Spring Break

We were blessed to spend the girls' Spring Break in Arizona as a family. We spent a few days with Jon's Mom, Sister and our adorable niece and nephew. Then we drove a few hours and met up with my Dad, Kathy and my Grandparents on the Colorado River. We stayed right on the water and spent so much time in their pontoon boat, as well as in the pool. It was so restful and fun. It really was a treat, to say the least and awesome to be in 80-90 degree weather for the week.

Here are some pictures to document the fun...

Cousins! 

Holly, Jon and Mom
It was so great to see them after four years.
I am so blessed with such a sweet mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

Marian doing her flips with Daddy

These two are so much alike! Two peas-in-a-pod.
They clicked immediately and had so much fun together. 

Love this little guy.
Will is almost 6 and the sweetest little guy ever! 

Macy with Auntie.

Such a great picture of these two.

We were able to catch Will's last football game.
It was so much fun to watch. 

We did a little photo shoot with Grandma.
More pictures to come on my photography blog. 

Marian was awesome, getting the best smiles for me. 

So precious.

Never thought this photo shoot would be
so much fun. It was precious to watch
all the cousins laughing so hard together. 

 After saying a tearful goodbye to Auntie, cousins and Grandma, we headed to the Colorado River. 

Playing in the sand with Daddy 

Our "home" for the week...nope we definitely weren't "roughing it."

My Grandma and Grandpa were able to drive up from Cali to be with us for the week. It was such a blessing to be with them too. 

It was so fun to be at the River with my Grandma and Grandpa, because I grew up
going to the River and staying in their motorhome. Brought back lots of memories. 

On the boat

Kathy has such a servants-heart.
She truly is amazing. 

Lots of fun driving the boat with Papa. 

The water was FREEZING but we tubed anyway.
Definitely made us hang on a bit tighter. =) 

Our precious girlies. 

This is how Macy started out on the tube at the beginning
of the week....her signal to go slower!

Marian and I taking a wild ride. 

Surprised that we are still on the tube. 

No hands!

The girls went with Papa to the pool a few of the mornings and did
water aerobics with all the elderly ladies. They totally embraced
the girls as apart of their group and the girls loved it. 

I just couldn't stop smiling while watching them.
They tried so hard to do every move.

Winter Camp

We are in our new house and are mostly settled. Last weekend we had our High School Winter Camp and we were so blessed to have John Drollinger come as our camp speaker. He spoke on technology and how it can distract us from our love from Christ if we are not careful. It was a neat weekend discussing with the students how to keep technology from distracting us from our love for Jesus and how we can use technology to impact others for Christ. It really gave us a neat launching pad for discussion with the students.

John's wife Rachel has been one of my best friends since junior high and high school and I cherish her friendship even more today! It's so fun to share this season of life together. Our kids had even more fun than before, which warmed my heart so much. It was fun to FINALLY meet Brighton, their 14 month old and to see how Andrew and Sierra have grown in the last year and a half. Friends like these guys are rare and we thank the Lord for them.

Here are some pictures of our awesome weekend at camp and hanging out with the Drollingers for a few days after.

Marian joined me in my cabin with the girls. Macy stayed the night at Grammy's and came up the next day. It was such a blessing to have them there with us. 

Jon and Marian after doing the zip line. 

Macy entertaining herself in the snow while I took pictures of the students on the Zip line. 

I love this little guy!
Funny story about Andrew-- (Rach, I hope this is okay that I share this...)
The first night at camp Andrew looked at Marian and said, "Let's kiss!"
It was the funniest thing ever and if I hadn't heard it I probably wouldn't have believed it.
I told him in about 15 years, she's all his!

Marian doing the zip line. Look at that face! She loved every second of it. 

Macy rode the zip line tandem with me.
She was so brave!

Little Brighton...such a sweetie.

Brighton absolutely loved Marian and it goes without saying that Marian loved her right back!
It was fun to see them together. 

Not sure how we missed Sierra in this one, but the three of them were making
mud and snow pies in the backyard. 

Trying to find Marian. Marian got sick on Sunday night and
I made her rest on my bed. Brighton knew she was in there and had
been peeking in the crack in the door. Finally she just pushed it open! So sweet. 

Our attempt at a Sunday afternoon nap...they just played. =)
I'm sad that this is my only picture of Sierra....how did that happen?! She has got to be the sweetest thing ever...she always says, "Excuse me...." before saying something. Oh, man she melts my heart.

Thanks for coming, Drollingers! We love you guys and are so thankful for our friendship with you guys. You are such a great encouragement to us spiritually and we are so refreshed by being with you this past weekend.

When the toys are all packed...

Praise the Lord for boxes!

Look in the slits =)

We are in the midst of moving, so life is kind of crazy. But, here are a few pictures from the weekend. Yesterday was crazy hair day at school and today the girls had a basketball game. Jon is coaching with a friend he played football with at MSU. It's been such a blast. He loves it and is so great with the kids. The only bummer is that the shirts we were given are University of Montana GRIZ colors!!!! Ugh!!! Never thought I'd cheer for a maroon team. =)

Getting ready to take a shot during warm ups

Macy guarding # 1 (from the back-- haha!)

With Gram after the game

If I get a chance I'll post some video footage from the game. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Montoyas!

Christmas Eve
On our way to church we stopped at urgent care to see if Macy had
pink eye...yep, she did.
We were the best dressed patients in the urgent care that night.  =) 

What a blessing these two are...these are the "Little House on the Prairie"
dresses my Mom made the girls for Christmas.

Cute story on this one...because Macy had pink eye,
her and I stayed home from church Christmas morning.
She put this little "nativity" together with her stuff animals.
She did glue the star to the couch, which was not cool, but it was
hard to be upset with all that sweetness attached to it.

Macy made these for me all on her own. She had been saving the toilet
paper rolls in a secret spot at home and dug the bow out of the trash.
I will treasure these forever! 

Marian made me this bobcat scarf in class. She is the sweetest spirit I know.

We headed up to get our tree this weekend and, as always, enjoyed some neat family time. (Nathan and Kaylee Kelm-- if you're reading this, we thought of you much of the time and the fun we had with you last year. Macy even asked if we could see if you wanted to join us. I guess the distance of Montana to Bolivia hasn't solidified in her mind yet. =) Anyway, it was so much fun and the sledding was fun and FAST which translates in our family to cheers by Marian and tears by Macy. At one point, I had finally convinced Macy to go with me (she felt safer going alone =) and we ended up spinning around and heading FAST backwards with trees on either side. I had to literally hold her down because she was trying to "jump ship." =) Good times. Guess that didn't build her trust and confidence in me. =) 


Here are a few pictures...

As we were hiking up to where we cut down our tree Macy was lagging quite a bit behind us. She rarely lags because she has way more energy than any of us. We kept encouraging her to keep up and eventually Jon mentioned "Just watch out for the mountain lions who like little girls who are not with their Moms." Because the girls know Jon is such a joker, I figured she's say "yeah right, Dad." But, there was silence behind us and we just kept going. All of a sudden Macy runs up to me, and sweetly says "I'm gonna hold your hand, Mama." Problem solved. =)

She's been looking so old to me lately. Kind of makes my heart hurt.  =) 

Love her hat...thanks to Auntie Holly and Auntie Maria.

Nerdy 30

We had a "Nerdy 30" party with the youth group on November 30th. We got the idea for this party from our friends John and Rachel. We had to think of some way to do this with our youth group, so Jon suggested we do it on November 30. Oh my was this fun. Our students had such a blast and it was neat to give them a night where they didn't have to "worry" about looking good and to just have fun with one another.

Here are some pics from the fun night...

Some of our other leaders...

Justin and Justine

Dan and Kimberly

Dan has got to be one of the funniest people ever.
He was our M.C. for the night...and he and Justin performed a
"surprise"serenade to me, whom they lovingly referred to as "Mama Montoya."
Not sure I like that name, but the performance was hilarious.
They sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler.

We are so thankful for our leaders. They are some of our best friends
and it's so awesome to serve alongside them.

If you want to see more of the students, you'll just have to hop on facebook. =)