Wedding in Wisconsin and Easter Weekend

Well, this post has been SEVERAL days in the making! It was one thing after another, but anyway, I finally got it done. I hope. Except for the video clips. For some reason, I cannot get them on here properly, so I will still try to put them up on another post.

Wow, life can get busy! Easter weekend was one example. We left early on Saturday morning for a wedding in Wisconsin. The wedding was for a close friend of ours, whose father founded the Peruvian church we went to, and Fabio was saved in, in Japan. He is now pastoring a church in Milwaukee. He performed the wedding in Spanish, and there was translation to English. I included a video clip, especially for those who know the Maceda family and would like to see it. Gizeth is the second of three daughters, and she married Andrew Geraci. It was a beautiful wedding and we were happy we were able to attend.

First, some pictures we took of us before the ceremony. They turned out good except that Joshua seemed to have trouble keeping his eyes open! I guess it was too bright for him! I also wished there had been someone around to take one of the four of us together, but oh well.









Our sweet kiddos. Joshua is going on four now, and Dominique is nearly 18 months.











Pastor Maceda walking his lovely daughter Gizeth down the aisle.












Saying the vows.













Married!
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Geraci!
Congratulations!










Easter Sunday


We left the wedding and went straight to my brother Scott's house for a party for Aaron. I deeply regret that I didnt take any pictures there! What was I thinking??? I guess I was too tired from the day and there was too much going on.
Then, I also forgot my camera for church Sunday morning, but luckily my friend Michelle brought hers, and got this darling picture of our sweet girlies in their hats. This is actually the only pic I got of Dominique in her hat! Oh, and Michelle and I are both pregnant too. :)


Daddies and Babies!
My oldest brother Scott and his son Gabriel, and Fabio with sleepy Dominique.
This was at our place. The family came over after church for Easter dinner and we had a great time.








Here are the grandkids minus Jessica! She had gone with Aaron on an errand and I never did get one with her in it once she got back! I also regret that I didnt get on of Aaron's family once they got back.... and they were the star family of the weekend! I kept thinking I would do it once they got back and apparently I never got around to it. Ugh.






Playing games after lunch: PIT and Chess.












It was a fun, but long weekend for everybody! Joshua and Fabio finally pooped out on the couch about 5pm on Sunday. :) I had to wake Joshua up around 6pm though, to make sure he would sleep that night! He did. With no problem.


Next I will be posting pics of this past weekend, which was also eventful. We made a trip down to see my Grandma for her 80th birthday! It was a good time.

Unfortunately, I got the flu upon returning, so I have been out of commission for a couple days, but I am glad to be feeling better now. I actually am VERY relieved to realize that it was the flu. At first I thought I just had a much more severe case of morning sickness with this pregnancy.... which made me think it might last another couple months! I was not happy with that thought! So, since it was the flu, I was able to get over it and now I am back to the much more manageable morning sickness. :)

Aaron will be leaving again tonight for California. I am glad that he will be back one last time in May, so we still dont have to face saying goodbye for good just yet.

More to come...........

Welcome Home, Aaron and Family!!

Well, I am a little late about posting, but last Wednesday Aaron and his family got back to Illinois! He graduated from the training in NC on Tuesday, which was also his birthday. These pics are from Wednesday night where Mom made us all a good meal at Aaron's house and it was sure good to have them back! Joshua was *thrilled* to see his cousins again! He had been saying for weeks things like, "Hey, I have an idea! Let's go to Uncle Aaron's house!" So he was glad we finally got to! We all wish you coulda been there, Dad.

This pic is of the three girl cousins: Cheyenne (3), Jessica (9), and Dominique (1.5)













We finally got a pic of Fabio and I together! Seems like it is quite a challenge to try to do!

















And finally, one of Joshua and Dominique in the yard. I thought it was cute, even though Dominique has some serious bed head! Her hair is getting to the point where it doesn't look nice if I dont fix it, but I don't like to fix it every day because she always loses so much every time the 'do has to come out! She can't afford to lose much!!

I haven't been feeling too swell lately, but we are all surviving. Im thankful for the tactics I learned when I was pregnant with Dominique from a little booklet called "Managing Morning Sickness". The basic idea is that I have to eat something that is salty (definitely not sweet), packs plenty of protein, and preferably includes some carbs, about every two hours. :) If I do that, I can keep the yuckies at bay pretty well. Wish I had known about it when I was pg with Joshua! I haven't gained a pound yet, but my baby pouch is growing. Yes, already! What can I say???

We had a really full weekend too, and so I will be posting pics of that soon: a wedding in WI, a big party for Aaron, Easter dinner at our place. :) Life never gets boring, that's for sure!

Genkotsu Yama No Tanuki San

Here is a video of Joshua singing in Japanese. :)

Exciting News and A Few Pictures

Well, our exciting news (for those who haven't heard yet) is that we have been blessed with a third child!! This little one will (most likely) be making his or her appearance around mid-December. :) That makes me about 5 1/2 weeks along, and so far I am feeling okay, just hungry! I hope I don't have much this time in the way of nauseas and stuff, because my current life doesn't allow me the luxury of lying around. :) Maybe that's a good thing ~ it'll keep my mind off of feeling yucky.
So, that means I probably won't be taking both of the kids with me on the bike anymore. Boo Hoo. The other day I was practicing having Joshua follow me on his tricycle here in the parking lot, but his poor legs have to work awfully hard! I don't think we could make it all the way to the library that way......





These two pictures are from our friend Yuko's graduation from the University of Chicago with her MBA. We met her through ISF and it has been fun to get to know her, share our lives and share Jesus' love over the past 2.5 years. Fabio was at the graduation too.... too bad he wasnt in the pics. We seem to have a hard time getting pics taken *together*. Oh well, maybe when the kids get old enough to take pictures of us. :)







Dominique is not currently in a particularly photogenic stage. She is too active to sit still for longer than 2 seconds without a struggle, and she doesn't find it funny anymore to see me play peek-a-boo with the camera. But at least you can see her face, right?

And in the second one, she turned her head, but I posted it anyway, so you can see her cute little pigtails. :)

She's soon to be the big sister! ~even though she doesn't get the concept yet... But she's still my little baby. (She will be 18 months at the end of this month.) In this last picture, you can see what she does when she is sleepy or shy... lay her head on my leg. Only usually it is with her two middle fingers in her mouth too. It is really sweet.

More Glimpses of Our Life

These are my girls! The ladies who come on Thursday mornings to study the Bible with me. Only one was missing this morning. From left to right, they are Maria, Mirtha, Tatiana, Esperanza, (baby) Xaisa, and Edith. They are such a blessing to me! It just ignites something in me to see the fire in them for the Word of God. They are mostly all new believers and just hungry to know God more. It is a privilege to be able to be a part of what God is doing in their lives.


This is me, Dominique and Joshua going for a bike ride. I love going for bike rides with them, but I told Fabio this day that I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be able to keep this up! Dominique is getting downright heavy to carry this way. Last summer we went everywhere this way, and it was nice because we could get further and get there faster than walking, but oh well. I did always get funny looks when we were out and about to garage sales, the bank and the library this way! Some were just amused, others more disgusted. I guess it was more normal to me because it is SUCH a common-place sight in Japan. Actually, there, I have seen 3 kids on the bike. They have bike seats for babies that go on the front handlebars too!
Last year when I was going through the bank drive-thru this way, one amused lady asked me through her car window if it was because of gas prices! Well, kind of.......... :)

Last week we got to visit with our friend from Ecuador, Oscar. He has been a friend of the family for many years and it was really nice to get to catch up and hear about how much Pan De Vida (Bread of Life) has grown, the ministry in Quito, Ecuador that he started and directs. It is a ministry to feed and clothe the poor and the Lord has blessed it greatly!






And this last picture was last Saturday at Mitsuwa, the Japanese shopping center in Arlington Heights where we went with the family and our friend Anthony. We don't go very often, but it's great when we do to get a few Japanese groceries and eat in the food court.... REAL Japanese food!!! Just being there makes me want to cry sometimes... makes me miss Japan. It also motivated me to be more intentional about teaching Joshua and Dominique Japanese and so we have been doing that more this week. They catch on SO quick. I hope I can keep up teaching them while they are little and absorb it like little sponges! Coming soon.... a video of Joshua singing in Japanese. :)