Happy thanksgiving

Well its been a while since my last post but its super hard to get access to the internet here. So i wont write much because i already forgot everything that has happen since my last post. We are all doing good, Mike and Colton are in AZ for the next couple of weeks, we miss them terribly but we are happy they are having fun and visiting with family we love so much over there. So lets let the pictures speak for themselves.... oh before i forget HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all! We are sorry we will miss this holiday, even if we do it here its not the same (because i would have to cook haha). The kids are very excited for turkey day so we will probably do a little something but nothing big like in the states.


Xavion climbing a fruit tree of "misperos" the tree is just in my parents patio and he loves to climb it and pick some and eat it while he is still on the tree.

  

Colton working harder than anybody else :D

Whenever we cant find Colton in the house we know he is behing my sister's house playing with sand and rocks. 

Just love... pure love. 

Mike working hard on Layla's playhouse we gave her for her birthday.

My parents have coffee plants everywhere and Colton loves to go cut off the coffee and trow it everywhere... this is his face when he gets cut. 

Miss Layla just being cute. 

I never thought i would see Mike work so hard on doing all the things he is been doing around here.  Im grateful for him and his hard work.

Hard worker just like his daddy. 

Yes, this is how we BBQ in our house, so delicious! We had all the family sitting around our grill and just eat straight from it. It was so good, we had 5 different kind of meats.

We hiked this hill the other day at my sisters house. It is a very nice view and there is a cemetery right on the top of the hill.

This is what he does when my nephew says picture... it does not work with me haha

Mike teaching Colton how to be a monkey haha

Mike really want Colton not to be afraid of lizards but so far he is terrified of them.
 

When they take over my bed haha

 Family time visiting my grandmother's grave.

 The kids had their first primary program this last Sunday they both did great!

 Just chilling

This girl just cant help herself when she hears the music. She has some awesome moves.

This video is so funny, When Xavion knew that Mike was recording him he got super nervous and couldn't think of anything good to say to the camara haha.
 

September already?

We are very excited because our house is almost done! It will probably be completely done in a couple of weeks. We can’t wait to move in, the house where we are in now is very small and now that it’s the raining season water gets in our room from the roof and it’s no fun. So we are super ready for our home to be done. We are just waiting for the front door to be installed and we can move in.

Mike has been really busy with the young men, there was a week where he went to church almost every day and I really missed him being out so much. It got me thinking how much I’m going to hate it when the time comes when he gets so busy with school. 

I have been busy being a mom and a wife. My kids keep me young that’s for sure. I sometimes get sick of my routine of having to clean the house every single day and having to spend much time washing clothes but when I don’t have to I sure enjoy it. I have been walking in the mornings and I have really been enjoying it, we also do Zumba with my sister in law. It gets really fun sometimes. Mike and I were able to have our first date since we got here and I was so grateful for it. I sure needed some time away from home. We went to a stake dance and we got to dance for a little while. Mike thought it was hilarious when we were dancing to the song “gangan style” and I said “ there are really sometimes when I listen to music and I can’t understand anything from it… like this one, I have never been able to understand it” Mike answered “maybe because you don’t speak Korean” haha

We have water now!!! Oh my goodness you would probably never know how happy I am that I don’t have to carry water all the way from down a hill to be able to wash clothes, it’s amazing. I’m so grateful for water!!!

Our kids are citizens of Guatemala now. They already have their Guatemalan passports. It was such a hard thing to get done though. We got to the passport place and after turning all the paper work in they were calling everybody’s name except ours. Finally someone came out and called my name. They took me in a room to ask me questions about Xavion and Layla and why they were so different. I explained to them they were adopted but everything was legal and that’s why they already have their Guatemalan birth certificate because we presented all the papers that were required. He said everything was good and they would give me the passports in just a bit. Well 10 minutes later someone else called out my name to ask the same questions. They asked for the adoption paper work to make sure we were the parents. We explained that if we hadn’t already presented all the paper work required we wouldn’t have their Guatemalan birth certificates already. They didn’t seem to understand that. So they said all we need is to see the adoption paper work. Thank goodness Mike had broght them along so we showed them to them…. Well after this they said we need their US birth certificates too…. Grrrrrrr. Mike and I were so irritated at this point we just laughed about it. The guy didn’t seem to appreciate the laugh and said “it’s not funny, this is to help you guys because we have to make a note on their passports” we explained him how irritated we were because it was just dumb that after we already gave them their Guatemalan birth certificates which was a requirement they were still asking all of these papers that we had to present at the time of getting their Guatemalan passport. Anyways we gave them all the papers they were asking for. The guy tried to read them but guess what? He didn’t speak English…. Well we got the passports and guess what?? There was absolutely nothing different between their passport and Colton’s passport. Guatemala is seriously the worse place to get any Government Issue done. I’m just glad it’s all done now!

Colton is running everywhere, everybody gets surprised to see that little thing walking so well. He does not let me feed him anymoreL. This was sad to me because he is growing up too fast.  He also knows how to throw fits now and he does a pretty good job. I taught him how to say please in sign language and for a few days he would do it every time we asked him to say please then he started to throw fits when he didn’t want to say it and he won’t even make eye contact with us when we are asking him to say please and he doesn’t want to do it grrrrrrr. Lately he has been so attached to Mike, he cries every time Mike walks away and won’t go to sleep unless Mike is right next to him. He got 2 new teeth and is crazy about food. There is absolutely nothing we can’t hide from him haha. Mike has been teaching him how to play hide and seek and he loves it. His personality has changed so much. He loves to help us out in everything we do. He likes to put clothes away and knows where everybody’s clothes goes. He impresses me so much! He knows how to wave bye now. One funny thing he is doing is whenever something funny happens he points at the person who is making him laugh and laughs so hard. He got also really sick again, he had lung infection, ear infection and throat infection. It was no fun, he had a bunch of medicine and we had to nebulize him very often and he is all better now.

Layla keeps getting more and more popular and I’m not sure how good that is. She gets so much attention and she loves it haha. She dances everywhere even in the street when she hears a song she likes. Everybody tell us how do we keep up with her and my answer is I don’t know we just do haha. The other day we went to drop off my sister at her house and on our way back there were 2 missionaries walking by. We stopped to say hi and the first thing Layla said was “hey you are black like me” haha he was from the Dominican Republic and he just laughed and said “yes and look at my hair it’s just like yours too. One day she was talking about her taste butts on her tongue haha. We told her it was taste “buds” One day we went to the center and we had to stop by the library to make some copies. There was a teenage couple there making out. It was bugging everybody you could tell but nobody was saying anything. I hadn’t pay much attention since Layla was looking away. When Layla realized what these guys were doing she looked at me and said “mom look at those guys yuck” so I walked up to them and polity said “can you guys please find a more private place to make out where no kids are around?” they laughed but guess what?? They stopped doing it haha.

Xavion lost another tooth, I think he got so excited about the tooth fairy the first time that he started getting his tooth loose on purpose so he could get more money. This time the tooth fairy did not bring him a lot of money and left a note that if he is getting his teeth loose on purpose she will not come back haha.  These are a few funny things that have happened with Xavion.

While playing the I spy game:

Mike: I spy something black

Xavion: Me??? Very confused

Me: I spy  a crazy lady

Xavion: It’s Layla right? While lifting up an eye brow letting me know there was no point in asking that question

Guess that song game: a Michael Jackson song was playing

Me: This guy used to be black but he did a lot of things and turned white

Xavion: Daddy!!!!

Colton dressing up as a clown :) 

This is why I don't like my kids eat candy haha

He can climb out of the car window now.

He can spend a lot of time playing here. He talks a lot while playing i wish i could understand what he is saying.

He really likes animals, chasing chickens is his favorite thing to do haha

He loves to help out. Mike was filling this thing with dirt so he started doing it too.

By this pic you can tell he loves eating beans. He is even using his spoon all by himself. 

Why can't they get a long all the time?? wouldn't that save mommy lots of head aches? haha

This is the group Xavion and Layla danced in the parade with. Afterwards everybody wanted to take pics of them, their smiles were very faked at the end haha.

Our house almost done. This little way is from our house to my moms and now is all done, it has tile on it now i just dont have a pic of right now.

  Our kitchen.

We started putting flowers up all around our house.

Our stairs up to our roof all done.

  We planted lots of goodies here now, i just dont have the pic. We planted parsley, cilantro, tomato, jalapeños, onions and few other things.

 Well i have to go now, my baby is screaming and i wanted to post this before my internet runs out. Until next time :).

Time flies!

I have really been trying to post more often so that I don’t write a testament every time but the lack of internet doesn’t really allow me to do so. This is probably one of the hardest things to get used to not having whenever we want it. The way it works is that you have a modem which is like a memory, you buy cards with internet and use the codes then you have certain time to use it and if you don’t then you lose it….. It’s so frustrating. 

We have been doing really well. We had 2 great visitors this month and that was great! It was nice to share with them a little bit of my birth town. Matt was here for a whole month…... how did we do it?! I don’t know but we made it!! Haha. We had a lot of fun while he was here we were able to do some fun things. Mike, Matt, Jeremy and Xavion got to go to Lago Atitlan and they were able to do some cool stuff like a zip line, rode jet skis and did a boat ride across the lake. We also went to a few other places called Rio Blanco, Laguna de Magdalena, Ahuehuetl and we probably went to Quetzaltenango about 3 times. A couple of days before he left we attempted to go to the beach called Champerico and an amusement park  put after 3 hours of driving we came across a bunch of people who had blocked the way because they were protesting and they wouldn’t let anyone go by. It was so frustrating, we had no other option but to come back home. We also had no water the whole time he was here, he brought bad luck with him because as soon as he left we had water the whole weekend and it started to rain super hard. He said it would happen as soon as he left. It was very nice to share time with Matt, in the US we almost never saw him so while he was here I got to know him better and see that there is a good guy inside ;). He was great with the kids, Colton who never goes to anyone had no problem hanging out with him and he loved him. The day he left I cried, crazy I know. Mike looked at me and said “You are either pregnant or something is definitely wrong with you” well… I’m not pregnant. 

Jeremy was here just for a few days but we sure enjoyed his visit. All the kids fell in love with him immediately, Layla just wanted to show him off to everybody (poor Jeremy he was almost never alone) haha. I’m sure he had a whole different experience than he did while he was in Antigua. The 2 places are so different. He also helped me clean, wash dishes and a bunch of stuff so I was very sad when he had to go haha. 

Colton is 1 already!!!! I can’t believe how fast he is growing up.  I often think about how we couldn’t believe he was real and he was ours when I held him in my arms the first time. We had waited for him for so long and the day he was born everything happened so fast that I just couldn’t believe he was finally in my arms. We did a water birthday party for him and it was really fun. He is now walking everywhere with no help anymore. He likes to climb on dogs and ride them like horses, or just sits next to them and hugs them hard. His personality is coming out and he can be pretty funny sometimes. Just today I woke up early to go running and so when he woke up for his bottle Mike just picked him up from his crib and put him in bed with him. Minutes later Mike felt Colton tapping his face, when he woke up Colton was standing on the floor pointing at his bottle and formula going “ooh ooh ooh”. He has 6 teeth now and man you can’t hide anything from him. Mike had bought some cookies and hid them in a box…well he found them and brought them to me saying “ooh ooh ooh” lol. Once he wakes up in the morning after he drinks his bottle he gets off the bed and goes to climb on the kids to wake them up going ooh ooh ooh. He is trying to play soccer, he knows how to kick the ball around and says ball very clearly as well as MOM!!!!! I think he says mom more than he says dad now! He does go with more people now but not too many, he is seriously a momma’s boy. Our house is almost done and there are stairs up to our roof, sometimes we lose him and we find him climbing half way up the stairs and as soon as he sees us coming he goes as fast as he can so we can’t catch up to him. He also got his first haircut. I made a lot of people mad by doing it but it was really long and I didn’t like how it looked anymore. He didn’t give me a hard time while doing it. He also loves brushing his teeth. Every time he sees someone brushing his teeth he goes and points at his toothbrush and goes ooh ooh ooh. We can tell he is understanding a lot more. His favorite thing is to play tag right before bed while he is naked lol. Every time I see an opportunity to lay down and rest he sees an opportunity to climb on my belly and jump up and down on top of me. He is seriously a boy!

Miss Layla is still keeping us on our toes but I’m going to try to stay positive :D. She learned how to ride her bike without training wheels the first day she tried! She can ride super-fast and is starting to do tricks. Her favorite thing to do is to ride with one hand and the other one on her waist like a beauty queen. She still dances, her and Xavion danced at a church activity and they did really good. Her hair looks much better after a lot of searching I found out that she needed a deep conditioner made out of honey and olive oil and thank goodness it’s working!  She is excited to have her own room in the new house and to decorate it. Her Spanish is amazing, she talks like one of the kids here and throws some words out of her that surprises us. Yesterday after lunch I sent her in her room to go work on her homework after a while she came crying saying that someone had hurt her while going into someone else’s house. I quickly replied, I’m sorry but what were you doing in that persons house if I sent you to work on your homework she replied “ I just wanted to go there to breath” haha I guess she can’t do that everywhere. 

Xavion is getting big, we can tell his face is changing and he is getting pretty tall. He loves to spend time with the family and play soccer as a family. Yesterday while playing a soccer game. Our family was winning and Xavion and Layla started doing chest bumps after every goal. Today he asked us to do it again as a family. He loves riding his bike as well. He does things that I don’t think a boy of his age would think in doing, like once he is done eating he will take everyone’s plates to the sink or he will pick up your trash and throw it away for you. He loves taking care of Colton and plays with him but gets really sad when Colton does not let him give him a kiss. He does not like to go to bed until he has kissed and hugged everybody. He did his first zip line and he loved it! He has been in 2 different zip lines now. He loved going with the guys (Mike, Matt and Jeremy) to Lake Atitlan and his favorite part was to eat at a place called Pollo campero 2 times! He is seriously an awesome little kid. 

Colton really watching a movie for the first time. He liked it. 

  

Layla with some of her favorite girls

 

 The kids celebrating our family scored a goal while playing soccer.

Colton getting his first haircut!

I'm so happy with how Layla's hair look in this picture. It was the first time i was able to braid her hair all the way around. Its growing!!!

Colton opening grandma and grandpa Barney's present. He loved it!

 Family ride. Colton wouldn't get off the bike. He knows exactly where his hands need to go while riding the bike. 

He loves to ride this little bike and carries his balls in the back. 

 

 Remember when i said he loves to climb everything?? he opened this kitchen little door and was standing on there for a while until the kitchen almost fell on top of him. 

He is not a big fun of me feeding him anymore. He likes to sit at the table with everybody and feed himself and this is what happens when he does :D

Some of the fun things we got to do while our visiters where here.  

 

They sure love each other. 

 

Everything the big kids do, the little one is gotta do it too.