this at that...and that...and that...

For the sake of a little update and random talk by me...

CARTER

yes, it's true, Carter has started calling me a princess (see previous post). He has no sisters...I definitely don't have princessy type things around, so where does he get this from?? Brooklyn :-) yup, everytime we see anything princess in the stores, hey! there's Brooklyn's princess! So he saw some of our wedding pictures and started calling me a princess. Then on Sunday I put on a new skirt ("new" as in dug it out of my maternity bin for the first time) and he said, oh mom your skirt is pretty! You like like a princess.

LOGAN

He's just plain funny most of the time. A tease. We have been trying to slap his thumb out of his mouth during the day and only let him suck it when he wants to sleep (he's been obsessed with that thumb almost since he was born I think). Yesterday Dallas kept slapping his thumb out, so Logan crawled over to me and buried his face in my shoulder on the opposite side of Dallas and then stuck his thumb in. As if to hide from him. Or he'll take his blanket in one hand and put it up by his mouth and try and stick is other thumb in discreetly beside the blanket.

STAFF RETREAT!

We're excited to get away this weekend for our first every missionary staff retreat. We're all going to the guesthouse in El Paso (free board! haha) for a few days. Carter is so excited about going to the zoo and going to the swimming pool. And we've been telling him who's all coming and he said today "oh, I like all those people's".

BIBLE STUDIES...

Since it's February and all, last Thursday we watched the movie "Fireproof" with the couple we have studies with on Thursdays. If you havn't seen the movie, it's actually quite good. Dallas and I put off watching it for the longest time thinking it would just be too cheesy, but finally we watched it a couple of months ago and they did a really good job with it. So the next couple of weeks with this couple we'll be doing some follow up Bible studies on marriage. Dallas is also continuing his Bible study and English class in Las Palmas and that is going well. And kid's club on Saturdays is a good time! We had less kids this last weekend but that's how it goes, one week there's a bunch and the next week less. The core group is usually there though.

oh and Logan had quite the fall at our last kid's club. He was in his walker (totally legal here, and in the States too by the way, Canada not) and as we were cleaning up at the end he walked over the curb onto the road and the walker flipped over and he got all the weight smack on his little face. His forehead and nose got it all but he's healing up nicely. It was just some scratches. And by the way, we don't put Logan in the walker upstairs :-) Now THAT would be a nasty tumble.

AND THAT'S A WRAP

Time for bed. sorry no pictures to enhance this post.

Future husband up for grabs! Reserve him now and get him in 20 years!

When your little daughter grows up, would you like her to have a charming, caring husband? Then have we got the boy for you!

These are just a few of the things he will do to make your daughter feel loved and cared for:

1. Help wash the dishes.
2. Tell her that her skirt is pretty and that she looks like a princess.
3. Put away her garbage without being asked.
4. Give great big hugs and kisses.
5. Help make meals.
6. Say "you're the best mommy ever"...err... i mean "wife".
7. Offer her chocolate after chocolate.
8. Get cozy on the couch with her.

There is no guarantee on this offer. The mannerisms and characteristics of Carter Isaiah may drastically change in the next 20 years.

already??

Tomorrow I hit the 12 week pregnancy mark!
Time has flooooooooooown by, likely because I really don't pay as much attention to the fact that I'm pregnant as I did especially with the first one.
But...I must say...seeing the ultrasound of a 12 week old baby moving around like CRAZY is something else...

About that ultrasound.
On Friday we went to check out a hospital in Chihuahua. We weren't entirely comfortable with the doctor we saw in Delicias and with the care here, and others had advised us to try to go to Chihuahua. There's just more emergency things available, everything is right there at the hospital as opposed to a smaller maternity clinic. And with my needing a c-section, we went with that advice.

Apparently my placenta is also in the front, covering the area where the c-section will be done, which poses difficulties. Difficulties if it stays there and may cause bleeding since that is where they will cut, and also since I've had a previous c-section it's possible for the placenta to grow into my old scar. But she said it's possible for it to move higher up yet and get out of the way.

This hospital is so nice, good care, great doctor...so we're relieved to have that decision over and done with.

(forced) time off from movies...

In the last little while Dallas and I have talked about lessening the amount of movies that Carter watches. He doesn't watch a lot, maybe 1/2 hour to an hour a day, and we try not to let him watch one until the afternoon when Logan is having a nap just to have some down time for us all so we can get things done or have a break.

But...the problem we have with it is that from the time he wakes up in the morning, he's asking if he can watch a movie. And as soon as lunch is over it's "Put Logan to bed!! Logan's tired!...." aka "I wanna watch a movie". And even then, we tell him, ok ONE movie and then when that movie is over, he gets up himself and takes the movie out and puts it away and turns off the TV.

so really what's the problem??

IF we don't tell him only ONE movie, or IF we're at someone's house and he's watching cartoons there or whatever and we have to leave, he SCREAMS and CRIES when it gets turned off. And that we are getting tired of.

So starting yesterday, NO MOVIES until next Friday. One week. The exceptions are if it's something Dallas and I are watching together with him......like the Cosby Show :-) He's still been asking us all day for a movie but we just say no and find something else for him to do. So it's been good so far. Hopefully after a week he'll get out of the habit of asking all the time...??

poem for Trav

Today is my brother Trav's birthday....28....so here is your Ode to Travis, written by yours truely...{and of course, the baby is Moises}

ok I gave up on the poem. My creative juices just aren't flowing at the moment. But without further ado, here are some memories I have of what we've done together....

1. Been in the same grade all the way up till grade 12 (although we didn't have all the same classes in high school)
2. laughed in the mattress' till Trav's face was beat red
3. played football with the other boys
4. had b'day parties together
5. gone canoeing/camping together once we were married
6. both went to RGBI to learn spanish and moved to another country as missionaries - although at different times and different countries...
7. Trav and Jared mc'd at our wedding, very funny
8. studied a lot for tests and exams together
9. both married portage area people :-)
10. had the funniest talk ever before Trav got married haha remember that one?

anyways. that's it for now.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

we have another nephew!!!

Meet our newest nephew...all of 1 day old... Moises Santiago Zacharias

born to my twin brother Travis and Rosey and his sister Zippy!


We can't wait to meet you!!

pictures

See the link above "new pictures" to see some January pic's...

back...

wow I didn't realize it'd been almost a week since I last wrote. but...we've been gone that whole time. Last Saturday after kid's club here we drove out to Cuauhtemoc and...
- met the new couple that is hosting at the guesthouse in El Paso for a few months
- on Sunday went to Soto Maynez (1 1/2 drive from Cuauhtemoc) to visit CEMM missionaries Juan Claudia and Carlos and Dallas preached at the service in the morning
- drove back that afternoon to attend Emma's 2nd birthday party
- Monday us missionaries drove the 3 1/2 hours to Copper Canyon and Creel to check it out - huge huge canyon and souvenirs. It was a beautiful windy drive through the mountains.
- Tuesday us and Faith and LeRoy drove the 5ish hours to the border to hand in our tourist visa's and vehicle permits (THAT whole story is in the previous post...). Spent the night at the guesthouse.
- this morning, picked up new tourist visa's and vehicle permits and drove the 5ish hours back home!

did tons of driving the last few days and I'm tired of driving!! But thankfully it all went smoothly.

paperwork is fun...really...

well we've been home for all of half an hour and I didn't intend to write a blog about our day quite so quick! But can you believe this...Carter is preoccupied playing with his toys by himself and Logan is having fun with an empty milk carton so no one is begging me to do anything right now! so here's my chance.

Like I was saying in yesterday's post, we had to go in today to work on some Mexican status paperwork - to allow us to stay here one year at a time. So we got up at 7 am, had the kids ready and in the van by 8 pm, stopped over at someone's house for a half hour to drop something off, then hit the road for Chihuahua, just over an hour's drive away. When we were ALMOST there...I realized we had forgotten a bunch of paperwork that we needed at home!! ooo that was frustrating! So we drove back almost an hour, picked it up, and then drove back the hour to Chihuahua. We were supposed to meet LeRoy, Faith, and Alvira at the office where we were going at 9:30 am...we got there at 11:00. oh well, they had started the process already.

so...we spent the next 3 HOURS doing...
- filling out paperwork for all 4 of us
- going to the bank to pay for our new paperwork
- making photocopies of our passport info.
- entertaining and feeding the kids in the small waiting room
- sorting through tons of paperwork


{that picture is way too big, but it says "no project is complete unless the paperwork is done"}

finally just before 2 pm we finished and got everything together and went into the office with the guy in charge to make sure we had everything we needed and to get our "in transit" paper.

In 2 weeks we need to go into El Paso for our staff retreat, and LeRoy and Faith also need to leave the country to go to a wedding in Canada...so we need to be able to leave the country in Feb. no problem, in the past as Alvira has told us, you could pay a small fee to be able to leave the country while you were "in transit", before your actual status paperwork arrived. We found out today though that this rule was CHANGED last year and you CANNOT leave the country until the paperwork is back...which first needs to be sent to Mexico City, approved, and returned. Taking 3 weeks or more, they have no idea how long.

If we WOULD leave the country while "in transit", we would need to start the process all over again.

SO... that said.... we decided to cancel all that we had been working on, renew our tourist visa's (which expire this Wed), and start the process in a couple of months after we know we don't need to leave Mexico for at least a month. make any sense?? Needless to say it was a very long day and we didn't get what we needed! but so it goes, and no one knew the rule had changed.

That leaves us with the need to go to the border before Wed and renew our tourist visa's. hmmmm...

melting snow??

Today feels like one of those days back in Canada in the springtime...the air is getting warmer, it's sunny, and there's puddles on the ground. These puddles here are from some rain we had last night though...

And it really is getting warmer here! It's so nice not to have to have all this on Logan in the house b/c of the cold floor and cold house...
1. 1 or 2 long sleeve shirts
2. fleece sweater
3. long johns or thinner pants
4. thicker pants over top
5. socks
6. slippers

The double pants are b/c he crawls around on the floor all day and the floor is crazy cold.
But it's getting warmer!!! still sweater and shoe weather but much better. Lifts your spirits.

tomorrow we are starting the process of getting longer-term paperwork for Mexico. We need to go into Chihuahua and hand in our tourist visa's and {hopefully} be given an "in transit" status. This status we'll have for {again hopefully} only a couple of months and then we'll have our FM3 status which allows us to stay here up to 1 year. That status we will renew every year. If we want to go into El paso during our "in transit" stage {which we'll be doing in February for our missionary staff retreat}, we need to go to an office in Chihuahua and pay our way out....all legal :-)

our house

I did this survey a while ago when we lived in our duplex in Steinbach. We're home this evening, and...well, I don't know what to do with myself. I accomplished a lot today I think so here's my relaxing time...
I thought it was interesting to see how our house was different here in Mexico.


1. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now? well first of all, we don't have a bathtub, we just have a shower. There is a big bottle of Superstore brand baby wash (STILL from Steinbach haha) and our Garnier shampoo and conditioner.

2. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? Not yet, once it's a little warmer

3. What would you change about your living room? I would put new window pains in if we owned this place, they are very dirty and stained.

4. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? still don't have a dishwasher...

5. What is in your fridge? milk, eggs, juice, leftovers...the usual

6. White or wheat bread? I prefer white, Dallas prefers wheat, so we end up getting wheat cause you know, they say it's healthier

7. What is on top of your refrigerator? lots and lots of extra yerba, some taco chips, and kleenex

8. What color or design is on your shower curtain? off white with some yellow on it

9. How many plants are in your home? 1 lonely poinsettia plant

10. Is your bed made right now? ummmm...

11. Comet or Soft Scrub? Neither

12. Is your closet organized? mostly

13. Can you describe your flashlight? a headlamp and a little black one

14. Do you drink out of glass or plastic more at home? Glass

15. Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now? No, I like to have lemonade around though

16. If you have garage, is it cluttered? we don't have a garage, but we have a carport. All that's in it is our van.

17. Curtains or blinds? curtains

18. How many pillows do you sleep with? 1

19. Do you sleep with any lights on at night? No - pitch black please!

20. How often do you vacuum? We don't have rug here, except for an area rug in the living room. That gets vacuumed maybe once a week.

21. Standard toothbrush or electric? regular

22. What color is your toothbrush? white, Dallas' is also white, and Carter' is multi-colored

23. Do you have welcome mat on your front porch? No

24. What is in your oven right now? Oven racks

25. Is there anything under your bed? Lint, I'm sure.

26. Chore you hate the most? sweeping and mopping! it's forever dusty in our house.

27. What retro items are in your home? none...

28. Do you have separate room you use an an office? We have an office that is also our spare room.

29. How many mirrors are in your home? ummm...one in each of the 2 bathrooms and one in our room

30. Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? Would I tell you if I did??

31. What color are your walls? downstairs is red and yellow, and upstairs is mostly all white, except for some blue and red in the boy's room.

32. What does your home smell like right now? not much

33. Favorite candle scent? Vanilla

34. What kind of pickles are in your refrigerator right now? I'm not sure if you can even buy pickles here...I would love to have some of my Grandma Harder's pickles though.

35. Ever been on your roof? Dallas has

36. Do you own a stereo? Yup

37. How many TV’s do you have? 1

38. How many phones? 1 landline and 1 cell phone

39. Do you have a housekeeper? Yes. Her name is Tara.

40. What style do you decorate in? my style

41. Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? Usually solids, depends

42. Is there a smoke detector in your home? nope. But our house is made of all brick.

the boys and I...

I don't know what it is lately, but I've found myself being very impatient with the boys...I think it's on all 3 of our parts. I've just been getting frustrated easily and not as patient, Carter has been asking for things over and over and over and bothering Logan almost all day, and Logan has become more sensitive to Carter bothering him.

So this morning I thought I should find them something to do before we all go in each others hair. We started off with them playing outside together, in our backyard, Logan in his walker and Carter on his bike. They had tons of fun together, cruising around and banging into each other and laughing. With the occasional complaining from Logan when Carter would back him into corners and not let him go....that fun was ended with an Oreo party on the boy's picnic bench.

Then I made them a little fort with the table and that kept them entertained for a little while.



It was nice to have them playing good together for a while! otherwise, it's almost as though Carter has decided that he's Logan's watch dog. Every time Logan turns around Carter is there taking things away from him, shutting the cupboard door on him, bopping him on the head...the one nice thing about it is that if Logan finds something too small and sticks it in his mouth, Carter will go in there and take it out.

anyway, for some comic relief in my day, here is the results of spaghetti and chocolate pudding together on one face -

party in the park

d
At our weekly Kid's Club in the park, we give out stickers for attendance and if they've memorized their verse from the previous week. That's something that has really got the kids excited to actually memorize...and many of them still remember the verses from when we first started a few months ago.

We told them that every 2 or 3 months, we'd have a prize day. The number of points {stickers} they have determines the prizes they get to choose from. So today was that day.

We had a good time with them! They are a really good group of kids, ready to listen {most of the time, as long as there's not something distracting driving by} and ready to have fun. I asked if I could take a picture of them, so this is what they decided to do :-)


We sang some songs, played a balloon popping game, let them pick their prizes, and had donuts and pop.

There was one incident that was weird today though. One of the boys, one of the nicest kids there, got really really angry at the other kids. We didn't see how it started, it was when we were setting up the game, but from the sounds of it they had called him a name and he was ANGRY. He was chasing down one of the other boys and launching a good sized rock at him when Dallas caught up with him. Dallas had to hold him to prevent him from attacking the other kids. It was just so weird because he's such a calm guy normally. But they had set him off. Anyway we got the other kids to apologize, and they did, but this guy every time Dallas let go of him he was kicking and beating on another guy so we had to tell him to leave. It was too bad but if they're gonna come they need to behave. It turned out fine, he decided to leave and we had a GREAT time with everyone else. These guys are all friends so I'm sure they'll sort it out yet.

We were wondering if the kids would think our prizes were lame :-) but they loved them and even thanked us for them. oh, through this club, we've connected with 2 of the parents {I think I met of mentioned that before}. But anyways last week Dallas started a Bible study with one of the dad's and another one is interested in starting, too. We're so excited about it b/c it's the MEN that are interested! and if the husbands are interested, the wives will usually follow. If the wives are interested and the men not...it's a little harder.

Logan's turn

Logan hasn't had an update in a little while. So here goes. Like I said, I've been horrible with taking pictures this month, so this is one of the only ones I found with Logan in it! This was a couple of weeks ago when Dallas and LeRoy were gone in Juarez and the girls were over at our place.


New things with Logan....

1. TWO new teeth! They came in last week and caused him quite a bit of pain. But they're through and now we wait for the next ones. That puts his total up to 6.

2. He started crawling DOWN the stairs, rather than trying to go down head first.

3. A while ago, about a month ago I'd say, he started waving "bye", signing "milk" with his hands, and clapping.

4. He's started getting angry if Carter takes something away from him {which by the way, happens about 5000 times per day}.

5. He really loves walking holding on to our hands but hasn't taken any steps on his own yet. He'll also walk holding onto furniture or things like that.

that's all for now...

In other news

I went for my first doctor appt here yesterday and saw that indeed I am pregnant :-) They are ultrasound happy out here so I had an ultrasound. It was neat to see the heart beating, but beyond that all I could make out was a lump of fuzz. We're not sure on the whole ultrasound thing yet, plus it's an extra cost at every appointment, so we'll see how many we do. But it was fun to see it there.

This doctor was in Delicias...we are not sure yet if we want to have our baby in Delicias or in Chihuahua. Chihuahua is an hour away, but there is a NICE hospital there. Some people have told us not to have it in Delicias and other people think Delicias is fine {not to because their knowledge or equipment is not as updated as in Chihuahua}. So we need to decide. Chihuahua is also more expensive...

rewind to last summer

This is Logan and his cousin, Owen, last year June. so Logan would've been 6 mths and Owen would've been 4 1/2 mths {or thereabouts}

I was just flipping through some pictures and this one came up...looks like they're sharing a good laugh together about something...