Thursday, March 20, 2014

Family Traditions #24: Eden's 2nd Birthday

"Family traditions give identity and belonging to each member." - James Dobson

Everyone around here has been really sick except for Silas. We have had all kinds of stuff… messy stuff! It just keeps coming. Poor Eden was sick the entire week of her birthday. She couldn't keep anything down for days. We were really worried about her. Here she is right before she got sick: 
We had already been talking about her birthday, trying to get her excited. She had told me that she wanted a "baby cake". The girl is never without an opinion. I love that about her! We were going to have a big "baby doll" themed party, but she wasn't really up to it. She hadn't had any energy. So we decided to have something a little smaller and postpone it for a couple days. 

The actual day of her birthday she was still pretty sick, but Jimmy really wanter her day to be special. Jimmy and the boys get their haircut at a new little salon in Santa Elena. Eden happened to go one time and the ladies there fussed and fussed over her. 
They braided her hair and she loved it! (She hardly ever sits still for her mommy to do her hair, but I guess that's usually the way it is.) So that is what they did, the boys went for haircuts and Eden to get her hair done! 
 Happy little E telling me about her hairdo:
 Even after postponing her party, the day before she still didn't have an appetite… until she saw pink cookie dough batter!
Probably not the best thing to throw into an empty stomach, but IT'S HER BIRTHDAY!

The morning of her party, on her own, she asked for pancakes. That's a good sign! Since she is 2, this is the closest thing we could get to a birthday video interview.
I had found her birthday present a couple months before in a paca (thrift store stuff from the States). It was $7 and it looked just like mine when I was little that a friend of my parents had made for me (minus the bears). 
 Jimmy spent a lot of time refinishing the wood and I made her a mattress and bedding. 
I also made her a blanket to match her baby doll's. It's silk jersey and that super soft lamb-like fabric, so she loves snuggling with it. 
I found all kinds of bright florals in that silk jersey in a fabric store in Guate. Her room when we finally finish that part of our house, it is going to be bright! 

Here is what happened to that pink cookie dough:
I had made pacifier cookies and left them on the counter overnight for the royal icing to dry. Well… I didn't realize it, but evidently we have a mouse hiding out somewhere in our house. (Better than the usual rat, but still annoying.) I woke up and found all of them nibbled on and trampled. Eden saw them on the counter that morning and asked me for one. She did NOT understand when I said no since she knew I had made them for her and she cried and cried. All of those went into the garbage. 

Here's Eden's baby cake:
They don't sell Rice Krispies here, so I used Cheerios. And it turns out my kids really like Cherrio/Marshmallow treats. We are going to have to make more!

I ran out of patience icing to coat the cheerios to make them extra smooth before I wrapped them in fondant, but it was almost midnight by that point. Anyway this "baby cake" served it's purpose. Eden was very happy. Of course Eden asked to eat the bow… and the boys, the eyeballs! 
I love this picture, because you see happy E the afternoon of her party and then her daddy in the kitchen helping me. He always is right there with me, doing whatever crazy thing I ask him to on birthdays. I love him! 
And this was my favorite thing, possibly Eden's too:
Jonah and Silas kept giggling, "There's a baby in that watermelon!" 
 I showed Jimmy a picture and he carved it up for us. (He hates Pinterest, haha!)
Here's the rest:
{Diaper party mix and the plan B last minute pacifier cookies}
{baby doll size pizzas}
{Marshmallow rattles, Eden loved these too!}
The lilies in our yard flowered on Eden's birthday!
{Grapefruit punch}
The dolls on the counter were the
party favors for the girls that came. Pattern found here.

We invited a family from our church that have 2 little girls that have been over at our house before and I knew Eden really enjoys them. The mom made Eden that adorable basket that she has in her hand! Little girls love little things to put all of their treasures in. I thought it was so sweet!
Eden loved her baby doll bed. It took her all of 2 minutes for her to decided to get in it herself! 
I think she had a good time at her party!
I'm really thankful for the sweet family that shared that time with us. 
Later we skyped with the grandparents while Eden opened up her presents from them.

We are so thankful for this little girl! Whenever I think about her I praise God for giving us such a wonderful gift. We love having her in our family. She is a complete delight! She is sweet and loving with just the right amount of spunk! She is super girly and still loves wrestling with her brothers. She holds her own too. She loves it when we paint our toenails together and she always wants to sit on the  counter and help me make supper. I enjoy all of the moments we share together. I have no idea why God chose to bless our family with her, but I am extremely grateful!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Another Trip Up the Passion River

While Pastor Andy was here he wanted to help a young mission by hosting a medical clinic. Domingo chose the church plant in the village of La Pasión.
 It isn't that far away, but the roads are impassable (we learned the hard way), so we went by boat again this time. It is about a 3 hour drive from our house and then a 1 hour boat ride.
{Sleepy Eden!}
It's hard sometimes to decide, especially since they're young, whether our kids should go or not. We want them to be a part of our ministry so when it is logistically possible, we all go. If they end up feeling like we took them on a crazy trip for 18 years from their "real life" in the States, I might cry. This is it! Sometimes we get tired, lots of times things are uncomfortable, every time my children are introduced to things I would NEVER think a "normal" mom would allow, but thankfully they survive. Because, this is it, this is our life and I bet you one day my kids will miss home, their home! Not just the inside of our four walls, but their life here! 
{Joseph sharing his canary melon}
{Silas and Jonah joking around with H and Juan}
After the boat ride we walked up to the top of a hill
to see this beautiful place!
 Juan, and the 4 institute students came too!
 Here is the church, the pastor had been advertising. 
Samuel and Joseph, Pastor Andy's sons, were in charge of the pharmacy. 
 Ro explained to each family in Kekchi what the medicines were and the correct dosage. 
Jimmy and Juan were in charge of crowd control and keeping a somewhat orderly line. 
Mainly Jimmy was greeting people and practicing Kekchi! 
He met a family with a deaf son. He is the boy in white shirtbelow. He told them about Becca's deaf school and how they all could learn to communicate with him. They were thrilled! He should be school age about the time Becca's school is up and running. Very exciting! 
H played soccer with the kids!
There was no shade on top of that mountain! It was a nice hot Petén day.
Jonah, Silas and I tried to teach them how to throw a frisbee!
They thought it was hilarious!
Later Jimmy had a frisbee tournament with them! The winner got a snack bag of CheezIts… if he only knew how special that prize was, haha!
Throughout the day the crowd grew!
Ri and P would pray with each family as they left. 
I lost Eden for a minute and then found her resting on a bench!
She gets a lot of attention, so much so that it can wear her out. I didn't think anyone could get more attention than some twins I know, but seriously… what twins?!
E loves babies! 
And she got to see lots that day!

Of course the ladies in the church made us a big meal before we left! So we got to take a nice lunch break
Guess who ate first?!
Miss E!
We had a delicious chicken caldo. I've started growing cilantro since they put it in everything here. We really like it. 
They seated us at the table. 
My babies love caldo and tortillas!
No one had to teach these boys how to eat soup without a spoon!
{Jonah}
{Silas}
It was a beautiful day. Please pray for this village, especially for the young mission, that God would use this medical clinic outreach to help it grow. We also wanted to say a special thank you to Pastor Andy for bringing down all the medicines and hosting the clinic!

CULTURAL ITEM OF THE DAY:
No one told me that you are not supposed to pee close to a corn field. That piece of information was kind of irrelevant until about a year ago. It offends the good spirit of the corn. So if you ever have to raise boys in Guatemala here's the heads up! Oops! It's not my boys' fault, it's their mama's.
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