Leonor Carrasco

I would like to introduce you to the newest "memeber" of the Buzbee family - Leonor Carrasco from Bolivia, South America. We had a guest speaker today names Jimmy Sites and he works with Compassion International. Wow! He did an amazing job. I have wanted to sponsor a child for several years but never made the "leap". I was so convicted today to pick out a child that I could hardly stand it! God made it so clear to me! So after Life Group, Brian went and got Hannah and we met as a family (with Isaac too!) to pick out our child.

Hannah picked out Leonor because they share something....their birthday! Leonor was also born on February 5th, just two years after Hannah. She is 4 years old. This is about all we know at this point but are so excited to write her a letter this week and send to her along with a picture of her sponsoring family. I can't explain to you the peace I have about this. Yes, we will be sacrificing some things BUT is it really a sacrifice when God will bless us so for obeying?

Hannah is excited about getting to know Leonor and that we are helping her be able to go to school. I am so proud of what Hannah will learn about helping others. Lord, please help Leonor to meet you and make you boss of her life!!

Walgreens Baby!!!

This is a pretty good week at Walgreens. I got all of the stuff pictured for $9.84 out of pocket!! I also got $18 in Register Rewards to use next time! I LOVE Walgreens!!!

Branson Vacation Day 4 (Final Day!!!)

Our last day of vacation......ahhhhhh! I was so tired and ready to come home but Hannah & Brian were not. They are both "Branson Junkies". :-) We went to The Track to let Hannah and Isaac ride rides at Kid Kountry but Hannah was too tall (must be 48' and she was 50 1/2') so she wanted to play mini-golf. Isaac is still a little young but he loved watching the golf ball.

Hannah in action....

...more action....

Hannah sharing her ball with Isaac.

Can you tell they have had as much "brother/sister" time as they can stand?

Then Daddy & Hannah rode the Wild Woody go-karts. She had so much fun!

After we left here, we went for some lunch and then the back to the in-door waterpark. This is where we stayed the rest of the time. The money spent on the in-door waterpark was well worth it. Yay Branson!

Branson Vacation Day 3

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast at Krispy Kreme (yummo!) and went to Ride the Ducks. Hannah remembered riding for the last time we were here but of course Isaac didn't, since he was only 2 months old then. Here we are waiting to board:

Isaac caught on quickly to the quacking...although at first he seemed to moan into the quacker.

Brian paid the extra $2 and got Hannah a pink quacker and supported Breast Cancer Awareness. :-)

I feel like a bad mommy.....Hannah got to drive the duck too while out on Table Rock Lake but I didn't get a picture of her driving. I was surprised when Captain Bubba asked me if Isaac wanted to drive.....Isaac took off to the front and climbed right in the chair. He started yanking the wheel left & right. He was so stinkin' cute! Captain Bubba said I better get up there and get a picture because this was awesome so I grabbed my phone and got the following picture. He LOVED driving.

After riding the ducks we went to the Hollywood Wax Museum and Hannah's Maze of Mirrors. The maze was pretty fun (Hannah was a little scared that we were gonna get stuck) but the Wax Museum was as terrible as I remember it being. Hannah seemed to like it ok but she didn't know most of the people and didn't realize the figure didn't look anything like the real person. This will be the last time we pay money for that!

When we got back to the motel, we ate some pizza for lunch and then I took Isaac to lay down for a nap. Hannah and Brian went to the arcade and played games. When they got finished with that, Hannah and I put our swimsuits on and went back to the waterpark. Brian brought Isaac down when he woke up.

Here is the toddler pool outside that Isaac loved so much.

There were a couple of smaller waterslides so Hannah had a good time out there too.

Hannah is getting braver on the slides....going down different ways.

Isaac and Dad hangin' out.

Isaac liked to slide off the edge down into the pool....that is what he called his slide. :-)

Here is a picture of the treehouse inside....and the huge bucket at the top that Isaac is terrified of.

Here is a picture of part of the lazy river....this is lots of fun.

Here is Hannah floating the lazy river.

And Brian floating the lazy river....we tried to let Isaac sit on our laps but he just laid there on us and shook because he was so scared.

After playing for over 4 hours, we decided we were hungry and went to grab some dinner across the street at Shoney's. It wasn't as good as we remembered. Then we went to Andy's Frozen Custard.....YUMMO!!! Love me some frozen custard. Finally, we came back to the room, got showers and watched a movie. Here is Isaac with his DVD player watching a little Mickey Mouse. Ha!

We are having a good time but I am wearing down quick....only one more day and we head home!

Branson Vacation Day 2

Day #2.....luckily there wasn't any unplanned excitement today. We woke up, ate breakfast at the Grand Country Buffet and then headed back to Silver Dollar City. We didn't take my camera in today because it was SO heavy the day before. Therefore, there aren't many pictures because the camera on my phone won't zoom in. Anyway, we rode all of the rides we rode the day before. While Hannah and Brian rode the swings I took the time to look at the map of Silver Dollar City and found the rides that are more Isaac's size. The following pictures were taken with my phone because I was able to basically stand right there and take them very close. I love that Hannah wanted to ride these with him.....they have such a wonderful relationship.

They had a great time together on these rides. The only problem we had was Isaac wanting to go "again, Mommy, again!". :-)

After we left Silver Dollar City (and Brian upgrading our tickets to Season Passes so we can bring the kids back in December) we came back to the motel so Isaac could take a nap. Hannah and Brian put their swim gear on and took off to the in-door waterpark. I tell you we have sure gotten our moneys worth regarding the waterpark. Hannah has had a blast. After Isaac napped, we went to the Olive Garden to eat and then returned to play some more at the waterpark. Isaac is really scared of the in-door part (there is a HUGE bucket that dumps water every 5 minutes or so and is extremely loud) but loves the toddler pool outside. So that is where we spend our time with him. Brian and I take turns playing inside with Hannah. We were all exhausted within a few hours, took showers & went to bed. Gotta get rested up for Day 3!

Branson Vacation Day 1

We left our house (after turning around in the neighborhood 3 different times to return home to get something we left)at 8:30ish Monday morning. We didn't even get out of Ft Smith until well after 9am. It began thunderstorming on our drive up 540. Our front tires on the car were in such bad shape that we were hydro-planing most of the drive. This made me very uneasy and so Brian decided to stop in Fayetteville and get the 2 front tires replaced, thinking this wouldn't take too long. We first stopped at Walmart in Springdale because, on the phone, they told us there was no wait. We got there and they didn't have that size tire. While the kids and I waited at Walmart, Brian took the car down the road and got the tires replaced. Here Hannah is with a shirt she found while we were walking around Walmart....she wanted to buy it but I told her no.
She settled for a picture with it. Ha!

We finally left Springdale at 11:30 heading north. We got to Branson right at 2pm and went the the fish hatchery to feed the fish.

Here are the kids feeding the fish....they LOVED it. The baby fish were so cute!

Isaac ran out of fish food and was not happy.

Daddy to the rescue!! He went and got some more! :-)

After we left the fish hatchery, we went and checked in to our motel. The Grand Country Inn, home of the In-door waterpark!! Hannah was sooooo excited and wanted to go play in the pool right away. We talked her into settling for Silver Dollar City, since after 3pm we could get back in the next day as well. So off we went to Silver Dollar City.

There wasn't anyone out front that ask to take a picture of all of us so here we are with the kids.

Isaac wasn't very excited to be in the stroller...and Hannah was just being silly.

A sweet older man asked if I wanted to be in the picture....it's not the best but shows we were really all there!

Our first ride was the Silver Dollar City Train....both kids really liked this and it cooled us off!

Next Hannah and Brian rode Fire In The Hole.....Hannah says she is scared of it but she came out with a smile on her face. We then went to the Great Exposition and measured Isaac. He was right at 36 inches so he got to ride most of that stuff with us. We rode the Flying Elephants, Pirate Ships and Tea Cups. Isaac's favorite was the elephants.....we rode it over & over & over with him. Hannah's favorite was whatever she was on at that time.

She decided she wanted to ride the swings. I was shocked, since she had just seen how high they went. Neither Brian nor I wanted to ride them and she said she would ride them by herself. Brian got in line with her and she went and climbed in one. She was fine until they started....and then she got this look of panic on her face. I got this one shot before it started. Seriously, as soon as it started going up and around I thought she was going to freak out. I was sick to my stomach because my baby was way up in the air, scared to death, and there was nothing I could do about it. Holy cow.....it has been a while since I have been that scared. Finally, after it stopped, this sweet lady riding next to Hannah started talking to her and, in Hannah's words, "made her feel all better". Hannah then asked the guy if she could ride it again, to which he said "Yes!". She seemed to like it much more the second time around.

After Silver Dollar City closed, we came back to the motel and changed into our swimsuits. We played at the waterpark until 9:45, WAY past bedtime. The kids had so much fun. We went to bed wondering what excitement Day #2 would hold.

Family Fun Day at Bell Park

Sunday evening our church had Family Fun Day at Bell Park. This is one of the only times our whole church family gets together at one time, since we have 4 different services. There was a cookout at 6 and then a kick-ball tourney following that. The kids got to play on the playground for a long long time....and had a blast. They were dripping in sweat! Below are just some pictures of them playing:

Isaac has no fear on the playground....he kept going back to the highest slide!

Hannah LOVED climbing up this thing....she did it over & over & over.

Below is a picture of our Life Group's kick-ball team....we lost the first round. :-(


Just one more picture of my little man....had to literally drag him away from this slide.

We had such a great time...looking forward to our next fun day!