The Girls"BIG" Birthday Party

hey all ! The girls had a blast at their birthday party!! Thanks to everyone who came, we all loved having you there! and for those that couldn't we missed you! The girls especially missed having their cousins Eva, Alastor, and Owen there (miss you soo much) Gonna have a bunch of photo's and explain if needed. It was held at The Little Gym. Enjoy!!

Gage got started right away!
These 4 are trouble!! JK, those were my regular boys that I watched but now Josh (beside Bella) is in school and Kingston (beside Nadya) just had a baby sister (Hayden) so he's staying home with Mommy. Miss those boys.
going around saying their names and ages
walking around in a circle to some song, as you can see it turned into running around pretty quickly!
rolling around

Camden even got into it! Ata boy Cam! way to follow directions!
pause for a photo with papa
ball time!!!
look Gage even got a ball among all the "big kids"
this is where they were knocking down the "big cheese wedge". The kids would (one at a time) stand on the green dot then run and knock over this huge foam wedge over. The kids really liked that!

Cam's turn! Go get it!
Birthday cake
waiting for some cake
Papa and his big Girls
Family shot.


getting ready to open gifts.
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL THE GIFTS! THEY LOVED ALL OF THEM!!
when we got home of course all the kids got all the new toys out.
the girls IMMEDIATELY got into their princess outfits, they looked so cute and beautiful, they wear them everyday, all day.
after being princesses the wanted to put on some of their new African outfits that Koko Mwasi (Si's mom) brought back from Africa

we got some African dresses to!! that Gilda, my sis-in-law, Bo's wife.
us in our African outfits.

It was an awesome day!@ people stayed over and more came to house had some snacks and just hung out and celebrated our girls, the whole weekend was fun (I'm still trying to recover! haha) Thank you all again for everything! have a great Easter!!

My new 3yr old!

Nadya turned 3!! March 12th was her third birthday and she's been asking about her birthday since Bella had hers, and to my dismay it came sooner than later! She is sooo precious! I love my baby girl! she is sooo funny, sweet, loving, and entertaining.. It's soo funny cause we had her all wrong! You see when she was younger she was VERY aggressive, so we just knew that she was going to be our tom boy... NOT!! (hahaha! yes i just said not! , and yes i crack myself up!) She is the girliest girl ever! She loves pink, and sparkles and all that girlie stuff! When we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday she would say " umm.... a sparkly,shirt, sparkly dress, sparkly pants, and a sparkly hat , I already have sparkly shoes so I don't need sparkly shoes!!" hahahha! She still likes to play rough,pick her nose (and crack up cause she knows its supposed to be yucky), antagonize her sister,and best of all her cackle of a laugh when she thinks she is soo funny ( she usually is), but through all that she just wants pink sparkly "stuff". so here she is our beautiful 3 year old! Love you Nadi!

We woke her up super early (ok , it was 7, but si had to get to work!!) and gave her her Barbie Mariposa out fit. for those of you not fluent in spanish mariposa means butterfly, i learned that from Dora the Explorer.

still has no idea whats going on, although when we asked her if she knew how old she was she did hold up 3 fingers!

Ahhh! she's more awake and just blew out her candle.

she doesn't lie about her age.

Happy birthday sis!

P.s I cut my hair, here is the jist of it not that it looks much different when it's "done" . Have a great week can't wait to see alot of you this weekend!

My Most Favoritest Man.

I just want to say I have the most amazing husband in the world! He has been a strong force in our family.. Not only is he working a very stressful job (not to mention taking on 3 different jobs), He's in school getting his MBA, he's getting awesome grades, and even searching for other jobs so he can grow even more and dealing well with the stress that comes with that. On top of all that He still finds time to send me e-mails everyday with words of encouragement (or whatever he feels like), he helps around the house, make me laugh, makes sure we stay on top of things spiritually, and loves me in the most perfect way. He's the most fantastic father, and even more comes home to other kids I'm watching and has fun with them to! He's is such a wonderful man! God really showed me favor when he blessed me with this man! THANK YOU LORD!!!!

I'm the luckiest girl in the world, isn't he soooo dreamy! hahahaha!

He is handsome even with a "dirty 'stache" !

My man is a model! Nice hat!

I love you "more than I can promise" Simon! Thank you for all you are and all you do!

Izabella is 4 today!!

Wow, I'm not really sure how to start this blog or what to say. My first born is no longer a toddler! She's a preschooler!! She's like a real kid!! It seems like yesterday I held her in my arms for the first time, nursed her for the first time, cried cause i couldn't get her to stop crying for the first time, became overly protective for the first time, loved like I'd never loved for the first time....saw her reach, sit, crawl, stand, cruise, walk, fall, first time she bled and how instead of being panicked I was calm, first tooth, word, and the most blessed thing , the first time she said "I love you." I know all of you who have children remember all those "first times", how could you ever forget them, they are the most beautiful, prescious, magical moments you have "for the first time" with your first child! It is so emotional for me to know that she is no longer a toddler but is a preschooler, a real kid!! Don't get me wrong it is sad but it is also amazing to see her growing up into the little girl (not young lady yet, that comes ALOT later, baby steps you guys c'mon!)that God wants and has created her to be. My prayer is that I can be the mother that she needs me to be to prepare her for this world, to have self confidence, and most of all to continue in the path that God has started her on. I'm aware later on in life she may get off the path a wee bit, but I hope that God can and will use me during those times to get her back on the path and right back to where God wants her. I love her soo much and the person she is becoming, and even admire some traits she has that let me know she'll get by and survive this crazy life just fine. So I guess all in all I am soooo grateful for the incredible gift God has given me with my first born, and am soooo humbled that God would grant me this honor not only once but twice and hopefully more to come... I love you Izabella Lobunza Kratzat! My Bellarina princess.
Bella's "little birthday" as she calls it, her "Big Birthday" is coming later,



She got her first real digital camera..Our way of getting her to stop using ours before she breaks it!

She was sooo excited and has been taking pictures non stop, and uploading them onto the computer. She's actually had some really good photos!! (Watch out Jeanne! Actually you can be her mentor..)

She got an Angelina Ballerina movie from Gramma Nili and Babu, for my little Bellarina...


There she is, my gorgeous 4 year old first born daughter.

My girls crack me up!!

OK, not much to say but that the girls looove to dress themselves , more like insist on it so here are a few photo's of their out fits! enjoy!!

Nadya(Cinderella) and friend Samara(Belle?)
Bella as Snow white
Love this outfit yellow shirt, white frilly dress that is way tooo small, it wouldn't even zip up in the back, pink shorts, green tights with navy deer on them and multi colored crocs to tie it all together.!!! hahahah! love it my little fasioneesta
midnight service they were only going to wear their p.j's but insisted on wearing dresses over them, you gotta let them express themselves right??
these boots were made for walking and they look sooo much better on her than they do on me!

the girls looove putting on Uncle BoBo's clothes on when we go visit them, it's sort of become tradition! every time we go there the first thing they want to do is put his


this is a funky scarf that I have, they loooove wearing it! this time they decided to attach themselves by the head.
You remember this one, undies,headband, necklaces, yeah, I think she's all about the accessories not so much the outfit!! hahhaa

Feeling the Love

I just had the best weekend!! Simon was gone all week on a spiritual retreat, so I got to have even more one on one time with my girls.. So the nights he was gone, the girls and I would do a "special thing since papa is gone ". They got to fall asleep with me on the couch, and then I would take them to bed. So on Thursday night Simon calls and is just telling me about how much he misses me and doesn't think he's gonna be able to make it the rest of the weekend, I thought "Awww! he misses me! " (He's gone on several business trips but has always been so busy that he didn't get the chance to REALLY miss me, or atleast mean it when he told me, hahaha!). So i thought that was just awesome that he was miserable because he missed me soo much. ;-). That night the girls were falling asleep on the couch while I held them and they tell each other they "I love you", grab hold of each others hands and fall asleep! (awww) and then simultaneously in their sleep they let go of each others hands and each of them grab my hand!! (tear, tear!! sooo beautiful!!) so I waited a little longer before I took them to bed that night! So Friday comes along and Simon calls and says "I'm on my way home, pack you and the girls up we're gonna go somewhere!!!" WHAT!!! AWESOME!! So he takes us to Cincinnati, we drop the girls off at my brother-in-law's(and his wife) place and we go and stay at the HILTON!!! It was amazing! and then on Saturday night we decided to have the girls with us and that to was just incredible! just the boost I needed!! I can't thank God enough for having such an amazing family!! Simon didn't have to take me on a weekend get away, I was happy enough with him going crazy cause he missed me so much! hahah! I love you Simon! I love you Izabella and Nadya!! Thanks you Lord, from the bottom of my heart I am eternally grateful, and owe you BIG time for this awesome family and life you have given me!
The Family enjoying our stay in the hotel! It was soo much fun, relaxing and just getting out of the house was a bonus! hahaha!

Please pray for Kenya

My parents have been up here in Indiana for about a month and a half, and we have the pleasure of having them stay with us for 3 weeks... They were supposed to leave to go back to Kenya on the 7th of Jan. However that has had to be postponed because things are REALLY horrible in Kenya right now. They just had elections and it was apparently a really shady election so there is a lot of fighting, looting, killings the death count as of now is almost 300, this has just happened in the last week.Roads are closed, airports have cancelled flights and people can't even go to the grocery store safely.. It's really sad because Kenya is normally a very peaceful country and has just progressed wonderfully, and this is going to set them back like 20 years. I have my whole dads side of the family there, friends , many loved ones. Please pray for the safety of all the innocent, the children,our families and just the country as a whole. I'm so glad that mom and dad aren't there right now in the midst of this and that they are safely here with us. They have been a tremendous help for us with watching the kids, financially,doing dishes, and Simon and I have had more time to spend together to ! That's always great! Thanks mom and dad for all your help! We love you and are enjoying our time with you.