Holiday Shows!

The last few weeks have been crazy busy, with end of the year shows, school meetings and getting ready for the holidays. It is the end of the school year here so we are now on summer break, so weird to say that, and after three years I am still having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. Brock's school did Toy Story for their end of the year show and it was great. As you can see Brock was Rex. He did a great job, and loved performing.

Brock and his class!

Zander's show was great as well, he was a lion trainer. All the boys were trainers and all the girls were lions, so what message are they trying to send these little ones??? Zander looked so cute, and really got into his part. He thought it was great because he had 2 lions to train and the others had one.

Here is my little Papa Noel! I dressed Cooper up for each of the boys shows, and the people just ate him up. He makes a great mini Santa though right?

Year end Reflection!

As some of you know this year has been especially challenging for me personally and our family. It seems that even though this year has been so challenging it has also been the most rewarding as crazy as that might sound. I have had a lot of time to reflect on the things that are most important in this life, and how short the time we have is here on earth. Things don't matter, clothes don't matter, cars, houses all the material stuff that we sometimes get caught up in thinking we must have just don't matter in the end. I have found a new love for many things this year, I ran my first 10k, enjoyed playing with my kids more and helping them develop their talents, serve, and be served, be a supportive wife even when it is not easy, and to always listen to those little promptings!
In January Cooper was born and we both almost died, a real scare, both of us recovered very well thankfully. I feel so blessed to have had my baby here in Peru, I had such wonderful doctors. I am incredibly grateful for 3 beautiful healthy boys that have been sent to me, and for all the joy they bring me evryday.
In July I was diagnosed with Melonoma, but thanks to some great doctors and plastic surgeons I am free and clear for now. We kept this pretty private, but as time has passed, I really feel that the awareness for this disease is very low, especially for the teenagers who think they are untouchable. You always here "Oh it won't happen to me." My boys now know the routine of the everyday application before school, if fact if I forget they remind me. Brock says "we don't want to get a sicky mole like you mommy!" Being careful with your skin it is so important and I was lucky that I was able to get it taken care of early. So please be careful everyone and put on your sunscreen!
The rest of the year thankfully has gone by with out any other health issues for anyone. But work has been crazy for Chris, keeping up with all the kids activities, school pick-ups and all the fun mommy stuff has made for a really busy year. This year I feel my bond with my kids has increased ten fold and my appreciation for the little things has grown as well. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I won't ramble anymore, we love you all and send our love from Peru. Besos Grandes a Todos!!!!

Cooper 10 months!!!

I can't believe how fast 10 months have gone, time has just blown like the wind. Cooper is such a good baby, and a happy one at that. He brings such joy to our home with his sweet smiles. He is my fat bundle of joy. He is very content watching his brothers play, or listening to a conversation, and of course loves his food. He wants nothing to do with crawling and wants to walk straight away.

Check out the rolls on the back of the legs! Poor lil guy, Roxy wants to bite his diaper.

Sweet little face, we love you Coop.

Cardboard houses!

What to do with those giant refrigerater boxes? Well we made houses each with their own style. The boys loved playing in them, and they are still usable to this day. Now with the puppy they think it is fun to hide in them with her. Fun days, free days!

Finally I caught the boys singing, they never want to perform for the camera. Sorry folks it is spanish, they play mostly in spanish together. Poor boys when we ever get back to the states, it is ESL for them.

Doggie!!!!

This is Roxy the newest member of our family! She arrived this morning and I am still not to sure about the whole thing. I am not really a dog person, but my boys have been asking for one for the longest time. So a friend of ours had puppies and low and behold we now have Roxy. I have to say she is really cute, but I have no idea what I am doing, and she cries all the time.
Chris has been traveling a lot lately, and is home just for today, so we decided to keep the kids home today and play with the new puppy. Bummer though Brock woke up sick so has not been able to enjoy the new puppy. Z on the other hand is in love. He keeps hugging me and telling me how much he loves Roxy. So I guess it is all worth it right?

The happiest boy in the world right now!!! The kid has not left the yard yet, and she has only been here for a few hours.

Big Event!

This last Sunday Chris had a huge event that he put on for the founder of Gano Excel and his boss. It was amazing what Chris put together for this three day conference. We literally did not see him for the entire month before hand while he was trying to put together the last touches. On Sunday night they had a huge event with over 6 thousand people, and sadly had turn away a couple thousand due to space. The kids and I went and sat front and center which they thought was so fun, but got quite tired of everyone wanting to take their picture. This picture is of the boys in the VIP room backstage being as patient as they can, thank heavens for my little friend DS, nintendo. They do not get to play it very often so they had the time of their lives. Chris worked so hard, and everything went wonderfully. Way to go Chris!!!

The boys!

Just loved this pic of my gordo, he is such a happy guy, and was so good the whole night.

Halloween!

Happy Halloween, well not like in the states, but we had a great time. There was no trick o treating for us, but we did have quite the bash. Pics below!! This is Cooper's friend Benjamin at his birthday party.

Ok, so I was toying around with having some kids over to decorate halloween cookies, ya know something small, and this is what we ended up with. Yep my boys convinced me to throw a full blown fiesta complete with bounce house. We did decorate halloween cookies, but added the bounce house, good food, and good friends. What a fun day, and my kids were on top of the world. This is the view from the balcony of my room!!

Is he not the cutest giraffe you have ever seen? I think so but I am his mom. Poor guy I could not zip it all the way to the top because of his triple chin,

Batman's to the rescue. This is Z and Luke as super heroes. Z is the black batman.

The kiddos decorating cookies, which lasted all of about 5 minutes and then they were off to the bounce house. Can you believe it kids passing up treats to play!

Random!

Crazy hat day at Zander's school, and a mom with no ideas, so this is what you get. It was one of a kind that was for sure. I used a pair of Cooper's old pants and a little paint and you have a crazy hat. Everyone thought it was pretty crazy so A for us!!!

Just thought I would share a cute picture of chubbers, he is such a good baby we all love him dearly.

Paracas!

In September Peru had elections which meant that church was cancelled so we took a quick weekend trip to Paracas, about 4 hours outside of Lima. We stayed in a beautiful resort, and since it was election weekend had the enitre hotel to ourselves. We swam, played wii, and Brock and Chris went on this catamaran. It was a fantastic weekend.

When we got to our room I found this baby robe and slippers laying on our bed, so cute right! I just had to get a picture of my "gordo." He is only my 27lb. bundle of joy.

See this Island, yes folks those are birds. This is Islas Ballestas, this island is full of sea lons, penguins, and more birds then you have ever seen in your whole life. They actually send a team out to collect the poop and sell it. Fun job!

Penguins!

If you have done any reading about Peru you know that it is full of history and lots of unknown mysteries. This candle stick is on the side of this island and there are many contradicting theories as to when and who made it. So many things to see and do here, you really need to come visit.

My crew, love the smile on Cooper.

The sweet that we stayed in was right in front of the pool, so I could sit and relax while the boys played and Cooper slept in the room. What a perfet day!

Cooper loves the water just like his brother Z.

At the pool they had these fun giant balls you can play in the water. The boys were not to sure about it at first, but it did not take long for the fun to begin.

The cutest slippers in the world.

My little model. I swear Brock is a natural, he loves to have his picture taken. This is him in our room.

Diamonds for Puno

Here is a video explaining the campaign "Diamonds for Puno."

Puno!

The last weekend in August we went to Puno with Chris for work. Every year Chris organizes through his company a big project called "Diamonds for Puno" to collect clothes, food, medicine etc. to donate to a small village in Puno. For those that don't know where Puno is, it is on the border of Bolivia and it is very cold and there are many small towns that the people don't have very good living conditions. Children die every year from the cold, and all suffer from not having warm enough clothing. So they organize this project to help improve the lives of these people.

We decided this year to take the boys with us, to give them an opportunity to do service and to see that not everyone is as blessed as they are. It was a wonderful experience for all of us and I was so glad to see how giving my boys are. In fact I had to keep an eye on Z or he would have given away everything in my bag. I had put some snacks for them in my bag and he decided to give them all to the little kids, he had such a huge following that Chris had to go to the local store and he bought every cookie/treat they had in the store. The store was tiny so with $10 he was able to clean the store out. It was a touching experience to see my boys with kids and adults that don't have shoes, jackets, food and are suffering. I had the boys each pick a toy of their own to bring with them to give to a kid that they choose, and they did so with joy. Zander had the opportunity to give his favorite shoes away to a little boy his age that did not have any, his face just glowed. I look forward to next year for sure!


It was a quick trip, but we were able to go to Lake Titicaca to see the floating islands and what an amazing experience. Here is Cooper while we were on the boat out to the islands.

Here is the line of people waiting for us to arrive and recieve their packets. Many of these people had to walk for hours to get to the main center of the village early Saturday morning. It broke my heart to see some grandma's being wheeled in wheelbarrows because they could not walk. It really makes you realize how blessed we are to have the things we have.

Lake Titicaca and one of the floating islands we stopped at, see the fish in the air. When we stopped to get off the boat Zander ran and climbed all the way up to the top of this fish. The funny part is that he could not get down so Chris had to climb up and help him down. The people build these structures, their islands and boats out of a type of weed called tortora, they are incredible to see.

Chris and I in front of one of the houses on one of the islands we stopped to see.

This is how these kids get to school everyday. I was told that it takes about 1-2 hours to row this boat for them to get to school everyday.

Trying to stay warm on the boat! This is Iris with me, my lifesaver. She lives with us 5 days a week and helps me with the kids and the house. We love her dearly!