We are in the Philippines!

We have arrived. We landed in the Philippines on May 1st! I think it took 27 hours of travel to get here. We had 10 bags ( 5 of those were huge chests), and 5 carry on bags, plus all of our personal items. Oh, and the Dog!! When we got to the airport we realized we had not planned on how do we carry all this stuff! Emelyn was in her stroller too. So, someone had to push her. I don't know how we did it, but we did! Next time we travel with that many bags, our kids will probably be much older and can help a lot more!!
We have found a home to live in while we study the language here. It is a nice home and we are thankful to be here. The first thing we did was install our air conditioners in the bed rooms. We are sooo glad we did. We only turn them on when we are sleeping. We would not get a good night of sleep if we did not have these. Very thankful for these. We recently got a lot of our furniture and water heater for the shower. It feels good to have some furniture in our home. There is still a long way to go, to get our home completely set up, but I can see progress. The girls have made a new friend who lives just a few houses up the street. She comes over every day to play. The first day we met her, when it was time for us to eat dinner, it was hard to tell her she had to come back tomorrow. After she finally left, she came over about 4 times that evening. Even once the girls were in bed. LOL. She is very extroverted. Kaylie and Abigael love playing with. We are happy that they have found a friend.
Kris and I started language school this week. It has been fine, but it will be very difficult to learn a language. I feel very lost sometimes, and even when I am following, I forget it all as soon as we go home. We need to get in a good routine for studying once we are home.
I want to be more active in my blogging now that I am here and far from many people that I love so very much. I'm hoping this will help you get a little piece of what our new home is like. Maybe even making you all want to visit!! More post to come....and more pictures!

 "Home is where the Lord sends you"

2012

Wow...my blog! I have not blogged or even looked at this in a couple of years. Life got very busy and  blogging just did not fit in, nor did I really feel very interested in it. My life has changed so much since the last blog. All in a good way. :) One of the greatest news, is we have a new baby girl! She was born on April 24th, 2012. (same day as many of my family members) A day that someone has a baby on, every 7 plus years or so. I wonder who will be next?? Not me, I did my turn. :)

My family in Hawaii

She is a wonderful, cuddling, precious baby. I had many complications giving birth to her. First I got HELLP Syndrome. (very, very bad! You can google it) Then my uterus ruptured. So, she was an emergency c-section, I had to go under general, got a platelet transfusion, and thanked The Lord for saving my life and my sweet Emelyn's. I am so grateful and blessed to be the mother to 3 beautiful girls, and the wife to a Husband who amazes me everyday! I fall in love with him every single morning! :) We are still moving to the Philippines. Yay! We are hoping to leave in a couple of months, and follow what The Lord has placed on our hearts. We are normal people, who love The Lord, want to serve The Lord, and want to share His love to the Lost. I'm terrified to leave everything I have ever known. I trust Christ to give me the strength and peace to find Him wherever I am. He has brought us so far in our journey to get to the Philippines. He truly has given me peace that can only come from Him. This post is so random and there is so much to say, I need to be more organized. Since I have so many followers and readers I need to keep you all happy. LOL, to funny. Maybe someday. :) After many training and moving and babies, our family was able to take an absolutely amazing vacation to Hawaii!

Fish, Missions, My Girls, Bread Making & Landon!! (Blog in a nutshell)

My Husbands beautiful fish tank. Notice the stand it is on?? My wonderful Kristopher made that. He is extremely talented. If we ever get rid of the tank (we will someday) I wish there was a way to keep the stand and use it for something. Hey...why not?! (idea....) Ok, Kris if you read this we are keeping the stand forever!

Today I went to GUM at my church. I loved, loved, loved it. It stands for "growing up mom". I am very excited about starting to attend regularly.
I'm home now and have been working on lots and lots of paperwork that I need to send to Christar. (the mission organization I am joining). Oddly, I really enjoy filling out paperwork. Its funny, but I get all excited to put the girls down for their nap and work on paperwork. Well, I guess it depends on what paperwork. Some stuff can be annoying.
My family and I are attending the New Personal Orientation at Christar in a couple of weeks! I am really looking forward to it. I find so much joy and excitement in moving forward to heading out on the mission field. What a blessing for me to be able to reach God's people who need His love and guidance. I learned this week in a devotional I have been doing is that God's number 1 priority is the Lost. That really hit me hard. I want to contribute however God wants me to to reach the "Lost". We are hear on this earth to worship God and do everything for His glory. So..."Lost" people hear I come! :) I want others to know what God has done and is doing in my life. So that, they will to want to have Jesus Christ as their Savior also. Wow, I am really feeling preaching! haha. I have just been really putting so much time into heading towards missions that God has just given me more clearer guidance that this is what He wants for me. And so...I'm EXCITED!! Isn't everyone excited when God shows us exactly what He wants for us?! I know I am. Yay for Jesus. :)

Ok...well the funny thing is I will probably be the only one who sees this, but that's ok. I'll tell Kris to read it too. :)

Now on to my children!! Another blessing:) We all got very excited Yesterday at dinner when we discovered Abigael got her 3rd tooth! She now has 2 teeth on the bottom and one on her top left. Not the front tooth, the one next to that. We made a big deal, Kaylie was very happy for her little sister. I enjoy watching their relationship develop. Abigael will drop whatever toy she has to follow her big sister. Which Kaylie loves to have her follow her. It's nice because when I am making dinner, Kaylie will kind of "watch" Abigael for me. She will just walk in circle in the living room (where I can see them) and Abigael will just follow and laugh with Kaylie the whole way. They are both great kids. I look forward to watching and being a big part of how they grow up.

Well, Kaylie just feel back asleep on the couch. :)

Oh I have to mention my new thing I started. (Thanks to a sweet friend) I have started Bread Making. I have only made one loaf. It was French Bread and it came out great. At least I think so. I just wish that dang bread machine would slice the bread for you too. :) How come someone hasn't thought of that yet? I thought the thing was broken when I opened up my finished bread and it wasn't sliced. How inconvenient. I'm kidding, but that would be nice.

Tonight is my family dinner night with my parents, my youngest brother, my younger brother & his wife. They are great!! :) My younger brother and his wife are expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks! Its a boy& they are naming him Landon. I am sooo thrilled to be an Aunt. More than I thought I was. I will be the coolest aunt. I think we decided I would be Auntie Heather. I like it. Brad and Annie (my brother & his wife) will always be hearing "I want to go see Auntie Heather, she's cool" :) Laughs aside, I will love their little boy soooo much. I already do. I know I will cry when I get to hold him. I cannot wait to meet him and give him sweet kisses.

I have to get my girls ready and head out for some wii playing, laughing, family dinner time.

The Day after Mothers Day

My first day after a wonderful mothers day! I was woken up by my Abigael around 7AM. Which is her normal time to get up. I fed her and then played with her for awhile. Kaylie then woke up around 7:30. I put on some cartoons for her while I handed Abigael to Kris and got myself ready to head to my optometry appointment at 8:30am. Everything seems to be going normal.

I headed to the appointment and received a phone call from the doctors office that my appointment has been canceled! They called me at 8:25!!! I was just exiting the freeway when they called. Nice! I really wanted to spend 45 minutes in traffic and then turn around and drive home. So, I stopped at got a soda. Had to make the 45 minute drive out and 30 minute drive home for something. Ha...that's funny. I drove an hour and 15 minutes to get a diet coke from the donut club in San Dimas!! They have amazing sodas. ;)

Well, I got home to my wonderful family. Kissed my husband goodbye as he was off to work, made a bottle for Abigael and put her down for a nap. It is now 11:27AM and I have spent over an hour trying to find ways to make a little extra cash by doing some work from home. Well, I have filled out way to many surveys, I am going to get a million junk emails, I'm not playing with my 5 year old, and am regretting this time I have spent on useless stuff. Ohh wait, I did change our chase account to go paperless!! Hey, saving the planet should count for something. :)
Oh, and I also tried to print off coupons for some groceries we need, and all I managed to do was download stuff on my husbands computer and nothing was printed. (Sorry Honey! I was trying to save money. hehe)

Well, my Monday after mothers day is kind of boring and somewhat regrettable. I enjoyed the time, love and laughter I had with my family yesterday. What a fun day it was. Abigael was dedicated yesterday also. My family came to church to be there for that. Well, Mothers day was a great day.

Its time for me to change my attitude. I need to get off my butt, kiss my Kaylie (Abigael is still napping or I would kiss her too), do some devotions & figure out a meal plan for this week. (this will be a tough week) Kris and I don't get paid till Friday and we are really tight right now. So, looks like dinner for the week is going to be cheap food and whatever we can find in the kitchen. Thankfully my family doesn't mind that at all. I have a great husband. I need to check my fly lady email and have a better rest of the day then how it started.
Well, here I go. I guess we shall see how the rest of my day goes or week goes based on my next blog. I know I have so many readers and fans!! Yay for my mom, my husband, my sister-in-law, and Steffani!

The photos above ( I like to add photos to every post) are some of my family and fun times. The first photo is when my dad took my family & Brad and Annie to dream works studios! It was awesome! We got to go behind the scenes on how the movies are made, had an amazing, Delicious lunch, and saw some of the new shrek movie that no one has seen yet. It was a really fun day. Thanks Dad!! (well...Mom, you can tell Dad thanks!)
The other photo is of Kaylie & Abigael in their Big & Little Sister Shirts. Their names are on the bottom of the shirts. The day after Abigael was born my Mom and Kaylie came to the hospital and Kaylie was wearing her shirt and she gave me a gift bag and Abigael's lil. sister shirt was in it. Super cute! Love my girls!

My Friday Morning

The photo to the right is a recent photo of my family. We had dinner at The Stinking Rose Restaurant in Beverly Hills for my sweet husbands 31st birthday. Good times.
I'm so new to this whole blog thing. Not really sure what to write. I think of it as a journal for me really. Well, and a fun way for my family and friends to see what goes on in "The Hoffman Life" :)
Today kind of started out as a rough day. We are currently living in my in-laws home for several different reasons. It is not a permanent move, and I'm hoping it will only be at the most 2 more years. (fingers crossed) My in-laws are not here most of the year (they are missionaries). It has its challenging moments, but at the end of the day, I have to recognize that it is only temporary, and to benefit our family now and in the future. I'm able to stay home with my girls and only work part time because we live here. Which is a wonderful blessing. I love being a stay at home Mom those days. Kaylie woke up this morning with an ear ache, so we are going to the doctors this afternoon.
Oh, new thing I'm just getting started and really love it. It is called flylady.com! A good friend of mine introduced me to it and I'm really loving it. It's all about learning to love organizing and cleaning your home while loving yourself. I'm only on day 4, but I do get pretty excited to look at see what each day holds for me.
Well, must go clean out my purse and the car! Yay for fly lady!! :)

Introduction to my life

My Family!!! My husband Kris is the most amazing person I know. He is so gifted in so many ways. He never stops amazing me. We have two beautiful girls. Kaylie is our active, little 5 year old. She never stops laughing! Abigael is 10 months old today. She crawls and bounces all over the place. I'm sure she will be walking soon. Abigael adores her older sister. They have a lot of fun together. Kris & I are extremely blessed to have our girls.
Right now we are working towards heading out onto the mission field! Not sure where God wants us to be, but we are confident He will let us know. We have lots of work to do before that time. I feel so blessed to have my amazing family, and a Savior who loves me.