Mexico Part 52: Elijah's Fourth Birthday

My sweet kid Elijah turned four on May 2nd.  I can't even believe it.  He has grown up so much!

He had a family birthday on his actual day and a friend party the next day.  I wanted to make him what he wanted for dinner on his actual day and he said he wanted cake.  So knowing him pretty well, we made him french toast, eggs and watermelon.  Three of his favorite things.  His friend birthday was with our good friends that live here in our neighborhood.  Nothing too complicated.  I got WAY too much food, and the kids had fun.  What else is new?

Elijah, 

You have made such growth this past year.  Your language has thankfully picked up to the point where I can say you communicate.  Whew!  You understand English and Spanish beautifully but choose to speak English or at times a combination of the two.  You have a pretty pronounced lisp that is endearing.  You go to preschool twice a week and playgroup the other two days.  You are learning to interact with your buddies and defend yourself as well.  You are as kind as can be and wouldn't hurt a fly.

You LOVE sugar.  I wish you didn't but you have quite the sweet tooth.  Cookies, cake, candies, chocolate, you name it, you love it.  But when it comes to real food you can be a picky eater at times.  You don't seem to like soups and stews and tend to enjoy the drier American food.  Breakfast is always your best meal of the day.

You have an amazing imagination.  You can play for hours by yourself and I always love to buy you toys because I know you will enjoy them and actually use them.  You are a builder.  You love blocks and legos.  You can construct cars, robots, rockets, airplanes, with little to no effort.  You also love super heroes.  

You are learning slowly to hold a pencil and trace over letters.  You can't seem to decide which hand you write/color with.  You are actually equally good in both.  You can make stick people with a flat smile.  And are learning to have the control to stay within lines.  You are really good at using scissors too.  However, your perfectionism gets in the way of you executing your ideas sometimes.  

You love t.v.  We have to limit you because you get lost in it.  Some of your favorites are the "lego movie," Maker, maker, (Mr. Maker) and benius an berb (Phineas and Ferb).  But you also like to listen to stories as well.

We love you so much!  You are pretty easy going and it makes having you a joy. 

Mexico Part 51: Visitors

It's been two years since we've had anybody from the States visit us, and after Spring Break, we had Cathryn and John, Matthew's sister and her hubby with baby, come and visit us.  We were SO lucky to get to host them.  Although, I am not going to lie, I now sympathize with our families every time we crash their homes for weeks!  They only came for a week and by the end I was pretty tired.  It isn't easy to keep your routine (Eva and Matthew still had school) and be in the sun all day touring this place.  Plus, it didn't help that somewhere in there we all managed to get sick, which was a major bummer, but we still had a BLAST.  We tried to hit up all the places that we love here.  We started right off the bat from the airport straight to Chapala.  It is a beautiful drive.  When we went back into the city we stopped at our favorite taco place and had tacos al pastor.  Best ever!  Then the following day, we overwhelmed them with a get together with all of our friends here.  We even had the missionaries over!  Monday I took them out to the old tianguis I used to go to for some tlacoyos.  I think Cathryn at first was a little confused that we were going to have a heavier meal for breakfast, but that's how they do it here.  We went to my favorite Oaxacan place to eat on Tuesday, is it just me, but my idea of visiting a place is getting to eat all the yummy food?  Somewhere along the way, something made us sick.  Whoops!  Matthew took them to the Gauchimontones on Wednesday, and Thursday we headed to Manzanillo for some beach time.  Matthew and Eva played hookie on Friday.  I am getting the hang of the beach here and have the desire to go every weekend.  No joke!  It was a great drive and the kids were awesome.  It's getting easier to travel with such older kids.  If I can get Cathryn to send them to me, I will add some awesome pictures of things we saw while driving to all of these places.

Having people visit where I live makes me realize how much I LOVE Mexico.  Three years ago when we talked about moving here I couldn't fathom it.  I probably thought what all of you think, Mexico means drug lords, murders, abductions...you get my drift.  But I was so wrong.  This place is wonderful.  And I seriously mean it.  My day to day life is the best and I can't believe I get to call this place home.

Mexico Part 50: Easter

I am sure I have mentioned this time and time again, but out of the United States and living in another country, our friends have become our family.  We have pretty much claimed the park near our homes and camp out with our own tables and chairs to put on quite the production.  Sometimes, the Sunday doesn't feel too Sabbathy with all the work we have to do.  But it is always worth it.  We are too poor to pay for the covered area with the neighborhood's tables and chairs so we just bring our own.  And, since we are the house closest to the park, our home often becomes the public restroom too.  We now have our act down pretty well, and this Easter didn't disappoint.  We had two hams, green bean casserole, funeral potatoes, yams, all the good stuff our mom's would do for us, but now that we are older we do for ourselves   It's pretty great.  We also included an Easter egg hunt, water balloon fight, and an egg toss.  I am grateful to know that we can be a family wherever in the world that we are.  And this Easter I am grateful to know that because of my Savior, I have the blessing to be with my sweet family forever.  Happy Easter!