Grateful for God's Beautiful Gifts: 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

IT'S SNOWING!

It snowed on Sunday! I didn't really take pictures, but here are a couple of Leyla and I. I really wanted to play in it with her but it's just soooo cold and she doesn't have a snowsuit, so we just stood there and took a picture.

I worked Sunday morning for the first time (drive-thru) and it was so cold! The snow kept hitting my face. It was fun to watch it though. Then Sunday night we followed tradition and watched cars try to make it up the hill in front of our house :P Is that mean? It's our only entertainment, ha. We saw a van head up and slide backwards and just stop there as if not sure what to do. Then a car passed it going down the hill. Then, another car went by and all the sudden I heard CRUNCH! and it hit the guard rail. So the two were stranded for awhile. All the passengers got out eventually and the cars slid down safely. Then a salt truck came and spoiled our fun!! We had about 5 cars stranded though.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Christmastime and other News...

It's almost Christmas!! We have had so much fun at grandma and grandpa's. Leyla is learning lots of new things - she started saying a form of "moo" yesterday for a cow and a type of "cock-a-doodle-doo" sound for roosters! She has three and a half teeth now, she's obsessed with her belly button, loves unplugging Christmas lights, has learned how to take her DVD out of its case, turn the TV on, start the DVD player, and watch her movie, and can touch her toes when we sing "Head and Shoulders." She's getting there on the rest of the body parts :)

We took her to nursery-class at Church on Wednesday and she had a blast with the little kids. They were all blond except Leyla! She played with the bubble machine, hugged the little babies, even fought with one over a toy car, and ate lots of cheerios. I can't wait to take her Sunday morning to see what she does in an actual class!

I put up all the Christmas lights in the house and 2 Christmas trees! I've been making lots of cookies too - I went to a Cookie Exchange at my cousin's and came home with some fabulous recipes! I made peppermint bark with dark chocolate and white chocolate too and some delicious oreo balls. They are soooo easy to make and ridiculously good. They are my new favorite dessert!

1 package doublestuff oreos
1 package almond bark
8 oz cream cheese

All you do is separate the cookies and cream, mix the cream with the cream cheese, crush the oreo cookies in a blender, and mix them together again. Then once it's all good and mixed you form the dough into little balls and refrigerate for about 1 hour. Melt the almond bark and dip the balls in it! They are seriously amazing!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thirteen Months

Leyla turns 13 months tomorrow. She has been doing so great in Nashville this time! She is sleeping all night, on her own, not waking up, not getting in bed with mommy...it's incredible! And she's taking long naps during the day. I don't know what's gotten into her but I sure hope she keeps it up when we get back to Honduras!!

She likes to play outside and had lots of fun in the grocery cart at Kroger!

She is so cute, she is learning about body parts - we got her a "head-and-shoulders" Baby Einstein video and she loves it. She loves to find and touch her belly button and she's started opening and closing her fists a lot too. My mom got her a cute little Dora chair too, to watch her videos in - and she goes straight to it when the TV comes on!

She loves to play with the dogs and try to catch their tails and she loves climbing up and down the stairs when we're not looking! Sometimes she just sits on the bottom step like it's a little seat made especially for her :) She also figured out how to open the Jack-in-the-Box by flipping the switch instead of waiting for the song to play! She is getting smarter every minute!!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Back in the USA

Leyla and I made it back to Nashville yesterday, November 20th. It feels great to be back! We had a good flight - Leyla slept - and no delays. Grandmom and "Grandpop" as he calls himself were very excited to see the sleeping beauty when we arrived :) Of course she woke up when we made it to the house and had a blast with all the new toys her grandmother had bought her!

Today we went to church and had my birthday lunch - pot roast with carrots and potatoes! Mom made me a red velvet cake, too! It was delicious. Leyla took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, so we were VERY happy about that. She has been having so much fun playing in the yard and with the dogs and loves all her new toys! She loves to chase the dogs and pat them. She has a new grocery cart too with play food and she likes to push it around. Mom also got her a pink Dora chair and it is so cute how she sits herself down in it. She loves it :) So far she is not missing Honduras or warm weather at all it seems! She is so flexible and adjusts easily. But then she does have lots of new distractions :)

Monday, November 15, 2010

New Videos of Leyla

Leyla found an ant on the floor and chased it around the living room:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkLrEpBNRDE

We took Leyla outside to play soccer in the yard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guF9ELSuEBk

Bananas!

Leyla picked a banana off the bunch, so I peeled it for her and she walked around the house eating it!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

New Baby

Don't worry....not mine! A pregnant lady from the mountains stayed with us for probably about 3 weeks and had her baby November 9! It was a little weird having a baby in the house again. Leyla, poor thing, wanted to play with him so badly. She was constantly trying to get in the room to look at him!

He looked soooo tiny, but he actually weighed the same as Leyla! It's hard to remember she was that small!

Although, I think she was probably longer :)

I like this close-up. He was finally sleeping soundly!

All Dressed Up

It's been really chilly here lately and we've all been dressing in sweaters, and I dressed Leyla up in her pretty little dress complete with stockings and sweater!

These are just some of her playing :)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Last Week of Classes!

I finished all the exams last week, and this week I have classes for those who did not pass. Then Monday they have their second exam and I will be done! (If they still fail they have to come back in January). and in two weeks I'll be home in Nashville! So excited!!

Also I thought I'd post a recipe. Marcos brings bananas home from the mountains all the time and they ripen all at once, so I've been making lots of bread! and everyone loves it! It's a really good recipe.

1 cup melted butter
2-1/2 cups flour
7 large mashed bananas (use ripe ones)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

350 for 1 hour. Just mash all the bananas, mix with the sugar and butter, add the beaten eggs, and then the flour and the rest. I also add cinnamon :) Here's the website I got the recipe from:

http://www.banana-bread-recipe.com/recipes/big-banana-bread-recipe

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Birthday Videos

I took a video of Leyla eating her cake! Here it is:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBovwkwBHUQc&h=f13d8

And this video is the aftermath of the party, Leyla playing with her new toys, the pinata destroyed, the confetti everywhere...
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DytVLLDhvhXU&h=f13d8

Saturday, October 30, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEYLA!!

Leyla is ONE YEAR OLD!!!

Her party was so much fun! We spent all night Friday getting ready and decorating. I made the cake and all the cupcakes and got most of them iced. Saturday morning we went over early to clean and decorate some more. I also finished decorating the cupcakes. They were so cute :)

We decorated her high chair! It was so pretty! We put jellies on the windows behind too, that said "Happy Birthday" and "Princess."

Leyla's cake! I made the flower in the center, and it says "Happy" on top and "Birthday" on the bottom. I put little "pearls" around the top and bottom, like a border, and little yellow stars/flower dots on the sides of the cake. We put the candle in the center of the flower.

Her cupcakes turned out so pretty too! There were more too, that all had the same flower design on them. I ran out of icing towards the end, so some of them ended up looking a little odd...

When everyone arrived, we served little finger foods and drinks, and then we did the pinata. It was a big, beautiful flower! We had lots of fun - the kids hit it a lot harder than I expected! We let the little kids hit it without a blindfold but when we realized they were stronger, we started blindfolding them.

After the pinata, we sang "Happy Birthday" and passed out the cupcakes! Leyla was in awe with everyone singing, she didn't even notice her cake! She was staring at everyone with her mouth wide open! Finally I got her to look at the cake, and the first thing she did was grab for the candle - so I blew it out as fast as I could. Then she started delicately picking off the icing. It was so cute, she took off the little yellow stars from around the sides - but she didn't actually eat any cake until I cut it and gave it to her. She never "smashed" it - she was very dainty and polite, ha :)

She had so much fun and got lots of presents and came home, had a bottle, and crashed :) She was so tired! I still can't believe she's a year old, but I had so much fun planning the party and celebrating with everyone and watching her dance, and laugh, and enjoy it all. Happy Birthday Leyla!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

New Video - Leyla Dancing

Leyla has really started dancing lately. See for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxWM55WMVC0

One more day!

Today is October 28th which means tomorrow is October 29th which means LEYLA'S TURNING 1!!!!!!!

I am sooooo excited, if you can't tell. I can't wait to get started making the cake. Tomorrow I will make her little cake, about 50 cupcakes or maybe more and I'm going to go over to Amanda's house to decorate! The party is on Saturday. I cannot wait to see her face light up - she loves balloons, bubbles, and she's going to love the pinata - we have tiny little balls that will be inside it and will fall out and bounce everywhere when it busts! she will love it! and I can't wait to see what she does with her cake, if she loves it and dives in, or if she makes a face cause it's too sweet, or if she just stares at it amazed...it will be the first ever real taste of sugar for her!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Leyla LOVES her Markers!

Hey cutie :) She painted the floor, her leg, and her shirt - I painted her nose :) Oh, and she painted her tongue too! Then I gave her a bath which she thoroughly enjoyed - BUT it didn't come out all the way!! So we'll have to bathe her a couple more times...good thing it was washable markers!

Friday, October 22, 2010

A Mountain Paradise

I was finally able to go to the mountains with Marcos and see his/our land!! We stayed from Saturday to Tuesday morning. I really had fun - kind of like camping, which I've actually never been camping...I used the bathroom in the woods for the very fast time...bathed in a river for the very first time...ate a chicken that had been killed and plucked and cleaned and fried right there for the first time...it was an experience. ;)

The land was a pain to get to, but worth it! We had to park the car and walk on a tiny little path through rivers and pasture and up hills and cliffs and back down and back up...and these people do it EVERY DAY to get to work. Can you imagine?? I'm actually jealous of how in-shape they must be! Anyway, I clocked it on the way back from Marcos's dad's house and it took us 45 minutes walking. I think it takes about 2 hours though normally to get to his land, maybe 1 1/2. I got to see our bulls, the house Marcos built, his coffee, the nurseries with the little trees growing, and the already planted mahogany, cocoa, and coffee! His land is a huge hike and most of it was on the side of a cliff - I can't believe I made it up there! I was about to die. Somehow I made it there and back though. Here are some pictures!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Almost a year old...

Internet has been so off and on that I had to post I think 5 posts all at once!

I am getting so excited because Leyla's birthday is almost here!!! We went and bought all the party supplies - a pinata, hats, party favors, balloons, everything! I made the invitations and am in the process of handing them out :) I just can't wait to make her cake!

Also, since we haven't had internet, I wasn't able to update that she started walking! October 13th, at 11 and a half months!! She has been walking really since 10 months, but she was just afraid to let go of the wall. Or she would walk, but for 5-10 minutes at a time and then not walk again by herself for days. When she finally lost all that fear, she went crazy and wouldn't stop walking all over the house! It was SO cute. And she laughed every time she fell! It was precious. She is precious. But since she really already knew how, she never took those first shaky steps like most babies. She just let go and went for it and is walking like a pro!