Oh my, where to start... well, I guess I'll give a brief, if that's possible, update of all the happenings in our lives since Joanna turned 4, and yes, I know, that was over 7 months ago. So, I guess I'll just start from December.

12/09 - 01/10 - we had a wonderful Christmas at home in Bakersfield and spent it with all our family and friends there. Jerred, Tiff and the boys were also home for the holidays and the girls loved that! We ended up going back to AR with them for New Years on the train...we spent New Years Eve and Day on the train and made the 3 day trek back to there home. It was a blast...the kids had a great time. We had a wonderful visit with them, enjoying some snow and COLD weather.

02/10 - Joy turned 2!!! Her bday is Feb. 17th and she was very excited to have her Dinosaur party with her turtle pinata (pictures to come). It was a wonderful party day filled with family and great friends. We are so blessed to have such a close family and wonderful lifelong friends in our lives. The girls also went with Joel to our church's annual Daddy/Daughter Dance. They had a blast and, from what I heard, danced the night away, literally. Between our 2 girls and our neice, Jericho, I don't think Joel or Josh got to sit down all night. :) Also, my little brother, Coleman got engaged to his girlfriend Carolyn and they set a wedding date for September 4th, 2010. :)

03/10 - This month was the "wedding month". Joel's youngest brother Jonah and his fiance Lindsay got married on March 19th. It was a beautiful ceremony, with lots of friends and family (not to mention the bridesmaids and groomsmen!!) :) They did a beautiful job with their ceremony & you could really feel the love they share for each other and for the Lord. Our neice, Jericho, also had her 10th bday this month!! My mom came to Bakersfield for a visit for Easter and we had a wonderful time with her here...the girls always LOVE it when Purple Gma visits!! :)

04/10 - 05/10 - I will call this time the "whirlwind" in our lives. I will try to recap as quickly as possible to bring everyone up to speed. A little background to start, our friends Jason & Karyn Vorhees, live in OR now and have for about 2 years, so through that connection, Joel heard of a position opening and decided to apply and see where it would lead. I don't think we were expecting much to come of it in the beginning, but it was worth a shot and a good experience applying anyway. Well, a couple weeks later they wanted to fly, not only Joel, but all 4 of us up for Joel to interview and see more about the company, so we did. After the weekend spent in OR, the next couple of week just kind of FLEW by. In short, Joel was offered a position with Genentech, a pharmasuetical co. in Hillsboro, OR. He accepted and was to start on May 17th. So, we started preparing....packing, yardsales, goodbyes...it was all a little crazy, but we did it. We also squeezed in our annual Mothers Day weekend camping trip to Bass Lake in the midst of all the packing and moving. It was awesome to have a nice relaxing weekend, away from all the packing and preparing just to spend with family before our big move. Monday, the 10th, we rented the U-Haul and loaded everything up. On May 11th, we pulled out of Bakersfield to make the trek to OR and our new home. We prayed about this throughout the whole process and knew that if this wasn't to be for us, the Lord would close the door and we would be ok with that too. I feel confident that this was in HIS plans for us and we took a leap of faith and followed what we think the Lord was preparing us to do. So...

06/10-07/10 - Here was are. We are now living in Hillsboro, Or. We are renting a townhouse that our girls love! Their one request was stairs... :) Joel is enjoying his job and we are happily exploring our new home. It's amazing the peace that comes with something this huge when you know the Lord has brought you to it....as hard as it was, and sometimes still is, to have moved away from family and such wonderful friends, I still feel confident that, for whatever the reason, the Lord has brought our family here for this season of our lives. The girls are now both participating in gymnastics. Joanna continuing right where she left off in Bakersfield, actually "graduating" yesterday into a higher class. And Joy and I are doing a Mommy & Me class, which she really enjoys, as long as all the attention isn't on her and no one watches her....she is VERY shy around groups of people, especially if she is singled out (I think she gets that from me). We have been swimming A LOT and both girls are doing great in the pool, no fear (they must get that from Joel) :) We've been to the Zoo multiple times & are having fun exploring new things and a new environment. So far, it's been great!

So, there you are, up to date...I do want to catch everyone up on pictures as well, just don't have the time (or the drive) right now to begin uploading all of them. :) I promise, I will TRY to get some on here soon.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summers, families and friends. Look forward to hearing from everyone and to keeping in touch now that we're settled and getting back into a routine of daily life. Blessings to everyone!!!! (I will email and write with our new address, if you don't already have it)

Joanna is FOUR!!!

I cannot believe it - Joanna is FOUR now! WOW!! How the time flies by. She is such a beautiful, smart, loving little girl. I am so thankful for her in our lives.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANNA - WE LOVE YOU!! :)

This year we had a gymnastics party for JoJo and all her little friends. It was such a fun time. The kids had a blast and Joel and I didn't have to do anything....we just joined in and enjoyed the party like everyone else. Very nice! Thank you to all of Joanna's friends and family who came. She is so fortunate to have so many people in her life who love her so much!

Waiting to get into the Gym!!!

Joy climbing out of the blocks Our little gymnist!
Following in her sissy's footsteps!


The Birthday Girl!

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate with JoJo - we love you all and are so thankful for you all in our lives!

While Purple Gma was still here, we were able to also take Joanna to DisneyLand on her actual bday. It was so fun - We've wanted to take her for a long time and they were having a special to get in free on your birthday this year so we took advantage of it! JoJo got a special pin to wear that let everyone know it was her birthday and she was AMAZED that all the characters and princesses actually knew that it was her day! So special. We rode lots of rides, watched a couple shows and met LOTS of characters...most importantly, the new Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen and all the Disney Princesses. It was like heaven for Joanna. The best part was seeing her face whenever we would come up on another princess or character, the look of, "Oh my goodness, it's the REAL ....." Precious. We had a wonderful day, Joy and Joanna had so much fun - we walked, rode, ate and they got their faces painted in the princess area. I am so thankful we were able to go and am certain it's a birthday none of us will forget!! :)

The Happiest place on Earth!

Posing with Minnie Mouse

JoJo Cinderella!! (she looks SO big!)

The loves of my life...

Joy & Mommy on the Dumbo ride

JoJo & Purple Gma on Dumbo

Gma & her girls on the teacup :)

Joanna riding the carosel

And now Joy...

It's a small world afterall...

Patiently waiting to meet the Princesses

ARIEL!!!

JASMINE!!!

BELLE!!!

Pretty Butterfly...

Could she be any cuter??...

On Mickey's couch

MICKEY MOUSE!!

Back on Dumbo...our favorite ride!

Purple Gma & her girls...

We had such a wonderful time at Disneyland! The girls had such a fun time (us too!) I feel so blessed that we were able to go for the day. I know it was a memorable birthday for Joanna and one that she'll never forget! Happy Birthday JoJo!

Thanksgiving...

This year we had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Purple Grandma was able to be here with us, which the girls LOVED! We went to Grandma & Grandpa Long's house for great food, great company and even some karaoke provided by Joanna, Joy and Jillian. :) We have a lot to be thankful for this year - our family, our health, our home, the list goes on and on. We are very thankful for all the blessings in our lives.

Before Thanksgiving, but so sweet!!

Me & the girls on Thanksgiving

Purple Gma & the girls

Joanna singing some tunes

Joy trying her talent

New Adventure...

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to let you know about a new career I am starting. I am now a Gold Canyon Demonstrator! I am very excited about kicking off my new home based business! This will allow me to stay home with our girls, Joanna and Joy, while earning some extra income and selling a product I am in love with!

If any of you are not familiar with Gold Canyon , I encourage you to check out the website at www.goldcanyon.com. The candles I am selling are "The World's Finest" with a huge selection of scents and styles to choose from. Gold Canyon offers scented jar candles, pillars, tealights, votives and are well known as the most aromatic candles on the market today. In addition, they have a full line of home décor items, including a variety of candle holders, scented home products like room sprays, linen scents, sachets and auto fresheners, as well as natural scented home cleaning products. They've also recently started a body line called Emerge. Please, look at the site and products - I promise you, you won't be sorry. They are amazing! If you'd like a hard copy of the catalog, please let me know and I would be happy to get that to you.

If you are interested in trying our products or hosting a party, where you can earn FREE product, please contact me. I would love to kickstart my business by introducing new people to our wonderful candles and others products! You can email me at Stephanie.Long@goldcanyon.us. You could also call me at 661-428-5641. Besides your contact, the best compliment to me would be simply passing along my contact information to your friends who also love scented products as much as you do. I'd love to help you make yours or someone else's Christmas season more special with these fabulous products!

Thank you for taking time to read this email and for looking at our wonderful products! I hope you'll try some out and smell for yourself the untouchable quality of our candles!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season!

Blessings,

Stephanie Long
661-428-5641
Stephanie.Long@goldcanyon.us

Trick or Treat!

This Halloween was especially fun - I knew that Joy would understand the concept as soon as we started going house to house and Joanna remembered from last year and was VERY excited to go Trick or Treating again! They both dressed up like princesses - JoJo's was a little bit more midevil-ish and Joy's was more of a Repunzel dress - both VERY pretty!

Of course, JoJo wanted her hair curled...here's a picture, after hair, and finally, with her dress on.

So happy to have her hair done

Pretty as a Princess

Then we got Joy's dress on, took pictures at home, and off we went.

The beautiful Princesses

The girls had a GREAT time - after the first house Joy was all about it. She would walk to the house saying "Naw Nawk" and then when they'd answer she'd say, "More Treat!" Too cute! Joanna had a great time running between houses and showing us her growing stash of candy.

Trick or Treating at Debbies house

Joy in her pretty princess dress (it even had a long braid off the hat!)

Once we got home, they dumped all their candy on the floor and enjoyed the "candy" of their labor! :)

Yummy Candy!!

It was a very fun night & the girls are still enjoying their dresses for dress-up everyday!

Painting Pumpkins!

When we went to get pumpkins with Grandma Jerri, the girls got some bigger pumpkins for carving and some little ones to paint...they LOVED painting! It's always fun to have some new painting projects for the girls to do at home...and they turned out beautiful!

Joy intently painting her pumpkin

Joy's finished project

JoJo paintingJoJo's finished project

Picnic Table Project

Joel found a great deal on an older picnic table and decided to let the girls re-paint the boards in the colors they picked. We ended up with a VERY colorful new picnic table in our yard! :)

Joy painting

JoJo happily painting her purple board!

Now for some Pink...

The finished product!