oh, the weather outside is...

frightful...

nah, just kidding, it's not.

*smile*

love feeling the warm sun on my skin again. 

with all the good food we've been eating...

we've gotta have a way to burn off all those calories.

Just Dance 2 has been our way of doing so. Everyone, including mom, dad, and my hubby, has been dancing our hearts out every night together. 

love this game.

[look how intense ilene and ashley get with this game.]

aren't these fun pictures? 

dancing isn't anything new to the Gamboa household. we seem to like to dance off whatever calories we had just taken in during dinner. 

it's been funny walking into the living room and seeing my manly husband breaking it down with the dances.  

the things that bring families together:) this just seems to be one of our ways. 

favorites of home:

my baby boy, peyton and the jingle on his collar:) 

spending time in the kitchen with my mom while she cooks my favorite foods:)

my favorite breakfast...she makes this like every morning! (amazing, right? hope I'll be like that one day.)

what makes kristine's favorite breakfast? Sausage, bacon (cooked mom's style), fried eggs, pancakes, and garlic fried rice. mmm...

oh and one more of my baby boy:) boy, do i miss him when I'm away.

yep, this week has been ultra relaxing and absolutely refreshing. Time with my family, my favorite food, and my cuddle puppy, peyton! not to mention the gorgeous sunny weather...definitely enjoying it.

south for the winter;)

hey ya'll!:) 

left this in iowa...

 for beautiful sunny South Carolina.

 came home to see my little sister driving:

and my baby boy and brother, Peyton, enjoying the warm sun.

not a bad trade for weather, wouldn't you say?:) 

home sweet home.

first of the Christmas celebrations...

my daddy

daddy, it's your birthday.

I wish I could be there on your birthday. 

And tell you just how i feel about you in person.

If i was there, this is how'd it go:

Daddy, you amaze me.

         You amaze me with your love for the Lord. The way you served in the Navy, and used your time in there to minister to soldiers all over the world. You amaze me with your love for others, and your passion to see men and women come to know the Lord. You are a man known for your faith in the Lord, and respected greatly for it. In the workforce, in our family, and among our friends, your faith in the Christ in known.

Daddy, you amaze me, and I love you.

           It fills me with so much pride, as a grown woman, realizing the sacrifices you made for our family. The way you were so committed and dedicated to being with us, providing for us, and loving mom, speaks volumes to me. Your service to our country makes me proud to tell others of the privilege of being a military brat and what my daddy has done in my life and the lives of many many others.

Daddy, i love you and am thankful for you.

            I am so thankful for your consistency of spending time with the Lord. For prioritizing your time in God's word and praying and letting that image of you being excused from the dinner table so that you could spend that devotion time. Seeing you go into a room with your Bible is forever engraved in my mind. 

            I am thankful that you have given our family so many times to talk and laugh. thankful for how dinner times was the best part of the day; because you and mom made it that way from the beginning. thankful that you and mom loved spending time with us and never made us feel like a burden. 

Daddy, when you call me "sweetheart," or "my baby," i feel like that little girl that wanted to do everything with daddy. It makes me choke up when you tell me that on the phone or when you say how much you miss me and love me. I tear up (even right now) as I think about the loving word and things you have done to make your Gamboa girls feel like the most important and beautiful ladies in the world.

You are the best daddy in the world. i love you.

Daddy, 

happy birthday.

zao video

Here's a video I quickly threw together Saturday night, when I realized I was presenting Sunday morning. It's not great, but it's a peek of what God is doing on Thursday night at ZAOkids. Each week has multiplied in kids, and it's more than obvious that God is working in this town.

Hope this video will challenge you!:)

P.s. We are looking for new teachers for our January life blocks. It's a 30 minute slot of time that is used to teach kids skills and give them the chance to interact with adults in a small group setting. We are open to anything and everything! Maybe God will use you to reach out to these kids during that time!

Christmas morning for the BB's

my husband and I celebrated Christmas together yesterday morning:). We wouldn't have any other time alone and we wanted to exchange our gifts to each other by ourselves:).

well, ya'll, let me introduce you to my new macbook pro! my husband totally surprised me with it-definitely wasn't expected a new MAC for Christmas. my other mac (and ibookG4) had seen it's better days, and Ryan decided it was time to get another one. 

i am loving loving loving all the features on it...especially it's photo editing tools. 

we don't get much time alone with each other, so saturday mornings are always welcome and cherished to us. not only did we get to open presents, but we got to spend that sweet time with just the two of us.

here's a pic with the Christmas presents my hubster gave me. He got me some new North face snow boots and that north face hat that's on my head in the photobooth pic on the mac.:)

my hubby loves me.

i love him.:-D

p.s. blogging with be that much more fun:)

random memory #1

Fall 2006

trip to Canada with some friends from college. 

I believe this may have been the trip that he told me he was falling in love with me:-D 

Baby Mario - 2nd birthday of the week

we had a transformer themed 9th bday party for Damian. he was thrilled with his balloons which he promptly showed his thrill by hugging them, accidently letting them hit the ceiling with spiky bumps, and popping all three latex balloons:). oh, well.  we went to pizza hut for his birthday dinner, and every hour til 9 pm, he had a birthday present to open. (little things each hour til he got to his big gift at the end. all the little gifts were like rocket balloons, silly bands, whoopee cushion, airplane gun, etc...small items.) 

Only one each hour though, and he went crazy trying to wait for every hour;) he counted down the minutes for each hour. we went downtown for the Christmas parade, he and his sibs went shopping at Santa's secret workshop, and then we came home for more birthday celebration.

all the guys thought damian's new remote control car was awesome. all of them were laying on their belly's watching the wheels spinning and the lights flashing:) 

it was a fun birthday celebration! yay, for 9 year olds!:)