Best Visit Yet

I love mornings at my parents' house. The boys wake up giggling ready to snuggle for a minute and then hit the floor running. Then we all eat breakfast together!

Jonah & Silas love this time with their Kiki & Papa!

The boys think the remotes are cell phones. They walk around with them up to their ears and then hand them to us to talk too.

This wagon is a hit! They are worse than the beagle trying to get us to take them for a walk! We went on at least one walk a day.

Jonah loved Papa's piano.

My uncle flew in from KY for my Grandmother's birthday. I was so thankful to get to see him.

Wednesday we drove to Tampa.

On the way we stopped at a Cracker Barrel and I got their last potpie. That was a game we used to play on deputation... get a pot pie before they run out on Wednesdays. I think I got 1 the whole 11 months we were on deputation. Silas is my boy... he was trying to steal it!

I forgot to get a photo Wednesday evening. (It's almost as though if you're not a twin I don't even bother getting out my camera!) We were in Pastor Grover's church. He came down in '09 to teach a KBI module. We were given the entire service to share about KBI. We are thankful to have this church behind us and excited about the future of the pastors institute.

Ross, Jimmy's friend from college, is back from teaching in Korea for 4 years. He drove down from Daytona to spend the day with Jimmy. It was great to catch up. 4 years went by fast!

These were our last days in Jacksonville, they were sweet ones. They were filled with lots of kisses...

and smiles!

We had 2 wonderful weeks in Jacksonville, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Talking About Petén

I didn't take many photos, but last weekend we visited one of our supporting churches in Daytona. They sent a team down this past summer and have another one, maybe two, lined up for this year. We spent a lot of time with Rob, the youth pastor there and his family. He has a heart for the people in Petén. He has made an investment there. We have already seen fruit from some of the villages his team went to. We really enjoyed the time with his family and the boys loved playing with his kids.

We spent most of our time there with the teens since they will be one of the groups coming down. Two of the teens, Taylor and Adiel were in the nursery with our boys, I was thankful for that! (Although we did give them grief over the baby dolls!)

Sunday night we were back at Trinity and Jimmy got to shared a little about KBI in the service.

The boys have had a couple first since we've been here...

Jonah had his first scraped knee.

They both have learned how to crawl up onto anything.

They have taken baths in a real tub.

At first they hated it, but then they learned how to splash!

One day last week we ate lunch with this nice couple. He is a pastor from a church in Jax. He is very active in training nationals all over the world and we hope that one day he will come down to Petén for a KBI module. They were a lot of fun to talk to.

We also got to be in 3 of the missions classes at Trinity Baptist College this week. Didn't take any photos of that either... except this is what my boys looked like afterwards!

Jonah & Silas' 1st Haircut

My little ball headed boys finally got some hair. It was getting pretty scraggly in the back. Haircuts for the boys was one of the first things on our "To-do list" once we got here. I was a little worried about this haircut because I didn't want the boys to look funny the whole time they are here, but my cousin recommended the lady that cuts her boys' hair.

She was so good with them! She let them sit in Jimmy's lap the whole time. Jimmy's mom had the idea to use ring pops again. That work really well.

Papa and Kiki came too! It was a family event!

I saved a curl from each of them... all their curls are gone now.

The buzzer was fun!

Jonah didn't fuss at all until afterwards. He was running a fever, so it was understandable. It wasn't much of a fuss anyway.

Silas ended up looking the most different, since he had more hair to begin with.

Papa helped entertain them too...

while Mama & Kiki took a bunch of picture!

Since the ring pop was the main event I don't think they even noticed they were getting a haircut!

It was a wonderful experience. My boys look so handsome with their big boy haircuts!

Moments Worth Keeping

I am so far behind from posting everything I want to remember from this furlough. Our laptops have been out of commission. Mine started acting up right before we left Guatemala. Thanks to AppleCare I was going to basically get a brand new laptop for free (new logic board, battery, hard drive). Anyway Jimmy and I decided to trade because mine had a dual processor and his was smaller with a much better battery (I don't ever sit at a desk), so it's Jimmy that is going to get a brand new laptop for free. Switching ended up being a lot harder than I thought, but we finally have one working laptop again and it's mine!

Our first Sunday here, my aunt invited all of my dad's side of the family over to her house for lunch. I am so thankful for how close my dad's siblings have stayed. I hope my boys will be like that.

They always have a lot of fun together. This is definitely the gene pool Jonah came out of. I see so many Carswell traits in him.

I was so thankful for this time with everyone. This would have been the only way we would get to see everyone while we're here, so I really appreciate my aunt putting it all together.

Jonah and Silas got to interact with their cousins. All the little kids were so good with them.

Part of our future Petén family lives in Jacksonville... Becca! (We missed you Jay!)

She has been coming over almost every night after class. We love spending time with her!

Becca went shopping with me one day. It is overwhelming coming back here with so many options. It is nice to have help. I've been shopping with my mom too. I'm taking all of Jonah & Silas' 2T clothes back with us and some toys to save until later, some new clothes for Jimmy and I, spices, toiletries, and other kinds of household things.

One night Becca, Jimmy and I went out to one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook the food in front of you.

This was our chef! We had a lot of fun.

We got to go see my Grandma Carswell. She lives about 5 minutes from my parents house and they visit her almost every day for lunch. (I love that about my parents.)

Jonah used a drink machine for the first time.

I think he thought that was a pretty cool toy.

Silas found the candy machine.

They also found some spinning chairs.

My grandma kept unintentionally referring to Silas as a "she" because his hair was so long in the back! So right after this we went and got the boys' first haircut.

Moments like these I want to keep forever.

One night my mom and Becca watched the boys while Jimmy and I went on a date. It was wonderful!

Last Wednesday we met with Bro. Messer, my home pastor. We got to share our vision about KBI. He was very supportive, so much so he even planned a trip for December to come teach a module!