journey with the herbsts

brush with fame

2012-01-28T18:41:00.004-05:00

so this isn't about the kids. but it was too fun a story to not document. alas, there are no photos to prove the following story but there are about 16 guys at new denver church who will attest to it...

actually, norton just said i can't blog about this, but let's just say that they had a fun visitor to their flag football game this morning...

decisions, decisions

2012-01-27T18:49:00.002-05:00

marin is turning 4 years old in a couple of days. norton just asked her what kind of "sweet" she would like. he said, "you can choose a cake, cupcakes, pie or ice cream." she just started grinning and said that she was thinking. we waited and waited. she finally said, "it's hard because i feel like i want ALL of them!" that's my girl!

her many faces

2011-12-23T15:00:00.004-05:00

ahhhh. sisterly love.
daddy took the girls camping back in october. he has taken townsend several times but never the girls by themselves. they were thrilled.

i haven't read any books on birth order but i seem to recall that a third child is the comedian? that would make sense.

she usually says something like, "i see two mommies," when she does this.

oh marin. thank you for making us laugh so hard.

fyi

2011-12-22T10:58:00.003-05:00

overheard just now:
lots of singing in the kids bedrooms. then pitter patter feet going into the bathroom.
marin: townsend, do you have to go poopoo? i have to go poopoo. sometimes when you sing alot you have to go poopoo.
now you know.

the last week in san pedro

2011-08-01T22:39:00.004-04:00

well. we're back at home and guatemala seems kinda far away. i'm going to try to remember things about our last week. wish me luck.
friday, july 22- that morning, norton went to spanish class with ana maria, and found out that her husband, eduardo, had been in a bus accident. eduardo teaches in another village around the lake. he takes a bus there every morning around 6am. usually their oldest son, erik, goes too. this morning, erik did not go with his dad. i didn't really get the whole story but apparently something happened which caused the bus to swerve and roll over on it's side off the side of the road. noone had life threatening injuries-i don't think. but lots of bones were broken. eduardo thought he had broken his arm but it turns out that he just had a really bad laceration. but he says that if erik had been sitting where he normally sits, he would have been killed. the whole family praises God for this miracle.
that afternoon our team from church arrived. it was great to see everyone. our family moved out of antonio's house down the hill to the gringo area. into a hotel right on the lake. with a balcony with hammocks! the kids were in heaven. i was a little sad to leave our home where we had started to know people. all locals. now we were in a part of town where all you see are foreigners. we spent the rest of the day/night introducing the team to san pedro and antonio and getting ready for our first day working in san pablo.
saturday, july 23rd-we headed over to the church in san pablo after breakfast and started work. cleaning rocks. then hauling the rocks up to the second story. we made cement and helped to pour a part of one of the walls. the kids and i actually stayed down below and played and colored. kids would stop by and come join us. after a group of three boys were walking away i happened to look over at where they had been coloring. all of the pens were gone. i walked out onto the street and saw one of the boys and called his name. as soon as he heard me he took off running down the street. funny and sad at the same time. this particular boy came back a couple of days later and i asked where my pens were-he just shrugged his shoulders.

sunday, july 24th-since we would be going to church at 5pm we decided to take the morning as a tourist day across the lake in panajachel. norton and i took everyone to crossroads cafe where we had ordered some coffee beans. they aren't open on sundays but mike let us in to pick up the order. he then was gracious enough to share his story with our group. a great guy. aubren, townsend and i went to the "big' supermarket afterwards. i love looking at grocery stores and aubren does too. as we walked inside, a clown came up to townsend and started talking to him. of course townsend had no idea what he was saying. apparently this was some promotional thing and there was a guy with a camera who took their picture and the clown made a balloon sword for towney. i think aubren took a picture too so i'll post when i get that. the other mission group was at church that night. they did some testimonies and sang and since antonio's church didn't cut anything from their service it ended up being two hours long. the kids were so tired.

monday, july 25th-tuesday, july 26th-in some ways these days were pretty much the same. working on the church for the adults and the kids and i played, colored and hung out with the kids who showed up at the church. the other mission group did a medical clinic so we watched that going on and then in the afternoon they did a vacation bible school so our kids participated in parts of that too. overall i was really proud of the three. they adapted to our simple lifestyle and although there were the usual fights and arguments, they didn't complain about missing their toys or having a nice couch in an air conditioned house to relax on or really anything.

wednesday, july 27th-we spent the morning with antonio. he took us to see the village of san marcos. it is the next village past san pedro. many years ago some new age type people started hanging out in this village and opening up "centers" and "spas." there are many big beautiful vacation homes built on the lake and these foreigners support the village as i understand it. we walked up the hill where the locals live and saw "world vision" handing out sheets of aluminum to women for use in their homes. i think on this day jessica and i went to see my teacher, ana maria. we got to hear the whole story about eduardo. she also invited us to stay with her when we were in san pedro again. i sure do like her. i got pretty teary-eyed having to say goodbye.

thursday, july 28th-this was our last day in san pedro/san pablo. we did more work on the church and walked around the village praying for the people there. it was a bit sad to drive away. but knowing that we'll be back was a good thing. this was also our last dinner with cata and antonio. cata told us that her heart hurt and she was going to miss us. especially the children. so sweet.

medical crisis-i don't remember which day this happened but one afternoon ellory came up to norton and me and said, "marin has been eating all the gummy vitamins!" i went to the room and it looked like she had eaten half the bag. maybe 20ish? we have been using these vitamins for at least two years and the kids know they can only have one a day. who knows what goes on in that little mind of hers?? fortunately, the other mission team was staying below us in the hotel and they had two nurses. i went right down and asked about this. they said the only concern would be getting too much iron possibly. since i didn't have the bottle i didn't know how much iron was in each vitamin. (turns out there isn't any iron in these) they said marin would probably be fine and just pee everything out. but to watch her and let them know if she starts acting strange. interestingly enough, the nurses said they had been having the same problem with the vitamins they had been giving the children in san pablo. i had seen kids walk out of the medical clinic with little bags of vitamins. apparently some of the kids were just eating all of the vitamins at one time. i guess kids are kids wherever you go. :)

friday, july 29th-we loaded onto a van and started the long drive to antigua at 8am. our family was in the very back. it was a long, windy, bumpy ride. really not fun at all. 4 hours at least. norton and i both were feeling a little queasy. the kids did fine though. whew! the van dropped us off a few blocks from our hotel and so by the time we walked there i was feeling much better. we stayed at posada la merced. this was the 4th time we had stayed there. right next door to our favorite cafe in antigua-fernandos cafe. but first up was lunch-pollo campero. the kfc of guatemala. but maybe even more popular. and tasty. after lunch we went to a market and did some shopping and then our family went to meet townsend's foster family. it wasn't quite as emotional as last year but we could tell that sara and erwin were so very glad to see townsend. townsend barely said a word the whole time. but after they left, the first thing he told me was that he was so happy to see his foster family and how much he liked them. we took the family to fernandos for coffee/snack/lunch. erwin's english continues to improve and since our spanish was better, we were able to communicate with sara a bit more. their daughter, karin, is also getting better at english so it was a really fun time to hear about their family and to ask questions about what townsend was like as a baby.

saturday, july 30th-up bright and early to get to the airport in guatemala city. everything went really smoothly. we ate breakfast at the airport. flight was on time. smooth flying. made it through customs in dallas and got to the next gate with 20 minutes to spare. another smooth flight to denver where our friend, laura, was waiting. so thankful for a nice day of travel. good to be back and yet i kinda miss our friends back in guatemala. can't wait to go back!

Quick Update

2011-07-27T08:36:00.002-04:00

From Norton:

We're still here down in Guatemala. Just been super-busy the last week. A team of six more people from our church in Denver arrived last Friday. We've done lots of construction work (mixing cement is fun!), attended two church services (our group sang and I preached at one last night...an interesting experience), and just spent time hanging out with the people here. We have two more days in the Lake Atitlan area, then to Antigua for a day, then home on Saturday. If we get a chance, we'll write more soon about our past week. But overall, it's been amazing and we are encouraged on so many levels about what is happening here and what God has called us to do. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Poverty here.

2011-07-21T10:08:00.002-04:00

From Norton: The UN estimates that in the two villages where we are living and working 80% of families live in poverty or extreme poverty and 80% of the children are malnourished. Guatemalan government figures have estimated the specific village where we work is the 4th poorest village in the country. All of the homes are made of cinderblock and tin roofs with mud floors. All of the cooking is done over open fires, which is horrible for your lungs if the ventilation in the kitchen isn't perfectly designed. Years ago, many of the people were given filters to clean their water, but no one changes the filters (it's expensive) and they don't clean the water containers anyway. So, the filters aren't really doing anything and they are drinking bad water. As a result, everyone suffers from dysentery. Add to that: 50% of the homes don't even have toilets. Wastewater runs openly down drainage ditches on the sides of the road. The mayor (who basically runs the town) is corrupt and mean. Consequently, all humanitarian organizations have decided to avoid the village because the cause seems worthless. In fact, there is only one humanitarian organization that has decided to help the people of this village. It was started about 5 years ago by an Australian woman who has simply done some amazing things. We met her last week. I do not think she is a religious person, but she is certainly taking Jesus' command to love "the least of these among you" seriously, even if she doesn't know it. But even this incredible woman has thrown her hands up and decided to close her organization. She told us that she's simply "tired" and can't pour any more of her money, time, and life into this village. She went back to Australia for good last weekend (and I don't blame her at all). So starting this month, there will be no one in the outside world doing anything significant to help this village with education, health and hygiene, clean water, business plans and loans, empowerment, oppression, malnourishment, etc.

As our church in Denver begins a partnership with a small church in this impoverished village, we don't pretend to think we have ANY good answers for all their problems. We feel a bit overwhelmed. We know our American efforts to help them could actually hinder progress. We know that we can easily become proud of ourselves because we came to Guatemala to help all the poor people. Even in sharing this on a blog, it's easy to objectify people--turn them into statistics or objects to be examined and diagnosed and solved. But they are people, every one of them, whom God made in his image. So, with all that in mind, we're simply praying for God to show us what to do down here. To forgive us when we don't listen to him, or puff up with pride, or miss an opportunity to be agents of his love. And to give us the strength and courage and perseverance to do what he's called us to do. And doing is the most important thing. If our faith doesn't compel us to do something, then it's pretty much dead and worthless faith. May our faith never be dead and worthless, but living and breathing and risk-taking and doing.

townsend turns 5!

2011-07-20T10:09:00.001-04:00

15 july, 2011 day 15

today is townsend's fifth birthday. i can't believe it. five years ago, norton and i were waiting for the referral of a baby from guatemala. we came to san pedro to learn spanish and were actually here in this village when townsend was born. we didn't know that until we got his referral the next month but i thought it was kinda fun that we were in his birth country for his birth. townsend has really gotten into the "cars" thing. a couple of days before we came to guatemala, norton took townsend to see the "cars 2" movie. towney's first experience in a movie theater. i decided not to buy presents at home and bring them in our luggage. i figured i could buy some things here. the first time we walked to the market townsend saw some dvds hanging in one of the stalls. there were some with a picture of "cars" on it. of course, townsend started asking for one every time we would pass by. yesterday i went by myself and bought one of the dvds. i didn't notice until i was back at the house that it was the "cars 2" movie. hmm. interesting. this movie has only been out for two weeks. it's probably made by some guy filming in the theater. :) so anyway-this morning after townsend woke up we gave him a bag with some little presents-a "cars" ball and wallet, a toy car, and some stickers. one funny thing-after he woke up he said, "now that i'm five i can read!" wouldn't it be nice if that's the way it happened? we gave him the dvd at quiet time so the kids could watch that while i was at spanish class. apparently it was truly the movie. in spanish, of course! the girls fell asleep but townsend watched the whole thing. i ordered a chocolate cake from a pasteleria (bakery). townsend was so excited to see it and have the group sing "happy birthday." tonight after the group had left, townsend told me that he had really liked his birthday and his presents. he told the same thing to norton. it is so nice to see him be grateful and thankful.

some things about townsend's year:
1. we went for his five year checkup a couple of weeks before we came to guatemala. he is in the 30% for weight and height. still a little guy.
2. he continues to be very orderly when building/creating. and he doesn't like to dismantle his creations. thus, his room is a big mess!
3. still loves paper and i have to wait until he is at preschool before i can take a bunch and put it in the recycle bin. everywhere we go, if there is a brochure, calling card, pamphlet, flyer, etc., he takes a stack. and if i try to throw anything away, he pitches a fit.
4. is starting to be a bit more social. there have been a couple of older boys here that he has latched onto.
5. he seems to love learning. i bought some workbooks to bring to guatemala and he loves doing “school” here. he knows all his capital letters and many lowercase ones. and he is getting better each day at writing his letters.
6. to be honest, he can be a bit selfish. (i guess we all are, aren’t we?) he is very clingy with his toys and has a hard time letting his sisters play with them. of course, if they have a toy, townsend is very quick to say, “god wants us to share our toys, right?”
7. he still loves, loves, loves all his stuffed animals. he sleeps with about fifteen of them. if he is misbehaving, all we usually have to say is, “if you keep this up we will take away your _(insert name of animal)___.”

townsend, we are so thankful that you were born here in guatemala five years ago. and we are so thankful that we got to spend your birthday in your birth country. you are our very favorite little boy. we love you towney.

Notes from Norton

2011-07-16T11:44:00.002-04:00

A few random notes about our time down here:

1. Elevation. Each day I walk about a half-mile to school (Spanish language school) around 7 am, then back to the house around noon. It's not too far length-wise, but our village is built on a hill and Antonio's house (where we are staying) is at the top of the hill and the school is at the bottom. It's 400 ft elevation change on my short walk. I have an altimeter and have measured it. If that doesn't mean much to you, just think about being on the top level of a 40-story building and walking down the stairs each morning to the ground floor, then back up 4 hours later. I'm not complaining...it's great exercise and I love walking through the village. But it's life here. And we (the whole family) actually walk about halfway down (200 ft.) to another house for breakfast, then Janis and the kids walk back up, then back down for dinner and back up to the house. And sometimes in the pouring rain. Surprisingly, the kids have done pretty well. They don't complain too much about the walk and seem to have settled into this way of life.

You know what's crazy? In Denver, we live 2 flat blocks (literally) from King Soopers, Rite-Aid, Sunflower Market, the public library, Starbucks, the park, etc. And how often do we walk? Practically never. It's amazing how enculturated we are in Denver. Driving is just what we do.

2. The big city. When I told Rosa, my Spanish teacher, how big Denver was, her first comment was "Muchos banditos?" Because of the large amount of gangs, thugs, and crime that happens in Guatemala City, in her mind, big city = violence.

3. Getting the word right. I don't know why I keep doing it, but it seems like every other time I mention Janis to my Spanish teacher, I call her "mi esposo". That means "my husband". "Esposa" with an "a" is the feminine form of the word spouse, meaning wife. I should say "mi esposa" not "mi esposo". It's just a slip-up, but I wonder if my teacher is beginning to think that I actually have an "alternative lifestyle."

4. LLuvia (rain). I love the dry climate of Denver. I don't miss the humidity of the south (NC, GA, or TX) at all. But there is something attractive about the weather here. It's rainy season, and that means it rains (lluvia) almost every day. I think we've had 2 non-rain days in the last 15. Most mornings it's sunny or partly cloudy and beautiful: a crisp 55 degrees. Sometimes it will start raining by noon and set in all day long. But oftentimes, it gets to a perfect 75 degrees during the afternoon while clouds gather over the lake; then by 4, 5, or 6 pm, the rain starts falling in buckets. And frequently, all night long. I guess it could put you in a melancholy mood if you lean that way. But it's a welcome change from Colorado and there's nothing like sleeping with the windows open while it's pouring rain.

great pic

2011-07-15T14:47:00.003-04:00

our camera was stolen (see previous post about no-fear ninja). so we don't have many pics. but here's a great pic of the kids on the road from our house to the village. san pedro and lake atitlan in the background.

tuk-tuks

2011-07-15T14:46:00.001-04:00

in the last few years san pedro has established a very fun, cheap way to get around town. it is called the tuk tuk. there are three wheels. no doors. the driver sits up front and the passengers sit on a back seat. it is covered which is the most important thing. and red. they just go around the village and pick up people to take them where they need to go. most people walk and i love to get the exercise but right now is the rainy season and there have been several times where the kids and i have hailed a tuk tuk to get a ride up the huge hill instead of getting drenched. no matter how far you travel the cost is 5q. about $0.60. kids are free. yippee!

gt updates july 11-13

2011-07-15T14:44:00.002-04:00

july 11, 2011, monday, day 11
marin-i don't think i had many expectations of how the kids would transition to living here but i think that marin has exceeded any that i did have. she is having such a great time. maybe it's the age. she hasn't complained about bugs, dirt, not having her toys, not being able to understand people. pretty much just goes with the flow. she talks to everyone in english and when they talk back in spanish, she just says, "what?!" and smiles a really cute smile. she is learning some spanish words and will use them often. the funniest thing is how people react to her. everywhere we go, kids and adults will either stare, reach out and touch her hair or face, call her "cancha" which I think means blonde. they are just mesmerized by her presence. our friends here say that it's because she is different-skin, hair and eye color. townsend and ellory just kind of blend in. (unlike in the US where everyone comments about them and ignores marin) she's a little oblivious to it, too. as we have walked around the village i haven't seen another little blonde girl around. not many families with young kids come here i guess. anyway. i'm really proud of her. she has adjusted well and i think will have good memories of our time here.

july 13, 2011, wednesday, day 13
norton finally seems to be on the mend. hallelujah! today as we walked down the hill to go to dinner, i once again had thoughts such as, "wow. what a beautiful place we are in. i can't believe we are in guatemala, living with a mayan family and experiencing this culture as a family. thank you god." when norton was so sick, all i could think about was how isolated i felt and how scary it was to have an illness and not feel confident in the medical care. no fun.

mosquitoes

2011-07-15T14:44:00.001-04:00

i don't remember there being so many mosquitoes in guatemala. five years ago we were here in the same month. maybe i just forgot. norton doesn't have any mosquito bites. typical. marin seems to have her father's smell/blood because she doesn't really have many either. i have around fifteen, but they haven't been that itchy and are just some red spots on my arms and legs. then there's townsend and ellory. if we had our camera i would take pictures. they have bites all over their bodies. ellory even has one on her little tushy. and they aren't just little red spots. both kids have huge whelps. every single bite. and when townsend or ellory scratch them, the skin breaks and puss builds up and there are big bubbles all over them. it's a sad situation.

no fear ninja

2011-07-13T15:10:00.001-04:00

this is my tribute to aubren. tributes are for the living, aren't they? maybe i have the wrong word. saturday, the group took a boat to a village across the lake, panajachel. norton and i have been there many times. one of aubren's friends is working there so aubren, the kids and i hopped on the boat with the group and went across. our kids loved it. i took the group to our favorite coffee shop there called crossroads cafe. it is run by a family who see their business as a ministry to the many foreigners in that town. and they make truly awesome coffee. after lunch aubren, the kids and i went back down to the dock to find a boat-ride home. we needed to get back before the group. the afternoon water is much choppier than the morning. but once again, the kids laughed and shrieked with glee as our boat skipped across the lake. after getting to san pedro we found a tuk tuk and headed up the hill to antonio's house. we were dropped off right at the soccer field which was filled with guys playing the sport. i paid the guy. we hopped off and he started back down the hill. it was then that i realized that i had left my backpack in the back of the tuk tuk. i started running down yelling, "alto! alto!" (all the stop signs say that. it was the only thing i could think of) there was a guy standing by us watching the game and he started yelling too but the tuk tuk guy kept going. the helpful guy then went to his motorcycle and offered to give me a ride to go catch the tuk tuk. while i was quickly contemplating this, aubren immediately said, "i'll get on!" and off she went with the hopefully nice, honest, trustworthy man. the kids and i sat on the bleachers. they watched the game. i prayed for aubren. after about fifteen minutes, the tuk tuk guy came back up, waving his hand. i grabbed my bag and was so grateful. "gracias! gracias!" then i continued to pray for aubren. about five minutes after that, she came back on the motorcycle. safe and sound. as she got off, i told her to wait because i wanted to take a picture of her and the nice man. alas, there was no camera in my bag. i guess i can't say for sure that tuk tuk guy took it, but i don't know what else could have happened. big bummer. that was aubren's first superhero action.

when we finally got back to the house, norton was looking really bad. cata offered to call their doctor to come by the house. i don't like that my first thought was, "is he knowledgeable? equipped?" but that's what i thought. but we didn't really have any alternative. so he came by, diagnosed norton with tonsillitis and gave us a prescription for an antibiotic and an antihistamine. nancy said that the pharmacy was open so aubren, nancy and i hopped on a tuk tuk and went down to pick up the medicine. on the way back to the house there is a huge hill. i mean huge. as we got about 1/4 of the way up the tuk tuk wouldn't move and we started going backwards. down, down, down. we got a good start and started up again. this time we got around 1/3 of the way up before it started to slow down. that's when aubren jumped out and started pushing from the side and running along with us. the tuk tuk got some momentum, aubren jumped back on and we made it back to the house. superhero action number two. thank you, aubren.

july 10 (past due)

2011-07-13T15:06:00.001-04:00

july 10, 2011, sunday, day 10

well. it's been a doozy of the past few days. seems longer. i was just starting to get a little routine started with working with each kiddo on workbook type stuff and going to my spanish class when norton started going downhill again. aubren (a friend of ours from church) got here on thursday night and i am so grateful for her presence. she has helped out a ton and has the most awesome attitude. my next post is dedicated to her. but beyond that our days ave been pretty similar. eat breakfast with the high school group. either walk around the market area/gringo area which is downhill another 200ft and tires out the kids. make pbj sandwiches back at the house. "quiet time" while janis goes to spanish class on the weekday afternoons. play around the house. go eat dinner with the high schoolers. get ready for bed and lights out.

ANOTHER HEALTH UPDATE

2011-07-12T15:17:00.002-04:00

From Norton: Okay, so I spoke too soon. Literally, I posted the last update on Saturday around noon, began walking home from my school and started feeling horrible again. I was coughing like crazy (felt like I was going to keel over in some coffee bushes on several occasions) and by Saturday night my fever was back up to 103.2. My head, jaw, and throat felt like they were going to explode from the pain and coughing. We knew I had to see a doctor. It was probably something serious. Someone said Dengue fever and that made us worried.

Doctors are notoriously bad in this region. Americans are told to stay away from them. In fact, before we came, one family who had stayed in our village for six months last year told us to bring our own suture kit because when their son needed stitches and they went to the local clinic, the staff didn't even have any sutures, needles, etc. There is only one real hospital in the area across the lake and up the mountain in a town called Solola and it has a really bad reputation. Westerners are urged to avoid it at all costs. Remember that fact. Bottom line: if you really need a doctor or any kind of medical attention, you need to go to Antigua or Guatemala City 4 hours away.

Before making a long trip to Antigua, we asked an American friend who runs a local humanitarian organization and has lived nearby for a few years if she knew of a local doctor that was good. She did...his name was Francisco and he was in our village and he was familiar with Westerners! Awesome! But unfortunately it was Saturday night at 7 pm and he wasn't available until Monday. Cata (the woman we are staying with) said she would call her doctor to come see me--her doctor works at the hospital in Solola and would come by after work around 8 or 9 pm. Ugh, against all the advice we had received, this is where we just had to trust Cata and trust God was taking care of us. I was getting worse by the hour and we decided to take whatever help we could.

The doctor Miguel arrived about 9 pm. He was wonderful. I told him my symptoms in broken Spanish and he agreed that he didn't think it was just the flu. He took my blood pressure, listened to me breathing (and coughing) and then looked down my throat, after which he immediately said I had an infection in my tonsils, or tonsillitis (or some other kind of infection and my tonsils were inflamed). At first it was puzzling. Then I was a bit scared because I thought that most people that had tonsillitis had to have their tonsils taken out and I certainly did not want to do that in Guatemala. But then it started to make sense. My throat wasn't sore in the typical "sore throat" kind of way, but it was painful and tonsillitus explained many of the symptoms. And after looking down my throat, he seemed pretty darn sure. He prescribed an antibiotic and said it should clear up the infection in a few days; he also prescribed a liquid specifically for the pain/inflammation in my throat. He was so nice. When I asked him how much we could pay him (you just pay doctors on the spot in Guatemala), he said not to worry about it. Turns out he isn't just Cata's doctor, but a cousin of hers and he wanted to do a favor. So Janis gave him a bag of chocolates instead.

The pharmacy was still open so Janis, Aubren, and Nancy went down there, got the medicine and I started taking it Saturday night.

So...now it's Tuesday around 1 pm. I've been taking drugs for 3 full days and honestly, I haven't felt a lot better yet. Just today, I'm getting a little bit of energy back and coughing a little less and getting around a little more and we're hoping that the antibiotics are now having their full effect and I'll feel a lot better in the next few days. Thanks for praying for us. We do have other updates about more "positive" things. We'll post those soon.

gt update july 3-6

2011-07-09T14:21:00.003-04:00

july 3, 2011, Sunday, day 3 continued

We hopped on the back of antonio’s truck around 4pm and headed to san Pablo for church. Their church starts at 5pm just like our church. Cata motioned for us to sit in the front row and at some point during the service Antonio talked about us and then everyone clapped. Who knows what he said. :) we sang a couple of songs all together and then a group of kids got up and sang. Then a group of women. Then a group of men. Don’t know if they always do that. One thing I noticed. Guatemalans may be quiet in general but not during a worship service! Those women sang sooo loud. Even the one using the microphone. They really belt it out. And Antonio preached pretty loudly also. Marin kept asking, “why is Antonio yelling?” about halfway through, marin needed to go to the potty. We walked out the back and there were a bunch of kids playing there. They just stared at marin and then came up and were touching her hair and skin. Marin was like a statue. I don’t think she knew what to do. I told her that they probably didn’t see children with blonde hair and fair skin too much. It was kinda cute. After the service we headed back home where cata made dinner and then it was almost 9pm! I thought for sure the kids would sleep later the next morning after all the activity during the day and no nap.

July 4, 2011, Monday, day 4

Guess how late the kids slept in?? 6am! Why was I not too surprised? We got up and took showers and ate mosh again for breakfast and were basically into our day before 8am. Kinda makes for a long day. Norton left for his first day of Spanish classes and I helped cata clean dishes and did some “school work” with the kids. I got a call from Norton around 8:15am saying that the school had too many students and not enough teachers so he was going to have to wait until tomorrow to start. So this week he’ll go Tuesday thru Saturday. He came on home and we piddled around a bit and then left to go walk down to the “gringo” part of san pedro to have lunch and meet with a lady we’ve been in contact with who does work in san Pablo. Antonio and cata live at the very top of san pedro and the gringo part is all the way near the edge of the lake. Nice to walk down. We weren’t sure how the kids would do coming back up. We ate at the place where Norton had been before. Three tacos for 10 quetzales (a little over a dollar) it was pretty yummy. Then we got the kids some ice cream and found a coffee shop to wait for our friend. the kids had colors and paper and really did pretty well considering they had to stay put for so long. Marin fell asleep on norton’s shoulder during the whole meeting. She was so tired. Afterwards we started the long walk up to the house. The kids kept wanting to ride a tuk tuk again but we encouraged them and they made it back. So proud of our little guy and gals. They have transitioned pretty well overall. Some fighting but also using their imaginations to make up games. Although I sometimes feel so out of place, they have not complained about how different it is or anything. Today when townsend asked me a question, I answered, “si” (yes). He said, “say yes!” I think he was tired of the whole Spanish thing at that moment. :)

July 5, 2011, Tuesday, day 5

just some highlights-there's a group of high schoolers who are here to do some work with Antonio in San Pablo. we met them this morning at breakfast. we will be having breakfast and dinner with them for the next few weeks. Cata is cooking. I'm helping. Or at least trying to. :) after breakfast this morning i took the kids to a "park" where there is a fountain with some big fish and turtles swimming around. while we were there i noticed the back of a woman who looked like my spanish teacher, ana maria. from five years ago. it was! we talked for a bit and then made plans for me to go to her house for an hour in the afternoons for spanish lessons. she was ready to start today so i went up to her house around 3pm and we began. she is such a great teacher for me. her sense of humor fits mine and we have a great time. it ended up being more like two hours. i'm so glad we could work out for me to get a little bit of classes in. norton signed townsend up for classes at his school during the third week that we are here. there was a family with a five year old daughter who was taking classes and they told norton that it was going well so we decided to let townsend give it a shot.

July 6, 2011, Wednesday, day 6

pretty routine day. breakfast with the mission group. marin has latched on to one girl who is from boulder, colorado. they were both coloring away this morning. i don't think marin will leave her alone now. after breakfast i took the kids back to antonio's house. (we've been doing the meals at cata's parents house) i spent some one on one time with each kid doing some workbooks that i brought. norton came home for lunch and then i left for my spanish class. when i got back norton had a headache and fever. i gave him some advil and then the kids and i walked down to dinner. right after everyone had finished, the power went out. i think it's pretty typical. it had been raining alot today. we walked back to the house where i am now. fortunately the power just came back on. i don't like that norton is sick. we seem so far removed from everything. no internet to find out what he might have. or to email the doctor. and i think about how these people have lived like this always. the last couple of days antonio had a headache but he just went about this business. no laying down to rest. or at least i didn't see him do that. kinda different. norton and i are a bit concerned about ellory. she just seems so anxious or something. she always wants to be right by mommy. this morning i got some bottles of bubbles and we went to play with some kids next door. townsend and marin ended up running around with the kids but ellory just stayed on the porch blowing bubbles with me and the other mom. it doesn't necessarily surprise us, but we want her to enjoy this trip and are trying to think about how we can help her have more fun.

pics to come soon...

103.4 degrees

2011-07-09T14:19:00.001-04:00

Quick update from Norton. Wednesday night I had a temperature of 103.4. Lots of chills and a terrible head-ache, and whole body-ache. I've been taking fever-reducers, but it took a while for them to do anything. On Thursday morning, I couldn't move. Hadn't slept at all the night before and the fever was still around 102. On one hand, it's pretty clear that I've probably got the flu. I'll just keep resting, drink lots of liquids, and try to keep the fever down. On the other hand, we're in the middle of nowhere. The only "good" hospital/clinic for foreigners is 3 hours away. And there really isn't any counting on 911 in this part of the country if you need it. So it's natural to start thinking, "what if I have pneumonia or typhoid fever or malaria?" Highly doubtful, but when good medical help isn't readily available, it certainly changes the way you think about things.

Update: It's early Saturday afternoon and my fever has come down to about 99/100 and I feel much better (thanks to Ambien and Ibuprofen!) I'm still pretty worn out and my body is achy and I have a really bad cough (which I think is allegies since it started 1 hour after we got of the plane and seems unrelated to the sickness.) But overall, I'm feeling a lot better. The elders of Antonio's church prayed for me, and all the kids were praying too. Thanks for any of you who happened to be joining them.

guatemala update days 1-3

2011-07-04T10:59:00.001-04:00

note: the following updates are from our trip to guatemala. pics to come when available.

july 1, 2011, friday, getting to Guatemala

Although the kids were up a bit past bedtime on Thursday night, they were wide awake at 5:30am Friday morning! That’s even earlier than usual. I think they were excited about our trip. Fortunately, our flight wasn’t until noon so we didn’t have to rush around or anything. Our friend, Laura Peters, came over to drive us to the airport and we got there at 10am. Checking in and security went faster than usual it seemed and we were heading to our gate by 10:20am. About 15 minutes into the waiting the kids were ready to get on a plane. “be patient” was our mantra. We finally got on board and were headed to Dallas. Marin doesn’t remember her first plane ride and she was very interested in what was happening. “are we flying yet?” “what’s that sound?” I don’t think she went one minute without asking me a question. I hope she enjoys flying and doesn’t take after her worrywart mommy. :) at the Dallas airport we ate some popeye’s chicken and then got on the plane to Guatemala city. Marin and I sat together again and she went from reading to coloring to watching a dvd and then the cycle would start again. Mommy was getting tired. The kids did really well. They were getting so tired on the last flight, yet we really didn’t want them to go to sleep because we wanted them to sleep that night. Once in Guatemala, we found our friends Julio and Oscar and they took us to the mission compound where Julio lives and hosts groups. He set us up in the apartment and it was really nice. The grounds there are gorgeous. Just full of lush plants and flowers. Courtyards and big doors. We weren’t too surprised that the newness of the place seemed to wake the kids up and they were running around with no thoughts of sleep anymore. Eventually we got everyone in bed. Marin woke up screaming a couple of times. Poor thing. The other two did fine.

july 2, 2011, saturday, day 2

Even with all the travelling and late night, the kids were awake at their usual 6:15am. Can we not get a break?? :) after everyone was up and dressed we heading to the dining area where we had pancakes with crema and strawberry sauce, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, pan dulce (sweet breads) mosh (kinda like cream of wheat but oh so much better!) and fresh squeezed pineapple and papaya juice. The kids must have had 5 glasses of that juice-it was awesome! We chatted with Julio, his wife Jodi and their kids. Such a wonderful family. Love Jesus and love people. Townsend and Marin eventually got up from the table to run around the courtyard area. The courtyard where there is a fountain. Filled with water. The one that we had told them the night before that they were not to put their hands in. one of Julio’s daughters came in to the dining room and said, “ I think you need to go see the kids.” There they stood. With not just a hand in the water. No. they were in the fountain. Fully clothed. their only pair of tennis shoes on their feet. And they didn’t seem to think that what they were doing was wrong in any way. Sigh. Anyway-Julio’s daughter, Deborah, took us to buy some cell phones so Norton and I can keep in contact while we’re here. The other daughter, Linda, took care of the kids so we could go run errands. We finally got in the van, driven by Javier, and headed to San Pedro. It ended up being a pretty long trip. We had to go through Antigua to drop off a couple of men. We also stopped for lunch and went to see some ruins in ixmiche. The craziest part was being flagged over two times by the policia. Not for speeding or anything. Just so they could talk with Javier, look really mean, and make him give them money for lunch. Javier didn’t know much English but I had my dictionary and the words he kept using were, “swindling, fraud.” Pretty sad. The second time the policeman even opened the van doors and asked us questions about where we were going. I was a little nervous. Especially with having two Guatemalan kids. But I guess it could have looked like they belonged to Javier so that wasn’t even an issue. Praise God. We finally made it to Antonio’s house. it’s a lovely house built around a courtyard. With coffee plants and an avocado tree right outside. But it’s still pretty rustic. And Nancy, the daughter, is the only one who speaks English. And she’s not fluent or anything. And there are steps going up to where we are living. With no rails. Hard cement. I am praying extra hard for protection for us and the kids. As the adults were trying to have a conversation, Antonio and Cata, his wife, asked us what we were doing for dinner. Awkward. Well, we just got here. We have no transportation. It’s raining and they don’t live near a store. We said, “don’t worry about us. We brought some food.” But in the end, they said that we could eat with them. Black beans, tortillas-just what I wanted. Townsend was a little overwhelmed at one point last night. We were really tired but needed to eat and with all the Spanish conversation going on I guess it just hit him. He told me he wanted to go home. Poor little guy. Then Pedro, the thirteen year old son, started watching Disney channel and Townsend and the girls were just fine. :) the girls are in one room in the same bed and Townsend is with us. We’ll see how that goes.

july 3, 2011, sunday, day 3

The kids slept so well! I would have never thought that the girls would be able to sleep right next to each other. They were up around 6:30am and we got dressed and then went to eat breakfast-pancakes-with Cata and Antonio. Their kids were still asleep somehow. Even with our kids making lots of racket. After breakfast, Cata, Nancy, the girls and I walked to the Mercado(market). Sunday is a big market day in san pedro. We bought some pineapple, mango, plantains, bananas and a melon. I just couldn’t pass up all the fresh fruit. Then we went to find ground beef. You see, last night, Cata told me that she wanted me to make lunch American style. The main challenge is that they don’t have an oven so everything has to be made on the stove. Norton suggested hamburgers, thus the search for ground beef. We went to a butcher who basically cut off a hunk of some meat and put it through a grinder. I guess it’s similar to what they do in the states but in Guatemala it’s all done in the open air. Interesting. We went into one very small store to buy some chips and I saw some containers of nutella! Ironically, I had brought the family some and had given it to them in the morning to eat on our pancakes. They didn’t seem to recognize it so it was almost shocking to see it in the store. It would have cost them around $10 to buy it at their store. And the container wasn’t as big as my Costco huge container which cost about $4. I don’t know who would be able to afford it there. Maybe some desperate Americans/Europeans? The purchases were getting heavy so we took a tuk tuk back to the house. The girls loved the ride. During part of our adventure through the market Ellory seemed to hit a wall. She just started crying and after a bit told me that she wanted to go home. It’s interesting. Townsend and ellory have both missed home and Marin has been having the time of her life. She talks nonstop, per usual. And will try to speak Spanish. Or just talk in English to someone even if they don’t understand her.

drive.me.wild

2011-06-10T19:13:00.003-04:00

will i never learn?? just a few blog posts ago i talked about the last time i let marin and townsend do "quiet time" together. disaster. why did i think a month's worth of time would effect any positive change???
the pictures above aren't overexposed. that haze is baby powder. i didn't even know we still HAD baby powder in the cabinet. they must have climbed on the counter to get to the top shelf.
so baby powder all over the bathroom. and just for fun they added some water to make it kinda pasty. oh wait! that's not quite fun enough. how about some diaper rash ointment to make it pasty AND greasy. did i mention that the floors are a ceramic tile with lots of crevices and ridges? a simple swipe with the mop would not make a dent in this mess. are we having fun yet???
when i originally walked in the bathroom, townsend looked up and immediately said, "marin started this." but that was about the most remorse either one of them showed. neither one seemed remotely aware of the seriousness of this crime. in fact, as i walked in and out of the bathroom trying to decide between screaming at the top of my lungs, getting the camera, or pulling all of my hair out, marin continued to sprinkle powder on the floor.
i was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the little culprits. they ended up on towels in their rooms for a looooong time out. marin sat there singing every song she knew and at one point asked me, "mommy, do you like when i sing?"
the "good" that came from this incident was that the entire bathroom floor got spic and span. i think the last time i scrubbed that floor was the last time the kids made a mess. maybe if i clean in there more often the kids won't feel the need to go to such extremes in order to have a clean bathroom. i'll give it a try.

truth

2011-05-24T11:19:00.002-04:00

last night at dinner townsend looked at me and said, "mommy, i love everything you cook for dinner."
ellory quickly followed that up by saying, "mommy, i love everything you cook for dinner."
so far so good.
then townsend said, "marin, you haven't said anything."
marin waited a few seconds and then said, "mommy, i love YOU!"

say what?

2011-04-28T09:50:00.000-04:00

aunt susu is here. and she is always ready with an M&M, gummy bear, mint, tic tac, etc. this morning ellory started asking her for some, "squiggles." townsend came over and very smartly said, "ellory, they aren't called squiggles! they're called squiggles!"
about 7 seconds later he quietly said, "i mean skittles."

snow day

2011-04-02T22:18:00.004-04:00

sometimes i just get tired. it's quiet time and although townsend is pretty good at staying in his room and playing by himself, marin makes it a battle every.single.day. there is never, i repeat, never, a day that she just goes in her room and plays by herself. i try to be consistent and just keep putting her back in without emotion. but like i said, sometimes i just get tired. and when i do, i usually regret it. like this particular day. marin had come out and ran to her brother's room and slammed the door-like i wouldn't figure out that she was in there. and i just gave up and let her stay in there. they weren't being too loud or anything so i let it go. should have known. townsend and marin had started breaking apart one of townsend's creations from preschool. a big styrofoam square glued onto a board along with a bunch of other stuff. and as you can see, it looked like we were having a blizzard in the house. for some reason, i didn't get mad. just got the camera to document. :)
and where was ellory during all of this? sweetly sleeping in the back room. like she always does. every day. so grateful for at least one child who loves sleep.

happy 4th birthday, ellory!

2011-03-29T17:14:00.005-04:00

the birthday day begins-the kids were out of bed right at 7am. they came downstairs and ellory opened her presents and cards. a new green comforter for her bed. dora dvd, and a laurie berkner cd. plus some college money from gran and pawpaw. more gifts will be trickling in. we decided to go to gunther toody's for a birthday breakfast. (the best we could do that would qualify as a "party." )
the kids had M & M pancakes-yummy!
family shot try #1
family shot try #2 (please be assured-no child was actually choked during this photo session)
family shot try #3- we're done.
the wait staff gave ellory a hat and sang happy birthday.
that night after dinner we had birthday cupcakes. cute smile.
we love to see ellory laugh. daddy was acting silly behind me as i took the picture.
ellory loves that she is now the same age as townsend.
couldn't snap the shot before marin had already taken a bite. the girl loves her food.

dear ellory,
four years ago a 26 year old woman in guatemala, maria, gave birth to YOU! i think she is probably thinking of you today. wondering where you are. who you are. it is bittersweet for me to think about. what was probably a painful decision for her allowed us to have a beautiful daughter. we are so grateful for you elly bell. you continue to both delight and confound us. one minute you have your lower lip sticking out in a huge pout. the next minute you are sweet as pie. and we still haven't figured out what triggers either. sigh.
some things about this past year:
1. we saw dr. moser a few days ago. you are in the 90% for weight and height. he said that you were perfectly healthy.
2. you are in the big "crocodile" class this year at preschool. i am so glad to hear you talk about some of your friends-parker, hope, joey, luke.
3. you went to your first birthday party without your brother and sister. we went to natalie's 5th birthday party where you saw "toy story 3." or at least part of it. the party was at night and you had to go to bed. :)
4. we got you and marin bunk beds and you sleep on top!
5. you still have a blankie that a neighbor made in alpharetta. i call it your pepperoni blanket. you put it up to your nose and just seem to breathe through it. like you're smelling it.
6. you have started enjoying coloring and writing. i think your fine motor skills are getting better. and you usually take your time instead of just scribbling.
7. you continue to be the slowest eater of the family. i'm sure you've just read that it is better for digestion to eat slower and thus are taking good care of your body. :)
8. you are still cautious when new people come around. but once you warm up to someone it's a different story.
9. you took swimming lessons for the first time this year. you were pretty scared but each day you overcame your fears and got in the water and had a great time.
10. you love to dribble and play basketball.
11. mommy was kind of bummed when you started having opinions on your wardrobe. basically you want to wear jeans and three shirts. that's it. tears/whining/crying/refusing happen when i make you wear something different.
12. you had xrays taken at the dentist last month and we found out that you have two extra teeth on top with your permanent ones. you will have to have surgery later this year to take them out. good thing you can't read this post yet!

we love you so much ellory!

a little treat?

2011-02-26T22:32:00.002-05:00

norton was out of town at a conference this week. so mommy decided to relax a few of the "rules" around here. i let them all drink their milk in sippy cups on the couch in the morning. i let them eat their breakfast on the couch while they watched "dinosaur train." just a few little things like that. and i always prefaced everything with, "this is a little treat for you!"
this next part might seem a little off topic, but keep reading.
about a month ago i finally decided to buy some of those disposable wipes to use on the kids when they go number two. too many times, the kids would be getting red bottoms because they would wipe themselves and not do a good job. so the rule was, "tell mommy when you go poo-poo so i can wipe your bottom." a couple of days ago townsend was in the bathroom going number two. i tried to wait for him to finish-sometimes he's on there quite awhile-to wipe his bottom but suddenly i had to go too! so i told him that i was just going to give him the wipe and he could do it himself. he replied, "kinda like a treat for me?" maybe you had to be there. but it was funny. :)

a look into the future??

2011-02-22T08:57:00.002-05:00

the other day the girls and i were in the family room playing. townsend walked in with a huge pile of papers and announced, " everyone, sit down. i am going to preach!" then he proceeded to shuffle the papers, (it was a stack of at least 30 pages-that's some sermon!) and told us that "God wants us to love each other."
with norton being a "preacher" and all, maybe this shouldn't have come as a surprise to me. but i don't think we ever use the term, "preacher." and townsend hasn't ever been in a service to see norton preach and use papers and such. so we don't know where this came from. but it was sure cute. marin, of course, decided she wanted to "creech" too. so she went and got a pile of papers and started "creeching." then townsend and marin started fighting about the papers and all the "love" went out the door. :)

3 or 13?

2011-02-22T08:52:00.003-05:00

marin has gotten into a bad habit. a very bad habit.
she has started calling me "mom" and norton "dad."
i thought we had another ten years or so before this started!
i don't like it. not one bit.
marin, you are our BABY. hear me??
love, MOMMY AND DADDY

oh, the questions

2011-02-16T23:21:00.002-05:00

the kids have recently started this little "game" with me. here's an example.
them- "what do we do tomorrow morning?"
me-"breakfast"
them- "what's after breakfast?"
me- "preschool"
them- "what's after preschool?"
me- "quiet time"
them- "what's after quiet time?"
on and on they go. you get the picture.
tonight marin asked, "where are we going tonight?"
me- "nowhere."
marin- "what's after nowhere?"
for some reason, it just cracked me up. :)

tennis shoes aren't just for your feet

2011-02-09T22:12:00.003-05:00

marin has had a runny nose for the past couple of days. so she constantly asks for a "tennis shoe." we laugh every time. i get it, though. tennis shoe-tissue. say both real fast and it's perfectly understandable. :)

overheard tonight

2011-02-07T21:41:00.002-05:00

i was giving ellory a bath tonight. marin had already had her bath and was in her pj's. townsend had disrobed and was waiting for his turn. i heard him ask marin, "do you want to play naked dancer?" then he proceeded to run around the house yelling, "i'm a naked dancer!" i was grateful and actually pretty surprised that marin did not join in.
now this being a family blog and all, there are no pictures posted to document the event. :)

booooring!

2011-02-02T23:50:00.001-05:00

i guess mommy should come up with more exciting snacks, huh?

don't go breaking my....

2011-01-30T17:00:00.003-05:00

COLLARBONE! i mean CLAVICLE! (pawpaw the MD corrected me-thank you)
the first broken bone in our family. townsend was painting at the table in late november when he stood up on the chair. he was wearing socks and suddenly slipped off and landed on his shoulder. he didn't seem to be in that much pain and he could move his arm. we gave him some tylenol and put him to bed. he woke up a couple of times during the night crying. he said he couldn't move and was in pain. the next morning i took him to the doctor. they did xrays and found that he had completely broken his collarbone. the doctor said that if you had to break a bone, the collarbone was the one to break. there was no setting it back into place. we just received a sling and were told it would heal on its own. by the next day, you wouldn't even know townsend had hurt himself. he was back to running, jumping, etc. i think that i was more anxious than he was!

marin turns 3!

2011-01-30T16:23:00.004-05:00

dear mare-bear,
i think out of all the kids, you have changed the most over the last twelve months. everyone who met you this past year couldn't believe you were only 2 years old. i'm sure having two slightly older siblings has encouraged you to try to keep up with them. and you have done a pretty good job at it too!
some highlights of your year:
1. you pottytrained!!! a couple of months after you turned two, you decided you wanted to wear big girl panties. we were so glad.
2. you got a big girl bed! we moved ellory back into the girl's room after buying a bunkbed. i was hoping that the nice, comfy larger bed would keep you asleep longer. nope. still up by 6:15am.
3. you love to memorize God's Word and amaze us with how much you can remember. even the references!
4. you have such high energy. you talk and bounce around from the moment you get up-6:15am-until you go to bed-7pm. wh0 do you get this from? daddy and i cannot figure it out. we get tired just watching you.
5. you are sooooo compassionate. when you hear anything remotely like a cry, you are immediately concerned and trying to help whoever is upset. "there, there, it's ok!"
6. you love most foods. except carrots. and broccoli. and cheese. (unless it's spicy-then you love it.)
7. you can sit for long periods of time reading books with whomever will read to you.
8. you continue to show your balance and coordination on the skuut bike.
9. you LOVE caillou! (pbs kid's show)
10. you have started becoming more huggy and snuggly.
11. you have pretty much dropped your nap. every once in awhile you'll fall asleep but not usually. again, how can you keep going on only 11 hours of sleep a day?
12. you have a will. a strong one. mommy and daddy are tired. sometimes you win.
13. you get so excited for things. like your third birthday. i don't remember the other two talking so much about their birthdays. but you were convinced that there was going to be a big party with all your friends. we didn't have a party but we did take you roller skating and paige and taylor came with a present.
14. you say things like, " i love ellory. she's my sister." "townsend, you're my big brother."
15. your hair has grown enough now that no one asks, "what's HIS name?" anymore. :)
16. you are in the 90% for weight! and the 75% for height. i was concerned about the weight but the doctor said that with the height being what it is, he wasn't worried. and the fact that you jump around from morning till night. :)

marin, you are one of a kind. so special. we love you baby girl.

figured it out

2010-11-16T11:57:00.003-05:00

another marin post-
marin has a blankie that she loves. it get's kinda nasty at times. i was "smart" enough to go to target and get another blankie as a backup. it's not exactly the same colors but pretty close. for whatever reason she now has both blankies in her bed. this morning she was holding both blankies on norton's lap. here is the short conversation they had.
norton: "what does this blankie smell like?" (referring to her original blankie)
marin: "something"
norton: "what does this blankie smell like?" (referring to the backup)
marin: "nothing"
there you have it folks! that is why having backup lovies will never work. :)

someday

2010-11-14T11:31:00.002-05:00

marin doesn't seem to quite understand the aging process. now that she is in big girl panties, we tell her that she is a "big girl." but apparently being a big girl isn't such a great thing for her. she constantly tells us that, "someday, when i'm a baby, i'm going to sleep in my crib, wear diapers, drink from a bottle, etc." the first time i heard her say this i tried to explain....now i just let it go. :)

..the mother of invention

2010-10-30T11:01:00.002-04:00

it's gets pretty hot out here in the summer. of course mommy had put shoes on marin but who knows where they went. so she made her own pair. :)

swimming lessons!

2010-10-14T22:37:00.004-04:00

there is a denver parks and rec pool just down the street from our house. i went over there to inquire about the cost of swimming lessons and was so pleasantly surprised to find out that the kids could go for a half hour a day for two weeks for $26!!! we signed right up! the cutoff age was three so marin couldn't go. she was a bit sad. but i was very happy to get the other two started on some lessons. we aren't big pool people so the kids haven't had alot of water time.
townsend and ellory were in the same class. 8 kids. one young instructor-miss taylor. i was a little apprehensive as she pretty quickly got them all into the big pool. but everyone survived. :)
although ellory was so excited to take lessons. each day when we would get to the pool, she was a little hesitant about going to miss taylor. but it didn't take long and she would be right in there with the rest of the kids.
that's ellory being pulled around by miss taylor.
townsend loved it. :) i'm glad they had a good experience for their first time. now to contemplate continuing lessons over the rest of the year at one of those expensive swim lesson schools.

grandma and peepaw's visit

2010-10-14T22:17:00.004-04:00

as mentioned in townsend's fourth birthday post, grandma and peepaw came to visit this summer. we didn't actually DO alot. just had fun hanging out and spending time with the grandkids. they stayed in a hotel nearby so one afternoon we took advantage of the hotel pool and spent some time in the water.
ellory didn't last long. she ended up sitting by mommy and grandma most of the time. but townsend and marin loved it!
lounging by the pool.

we also went to the children's museum. the kids dressed up as firefighters and played on an engine.

there's a cute vet clinic in the museum. they looked at xrays, gave shots to animals, and listened to heartbeats.

townsend spent most of his time in the train room. of course.
the girls went to the little whole foods shopping market.
marin was so cute ringing up the items. this place is great for the imagination!
a fun picture of grandma and townsend.
grandma, peepaw and the grandkids right before they left. i think marin was starting to get sad here. she cried hard as we drove away. sweet girl.

he's figured it out.

2010-09-04T22:14:00.002-04:00

we went camping last night and on the way home were singing, "the wheels on the bus." the kids like putting everyone in our family's name in the song and making up something that that person "does" on the bus. (you're really missing out if you don't know this song!) today they started adding gran, pawpaw, aunt susu, etc. we hadn't used the extended family before so the kids were having to pick new lyrics. when it got to "pawpaw on the bus goes-" norton asked, "what does pawpaw say?" and townsend said, "money, money, money!"
pawpaw, i'm sure you are getting a kick out of this!

overheard conversation

2010-08-31T14:36:00.002-04:00

yesterday i was lying on the couch while the kids took their naps. it was about time for them to be waking up and sure enough i heard marin's door open. she was whimpering a bit for "mommy" and i heard her go into the kitchen and look down the stairs to our bedroom. norton was in there with the door closed so she didn't go down. she went back into the hallway and i soon heard townsend's door open. he came out and this is what i heard.

townsend- "marin, are you scared in your room in the dark?"
marin- "yes, i'm scared of the dark."
townsend- "why don't you just pray to God to ask you to not be scared?"
marin- "help me not be scared."
townsend- "no! pray to God to help you not be scared."
marin- "God, please help me not be scared."
townsend- "i'm not God!"

they continued on with new conversation about animals and such. it was so fun to hear them having an actual conversation. i can't believe how big they are. :)

summer vacation

2010-07-29T23:13:00.008-04:00

i have always appreciated the fact that norton likes to go on vacations. every summer since we've been married we've gone on some kind of vacation. we decided to do a 5 day camping trip this summer. which was a bit risky. marin does not have a great track record when it comes to going to sleep and staying asleep in a tent. (we can barely get her to sleep in her own bed!) but we chose to accept the challenge. we headed northwest from denver and camped the first night at chambers lake. we have a book with the "best" campgrounds in colorado and this was one of them. our site was right on the lake. notice the smaller blue "boys" tent in the far background? well, the campground host came by right after this picture was taken and said that we would have to move the tent. it wasn't within the wooden boundaries. norton was so bummed. they had to repitch the tent right in back of the car since our "girls" tent took up most of the tent pad.
norton spent a lot of time fishing. can you see that gigantic trout that he is reeling in? really? you can't? well, it's right there. promise.
the kids enjoyed standing on the edge of the water. throwing rocks. getting dirty. the usual.

we brought our bikes and took a ride through the campground.
norton caught a mid morning snack for us.
the pan is about two feet in diameter. just to give you more perspective on the size of the fish. :) this was actually my first time at cooking a fish that had just been caught. kinda weird. i was more worried about the kids choking on a bone so they had to eat "flakes" of fish. but it was really yummy.
we continued north and ended up at steamboat lake state park. daddy was very gracious and put marin in his tent while we were there. so townsend slept next to mommy.
just relaxin'
the reason we chose this park was because in the book it said that all of the forest rangers voted this the best campground in colorado. it talked about the big shady trees. wonderful lake. etc. as you can tell from the picture, there were no trees in sight. unfortunately, this mean ol' pine beetle has been killing pine trees all over northern colorado. apparently last summer they cut down all the trees in the campground. there were big stumps all around our campsite. we were left to imagine what it must have looked like in the past. and to sweat alot as the sun beat right down upon us. sad. sad. sad.
our one little haven of shade.
once again, we camped right by the lake. norton fished and caught one trout. he left it on a line in the water until dinnertime. when he went to get it, about half the fish was gone. gross. we suspect an otter or beaver got at it.
after spending a couple of nights at steamboat we headed north again into wyoming. there was this really pretty lake that we came across so we stopped. as you can see there was some snow surrounding it.
the girls.
for our last night we stayed at this ranch. after going four days without a shower/bath we reeked! mommy stood in the shower and daddy handed her the kids one at a time to scrub down. felt so good!
BIG swings that the kids loved. unfortunately, there were a ton of mosquitos so we didn't stay outside too long.
our little cabin was right on the water so daddy caught several fish. but he threw them back.
this was the little card waiting for us in the cabin. a nice touch.

overall, i think it was a successful vacation. marin slept well in the tent 50% of the time. the kids did well during the driving and pretty well during the camping. it rained some and mommy hadn't brought alot of things to play with in the tent but oh well. mommy had a bike accident with ellory on the back. but except for being scared, ellory didn't have any scrapes or cuts. (mommy had several that marin kept wanting to kiss.) sometimes i felt like all we were saying was, "move back from the water!" " quit eating dirt!" "take your shoes off before you go in the tent!" "shhhhh! it's 6am and people are still sleeping!" so i hope that the kids remember the "fun" times more than the nagging. we learned some lessons to make the next camping trip even better and look forward to doing lots more!

is she a genius??

2010-07-28T18:29:00.003-04:00

marin and i were playing with the magnetic letters on the refrigerator. all of a sudden i noticed that she had grouped all of the vowels together! oh my goodness! marin is a genius! and i didn't even teach her this. it's supernatural! from God!
then i looked above the vowels and saw that she had grouped other letters together----by color. i guess she's not quite the genius after all. but she can sort by color. that's pretty good for a 2 1/2 year old, right? semi-genius?

clean livin'

2010-07-26T23:30:00.003-04:00

our girls share a pretty small room. both of their cribs turned toddler beds run along opposite walls and there is a dresser in between. there is just about a foot between each of their beds and the dresser. perfect for a...........shower! of course!
today i walked in and they were standing in their respective "showers" with two chairs acting as the doors. they were standing there scrubbing their little bodies. it was so funny. marin would get "out" of the shower and go over to their desk which has a little light under the top of the desk. she would put her hand there and pretend that it was dispensing soap. then go get back in the shower to continue cleaning. it's just so fun and funny to see them use their imagination.

townsend turns 4!

2010-07-24T22:54:00.004-04:00

the first picture we ever saw of townsend. we were in love.
we had chocolate waffles for dinner on townsend's birthday. yum!

grandma and peepaw drove in on the morning of townsend's birthday. their van was loaded with presents for towney. courtesy of aunt susu of course.
townsend had just had a bath-hence the slicked back hair.
we also celebrated a couple of days later with aunt ann, uncle jim, james and julia. townsend wanted a cake with blue icing. blue is his favorite color.

aunt ann setting up the rocket shooter. i think half of the rockets ended up in the neighbors backyard within a few minutes. :)

dear townsend jose,
you are now four years old. our big boy. at your four year checkup you weighed 33.5 pounds (50th%) and are a little over 40 inches tall (30th%).
somewhere during this past year you developed the ability to hold an actual conversation. you have lots of questions about everything. and your memory is amazing. you also have very large ears-not physically. but we have to really watch what we say because you hear EVERYTHING. even when we spell words you have an uncanny knack for figuring out what we are saying.
you don't take a nap anymore but you do have quiet time in your room and you do pretty well at playing by yourself. at times you come out and try to engage mommy in conversation thinking that i won't "notice" that you are out of your room. sometimes i'll think you have fallen asleep and peek in your room and find that you have pulled out all of your puzzles and put them together one after another.
you continue to be very orderly and love to put cars, blocks, etc. in nice neat lines.
you still love thomas the train but have also added the characters from "cars" to your favorites list. in fact, most of your birthday presents this year were "cars" items.
you are a pretty good eater. not too picky. thank you.
you play fairly well with your sisters. when it's just you and one of them it's even better. lately you and the girls have been playing "family." there's a mommy, a daddy and a baby. i've noticed that you are usually the daddy or the baby.
i love that you still like to cuddle with mommy. and you love when daddy tickles you. :)
we are getting ready to go to guatemala and you are so excited. the other morning you came into our room, closed the door and said, "i am so excited about going to guatemala!" i told you to not talk about it too much around the girls. you asked, "will it make them jealous?"
you love to go camping. and for bike rides in the carrier attached to daddy's bike.
we think you are the cutest little boy in the whole world. we are so thankful that God made you to be our son and us to be your parents. although you still haven't asked any questions about being born in guatemala i know that at some point you will. maybe sometime this year. maybe the trip to guatemala will put some wonderings in your mind.
we love you so much townsend jose! happy birthday!

michelle comes to visit!

2010-06-26T23:10:00.003-04:00

my best friend, michelle, managed to get a week long layover in denver on her way to england this summer. it was so fun. daddy watched the kids so she and mommy could go to vail for a night. and it was just nice to have extended time to talk and hang out. it had been a year since the kids had seen her and the older they get the more that people impact them. it was a bit funny. my friend, mary, came out in april. then another friend,beth, came out at the beginning of may. the kids kept calling beth "mary." well, when michelle got here the kids kept calling her "beth." i guess the next friend to come will be called, "michelle." on the day that michelle left, the kids watched out the living room window and cried. so sweet. and that afternoon when i got marin up from her nap the first thing she asked was, "where is your friend?" i told her, "she's on a plane going to england." marin started crying and saying, "i want to go to england!" i think my friend needs to get a job in denver. :)

the real marin

2010-06-26T23:01:00.002-04:00

we take all these pictures of our kids and sometimes you see one that makes you realize that most of the pictures you have taken don't really show the "real" child. i just love this picture of marin. it's her real laugh. and she's messy. and a cutie.
now this picture is also cute but not in the same way. it's kinda goofy. but obviously not a genuine smile. she's actually saying, "CHEESE!" which she says every time you tell her to smile. even if you are not holding a camera. also, you will notice that this picture is a couple of weeks old because marin isn't in diapers anymore. she is pottytrained!!!!

our little athlete

2010-06-26T22:51:00.002-04:00

yes. it's ellory.
when she came to us at 6 1/2 months old, she couldn't even turn over. at 10 months old she still couldn't crawl. and she didn't walk independently until she was 17 months old.
now, here she is at three years old spending 30 minutes at a time playing basketball. by herself. dribbling. shooting. over and over without stopping. the girl can sweat, let me tell you. it has been so fun to watch her find an activity and really stick with it. she also loves to throw a ball back and forth. or play soccer. i know that norton is really hoping that his "boy" will be an athlete of some sort. and i'm sure townsend will. but right now ellory is taking the lead in the sports department. and i'm so proud of her.

potty training marin-take two

2010-06-22T21:30:00.002-04:00

six months ago we tried to potty train marin. didn't work. not even close. i had been starting to feel like it was time to try again and as her diapers were running out i decided that when that happened, into the panties she would go. so on saturday, june 19th, we woke up marin, took off her last diaper and sat her on the potty. nothing happened. so we put her panties on and told her to start peepeeing on the potty. by about noon she had peepeed everywhere except the potty and was on panty #15. i put her down for a nap and was very discouraged. we had a busy sunday planned and i just didn't have the energy to keep going. norton encouraged me to decide how long i was going to give her and be patient. i decided she had the rest of the day to show even an ounce of improvement. well, something happened during that nap. from the time she woke up she has been peepeeing on the potty and even pooped once. i have not had to clean up any messes and she wakes up dry from naps and nighttime. now if we let her lay too long in bed after waking up she might wet her underwear but overall she has been amazing!!!! i am so happy. she is so cute in her little underwear. maybe i should be sad that our "baby" is growing up. but in this case i'm not. i am happy, happy, happy, happy, HAPPY! yea, marin!

marin starts preschool!

2010-06-15T22:44:00.002-04:00

well, marin finally started preschool. the other two have been going since before they were even one year old. but for some reason we just never put marin in too. the preschool where townsend and ellory attend has a summer preschool for six weeks. once a week. so we decided to put marin in along with the other two. so for six weeks, every tuesday. from 9:30-1:30. mommy gets four whole hours to herself!!!! but i digress. this post is about marin! she was very very excited to go and be with her brother and sister. we bought her a rolling princess backpack. gran sent her a cute bear lunchkit. and she was ready to go!

this is her classroom. one of her teachers, ms. brandi, was townsend's teacher this past year. i think that made it a nice transition for marin since she was used to seeing brandi all year when we dropped off and picked up townsend.
she's in the puppy class.
i have looked in a little on her during the past three weeks. once she was sitting and doing a craft with ms. brandi and the other times she was just playing. today i asked brandi if marin is ever hyper. like at home. brandi said that they do lots of movement-dancing, singing, playing outside. so marin excels in those areas of course. brandi did say that after lunch the kids are supposed to go sit on the rug and read a book while the teachers clean up. apparently marin doesn't approve of this activity and makes her displeasure known. so brandi told her she could read or go lay on one of the pillows. marin went for the pillow. she has a mind of her own. that's for sure.

our trip to the sonnenfelds

2010-06-03T22:52:00.008-04:00

don't get the wrong idea. marin was very excited about going to the mountains to stay with toni and bruce. i think mommy had just told her to quit biting on her big toe. you'll see what i mean in a second.
townsend and ellory just chilled in the back seat while watching some barney during the ride to lake george.
marin has decided that her teeth are good for clipping her toenails. argh!
it was time to take down the flags when we got to the house.
the kids had to help, of course.
don't let the flag touch the ground!!!
the sonnenfelds wonderful house.
lots of fishing poles and nets.
toni and the girls at the lake.
mommy and her girls.
daddy teaching townsend how to fish.
my favorite boys.
toni helped ellory with her pole.
the patient fisherpeople.
bruce and marin. toni and bruce were so awesome with the kids. it made the weekend that much better for norton and me.
i tried to help ellory with the pole but she kept wanting to "do it myself."
toni taught the kids to play, "red light, green light" everytime we went walking.
we took a little hike around the property. it was beautiful. from one side of the house there is an unobstructed view of pikes peak.

climbing the big rock!

relaxing on the porch.
our second try at fishing. this time on a little river. the kids just played with sticks in the mud.
daddy caught a.......stick!

another good marin face. she is so expressive. it cracks us up.

we had such a fun time with bruce and toni. the kids played with the kitchen timers. good thing there were three of them! we kinda tuned out the beeping sounds after awhile. there were also puzzles and some building block type things. and stairs. up and down. up and down. after the kids went to bed each night we played triominoes. bruce won the first night and norton won the second night. and we ate lots of yummy food. just a fun getaway. thank you sonnenfelds!!

cinco de mayo 2010

2010-05-27T18:24:00.004-04:00

we have never been very good about getting downtown for all the festivals and such that go on in denver. it's easier to just stay in our little world in south denver. when i saw an ad for the cinco de mayo festival i decided we needed to make a trip and let our kids see another part of their city. of course there is no connection to guatemala in this holiday but i had hoped there would be some good mexican food. :) we decided to ask our friends, the ellis', to join us. and we thought it would be fun and more convenient to ride the light rail. the kids were thrilled! we put ellory and marin in their cute little guatemalan dresses that daddy bought them.
on the train!

we're almost there!
the festival started at 10am and we got there right about then. there were lots of food vendors-i was a bit disappointed to see the turkey legs and gyros and such. come on! but there were also some great taco stands and we tried the tacos at 3 of them. yum!
the kids got balloons. and kettle corn. we watched some little dancers doing traditional dance in their beautiful dresses. unfortunately, i didn't take any pictures of them.
then we saw all the kid rides. as we went up to each ride we found out that our kids were too little to ride them. this was actually a good thing seeing as the rides cost three and four dollars!! but we finally saw the jumpy house thing and it was "only" two dollars and the kids were tall enough. so away they went. it ended up being a long house and you just went through it and your turn was over. not like the regular houses where the kids just jump and jump. this is paige. she and marin are in preschool together this summer.
see that red wall behind marin? well, the kids were supposed to climb up that wall and then slide down to end the ride. townsend and taylor were the only ones who were actually able to climb it. we ended up having to get the workers to take the girls out via the side of the house.
townsend and his friend, taylor, at the end of the slide.
townsend ran around to the beginning and went through the whole thing again. don't know if he was supposed to but....
it was a fun morning. and good to get out and about in our city for once.

family camping trip #3

2010-05-25T16:48:00.003-04:00

well, it's that time of the year again! camping time! time to see if marin can sleep through the night in a tent. in a sleeping bag. i can't say that she slept through the night but she did sleep in her bag and didn't put up too much of a fuss when we made her go to bed. once again, we had the boys tent and the girls tent.the girl's tent is pictured above. the venue was golden gate canyon state park. it was pretty chilly-got down to the teens during the night. probably a bit too cold for fun camping with kids but we did alright.
glad we brought the hats and mittens!
daddy putting up the boy's tent.
as soon as the tents were up daddy made a fire. it was quite chilly!
eating dinner.
and of course, smores!
i found the little camping chairs on craig's list. love them.
big pile of snow at our campsite. with all the snow we received in denver this year, the kids weren't even tempted to go play on the big hill.
time for night-night. here's ellory. she kept wiggling down inside the bag which is an adult one and would wake up crying, "i can't see!" mommy would have to pull her up and get her head out of the top.
here's marin. she also wiggled but instead of down inside the bag i would find her completely out of the bag. not so good when it is below 20 degrees outside!

all in all it was a pretty successful trip. the next morning daddy got up early and got the fire going again. we are so thankful for him!!! we had some oatmeal and then pretty much packed up to head home.

townsend and ellory's first big show

2010-05-20T22:39:00.003-04:00

T. and E.'s preschool does a little songfest at the end of the year. both kids knew all the songs. we sing them all the time at home, in the car, etc. we talked about "smiling" and singing loudly. they both assured us that they were excited and ready for the big stage. so the above picture is ellory walking in the sanctuary. yes. i can see the excitement.
and this is what she looked like for the rest of the time. she will wear pants next time. don't worry.
unfortunately, their classes were on opposite sides of the stage so norton and i were running back and forth a bit. norton said he saw townsend open his mouth once or twice.
i guess if you look around, it's not like ellory looked that much different than any other kid. :)
since they attend on two days of the week, they had another songfest. so again we talked and practiced the songs. "oh yes, mommy. we are so excited to sing this time!"
maybe they don't actually know what the word "excited" means. that could have been the problem.
all in all, i am really proud of them. i know that i was absolutely terrified of getting up in front of people as a kid. in my 9 years of piano lessons i managed to only be in 2 recitals. so the fact that they didn't start crying or running off the stage to mommy and daddy says alot. and if i could learn how to put video on this blog, you could see all the singing, dancing and acting that they do all the time for us at home. :)

ellory and bedtime

2010-05-17T23:12:00.002-04:00

i guess i should have known it would happen at some point. our little angel, ellory, whom we could just lay down in bed and she would go right to sleep has finally decided that sleep isn't quite as wonderful as it once was. she hasn't tried the old, "i need a glass of water" trick. but that's because we cut her and townsend off of any beverage a couple of hours before bedtime. (it's worked really well to pretty much cut out nighttime accidents.)
no. ellory just wants me to sing extra songs. or give her a million kisses. or hug her again and again. and she clings to me saying, "gotcha!" then she wants an animal that i haven't seen in weeks and have no idea where it would be. she tries crying too. i guess i should be thankful for the hundreds of nights where she went down so easily.
also, she and marin now like to chat after i have closed the door. it used to just be marin doing the talking but now we hear ellory in there too. part of me thinks it's cute. two girls in a room together? of course there will be talking. but then again, i do want them to get their appropriate amount of sleep. we usually let them talk for awhile but if it gets too loud or too long norton stands outside their door and says, "shhhh!" then we hear marin go, "daddy say shhh!" no matter who does the shhshing she always thinks it's daddy. :)

coco? and other marin funnys

2010-05-17T22:58:00.003-04:00

for some reason marin has gotten into the habit of calling people "coco." it's kinda funny. she'll see daddy in the morning and say, "hi, coco!" sometimes she calls herself "coco." or me or the other kids. and she seems to have a sense of humor about it all. i think she understands what "teasing" is now.
3 days ago, while daddy was in north carolina with townsend, marin found one of norton's ear plugs. they are the squishy kind. kinda like a nerfball. she started putting it in her mouth and i told her to stop. i turned around and the next thing i knew, marin was standing in front of me with her mouth wide open. smiling. i asked where the earplug was and she pointed to her mouth. of course it wasn't there. i called norton's dad-a doctor and my sister-a nurse. they both said that it wasn't a big deal. it would pass through. but if she didn't have a bowel movement for several days then we might need to call the doctor. well, today was day 3 with no poop. and marin goes every day! i called my sister and we were talking about the situation. i was going to give it until the morning and then call the doctor if nothing appeared. i don't know if marin subliminally understood our converation or what. but when i got off the phone i went to change her diaper and lo and behold, there was the ear plug. :) i thought about taking a picture for the blog and all but decided that even 20 years from now, the kids probably won't want to see that.

townsend funny

2010-05-04T22:24:00.002-04:00

townsend uses the regular potty now. he goes all by himself, in fact. for number 1 that's no big deal. however, for number 2 he was regularly going through half a roll of toilet paper per visit. after several cloggings of the toilet i told him to please call for me to wipe him because we couldn't afford the paper or the clogging. he usually does his business during his "quiet time." while the girls are taking their nap. all of the sudden i would hear, "MOMMY! MOMMY! I NEED YOU! I NEED YOU!" and he would continue yelling until i got there. i told him not to yell so loud because i didn't want him to wake up his sisters. he finally settled on the latest tactic. he doesn't cry out over and over anymore. now i just hear, "MOMMY! WIPE-------MY-------BOTTOM!" love him.

another first for marin

2010-04-24T20:22:00.002-04:00

several months ago townsend took a shower with daddy for the first time. he was so proud. well, both of them were actually. :) i suppose ellory should have been next but for some reason marin got her turn first. i had just finished working out and was going in to take a shower and daddy suggested that marin come in with me. she was ecstatic. and very dirty. she didn't seem to mind getting the water in her face and jabbered away the whole time. daddy threatened to take pics....but this is a family blog and all. afterwards, marin just talked and talked about taking a shower with mommy. it's the small things i guess. :)

lesson learned

2010-04-18T22:14:00.003-04:00

we were just driving home from church and i decided to use the time to call my friend, michelle. in the back, townsend started saying something to upset ellory and she started having quite a fit. i held up one then two fingers to warn townsend he was on his way to "timeout." he continued bugging ellory so i pulled over to the side of the road. first lesson learned-don't pull over next to mcdonald's. although we rarely go there, the kids do like the nuggets. i told townsend that if he continued i would put him out on the sidewalk for his timeout. he looked over and said, "i want to sit out there!" i started pulling away and he began yelling, "i want to sit on the street!" the entire rest of the way home. once we got home i told him that he had timeout in his carseat. again, he said, "i want to sit on the street!" i then explained that i couldn't put him on the street because mommies weren't allowed to do that. and i apologized for telling him that i was going to put him on the sidewalk for timeout. overall lesson learned-do not expect to have a meaningful conversation on the phone when you have three young children in the car. (i guess i shouldn't be on the phone anyway.) because when the three young children start acting out, you will say things that you wish you hadn't. and your kids will beg you to sit on the street. never a good thing.

easter 2010

2010-04-16T21:22:00.003-04:00

our church sponsored an egg hunt on the day before Easter. we didn't really know how many to expect. our guess was maybe 150. well, it was more like 1,5oo! i didn't get any pics because i was trying so hard to just keep track of the kids. i was so thankful that aunt susu was there. aunt ann, uncle jim, james and julia drove up for the hunt and then came over to our house. we dyed eggs and then had our own egg hunt. marin and julia were taking a nap during the egg dyeing process. i read a great tip about using a whisk to put the egg into and then dipping it into the dye. perfect.

marin woke up in time for the egg hunt. our kids had a great time.

you can see james in the background on the motorcycle. he found about 2 eggs and was done. he was more interested in riding around. :)

on the actual Easter day we got the kids up and let them look through their Easter baskets. then aunt susu had hidden eggs around the house with money in them so they got to have another hunt. we went over to the redden's house along with some other new denver church folks for a yummy potluck. we hung around there until church. daddy delivered a wonderful sermon and there were quite a few new people. a fun day. :)

america's next top model??

2010-04-16T21:11:00.002-04:00

hmmm. although i think marin is as cute as can be-she doesn't seem to understand the concept of "smile for the camera." thank goodness daddy was there to jump around and act silly so we could get a few nice pics. aunt susu makes sure each child gets their annual studio pictures-thank you aunt susu!

i wish the background were different but she has a nice smile. :) way to go, marin!
this one seems to say, "gimme your candy or i'll beat you up!"

this was the face she gave us most of the time during the shoot. lovely.
and this one just cracks me up.

our beautiful ellory turns 3!

2010-04-07T17:42:00.007-04:00

this was your first birthday. you still weren't big into smiling. eating? yes. smiling? not so much.
this was the night we brought you home from guatemala.

dear ellory,
what to say? what to say? you continue to amaze, exasperate, and delight us.
amazing ellory-
1. your communication skills have grown by leaps and bounds this past year. you speak so clearly now.
2. i love to watch you eat. the way you hold your utensils is so grownup-like.
3. i love to watch you color. again, the way you hold your crayon or marker is so "big girl." and you are even starting to stay between the lines and be so precise in your work.
4. you love to read books. count. say your abc's. sing.
5. you can pedal your dora tricycle now!
exasperating ellory-
1. transitions can be hard for you. we can't just tell you to stop what you are doing and switch gears.
2. you continue to be a mommy's girl most of the time. i think this makes daddy sad sometimes as he loves to cuddle and play with you.
3. you are our sensitive girl. sometimes just simply telling you to "stop" will bring showers of tears.
4. you want to "do it myself" more and more. a good thing at times but when mommy is in a hurry and just wants to dress you herself, it can be frustrating. :)
delightful ellory-
1. you can be quite the mommy. telling a crying marin, "it's alright baby." and patting her on the head.
2. i love picking you up from preschool. you always coming running over yelling, "mommy!"
3. you love to read books to marin. not that she always appreciates this.... :)
4. your smile lights up a room. you are such a beautiful little girl.
we went to the doctor for your 3 year well check. you weighed in at 37 pounds-94th percentile. and you are in the 69th percentile for height.
i recently talked with a friend who placed her child for adoption 3 years ago. she said that she thought of her child every day. most days i don't even remember that you were adopted. i feel like i gave birth to you and have known you from the very beginning. but i know i need to remember that there is a young woman in guatemala who probably thinks about you and wonders about your life. you still haven't asked any questions about being born in guatemala. or realized that your skin is different from mommy and daddy's skin. i wonder how you will handle the story of your birth and pray that we will navigate that time well. we are so thankful for you, ellory. happy birthday big girl.

video saga part 2

2010-04-02T18:14:00.002-04:00

the day finally came for us to take the destroyed video back to the library. (i guess i should say the destroyed video case. the video itself was just fine.) i got townsend's piggy bank down and we headed over. i coached townsend on what he should say, " i'm sorry i ripped the video cover. how much do i owe you?" as soon as we walked into the library i was a little bummed. there's a really Nice Guy that works there who gives the kids stickers and talks to them. then there's Grumpy Guy. he looks like santa claus but does not act like him. guess who was working?? we walked up and townsend handed over the video and made his little speech. very quietly but he said all the words. Grumpy took the video case, opened it up, and started typing on his computer.
finally he said, "well, i'm just going to charge you for the case and not the entire video."
i was a bit startled i must say. i really thought they would just say, "no problem. this happens all the time." then it got worse.
Grumpy- "that'll be $10 for the case"
me-" i could go to target and buy the whole thing for $10!"
Grumpy- "it costs us $30 to replace an entire video"
so i opened townsend's bank and we started counting out his money. about this time Nice Guy walks up and sees what is going on. he says to Grumpy, " are you going to make him pay all that? he's just a little guy." Grumpy stood firm.
it's a bummer because townsend doesn't really understand money. ten cents and ten dollars are the same to him. i really wanted him to pay something. just not that much.
as for Grumpy. i don't understand putting a person in a customer service position who has no people skills.
live and learn. townsend has not touched a video case since we got home that afternoon. :)

the Christmas Story

2010-03-26T22:18:00.002-04:00

when we were in texas in early december, my friend, rhonda, gave us her kid's rocking horse. once we got home and put it out townsend and ellory immediately started calling each other joseph and mary. ellory would get on the horse and townsend would pull her into bethlehem and they would look for a "room in the inn." it was kinda cute. :)

christmas 2009 #2

2010-03-15T22:42:00.002-04:00

hmmm. still not alot of pictures here. pitiful. gran and pawpaw flew in on Christmas Eve for our second Christmas of the year. we decided to start some Guatemalan traditions so for dinner we had Guatemalan tamales. i had found a Guatemalan grocery story/cafe in downtown denver and ordered some to be ready on the 24th. they were huge! nothing like those little cornhusk ones that are so popular. these were wrapped in big banana leaves! i couldn't even eat the whole thing. but did i take a picture to document this? on to dessert-a popular dessert in many latin places is tres leches. three milks cake. i made this one from scratch and it turned out pretty well. a big sponge cake with a mixture of whole milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk poured over the whole thing and allowed to sit in the fridge for several hours. yum! oh, and topped with real whipped cream. and a cherry.

we finally had our first fire of the year. thank you daddy.

the next morning we opened presents. and presents. and presents. so fun. :) then continued to eat alot. our meal was a little different this year. norton and i decided to cook ribeye steaks. there was a recipe in my new pioneer woman cookbook for a whiskey sauce so norton did the honors. it was good. probably won't make it again but it was fun to do something besides turkey. :)
the day after christmas gran and i went shopping. of course.
the day after

catching up-still christmas

2010-03-15T22:36:00.002-04:00

i forgot how much i love teacher supply stores! it's a good thing because things aren't cheap there. back in early december i went in to one and looked around for some activities to do with the kids. they had this bulletin board package with a tree and lots of ornaments to put on it. one afternoon when the kids were having cabin fever, i pulled out the package and we put the tree up in the girls' room. i think the hope was that they would use all the paper ornaments and then on another day they could take them down and rearrange. yeah, not so much. the kids definitely took down the ornaments but instead of putting them back on the tree i started finding ripped up ornaments all over the place. i don't understand this desire to rip. especially townsend. but the activity filled at least one afternoon so i was happy. :)

emily

2010-03-15T22:27:00.002-04:00

last year we were so bummed when our wonderful babysitter, olivia, decided to move to california. (she's since moved back actually!) but i started praying for a new babysitter and one day was talking with my friend julie and she told me about a friend's daughter who babysat. i got the number and called emily. she agreed to babysit one thursday night during our small group. i was so thankful on many accounts. one blessing is that although she is not old enough to drive, her family lives 2 minutes from our house. so that first time was in august or september and here we are in march, going strong. the kids love her and literally scream when she walks in the door. there have a been a couple of times that emily has put one of the kids in time out and i'm so glad she feels comfortable enough to just take control. she's learned all the routines so norton and i can just leave as soon as i've picked her up. we are so grateful we found her! thank you miss emily!!

stinker

2010-02-27T23:30:00.002-05:00

we have been checking children's videos out from the library for awhile now. usually when i put the dvd in the player, townsend wants to look at the dvd case. i let him. today, when i went into his room i found a dvd case on his floor. the plastic covering was torn in shreds and the insert was gone. well, actually it was torn in very tiny pieces all over his floor. grrrr. i went out to townsend and told him that the dvd did not belong to us and that he would have to pay for the damage when we took the video back to the library. later in the afternoon, daddy saw the case and started talking with townsend about the situation. townsend admitted that he was going to have to pay for the damage. when norton asked him where he was going to get the money, townsend very honestly admitted, "from mommy's purse."
you should have seen his face when norton took down his piggybank and said, "no, we are going to take the money out of your bank." it should be an interesting trip to the library.

another one

2010-02-27T23:28:00.001-05:00

marin was barely in bed for 10 minutes when she started screaming. we heard the word, "blankie" and thought she had thrown her blanket over the side of the crib. i went in the room and asked her what was wrong. "my blankie hit me." where does she come up with these things???

daddy's little girl

2010-02-08T22:13:00.003-05:00

this is another marin post. she is so funny. and just like her daddy. tonight she took off her shirt and went to sit in daddy's lap. she said, " scratch my back." so daddy started scratching. then she got his hand and put it on her arm and said, "scratch my arm." again daddy obliged. then she rolled up her pants and put his hand on her leg and said, " scratch my leg." i guess she wanted to compare scratching abilities because she then got down and came over to me and went through the same scenario. the whole thing was funny enough but even funnier to me because every night norton and i get in bed and read for awhile. within 5 seconds norton has scooted over by me, pulled up his shirt and started wiggling his back. in other words-"scratch my back!" and if we are sitting on the couch he'll put his leg over mine and and roll up his pants. in other words-"scratch my leg." see the pattern here? but i don' t think marin has ever seen her daddy do these things since it's usually after she is in bed. i guess it's in the genes.

marin's mouth

2010-02-06T10:40:00.002-05:00

last night we went out for mexican food. the waitress set down the chips and salsa and we immediately dug in. daddy tasted the "mild" salsa and determined that it was too hot for the kids. townsend and ellory were fine with that but marin is all about the "dip." i tasted the salsa and it did have a kick. marin was about to have a fit so i put just a bit on her chip. she i licked it off and wanted more. that's how she does "dips." she dips and licks. and never actually eats the dipping object. until we say, "bite!" she probably ate 1/3 of the salsa. and never a word about how spicy it was. we finally had to put the chips on the seat out of her sight. after we had finished eating there was a lime on the plate from my dinner. marin saw it and started eating it too. she made a couple of faces at first but kept on biting into the lime like it was no big deal. i guess she takes after bamaw. :) i need to start bringing the camera along to record these things.

dress up

2010-02-03T22:39:00.002-05:00

gran sent us some dress up clothes and the girls just love them! marin doesn't keep them on long but ellory would wear hers all day if we let her. and she always wants the same dress. it's hard to get her to switch things up. poor townsend. he wanted to wear a dress too. daddy wasn't too keen on that idea. so we put one of his blankies around his neck so he could be super boy. :)

christmas 2009 #1

2010-02-02T23:24:00.003-05:00

i can't seem to start writing above the first picture on my blogs. argh.
anyway, we decided that we wanted to be in denver for actual Christmas so we drove to texas in early december for Christmas with bamaw, peepaw, and aunt susu. we hit weather the entire drive there. that's what you get for going through kansas. :) these first two pictures were in our hotel in salida, kansas. norton and townsend slept together and ellory and i shared the other bed. both kids really moved around alot. the kids have never been interested in sleeping with us at home. sometimes at night norton and i will talk about how fun it would be to go get one of the children and put them in bed with us. well, i think we found out what that would be like and probably won't be doing it any time soon.

we put marin's crib against the door. covered the sides with blankets and put the noise machine on the counter. i must say, it did the trick. she slept longer than anyone the next morning.
car fun.
marin has a habit of taking off her shoes within about 5 minutes of being in the car.
i don't know why, but i did not take many pictures. i think susu did so i'll have to get hers and add in those later. my parents got the kids a skut bike. it doesn't have pedals and is supposed to help kids learn balance so they can ride a bike sooner. we'll see.
cute picture of townsend and ellory with bamaw. the kids loved getting rides on the scooter!
and my last picture. the kids with aunt susu. i'll write more when i get more pictures.

marin turns 2!

2010-01-31T15:11:00.004-05:00

you're thinking, "poor girl, still doesn't have any hair!" this was actually her 1 year old picture. :)
" see! i have lots of hair! because i'm 2 years old!"
a nice new noise-making bus to play with! thank you gran and pawpaw!
now you can see even more hair! she looks so old. i'm sad. :(
we had a dairy queen ice cream cake! yummy!

dear marin,
you are now a big 2 year old. but still our baby. last year you had just started walking and now you run, hop, climb, twirl, somersault... and you have a bit more hair. here are some things that come to mind about your little life so far.
1. you are a talker. don't know where that comes from.
2 you are a singer. right now you love to sing, "ABC," "happy birthday," "twinkle, twinkle," and some original tunes that only you know.
3. you don't really like being/playing by yourself. maybe that comes from having two slightly older siblings around all the time. but on days when they go to preschool, you are never more than a few inches from mommy. even in the bathroom. geesh!
4. you love to eat. not so much veggies. but definitely fruit, meat and carbs. we go to the dr. in a couple of days so we'll see where you fall in the percentiles. right now, according to our scales, you weigh more than your older brother.
5. you are stubborn. and can have a bit of a temper. when you don't get your way you make your face turn all red and shaky. and you bite. remember when you bit mommy's cheek this morning?
6. you love going to daddy and getting "orders."- "go kiss mommy's nose" "go kiss mommy's ear" -back and forth you go.
7. you can count to 10 and say most of your abc's.
8. you love to "help" mommy fold the laundry. thanks.
9. you love to talk on your phone. aunt susu gave you her old one and somehow you can tell that it's "real" and don't even touch the fun plastic ones that we have.
10. after the dr. visit we now have the official stats.
weight-31lb 7oz 93% WOW!
height- 34.5 inches 69%
head circumference- almost 19inches 29% your little head is just filled with brains!
11. you love talking with ellory at night after we put you to bed. ("elllllll reeeee! townsend bite me!" ) townsend finally got you back the other day for all your biting on him. :)
12. you love taking off your pants and diapers and running around the house.
13. you are starting to pray and sing "jesus loves me."
14. you are much loved and adored by mommy, daddy, towney, and ellory.

prayers

2010-01-26T22:45:00.002-05:00

last year we moved out to denver with 2 other families to start new denver church. one of the families, the reddens, have 2 boys, ethan and andrew. now we really haven't spent a ton of time with them but this past week we did borrow some cowboy boots and hats from them to wear to the stock show and rodeo. maybe that prompted this? don't really know.
today i was with townsend in his room.
townsend- "what is ethan's daddy's name again?"
mommy- "stephen"
townsend- "what is ethan's mommy's name again?"
mommy- "kate"
townsend kneels down by his bed and says, "jesus, i pray for stephen and kate."
later when we were praying before bed he asks their names again and during his prayer he prays for ethan, andrew, stephen and kate. it was so sweet. he always prays for our family and will go through aunts, uncle and grandparents but he really never prays for non-family. i'm so curious as to what prompted his little heart to pray for the reddens. actually kate is out of town right now so maybe stephen needs the prayers! :)

conversations

2010-01-26T22:42:00.002-05:00

this happened yesterday.
townsend to ellory- "hello, dora!"
ellory to townsend- "hello, diego! nice to meet you!"
townsend to marin- "hello, zoe!" (cute little muppet on sesame street)
townsend to mommy- "hello, big bird!"

i'll take that as a compliment.

lions, TIGERS and bears-oh my!

2010-01-15T22:00:00.002-05:00

so a couple of weeks ago we were with the kids in the living room. playing around. i can't remember exactly how it happened but the kids started talking about tigers being in the house. or something like that. norton gets up and says that he is going downstairs to the bathroom. not true. he quietly goes out the side door and comes in through the back door to our sunroom. there is a door between the sunroom and the living room. pretty soon we start hearing scratching noises on the door and a low growl. ellory was pretty calm. but marin immediately put the throw blanket over her head. townsend started to cry. then marin joined in. they were so scared. norton opened the door to show them that it was just him. but they kept crying. it has been over a week. maybe two. and marin still talks about the tiger in the house. if i go to the bathroom, she is right with me and won't go into her room or the living room by herself because of the "tigers." we keep asking them, "where are tigers?" and they answer, "in the zoo." but they are still a little afraid. poor things.

our first tree as a family of 5

2009-12-18T22:58:00.003-05:00

last Christmas we were moving to denver, thus we did not put up a tree. so this is our first tree as a family of 5. daddy and townsend did a great job of picking a perfect one. i also had daddy get some poinsettias as they were on sale at home depot. i guess i should have had a longer talk with the kids about flowers. i was in the kitchen making dinner and the kids were in the living room. playing so nicely. no fighting. no whining. every once in awhile i would hear one of them say, "decorations." and i would just say, "we will put up the decorations after supper." well, when i finally went into the living room i saw that the kids had already "decorated" the tree. with poinsettia petals. it looked kinda pretty to be truthful. but what the kids didn't know was that the pretty red petals would very soon wilt and turn brown and crunchy. :)

lots of ornaments down low.

mary comes and thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-18T22:38:00.004-05:00

i cannot believe i do not have one picture from our friend mary's visit. or thanksgiving at the rolfs. i will try to get pics from mary and ann and put them on.
mary flew in from austin early on the tuesday before thanksgiving. i was so excited to see her but of course we had the potty training going on so that put a bit of a damper on things. thankfully, she is the kind of friend who just likes to hang out so we did. at home. cleaning up marin's messes. :) after about two accidents mary was kindly suggesting that we go buy diapers but we held on another day. when marin stood in her chair at the table and peepeed into her booster seat and didn't think a thing about it, i finally concurred. but back to mary's arrival. actually, i think the first thing mary did was clean my kitchen. she is very thorough and everything looked so beautiful. then we started cooking and well...not so clean now. she brought some new coloring books and markers for the kids which scored big with them. now they always pray for mary at night. on thursday we went over to the rolfs early and had breakfast. the kids played and then after they went down for naps the adults had thanksgiving dinner. so yummy! the next morning norton and townsend went to home depot to get a tree which is where i finally got my camera out and started taking pictures. mary and i took the kids and did a little shopping but she had to head back to austin early that afternoon. come back soon mary!

pottytraining school dropout

2009-12-18T22:31:00.002-05:00

well, we finally threw in the towel after 6 days. there were many many towels actually. to clean up the many many messes. on day 3 marin used the potty two or three times and i thought it was going to click. but days 4, 5 and 6 were disasters. and we had company, our friend mary, starting on day 5 so she had to endure it all too. sorry mary! we decided that we couldn't take marin to the rolfs for thanksgiving with her peeing all over the place so i had a talk with marin and we put her back in diapers. i felt so defeated. but much less stressed. : ) note to self-do not try to potty train within a month of any holiday.

potty training #3

2009-11-22T21:25:00.003-05:00

after watching her big brother and sister use the potty since early july, marin has been following them into the bathroom every time they go. she has even pulled down her pants, pulled off her diaper and sat on the potty. the method that we used recommended starting potty training at 22 months. well, marin is about a week away so we decided to just do it. day 1-put all diapers in a bag to give to a "baby" who needs them. put big girl panties on marin and tell her to let us know when she has to pee. that's all! not so much.
see my princess panties?
mommy and daddy don't want me on the couch at this time. but i think i'll get on it anyway!
day 2-lots of fluids so i will go peepee. are they crazy? why not just stop and make a fun puddle right on the floor? i can even slide in it!
day 3-after going two whole days not getting even a drop of pee in the potty marin finally went three times. the last time she even went in the bathroom herself, pulled down her panties and went without telling anyone. i was helping ellory get ready for bed and all of a sudden heard the "sound" and assumed she was peeing in the hallway. don't get me wrong-she had plenty of accidents today. and i really wanted to go outside and scream at the top of my lungs. but instead i was just grumpy with all the kids. poor things. grumpy is probably putting it nicely. :) i tried to not have high expectations but we really really thought she was going to be the easiest to train. but i have confidence that she will eventually get this. and i will be able to get out into the world again. today while the kids were napping, i was going through a box that hadn't been unpacked yet. in one envelope were all of the ultrasounds that i had taken. the ones where the babies went to be with Jesus early on and the ones of marin that kept showing a baby getting bigger and bigger. i wept as i thanked God that marin was here for us to potty train. i guess i'll cut her a little slack. :) we love you marin.

elvis is in the house--again!

2009-11-22T21:19:00.002-05:00

townsend has the funniest hair. sometimes when he wakes up it just sticks straight up. and it stays that way!

these were taken over a year ago. they are still my favorite. :)
i ain't nothin but a hound dog!

just beefing up the marin posts

2009-11-17T16:39:00.001-05:00

she's really very entertaining to be around. love you mare bear.

pardon me-do you have the TIME?

2009-11-17T16:33:00.003-05:00

or should i say, THYME???? marin loves opening the spice cabinet. unfortunately it's below the counter-right at her level. so far though, she has never actually opened any of the spices. but i guess there always has to be a first. it was the time for thyme. weird. i can see opening the cinnamon. or nutmeg. or pumpkin pie spice. but no, thyme it was. she even got some in her mouth and didn't make a face. i guess she's a savory type of girl.

no more babies- :(

2009-11-17T16:26:00.002-05:00

we decided awhile ago that we were going to do the 3 day potty training much much sooner with marin than we did with the other 2. she always follows townsend and ellory into the bathroom and sits on the little potty anyway. but we knew that she needed to be able to get out of bed to go potty if needed and she was still in a crib. so our smart daddy made the nonconvertible crib into a convertible crib. :) now marin is not quite as compliant as the other 2 and we wondered if she would actually stay in the bed without the sides. but so far so good. (its been 3 nights as i write this.) now, onto potty training!

camping with daddy

2009-11-08T15:42:00.003-05:00

on friday night, townsend and daddy went to check out chatfield state park for a little camping trip. the weather was pretty nice and about 20 other families thought that camping sounded good too.
norton said that they sat around the fire eating s'mores pop tarts until 7pm. then got in the tent, put on headlamps and read their books until about 7:45pm. then lights out. they woke up around 6am. sat around the fire eating s'mores poptarts. (do you see a pattern here?) then packed up and headed home.
the cutest camper. :)
drinking a hot beverage. spiced cider. townsend loves to drink from the REI camping mugs.

in the leaves

2009-11-08T15:31:00.003-05:00

daddy made a big pile of leaves for the kids the other day.
townsend immediately forgo sliding in order to jump right in.
marin took it slow. sliding first.
"come on, marin. stand up and jump like a big kid!"
"hmmmm. ok. now what do i do again?"
"arms up?"
"or maybe i'll just slide. after all, i am the baby in the family."
"watch me, marin. get your arms up realllllllly high!"
"oh! i get it. my arms were obviously not up high enough last time. how does this look?"
" see everyone! my arms are perfectly positioned to fly off the slide into the leaves!"
"wait! did mommy just say snacktime? coming mommy!"

changes

2009-11-08T15:25:00.002-05:00

we had one too many "mullet" comments so i whacked marins little tail off. i couldn't find a good "before" picture. probably because i avoided pictures of the back of her head. but she really did have some long curly locks in the back. and it did look like a mullet. bye-bye mullet.
the 80's are back. am i correct? for some reason, when i saw this picture my first thought was, "olivia newton-john."

fun times with daddy

2009-11-08T15:09:00.000-05:00

halloween 2009

2009-11-06T16:53:00.003-05:00

we started out halloween with a trip to colorado springs to see the cousins. and aunt ann. and to celebrate uncle jim's birthday. daddy stayed home to work on his sermon. aunt ann had lots of costumes so ellory and marin used some of hers. in case you can't tell, ellory is a dog and marin is a cow. towney stayed in his bear costume. also worn last year. :) james was a giraffe and julia was a pumpkin. it was the usual free for all. mostly playing nicely with a few arguments here and there. i continue to be so thankful that the rolf's live so close.
rrrowl!!!! how do you spell the sound that growling makes???
back at home ellory put on her tiger costume.
marin was a ladybug.

we went around the block. mostly to people we knew. but also to new houses in order to meet some of our "unmet" neighbors. that was fun. by the time we got home it was time for bed. we put the candy away and by the next morning the kids had forgotten all about their goodies. but daddy and mommy hadn't! we started right in on the chocolate. :)

another fun "fall" day-really

2009-11-02T17:29:00.006-05:00

this first photo was taken on october 28th. about, oh, 12 days after the fall leaves pictures were taken. :) townsend and i were headed to the library to get some elmo and thomas videos. the rest of the pictures were taken the next day. it was a great snow!

the walkway to our house from the driveway.
the trees out front.
pathway down the driveway.
daddy and mare bear.
the kids seemed to like being out in the snow better this time than earlier this year after we moved.

every time we turned around, marin was putting her mitten in her mouth to eat the snow.
pretty girl.
eating again.
when we went inside, daddy made snow ice cream. yum!

of course marin licked her bowl clean. :)

fun fall day

2009-11-02T17:17:00.002-05:00

these pictures were taken on october 15th. lots of leaves were falling and the kids were having a great time playing in them.
they were all very intent on filling the hidden compartment in the motorcycle with as many leaves as possible.

some funnies

2009-10-30T15:40:00.002-04:00

i need to be better at writing down the funny things that the kids say. so now that i'm thinking about it i will!
townsend- "scoop over" for "scoot over"
ellory- "smooz me" for "excuse me"
marin-she seems to speak only in questions. "my milk? my blankie? mommy coffee? daddy coffee? mommy read?" you get the picture.

i guess i've said, "mommy is not happy with......(your behavior, this mess, that attitude,etc") enough times that now when i praise any of the kids townsend will say, "are you so happy now mommy?"

a day with thomas the train!

2009-10-30T14:53:00.008-04:00

aunt susu came in september and took the family to a day out with thomas the train. we didn't tell the kids and hoped they would have one of those "world's funniest video" moments when they saw the train. not quite. i think they were more overwhelmed with all the people, trains, etc. we had to park and wait for a bus to take us to the colorado railroad museum.

townsend and aunt susu on the bus.
after we walked into the event area we got back in another line to get on "thomas" for our 20 minute ride. the ride ended up being 3 times around the museum. kinda funny.
the family on the thomas.
got my ticket!
after we got off the train, we waited in another line to get a picture in front of thomas. as soon as the next group of people got on the train it had to leave for the next trip. we got to the very front of the line and would have been next for our picture but the train left. oh well.
tattoos for everyone! james for ellory. she loves james.
marin got percy.
and townsend got thomas. of course.

we waited at a place where thomas would pass by and got this picture.
there was a petting zoo. i think marin was the least afraid. :)
and a thomas built all of legos.
and a firetruck that townsend got to sit in.

it was a fun morning. thank you aunt susu!

townsend's first day at preschool!

2009-10-02T23:03:00.002-04:00

once again, these pictures are not quite in order. i'm trying to catch up on blogs and going too fast i guess.
anyway-there is a church right by our house that has a well recommended preschool. so back on FEBRUARY 4 (!!!) i waited in LINE to sign townsend and ellory up for SEPTEMBER 9! i could only sign up for one day so they both had mondays and we were on a wait list for a second day for both. a few days before preschool started i got the call saying that there was an opening on tuesdays for townsend's class. since the first monday in september is labor day there wasn't any school but townsend started the next day. (which is why it wasn't also ellory's first day) townsend does really well at school. he loves to hang up his backpack. put away his lunchkit and search for his nametag. his class is the crocodile class. i think he's a pretty shy little guy in class. but his teachers always seem to love him. :)
on another note-the following week we got the call that there was an opening on tuesdays for ellory's class. so now i have only marin for 4 hours on monday and tuesday mornings. you can do so much with only one child! (of course i didn't think that for the 5 months we had only townsend-i guess it's all perspective.)

bamaw and peepaw visit!

2009-10-02T22:46:00.002-04:00

peepaw teaching the kids how to play golf.

mommy gets a haircut after about 7 months! thanks to my wonderful friend, michelle. :)
still golfing. peepaw would chip the balls and the kids would run after them.
another marin face. she sat on bamaw's lap alot.
at the hotel where my parents stayed. big bed=lots of jumping.
peepaw read alot too. i think he has this Christmas book memorized now.
my parents came out for a visit at the end of july. i was so happy and thankful they were able to do this. they stayed at a hotel with handicap accessibility and we went over most mornings and picked them up. didn't do a whole lot except hang out with the kids. but that was what i really wanted to do anyway. just let grandma and grandpa be with their grandkids. reading. building with train sets and legos. reading some more. because of the california fires, there was smoke over the mountains which was a bummer as they didn't get to see the beautiful scenery. and even the weather wasn't "perfect" in my opinion. high 80's. kinda hot for me. but they were coming from texas where there had been 70 straight days of temperatures over 100! so they were loving it. i keep telling them there is a house for sale right across the street. :) the week went by quickly but i know the kids feel like they know bamaw and peepaw alot better now as they continue to talk about them. pray for them at night. and want to see pictures of the visit. that makes me happy.

townsend's first backpacking trip!

2009-10-02T22:36:00.002-04:00

these pictures actually go in reverse order. so you just watched his trip backwards. :)
a week after our first family camping trip, norton decided to take townsend backpacking. just the guys. they headed up towards guanella pass and started hiking towards lake ______. norton said that townsend was a great hiker. never complained. but every so often norton would stop and they would rest on a big rock. and after awhile townsend was stopping to rest on every rock! i think they hiked a little over a mile and set up camp. the scenery was beautiful as you can see. the next morning they walked another mile plus to the lake. again, beautiful. then back to the campsite to pack up and go to the car. the last little while norton carried townsend. but i'm so proud of how well he hiked!

first family camping trip!

2009-09-30T15:58:00.002-04:00

wow, i am really getting behind here. sorry kids. we decided to take the whole family camping a couple of months ago. marin was still a question mark as to how she might do. but we took a chance. pretty much every campground that you could reserve a spot in was booked the entire summer so we just decided to start driving and see what opened up. we headed toward winter park and found a site on our second campground. the girls stayed in one tent and the boys in another. we also set up a "play" tent. the kids liked walking around, picking up sticks and such. norton built a great fire and rigged up the kids seats to where we could buckle them in. after the girls went to bed we made s'mores with townsend. and then all went to bed around 8pm. approximately 2 minutes after i had gotten into my sleeping bag marin woke up crying. she was in her pack and play and i think she was just confused because she kept looking around. she finally lay back down but she was up like this pretty much the entire night. i didn't have a watch so i was never sure of the time but i was a nervous wreck everytime she woke up because i was sure she was waking up everyone in the campground. it was one of the worst nights i can remember. finally i heard the zipper in the tent and norton was handing me a sippy cup with milk. for marin. he said it was 5:45am and that marin had actually slept for several hours. i took marin out and sat with her by the fire. trying to keep her quiet. 18 month olds don't understand what whispering is, you know. when some of the camping neighbors woke up i apologized for marin's crying. they said they hadn't heard a thing. i was very thankful but wish i had known that during the night when i was going crazy trying to get her to stop crying. anyway, we all survived. we even took a second camping trip a week ago.

marin and her faces. notice ellory has on townsend's sweatpants and tevas. the stinker stood there in the tent and peed all over herself.

the play tent.

the boys tent

sigh

2009-08-27T17:17:00.002-04:00

i guess i had been a little too proud of the fact that none of my kids had ever colored on the walls. on their bodies and faces-sure. but not on the walls. marin regularly eats any crayon she gets her hands on but "at least" she's never drawn on the walls. today when townsend went to his room for quiet time he asked for the crayons/markers and paper. i asked him if he was going to draw on his face. no. his arms and legs? no. his bed? no. his floor? no, mommy. the paper? yes, mommy. and so i let him be. an hour later i go in and this is what i find. i really was at a loss for words. i basically said, "this is not ok. you are in big trouble." and then i left. i'm sure that took care of the problem! still don't know what i should do. i'm sure the "magic eraser" will get it off in about 30 seconds. we'll see what daddy says when he gets home. :)

sorry aunt susu

2009-08-22T21:49:00.003-04:00

well, i finally did it. i got ellory's hair cut. despite protests from aunt susu. i love, love, love the long hair. but it had 2 layers and looked kinda shaggy most of the time. i trust that by trimming it to the same length it will continue to grow and look thicker and prettier. i meant to have a before and after pic but townsend and marin were being a little difficult at the salon and the gal started cutting before i remembered to get a pic. ellory sat fairly still but had a grumpy look on her face the whole time. she wasn't in a bad mood or anything. just being ellory. :)

a day at the "beach"

2009-08-14T22:37:00.003-04:00

last week we went with our friends jenna, zoe, and eli to chatfield state park. they have a beach there with sand and all. the water is only about 1-2 feet deep. i was a bit nervous about taking all three to the water. but jenna was a great help. and the kids ended up playing in the sand more than wanting to go in the water. i bought some arm swimmy thingies and as you can see from the picture of marin, they were a bit too large. poor thing couldn't move her arms! as soon as we had them on, marin started walking right out into the water. since there were lots of waves from all the people she pretty quickly fell over, went under, swallowed a big gulp and started crying. kinda scared me. that was about it for her water experience. townsend and ellory were a little more steady but near the end of our time ellory went out a little farther, stumbled and fell backwards. the arm things kept her from going under but she too got a little scared and came out. even though i'm not a big beach person, it was fun. and the kids had a great time. we'll have to take daddy next time. :)