Another 2 weeks..

These last weeks were so long and super busy. I can hardly remember what we have done. Colton and I were sick  for a while. It wasn’t fun. We both got a cold and Colton didn’t want to be down at all. I felt bad for him. I got better but Colton didn’t. He had a lot of phlegm, cough and fever so we had to take him to the hospital. What we found out while at the hospital was that his lungs, throat and ears were fine but not his stomach. He had a stomach bacteria. Dr said another day or so and he would have gotten really sick and would have needed to stay hospitalized. We were so happy to know we took him in just at the right time. Now with his medicine he has had a couple of better days. Two Saturdays ago we went to a concert with Mike and some of my siblings. Ricardo Arjona! We had to go to Guatemala City for that so I had to leave my kids for 24 hours… it was really hard especially to leave Colton because it was the first time I left him for so long. I was so nervous and really didn’t want to go anymore because I was having a hard time leaving Colton and leaving my mom with so many kids but at the end we did go. I felt really bad for my mom but I got my older 2 nephew and niece to help with my kids so my mom wouldn’t have to do all the work. Thankfully Colton was super good with them while we were gone and the one who cried and cried because we weren’t here was Layla haha. I thought she wouldn’t have a hard time but I guess she did…. Little stinker! Anyways, we are so glad we got to go. It had been a while since we were able to go out without kids and just be together the 2 of us. I love going on dates… especially with my handsome husband. I just love him so much J.

We have been able to go out to the pool a couple of times with all the kids. It has been very nice to go swimming. We thought that by moving to Guatemala we wouldn’t have to deal with so much heat anymore well….. we were so wrong. I think we brought the heat with us because for what we read there is a very nice weather in Arizona now!.  We hope that when we go back in a couple of weeks we can take the heat back and leave it there haha. Mike had a new experience this week. One of these days someone started screaming for help. When we listen to what they were saying we sent as much help as we could. They were screaming that someone had fallen into a well… Mike had just left to go get something at the store and someone had stopped him on the way. He went to help get this guy out and he took him to emergency room immediately. Mike couldn’t believe what he had lived. The good thing was the guy made it and he is now fine.

Colton gave his first 2 steps by himself last week. He is growing too fast and I can’t believe it. He gave a couple of steps going to my nephew and went straight to hug him and had a huge smile on his face. My nephew was super happy the first time he walked he was going towards him. They love Colton so much. They are always taking care of him. He also learned how to get down from things. This week he got down from the bed!. One day though he tried to go down from one patio to the other and it was so tall that his feet didn’t make it all the way down and he fell on his butt. I’m glad it was his butt.

Layla has said so many thing this week that she wanted me to mention and I can’t remember anything. She always says mom/dad “write this on the flag” lol. We have told her many times its blog not flag but she still calls it a flag. She has been carrying her baby doll on her back just like women carry their kids here in Guatemala. It’s pretty cute. Someone asked Layla this week if they could take a pic with her and she answered 5 quetzales haha. The girl said I don’t have 5 but I’ll give you 2. So Layla took the picture haha this girl. This girl is going to be a business girl!.

One of these days we went to the central park of Huehue to do some errands and there were so many people in line there. Someone gave the kids a bunch of candy each. When we saw Xavion was just hugging everyone who was in line or close by and giving them each a piece of candy haha. Everybody loved him. When we saw people started giving a couple of quetzales for being so nice haha. He was super happy that a few people gave him money. What we couldn’t believe was there was a man close by who was asking for money and when he saw that someone had given them money he run to the kids and put his little bucket right up to their face so the kids put their money in there. People here in Guatemala take advantage of everybody. Xavion’s Spanish is coming along. He is really trying now and wherever he doesn’t know how to say in Spanish he comes and asks and then he goes and continuous his conversation. Both on them with Layla are praying in Spanish now, a very short prayer but they can do it now! And both of them are starting to read a lot better too. They are brilliant!

Colton found a new hobby... Layla and Xavion aren't very please with it lol

This is what my baby does pretty much all day. A few times he has disappear in seconds and we find him behind the house just exploring around.

This is the first spot he learned to get down from. He always throws his toys in the flowers so he can get down to pick them up.

 

Just in case you ever wonder if he throws fits lol.... he wanted more bread.

Layla carrying her baby...Guatemalan style!

Layla and Xavion trying to eat worms... real ones haha. JK they just posed for the picture.

At the central park...

 

This guys came to add a lamp to this post. It was cool how they work on there, they climbed the post just like little monkeys haha.

 

Well people this is it for this week, like always we hope you are having fun back in the US. We love you and miss you all.

A Mother.... A Hero

What an excitement it is when you hear the news that you are having a baby. Having a baby is the most beautiful thing there is. Many emotions come our way. The happiness of having kids is so great but then as they start growing there comes the challenges of trying to teach them the right path to follow. Motherhood is awesome but it’s also such a hard job. Being a mother of 3 I have to say I have never felt as tired as I do these days. Sometimes the days seem so long and hard that bedtime can’t come any sooner. I have had moments where I have screamed at my kids. I have had moments where I wish I could run away for a day or so and forget everything. I have had moments where I locked myself in a room and cry my eyes out or just put myself in time out. I have had moments where I felt I was the worst mom ever. As a mother of 2 adoptive children I have had moments where I felt that they weren’t my kids and I didn’t have to treat them like I treated my own. I came to a time were almost every day I woke up angry, overwhelm, frustrated and sad at the same time. Almost every day I wanted to run out of who I was and who I had become .….. but then……………….. at the end of the day I felt mad at myself for doing and feeling the way I was feeling. At the end of the day I felt that it didn’t matter what my kids did or say it was all my fault. My kids didn’t tell me how I needed to react about the situation. I was the one who decided what to do about it. At the end of the day it didn’t matter if my kids were adopted or not they all 3 are the light of my life. I had made a commitment with Heavenly Father that I would take care of his children here on earth. At the end of the day I love them all so much that I have to become a better mom for them every day. I came to understand that it wasn’t heavenly father the one who wanted me to feel this way. It wasn’t heavenly father telling me to scream at my kids when I did. It was Satan who wanted me to feel what a bad mother I was. I still have days where I feel this way but I know heavenly father is there and all I have to do is get on my knees and pray to him to help me ignore this feelings and try to teach my kids the right path. I understand that motherhood doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It doesn’t mean you have to be a superhero. It doesn’t mean you have to be like the moms that seems to have time for everything you always wanted to do. It doesn’t mean you are a bad mom every time you make a mistake. Teaching your kids isn’t easy. When they make a mistake it’s not easy to control your anger and talk to them. When you are mad words that you wouldn’t want to say come out of your mouth without thinking about them. I still have days where I do and say things that I wouldn’t want to but I know as long as we are humans we are going to make mistakes. No matter how many bad moments I have during the day I would never change any of the moments I have had with my kids. They have change my life forever and it doesn’t matter how many headaches they give me they are always the people I want around me every day. Heavenly Father has trust us to care for some of his children here on earth. We are bless to have each of our children with us. I remember with each of my 5 pregnancies that I lost I always thought once I had kids I would be the best mom ever. Often I find myself thinking I’m not close to be the mother I want to be. This is a hard path but it’s a path we aren’t alone in. We are never alone. Our children look up to us for direction just like we look up to heavenly father. No matter how hard it is I will always pray that I can be a better mother every day. Just remember you don’t need to be a super hero to everybody as long as you can be a hero for you children… and it really doesn’t take that much for your kids to consider you a hero! So if you are trying hard to be a perfect mom or a mom like someone else you know... stop.. just try to be a better mom every day, your kids will always love you and I am sure you are already a hero for them.

Hard to believe she is gone.

A couple of weeks have gone by, one of them really hard for my family like you all probably already know. The day came, the day when we had to say goodbye to my beautiful grandma. I had been preparing my mom for it and I was preparing for it as well but like we all probably know it doesn’t matter how prepared you are for it…. It still hurts. Knowing about the plan of salvation helps a lot but it still hurts to let someone go. I’m so grateful for my heavenly father and his love for us that gives us the opportunity to see our loved ones again in the other life. Now that we went through this I got to think about those that don’t believe there is a God, those who don’t believe there is a life after this one. How sad would it be to think that death is the end and you will never see your loved ones again. My grandma was such a great grandma, mother, daughter, sister… everybody who knew her knows that she wouldn’t let anyone be hungry, be out on the street, be away from the family… she was just a great example to follow. This week she would have turned 90 years old. what a blessing was to have her for so long.  I have so many memories of my grandma. It was so hard to say goodbye to her. It is still hard to believe she is gone. I love her and miss her a lot. My grandma was just one of my heroes. We haven’t done much this week. We have been so busy with my grandma’s funeral and just being with the family. Funerals here are so different, my grandma passed away on Friday and Saturday was her funeral. Then, the day after they start with some meetings every night for 9 days and then we all go to the cemetery again and bring her all the flowers people bring during the 9 days. So many people come every night, my grandma will be greatly missed by everybody not just her family. We also got to go to Quetzaltenango this week, Mike and Xavion went to the theater while I stayed out with Colton and Layla and went to a few stores. We got to go to Walmart!!! It was nice to see something American haha. We also got to buy a few things we haven’t been able to get here in Huehue.

Mike got a calling at church, he was called to be the young men’s president! He was a little nervous but Sunday was his first lesson and he felt better after that. It was funny to hear how his name was pronounced during sacrament meeting. Our bishop wrote it down just like it sounds in Spanish and even then he had a hard time saying it haha. Mike also got a little bit sick this week.

I drove a couple of times already wohoooooo.. It makes me excited because I thought I would never drive here in Huehue. I haven’t driven to town or anything like that but I drove to my grandma’s house and then my sisters. When we were planning to come here I knew my life was going to get busy and change a lot but I never thought it would be so busy. I feel like I work all day trying to get things done and still at the end of the day I’m not done with everything. One of my sisters works until 8pm sometimes so her 2 kids are basically with us all day. Right after they get come home from school I have to help them with their homework and make sure they are ok. My mom used to take care of all of that but now that all of this happened with my grandma she is almost never home. Having 5 kids under my care is really making me think I don’t want 5 of my own lol.

Colton is getting a lot more active every day. I can barely keep up with him. In the last couple of days we see him so much bigger. He is growing way fast, especially now that we can’t hide any food from him haha. He can now say “ball” “agua”. He amazes me every day. He really wants to walk now, he has stood up and stay up for about 10 seconds without holding on from anything! He loves playing with water and balls. He used to love to get up and look at the chickens in the morning but now all the chickens died so he doesn’t have any more chickens to look at so now he wakes up, eats, crawls all over the patio playing the ball then I have no option but to shower him right away haha. Colton loves food sooooo much that the following experience had me laughing so hard…. On our way to Xela yesterday he was sleeping so hard nothing could wake him up, then Layla asked if she could please have a cookie. I grabbed the cookie and I opened it to give to both the kids, Colton heard the noise of the wrapper and his hand went straight to Xavion’s hand and took one cookie away from him, his eyes were not even open yet and the cookie was already in his mouth haha. He truly is like his momma when it comes to food lol. Colton has also discover he is a boy haha, the other day he was so frustrated because he knew there was something new down there and he couldn't get it off lol.

Layla really wanted to participate in a school dance that one of my nieces danced to. My niece’s teacher wanted to find her a spot so that she could dance in front of everybody and Layla was very excited but then while we looked for the song she got shy and didn’t want to dance anymore. Everybody loves her, they are always taking pictures with them. We told them that when people want to take pics with them they should say yes but 5 quetzales porfavor haha. She has only say it once then we told her we didn’t actually want her to say it haha.

Xavion’s Spanish is coming along. He is more optimistic about learning and is remembering a little bit more. He is still very shy at church because he has a hard time communicating with people but he will get there. He still hugs everybody he sees. The other day there was a mass here in the house and in the part where they give the “peace hug” he disappeared from where we were and when we saw he was hugging everybody who was here haha. Xavion also learned how to tie his shoes all by himself! He was very proud of himself and so were we. He has said a few funny things this week, He has had us laughing pretty hard a few times. Ill list some of our conversations of the last few days.

 

Layla: (telling us a story)

Xavion: Layla I think you are just faking it up

Layla: Xavion stop saying that, you are always saying that

Xavion: Ok, Layla but I think you are just throwing words out yo mouth. haha

 

Xavion: (trying to hide behind the weeds)

Me: Xavion what are you doing

Xavion: I’m playing

Me: What are you playing, I want to know

Xavion: hide and seek

Me: with who?

Xavion: with the cat

Me: hahahahahaha ok I hope you are having fun lol

 

While we were at the grocery store

Xavion: dad I think you need to buy me some juice

Mike: you think so? Why?

Xavion: so that I don’t have to ask you for juice anymore

 

While at the store as well:

Xavion: mom can we get some dog food

Me: why? We don’t even have a dog

Xavion: well if we have the food we have to buy a dog haha

 

Mike: Xavion can you please sing to Colton so he can fall asleep. Sing I’m a Child of God

Xavion: I cant remember that song

Me: You already forgot??

Xavion: No, I know it but it just doesn’t want to come out of my brain

Layla comes in crying to Xavion

Xavion replies: Layla can you please don’t cry on my bed because you will put agua on my bed and mom will get mad because she will think I wet the bed.

One of Xavion’s sentences during his prayer…..“Please Heavenly father help us keep our brain in our heads”

 

This is what Colton used to do every morning around 6am but now all the chickens died so he doesn't get to do so anymore.

 

My happy little boy, as long as he is with mom or dad he is the happiest little boy haha. He loves to climb all over us when we are down on the floor.

He loves bread, he would eat bread all day long if I let him haha.

Colton loves playing inside the car. Every time he is inside the car playing he has this big smile on his face :D

Colton also loves digging stuff out of the little holes. He can spend hours and hours playing like this.

And.... he loves playing with balls!!!

 

and loves loves loves playing with water.... every time it rains he goes to the corner of the house and puts his hand right where the water is coming down. This is how I found him the other day.

 

 

 I think he plays with Layla's kitchen more than her. He loves throwing all the little dishes all over the floor over and over again... I get to clean up.

 

My niece gave him a lolliepop the other day and he didn't let it go anymore.

This is at Walmart! I had to leave my ID for them to give me this cart but it was worth it because Colton slept in there for a couple of hours, he was very comfy.

 

Layla being Layla, she is so stinky cute (when she wants to) haha

 

Mike found a lizard in the house and Layla loved holding it, she even tried to put it on her tongue but the lizard didn't stick to it haha.

 

                                                 

This is my grandma's coffin and all the flowers that people brought, at the end of the day there were a lot more flowers all around the coffin.

 

 ....... and this was her tomb

 

 This is how they decorated for the 9th day. Today we took all the flowers and everything back to her tomb. They believe everything has to be taken even sand or anything they used to decorate with. They take it to the cemetery and leave it all around her tomb.

We went to Quetzaltenango and because we were with my brother and his family we didn't get to go to the temple but we were able to see it from far away and it was beautiful. The kids were very excited to see it.

 

This guy became a nice friend during sacrament meeting today. He hang out under our bench until everybody left.... probably waiting for some left overs lol.

 

This was at my grandma's house while they did a mass all the kids were falling asleep so we put them on in the same beds, there were 2 other beds that were completely full of kids.

 

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.