Half-way there!

It is hard to believe I will be 20 weeks tomorrow. It has already gone by so fast! I feel like I started showing WAY soon (mostly because of the bloating, ha) but since I got in the 2nd trimester my waist hasn't changed too much. I was worried at first that my weight gain would continue but it has stabilized, thankfully. I have started feeling him move too! Just little movements - different from Leyla though! When I first felt her move I remember she had hiccups a lot, and her movements were like tiny punches. This one seems to "slide" from one side to the other in my abdomen, and I will feel hard spots low, below my belly button, but I only occasionally feel the little punches. It could be because I am feeling him sooner though. I don't remember exactly when I first felt Leyla move but I remember waiting for what seemed like forever and I know it was at least 20 weeks if not past - I've been feeling this one for a week maybe two now.

The latest picture I took at 19 weeks. Definitely got a bump, pants don't fit, and I'm up a bra size!

I made Leyla some play-dough this week to have some fun with her and help her learn her colors - we made such pretty little balls, pink, yellow, orange, green, and blue! We made a caterpillar, too.

Then Roger and Loyda came over and played too - and next thing I knew....

The two kids had a big green blob :(

 Roger helped me out by cleaning the pila, since Marcos had to go to the mountains and hadn't had time - so then he was tired, there was no electricity, and it was unbearably hot - so he was trying to rest and Leyla came along and decided to play doctor! She wouldn't leave him alone and kept giving him "medicine" and poking him everywhere. :)

Wedding Weekend

Marcos's  cousin Roger got married this past Sunday so we all packed up and drove to Tegucigalpa to be there! We made it to Tegus fine but had a flat tire right as we got in :( So, we were a little late but luckily they were all on Honduras time and hadn't even started! We had a lot of fun and stayed in a nice hotel that night for some relaxation and gourmet breakfast Monday morning!

Leyla had so much fun playing with her little cousin - They are 10 days apart.

The happy couple :)

We had a lot of fun and I was very happy to see them finally get married!

Time for a change!

I decided to change up my blog tonight! I wanted to see what new layouts there were and then got to thinking, I might as well change the title too! I started thinking how I've been here 3 years now and my life has changed but this blog isn't all about those changes anymore. It's been 3 years since we moved here, got married, and had a baby. I wanted to change it to something more current.

I never really liked the length of the other title either! So I changed the address to themadridsinhonduras. Something simple and easy to remember that describes who the blog is about. It took me awhile to come up with a new title, though. I decided, what I want to convey, is that God has given me a life that I never would have planned for myself, one that I never could have even imagined, but one that brings me so much joy! It is amazing how his plans can be so perfect for you - when you don't plan them yourself! I think God knows our hearts better than we ourselves know them.

Thus, "Greatful for God's Beautiful Gifts." I am greatful for the gift of life, of love, of motherhood, of learning, of culture....God has given me so much to be thankful for and has blessed me abundantly. This blog is all about my life, my family, my friends, and my experiences - all of which are beautiful gifts from God!

May Showers

It has been raining and raining and raining here. The weather is so nice and cool but the torrential rains are causing just a little mud and a little flooding. I prefer it over the heat any day though!

I haven't posted in awhile, since I got back from Oklahoma, so here are a few updated pictures!

 

Babies Babies Babies

Well, to start, I have been trying to post something new for weeks now but Marcos took the camera to the mountains and I haven't been able to take any new pictures. I was going to today, but then the camera died. Of course...

So now to the title of this post! Everyone is having babies this month! Except me. Ha. Anyway...my cousin Katherine had a baby boy last week, and my friend Amanda had one a few weeks ago, and then Hilary Duff had a boy too. It seems like this is the month for boys! My friend Dania had a boy at the end of February and we finally got around to paying her a visit today. She is living in San Francisco de la Paz, which is not quite an hour from Catacamas. It is also one of the most dangerous cities in Olancho. So we were a little nervous to go, but we went, and everything was fine. I was glad to see her and see where she's living, meet the father of her baby, meet the baby, and just see that she's ok in general. I had been a little worried about her, having a baby and being in a different city, away from her friends and family, and not knowing him, I didn't know how supportive he was. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the camera died before I got a picture of her. These are the only two that we got:

Leyla was so sweet, she gave him a hug and a kiss and smiled for a picture right when the camera died. :( She held him and then gave him back, saying "Pesa Mommy!" which means, he's heavy! His name is Diego Japheth. He weighs about 8 lbs already and has tons of hair - I think she said he's about 3 weeks old. He is a very happy baby and just cried when he was hungry; after she fed him he calmed down and just stared at us and was content! Not fussy at all! I wish we had been able to spend more time with Dania but we couldn't stay too long since the road isn't very safe. We stayed about an hour and a half. But she said she would come to Catacamas soon! She seemed to be doing well, but it was weird to see her with a baby because we only saw her once when she was pregnant. It didn't seem real that the baby was hers. Wish my camera hadn't died!!!

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.