Ohh Mexico

Mexico is going great! We drove in on Monday and crossing the border went super smooth-no stops, yeah! We spent the first day just getting settled and getting tacos. Once before dinner, then once after putting the kids to bed, I mean, you can’t beat ‘em! Well, today was the first work day, and it has been going really well as far as I understand. The only mishap, was poor Rich, who when opening a five gallon bucket of primer, it splashed in his eyes, not too fun, that stuff is sticky! So we tried to rinse them best we could, then he had to toss his contacts and move to glasses for a while. The kids are doing pretty well, schedules are a bit whacked but they’ll survive. Also, Jaron’s skin is kind of freakin’ out. I don’t know if it’s from the heat or what, but I’m sure it will mend as well. All to say, it’s going pretty well, I mean, I just love Mexico so much and it feels like home when I get here, so even if things don’t go great, I am just happy to be here. (And eat tacos daily) Ellie's still taking pictures, which is cute. If you've ever been to the Ranch, you'll appreciate the picture of Snoopy Rock. Okay, well since both kids are finally asleep, I am going to try to catch a nap too. Oh, the joys of skylights-no sleeping in for anyone.

Ellie takes Pictures

So , you know how Ellie loves to take pictures. Well, we decided to give her a digital camera that we never use, and see what would happen. First of all, she absolutely loves it! She went around taking pictures constantly, I mean, literally. She took pictures of every room in the house, the carpet, the couch, people, chairs, breakfast, anything she saw, she took a picture! Fabulous! So, I thought I’d show you a few of my favorites, I love so many, but here are just a few.
(A Slidewhow is in the blog below)

Little Photographer

Some of Ellie's first work

Bounce Bounce

So there is a family up here who has a trampaline, and after Ellie and Hannah went on it last week, the mom decided she would invite all the little girls over for a trampaline jump time, then a tea party- So Cute! She decided to do an age at a time- 2s then 3s then 4s. This morning was Ellie, Hannah, and Ellie Mae's turn. It was so sweet. Bunnie,(Hannah's mom), took Jaron and her little boy Isaac on the walk, and I kept the girls at the party. They loved to bounce, bounce, bounce, then we went inside, played with some toys, decorated cookies while having some fruit and cheese and "tea" which was actually warm apple cider, played with play-doh, then went back out to bounce some more! The boys soon arrived and Peter wanted a turn to bounce too. (Of course, he just learned to walk a couple months ago, so he just sat there while the girls bounced around him) All went really well, considering there were 3 two year olds involved.

Yard Progress

Here's a slideshow of our yard from start to almost finished! Enjoy!

All for a Cell Phone

I know it's kind of long, but this is what Jaron is doing these days to get around. It's pretty cute. And just like Ellie, his best motivation for a good crawl is a cell phone. And he does like to chat it up when he gets there, as you can see. Enjoy!

ahh man!

So Saturday night we started to get some rain. So the boys (Rich and our neighbor Joel) were checking out the yards to see what they needed to do so we could keep our hillsides and not become a duplex! Well, at about midnight they stopped checking on things and we just went to bed. Well after a night of heavy rains, lightning and thunder, we woke up to the sad realization that the precautions were not sufficient. Now, we are not duplexes by any means, but all the water from the two houses above us channeled down into our yard bringing inches of mud from the hills onto our freshly laid sod. So Rich and I began to shovel it off. We were able to get a couple Joshua students to help for about a half an hour which helped a lot, but we know we will have a lot to do to make it really ready for next time. Which, as I just read the weather report, is probably tonight, and we for sure are not prepared. But we will just have to meet that tomorrow. Of course, we are going to Fresno in the morning, so we won't really be able to do anything about it then either, oh well. Rich was pretty sad, of course, it could also be because he turned 30 today! It's great, when people ask Ellie how old he turned, she says, "he turned old today", classic!

One Good Dad

The celebrations continue! The Joshua students got to have their own dress-up night on Thursday. So Ellie got her chance to be Annie from the Little Einsteins. Of course, no one knew who that was and it's not a super obvious costume anyway, but she got to carry a microphone, and she loved that. Jaron was a duck again, but learned some cool tricks, like balancing a spoon on his nose, and I dressed up as Rich. I was not alone in dressing as a staff person, so we took a picture of the "staff". And poor Rich, had great intentions of dressing as a gorilla, but Ellie was so scared that she almost did not go up to Joshua, and then once there, wanted to stay in the car until I checked to make sure he was not wearing it. So he sacrificed and did not dress up, all for our little Ellie. Of course some of the Joshua student's costumes were pretty freaky, like the Joker from the most recent Batman, but they were good about avoiding Ellie so she would not get scared. And it worked, because we had no meltdowns while there. It was a fun night.