After the move

Aunt Lenore with Sarah Jane during her visit.

Samantha Lenore as a "good" witch on Halloween

Sarah Jane is a cutie on Halloween.

Joseph is a Power Ranger.

Well, we made it to California. We spent some time in Utah during the move. We blessed Sarah Jane, fixed Joseph's ears and his hearing (thanks Uncle Neil) and spent a few days in the hospital with Sarah Jane. After finally making in to CA, we stayed in a beach house for a few weeks. Kathy's sister Lenore came to visit and made life easier. We sure missed her after she went home. We moved into our new home on base the weekend of Halloween. Since we couldn't stand having Thanksgiving without our family, we traveled to Utah for the Holiday. Thanksgiving dinner was so much fun. Sam and Joe had a blast with all of their cousins and Brandon and Kathy enjoyed playing putsy with Neil and Cathy. Kathy's family had family pictures on Thanksgiving day. It was a little crazy with so many people but also wonderful to have everyone together again. After Thanksgiving we spent two days with Brandon's family in Ephraim after which it was back in the car for the trip home. We are so grateful to be back in the states but we sure miss our friends in Spain.

Sarah Jane is here!!

Announcing the birth of our beautiful baby, Sarah Jane Casperson. She came into the world on Friday, August 15th at 2:57 PM. She weighed 6 lbs. 4 ounces and was 18 inches long. Mom and Baby were able to go home on Saturday afternoon and are both doing well. Big sister again. Samantha loves to hold Sarah.

Baby Sarah.

Mommy and Sarah after delivery.

Daddy and Sarah right after birth.

One of many attempts at getting a passport photo. Isn't she beautiful?!

Big brother with baby Sarah.

Summer Fun

We certainly kept busy during the month of July. Samantha went to summer school where they focused on art, theater and music. She loved it! Both Samantha and Joe are taking swim lessons this summer. They are both water fanatics. This will be Samantha's last year since she is now on level 6. After swim team, this hasn't been much of a challenge, poor girl. Kathy's birthday was July 21st and we spent the day at the beach in Balonia. We are going to miss the beaches of Southern Spain. Luckily, we get to replace them with the beaches in Southern California. Joe at the pool during swim lessons.
Samantha's last day of summer school showing off one of her works of art.
Sam and Joe on Kathy's Birthday at the beach in Balonia.

Samantha and Joseph fall asleep on the way home from the beach.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone. We have many friends and family who are serving our country and it certainly gives the Holiday more meaning. Our family spent the weekend in Southern Portugal. It is only about a two and a half drive from here. On Friday we went to Aqualand and the kids had a blast. The beaches there are so beautiful and the weather was just a bit cooler than here.

10th Anniversary

Brandon and I (Kathy) recently celebrated our 10th anniversary. We celebrated by spending a night in Marbella. Marbella has a TGI Fridays so that is where we had our "romantic" dinner. MMM, American food!!!! We have some great friends here who took the kids for us. As you can see, I am getting very pregnant.

Summer of Baseball

June was the month of Baseball at our house. Both Joe and Sam were participated on MWR teams. Joe was on the White Socks and Samantha was on the Cincinnati Reds. Samantha was having trouble batting until her coach asked her if she had been golfing with her dad. When she responded"yes", he looked at the way she was holding her hands. She was trying to swing her bat like a golf club. He soon corrected her hand position and she did great after that.

Sam and Joe and Costa Ballena

Costa Ballena is a beach resort town a couple of miles north of Rota. We love to take the kids up there to ride their bikes/scooters along the great paths along the ocean. Here they are a couple of weeks ago having a great time.

May and the cruise

In may we took our last vacation in Europe. After spending five days in Rome, we took a Royal Caribbean Cruise out of Venice with Brandon's parents. Now this was a real vacation. Our ports of call were Dubrovnik, Croatia (where Brandon's parents found out that a pepperoni pizza is a pizza with peppers on it), Ephesus, Turkey where the Casperson Family heirloom was purchased and two ports in Greece, Santorini and Corfu. We had a wonderful time with Morris and Mary on the ship and exploring. Joseph and Grandpa beat us all at shuffle board and Samantha and Joe attempted to eat an entire octopus by themselves.

After the cruise, Morris and Mary came back to Spainwith us for a few days and enjoyed some time off. If you couldn't tell from the photo's, Kathy is pregnant and due on August 18th. Having Grandma and Grandpa here to help was wonderful. We asked them to come live with us, but they didn't sound too enthusiastic.

The day the grandparents left was a busy one because Neil and Cathy, Kathy's' bother and sister in-law came to visit. We had a blast playing putsy and ticket to ride. (Be prepared to lose when we get back to the states.) They traveled around Spain during the day and came back to our house at night. What great visitors!!!

We miss all of our family and can't wait to see you all in September when we move back to Port Hueneme, CA. You are all welcome to come visit.

Rome

The end of April found us in Rome, exploring old ruins and eating fabulous food. We visited the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Forum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, and Vatican City. The Pizza was amazing and so was the Pasta. One of our favorite places to visit on a hot afternoon was Blue Ice Gellato. It was fantastic. So much history, so little time. We were there for four days and then flew to Venice where we met Brandon's Parents. More on that adventure later. Here you see us at the Pantheon, The Colosseum and touching St. Peters Toe at St. Peters Basilica.

April

Well, it takes me a while to update our blog, but I eventually get around to it. We enjoyed a really fun visit from Kristi, Brian, Kami and Kaden in April. Unfortunately, it rained half of the time they were here. Still, they were able to visit a few of the sight around southern Spain: Gibraltar, Cordoba, Cadiz, Granada and the Alhambra. We taught them to play putsy and now we are all addicts. They were great house guests and we would love to have them visit any time, provided they let us win once in a while. Here are Samantha and Kami with their "Hermies".

Samantha's Baptism

At the end of February, Kathy's mom and dad came to visit. We took them to Granada where they went to the Alhambra. They also went to Gibraltar and were attacked by monkey's. Joseph and Grandpa used every scrap of paper in the house making paper airplanes. Poor Joe has been going through withdrawals since Grandpa left. March 8 was Samantha's baptism. She looked so beautiful in her white dress. Grandpa and Sister McLaughlin gave talks on the baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. Brandon performed the ordinances and everything went smoothly. We are so proud of her decision to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. What a special girl!! And yes, we had a sumptuous buffet after the ceremony. (Thai Chicken Salad, Roast Beef Canapes, Thai Chicken Wraps, Tropical Chicken Sandwiches, Feta Potato Salad, Fruit and Cheese, veggies and dip and hummus and garlic toast. Plus some wonderful cookies and treats that Grandma made. That was for all you Van Leeuwen's who were wondering about the food.)

January

Two very special events occurred in January. First, Brandon reached the ripe old age of 31. He's like a nice cheese, only gets better with time. We also announced the upcoming addition of our newest family member in August. There was no use hiding it any more. Anyone as cranky as Kathy is either pregnant or suffering from a major chemical imbalance. Samantha swam in her last swim meet of the season. We are so proud of her progress and wonder where she gets the energy to swim like that.

Christmas 2007

We stayed home for Christmas which was nice nice after all of that traveling. Some friends came over for Christmas Eve and we spent Christmas day in our PJ's. For New Years, Brandon and Kathy went out in town for a Spanish style new years celebration.