Here is a random look at our month so far...
On New Year's Day Ben finally lost a front tooth. It was only his third tooth to lose so far. Both of my boys have been late losing teeth.
We started back to school on January 6. I enjoyed our Christmas Break but I was ready to get back into a structured routine.
I began reading this devotional book this month. I am enjoying it.
A view from a recent Sunday drive to church. You can see Fuego Volcano erupting in the distance.
The children's Sunday School class sharing with the congregation what they had learned that day.
I was excited to find green tomatoes at a local grocery store. We had fried green tomatoes two nights in a row with our supper.
Ten days later Ben lost his other front tooth. We were at a local hotel making reservations for an upcoming team and he pulled it while we were there. He was so excited. He looks so cute now without his two front teeth.
On a recent sunny Saturday morning the boys spent some time playing in the backyard with a homemade ramp and a Tonka truck.
simple fun
We were looking forward to watching the college football championship game. Early in the season the boys decided they liked LSU and began to cheer for them each week. It helped that they had a winning season. We decided to make homemade pizzas for supper that night to eat before the big game. We each got our own dough to shape. This is how Cruz made his pizza. I wonder where he got that creativity from? ha David was out of town with a team from South Carolina (Clemson fans) and did not get to watch the game with us.
The boys had big plans of staying up to watch the whole game. Neither of them made it to half time.
After halftime I put them to bed and finished watching the game on my computer.
Cruz had a wild idea to start an art project. We have a few flag puzzles in our school room that he loves. He grabbed some paper and paint one afternoon and began painting several of the flags. He spent a few days working on different ones. He is storing them all in a folder and will probably show them to you if you visit anytime soon.
Here he is one evening during our read aloud time. We are currently reading through the book Captain Nobody. I normally do our chapter book reading at night but this particular evening he wanted to read instead. I gladly let him.
I mentioned that David had been out with a team. We hosted a group from First Baptist Mt. Pleasant, SC. This is a partner church who has been sending teams to Guatemala for about eight years now. We love this church and all of the members we have met over the years. This group went back to the Chiquimula area to serve. They spent several days making home visits, leading in worship services, and encouraging the believers there.
They were a hard working group and a blessing to many.
A group of ladies from First Baptist Hazlehurst, MS (my hometown) hand made some wonderful jump ropes and mailed them to this team to bring down to us. The group passed out several of them throughout their week and we still have many left to give away. The kids loved them and we look forward to making more smile in the future.
The team spent a few days in Antigua at the end of their week. The boys and I had stayed home to do school so we did not get to be with them on the front end. We were all excited to see them when they got here. Here are the boys with a gift that was sent to them.
While in Antigua the team stayed at a local hotel but we hosted Miguel in our home. He helped David work this team by driving and translating. He is like family to us and we were especially glad to get to spend some time with him. For breakfast one morning I served him a typical breakfast from our home area- eggs, grits, biscuits, and bacon.
Visiting the Antigua cross with the team. We spent all of Friday touring the town. We went to the market, the jade shop, did a coffee tour, visited a cathedral, and had lunch at Pollo Campero. It was a fun day.
Mr. David with the boys at the jade shop. We love Mr. Dave!! I have lost count on how many times he has been down.
The boys had karate that afternoon. Savannah and Liz went with us to class. The boys loved having someone there to watch them. It was a special treat.
Here are a few photos of them at class that day-
The team came over that night for pizza. Some watched a movie, some played cards, and some had Nerf wars. It was a really fun night for everyone. We laughed and had the best time. We were sad for them to leave early the next morning.
This past Tuesday afternoon we made a quick trip into Guatemala City to pick up David and Cruz's new passports. On the way home we stopped by Denny's for a snack. We love to eat at Denny's in Guatemala City!
The boys enjoyed milkshakes. Ben had strawberry.
Cruz chose Oreo.
We had some beautiful views of the volcanoes on the drive home from the city. We noticed what looked like ice or snow on the tip top of Acatenango (it has been chilly this week). I snapped a few photos of it.
Later that evening I noticed several others sharing photos on Facebook of it as well. One photo shared by the Guatemala meteorology page showed the ice on Acatenango and Fuego erupting at the same time. What a beautiful sight! The volcano views never get old.
Well, as you can see we have had a good month but it is not over yet.
I look forward to sharing with you the fun way we plan to close this month out. Happy Saturday everyone! I'm off to refill my coffee.
