2nd Mountain Trip

On Wednesday we went to the mountains with my Dad. We had a great trip and I think he really enjoyed it! We stayed at Ramiro's this time, so we had some comfy beds and a little more space. I lost my voice though, since I have a cold, and on the way up I tried to explain everything to dad. I talk too much. Anyway, he was really interested in everything, and tried talking to everyone, and loved the coffee!

 Leyla wanted to walk by herself!

 When we got there we had to give the bulls some vaccines and vitamins. They had been waiting for us all morning, and by the time we got there, they had given up on us and re-released them! So, we were only able to give the shots to some other families' cows.

 Dad enjoyed watching the process!

 Leyla too, she loves cows so she wanted to get in and help. She even picked up a stick and was yelling "Shoo!" and hitting the ground!

 Thursday morning, we woke up and got ready to head up the mountain again to vaccinate OUR cows and to show dad the property. I had the worst scare of my life that morning. I gave Leyla a banana and left her sitting in the chair, then went to check on my dad (who was still asleep) and let him know the plan for the day. When I went back to check on Leyla, she was gone. Marcos and Ramiro were sitting there and said she had been by the gate, and must've gone around the corner. 

We looked and she was nowhere around or inside the house. They all started running out and asking the neighbors if she was at their house, but nobody had her! The first thing we did was check the fishponds, which scared me to death, because there have been at least 2 cases of children drowning that I know of. I just stared in the pond, asking, where is she? where is she? By that point I was on the verge of crying. Then I went to look by the river and heard them yelling, aqui esta! aqui esta!

Apparently, she had been by the gate with a little boy, and when the little boy left, she tried to follow him. Nobody thought she could open the gate, but she did. And she left it closed, so nobody knew she had gone out. The little boy didn't notice she was following him. She had gone walking by herself and barefoot up the road after him. When they found her she was walking back; but she must have gotten pretty far because from where we were standing, we looked up and down the road and couldn't see her - she had gone up the hill and was on the other side!

I started crying and the poor thing looked at me and didn't understand, so she started crying too. I was just praying and praying that we would find her and was so scared when she didn't turn up just around the house! I never leave her alone, and everyone tells me, oh she'll be fine, sit down and rest - and what happens the one time I leave her for more than a minute? And with all those people around? She managed to wander off. I can't take my eyes off of her for even a minute!! She was lost for a good 10-15 minutes (I don't know really, but it felt like a lifetime). I am so thankful we found her and she was fine but my goodness, that was not a good way to start my day!

 

 Our 32 bulls/cows in the pasture.

 WE SAW A SNAKE! We were walking along and it slithered away into the trees. We looked it up later and found out it is NOT poisonous. We had fun being scared, though. Marcos decided to kill it and they all (including dad) started throwing sticks at it trying to hit it in the head or throw it on the ground, but it slithered away too fast and we lost it.

This it one of the "bridges" we had to cross, and Leyla was giggling because someone was jumping up and down on it. I tried to capture her sweet smile :)

Last story - when we were giving our bulls their shots, I was trying to help Marcos finish faster. We all got the bulls in the corral and I sat down on one of the posts. I didn't know the wood at that post was rotten. Dilcia, one of the girls helping, came up and must have tapped the wood or tried to climb up, because all of the sudden I was falling....I remember I had one leg on either side of the wood, for better balance, so when the board fell, I couldn't jump forward and safe myself! I grapped onto Dilcia, but she didn't much cushion my fall - I fell hard on my left thigh/hip. All I could think as I was falling was, oh dear, I'm going to fall in cow poop!! haha. I have a huge softball size bruise on my leg and it HURTS. Otherwise I'm fine, but goodness....what a trip!

Gingerbread Houses

We had a lot of fun Tuesday making Gingerbread Houses! Angel and Carmen came over with Isaac as well as Amanda and Roger. I made the houses earlier that day and everyone else brought candy. It was a lot of fun because they don't decorate gingerbread houses in Honduras, so it was something different for them! I was going to make gingerbread but with my dad coming in, I didn't have enough time. So, I bought the closest thing I could find to graham crackers and used that. At first I got icing everywhere and almost gave up (my icing bag had a hole), but I was able to make a better bag out of plastic baggies and it worked perfectly.

 I made oreo balls, peppermint bark, and red velvet cake. I was going to make Christmas tree cupcakes, but since I made cream cheese icing, it wasn't stiff enough. So I made 12 cupcakes and used the rest of the batter to make a cake. The cake turned out better; the cupcakes looked sad cause the icing just ran off...

 

 

 

 

 

The kids' house didn't last long!

Surprise Visit

My friend Dania surprised us the other day with a visit. She moved away in June and we haven't talked to her much since then; she has since met someone and moved in with his family and is expecting a baby in March! It was good to see and talk to her and she seems happy.

Leyla

I have a new idea. I am going to buy a cute journal/notebook and keep a journal for Leyla to give to her when she is older. Maybe I'll give it to her when she turns 10 or something, or 16, or on her wedding day (yikes!)...I am going to mark the month, day, year, and her age for each entry and just write whatever cute thing she is doing at that time. It won't be a daily or even a monthly journal, just a bunch of random entries throughout her childhood. I want to remember and be able to tell her those little things like how she used to say "bopillo" instead of "shoes" or how yesterday she picked up her sandwich and told me, "Look mommy, triangle!" I think she will appreciate being able to look back and remember the cute little things she did. I know I always asked my mom, and she always told us the silly words we made up when we couldn't pronounce the correct word.

Here are some other cute things she has been doing lately that I will include in the journal:

- She is very headstrong and a lot like a little tornado. She has a little attitude. When I tell her not to do something several times and she keeps doing it, she ends up looking at me and putting her little finger to her mouth and saying "Shhhh!"

-The other day I was talking to a neighbor and it was late. We said goodbye, but kept talking. Leyla looked at the lady and said "Shhh! Bye-bye!"

-She goes outside and tells Lizzy, our dog, "Vaya por aya!" (not sure how to spell that; in English she's basically telling the dog to get away from her/go away)

-She doesn't say "thank you" anymore or just "gracias" but instead at EVERYTHING she says, "Ahh, gracias!"

-When I try to dress her, she tells me that every single piece of clothing is "susio" or "dirty" to avoid getting dressed.

-She runs outside to play without her shoes constantly; I bring them to her and she says "ahh, gracias!" and then 10 minutes later I find her without shoes again. When I ask her where they are, she says "noo, susio!" or "nooo, pee pee!" and refuses to put them on again.

-She loves her "Toddler Tunes" DVD and sings along to the Wheels on the Bus (her favorite) and the ABC Song (except she says it "A-B-Key Leyla")

-Her favorite book is her new Llama Llama book where llama llama is sick. She calls it "Nama Nama" and has several pages memorized. She puts her hand to her head and says "Hot!" and her finger in her mouth with her tongue out and says "Ucky!" (the medicine tastes yucky).

New words she has learned in just the past few weeks: (she is picking up everything really fast now)
-lemony = lemonade
-bucket
-keen = clean
-angle, ircle, ar = triangle, circle, star
-Big Bird, Ernie, Cookie Ta-to (Cookie Monster)
-Manca = Marcos's sister Blanca
-hungry
-cheese
-urky = turkey
-car (before she always said "beep beep")

That's all I can think of for now!

Sparkle Glitter Candles

 I got the idea on Pinterest, to reuse old baby food jars. Of course I have a ton, so I thought I'd try it! I made it my own by adding ribbon around the top. I also tried a couple designs on two of them! Candy cane stripes and Christmas trees :)

 

 

Now I just need some candles....
Total cost for glitter, ribbon, and glue: 25 Lps. ($1.50) Yay!

How does your garden grow...

I am so impatient for my flowers to be big, lovely bushes with blooms all over! My rose has 5-6 buds on it right now that look like they will bloom all at the same time, so that will be really pretty soon. My Dahlia had its first 2 flowers and they were very nice and big - my first real success at growing a flower from a cutting!

 I am also really excited for my "Colchon de Nino." I can never remember what it's called in English...but it's so pretty! A friend gave them to me from her yard; I have two varieties, this orange one, and a purple one. These are the most flowers they've ever had at once! It took them awhile to really take root and get "comfy" but I can tell that now they are going to grow really fast. I really want them to grow and cover the ground underneath the roses and hibiscus I have planted in the same area. It will be so pretty!

 

Christmas!!!

Here are my finished Christmas projects and our tree! It's hard to get good pictures of the trees because of the lights and the flash of the camera, but I did my best.
 The first one: green garland and gold, red, and green balls with multicolored lights.

The second one is taller and made of silver garland, pink, silver, blue, turquoise, and purple balls with white twinkly lights. I like the lights because they have several settings with cool effects! I really wanted to do some interesting colors too, since I couldn't on the actual Christmas tree (already had a color scheme). I love the colors and the textures of the different balls - some are shiny, some frosty, and some sparkly!

 And here's our tree....we bought the Angel on sale last year in the US the day after Christmas, so this its the first time on the tree!

 

I LOVE my skirt. I almost didn't buy it because I didn't want to spend anymore money but it was just SO cute! The Santa and the teddy bear are 3D and really soft. Actually here's a picture when we put the tree together: Leyla thought she would just take a nap on it!

Overnight Trip to Santa Cruz

I wanted to take my mom to the mountains so she could see what life is like up there, and also to show her Marcos's land and trees. It was an interesting trip!

 This is Dona Flora's house where Marcos always stays. We weren't going to stay there at first because it is very small and we knew it would be uncomfortable...but, it was too far to go somewhere else (we would've had to carry all our blankets and pillows!)

 

 Leyla was really excited playing with the cat!

 Our bulls!

 Leyla walking all by herself!

 Love this one of mom crossing the creek! Ha!

 This is the house that Marcos built. It is mostly for storage.

 We had to hike up the side of the mountain to bring the cows down.

 

 The view from up top!

It was really windy!

I had fun, and Leyla too, but I think my mom could have stayed home, ha. She was not enjoying it! Too rustic and afraid she would get sick the whole time. I guess it is a shock if you're there the first time!

Mommy-me

Mommy-me is what Leyla called my mom while she was here. I called her "grand-mommy" and Leyla turned it into mommy-me! So cute! Here are a few pictures from her stay.

 After picking her up from the airport Tuesday we headed to the mall for some lunch and shopping.

 This is what Leyla did the entire time! Over and over and over and over....

We had a "photo shoot" on the 23rd and these are a few my mom snapped.

Mommy-me gave Leyla a bottle for her baby and this is how she fell asleep one day :)