The adventures of Mexico Part I

I can't believe I don't have one single picture! The next one, I promise.

Where to begin, really? Well, we did it. We are finally in Mexico. We are living outside of Guadalajara, in a really nice town. It is pretty clean for Mexico and I live near all the stores that I might possible want to shop at. We live in a "coto" which is a gated community with a guard on post 24 hours a day in a dead end street, so I am not really in walking distance of anything but I think we will live. We have a swimming pool for the kids in the rec area with a full size tennis court. In fact, we have Eva signed up for tennis lessons, twice a week, starting this week in our coto. Maybe when we get back to the states she will have some mad tennis skills. We have a little park outside our coto that we can walk to but coming back home and going up the hill is killer on my legs when both, Eva and Elijah want to sit in the wagon. Hauling 70 pounds up a steep hill is quite the work out I tell you. But we love it here in our house. It is pretty big too. We have 4 rooms with 3 full bathrooms, which is a nice change coming from one bathroom! Honestly though, three is a little excessive but when people are here it is nice to have three. The backyard is much tinier than what we had back home but I am thinking about how to make it a little more useful. I have been thinking of adding a sandbox and some chairs with a table. I think they would make a nice addition out back. We are working on the furniture piece right now. The house echoes like crazy. We are hoping that when we get our couches on Wednesday it won't be so bad but I am not holding my breath quite yet. We have some high ceilings in our living rooms so it might be the challenge. I feel safe where I live. Although, believe it or not but the day after we got here, one of the two most notorious drug lords in Mexico was killed about a mile away from where we live. Apparently there were 200 soldiers and various helicopters in the area and I didn't even hear a thing! Crazy huh? Overall, I do like where we live.

We are all making the adjustment. There is a two hour difference, so now that visitors are gone for a while, I am hoping to get the kids on some sort of schedule. We only have one car so I am hoping that I can get them used to getting up early enough to get Matthew to school by 8. I know it isn't that early but we you don't have to rush out of bed it makes for such a nicer morning. He usually then stays at school until around 5:30, comes home and eats, goes back to studying, plays with the kids for a little bit, puts them to bed and then goes back to studying. He is still trying to find the right balance between studying and being with the family, but I know he'll figure it out real soon. I am also trying to get some routine in the life of my kids. It is so different from when I used to have a car available all the time. When we got bored, we just jumped in the car and went somewhere. That isn't the case right now. I have to get a little more creative. But, I am excited to be with my kids all the time. There is hardly a dull moment. Although, if any of you have some creative things you do with your kids, I would love to hear.
I love the markets here. It is so fun to drive a couple of miles and be in a market full of people, crafts, and food! I don't think that will ever get old for me. I don't know yet if things are cheaper here or not. Most food is, but some things are extremely pricey. Especially when you are talking about electronics or something real american like chocolate chips. You can pay twice as much for anything that is electronic here. And milk too. Not only am I paying twice as much for the gallon, it expires, like three days after I but it. Oh, the adjusting. The other crazy thing about going out in public are the parking lots. You have to pay at every single one by grabbing a ticket. Then you have to remember at the store to validate your ticket and/or pay for your ticket, because at some places there is no one to pay your ticket and then you are stuck in this parking lot. These tickets can be quite stressful. And, at the parking lots you have people helping you back out, but of course they want you to tip them. It is quite silly really. The only nice parking lot that I have loved is the costco one. One, because it it free. No tickets involved in the costco parking lot. And two, because they will load your entire cart for you in your car! The other day I got a mattress and they actually tied it to the top of my car for me. Talk about service. You have to tip them of course, and that has been a huge learning curve for me, apparently, I might be tipping too much, but I love that service!
Well, I could go on forever. Until the next blog. For now, know that we are safe and really like it here. But, I do miss all my friends!

Where does the time go? A lot has happened since the last post. First, my first love/baby, River, got glaucoma. I didn't think this was possible with a dog that isn't even 6 but it is. She is now blind in her left eye. The ophthalmologist (yeah, didn't know there was such a thing for dog's either) told us that it really would be a matter of time (6 months to 2 years) before it happened to her other eye. It is very sad for us. We are now trying to decide what to do with her bad eye since it costs a lot of money. We really don't have too many options. The main one is to remove the eye because it is painful for her. So now we have to bite the bullet and remove the eye. You have to understand, River is beautiful. When I had my little babies, I had thought that for sure people would stop and ask about my babies but that never happened. Time and time again people would ask us what kind of dog River was and would comment on her cute "foxy" face. So, for this to happen to her is sad because people probably won't be able to see past her bad eye. Poor thing. Luckily, for now she is in good spirits and still loves her family. I will live even if people don't comment on River anymore. Maybe they'll pay attention to the rest of my family now.

Things really had not been going too well for us. In a month we had both of our cars break down, River's glaucoma, kids were sick with ear infections, and if that wasn't enough the IRS wanted proof of childcare payments (which is RIDICULOUS!). Needless to say it was a rough patch. But now, things seem to be better, despite the fact that is is STILL raining and it is June 15th! Matthew went to Mexico and found a really nice place for us to live in and I am finally not scared anymore. I feel like a pawn in the Lord's hand, and I am totally okay with that.

I've attached a picture of River with her bad eye. And the others are of my kids because they are too cute. Eva adds the spunk to our lives with her cowboy hat, ballerina tutu, pajama ensemble before bedtime. Not to mention the fact that she is practicing her ballet moves. And Elijah, well, what's there not to love about a chunky kid in robot pajamas? I LOVE my kids.

Elijah's ONE

What a crazy month. First, on May 2nd, our Elijah turned ONE. It is both exciting and a little sad to see my baby get older on me. He has been so fun to have around. It is crazy to think that a year ago he was 7 lbs. 11 oz., born four weeks early and now he is a stunning 32.5 lbs. He is almost five times as big. That can't be normal. But we still love him. We lucked out on the weather for his birthday. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The first in a long time. April really did bring the showers. I went with the chunky monkey theme, and even made monkey cupcakes out of fondant. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

A couple days later Eva had her first ballet recital. She was gorgeous as usual but quite the timid one. At one point, her cute friend, Camille, had to help her face the audience when Eva had her back to the crowd. Then when it was time for her to go across the stage on her own, her technique was great but it was like she had on her mind, how the heck can I get from point A to point B the fastest? She was so serious and we just couldn't help but laugh. Good thing she couldn't see us. Nevertheless, I was so proud of her.

And the last is just another picture of Eli. I keep thinking to myself that I too must have done the same things to my brothers since I had no sister. And, while at times I think that maybe, just maybe it was too bad Elijah wasn't a girl for Eva's sake, I quickly think instead of all the fun times I have had having just bros. And now, as one of mine is engaged (YEAH Ricky and Keri!! It's about time...) I think this will be the time in my life when I finally get my sister, with more to come I am sure.

Life is good...crazy, but good

These are just some cute pictures of the kids. The first is of Eva wearing her "make-up," which is really a Burt's chapstick I got from a fun girl's night this past weekend. But of course it is hers now and she loves to apply and re-apply some more. The second is self-explanatory. That chunk is a goof ball! And lastly a picture of Eva's snowman. You might have to enlarge it to see her awesome detail. My favorites are the two cheeks (circles on the face). Then, if you look carefully there is a slight oval underneath the mouth that is it's chin. The horizontal lines are the stomach and there is a small point for the belly button and the vertical lines on top of the stomach is the shirt. I LOVE kid drawings, especially my own.

We had a great Easter this year. We are still trying to work on our traditions and we actually had too many things to do this year that we had to do some of them on Monday too. But that was okay. It was fun to paint eggs, make cookies and chocolate covered pretzels. Funny thing was we got the Easter basket but the weather wasn't cooperating all that much that we didn't even look for eggs. Eva didn't mind though. She filled some plastic eggs herself and put them in her basket. I think that might have been more fun than the alternative.

I can't believe it is already April. Before I know if it will be June and the school year will be over. How does that happen? Not to mention the fact that my chunky monkey turns ONE next month! Wasn't he just born?

Well, I'm going to go now and recover from the fact that time goes by too quickly for my like sometimes. But before I do I didn't ever get a chance to post this bottom picture of Elijah on St. Patrick's day that I thought was hilarious. Eva and I think he is such a tool sometimes :) Poor kid!

These past couple of days have been kind of crazy. Friday night we took Eva to the ER because we thought she was having an asthma attack but a 50 dollar copay, four stickers and a little stuffed dog later, she had croup again. She seems to get that a lot. She seemed to be getting better but then Monday she had a fever all day that wouldn't stop. So, four hours later in the urgent care room with a 105 degree temperature little girl on my hands, they told me she had the onset of an earache and treated her for that. She is getting better, thank goodness, but man, we realize how much more fun she is when she is feeling healthy.

Meanwhile, Elijah, while still chunky, is managing to get all around the house and getting into trouble. Monday when we were trying to get Eva to urgent care, he decided he was going to get into his bag, pull out the formula, open the container, and begin to eat the powder and smear it all over the place. He makes us laugh! I was worried about him not moving sooner, but I'm thinking I'm in for it now with his mischievous little personality.

(I love that second picture where you can see him trying to lick that formula off his face. You would think we starve the kid, or something.)

Got the latest stats on our chunky monkey this past Thursday. Elijah will be 10 months on Tuesday and he is off the charts.

Height 2 feet 7 in. (98%)

Weight 29 lbs. 11 oz. (100%)

Noggin' 19.76 in. (100%)

How do I carry him you ask? Ergo Carrier!

Enjoy his yummy rolls :)