Did you guess?

While you all had some great guesses, one of you hit the nail on the head! :-)

Josiah is cleaning the mini blinds...

Rebekah has become great friends with the broom....

The shoes are all nice and shiny....

The car seats have been stripped, washed, wiped down...
The side of the house has been weeded...
And even the lot next to us has been completely cleaned...

Timothy and Elijah have been out doing yard jobs too.

What's all this about Little Mr. Samuel?

Barb guessed it right! We are taking a trip to the states and the children are doing lots of extra chores to earn some spending money!

A few months ago, we realized that my driver's license is expiring in June and we also would need to smog/register our van. Since both Daniel and I would need to cross the border to take care of those things, the children come too :-)

Driving 18 hours through the desert just to go to the DMV wouldn't be that exciting. But Daddy decided that it would be a bit more bearable if we went to the zoo while we were up north!

We took the oldest 6 went to a zoo when they were little before we moved to Mexico, but they don't remember much and the others have never gone. They have been counting down the days for...well, I remember Noah asking me once, "Is 84 days a long time?". :-)

They are sooooo excited!

Why did we choose the zoo? Well, really, it was all Noah's idea. :) He's in Kindergarten and one day we were working on his papers and there were all sorts of zoo animals on the page. He was asking me all about them and he said, "I really want to go to a zoo someday." I told Daddy (you know how Daddies love to give surprises to their children) and he had me do some research.

While many places that charge an admission fee are not financially friendly for a family our size, the LA zoo has a family pass that is reasonable.

So I've been hearing "zoo" planning for weeks now!

And the best part of all is Aunt Julee (my sister) and Uncle Elias (her husband) are driving down to meet us! My boys can't wait to play soccer with Uncle Elias and my girls can't wait to have Aunt Julee do their hair. We love them and miss them so much!

And, this past week, we just found out my Aunt and Uncle, whom Daniel and the children have never met before, are flying down to see us too!

It will be a quick trip, but so much to look forward to!

We'll be having a big Super Sunday this weekend where we combine the morning and evening services with a fellowship meal afterwards. I'll be feeding all the children during the second service...I'm thinking Nachos! And then, after we take everyone back home and clean up, we'll start heading north.

We appreciate your prayers for safety as we travel. Oh, before I forget, I want to share a praise! Daniel was working on the van getting it ready for the trip north. We have had a vibration now for a while and so he and a mechanic were trying to find out from where it was coming. While looking for the problem, they found a couple other problems...big ones! We had some worn tie rod ends. Apparently that is what ties your tires together, and if it were to break, you would lose complete control of your vehicle/steering. So we were so thankful to find that and be able to get it repaired. They still hadn't found the cause of the vibration, and yesterday, they were looking over the van again, and found that 2 nuts were missing from 2 of the bolts that hold down the transmission. So we are very thankful for that vibration...not sure what is causing it yet...but the Lord used it to help us find some big things.

I need to get back to work:

*Working on sewing a couple jumpers and some culottes for the girls before we leave

*Making lots of refried beans to put in zip lock backs to take in the ice chest for quick burritos on the road (we have a little propane stove so we can cook :) )

*Packing, packing, packing

*Haircuts for the boys

*Preparing for my children's class Sunday

*Trying to think of something else these eager workers can clean! :)

Oh, and another prayer request...Hna. Leticia is due to have her baby in early June. Knowing how slowly those last days of pregnancy can pass, I hope she doesn't have to wait much longer...although I sure hope we are back in time! I know their family appreciates so much those of you who are praying for them.

Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth. Psalms 119:151