Stroll Down Memory Calle

Ahh, the streeet we lived on our second year in Monterrey, Mexico. We still talk about how many cockroaches there were in that little apartment but despite those creepy crawlies we did have so much fun there. Papi had every Monday off during the season so instead of Family Home Evening we would have Family Day. There was so much to do in Monterrey and Alexandria really looked forward to Mondays.

How was Mexico?

Well, here's the rundown. We got to the hotel and the kiddos were super excited to see Papi. They even helped him bring in his bags. We went to lots of baseball games and froze! I know baseball's not supposed to be played in the cold. I'm not sure why they keep playing when it's 50 degrees outside. Okay, maybe it's not freezing to some of you but to us it might as well be the North Pole.

Saturday, we had some extra time so a short visit to the mall seemed like fun. Who knew Santa would be in Mexicali that day? Oh and he spoke Spanish! Usually our kids are scared to death of Santa but for some reason in Mexico he's not as intimidating. It wasn't too bad leaving Papi since we knew that we would see him soon for Christmas. However, waiting in the immigration line for 2 HOURS to cross back into the USA, not fun. It took us 3 hours to get to Mexicali but 5 hours to get home. There's a funny story about coming home too but I'll have to save that for a face to face chat. For now we'll just say the energy drinks really got to me. ;)

What's is like flying with 4 shorties?

Well, let me tell ya . . . I kind of wish I had eventful stories to tell about how they spilled their drinks on the person next to them and wrote with a crayon on the plane window and ran through the metal detectors 8 times and that other people commented to me and them because they weren't behaving and other funny things. But the truth is they didn't spill their drinks and the crayon on the window wasn't my kids. However, they DID run through the metal detectors so many times in Mexico that someone commented to Dionys that they were going to break the thing. Ooops! And we did get some pretty bad looks which DOES NOT make my job any easier. All it does it put a mom in a bad mood. So I decided to smile and play along with the kids instead. Sometimes it's all in your attitude as to how people perceive the situation. (You all probably have the already figured out but I'm really slow when it comes to parenting.) If you're yelling at your kids and telling them to get back here as they're running 20 yards ahead of you people are going to make that look. You know that look the one that says they dissapprove and if they had kids they would never let them behave that way. But if you're acting like you're running and laughing right along with them then people think oh look what a fun mom and with all those little kids. So Mom ends up happy (although a little bit more tired) and kids think it's funny and the trip goes much more smoothly which it did. They helped me push carts through immigration got down the security check like pros by the time we had to do it for the third time and all four of them slept most of the second flight. It's good to be back. Now we're just waiting for Papi to join us.

Immortalized!!!

Remember me saying my husband's COOL? Check this out. He's been immortalized in a video game for Sony Play Station. Here's a preview that they put on YouTube. He's in the green uniform with the dreds. (If you don't have time to watch the whole thing fast forward to around 1:40.)

Celebrating the 4th of July in Mexico

We are so blessed to have been born and live in the USA. It's easy to see how fortunate we are especially when we spend part of the year living in other countries. And there are so many great people dedicating their lives to make sure that we maintain our freedoms. I'm trying to instill this American pride in our children. So eventhough we're in Mexico we still had our own 4th of July party. It was a little difficult trying to find red, white and blue things here but with a little creativity we had a fun time.

The kids were all very excited for our 4th of July party. I realized they have a lot more fun if you really play it up.

They woke up and put on their flag shirts that Grandma bought for them before we left without me even saying anything they wanted to be ready for the party. We decorated the apartment in a whole bunch of red, white and blue balloons.

I turned on the American music and we rocked out singing to good country songs like, "God bless the USA", "Only in America", "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" and others. Then we played pin the Star on the Flag. Like I said it's hard to find red, white and

blue things here so I colored our own flag and we

cut out fifty stars. Since it was a party we had to have food so we had red, white and blue jello with strawberries and peanut butter star sandwiches. And what would a 4th of July be without fireworks? . . .

Well, unfortunately we couldn't find any fireworks here this time of year so we popped the balloons so we could hear the fireworks. The kids loved that game we probably should have blown up more balloons and done more.

I wish we could have been home for this holiday or at least in the States but we did have a good time here. I guess we made fun memories if nothing else and hopefully learned a little about our country.

It's a little late but Happy 4th of July! God bless the USA!

Princesa our "fill in for now" Puppy

Our neighbors here are from Venezuela. He plays baseball with Dionys. Someone gave them this little dog a few weeks ago. It's only 6 weeks old and it's the same kind of dog as our dear Simba but it's a girl. The kiddos have really taken to this little girl. And how could you not love her? Just look at that cute little face. Alexandria and DJ have named her Princesa (AJ added Sophie to that). They know she's not theirs so it's working out well, kind of easing the pain of losing Simba. She'll spend the day at our house and then we'll take her back at night. Our neighbors are happy with this arrangement since they don't like having to take her outside. My kids love it. Plus our neighbors are not sure if they'll be able to take the puppy to Venezuela so I think they're hoping maybe we'll take her if they can't. Although Dionys isn't really up for that. He's hoping for something a little bit bigger than our last dog.

Raymundo Beach

It's hot here and even hotter when you don't have an a/c that actually works. So we found a waterpark that the kids love. It's kind of far away so I don't know how often we'll be able to go but it was fun. They have a wave pool, a kids area and then of course the big slides. I took these pictures when we first got there and good thing too because after they went on the big slides the kids area lost it's appeal. Shockingly, they ALL loved the big slides. They even went on them by themselves. One time when we got up to the top to go down there was a man there watching Alexandria and AJ. They sat down together to do a train. And he turns around and asked the life guard if they were going by themselves. The life guard said yes. Then the man looks at me and asks,"How do they dare go by themselves? They're so little. I don't even dare to go." I thought that was pretty funny. Sorry about just posting the pictures like this (just straight up and down, no fancy formatting) but the internet is a lot slower here so I'm just trying to get them on.

I love it when it rains.
Out of the mouths of frogs.
Pretty as a flower.
Is it a prince yet?

1, 2, 3, GO!

Does this diaper make my butt look big?

In case you're wondering why there's no pictures of AJ, the little stinker wouldn't let me take his picture. Everytime I got close with the camera he would hide his head. This is the best I got.

We're in Mexico!!

Many of you already know that we're in Mexico. I just haven't wanted to shout it out on the blog yet. But now my brother and his family are going to stay in our house while we're away. Thank you so much Heath and Chelsea! So I felt like I could finally post that we're here and our home is not vacant. Not that there's really anything there anyone would want anyway but just to be safe.

Okay so after paying $100 for "extra luggage", (Did you know the airlines are now charging for a 2nd bag no matter how much it weighs?) losing a well loved blanket that we found after we got here (would have been nice on the plane) and having a very impatient flight attendant on our second flight (Couldn't she see that I was ONE mom with FOUR little kids and we were all sitting on different rows and I couldn't get all their seatbelts on at one time?) we did eventually make it to Torreon, Mexico. And other than the million of police outside of our apartments yesterday everything is pretty good. We live right across the street from a hospital and I guess a policeman was shot yesterday so what seemed like the whole police unit was securing the hospital while the officer was inside so the guys that shot him couldn't come back and finish the job. They were all decked out in their bullet proof vests, masks, and guns (the boys really liked that part). We tried to avoid going outside just in case but we did have to go to and from our car so I casually let the kids know that if we were ever outside and they heard the guns shoot that they should drop to the ground. The police were there all night and this morning too but they've left this afternoon so I don't know if the officer died or was released but the twenty five police trucks and cars are gone. So welcome to Mexico!!



On a lighter note here's why I do like Mexico.

Huge, yummy green onions, these babies are so sweet you can grill them and eat them plain. Yum!

Cute little mangos, these are the sweetest, juiciest mangos you have ever tasted and they're perfect for the kids.

I know they're not big things but living here you learn to appreciate the small things. We could all use more of that!