Happy Easter!

Our friends gathered for an Easter brunch to celebrate the risen savior- Jesus Christ. Raegan kept saying, "Daddy, why do we celebrate Easter? Because Jesus is alive! And do you know where He lives? In heaven way high up in the clouds." Well, I guess it really is that simple.

Thanks to my amazing mom, the girls had sweet matching dresses for the occasion. It was really hard to get them to stand still for a photo with sugar already pumping through their veins!

Raegan and Hadasah teamed up to find their share of eggs during the egg hunt, then sat together and cracked them open- lots and lots of sugar was found. They each looked up for just a quick second before diving back into their egg piles.

Happy Easter to all of our friends and family on the mainland and around the world. We miss you all tremendously, and celebrating holidays really brings this homesickness out of me. I'm so grateful to have wonderful friends here, but I badly wish I could have all of YOU in one place when parties come around. Speaking of, I'm turning 29 next week. I got a card from my grandparents today and felt so loved!

Well, we are trying to leave the chocolate and jelly beans for the kids, and doing a pretty good job. Power to you if you've ignored the call of that huge hollow chocolate bunny like I have!

Love, love, love to you.

Sweet Anabelle

My darling!

Thanks Gramma & Grampa Boley for the bright yellow dress~ it matches her personality just perfectly.

Our youngest treasure is really blooming, at 13 months coming alive before our eyes! She is finding her voice, which is honestly challenging at times for us. In fact, I distinctly remember this crazy time for Raegan, when opinions are forming, but there aren't words to express them yet. But she does have some words, and the ones she can say are so great:

"Mama"

"Dada"

"Wow!"

"Pretty"

"Please"

"Bath"

"Hi"

"Ruff"

Her latest facial expressions are completely priceless. The way she cocks her head to the side and twinkles her sweet eyes at you just melts you like butter. Her dance moves are rockin', her smile is more of a giant grin, and her little body is getting a bit taller and a bit leaner. She likes to put her head on the ground and buns in the air and just smile upside down at us.

Her curly hair is bleached from the sunshine, getting longer, and I even trimmed her bangs so she's got a cute hairdo! Raegan is her best friend, and the two laugh and laugh at each other. Today her favorite snack is cheese. She climbs, play peek-a-boo, and is almost running!

I am so proud of you, my Anabella Jean!

Another big fat transition!

Only one blog has made its way up here in the last month- but there is a legitimate reason! We have been in another "big fat transition" as a family...

My last entry was the night before the big race in Galveston, Texas. Well, with hours and hours of training, a solid team, and much prayer, Chris tackled the Ironman and WON! That makes him the national champion of that distance. He was a machine. Running has never been my thing, but watching a race of that caliber was seriously motivating. Crossing the finish line, Chris's body language gave credit to the Lord in Heaven. He hugged his kids, kissed his wife, and when the mic was shoved in his face he proclaimed his faith in front of the adoring crowd. It was a spectacle.

After the incredible WIN in Galveston, we packed up and flew back to Kona. This paragraph will be short because I don't want to relive the gory details of that day. It will go down in history as the hardest travel day we've experienced as a family. Hopefully not to be topped. We survived. Moving on...

In returning to this beautiful island, we began to settle into our new home, a condo above the base. It's such an amazing gift from God. Coming from one room with a tiny bathroom, this new place has been a breath of fresh air. Every night (if we're home) we watch the sun setting on the ocean from our porch and marvel at the creativity of our God! Last week at sun set Raegan was sitting on my lap while we rocked on the wicker rocking chair, and out of the blue she said, "Mommy, we're living happily ever after, aren't we?"

Our first week home, the 5 hour time change was waking up both girls very early in the morning. The first morning home we were out of bed at 2am. Each morning they woke up exactly one hour later until they got back to their "normal" 6am routine. What is "normal" anymore really? Want flexible children? Spring lots of change on them! My forming opinion on this topic: Create a basic structure and schedule for your children, and then be ready and excited to divert from it! You'll know when to pull the reigns back in. That's what we're focusing on. Getting back on a schedule, solidifying stability.

What are we doing now? We are still in the outreach portion of our DTS, and for the next couple of weeks we are ministering here in Kona. Aside from team dinners and daily prayer room times, we are weekly going into a local christian high school to build up the students there. We are praying for people, leading worship, hosting dinners to encourage others, teaching, having a presence in the community, and spreading the love of Christ.

Our girls have purposely had much of our attention since we got home, and they deserve it! Family time has been so wonderful. It's been such an amazing opportunity in this season for Jordan to spend as much time with our children as I do- and it's apparent! Raegan and Anabelle love their daddy so much, and are so excited to spend time with him each day. Aside from times of tiredness, they are equally content with mom or dad.

Speaking of family, my Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Steve flew over from Maui for the day last week to visit and see what we've been up to! So much fun in one day- we toured the campus, sang, read books, bathed, talked, played, and laughed. We were so blessed by their visit- come again!!

Well, congratulations if you're still reading this, you made it to the end of my mega long update! Thanks for not giving up on my blog, I'm back!

Lots of love from Kona.

Goodbyes, red ants, and texas.

We're currently on the road, but before we left we had to say goodbye to some of our dear friends. Each day of the week a different group left from the flags, piling into the campus vans with all of their luggage and waving goodbye out the windows as the van drivers followed YWAM tradition by circling three times with the horn a honking! Destination: all over the world!!

Raegan had the best view of all the "goodbyes" from way up high on Alex's shoulder.

Bless you Coles and Casteels- miss you until we see you again soon!

Alyssa's cool carry-on bag. Woah.

And our sweet friends Whitney and Kelsey, just before they left for Iceland!

During one of the send-offs, Raegan was playig with some young boys, karate kicking a big plant... all of a sudden, she was screaming and crying, stomping around. I kinda froze, but my friend grabbed her and swatted a couple dozen red ants off of her right foot. After a nice mini bath we put some itchy ointment on all the tiny bites- there were a lot- and she was fine by the next day. There are still tons of little bumps where the bites are healing up. That'll teach you to pick on a helpless plant I suppose.

Anyway, we bravely said our goodbyes, and now our school has teams in Mozambique, Cambodia, Nepal, France, Iceland, Jordan, Pakistan, Kosovo, and Los Angeles, California. Oh, and we're here in Texas, but soon returning for local outreach in Kona, Hawaii.

So, what are we doing in Texas anyway? Well, let me finally tell you what's in store for our next three months...

I have to start this story back in the first weeks of school when we met our new friends, Chris and Karis Lieto. He's a professional triathlete, one of the top in the nation actually. She's mother of 2 beautiful children and a successful business woman. But more importantly, they love the Lord and have laid down life as usual to be involved in YWAM, just like us! Also added to the mix are two lovely young ladies with amazing New Zealand accents and strong faith in God. The gals that nannied for our families have joined the crew as outreach members, to complete our small team. They both come from YWAM families and have been such an asset to our little family.

So, six adults and 4 kids storng, we are forming a unique outreach that we scheduled around Chris's racing schedule. Tonight we're in Galveston, Texas for a big Ironman race, and we're praying for a WIN! Tomorrow morning bright and early, Chris will swim 1.2 miles, bike 56, and then run a half marathon- 13.1 miles! That's 70.3 miles.

Last weekend he raced about half of these distances in Kemah, TX and placed 3rd! Here's Raegan, checking out the swim exit the day before the race...

"More Than Sport"

Jordan has been heading up the "More Than Sport" booth at the race expos. More Than Sport is the Lietos non-profit 0rganization to raise funds and awareness to make changes in the communities Chris races in. To find out more, or make a donation, check out the website here!

My 1st born!!

In between race weekends we stayed in Houston, and had some really cool opportunities to bless the local community. One evening I led worship before Chris and Jordan brought a word of encouragement to a Christian triathlete club called Tri4Him. They were visibly uplifted by the evening, and I made a few friends that I saw again this weekend at the race expo!

We are praying for a WIN tomorrow!

Back to Kona on Monday morning, but for now- goodnight!