the mcgoughs

For those of you who don't know this yet, here is a little announcement: We are getting ready to move back overseas. Hopefully around this time next year we will be back in a hot hot desert in the Middle East and I will be wondering why we aren't someplace cold, like outer Mongolia.(Which is a question I even ask myself here in Texas- so you can imagine when it is 130 outside in May that I am truly baffled by our geographical choice...)

We are excited, scared, ecstatic and pretty anxious all at once. It is so different moving away from friends and family when there are two (soon to be three) other lives to take into consideration. Who will my little social butterfly, Kead, have as friends? How will my not-so-big-on-talking little Sayla react to having another language thrown into the mix? WHAT will we do without Kids Day Out?! Will we be successful in business? Will our Arabic come back to us after a couple years of scarce usage? Will we have good Arab friends that encourage us in our language learning and share their lives and culture with us in our new town? LOTS of questions...

But one thing that makes the move a little less anxious and a LOT more exciting is that our dear friends, Chase and Brittany are coming with us! We are so thankful for them. They are wonderful with the girls and love them so much. Britt and I are great friends and Chase and Drew are great friends too. (If you are married you know how rare it is to find "couple" friends.)  We love being together and even in hard times they are so gracious to us and show humility, forgiveness and a deep love for Christ in all things. We are so blessed to have them as friends even for this season of our lives so we are amazed that we get to have them in a whole new season of our lives as well!  Chase and Britt leave kind of soon to start learning Arabic and we will miss them terribly for the next half year but are so excited to have a little built in "family" right when we get there!

ALL OF THAT to say that the other day we went to Texas Tech with the McGoughs to take some pictures of these two so that they could have some pics to give their families before they went. Here are a couple of my faves.

Kead saw this picture and said "Chase has a funny face!" HA! Love these guys SO much!

belly shots

There is just something magical about a pregnant mama...especially with the first baby.  The pregnancy glow, the wonder in their eyes, the way the stare in awe at the little life they are carrying. It's just beautiful. Even more beautiful when the pregnant mama is your little sister that you have known since she was that little baby. It just fills me with joy to get to witness this new stage of her life and give her some pictures to remember it. So here's Kedron, all gorgeous with her belly:

Isn't she beautiful?! Only about a month left to go for her, and then we will know if we have a new niece or nephew! YAY!

sayla's second

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Sayla. Here are some pics from the picnic party...with  more to come soon on the kojo blog.  Happy birthday sweet Gracie! We love you SO MUCH

wondering...

 WHEN did she get so big?! Can she really be just a couple days away from turning TWO?

I promise, it was fun.

We have had a crazy couple of weeks! First, I went to go help with Piper Jane and Drew stayed home with the girls. Then I brought Burke back to Lubbock and we had a fun and crazy week with three kids. I'll be honest- I am a little freaked out by the madness that is coming soon!

Anyway, I didn't take hardly any pictures but this one is by far my favorite. The kids look so happy and thrilled to be together!

Ok....so maybe not! They all look like I was torturing them, but I promise they are only sad that I interrupted play for a cousin picture. We had a great time!

she's here!

My NIECE is here! She arrived early yesterday morning and I drove up at 7:00 am to meet her. It was the longest car ride ever, but I am back in Denver now (yes, that means this is the third trip to Denver this summer...) and here for the week to help with Burke and the baby. Drew has the girls for the week and is sick, so please pray for him.

But onto the goodness...introducing Miss Piper Jane!

my favorite scene

I know this picture is part of the collage below, but I had to share it in a bigger size cause I love it.

This is my grandpa's yard, complete with one of this llamas, his garden and, of course his breathtaking view of the mountains. The girls loved everything about it, which is no surprise. They kept trying to lure Mr. Kontiki to the fence with grass, but he was not interested. Llamas can be so sassy!

ludwig family vacation 2010

This is the first time that Keadryn has cried saying goodbye to the family. She cried and cried in the car as we drove off and said "But I am going to miss them so much!" I agree, kead. It was a good one.

essentials of mama

kead has been into drawing puppets lately. lots and lots of puppets. She draws "mama" puppets and "daddy" puppets and "sayla" puppets....you get the point. Here is here "mama" puppet with only the essentials:

Yep! you read that right and she isn't making it up! There is a little baby in mama's belly that will join the Remke household at the beginning of February and we are one excited family!

Which, if you have been keeping track, means that kirst, keje and I are all preggers at the same time! FUN!

I wish someone would have told me..

Has it been 10 years since I was 18? I know to some of you I am still a youngster' and to some of you I am getting old, but the fact is: 10 years has gone by in a flash! So, to celebrate my birthday here are some things I wish I would have known at 18:

• You are actually far better off if you don't follow the crowd.
• High school-love works out for very few people. You are not one of them!
• College is NOT about the grade. Enjoy your classes, read your books, LEARN! 
• Just like your grandpa said when you were 10, you should pursue art. It isn't as impracticable as you think. And you will always enjoy creating
• You are beautiful, just how you are. You don't have to pretend that you like laying out and tanning.
• Jesus is totally worth it. All of it. Not just your camp-emotions and Sundays. AND- if you dedicate your life to pursuing Him and His glory, it actually brings you more joy. 
• Be careful with your heart. It is more precious than you know. And there is a great guy in the future who will give it more love than you can imagine!
• When you go to Europe, pay the money to go see how they blow glass in Venice!  And go to a pub in Ireland. The devil does not live in the pub. I promise. Also- never never take the bus. Just take the train.
• Spend a lot of time with your brother and sisters this year. You won't ever live in the same town as any of them again. (well, at least not for the next 10 years)
• Keep up with your friends from Argentina. It will be 10 years until they discover Facebook, and a lot can happen in 10 years.
• Enjoy all the green chile you can. No one does it like they do in New Mexico and you aren't going to have such an abundance again.
• When Kasi says "I have a guy friend you should meet." Don't make up excuses for a year. Just meet the wonderful guy and save yourself a year of heartache.
• You really really enjoy dancing, and don't do it enough. Go dancing as often as you can. It's a lot harder to do when you have kids.
• Save all that money you get for graduation. Or at least use it all to buy something really cool!
• Don't be so shy about speaking Spanish, use it every time you get the chance.
• Even with all the mistakes you make, you have a wonderful 10 years ahead of you and a great future! You are so blessed and have such wonderful friends and family that love you. Enjoy every minute you get with them. 

pop's boots

sayla has a passion for shoes. 6-8-pairs-a-day kind of passion, and the bigger, the better. She was giddy to wear these boots, and just kept giggling as she tried to walk around.

mischief

 these smiles just scream "mischief times two!"

that's right...

...that's a cucumber from our garden

and squash from our garden...

and pesto from our garden!

Plus, we are days away from ripe tomatoes and I can't wait. I love tomatoes, they might be my favorite food.

So fun to have a garden!

the stink eye

sayla gives this look on demand when you ask her for the "stink eye"- what a little ham!

I know, I know...

I said I was going to do was pay more attention to the blog. I have just had a real creative block over the past couple weeks. Not just from blogging, but from everything that requires creativity. This includes, but is not limited to: blogging, photography, graphic design, cooking, any paper craft, hosting parties, sewing, crafts with the girls, gardening.

I think I was just still tired from the two week trip to Denver while Drew was in China. He got back and we were both exhausted (him from 27,000 miles of travel!  and me from single parenting.) and then we had to hit the ground running since we had been away for two weeks. I don't think we ever got to re-charge. However, this past 5 days we have been in Dallas and Drew's mom has gotten up with Sayla every morning to let me catch up on sleep. I feel so refreshed!

So- I don't have much to show for the last couple weeks, but hear are a few pics from the last couple days as I have slowly come back to life and finally feel the creative juices flowing again:

1. Did you know that caterpillars love dill? I didn't, until a family of about 15 of them finished off our HUGE dill plant in one night! Luckily, they left the other plants alone. Kead loved it and wanted to check on them 10 times a day. Kind of fun in a "lost all of our dill plant" sort of way.

one near the bottom where there were still a few sprigs

all of those stems were full of dill. hungry little caterpillars indeed.

2. It has been hot these days and we have sprinkler time almost everyday.

3. Family time in Dallas

the girls in their little shirts we made for the fourth

loving granny

Fort Worth Zoo with uncle Dan

3.Also part of family time, but we had a friend of Dave's come and take some family pics. I will post those later once I make sure again from her that she doesn't mind me putting them on the blog. :)