Great Falls

One of our new favorite things to do here in D.C. is go to Great Falls. It is beautiful place with wonderful trails and gorgeous falls. Madison is our little acrobat! :)

Mom's visit

My mom came to visit with her husband, Roy. We had a wonderful weekend in the sun, making cookies, eating at yummy restaurants, playing at the park and taking walks. My mom and I had some nice early morning talks and we all actually finished all three High School Musicals :) As always, it was too short! Love you mom!

Happy Easter- Happy Spring!

We loved the Cherry blossoms this year, even if they almost made Madison comatose with allergies! They were so fun to see and photo :) Here are some of our favorites. We also had tons of fun dressing up the girls for Easter. Madison insisted on white dresses, but I thought they looked like jammies so I made pink sashes and added way too big daises :) It was fun though :)

My girls the photographers...and models

Madison and Mikaela get creative sometimes, and Madi has really started to enjoy her new camera. It is funny sometimes to see how they turn out as she doesn't have patience to wait for it to focus and actually shoot the shot she wants. They also make some of the most interesting dress up outfits--the sun was beautiful when we were taking pictures, so I thought I would share. Madison loves to make up new poses :) She is my model, actress, creative one. Mikaela is definitely an athlete and so far is happy to follow her sister in whatever she is doing! They both are so cute sometimes...I believe it is so they stay alive longer!

Less sugar diet...

So...we are trying to eat less sugar and are failing miserably! Here we are on a Friday night making caramel popcorn with only 2 cups of brown sugar!! They were soo good and the girls had a blast making them. Thanks Katrina for the awesome recipe :)

Hanging out

SO...our posts aren't nearly as exciting as living in the Caribbean, but we still have fun and want Grandma and Grandpas to know what we are up to. This is yet another way my girls get o so creative with their boring mother!

Home School

This is Madison's "body" from our home school creation. Michelle has the best ideas (I claim none of this creativity!) There is a brain on top, painted bones underneath and then the arteries and veins. So cool. In the background you can see our attempt at recreating Matisse (a famous artist) and our calendar that is struggling to be kept current.

Costume Creations

We went to Jasper's birthday party and it was one where you got to dress up in your favorite costume...well! Mikeala was a fairy and Madison created her own princess, fairy type thing. This is what she decided to do with her hair! She is so creative! Must get it from her Grandma Diana :)

"Married" girls

When my girls dress up they like to say they are getting married--then they are "married" girls. It is really cute; it is nice to have them at home and to get to do so many fun things with them. I love being a mom.

Virginia

Well, we've made it!! Sorry we haven't been keeping up...life is always interesting around our house! I think we are finally settled and loving what life is bringing us lately! After the crazy moving months of the DR, and then the crazy vacation month of December, we were so ready for some peace and normalcy. After having the flu when we got here to D.C. and some other illnesses, we worked through my 32nd birthday (me sick as a dog) because, of course, we have to get used to all the bugs of Virginia now!! Oh, and we'll do it again come August in Mozambique. Maybe someday we really will have awesome immune systems, but for right now it seems we just keep getting used to all new bugs from all new places :)
Madison is homeschooling with Sam, her cousin. Michelle and I love to have our kids at home and love even more that we get to teach them together! She teaches Madi two days a week and on those days I teach all the kids Spanish with the really fun program I did when I was in Russia (ILP). It seems to work out really well. Madison has taken to the idea of being at home and enjoys her cousins tons! She even has accepted doing it with me at home. The Lord has helped us find the things that we need to make our family work and we are continually being guided in this process. Thank heavens for help!!
Mikaela loves that she always has mommy around; we all loved Juana, but I think my girls prefer Mom and Dad. Tobias is home a lot because he is learning Portuguese really fast. We all love the library and are already feeling that we are going to have serious withdrawals as we prepare for Mozambique is August. Daddy reads lots with the girls in our new red papasan chair. Niki is into red and so we have lots of new red stuff. We also love our new car mostly for the DVD player that is already installed in the car--we watch lots of DVDs from the library and everyone in the whole family is happier!! We also love being able to get around by ourselves :) We have recently learned though that after all of Tobias' hard work in getting such a great car, it may just be too ostentatious for Africa. Oh well. We'll find another one with a built in DVD player and leather seats. Those are the MOST important :)
We love our time together as a family, we love living in America for a while, the parks, the libraries, the friends and family. We are so lucky to live next to my best friend Michelle, who married Tobias' cousin Peter (yes, I set them up and now we have the same last name!!) It has been such a blessing and a tender mercy! We love them!
Hope you are all doing well. Christmas cards are on their way in the next month...or two. Loves to all.

Let it SNOW!

Well, we have had no lack of snow this holiday season and our kids are loving it! Here are some of the fun pics. Madison and Mikaela in the snow, and in their get up, plus my sister and brother working their way down the hill, and the same crazy sister with shorts on outside!! It is funny to think we were just at a tropical resort.

Family Reunion

So, nothing less than a miracle...but the Norris siblings got together for a reunion, and surprisingly it has been wonderful. We even were organized enough that we got family pictures taken! It was inside so the lighting isn't perfect, but we did it! Wahoo! Hospital visits and a 40 year snow storm that hasn't let up hasn't dampened anything. We are stuck in Oregon...but we are with good people and having a good time! Here't to family!!! Lovin' it!

Niki has Malaria...no wait, it's Dengue..no Leptospirosis...

We left Texas on Friday the 12th to come visit my dad here in Oregon. The plane ride was one of those wake up before the sun ones...and I had the worst headache the whole way--Tobias gets major brownie points for watching the kids the whole way. I felt like if I opened my eyes I would throw up. Well, I figured it was sitting next to the engine that caused me to be vibrated into feeling so crappy. Well, in the afternoon when we finally got home and ate (I didn't throw up but wanted to!) I took a long nap hoping I would feel a bit better. All evening I was uncomfortable and wondering why I couldn't get into a comfortable position. By four in the morning I gave up and came downstairs. I started to get the chills and was really just in so much pain. I would shake to releive some of the pain. Tobias woke up and helped me around 6:30 but nothing was helping. I rested for a few minutes, but went back to the shaking and being miserable. Long story shorter, we went to the ER in the afternoon and I was in the hospital Saturday through Wednesday. They thought I had all kinds of funky things from the DR...but in the end it is a kidney infection ( I am sure the bacteria comes from the DR!) I guess I have had a urinary tract infection for a long time that worked its way up to my bladder then kidney. Let's just say I will be drinking cranberry for the rest of life!!! Kidney infections are evil! I had no idea you could be so sick!
I have been so totally out of commission with tons of family doing everything for me! They watched the girls, drove Tobias everywhere (his license is expired) and all the stuff you do to take care of a small family. We are now in the middle of a big family reunion with my all of my siblings here for the first time in like 15 years or something. It is pretty darn cool--I just wish I could enjoy it a bit more. I am now waiting for my body to recover not only from the infection, but from some problem in my neck. Yikes! Thank heavens we are in America!!! It could not have "happened" at a better time!
Just a last word in this blog...America is amazing. I was astounded at how the hospital functioned. It's own team of IV nurses, infectious disease doctors, ekg people (they came right to my room and were in and out in 7 minutes), the C-scan people who made me drink this nasty bath water stuff-they were so quick and clean. The check-in nurses even asked me for a "Clean Catch" sample of my pee! In the DR I am not sure they know what that is! They had their own transportation people who just go around to the rooms and take people on strechers to their different exams--I was impressed. We might not have everything right in our country, but we are sooooo blessed!! It was like being in a lodge on the mountain. I had huge windows where I could see tons of pine trees and watch the snow. It was beautiful--especially the last day when I could actually see straight and get out of bed! I felt like a little lab puppy feeling the wind on my face for the first time when we drove home. I kept the window down the whole way. I don't desire to go back to a hospital anytime soon, but if I need to, I hope we are in America!! Here's to your health!

Playin' with the cousins

Here we are in Texas loving hanging out with cousins. Madison has been so excited about doing this...and now we get to! We dressed up to go to Riley's presentation and decided to take some pictures. Layla wasn't exactly excited--but the others turned out sooo cute!

Moving

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes. Pulling hair out...and lots of fun! We're done!!! WAHOO!