Fun at the Park

Julia and Colin love going to our neighborhood park!

On our way in the double jogger!

Julia being such a sweet big sister, wanting to help Colin on the slide :)
The look of disapproval at the feel of the mulch on the ground.

Julia's First Date

Kyle took Julia on her first date! They went to dinner at McDonald's (Julia had never been besides breakfast a couple times) and she got her first Happy Meal. Then they went to see Beauty and the Beast in the theater. :

Colin's progress

Colin has started making big progress with his gross motor skills. He now pulls to stand and play, and stands for quite a while before complaining that he needs help getting down.

This is one of his favorite spots - finding treasures in Daddy's bathroom cabinet.

Colin: 13 Months

Oops! Forgot to post what Colin was up to at 13 Months since we were busy with Christmas.

Things we want to remember about Colin at this age:

• He is obsessed with balls, so he loved all the ornaments on the Christmas tree.
• He waves hi and bye to people if we ask him to.
• He blows kisses and says, "Mmmah!"
• He gives hugs too, mainly leaning into us.
• He learned the sound a car makes and goes, "Vroom!" when hears the word car and the word "go."
• He follows direction well, closing the cabinet door when we ask him, for instance.
• He likes to dance to music.
• He has started pulling up in the crib, just to his knees.
• He does not pull to standing position yet.
• He loves going up the stairs.
  

Houston Visit

Here are some pictures of the kids at Mamaw & Papaw's house while we were in Honduras.

Drawing with Uncle James

Beaumont

We helped throw a 60th birthday party for Kyle's dad after we returned from Honduras. It was a fun party and a fun weekend with family.

Pop with his granddaughters and grand-niece.

This would have been great had it not turned out blurry.

The balloons were a big hit with the kids!

HOPE Coffee Mission Trip

We had a wonderful trip to Honduras serving the Lord and supporting the HOPE Coffee ministry there. My parents kept the kids for us so we could spend 6 days in Siguatepeque along with 3 other Americans who made the trip. We stayed at on the grounds of a seminary where Mark and Michelle live with their children. It was neat to see all the work God is doing through the Fittz family and the HOPE Coffee ministry.

While there we mixed and poured concrete floors for 2 families, helped one of the families harvest coffee, did some ministry activities with local children, and toured coffee processing facilities to learn about how it goes from berry to bean to cup. It was a very rewarding and eye opening experience on many levels. We took hundreds of pictures, but here are some of the highlights.

A view of the countryside, with coffee bushes in the foreground.

After just meeting Juan, who was so excited we came to help harvest coffee for the day.

Mark with Juan

Coffee berries on the branch. Each berry has 2 bean halves inside. Because only the red berries are picked, the harvesting must be done by hand. Amazing when you think of all the coffee that is consumed around the world - that is a lot of berries that are hand-picked.

Juan's family while on their lunch break.

The "before" showing the dirt floors in Juan's home.

Mixing concrete the hard way - with shovels and buckets. For each 80 pound bag of cement, we added 3 wheelbarrows full of sand and 2 buckets of water (brought up from the spring down below). We did 12 mixes to complete the floors in Juan's 3 room home.

Getting buckets of water to take back up the hill to mix concrete.

Juan's wife washing clothes down by the spring - using a rock, a bar of soap, and some water.

The newly poured concrete floors. What an improvement!

Juan and his sweet family. We really enjoyed meeting them.

The field where we played some softball with local kids on Sunday afternoon.

Kyle playing catch with a cute little girl who thought it was so much fun.

The kids all gathered together for some songs and a craft.

The second home we worked on is owned by a pastor and his family. We didn't have much interaction with them because they were harvesting coffee, but the pastor himself is also a mason so he worked on the floors.

We had a bucket brigade to transport the mixed concrete into the house.

Presley, John, Rick, Kyle, and Chris.

Touring the Cafe Cohorsil facility.

The whole team, including the 4 teenage boys who spent the week working along side us and translating when we needed it.