Today is Kristen’s 27th birthday.  In general, not all that significant of one.  But very significant for me.

Since we got married over 3 years ago, we have not celebrated one of her birthdays together on her actual birth day.  For our first one together, she was in Houston.  For the second, we were in DC and I had to go away for a few days of training.  For hers last year, she was in Houston again.

But this year, we’re celebrating it together.  And Jackson and I are thankful.

Kristen is an amazing wife and mother and deserves a lot more showering of fancy food and gifts than she actually gets.

I think of Proverbs 31.  Here are a only a few verses that exemplify Kristen:

-She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family

-She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy

-She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come

-She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness

Jack and I are blessed to have such a wonderful woman in our lives.  She truly is worth “far more than rubies” (or “emeralds” here in Colombia).

Saturday we had some new friends over for a “potluck brunch”. Whenever new people arrive in Seth’s section we try to have a get together so we can meet new friends. In particular friends with kiddos.

Here are a few pictures…

Doesn’t it make it look like Seth was watching all of the kids!!

Jackson and Ella enjoying the ball popper…they were taking turns having the air blow up in their faces

Katie and Ronan. We are so happy that Katie is here safe and sound. Her mom had to med-evac a few months ago with pre-eclampsia! Katie made her debut early but is doing beautifully!

more friends

again, Seth being super daddy, holding not one but two 18 month olds!

Other happenings,

Our side view mirror got stolen off the car yesterday in broad daylight while I was with Jackson in his jardin. How annoying! We got the name of a guy that sells rear view mirrors, we are going to buy ours back from him!

Jackson turns 18 months old on Friday! Time flies!! I can NOT believe that he is more of a toddler than he is a baby.

Seth is pumped about LOST starting tonight and I am excited that my wii fitness coach dvd arrived today! Jackson is excited because his Christmas gift box arrived. All of his Christmas gifts were in a box we mailed from the states. It appeared it had gotten lost. Much to our delight it was found yesterday!

Those are the happenings! Nothing too exciting!

Seth and I had a fabulous trip to Aruba over the weekend. We had been planning it for months and were so excited! We had a few hiccups in the airport when we got kicked out of a restaurant (Crepes and Waffles) because Seth insisted on bringing in McDonald’s to eat while I ate there. That was against policy! We made our way to immigration and security and learned that Colombia has adopted the liquid rules and almost lost about $100 worth of toilitries and makeup. (The day before I realized I was out of contact solution…here in Bogota it was $20 USD!) I could not lose that! Anyhow, they saw our diplomatic passports and quickly returned everything to the bag that they had spread out on the counter. Phew.  We also got dip privileges of getting to wait in the VIP lounge which they pronounce (VEEP).

We made it to our hotel and had a great weekend! We ate lots of yummy meals complete with full conversations uninterrupted by an enthusiastic boy, soaked up the sun by the pool and went on a snorkeling excursion. We ate in outdoor cafes which we can’t do here and walked freely around without worrying about security! It was very relaxing and much needed after a few huge life events over the past few years that have been less than easy…the main things being Jackson’s cancer diagnosis and 2 moves! Our only complaint was that our hotel room was so noisy because of the room above ours.  Sounded like they were moving furniture and doing construction all the time. Seth called down to the desk and they lied and said it was a vacant room. After 2 nights of 24 hour noise Seth went upstairs to find a kitchen. Hardly vacant. The floor above us had a 24 hour buffet for elite customers so they never stopped chopping, blending, etc! They knocked off the cost of one of our nights when they realized the tiny white lie about a vacant room hadn’t been true enough to trick us! In addition they had added new fire alarms and we had a few false alarms, one at 2 am!

We missed Jackson but he had a blast at home with his Mia. He was very excited to have us back and closely watches when we leave the room to ensure we don’t try to sneak away again anytime soon!

On our way to the airport we went to Taco Bell. We had both been looking forward to it since we can’t get it in Bogota. When we walked in we both looked at each other like “this isn’t exactly the cleanest place…”, we proceeded to say over our food “gosh, I sure hope we don’t get sick.” We ate, rushed to the airport and I got hit with the worst food poisoning ever at about 8 pm. I am just now starting to feel a little bit better. If you ever have those gut feelings (pun intended) about a restaurant do not eat it!!!! I won’t be eating Taco Bell again for quite some time!

Despite the few hiccups we had a great time together! Here are a few pictures!

Texas de Brazil! We highly recommend it but maybe not before wearing a bikini!  You really want to get the most out of the “all you can eat.”

the beachfront

Crystal clear water

One of the iguanas we met running freely

Guns up the day Texas Tech beat OSU!

watching our last Aruban sunset

Look at that white beard…we pretend we are still young! 30 is creeping up on this guy!

Overall a fabulous trip! A nice break from bleak Bogota!

Yesterday Jackson and I hosted our baby groups Halloween/Fall party. Adding costumes to the mix of that many kids made for a not so chill get together, but everyone had fun! Here are a few pictures to share!! More Halloween pics to come from the official day!

Mono

Jackson wanted to be with baby Ben, none of this sit with all of the kids stuff!

The littlest punkins!

yummy food for the moms

Seth even helped make the icing when I was in a rush the night before!

The very littlest punkin…less than 3 weeks! So cute!

We all had fun! Jackson is still finding cheerios here, there and everywhere! He is gearing up for being a monkey again at the Embassy tomorrow! He gets to walk around and Trick or Treat at all of the offices!