Are You Kidding Me?!

Are You Kidding Me?!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

Issac totally surprised me with a trip to La Bella Spa!

A New Bike!

A New Bike!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

I got a call yesterday, actually, more like 5 calls, from a teacher at the kid's elementary school. When I saw that the call was coming from the school, I must admit, I thought it might be some news regarding Caleb... he forgot his library book and since school is almost out, they need it back.
I checked the message she left me and she said "please call me back, it's good news!" She failed to mention the good news, however. I called the school back and she explained to me that Courtney was the top 5th grade Excellerated Reader. She and 2 other students read so much that they rewarded them with new bikes! Courtney had a score of 331 points while the other 2 students had points in the 200's!
Courtney is ALWAYS reading. If we're in the car, she's reading. If she's bored at home, she's reading. If we're watching tv or a movie, she's reading. Way to go Courtney! We're so proud of you!!

~Kristi

A Message to Savannah

I Just wanted to take a moment to tell you that we miss you. We don't feel like our family is complete without you. I have always said that God put together the perfect family when He put us all together. I have always said that if you took any one of us out of the equation, it just wouldn't be the same. Well, I was right. Now that you have taken yourself out of this equation, it just isn't right. We have all had a very heavy heart for the last few weeks since you have been gone. We know that you are with Grandma, and that she loves you very much and will take great care of you, but we still wish that you were back in our home and a part of our family. Now I know that I'm not aperfect dad, nor is mom a perfect mom, but we have truly tried to be the parents that God wants us to be, and train you up in the way that we should go. I know that we haven't done that perfectly, but we've tried. It is so hard to raise kids in a world that is so dangerous and sinful. It is so hard to protect you from harm and danger, and yet allow you to have the freedom that you desire. It is so hard to know how to correctly discipline you when you've done wrong. The only reason we discipline at all is because we love you. Did we do everything right? Probably not. Did we do everything wrong? Probably not. Do we ONLY do what we believe to be in YOUR best interest and to the glory of God? Yes! So I ask for your forgiveness for the mistakes that I have made. I know that I have made some, and I am sorry. I also forgive you for the mistakes that you have made. We all blow it, but I'm SO thankful that God is so patient,and quick to forgive us. I've shared 1 John 1:9 with you that says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Anyway, I just want you to know that we love you and miss you very much. We have all tried not to think about all of this too much, so that we don't stay sad, but we can't just forget you. You have been a part of our family for so long, and to have you gone now hurts us. The other day, Caleb just started crying out of nowhere. When I asked what was wrong, he told me that he missed Savannah. "We all do", I told him and then held him as he cried in my arms. Everyone at the church misses you, and prays often for you. I have seen people in our church break down in tears as they pray for you. You are deeply loved. Please know that you have an open invitation to come home. Please think of more than just yourself; think about the pain that others are feeling because you are gone. You are 15 years old. You only have 3 more years until you are an adult and can go out on your own, have all the freedom you want, and live the life that you want to live. It's not that far away. Come home and then leave the right way, at the right time. Not like this. I don't send this out there to confuse you, and put you in a place where you have to make a tough decision. I put this out there so that if the right decision isn't a tough one, and all you needed was this, then you can make the right decision and do what you need to do. Whatever you decide, please know that we love you. We always will, and we will miss you until the day you come home! We are praying that it will happen soon. Until then, we pray that you will remember God. Love Him. Talk to Him. Live for Him. He loves you perfectly, like I can't. He never makes mistakes like I do. He will always be there for you, like I can't. Even if you take your eyes off of this family, don't take your eyes off of God.

Emery and Issac

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

Last night we went to Calvary ABQ and attended the School of Ministry graduation. Our friend, Brian Hall, graduated! Woo hoo! We got to spend a little time hanging out with people we don't get to see very often and one of them was little Emery Miller. She's the daughter of Kevin and Jenn and if I could have it MY way, Issac would marry her! Then we could be in-laws with our best friends!! Unfortunately, Emery will probably grow up to be 5'9" (her dad is 6'5") and Ikey probably will be around 5'7" (his dad is 5'7"), so I'm not sure if that will work out. Bummer. I also understand that she likes Nicky a lot. Oh well, maybe one day the Miller's will have a son that Courtney can marry. haha! Just kidding. =)

~Kristi

The Many Faces of Caleb

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

This will be thd first instalment of many that I'm calling the many faces of Caleb. This dude makes so many wierd faces, I gotta share them with you. Enjoy.

Don't Try This At Home

Don't Try This At Home
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

This guy was speeding around our neighborhood in his race bug making all kinds of noise and got busted by the cops! Good job protecting & serving!

"That's GIRL medicine!"

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

He wasn't stoked about taking his medicine because it was pink. (a girl color)

So Sad

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

He has strep. Bummer.

~Issac

Interesting...

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

Apparently Elmo has more authority around here than the doctor.

~Issac

Doctor's Office

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

Issac woke up sick this morning. I had to take him to the doctor.

~Issac

Finally Done!

Finally Done!
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

After 25 hours of waiting my kids are enrolled in the summer program! Everything went great! Thank you for your prayers!

Update

Update
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

I decided to take down my tent due to the fact that I can sleep in my van across the way (see picture). Please pray that everything goes well tonight. Thanks!

18 Hours and Counting

18 Hours and Counting
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

Briana (our friend) totally blessed me with lunch and a visit with Issac! Time is going quicker but there's still a long way to go.

25 Hours of Waiting

25 Hours of Waiting
Originally uploaded by Lopez Clan

Today I'm waiting in line for 25 hours to get our kids into an inexpensive summer program. I've got my tent! If you're in Santa Fe, stop by and visit me!

You gotta try this!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Lopez Clan.

You gotta try the new meatball sub at Dion's. It rocks!

I'm So Excited!

I'm So Excited!, originally uploaded by Lopez Clan.

I finally learned how to blog from my phone! I also got the slideshow working for our Flickr pictures! Yay!

New Improvements

Slowly but surely we are adding things to our blog to make it amazing! I finally figured out how to have a slideshow (top right hand corner). If you click on a picture, you can see all of our pictures that we've uploaded to Flickr. So amazing! I'm so glad I figured that out! I'll try to document more pictures with my cell phone, even though my camera is kinda lame. Hope you enjoy!

~Kristi

Anniversary Celebration Part 2

In case you haven't noticed, Issac and I like to celebrate things for an extended period of time. Birthdays are usually "birthday weeks" so why would our anniversary be any different?! Issac has Mondays off so I planned to be off too because we usually need a day to recover from our vacations! We decided to head to Albuquerque for lunch and to stop by the Apple store (Issac wanted a new iPod). We went to Bravo!...AMAZING.... and had a very yummy lunch! Issac and I each enjoyed the petite filet and jumbo shrimp with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies (Issac got pasta instead of veggies). Ikey joined us since Courtney and Caleb had school, so we ordered him a nice little kids meal, only to find out that the kid's cheese pizza was the size of a small pizza at Dion's! I was cracking up because of the size of the "kid's meal." It would have definitely fed all three kids, no problem. He must have had a huge appetite because he finished 5 of the 8 slices! Needless to say, he was pretty stuffed after that. Not too stuffed though to enjoy some coffee and vanilla bean ice cream that our waitress brought out for us - free of charge for the happy couple!

After lunch we headed over to the Apple store. I've been wanting to get an armband for my iPod Nano so I can workout with it, but since I have an "obsolete" Nano (an older version than the nice, new Nano video iPod) I couldn't find an armband anywhere. They had one at the Apple store - a sweet Nike one that is super comfortable. I also got a nice new pair of Nike head phones. I can't wait to workout tomorrow!

So, while Issac was browsing the 80 gig iPods, I was looking at the iPod Touch. It does everything that the iPod Phone does, except minus the phone ability. I told Issac he should get a Touch. So, for his anniversary, father's day, and birthday presents for this year, we got him a iPod Touch! It's so sick! I'm sure it's going to take a while for us to figure out all the functions it can actually do. What we know so far is already worth it!

God has blessed us so much and we are so thankful for everything He has done in our lives and marriage. I'm so excited to see how He will use us in the year to come!

~Kristi

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Our Final Days

We are home! I'm typing this on Monday morning after a good nights sleep in my own bed! It's good to be home! Let me tell you about the last two days of our trip.

On Friday, after my wonderful anniversary dinner with my wife, the park was going to open early and stay open late. All week long, because this is a slow time of year, the park hours were 10am-8pm, which was plenty of time to enjoy the parks because the crowds were SO low. But on Friday the hours were 9am-midnight! The plan Was to hit the park at opening time and hit some of the rides that we hadn't yet done and wanted to do again, while grabbing some fast passes for some cool rides for later! So thats what we did; we rode Peter Pan (which is always like one of the longest lines in the park) and Star Tours which we just hadn't gotten around to as well as Matterhorn and some of the other ones we wanted to ride again! Meanwhile we grabbed fastpasses for Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Indiana Jones, Soaring over California and the Grizzly River Rapids! So now we were going to go to lunch, swim, and take a nap and then come back at about 5 and stay till midnight! We finally left the resort, for the first time since we arrived to go eat at In-N-Out Burger! It was the best! If you haven't tried In-N-Out, you need to get to California and try it! After swimming and a nap we went back to the park, starting off at California Adventure! Spent a few hours there rockin some new and repeat rides, and then went back to Disneyland so that we could catch the fireworks, fantasmic, and use our fast passes. We also ate dinner at a place called rancho Del Zocalo in frontierland. It's a Mexican place. It wasn't as good as home, but still was pretty awesome! So from that point it was directly over to the castle to see the fireworks which is always a sweet way to end a day at Disneyland! Fantasmic was right afterwards on the rivers of America in front of New Orleans Square. That is great show as well. The only problem now, is that after sitting through 2 shows the exhaustion is starting to set in with the kids and they want to call it a night. We've got three more fastpasses though. Well, Courtney wanted to use at least one more of those fastpasses, so we did (Big Thunder) and then we made our final walk out of Disneyland for the last time this trip. It is always a sad feeling because we love that place so much, but we have a great family, great friends, and an incredible church to look forward to when we get home!

The day we left, we slept in until we all woke up, and then started packing to get out of the hotel by 11:00am. We don't normally stay at nice hotels, so we felt all special when the bell hop came to our room, loaded up our luggage, and took it it down to the bell desk where he was going to hold all of our bags until we were good and ready to pick them up. That was really cool because we had lots of time to kill before we had to leave. After we were all checked out, we went to In-N-Out one more time! I can't tell you how amazing that place is. Then we came back to Downtown Disney and went to a movie; Nim's Island. That was a pretty good movie. The kids really liked it. I would probably reccomend it as a family friendly movie. Next, we took one more stroll up and down Downtown Disney and then brought the car up to the front of the hotel for the bell dudes to load up our luggage into our car and then we were on our way. We stopped at Target for some snacks, and Subway to get some dinner to take on the train, as well as Chevron in Los Angeles for gas. Gas was like 4.33 a gallon there! Enjoy the "low prices" we have here while you can. Sheesh...gas prices are crazy! Anyway, we loaded onto a train and had a wonderful trip home. After all the excitement and fun we had, we ALL slept very well on the train and the trip was very short; felt like we were there in no time.

All in all this was a very great trip! We really missed having Savannah with us, as this is the first trip we've taken since she has been living with her Grandma Connie. Please don't let Savannah be out of sight and out of mind. Please pray for her. I'm glad that she is where she wants to be, but I also hope and pray that she will not depart from all that we have taught her these many years that we've raised her. We love her and miss her very much. Maybe one day she'll want to come be a part of this family again. You never know. But God is so good. When we experience a great week of fun and excitement like we did this past week, we have only to consider what heaven will be like! The bible says, in Psalm 16:11, that in your (God's) presence there is fullness of joy;at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. All good things come from God, that is a fact, but nothing can compare to God Himself! When we are in His presence, experiencing FULLNESS OF JOY, and we can experience the pleasures that are at His right hand, everything that we consider awesome in this life will pale in comparison! I pray that we will all gaurd ourselves against exalting the gifts above the giver. We are sinful people that have a tendency of doing that. God is all satisfying apart from His gifts! Taste and see that the Lord is good!

6 Years of Joy

So, Yesterday, although a little early, I celebrated 6 years with my beautiful bride! It was a great day. Here are some of the highlights!

Our day started off with more celebration of Courtney's birthday. Sheesh...must be nice. Today we had breakfast at the PCH Grill with Lilo and Stitch! (another really cool character dining experience) It was really fun. Lilo and Stitch joined us for breakfast and brought the kids in for hula lessons, as well as a couple other cool games and activities. All of the food was really yummy and and the kids had a blast. I was really excited today because, although she has riden it before quite a few times, Courtney began to fear Splash Mountain and refused to ride with us until yesterday! I really wanted her to ride wuth us so she finally did! The picture that was taken was priceless; it really captured the sheer terror on her face as we plunged down the 50 foot drop. She lived to see another day, contrary to what she had expected. We also caught a few of our very favorite shows at Disneyland yesterday; The Aladdin Musical at California Adventure, and Billy Hill and the Hillbillies in Frontierland! Both are REALLY great entertainment! If you ever get over to the happiest place on earth, I suggest you check those two shows! The next highlight of my day came in the form of communication with a great friend of mine from home; Preston! It was so cool to get a call from him just to say that he hoped we were having a great time! We also talked a little about some exciting ministry opportunities we have coming up in the future. I love Preston and his family and I'm SO looking forward to serving along side him. I can't wait to get back; The Weekend 2008 at Calvary Santa Fe is only a couple weeks away! I'm really looking forward to it! Anyway, as a perfect end to my day, I settled the kids at the hotel with dinner and a movie (the hotel room has a dvd player) and then I took my wife on a wonderful date to THE BEST meal we've had yet; a little place called Steakhouse 55 here in the Disneyland Hotel. We had, probably the best filet mignon I've ever had with a couple really killer side dishes. This was definitely THE highlight of the trip for me. Just a little alone time with my wife, over a really great meal, at one of our favorite places in the world. I can't tell you how much we both enjoyed our time together. It has truly been an awesome six years with my best friend on this earth, and it seems to get better every year. One of the cool things about marriage is that it points to something much greater; our relationship with Christ! As Christians, we're called the bride of Christ. Although our marriage relationship should point to Chrst, my fallen and flawed love for Kristi, as great as it is, could NEVER in a million years compare to God's unconditional and unending love for His bride; the church! Be encourgaed to know that, if you belong to God, He loves you with a special and jealous love! Just like I am a jealous husband, and want all of my wifes affections to be for me, so God wants all of our affections to be for Him; not the things of this world. And even though we don't live up to that expectation, and we DO desire "stuff" more than we desire Him sometimes, His perfect love remains steadfast for us! As we realize how we fall short in this, let us be quick to repent of our sin, and seek to be satisfied in Him alone! He is so good to us! It's been a great few days but it's almost over and we'll be glad to go home and be reunited with all of the family and friends that we love SO much! We missed seeing our church family on Wednesday! Well, I'll go ahead and post some pictures from yesterday. We'll be at the park till about midnight tonight, so I'll blog and post pics about today sometime tomorrow morning. Thanks for caring enough to read our blogs. Hi Dad, Mom and Felicia! It's been fun keeping in contact with you guys! I wish you guys were here with me! God bless...