Guatelicious

Hi everybody, here I am again. It seems to me that this week has been super long… a lot of different feelings have come together and some have been hard for me to overcome. My grandma is still hanging in there. Some days she seems to feel better but some days we don’t think she would make it to the end of the day. The doctor wanted her to stay in the hospital for about 7 days but it was a lot of money that our family couldn’t come up with so her kids decided to keep her home and wait for whatever God’s will is.  We really wanted her to go to the hospital to see if she could get better but it wasn’t possible so we will see what happens with her. It’s really hard to see her suffer. My grandpa is also making things a little worse because he wants her not to be sick and he is completely blind so he has a hard time not being able to help in anything. We had a busy week trying to get some paper work done. It is insane how difficult it is to get things done here, Mike gets frustrated some times and his question is always “why do they do that, that’s dumb” my answer is always “I don’t know” lol….. On the other hand we have had a good missionary week, 2 of my nephews and 3 of my nieces have been asking us if they can pray and read scriptures with us, sometimes they asks us if it is time yet before we are ready to do it. They have prayed and share stories of the bible they know.  Today they went to church with us and they asked me if I could give them a book of Mormon!!!! They say they really like it and a couple of times they have said “I want to be Mormon.” today they had many many questions for me about the church and I was very happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge. One great thing that happened yesterday was one of my cousins got baptized in the church the bad thing was he didn’t let us know. He is super super shy and so I found out by one of my friends that he got confirmed today. I had seen my cousin in church a couple of times before because he goes to the ward that starts after we are done so on Friday I talked to him about how he liked it he answered me but didn’t mention anything about his baptism. Oh well the good thing is he got baptized! Mike got stomach problems on Friday… we decided to take my aunt out to lunch since it was her birthday and we ate at a new place and mike’s stomach didn’t like the food. Thank goodness he is fine now! Mike was also brave enough to drive into downtown, its crazy there seriously I’ll probably never drive here haha but mike did and good thing he did it because we have been needing to go there very often. 

Colton is having a hard time not getting excited about waking up at 5-530am…. He wakes up with so much energy and just wants to be out the door. As soon as we go out he crawls all over the house but what he loves to do is chase the chickens and watch them eat, he gets so exited I’m afraid he is going to grab one and squeeze it lol. He keeps eating so much he is getting so big. He loves food and has started to refuse formula I’ve had to mix it with other stuff so that he drinks it. He really only drinks 2 bottles a day now. His 2 teeth are completely out and so now when he grabs my cheek I can really feel it so I’m trying to teach him not to bite. He has fallen so much I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten a bump, sometimes he falls so hard but only cries for a few seconds and stops, everybody says he is a very strong baby. He is going all over the place and still putting everything in his mouth, a couple of times I’ve taken chicken poop out of his hand right before it goes in his mouth ewwww. He looooooves oranges I think its his new favorite fruit!. He says papa very clear and ay ay ay ay ay when he cries haha. 

Layla keeps getting better and better at speaking Spanish. She prays in Spanish and even tells in depth stories in Spanish (even though we can only understand a little when she gets going lol). The other day one of mike’s students came by the house and she started speaking English with Layla to practice. Layla would only answer her in Spanish haha. She is now working on her math and is doing a really good job. Her behavior is improving little by little. We had to create a poster with stickers to motivate her to be better because it was getting out of hand. Everywhere we go she is a big hit haha. So many people ask to take picture with them and she likes to be so popular. At church there is a sister missionary from Gilbert Arizona so Layla has really enjoy to hang out with her at church. She also wake up with so much energy, between her and Colton I’m not getting any younger lol. 

Xavion keeps trying to speak Spanish, he gets frustrated when I shout español when he starts telling me something, I tell him I know its not fun but he needs to try or he won’t learn. He doesn’t like people touching his hair anymore, everybody touches it and he is got to his limit haha. He is also doing really well with his math, he is now doing 2 digit sums and is getting it fast. He has fallen a lot of times as well and he has scratches all over his face. I’m glad I don’t have to report nothing anymore to CPS or I would be in trouble haha. Xavion and Colton have gotten very close, Colton loves playing with him and he is always laughing when he is with Xavion. Xavion is a great big brother.

I love playing Peek a boo with this boy, he gives me the best reactions... proof down below

I love this picture, we were trying to get a pic of his teeth and just couldnt but instead Mike got this picture that melts my heart.

Trying out lime for the first time. 

At church they have a nursery just for babies, a couple of weeks ago they took Colton away from us but i didnt want him to go. I know nursery starts when they are 18 months so i wasnt ready to leave him. A sister just came and took him away from Mike, in my heart i was hoping he would cry a lot so he could come back to me. Guess what??? he did!!!! lol
This last Sunday i was asked to help in nursery so i had Colton and this other boy in there. Colton was so exited to play with this kid that he was climbing all over him and the boy was so scared and would just cry while Colton was the happiest little boy. The little boy is almost 1 and Colton was stronger than him so he was probably scared of him haha. I had to take Colton out of the crib so the other boy could stay calm.
 

Just a couple of nights ago i came in the room and i only had a lamp on. I looked in the crib and did not see Colton i was so scared for a minute. Just seconds after Mike said he is right at the corner, i was scared too until i saw him.

The Barney brothers!

...... and their sister

Kids wanted to play dress up, good thing we had sent all of these costumes in the box. There are so many kids here though that we probably wont have enough to  give everybody for Halloween.

One of Mike's first works as an aspiring photographer.
  

This is all for this week. We hope you are all happy and fat back home haha. We love you and miss you all. 

Another week.

This week has been a long one and very busy. My grandma is really sick and we are not sure how much more time she has left so we have been visiting her almost every day and going all over the place getting stuff done to help out. Mike’s truck got here on Monday and it couldn’t have come at a better time, now that my grandma is really sick we have been taking my mom over there several times a day sometimes and doing favors for my uncles and aunts. Mike has been very busy driving all of us around and is being pretty aggressive at driving which is what is needed here in Gutemala. He hasn’t driven downtown yet, but I’m sure he will soon. I don’t think I’ll be driving anytime soon though. Traffic is crazy here haha. My mom is having a hard time and I wish she already had the knowledge about the plan of salvation. I’m so grateful I do and I can share with them even if it is a little bit at a time. My grandma is one of my heroes, she is such a humble, caring, loving person that I can’t imagine never to see her again. I’m so grateful heavenly father gave us the plan of salvation so that I can be with this amazing women someday again. I will surely miss her when she is gone though. Since we got here it has been a little hard to get on a schedule. We all wake up at different times and do different things to start our day but today we sat down all together and made a better schedule so hopefully it will be easier. All of my nieces and nephews have been asking us to let them do scriptures and prayers with us, we were so happy when they asked! They are even asking before we are ready to do it if it is time yet. This week 3 of them said the prayer. One night we all got on our knees and only 1 of my nephews did the same thing so Layla told him “muy bien” (good job) and got everyone else to get on their knees too!

Colton is getting chubbier every day and now he says papa (dad). He said it like 20 times before Mike even heard him say it (it made me very happy as I was hoping Mike will hear him say mama first haha). He did say mama one time though!!!!!! We can’t hide any food from him now, he wants everything he sees people eating and will climb all over them to get it if needed haha. He is so smart that whenever he is crawling on the floor and then goes out in the patio he lifts up his knees and crawls only with his hands and feet so he won’t scratch his knees…. I love him so much!

Layla loves to be popular and the center of attention. She has fallen off the back of the truck a couple of times (not when it is moving) so she isn’t allowed to ride in the back when we go into town. She was really excited to see her bed and toy kitchen when the truck got here. We got her kitchen all set up and at least 1 different kid was playing with it all day long. She gave her first talk in primary today and she did great! Her Spanish was very clear to understand and had no problem standing in front of everybody. Everytime she goes to brush her teeth she likes to stand on the toilet to get to the sink, I have always tell her not to do that but Layla is Layla… so a couple of days ago she fell down and she hit her tooth on the toilet and now its loose…. Maybe she will understand now why I told her not to do it?????

Xavion keeps learning Spanish, I told him no more English from me to him so he asks how to say something before he talks to me which is great. He also gave a talk in church today and was very nervous but did awesome as well. They both with Layla now know the first 8 articles of faith!!!! I have very smart kids!!!! Xavion’s way to tell that Layla had a loose tooth was “Layla got a movelly tooth” lol. 

This is what Colton does every single morning. He stands by the window for a while just talking to himself. 

 

This is Mike's truck from pretty much every time we go out, except when we go to church haha. 

 

  this is how many people we fit inside the truck, we couldn't get everybody in the pic but there were 3 adults and 6 kids!

we hiked this place a couple of days ago. we went to play at a soccer field that is located at the top of a hill. it was pretty fun.

we are pretty much in charge of all this kids everytime we go out, it's good practice for me to have more haha. 

 

Colton laying on the grass close to the river enjoying his bottle. 

kids being kids.

A trip to the ruins, it was a lot of fun, 2 of my nieces and 1 of my nephews had never been there so we took them with us, they were very exited.

these people were doing their rituals, praying to their mayan God. 

Colton says hi

This is the view from behind the house

and from the top of the hill

Mike sad he fell down while coming down the hill.... what a baby haha

Just us trying to take a pic with our good cow friend... 

Colton eating oranges for the first time, he loved them he ate a whole one.

My headache didnt end when we left mom and dad's house, he is still climbing the stairs and is really good at it. the other day i thought he left with mike and then i hear him go papa papa papa and he was sitting right in the middle of the top stair ready to go down....

this is our fruit guy.... he comes every Wednesday to sell different kind of fruits so we wait for him very excited haha

This is my brother's house where we are staying, its 3 rooms but we only use 2 of them.

This is the PILA where we wash our clothes and dishes...

My beloved grandma, i love her so much. She is one of my inspirations to become a better woman.

Some pics we got on Easter Sunday, Colton was too busy trying to eat the eggs.