Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my dad, G-Pop to Cole, to Mike, Daddy to Cole, and to Mike's Dad, Pop-Pop to Cole. I am so very thankful for each of you. Dad, you are an amazing father and grandpa and I'm so grateful that the Lord has given me another Father's Day with you. You have shown me patience, humility, and compassion all my life and I am a better person because of you. Thank you for being the person that you are...my papa!! :) Bob, I am so very thankful for you as well! The Lord has blessed me incredibly with a father-in-law such as yourself and I thank the Lord for you too! You are such a loving, generous, and fun Pop-Pop for Cole to have and to watch you and Cole's eyes light up when you see each other warms my heart immensely. I pray that we have many more Father's Days to celebrate with both of my dads in the future!!! And to Mike, my love. It has been such an amazing journey that the Lord has taken us on...especaially since you have become a father. To watch Cole run and jump in your arms and beg to play Spiderman and to be thrown high up into the air makes me so very happy. And to watch his face when he hears that door open when you come home from work and to see him run into your arms makes me realize how much Cole loves his daddy and what a great one you are!!! The Lord has truly blessed my life with wonderful men and for that I am forever thankful!!!

Here are some cute pictures from Father's Day...

In the morning, we took off with my mom & dad and Brice & Emilie to head down to Travel Town in Griffith Park. We had a blast looking at all the trains and watching Cole run up to all of them. Thanks Mom & Dad for giving us the idea...we had a blast!










After Travel Town, we all headed to Brian & Lindsay's house for a BBQ & Pool Party with the Koegle Family! Thanks guys for an excellent lunch/dinner and for the fun times!









I think Brice is almost as far along as Lindsay!!! :)


And last, but not least, Happy 26th Birthday to Katy...Katy turned 26 on June 19th and we celebrated her birthday with everyone at the Koegle's on Father's Day. Hope your day was awesome, Katy-Bug. We love you...Here's a cute pic of Katy, Ashlyn & Cole blowing out the candles on the cake.

Our New House...

Finally...so here are some pictures of our new home. We are renting for now, so bear with me on the white walls...we're not sure if we want to put forth the effort to paint if we are going to only be in here 1 year. But so far, we really like it. It's starting to feel like home, slowly but surely. I LOVE having a backyard with flowers and birds! And, as you can see, the place has lots of room for Cole to go crazy in! Enjoy...and come over to see the house in person when you can! We'd love to have you over...just call! :)

Our purty backyard! Yay for tiki torches and bbqs in the summertime! :)




Our master bedroom...


Our living room...

Coley's room...


So Mike finally has an office...


Here is our GIGANTIC kitchen and dining room/breakdance room...


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And here is our enclosed patio that Mike has fondly labed our W.T. room...


That's about it...it does have 2 bathrooms...but they are too small to even photograph. :) And also, one nice long hallway in which my husband runs at break-neck speed and slides on Pergo flooring all the way to the front door! :) Boys will ALWAYS be boys. :) We are enjoying our house and are so thankful that the Lord provided us this beautiful home, just in the nick of time. :)

The Hilliger Wedding...and Our 6th Anniversary!

This last weekend, I flew up to Fremont via the San Jose Airport for Josh & Laina's wedding. It was so weird going on an airplane all by my lonesome. That's the first time I've ever done that. However, it was really nice because I was able to read a ton...which may be my favorite thing to do. Anyway, I flew up to Fremont on Friday morning, and Lindsay (Besch) came to pick me up. We went straight over to Lighthouse Bible Fellowship, the church where Josh & Laina had their wedding ceremony. We helped with a few last minute things for the ceremony hall and left to check into our rooms at the Fremont/Newark Hilton. Great hotel if anyone is interested. The rooms were awesome. Lindsay and I got ready for the rehearsal and headed back over to the church around 4 p.m. The rehearsal went very smoothly and we all had a great time. Josh's family had the rehearsal dinner catered in to the church's Fellowship Hall. The dinner was amazing!! And the tables looked so cute! Mike, Cole and Brice drove up to Fremont after work that afternoon and arrived around 9:30 p.m. We went to bed fairly early, as us girlies needed to get up early in the morning to start beautifying ourselves for the wedding. :) Lindsay, Emilie, Laura (Laina's sister-in-law), and myself all primped in Lindsay's hotel room before the wedding. We were actually on time for the pre-wedding stuff! A miracle!! The wedding ceremony was amazing...Laina looked PERFECT and Josh looked oh-so handsome in his tux! The wedding party stayed for a few pictures at the church and then headed to a nearby country club for the reception. The day was beautiful and warm and great for pictures. I was able to shoot about 250 pictures for Laina & Josh...I hope a few come out so they can use them.


Here are a few pictures from the wedding/reception and photo shoots in the church and at the reception site....
















It was Mike & I's 6th wedding anniversary on Saturday, April 28th. It was very cool being in a wedding on our anniversary. Just special, I suppose. Mike, thank you for the last 6 years...you have brought me so much joy and happiness...I don't even know how to express my feelings, but I do know that I feel more in love with you now than when we tied the knot, knowing what kind of man...husband and father you have become. The Lord has abundantly blessed me and I am so thankful to Him!! Here's to many, many more years ahead of us... I love you!

Aloha...our Hawaiian Vacation!!!

Well, Mike and I just got back from a 7-night Hawaiian cruise on Monday morning. We had the chance to go on this awesome vacation with Emilie & Brice and my mom & dad. We all left on Easter Sunday. Mike and I got up super early and were able to hit the sunrise service at Grace before we caught our plane at LAX at 1:00 p.m. with my mom & dad. We had a relatively smooth flight and landed safely in Hawaii in the late afternoon. We got to the ship by about 5:00 p.m., just in time for the safety drill. Isn't that exciting! I will spare you of all the details, but here are some beautiful pictures of our vaca...

The atrium on the cruise ship...

One of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen...Kauai!!!

An awesome sea turtle I saw at Poipu Beach, Kauai!

Just a cool silhouetted picture of an old barn...yes in Hawaii!

The beauty of Wailua Falls, Kauai .

Seeing this in person is indescribable...Waimea Canyon, Kauai.

A vibrant hibiscus! One of my favs...

Just off the road coming home from Waimea Canyon...so cool!!

The Botanical Gardens in Hilo, Hawaii.

Looking into "Pele's" crater...can you see the steam?

Mike inside the Thurston Lava Tube.

Me...in the rainsforest...right outside of the Lava tube.

Another beautiful sight...Rainbow Falls, Hilo, Hawaii

The fam on the last night for dinner. :) !

Mike and Brice being monkeys, climbing in a banyan tree on Maui!

The whole fam on the last night with our fav waitress, Abbey (on the left) & her server, Megan (on the right) and the BEST waiter...ever...Hensley in front and center.

A SWEET looking duck...not sure what kind it is...I've looked in all my bird books and online, and I can't find a match?! But really cute! This was at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.

Some cute turtles...just trying to get higher in this world. :)

A Hawaiian Duck in the foreground, and a Black-crowned Night Heron in the background.

Alright...that's probably enough pictures to last a while. Tell me what picture was your favorite! I'll also post some pictures of our new house soon.

Wow...how long has it been??

Okay, so you are probably wondering if we fell off the face of the earth. It's been like 8 or 9 weeks since I've posted anything. Sorry...things have been a little crazy here!!! We sold our townhome on Abbey Glen and moved into a rental home (for 1 year) in Valencia over by Henry Mayo Hospital. We just moved on Feb. 23rd and are still unpacking boxes and trying to figure out what to do with the spaces. It's a really cute little place...3 bedroom, 2 bath, all pergo flooring, new kitchen appliances, an enclosed patio and a backyard for Cole to play in, 2 car garage...you get the picture. I'm still getting used to waking up in a new place. I have not moved much growing up. Mike, on the other hand, has moved countless times and is used to the whole process. We were both EXTREMELY sad to sell our place on Abbey Glen, but we really felt that it was necessary and the timing was the Lord's. We are able to pay off all debts and still have a lot of mula in the bank on hold for another home in the future.

Thank you to all you wonderful peeps out there for helping us move...Emilie, Brice, Summer, Todd, Ryan, Tammy, Sean, Andy, Misty, Gabe, Mom, Dad, Brian, Lindsay, Michelle & Bob. We are forever indebted to you for all your help, whether it was for a few hours or a few days! We could not have done it without you and we are so appreciative of your help!!! :)

I will post some pictures soon of our new place so you can check it out. I was able to get a new computer, so hopefully I'll be able to update this blog more often. Hope this finds you well and all is great with you and your family!! Love ya...The Koegles!!! :)

New Year's Resolution Complete!

Hi...I am very proud to say that I have just finished reading the Bible, from beginning to end, for the first time. My New Year's Resolution from 2006, my one and only, was to read the Bible from start to finish...and I did!! Yay for me and my walk with the Lord. I decided to read "The Daily Bible..In Chronological Order." I think it's a great way to get through the entire Bible and have everything make sense, historically. It was a challenge and several times through the year I got a week or two or three behind, but I would slowly catch myself up and this morning I finished out Revelations with a happy heart! Here's the cover of the Bible if anyone's interested in starting it up for 2007. It's not too late...I would encourage you to do so if you've never read the entire Bible. It only takes about 15-20 minutes a day. And I will need at least another 50 years of reading through it over and over to get even part of what the Lord wrote. :)

Carpinteria Birding at it's Best!

Hello...well after that crazy long blog, which TOTALLY didn't turn out like the preview...I had it all perfectly set up to go along with the pictures...I figured I'd better do a quick blog about the birding trip to Carpinteria. My mom, Judy, Mary and I were able to drive up to Carpinteria pretty early in the morning on Thursday, January 4th and stopped in Ventura along the way to check out the BIG waves that were crashing up onto the street. I figured I needed to get some pictures of this, so I proceeded to jump out of the car, and try and shoot a couple of pictures, finding a place along the road that wasn't wet at all...I'm sure you know where this is going. Well, about 10 minutes into me shooting pictures, a wave snuck up on me and as I was trying to run behind the car, it soaked me. My entire back and pants were dripping, so I took off the sweater and wrung it out, and Judy had a blanket in the back that I sat on for the rest of the trip. It was pretty funny!! :) I did however, get some great pictures looking up and down the coast...Anyway, we stopped off at the Carpinteria Bluffs and I was able to see a GORGEOUS white-tailed kite and a very cute white crowned sparrow which I got a good picture of...
We headed up to the Carpinteria Salt Marsh, where birding is always fun, and walked around for a couple of hours scoping out Great Egrets hunting for fish, Green Herons, Buffleheads, an incredible Cinnamon Teal which I have never seen before, a Great Blue Heron, Pied-billed Grebes, Eared Grebes, Turkey Vultures, Killdeer, Willets, and many more. It was a really fun day and I was able to mark off a ton of new birds in my birding book. :) We finished up the morning by grabbing a quick bite at the Cajun Kitchen Cafe in downtown Carp and then headed home. It was a wonderful way to start the new year off! :) Here is a picture of the "beaches" in Carpinteria...however, the tide was so high, there was no beach. I was shocked. Many times, I have walked to the edge of that jeti in the distance. The tide and the waves were pretty
awesome.