Project Backyard Landscaping: Check

In a historic day, we finished our backyard landscaping and hosted a beautiful party for our beautiful baby girl. After all, we entertained two families, in our small house, for an entire weekend. It was a wild ride but we had lots of fun! Thank you to the Clarks & Burgos' for the amazing memories!

Make a photo book design

Happy New Year!! - ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

We pray 2009 will bring new opportunities, true happiness and heavenly blessings to all.

Oramos que 2009 les trae nuevas oportunidades, felicidad verdadera y bendiciones del cielo a todos.

Love,

Jeremy, Bibi, Brianna & Kiara

Christmas with the Veiss'

On the 26th, we had a Christmas brunch with Victor, Suzana and the girls. The little ones got a chance to open presents and play with them. Brianna got a "Princess Chest" full of dress up stuff. Needless to say, it was a hit! She wants to wear this lavender dress everywhere now! (and has little shoes to match too!)

Mia started walking! She got a pair of bath slippers and a fun book

The girls having fun being princesses

A yummy all-American breakfast for us all.

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Day started with Brianna waking up to her new Bicycle that she asked "Santa" to bring. Of course she also got the necessary helmet and arm and leg protection.


















Jeremy was very surprised to receive an iPod Touch from Bibi... something he's wanted but never splurged on...
Bibi got the promise of a gift that will come in January...

Our thoughts and prayers are with the rest of the Pierson gang as they enjoy a warm, exotic Christmas in Bali with the Ordelheides and Guttchusses (see links to the right for their updates).

Bibi and I have been inspired by watching the Bravo TV show Top Chef (which we download from Amazon.com using Unbox. It's very cool). So our Christmas dinner was a real treat!

We started with a unexpectedly delicious Apple Kalamata Olive Salad with roasted corn, tomatoes and a light Balsamic vinaigrette. I, Jeremy, had to have seconds!

The next course was Pan Fried Portobello & Cremini Mushroom Ravioli with a vegan Smoked Double Cheese sauce. All made from scratch. What an amazing complexity of flavors!

Per Brianna's request, we had to have Ice-Cream for desert. Here we are toasting our Ice-Cream Sandwiches for a wonderful Christmas!

Yes, we had an amazing family Christmas... Life is good!

Our GREAT Family Christmas

This is a Christmas of firsts... Our first Christmas ever with just our little family... Our first Christmas spent in Visalia... Our first Christmas in our own home... and our first Chritmas with a family of 3 1/2 people!

We feel incredibly blessed... in all areas of our life!

Christmas Eve is when Bibi's family have traditionally celebrated Christmas. So we celebrated with an awesome Thai meal. Bibi made an amazing salad with Tangerine and Pomogranate. An amazing contrast of flavors and textures. Then we had home-made Tom Ka Khai Soup. A rich Coconut creamyness offset by tart Lemon-grass and finished off with a nip of Chili. The main course was Pad Thai noodles, perfectly cooked and seasoned leaving Jeremy going back for more. To add more texture (and vegtables) to the meal, Bibi made some battered stir-fried veggies made into little "bird nests".

Of course we were all the smiles before digging in ...

Halloween Alternatives

Not even our little owl this year likes Halloween very much! Tonight we invited some of our friends to an alternative "Halloween" celebration with our church family. We're looking forward to making crafts, healthy snacks and listening to fun Bible stories. Other friends chose other creative ways to reach out to the community in a Christ-centered way tonight.

Trina Schaetz wrote an article in Christian Parenting Today's 2001-OCT issue. She suggests other alternative celebrations at Halloween:

	Mystery bowling: The family plays a regular game of bowling, but using unusual stances: bowl backwards, bowl with your weak hand, etc. Losers have to add a silly hat, wig, etc. to their costume.
	Family film festival: The family makes a home movie using a theme like a cowboy story or a science fiction tale.
	Nature walk: A family walk through a wilderness area, looking for the most beautiful leaf, the smoothest rock, the most interesting stick, etc.
	Neighborly needs: Have your family volunteer to perform a chore for the neighbors, such as: "cleaning windows, raking leaves, or washing cars together."
	Host a pumpkin carving party: Invite friends and neighbors to carve pumpkins, each with a single letter from a short Bible verse: e.g. "Jesus is Lord." Then arrange the pumpkins to spell out the phrase in your front yard. 3 From http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_ev4.htm

The Meaning of Easter

Believe, Believe in the Power of Love

Believe, believe in the power of love
To save us all from death and sin,
And God that way your heart will move.

Christ came to Earth to free us of
The state of vengeance we were in.
Believe, believe in the power of love

To change the heart from snake to dove,
To make dust bloom and goodness win,
And God that way your heart will move.

Christ arose from death to prove
That we a new life could begin.
Believe, believe in the power of love

To bring us to a life above,
A life of glory near to Him,
And God that way your heart will move.

Christ will all our sins remove
And make us feel His joy within.
Believe, believe in the power of love,
And God that way your heart will move

By Dimitri Shostakovich

Easter Egg Hunt

Today we went to our favorite park along with a big group of moms and kids from Neighborhood Church and celebrated the tradition of a great Easter Egg Hunt. Brianna so excited to keep collecting eggs!

A ducky!

Yummy kisses ...

Lisa, a friend of mine, and her kids played really well with Brianna the whole time

May you have a wonderful Easter!
Felices Pascuas!!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

Feliz Navidad!

More Halloween fun

Fun times in the bouncy house

A little "furry" chicken resting after jumping all around ...


Cascade having her hands full of popcorn

Our little angel getting a handful of healthy snacks. Luckily, she didn't have candy this year!!!

Halloween Fun

Here is our little angel (wings included) all dressed up and playing with her other friends at a church gathering on wednesday night

there were fun games for kids and parents ... here's Brianna checking her friends out and trying to figure out this game

Bri and best bud Cascade, dressed up as "A little stinker" skunk ... they looked TOOO CUTE!!!

Bri getting acquainted with "Queen Esther"

Memorial Day RIver Fun

Bri wondering: what's it here to do?

Having fun swimming around in her turtle floatie

Posing and gathering seashells

The next day at Border's ... Bri in her element

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!!

Yesterday we went to an awesome Easter Party at the Cairus' with many of our Argentine friends. Bri had the best time hunting for eggs.

Here's a quick video of Brianna organizing her treasures from the hunt. She gets these skills from helping Mommy pickup all her toys everyday.

There were kids everywhere! And Brianna was in her element.

Then today we went to Ryan Schimpf's 3rd birthday party at a local miniature train park. It was really cool how these little trains are totally functional just like big locomotives. Amazing and fun to ride! There's the Birthday-boy and his Daddy right behind the Conductor.

Here's Daddy and Bri riding through the countryside.

Christmas

Now that I have a fast enough connection to upload video files I'll get you caught up on what we've been doing.

We spent Christmas with the Italian side of Bibi's family in Junin, Argentina, a small town about 4 hours West of Buenos Aires. Christmas Eve was with one of the sisters and Christmas Day with the other. It turned out to be kind of like a family reunion with Bibi's Grandma, uncle and first cousins joining us. Brianna also got to meet her second cousin, Tuti.

It's summer down here so we enjoyed the pool at the hotel on Christmas afternoon.

Enjoy the video (5 min long).