End of Winter sum up!

This is mostly a quickie to bridge the gap between my last post and the bigger posts I have next :) :) :) The first part of this year has absolutely flown by! It's been a pretty busy one- keeping the kids going with all their stuff, church stuff, home stuff, work stuff (my January/February/March has been WAY busier than my fall season- which is usually the opposite!), traveling, and a biggie- I got eye correction surgery! It's been just over a month and man oh man- I'm SO GLAD i got it done! A friend of mine did it here last year and the optometrist on base goes to church with us so he was telling me that Spain was pretty top notch in doing it and it's WAY cheaper to do it here so I did it! The first week was a little rough but I had some good friends to help out with the kids and Mark of course was awesome. The second week was still a little fuzzy but I could tell it was going the right direction ;) Then week 3&4 were pretty great and now it's like ammmmaaazzzingg!!! They said it could take longer than a month to be perfect but it feels pretty perfect to me. It's so nice not to have to deal with contacts or any of that anymore! So yeah if anyone is ever in Spain and wants to get it done, do it here ;) ;) ;)

The kiddos are doing pretty good! They're all growing like crazy (I swear all three of them are doing a growth spurt at the same time- they are all eating SOO much! I'm screwed when they are all teenagers). Evelyn is still dancing and is doing super well. School is going good for them, they're all as active and crazy as ever. Mark is doing good too- he's busy studying for an engineering exam in April so that's been eating up a lot of his extra time. Me- like I said above- have been busy with the fam, church, work, and eyes :) I also took a pretty epic trip in February (as a 30th birthday present/celebration) to Romania- but that will be a FULL post of it's own. Main point of it though- if you ever have a chance to go there- do it! It was AMAZING!!!!!

A couple of little things that have gone on in the past couple months... We've been trying to enjoy the local area a little more instead of just bumming around at home. We took a walk around Chipiona one Saturday to get the kids out, it was a bit windy and cold but it was still nice.  I've gone out with friends a few times too- enjoying some time in Puerto and Sanlucar. I've gone Feria dress shopping with some friends a couple times too. One day I took my girls out for a little girls day and we went to Puerto for lunch and shopping and I got their Feria dresses for this year. They look so darn cute!!!! I finally found mine this week too so we are ready to go for Feria in May! Well I guess the boys but they're easy to find stuff for.

Mark and I went to the Seabee Ball last weekend, which was pretty fun! I loved my dress and we got to spend a great night with some amazing people!

That same weekend was the Carnaval parade in Chipiona- there have been things going on pretty much every weekend in February but I didn't go to any. The parade was fun though! The floats were all pretty awesome and the costumes were amazing!!! There's also drums in EVERY group and they all pretty much play the same main beat :) :) :) Parades here are a bit different than the states though- kinda funny actually. The parade would stop and go, as most do- factoring in performing and such. Most of the floats had some type of dance that they did. We didn't get to see all of them cuz they didn't all performa every time they stopped- most of the time they stopped and just hung out while they waited for their float to move on. It was interesting for sure- people would be walking in and around the performers talking...most of the performers had drinks or cigarettes and they'd all just be hanging out talking. So different than the states ;)

So I think that's a good enough bridge :) Now here's some pics from the past couple months and then onto some big posts!

he looks so excited doesn't he? 

enjoying some sun after some rainy days!

opening up their 3 Kings Day gifts ;)

Andrew had some dental work done

this boy is OBSESSED with puzzles right now! fine by me though :) 

off on a little walk in Chipiona!

they discovered that their sequin pillow throws reflections on the wall so that kept them entertained for an afternoon :)

We watched my friends baby overnight one weekend- the kids loved it! (no that doesn't mean we are ready for another baby)

learning some life skills ;) 

this girl is still obsessed with her baby dolls :)

girls day out!

OMG SO CUTE! I LOVE Feria dresses <3 nbsp="" td="">

my serious little girl 

helping the dentist at Evelyn's check up 

I lover her mischevious face :) 

Valentines Day

They made me a cake and cards for my birthday  

All day she sat on the toilet like this...no clue why

my kitchen helper!

Carnival dress up day

Andrew's class

Evelyn's class

On our way to the Seabee Ball!

Some of our good friends!

She fell asleep for a couple minutes at the Carnival parade 

this was a little kazoo group that started the parade

I thought these decked out girls were pretty funny- they are all just sitting there in this huge puffy sleeved gowns eating sandwiches ;) :) :) 

the costume in the parade were honestly amazing!!!! And I've heard pretty much all handmade too <3 nbsp="" td="">

I thought this lady was pretty funny with her cigarette, beer, cheetos, and bullwhip....? ;) 

baby Viking!!!!

Lizzie and Andrew were so good during the parade! They sat there and watched the whole thing!

such a happy little drummer!

This group was one of my favs- so much color and awesome costumes!!!

The guy with the leaf blower is our school principal ;) 

this whole part of the float was made of recycled bottles....

and cigarette boxes...SO MANY boxes it was crazy....

Little Mermaid float!

Love seeing her read to the younger kids!

Beach day!

we found some sea glass

found my Feria dress!

diva momma ;) 

Unknown Bucket List

As I was driving the other day I was thinking about how lucky we've been to experience living in Spain and especially lucky and blessed for all the amazing things we've been able to do here! I, of course, have had places that were on my dream list to go or things to do/see but honestly I didn't think I would get to do many of them in my life. But with living here I've gotten to do so much more and things I never knew I wanted to do or go! I want to remember this so I'm going to keep this post as my "Unknown Bucket List". Or a list of my favorite things as it'll probably turn out to be :) But it still fits so here goes!

So not all of my items are going to be things I've seen or places I've gone to. Some of it, like this one, are things I never thought I'd like! Like green olives....I have never liked green olives, give me black olives any day over green....but green Spanish olives?? OMG SO GOOD! I am seriously going to miss them when we leave. They are the most amazing olives I've ever eaten. Elizabeth is the only one in the fam that shares my love for them though....she's such a little Spanish baby! ;) Mark loathes them, and the other two kiddos don't care for them at all.

Another "food" thing I've found to be amazing is olive oil....once again, the olive oil here is SO much better! They have it at every restaurant and they like to use it with their bread instead of using butter. So when you get a bread basket with dinner you pour some oil on your plate, sprinkle some salt on it and then dip your bread right in. YUM! I don't know what I'm going to do when I go back to the states and all the restaurants don't have olive oil at the ready! They pretty much only use olive oil and vinegar for their salads too, which is super delicious as well. I've become a big fan of that too.

One of my favorite spots here in Spain, somewhat local- it's in a town nearby me, is Puerto Sherry! It's a beautiful little seaside street with homes and restaurants and a beautiful little beach at the bottom of some cliffs in a little cove. One of the places is a yummy breakfast spot with seating looking out at the beach. It's SO beautiful and so perfect! One of my favorite things to have there is a toasted croissant, YUM, and some Spanish hot chocolate! Which is soooo delicious if you haven't ever tried it...it's thicker than the hot chocolate we are used to but I love it!!! I go there with friends for breakfast any chance I can get.

Another one of my favorite things here are these super delicious donuts....they have a honey or chocolate glaze and a chocolate filling that just oozes out when you bite into it...they are super messy, super bad, and sooooo worth it.