Fun Foto Friday

Here are a few photos from our week-

I think it is funny that one is wearing camo, one is wearing a "beach hunk" shirt, and daddy is wearing hot pink.  I am sure we will laugh about this one day as we see their personalities develop.

Our sweet baby Ben

Cruz loves to color

It was Mexican Fiesta week at our grocery store.  I love his facial expression.

helping mama buy groceries

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kimberli's Birthday Party

On Saturday we attended the birthday party of a sweet little neighbor of ours named Kimberli.  She and Cruz are big buddies and play very well together!  She turned three and had a Dora party.  Her mom told me the party was at three o'clock.  Cruz was taking a late nap so we let him sleep as long as possible.   I walked next door to their house at 3:15 and could hear no-one.  I knocked on the door and no-one answered.  I questioned whether I had misunderstood the time or not.  I waited several minutes and finally her mom came to the door.  She was not ready and we were the only ones there.  Her mom told me "we say three but we really mean four".  That is SOO Guatemalan!  She invited us in and soon afterwards others began to arrive.  Most did not arrive until much later, but her mom started the party anyway.  Because of that there were only a few kids present to do the pinata.

The birthday girl with her Dora  pinata.  Isn't she precious!

This is Cruz's "oops" face. 

He did not understand all of the candy.  He would pick up one piece at a time and bring it to me.  At one point he picked out a particular piece he had picked up and took it back to the pile.  I guess he did not want that one, haha.  Everyone laughed at how he was reacting.  He can be very peculiar at times.

Kimberli's cake. 

This is a very common cake you will find here.  It has fruit on the inside and outside.  It is usually very moist and usually very good.

Getting ready to blow out her candle.

We also had tostadas with chicken salad and salsa on top and rosa jamaica juice to drink.

After eating the kids played until almost dark.  Cruz had a lot of fun and was tired and filthy by the time we got home.  We are glad for these new neighbor friends and that our kids like to play together.  Kimberli's mom is expecting another little girl in September.  Maybe Ben and her can be good friends also.

We'll party again with them this Saturday when we celebrate Cruz's second birthday with an Elmo themed bash at our house.  We are looking forward to another fun Saturday afternoon!

Learning Colors

Mother's Day 2012

I had a wonderful Mother's Day!  It was slow paced, relaxing, and just plain enjoyable.  Ben and I slept in (well we slept until his next feeding, haha).   When I walked into the kitchen this is what I found-

A dozen roses, a gift, a homemade card (which I LOVE), and a drawing from Cruz. 

We make homemade cards for each other for Mother's Day and Father's Day.  I think it is something special we will enjoy having down the road.  This year Cruz was big enough to help out.  I love it!  It has Cruz's handprint, Ben's footprint, and David's thumbprint.  I like that David added his thumbprint.  He got that from the Kekchi.  For those who cannot write they will put their thumbprint instead.  It was a sweet reminder of the Kekchi people that we love and miss. 

My gift was this necklace that has the boy's names on it.  I love it!

David offered to cook breakfast for me, but I wanted to cook instead (crazy, I know).   While in Guatemala City we were able to watch The Today Show.  I saw one morning where they were making Crunchy Peanut Butter French Toast.  I made a mental note that I wanted to fix that for Mother's Day breakfast.   

I had a little help from Cruz.  I let him crush the Corn Flakes.

I knew he would think that was fun.

Here is the finished product.  I ate mine on our celebration plate that we use on special occasions.

For lunch David took me to a favorite place of ours outside of Chiquimula.  It is a steak restaurant, but also has horse stables and a small zoo.  We love taking Cruz there, and I knew it would be a fun place to eat for my day. 

Inside of the restaurant.  It is open air.  They had a marimba band there playing music and that made it very festive.  We shared steak and chicken, and had plently left over to take home.  We made quesadillas for supper.

Ben and I during lunch.  You can see Cruz in the background swinging.

My new love!

You can imagine Cruz's excitement when we told him we were going to see the horses.  We took his new cowboy hat for him to wear.  Here are a few photos of him while there- 

walking to the stables

He would say "hola horse" to every horse we saw, and then wave at them. 

There was one baby horse.

We need to get this boy some boots!

Our family on Mother's Day 2012

We walked around the zoo area, but I did not get any photos because I was holding Ben.  We came home and spent the rest of the day relaxing.  We let Cruz play in the water for a while.  We all had an enjoyable day.  I am thankful for the blessing of our two boys  that allow me to celebrate Mother's Day as a mom. I felt very proud all day long!

At Home

It has been a little crazy around here.  We returned home on Wednesday afternoon.  I thought we had a full car going into Guatemala City, but OH MY we were full coming back home!   There really is no place like home, and we are all glad to be back.  The boys traveled well, and we are thankful for that.  We have spent the last few days unpacking, and have most everything put away.  The rest we will get to, eventually.   Cruz was very excited to be back home.  He was thrilled to see all of his toys and has played with them like they were new again.   Ben is doing well also although we are thinking he is not a fan of the heat.  It has been 100 degrees and over everyday since we returned.  That might not seem so bad, but we have no a/c in our house.  We have a window unit we run at night to help us sleep, but during the day we just melt.  We are all trying to get readjusted to the climate.  

During our time in Guatemala City our mission family brought us meals every other day while we were there.  It was a HUGE blessing!  The first two days we were back home we had meals delivered by missionaries who live in our area.  That was a blessing as well.  I have definitely been spoiled!  Today we made a trip into town to purchase a few groceries.  I guess it is time to get back in the kitchen.  I enjoy cooking so I guess it won't be so bad, haha.

When not unpacking, washing clothes, changing diapers, cleaning messes, etc. we have just been hanging out and enjoying being home.  Below are a few photos from the last few days.  Although it is an adjustment, we are loving having two little boys in our home!

Here is Ben leaving Guatemala City and heading home for the first time. 

On our trip home we stopped and ate at Sarita's.  We ordered Cruz this pancake and he loved it!  I wish I would have taken another photo of him afterwards because those chocolate chip fingers were wiped all over his clean shirt.  We are trying to teach him to clean his hands with a napkin, but he really prefers his shirt.  It drives his neat freak parents crazy.

We have watched a lot of cartoons since returning.  Cruz loves for us to put Ben in his lap while watching t.v.  He loves rubbing him on the head, and playing with his feet.  He also likes helping me burp him by patting him on the back, and pats him on the chest when he cries.  He is such a sweet big brother!

Wearing their matching pajamas.  I love to dress them alike or coordinate their clothes.

Oh how we love these two!

Cruz watching Reba one night after bath time.  We have made it to season 4.  We love that show.

Poor daddy! 

Cruz loves to climb on us.  That has been a challenge for me since having surgery.  I will be glad to fully recover and be able to play with him again.

Here we are having lunch on Saturday after buying groceries.  You can see the back of Cruz's hair is fully wet.  The restaurant we were eating in did not have the a/c on.  It was like sitting in an oven!  After ordering they did bring a fan and blew it right on us.  We were thankful for that. 

I am looking forward to celebrating Mother's Day tomorrow.  I am beyond grateful to be able to celebrate as a mom.  Although it is the hardest thing I have ever done, there is no greater joy than having children.  Happy Mother's Day to all of you mom's as well.

Children's Museum

On Friday we took Cruz to the Children's Museum in Guatemala City.  We had heard many great things about it and have been anxious to take him.  We were not disappointed!  It is a very nice museum and Cruz had a blast.  There were about eight school buses in the parking lot so we knew it would be crowded.  There were kids everywhere!  They were all divided into small groups with a leader and moved around from station to station in an organized fashion.  It did not affect our visit much.  I am sure we will be back there several times as our boys grow.

This was made out of legos.

One of Cruz's favorite things was this.  He loved stepping around on it and making music.  He was very tickled at himself.

He always enjoys coloring.

They had a sand area for smaller kids.  He got to play in there all by himself.  He liked it but was not sure about the sand on his feet and hands.  He kept wanting to clean himself off.

Cruz and I playing in the fruit stand.  He was able to identify many fruits and veggies.  He liked trying to eat them which horrified me because I am sure they were filthy.  It was fun pretending to be at the market.

They had a station where you learn about static electricity.  I loved how it made Cruz's hair stick out.

One of my favorite parts was this room for smaller kids.  The school kids that were there were too big to go inside.  One of the museum workers spotted Cruz and came to get us and opened it up just for us.  I thought that was nice!  There were many things in there for Cruz to do.   They had puzzles, books, sensory objects around the room, mats to climb and jump on, dress up things, a fishing pond, and more.  It was decorated perfectly for kids.  I just loved it in there!

Cruz "fishing"

He loves books.

Cruz has played in a few ball pits but this place had a ball room.  It was huge.  There were balls everywhere!  They have conveyor belts that take the balls to two large baskets at the top and when the baskets get full a bell rings and the balls all fall down like a waterfall.  The older kids loved it!  The screaming and excitement made Cruz a little nervous.  He just loved running around picking up all the balls.

There is a very nice playground outside that Cruz liked playing on.  The museum is close to the airport so he also enjoyed watching the planes fly overhead.  He is fascinated by airplanes these days.

Why climb through the toy when you can climb on top, haha. This might look like an elephant, but in Cruz's mind he was riding a horse.  He loved it!

The museum offers so much for kids to do.  It was a great place to visit, and I know we will be back soon.  There is a Pollo Campero attached so we enjoyed lunch there before returning home.  We were not out of the parking lot before Cruz fell asleep.  He took a three hour nap that day which made the trip to the museum soo worth it!