Family Update

Wow, where has the fall gone?! It's starting to get cold and all the leaves are off the trees. I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that this week is Thanksgiving! That means only a month and a half until we move. Yikes!

Life at our house has been crazy as usual. The boys continue to grow and it's getting hard to remember what it was like when they were little babies. Sam is soaking up preschool and learning so much! He loves to learn new Bible verses with papa and loves to bake with mama. Ben is a little fireball :) He has so much energy and now that he's started walking, nothing stops him! He's mimicking our words and loves to be right next to his big brother. Yesterday I came into their bedroom in the morning to find Sam sitting next to Ben's crib singing "Bob the builder. Can we fix it? Yes we can." Ben was jumping up and down squealing in delight. They are so funny and yet everyday we realize how much patience we need.

Here are some recent pics of our family!

Julio and I had the rare opportunity to get away together without the kids. It was a much needed retreat!

Enjoying some quality time with the boys!

The Man with the Yellow Hat and Curious George

The Man with the Yellow Hat

Ben has gone straight from walking to salsa dancing :)

The next great recording artist

Sam continues to relish in his love of music. Here he is singing a favorite song.

West Coast Adventure

August was a crazy month! Especially because we spent so much of it on the road. We had the opportunity to travel to the west coast and visit the Seattle area for the first time. We stayed with our friends, the Mohns, and were able to visit other friends in the area and enjoy some of the sights, despite the busy schedule of visiting churches and speaking. There is so much more to read about here!

Brothers

The past few days in Chicago we have had PERFECT weather! We took advantage of the great weather and headed downtown, by the lake to take some family pictures. We are so excited with how they turned out. Here's one of our favorites! Many thanks to Erica Rose for her time and talent!

1st birthday!

We don't know how it's possible, but Benjamin is a year old! He has changed so much and it's such a joy to watch him discover the world. We had a little celebration with friends and family and enjoyed watching him open his gifts and try cupcakes for the first time. He wasn't too happy about the birthday hat and ended up getting more cupcake in his ear than his mouth.

He's got rhythm

We've have had so much fun watching Ben discover music and movement. You can tell he's got the latino blood in him!! He loves to "dance"!! Here's a little clip of him jamming out to Juan Luis Guerra's "Ojala que llueve cafe"

Soccer boy!

Ben is obsessed with Julio's soccer ball. He's like a puppy! He loves to play with it; He bats it around and chases after it! Looks like we might have another soccer player on our hands!

The Graduate

Julio graduated!!! It still feels unreal that after a long 3 years, Julio has completed his seminary degree. He graduated on May 14th with a Masters of Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary. To read more about it and see lots of pics, visit our other blog!

April highlights

This has been a great month...despite the terrible weather :)

Here are some pictures of the highlights.

California

This past month has been full of travel and visiting churches. Sometimes it feels like we're in constant motion. Traveling with two kids is definitely more challenging than traveling with one! Still the boys do remarkably well and go along with the flow. Just recently we were in California as I was doing some teaching for work, and Julio connected with supporters and potential supporters. We were in Long Beach, San Diego, L.A., and Simi Valley, all in 4 days!! We had a great time visiting friends and making new ones at a retirement community, where we were invited to share about our upcoming ministry in Colombia. We spoke at 2 Hispanic churches about Colombia, and I taught a workshop on children's ministry to over 50 people, and another workshop on how to use a new material for membership classes for a group of about 20 people (both in Spanish). It was an awesome week and we loved meeting new people and getting to interact with the Hispanic community.

Here are some highlights:

Visiting Long Beach with the boys

Enjoying some sunshine and the water!

Spending time with Dean and Donna Erickson, part of the first team of missionaries to serve with the Covenant Church in Colombia!

Speaking at Mt. Miguel Retirement Village

Sharing at an evening service with a Hispanic congregation

Teaching a workshop at our Hispanic Center for Theological Studies in L.A.

Enjoying some family time!

To read more about our trip to CA and a previous trip to CA, visit our other blog: http://blogs.covchurch.org/isaza

The boys

Let's be honest, as adults, there's not a lot of change that happens in a short amount of time. But, with kids on the other hand, change happens so fast. When did Sam get to be a big boy? And what happened to Ben being a baby? Sam is such a happy boy and just loves to talk and explore. Lately he's been talking more about God and even learning some Bible verses. We'll be in the car and he'll say, "Hey mom, you remember? You remember the Bible verse? Love God..." So, here's a little clip of Sam and his Bible verse.

Ben continues to grow and change daily. He's started crawling backwards and can get basically anyway by rolling from front to back, swiveling on his stomach and then crawling backwards. Nothing is off limits...our jobs just got a lot harder! He's discovered clapping and it makes him laugh. So, here's a little bit of Ben!

Being a parent is such a humbling and awe-inspiring role. We're so thankful for these boys and the joy they bring.

2011 so far!

Oh my goodness! I can't believe how much time I've let lapse between blog postings!! Let's just say the past month and a half have been extremely busy!!! And I've been dedicating more time to our other blog: http://blogs.covchurch.org/isaza

But, let me catch you up on some of the happenings in the Isaza family!

January passed by in a blur!! The highlight was that Julio spent two weeks in Thailand!! He went as a part of his J-term class at the seminary, "Missions and Money." It was an awesome experience and he came back with so many stories and big things to think about as we prepare to return to Colombia in the fall. While Julio was in Thailand, my mom was with us for a week, helping me take care of the boys, while I worked, then i took a week long j-term class. Craziness!! We all survived, but it was so great to have Julio home.





January ended with a weekend trip to Western Illinois, as we were guest speakers at a missions conference in Moline and shared during a youth event, children's sunday school, and worship service in Princeton. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was so worth it! The boys did great and we had so much fun meeting some really special people and sharing about our upcoming ministry in Colombia!! To read more about our trip, click here!

The day after we came back from Princeton, we were off to the Hyatt for a week, as we worked during the Covenant Church's Midwinter conference for pastors. Julio translated all the morning and evening worship services and Katie helped to coordinate different events each day for the Department of Christian Formation. Again, a whirlwind week, but the boys did great and somehow we managed to do a great job of tag-teaming it!.

Just this past weekend I, Katie, traveled with Ben to Salina, KS, to teach a workshop for Sunday School teachers at a Hispanic church. It was such a great experience and I loved interacting with the teachers and children.

Sam continues to turn into a big boy...surprising us everyday with different things he says and does. His new favorite question is, "Does that sound like a good plan?" I think he picked that up from me :) Ben is so close to getting ready to crawl. He gets so frustrated as he wants to be on the move. He smiles anytime Sam is around and loves to be held!




So...as you can see, life has been anything but boring! Luckily we have no travel planned until mid-March, so we'll see if we can catch up on some rest :)