15 Years Ago...

Fifteen years ago today, April 22, 1998, Dan and I officially began dating! The "Big 22" as we like to call it!  It set a precedent for us getting engaged 6 months later on October 22nd, then married 15 months after that on January 22nd! :) Happy Big 22 Tweeter! I can't believe we've been together 15years!!! I love you!!!

A picture of us at a Mongolian Barbecue in Roanoke for a Young Life Leadership weekend the previous February. We barely knew each other, but happened to sit next to each other - I was getting up to go get more food or something and A (I think) asked us to pose for the picture. Check out my signature college wear: half-up pigtails, windbreaker and i'm pretty sure I have on overalls on under the windbreaker. So classic.

Us on spring break in St. John, USVI. Again, still not dating (it was the middle of March). Just a good time of getting to know each other. Happened to be sitting on the same side of the taxi :)

Officially dating here - at my neice Hannah's 2nd Birthday (the Ladybug Party). She was smitten by him and made him sit by her while she ate cake. Good thing he became a part of our family :)

And I know this picture was in the last post - but just so you can see how we've changed in 15 years :)  Happy 15th 2-2 my Tweeter!  I love you!!!

Spring Break

 Last week was Spring Break for us!  Dan took off 2 days from work and we had a great week of just hanging out!  We played outside quite a bit, rode bikes, played board games, Jack went to a birthday party for his buddy and a playdate with another friend, the girls and I spent 4 1/2 hours at the Avenues shopping (and eating lunch, me getting a pedicure, getting them Oreo gelato and 6 Sprinkles cupcakes), doing a spontaneous lunch with friends and enjoying not having school!  

 Our friends went on a trip for the week and said we could use their trampoline!

 We had to get new passports for the kids because our current ones were about to expire.  Dan had really good pics of the kids from Easter church, but we forgot them, so we had to take new ones quickly :)  Thankfully they all look cute!

 Jack

 Kylie

 Dan and I went on a date!  The Outlaw (our nickname for our high school babysitter) came to watch the kids for us!  They got pizza and watched Sofia the First Princess and Meet me in St. Louis.  Dan and I went to Stonegrill for dinner, then went to the beach for him to have a cigar and chat :)  It was great!

And this one finally lost her 2 front teeth!  They've needed to come out, but she doesn't like to lose teeth...so Dan popped the first one out and she started yelling (YELLING) at us and crying "What did you do???"  After a few minutes we finally calmed her down enough and figured out that she didn't realize he had already pulled it out - she thought Dan had turned it sideways and that she was going to look weird now.  Then she burst into another set of tears when we showed her that the tooth was already out!  

After that, we just said we needed to see if the other one would come out.  It wasn't quite as ready, but he yanked it anyway in a second and we were done!  Her other 2 teeth were already through the gums because they were pushing her baby teeth out!  They needed to come out!  And now we have a toothless wonder!

Easter Sunday

 Easter Sunday for us was Spring Break for the kids, but Dan was supposed to work.  He took off Sunday and Monday, which was great!  The night before Easter we finished going through our Resurrection Eggs and decided to make Resurrection Cookies!  It was great to work through with the kids and so neat to put them in the oven that night to see what happened to them in the morning!  

Something didn't actually work with them, because they weren't cooked fully the next morning, but it was a great lesson to reinforce Easter nonetheless!  

 Kiddos with their finished Resurrection Cookies before putting them in oven and sealing it up!

 We didn't do Easter Baskets, but they each had a webkinz stuffed animal and a Cadbury Egg waiting for them with a note in the morning! 

 Then we got to finished the rest of the story for our Resurrection Cookies!  The sealed oven...

 And opening to see the cookies that were supposed to be airy and empty inside!  (instead they were mushy, so we didn't eat them, but that's okay). 

 It was a gorgeous day outside - high 70's and clear sky.  We spent a couple of hours riding bikes and playing ball outside :)

 Dan enjoyed a cigar to keep the flies away :)

 Jack

 Megan

 Me

 Jack threw the ball up on a balcony outside one of our windows...so they he, of course, had to go and fetch it!  

 Lots of boats were zooming by on the water!  We even saw a few teams of crew-ers out there rowing!

 Me and my Tweeter

 Kiddos

 Playing catch

 Then Dan taught Jack how to play a basic drum beat and joined him on guitar!

 They sounded awesome!

The girls wrote a song to go with their music - Kylie wrote the chorus and Megan wrote the lyrics!  It's sounds awesome and has been fun to hear them all together!

Easter Friday

 We had a fun Easter here!  Since church is on Friday in Kuwait, we celebrated both Good Friday and Easter Sunday all in one service on Friday morning!  It was a good time that was followed with a buffet lunch with friends!  

That night we hosted a dinner for 40 friends at our house to welcome a new little baby boy to Kuwait!  Our friends went back to the States to deliver him and just came back, so we all got a chance to meet him, as well as celebrate Easter!  Karen and I were craving a Soup Night, so that's what we did!  I made Cheddar Chowder, Sweet Potato Soup and Beef Stew.  Karen made Chicken Tortilla Soup and Susan made Tom Yum Goong!  We had 2 hams there that were delicious and more sides, breads and cupcakes than were humanly possible to eat (104, actually)!  

 Me and my Tweeter

 Some of the kiddos

 The littler girls

 A kitchen full of friends!

 

Discussions of mustaches

 Holding this sweet new boy!

 So so cute and smiley and coo-ing!

 Kylie wanted to hold him and did a great job with him!

 Then Jack wanted a turn, too!  Go boys!  They are definitely outnumbered in this group!

 Just Dance 4

 Cigars on our roof overlooking the Persian/Arabian Gulf

 Trying to get the little ones to pose for a picture!

 The guys doing Just Dance 4 - Flo Rida style :) 

Delicious, beautiful handmade chocolate pops!  Sarah made them and they were so gorgeous and yummy!

And some of the amazing 104 cupcakes to arrive at our house!  Cadbury mini egg ones with Reece's peanut butter cups in the cake!  So cute and yummy!

So Long, Farewell

They started practicing this for a talent show here - but the talent show got cancelled.  So they performed it for a few people here and then for me!  We will miss these girls for sure!

Saying Goodbye to Friends

 These sweet girls moved the other weekend :(  To say that we will miss them is an understatement!  

Every Thursday, we go to Happy Hour at work.  Happy Hour is a family-oriented time after work outside on the patio that offers dinner and drinks for purchase - as it's one of the only legal places to purchase "tea" in Kuwait.  We go, buy the kids dinner, I drink cokes, they play on the field, at the playground or in the playroom and we sit and chat with friends.  Sometimes they have live music, sometimes they have a kids night with a bouncy house, slide and magicians.  Our sweet friends lived there around the field, so every Thursday night since September, as soon as I order dinner for the kids, they run as fast as they can to their house and see if they can come outside and play!  Sometimes they played inside their house with toys or watched a movie...most of the time outside.  Sometimes they would all take a walk around the field - all 7 kids, pushing the littlest in the stroller.  They LOVED getting to see them every week! 

They moved and are headed to a new location.  We are hopeful that we will see them again when they swing through Northern Virginia for training or are someday relocated there again!  We all miss them - they were great friends for our kids and a great family!  

Kylie and Isabel have agreed to be penpals.  We'll see how it goes :)

 Their littlest

 Gabriella, Kylie, Isabel, Lydia and Megan watching Barbie The Princess and the Pauper

 Playing Just Dance

Margaret and Seth did it with Dan and I, too!

 The girls got to finally spend the night at their house a couple of days before they moved!  Margaret took them swimming the following morning and Jack and I picked them up!

 Jael, Megan, Kylie, Gabriella, Anna and Isabel at church

 Me and Margaret

 BFFFF's!!!  Best Friends Forever Forever FOREVER!!!

Beautiful Girls!!!