Hello All! Last evening we all returned home from New Mexico. We had a great time with our New Mexico, Missouri and California family. We stayed at a cabin in Red River, New Mexico for 3 nights. We enjoyed time with Kelly's parents, two sisters, brother and sister in law, two uncles, one aunt, a family friend and six nephews and nieces. So needless to say there was much talking and laughing! It is so great to see family and enjoy that time. I am blessed by my in-laws. I enjoy each of them very much and in a different way. They have all welcomed me since even before I was an official member of the Briden clan. I am proud to be a part of this family! They have so much love for one another.

The picture taken of the Briden Family including Ken and Vera their kids and grand kids was taken by the Red River in New Mexico. The weather was nice while we visited Red River. Kirk, Kelly's brother, and his wife, Suzi, and four sons even got a day of skiing in. The rest of us enjoyed time playing games, talking and joking with each other. Kelly's Uncles, Darl and Ike, along with Aunt Rayetta came all the way from California to share in this special time. It was great to have them with us as well. Kelly's sisters, Kenna and Kristi, both live in New Mexico. Kristi lives with our two special nieces in Albuquerque close to my in laws. Kenna the oldest in the family lives in beautiful Santa Fe. She even gave us a tour of downtown Santa Fe which was a real treat!

We had flights that were on time both down to New Mexico and back home yesterday. We had a great family time and the kids loved playing with their cousins. We are thankful to God that all returned home safely and that we had the time to build special memories. As we were driving home from the airport yesterday our girls were talking about how much they miss Grandma and Grandad. We lived next to them for 4 1/2 years in Missouri. We are happy for them that they love New Mexico, but it was great to live so close to them. Faith then asked her daddy "Daddy, do you miss your Grandma Mommy sometimes?" After Kelly responded in the affirmative we giggled as we thought of Vera. She is a Grandma Mommy if ever there was such a thing : ) Now we look forward to summer. Grandma Mommy and Grandad Daddy will move up the road from us for a summertime full of fun memories. Thank you God for family!!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! Today was our first full day in the beauty of New Mexico. What fun we had. We arrived last evening. When our heads finally hit the pillow it was about 2:00am Michigan time. YIKES! The flights went so well. Grace, Faith and Luke are exceptional travelers. Regardless we were glad to land in Albuquerque!







Today we spent time in Old Town Albuquerque. We had a wonderful lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. The kids all played outside in the center of town with there special cousin Madeleine. Madeleine is 3 months younger than Grace and she is a sweetheart. Needless to say the kids all had fun just running, jumping and playing together.



After lunch we headed to the Petroglyphs National Monument. We had a great time. The kids hiked the different pathways. Kelly and his sister, Kristi, even climbed quite a ways up the rocks with the three little girls. All the girls loved climbing. I was very impressed with their spunk and strength. The area that they were climbing is technically not supposed to be climbed. It is off the trail. I watched as Kelly, Kristi and the girls climbed. When Kristi had to leave to pick up our oldest niece, Valerie, from school, I thought I would step in to help. So I climbed up for about 5 minutes and I heard " Please Do not climb on the Rocks". I got us busted! The Park Ranger was on the bullhorn from his truck making sure we made a hasty descent. Needless to say i will not climb out of bounds again : ) The last picture i posted was of me, Kelly and the kids making our quick retreat. More to come from the Land of Enchantment. Love you all- Crystal

Hello All! Well it was 43 degrees and sunny today. I am sure you have guessed from the title of this post that after dinner we went off to the playground. Our county has so many large pieces of playground equipment at various parks, we love it!! Grace, Faith and Luke all loved one particular slide. SO I took pictures of all of them sliding down in their position of choice. Grace liked going down face down. On one occasion she went a tiny bit to fast and ended up with a whole mouthful of sand. Yuck! Faith liked to slide on the other bigger slides more often, but when she was on this slide she sat up. From the picture of Luke you can guess how he ended up most often. With his bottom first and leg up in some uncomfortable yoga like position. He cam off the slide laughing, believe it or not. So that encouraged the girls and me to laugh. Luke kept sliding like this over and over again. So the laughter continued. At one point Grace said " I can't stop laughing!" I felt the same way, we had the giggles :) The playground we were at tonight is right on Lake Michigan. It was beautiful to get to watch the sun slipping below the Lake.

We are off to New Mexico on Thursday for a spring vacation. Kelly's parents, both sisters and our two only sweet nieces live in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. We will be having a small family reunion as Kelly's brother, sister in law and their four boys will be visiting as well. A special treat is even some our family from California is going to be visiting as well. I am sure there will be many fun memories and a great deal of laughing. I may be able to post to my blog from Albuquerque. So stay tuned for fun family pictures from New Mexico. Please pray for travel safety for us, Thanks!! Have a great night!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! Well I am excited to report we have a fingerprinting appointment at our local USCIS office!!!!!! When you apply to adopt through USCIS(INS) the adoptive parents must be fingerprinted. They send you a letter to you and tell you when to appear. When we did this in Missouri we were given a range of dates and times to come in to USCIS. From Detroit USCIS we received an exact date. On that date we will be a couple thousand miles away in New Mexico on vacation : ) Isn't that just how life works. Don't worry we can reschedule the appointment. So after the fingerprinting is complete we will get our I-171H or the pre-approval for our next babies immigrant visa. We are excited because at least our application or petition is moving along!! Praise God for this good news! By the way look at the fingerprint image I put up on our blog. It has a hidden image, can you see it? Love, Crystal

Hello All! I know after reading this afternoon's post you are all waiting anxiously for me to share with you my first Robin sighting. Tonight after driving home from shopping. I was excited to see about forty American Robins on the front lawn of a home I drove past. I slowed to count and watch them pick at the ground. Don't worry, no cars were driving behind me. So it looks like the Red Winged Blackbird and the American Robin were racing. It's almost to close to call. I say the Blackbird won by a beak, Ha! Ha! Ha! My father in law will love that joke : ) Love, Crystal

Hello All! I don't have time for a long post today as I am so busy. With that said, I wanted to share some birding news. I love birds!! I have since I was a little girl watching them from my dining room window. Now that I have become an avid birder (Ha! Ha!) It is so fun to watch the migratory patterns of our local birds in Michigan. Yesterday I was driving home from town on a road that winds around the side of our rather large local inland lake. The sun hit the bird just right as he sat there calling from the cattails just light the bird in this picture. I saw clearly that is was a red winged blackbird! Yahoo! Most people who are not avid birders (Ha! Ha!) like myself think the robin ushers in spring. But we birders know it is the Red winged blackbird that shakes us out of the winter "blahs" and points to warm sunny days. The males arrive first and establish their territories. The females will arrive in a week or so. I love tracking the different birds as they arrive in this area to summer with us. It helps me again to feel in touch with something so much bigger than me. I am in awe of a God who can create birds to migrate thousands of miles. How awesome is that!! I am often even more in awe when I think, I am familiar only with birds. What interesting details about other animals am I unaware of ? I wonder what things we have yet to discover about God's creation. God is so good even to the birds. Birds don't migrate because they can't tough out the winter in the north. They migrate because food sources become so limited or even non-existent. The red winged blackbird is back in this beautiful swamp we call Michigan. The ice is melting and he now has a perfect view from the cattails of his food for the next 7 months. The kids and I are commonly pulling the car over to get a better vantage point of a bird spotted by mommy. Today we saw a big bird on the ice on the lake. He appeared to be eating something he caught. I did not have my "binocs" (binoculars) in the car, so it was hard to make him out. Grace, kept squirming and peeking from her booster seat in the mini van. "Mommy," she said "Don't drive away before I see him." My little birders! My hope is they will also see the beauty in God's creation. We welcome you back Mr. Blackbird, please enjoy your stay with us : ) Love, Crystal

Hello All! Today was a good day for me! It was one of those days when you have a moment to reflect that you have waited for. It was sunny, 45 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. I have waited for sun and 45 for months and it felt so good. But, even brighter was our drive home after taking the girls to dance class. I had no coat on, the windows of the mini-van cracked, and I was singing to a feel good country song. I turned around to see all three of my buddies eating a sucker they had just received from the teacher of the girl's dance class. They were smiling, drooling and chomping away. It was in that moment that a thought popped into my head. "All you have is now, this is what you dreamed of." The next thought was "that this is what I have dreamed of since I was four years old." In my baby book, my mom asked me at four years old, what I wanted to be. I said " A nurse and a mommy." Wow, a little girls dream come true!! I know God was speaking to my heart. I knew I needed to take this moment and burn it into my mind as it would evaporate quickly. As I continued to watch the road and all three of my babies at the same time, I was showered with even more love. Grace said spontaneously " Mommy you are the best mommy, I love you." At that point, I was thinking this is my "calling", this is what God made me for. I have three kids in my minivan and I have room for another car seat. But, for now I have this moment to cherish. Time may change, but God does not. I am blessed to have moments like these to balance out the long February days with no sun. Some of those days should not ever be burned in one's memory. Those days can be hard, lonely and trying. Those are the days you question your purpose. "Was I meant to be a mother?" " I cannot possibly wipe another runny nose." For today though I have a memory of three little children and sticky hands, sunshine and singing. Who could ask for more. Praise God that he did listen to this little four year old girls dreams. I say bring on daylight savings time, it is amazing what a little sunshine can do to one's mood : ) Love, Crystal

Hello All! Well today was a great day for a hike in the woods. It was a high of 39 degrees and the sun was shining all day. Perfect weather to shake off the cabin fever that has been building. After nap time this afternoon we all donned our backpacks, boots and binoculars for a walk in the park. We have a nice state park just up the road from our home. The hike we took was over the sand dunes to Lake Michigan. All three kids walked the entire way. Which is a wonder in and of itself. The pathway was still covered with inches of melting snow. They have gotten quite used to walking in snow by now and only slipped a few times. The trail is also up and down many big dunes. They made it up and down many stairs with no complaint. I was so glad to be outdoors. This is where I connect with God. As the snow is melting I can almost hear the Hallelujah chorus. God's creation is waking up from it's long winter nap.

I am an amateur bird watcher, so any excuse to put on my binoculars. Today the girls also were "birding" with mommy. They both had compact binoculars hanging from their necks. They would stop and look for birds. It was so cute because occasionally they would have the binoculars backwards. They would look at each other and say " Hey Grace, you look far away." Who had the heart to tell them that they were less than two feet away from one another.

Luke did the best of all. He has the shortest legs and he didn't even whimper or ask to be held. After bath this evening, Kelly and I realized Luke's thigh muscles were still tight from the hike. He is a ripped little guy : ) All three had backpacks on stocked with juice boxes and Cheetos. It was cute to see them packing snacks on their little backs. When we arrived at the Lake the sun was starting to set. It was magnificent. The kids all posed for pictures and celebrated the victory of making it half way. What a good afternoon in nature. I found this quote from C.S. Lewis and I thought I would share it.

"Because God created the natural- invented it out of his love and artistry-it demands our reverence." C.S. Lewis

Please enjoy the photos! Remember, God made you and he loves you- Crystal

Hello All! Well tonight was arts and crafts time in the Briden family. The kids love to create and especially paint!! Grace and Faith had picked out little wooden boxes at our local craft store. This was Kelly's great idea for them to create a jewelery box. I am surprised at how much jewelery they can accumulate under the age of six. Just in case you didn't realize girls are drawn to things that sparkle : )

This evening was time for the creative paint to flow. Grace and Faith painted their boxes with their favorite colors. For Faith the best color is green. Grace loves everything blue. Luke has been told by his sisters that his favorite color is red. He has not really made this decision on his own you must understand. But now if you ask him what color he would like of something (ie. what color balloon would you like, Luke?) he will say "red". I think it is sweet because the girls really think now this is his favorite color. Luke just wants to please them so he knows the correct answer is red : ) So all three had the appropriate color for their masterpieces. I have included some cute pictures of my little Monets. Enjoy!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! I had to include an article I found today posted on the Washington Post's website. I had to laugh at this. A vote in Congess has to be postponed because of an inch of snow. Is this true? I mean this isn't the same as Florida or Georgia recieving an inch of snow. This is D.C. and last time I checked it was quite a ways north of the snowless south. They should be prepared for snow, right? I have attached a picture of our home taken today. This is snow, and it has been coming for weeks now. I will be honest most of the time Congress makes me laugh. Once again I am laughing : ) Love, Crystal

The bitter inch
That horrible Washington weather.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor this morning to explain why the scheduled 10 a.m. vote on a homeland security measure would have to take place at 1 p.m. instead.
Noting it might seem strange for those outside the Beltway that a little white powder falling from the sky could cripple Senate operations, the Nevada Democrat said Washington is "different from a lot of other places."
He added that some might scratch their head at "an inch or two" of snow creating "all the pause, but it does." He said many senators and their staffers live in Virginia, and added that one mystery senator is "stuck on a train because of the bad weather." (Reid's office promised a call back to identify the commuting lawmaker)
"Make a long story really short, we have essential staff that's not here right now," Reid said, wearing his signature frown. "Those are the facts of life in the bitter winter of an inch of snow in Washington."
-- Christina Bellantoni, Capitol Hill correspondent, The Washington Times
Posted on March 7, 2007 9:56 AM

Hello All! Well we had a great time celebrating Kelly's B-day, 37! Can you believe it! He was 28 when we met. Wow, time flies when you are young and in love. O.K. so we are not as young as we once were : ) Kelly's nurse, Barb, came over to babysit the Briden trio so we could go out to dinner and a movie. It was great! We went to see the movie "Amazing Grace". We went t the 6:00pm show. It was nice because we were the only two in the theatre. I cried, big suprise. SO it was nice to be alone : )

After the movie we went to Logan's steakhouse. It was a good treat and we only had to cut our own food. So it is always a speciall treat to eat just the two of us!!

Please pray for me as I have given in to a bad cold, YUCK! So I am off to bed : ) Thank you God for creating Kelly! All my Love, Crystal

Hello All! Today was a big annual event in the Briden house. The circus came to town! What fun it is to watch the kids so enthusied to see it. This morning we awoke to the girls singing "We're going to the circus". They sang this over and over again as they got up and got dressed quickly. Next they proceeded to wake up their brother. All three siblings now form a train while singing the circus song. Next stop Mommy and Daddy's room to drag us from our saturday morning slumber. This was all before 7:00am. On weekdays Kelly and I get up at 6:00am. So no complaining here, at least we made it to seven : )

At the circus we enjoyed cotton candy, popcorn, and snow cones. We viewed elephants who on command would lay down for a nap, tigers that jumped through a flaming hoop, and of course women hanging with amazing strength from ropes. The favorite was the men riding motorcycles in a large steel sphere. Three men rode at one time. Yikes! Don't worry no one was injured, amazingly. Grace and Luke had their faces painted as tigers. They are both true fans! GO TIGERS! Faith choose to have her face painted like a clown. All three sat still and mezmerized for the entire circus. The funniest question came from Faith. She leaned over to Kelly as the man that was the tiger trainer was performing his act and asked " Daddy why is he naked?" and "Is he a boy or a girl". The tiger trainer was called " the rage in the cage", He had bleach blond long hair, was shirtless and was shaking the tiger cage throughout the act. Needless to say Kelly and I were laughing hard by the time the "rage in the cage" had excited the arena. Kids do say funny things!

We had to wash the kids faces tonight. They wanted so bad to keep them on for church tomorrow : ) Grace said after we wached her face off " I am sure my tiger face is already missing me." God Bless!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! During Luke's nap today the girls had their Books on CD reading time. We love books on CD!!! Now that Grace is in Pre-school scholastic book orders are sent home quite often. The books on CD are great at this time of year. It is cold, snowing and the wind is hollowing outside again today. So we need many different activities. We try to change activities frequently because when pre-schoolers get bored they fight. : ) So books on CD are perfect, they get read to and watch less TV. I read to them every day, but it is nice to have help : ) Also they like the different voices and intonation of the other readers. I am also amazed at the words that they learn from the books. So here are some pictures of Grace and Faith "reading". Love , Crystal

PS Tomorrow we will head to the Circus, this time I will try to remember my camera. Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Hello All! This morning I am thinking about my favorite beverage. COFFEE. It could be because I am sitting holding a steaming cup as I type this. For those of you who don't know, I love coffee. It has seen me through many mornings of parenting. It has helped me to clear my head of the "I was up with the baby" lack of sleep haze. In the afternoon around nap time it is a pick me up to press on throughout the remainder of the day. I figure everyone has a vice. I choose coffee. My husband can't believe how the stuff actually relaxes a slightly Germanic anxious by nature Northerner. But it does, so me and coffee in all forms are best friends. All this to say I have been doing research for an unofficial taste test. I have been sampling coffee locally, primarily for research, and determining who has the best "cup a joe". The results may surprise you. I have sampled Wendy's, Burger King, McDonalds, Star Bucks, two local coffee shops- Great Lakes Java and Java Jack's, coffee at our church and ground coffee purchased from grocery stores. So here are my results. McDonalds regular coffee is consistently the best!!!! Star Bucks is strongest in the coffee specialty drinks, ie. Mocha Latte, etc. I can't drink the coffee specialty drinks too often. I am trying to watch my figure and some of those can have 400 calories in one cup. YIKES! So I decided to try regular coffee at each of these fine establishments. Star Bucks regular coffee consistently tastes burned, as does Burger King, Wendy's and Java Jack's. Great Lakes Java has good coffee, but it can also change day to day. McDonalds is consistently not burned, not too strong and is hot. Cold coffee unless iced should not be tolerated. : ) So imagine my surprise yesterday as I listened to the radio and heard Consumer Reports had found the same thing regarding coffee and the "Golden Arches". Consumer Reports did some research as well. They found even money aside that a plain cup of coffee from McDonalds was the best. It is so good to know I am not alone in my research. I am not just one stay at home mom with a vice. I am a scientist. Lastly,our coffee at church is just wrong! Can't somebody find a way to make good coffee and church go together? Now, go have a cup of COFFEE! Love, Crystal