Trip to Woodland

A couple of weeks back we went to go visit our teammates who are now living in Woodland for the time being. It was nice to spend some time with them as we've only seen them a few times since they came back to the states a year ago last November. Micah is a year and a half younger than Caleb and a year and a half older than Abby. It's fun to watch Micah and Caleb play now, when we were all in Niger he was still so much smaller than Caleb, so they didn't play too much together then.

The first day we visited the Sacramento Zoo and then the day after that we went to...

the Jelly Belly Factory!!!

I can't tell you how many times growing up we drove by that place on our way to Stockton to visit family. I always wanted to stop and visit...finally, I got to!

When we arrived they were filming a commercial for the Sacramento River Cats, so this guy and the big Jelly Belly were running around for the camera. Micah got in on a little of the action.

He LOVES mascots! (We took him to an HSU basketball game awhile back, all he talked about afterwards was the Lumberjack, he called him "The BIG Guy".)

The big Jelly Belly and the River Cat went along on part of the tour with us...I think it was Micah's favorite part.

Harry Potter in Jelly Bellies.

We had to wear these hats while we were on the tour. For privacy reasons we couldn't take pictures while we were on the tour. We saw where they got packaged to be sent out, we saw the machines where the outer jelly bean coating was applied, we saw where they kept all their ingredients, we learned a little bit about the food scientists that work on coming up with the different flavors, we saw the machine that sorts out the Belly Flops from the other jelly beans, and we learned that all the Jelly Bellies that fall on the floor get swept up and sent to a pig farm for the pigs to eat. We had a few samples along the way and then at the end of the tour they gave us each a small box of Jelly Bellies and a sample of candy corn.

Kid in a candy store.

Before we left we went back to their store to try some more samples and buy some Belly Flops :)

February 24, 2012

Happy Birthday to Donnie! Earlier in the day Micah, Emma, and I brought Donnie some balloons and a present at work. (The present was a T-shirt that said, "i make beautiful babies" with a matching onsie for Emma that said, "beautiful baby"...hehehe :)Then that evening family came over and we celebrated with a crab dinner followed by a decadent chocolate mousse cheesecake . Micah helped blow out the candle :)

Precious Little Feet

January 19, 2012

My beautiful babies!

My Baby Girl and Me

Cutest little mohawk you ever did see!

Emma Rolled Over

This was about a week ago. And she hasn't done it again since!

Micah's Accessories

This kid cracks me up! It wasn't enough just to put clothes on to go outside. He grabbed my necklace that was sitting on the kitchen table and tried to pull it over his head, then took his papa's hat, and to complete the ensemble, added his frog slap bracelet!

He loves hats, especially this one. He has some of his own, but this one is Donnie's and it's pretty new. The first time he saw it, he had just woken up from a nap and his hair had been trimmed that morning. He took it from Donnie and put it on his head saying, "New haircut, new hat!", as if to say, "Sweet, a new hat to go with my new hair!"

Love those curls!

Nap Time Today

It was time for Micah's nap so Emma and I joined him in his tent for a story or two before he was supposed to go to sleep. Emma fell asleep as I nursed her and read about Curious George and his bike. When the story was over Micah told me to go, he was going to sleep with Emma. But then she woke up. He still wanted me to go, telling me to put Emma "right here" next to him, he was going to cuddle with her. I did leave, but just to grab my camera :)

This boy loves his little sister.

Pretending to be asleep.

Could they be any cuter?

A little rambling before I get started...

You'd think that being in America it would be so much easier keeping up with my blog as opposed to being in Niger...but that has proven not to be the case. We've been home for nearly 8 months and I think I've managed to do just two posts. I have to admit, pictures being lost with the stolen computer before leaving Niamey kind of put a damper on things, and I don't think I've fully recovered from that loss. But now we're just three months out from going back to Niger (my how this last year has flown by!) it's time to get caught up! In just a few short weeks we'll be heading back east to make the rounds, we'll be gone for about six weeks or so, we'll come home for about a month and then near the end of June we'll begin our journey back to Niger. Sometimes people ask me how long we'll be gone for this time. I don't really know. We're planning for three years but nothing is set in stone, we're just going to go and see how it all works out.

Ok, so now on to more posts!