great friends! 

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Disney World

We were so blessed to get to go to Disney World with Grandma & Grampa! I'm pretty sure that the grandparents had more fun than the kids did!! I think my favorite part was watching Faith get so excited about seeing Minnie Mouse!!

Click "read more" to see more pictures!

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IN-N-OUT

We were excited to go to In-N-Out while we were in Phoenix!!! They have such tasty burgers and fries. Thanks to Tonya, we knew to order our cheese burgers "animal style," which means extra sauce, extra pickles, and grilled onions...yum!!!

Even though it was great food, we were so glad to share it with our wonderful family! We went twice...once with Tonya and her kids and another time with my grandma!

Enjoy the pictures!

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Reconnecting With College Friends

Last week we were in Phoenix to visit family and to reconnect with friends from college! Some of these friends we hadn't seen for 9 or 10 years...wow, time sure passes by quickly.

I felt like we were back in college laughing and joking with these friends. The funny thing was there were a bunch of kiddos running around and two of them were mine.

The picture to the right is Tim and his three roommates.

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Railroad Park

On Monday morning we took a trip with Tim's sister Tonya's family to the Railroad Park in Phoenix! We packed a lunch of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and loaded up two vans full of kids. We followed James & Tonya in their new blue van that said "B Bunch" on the back window.

Joseph was excited to ride on the train. Faith kept saying, "Train! Choo choo!!" We got our tickets and Joseph sat down next to Daddy while Faith sat between her cousins Tori and Jackie. We had a fun time waving at people. Joseph screamed as we went through the tunnel...silly boy!

After the train ride we went to the carrousel. Tim held on to Joseph, but I had to ride the horse with Faith. The kids played on the playground before we ate lunch. Then after lunch the boys played catch in the field, while the girls whisked Faith away to go down the slide some more.

It was a fun day! We're grateful to be able to spend this time with family, making lots of fun memories!

Enjoy some pictures below:

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note from Emma

Look at this sweet note from our niece, Emma! We've had it on our car window for a week. Every time I see it, I feel loved! :) 

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Snow Pictures!!

I love snow! When we were in Colorado we got to see so much snow!!! I couldn't stop taking pictures with my new camera! I'm including a few of my favorites in this post. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the beautiful snow as much as I do! 

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Chick fil-a

We have enjoyed eating at some restaurants that we can't find in the Middle East. Chick fil a is one of our favorites! I'm sure we'll be sick of it by the time we go back overseas. 

The kids love to play in their play area. They always hope that the cow will be around so they can shake his hand and give him a hug!

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Time with family

We have had a fun and busy couple of months! We've enjoyed time with family around Christmas time. It's been so fun to catch up with both of our families. It's been a whole year since we've seen most everyone. Last time we were in the States Faith was so new to us and still so tiny and malnourished.
Here are some pictures of our time with family:

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About This Culture: Dancing

The dancing in the Arab world has a lot of varieties depending on the region. The gulf countries are similar in that the men and women don't dance together. The women only dance in front of women. The men will often dance in a line and swing their canes.

I hope you enjoy some of the videos that we've taken of some dancing! We sure love this culture!

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About This Culture: Incense

Incense is used by many Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula. They use it to make their homes and their clothing smell nice! The malls have special shops that sell the best kinds of incense!

My favorite kind of incense that I learned to love right away is frankincense. It has a light, sweet smelling scent. You put it in an incense burner on top of a red hot coal. The picture on the right is an Omani man in his shop selling frankincense and incense burners. The picture below shows the frankincense burning.

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About This Culture: Fancy Abaayas

There's a huge variety in styles of abaayas. Recently we were visiting another gulf country and saw these abaayas on display. There's a lot of decoration down the sides and the back. Often times the sheilah that is worn on the head matches the abaaya. Most of the ladies where we live wear simple abaayas without very much decoration.

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About This Culture: Clothing

We have gotten used to the local dress here, but I know it's not as common in the States. We've lived in three different countries in the Arabian Peninsula and each country is slightly different.

Women

It's most common for women to wear the abaaya, the long black cloak. It is long sleeved and goes all the way to the ground. It's a way of being modest. They cover their head with the sheilah, also called hijaab. Some women go even farther and cover their face using a niqaab and then you can only see their eyes.

The picture on the right is of a lady at the beach talking to her son. She's wearing the niqaab so you can't see her face at all. 

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About This Culture: Hajj, Ramadan, and Prayer

I don't claim to know very much about Islam, although I have learned a lot over the last 4 years. There are five pillars of Islam and I wanted to mention three of them here.

"The Five Pillars of Islam are the five obligations that every Muslim must satisfy in order to live a good and responsible life according to Islam."

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About This Culture: Henna

I went with some friends to get henna a couple days ago. This is what it looks like today. I love the brown color of this henna!! We went to get henna because one of my friends was going to travel to see her family and she wanted to have some beautiful henna to show them! 

This is one of the many things that I've grown to love about this culture! Henna can be done for special occasions or just for fun.

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Tallest Building in the World!

A few weeks ago we took a little trip to the Big City! We had a great time catching up with friends and enjoying the malls! One day we got to go up the tallest building in the world!!

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Teaching Joseph the Arabic Alphabet

Joseph is learning two alphabets right now, English and Arabic. He seems to be doing pretty well with the English alphabet and he knows a few of the Arabic letters too.

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Happy Birthday, Tim!

Tim’s birthday was also the first day of Eid! A national holiday on Tim’s birthday!!! We were busy the day of his birthday, but we celebrated the next day too! We sang happy birthday and had cake at some friends’ house. 

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Eid Al Fitr

After Ramadan there is a three day holiday called Eid Al Fitr. It’s a fun time of celebration. The first day is important for visiting. In the morning there are micro-visits. Just stop by and say hi. The kids get money.

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Fancy Iftaar Meal

During Ramadan the hotels offer a special Iftaar meal at sunset. So, we went with some American friends to break the fast at sunset. 

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Learning English

These are the two boys that I’m tutoring a couple times a week. I teach them English and along the way I’m learning more Arabic.

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