Philip at work

I wanted to take some pictures of Philip at work. However the thing is they don't let you going around taking pictures at the Embassy...makes sense. So for safety reasons I only got this picture of him hard at work behind his desk. We are very proud of him and love that he is literally one of the few and the proud. I think there are only like 5 or 6 Marines running the show at this embassy. We are going to a party at the Marine house this weekend and I will snap some more pictures if it is allowed. The house is on compound so I will see.

Miss Eliana

I was editing my pictures on my camera and realized I had forgot to post the pictures of Eliana in her going back to school outfits. She is getting so very big now!! Luckily she still loves to play and act like a little girl. It would be nice if she would like to start taking more steps to taking care of her hair and such. However my sister reminded me the other day about how bad I was with taking care of myself or how I never wanted to really dress up. I was a big time Tom boy!! Then one day I started going the other direction. I have then stopped stressing about Eliana being a Tom Boy. She has way more style and girly grace than I ever had at her age...lol.

12 Year Anniversary

Today is our 12th anniversary!!! I woke up to a lovely breakfast and flowers. The kids made me some cards and Philip showered me with affection. We were going to go spend the day at a nice resort at the beach however it rained...so we are taking a rain check. I think we will try for next weekend. We are so limited without having our own car. We really are dying to go on some mini trips around the area. I can't decide if we should head to Italy before the baby or after. I think we will most likely go prior. For today ...will we will just celebrate in the fact that we have made it through 12 years of marriage and have 2 wonderful kids to show for as well as a baby boy on the way!

18 weeks Prego Belly

I had a few request for belly pictures so here you go. We were heading off to the ambassadors house for a kid free dinner. It was a really interesting evening...I got to sit right next to the ambassador for dinner. I will try to post belly pictures more often to show everyone how big I get. I really don't think I will be getting very big. It is easy not to put on extra weight when you move to another country and food is scarce...lol

My First Trip around Tunis

KinderEgg

When Philip was a young boy and lived in Germany he would love to eat kindereggs. So he was very thrilled to be able to purchase the same candy today at the store for the kids. Around 20 years ago the little toy was just baked in the chocolate egg...how dangerous!! So being the great parents we are we bought them some..lol. Good news is they are placed inside a plastic egg now. The kids were very excited as you can see.

Family Walk

Well we decided last weekend we were sick of sitting in the house bored...so we took a family walk. The walk seem to turn into a dangerous little hike...lol. As we were walking up and down the hills,cars would zip by at great speeds. There was no safe sidewalk and there were tons of the scary thorn bushes on our sides. So on one side were the thorns and to the other the cars. The plan when we left was to find lunch at a little market area...which are very common for this area. However we walked for some time and found nothing. So in a heated and hungry state we found a lovely upscale hotel. The kids enjoyed there fancy water and french sandwiches. As we were leaving Elias was being a boy goofing off and fell flat on his face. There was the loudest smack...and then blood and screaming!! Wow did we feel out of place and odd as everyone stared at us. The good news is Elias was fine very soon after we left the hotel. Then we took a ride from the hotel shuttle..the man was very nice and wanted to take us. The funny thing was he took us the complete opposite direction from our house. He had thought we asked to go the the Residence Hotel...we were saying home. After a confusing shuttle ride we made it home. I put some pics of some of the things we saw on our walk.

Kids New School

The kids seem to love there new school. I think it is because they do such a variety of things with the children. In the states most kids seem to spend a lot of time in their main classrooms. From what Eliana tells me the kids are on the go from the class quite a bit. I think they both like that more then staying put all day.We are trying to decide which after school activities to sign up for. They offer some really neat classes..most of which a included with the tuition. They give the kids swim lessons during school hrs as well as French. Some of the other things are cooking,sewing,all kinds of sports,Irish dance,classic dance, karate,art,student council..just to name a few. I think that it will be hard to decide. I think the school is going to be a great experience for them.

Pictures Of Our New House

Thought I would post some pictures of our new home away from home. It is a very beautiful house. I really like the style of the homes around here. We live in a newer construction area. They are still building on some lots. I think the house was built in 2000. I love seeing the different plants and trees. After being in the desert you can really learn to appreciate the beauty of nature. Some of the pictures I took on the ground but the ones that seem higher up are from our cute little bedroom balcony. I think we will enjoy this home very much and there is always room for guest of anyone wants to come visit. I will get pictures of the inside once we get it a little organized and decorated...so that should be in about a month or two.

First Day of School and Work

Well here are some pictures of Eliana and Elias going off to school. They seem to have really enjoyed there first day of school. I also snapped a few pictures of the inside grounds of the school. The school is gated and they have security at all times. However it was still hard to send them off. Tomorrow they start riding the bus to school. Which is a huge charter like bus...it is super nice. I know they will enjoy riding it. The school is made up of 20% American children and the rest of the kids are from all over the world. Eliana already has a crush on a boy from England...lol. Elias seem to hit it off with another American boy who shares his love for star wars. It seems the kids will have lots of new friends here in Tunis.

It's A Boy

All Packed Up!

We are all packed up and will be leaving for San Diego to catch our flight and drop off the carto be shipped over. We will head out on Wed. afternoon because we still need to clean the house and get an inspection completed on the house.I will not miss Yuma for even a second, but will dearly miss the sweet and wonderful friends God blessed us with while we where stuck out in the desert. I hope and pray we get stationed together again..just somewhere a little nicer...lol. This week we made one of the hardest choices I have had to make in a very long time. We found our wonderful wiener dog Buster a new home. I was so sad and upset,we had him for 7years.I loved that dog far more than any other dog I have ever had. He was the best family dog you could ever hope for. However he was getting a little older and had major separation issues.I really worried he would not make such a long hard move to Africa. So we all prayed as a family to bring a family for pur sweet Mr. Buster. Against my will I posted a ad on craigslist and the same night we got a call from a very sweet family with 3 little girls. We meet them the next day and long story short Buster has a new home.God brought complete peace about this being the family,however it still hurts and I miss him dearly. I think I miss him even more than the kids. They seem to be doing really well about it.So now we just have Jewels the little wiener dog. We plan to take her with us on the plane however we are asking for big time prayer...the airlines is not going to put her on the plane if the weather is not cool enough. So we will be stuck and in a complete panic !!! Please pray for cool weather in San Diego Ca, and Dallas TX for Friday the 4th. I believe in the power of prayer and know God can make it snow if he wants. We will just settle for 85 degrees..lol. So please remember to prayer for the weather and for the trip in general. We are very excited just worried about some of the many task at hand. Well I guess I better get back to work. I will give a update if I get Internet access. God Bless :)P.S. Michelle I listened to your play list the entire time I blogged this post...thanks for the blessing. Really needed to hear it...brought such peace. :)