More Disney!

Getting everyone to look at the camera at the end of the day, what a feat!

Go Brock go!!!!

5 very naughty boys!

Winter/Summer 2011

During our winter break, summer break in the states, we took a little trip back stateside. We took the kids to Disney, Cooper´s first time, and we had a blast. Here is the little chunker making a go at lifting this weight!

Dad and Zander sharing a sucker. Anyone who knows Zander knows he has got a major sweet tooth like his mommy, so I am amazed he shared with his dad.

Cooper trying to figure out how the piano keeps making noise by itself. Take a look at his hands, I think a career as a pianst is out!

Grandpa Marv and Brock having a rest, man walking around all day is tough work.

Zander so happy with his giant Sucker, it does not take much to make this boy happy!

Mothers Day!

Zander performing for us mommys, what a fun day. I am so glad to share such special days with each of my boys.

My silly guy and I at his mothers day celebration. We had a class together with their theatre teacher and then they sand us a couple of songs. Super sweet. Gotta love his face in this picture.

Mothers Day at Brock's school, we had sucha great time doing a project together. He is growing up so fast, and is such a sweetheart.

Making his project, they made little baskets for us to put by our bedside to put jewelry in. Very cute.

Yep this was my big present for mothers day this year, not really a gift that I would ask for next year that is for sure. The day before mothers day I was walking down the stairs with Cooper in my arms and Zander was going down head first when he began to fall he grabbed my leg and I tried not to fall face first on Cooper so I threw my body back and my leg bent wrong underneath me and yep broken. To make it even more exciting Chris left for Malaysia for two weeks the next day. Thank heavens for the girls that work in my home, they were life savers. At least I can say that life is never boring or dull right????

Fashion Show!

Fashion Show!!!! A couple of weeks ago my sis in law and I had the opportunity to go to a fashion show that was put on for charity by two very big designers her in Peru, and can I just say how beautiful the clothes were. We had a great time and had fun dreaming of having a closet full of these gorgeous clothes.

My good friend Lis and I.

My sis in law Christina and I after the show.

The gang of expats here in Peru closing down the party. Free gift bags, dinner, show and a night out with the girls, what more can you ask for right???

Easter 2011

This year for easter we spent it the beach house with some great friends and family. Chris's brother and his family are here staying with us before they make their move to Columbia, so they were there as well as two other family friends. Benjamin and Mariela and their baby, and Jessica and her husband and 3 boys. Yes thats right, 16 people plus two employees. It was a blast, lots of food and laughs. It was a great Easter.

Cutest Easter bunny ever!

Everybody hop! We had an egg hunt, and the Easter bunny even found us at the beach. It was fun to share some traditions with the peruvian families here.

Beach fun!!! Alejandro, Brock and Zander.

Chris and Benjamin!

We turned puruvian!!!!

In March Gano Excel, the company Chris works for, had a big event where we were asked to dress up in Peruvian garb. We walked the cat walk and the boys actually loved it. Cooper started dancing and the boys felt like super stars. I have never worn a dress that weighed so much in my entire life. Oh the things we do for our husbands. The boys look cute though.

Zander's 1st day of school 2011

My big man Z on his first day of school. He is the big man on campus now and can not wait to go to big boy school next year. In Peru you have to take an exam to get into your school of choice, so he is getting ready for his on May 21. It is like trying to get your child into college, but luckily we have the advantage because Brock already goes to the school, so hopefully all will go well.

Zander is my comic relief. He is always making me laugh and the kids at school gravitate to him. He is super energetic and learns so quickly. He loves his Nido, preschool, which makes each and every day easy as we get everyone off to school for the day.

Brock's 1st Day 2011

I still have a hard time with the way the school year is here, having school start in March, Christmas in the summer, easter in the fall, it gets my internal calendar all confused. So yes the school year has just started for us, and Brock was so excited. He wakes up every morning by himself at 6:45 and gets dressed and most of the time makes his bed, and comes down stairs for breakfast. If I try to go in his room to help him I ever so gently get told to "get out I can do it by myself." It is amazing to me how fast they grow up and how fast they learn and process everything that goes on around them. The other day I was helping Brock make sentences with some word strips he has for reading homework, when Chris walks in and asks if he can make a sentence for Brock to read with the strips. Brock replies yes and Chris proceeds to make his sentence. Brock reads the sentence out loud and says "Dad that was not a very intelligent sentence." I could not help but bust out in laughter as my poor husbands face looked at me in shock as if to say "did he really say what I think he said?" Oh you gotta love the little stinker.

Summer

I am just going to give a few highlights of our summer 2011, and all the fun stuff we did. We had family visit, beach house, and lots of playing. Stay posted as I am almost up to date.


Lima just opened this place called Divercity, that is really fun for kids. They have stations where the kids can go and learn about natural gas, vets office, chef school, hospital, firefighting where they get to get in a small fire truck with uniforms and put out a pretend fire. They even get to go to driving school to get their license and test drive cars for Toyota. So here is Zander and his friend Lilly getting ready to go change gas on the gas truck. It is basically like a mini city where the kids participate in everything. We had a blast and the boys can't wait to go again.

Lilly and Zander waiting so patiently to drive after going to driving school.

Z man driving, but had to stop for some gas!

Here is the Coopster with Iris and Sara. Iris is the girl that has been with me for the last 2 years helping in my home, she is the best, but has just left because she had her baby a couple of weeks ago.(She will be back though yupeee!) Sara, the other girl is new to our home and we love her as well. She is super sweet and really good with the boys. What a team I will have when Iris gets back. I am so grateful for the help that we are able to have in our home, and that we were able to find such magnificent women to be a part of our family.

Just a shot of Cooper checking out these goats. In Peru they have Granja's(farms)everywhere. This one is at the mall, they have a bunch of animals the kids can pet and feed, and Cooper was just mesmorized with all the animals. Brock and Z love to feed the baby pigs bottles they just go crazy when they see them walking over with the bottles.

As I had mentioned in another post we rented a beach house for the summer. (Summer here is Dec-march) So here are the boys playing with Iris and Lucy digging holes.

To top off the summer we got the chance to have uncle Joe come and stay with us for 3 months while he did his internship here in Peru. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun my 3 guys had with uncle Joe. In this picture uncle Joe is letting the boys draw all over him with markers. What a trooper right? The funny thing is it was his idea. He is so good with my boys and it was so much fun to have him here with us. In fact one day Zander thought it would be nice to make a special drink for unlce Joe for lunch that consisted of: limon, water, sugar, chunks of bananas and Ice cubes. It looked so disgusting but Z was so proud of what he had made and so when Joe got home he was presented with this drink. Much to my delight Joe drank it and made a big deal about it and Z was so excited. His own dad would not drink it, so big props to Uncle Joe.

Brock turns 6

In February Brock turned 6, I can hardly believe it. I still remember our first move abroad when he was 5 months old and now look at him, he speeks 2 languages and goes to school. For his birthday he got a bike with no training wheels, and learned to ride it in about an hour. He loves being a big guy, and also rubbing it in with his brother. Brock is still my sweetheart and always thinks of others. He loves school, football(soccer) and karate. He is such a special boy and always tells me how the bitter truth. We love you big guy.

Cooper turns 1!!!!

I can't believe how fast time flies my baby turned 1 in January. Cooper is such a wonderful baby, he is a good sleeper and has such a fun personality. They call him "Gordo," and the people here just die over his blue eyes and chubby legs. He started walking before Christmas so nothing is safe now and Brock and Z are having to deal with him tearing through all thier toys. For Cooper's big day we let him eat pretty much whatever he wanted. I think his favorite was getting his hands on a big chorizo at lunch, well and of course his cake. We have a tradition in our family that for all the kids first birthdays we have angel food cake with whipped cream and fruit, so of course he loved that as well. I feel truly blessed to have Cooper with us, it was such a rough time through the pregnancy all the way to his birth, he is a real tresure.

Birthdays!

I know I am behind, but I have to start from the beggining of the year to feel like the blog is complete so bear with me as I recap for the first part of the year.

In January Zander turned four but thinks he is six. He is such a funny kid and has more energy than he knows what to do with. He is very smart and catches on to things very quickly. He loves to talk, and makes friends every place he goes. He will walk right up to someone and say "Hola me llamo Zander, y tu como te llamas?" There is never a dull moment and I am so glad he is my son and we have been blessed with his sweet spirit in our home.

Blogging Bug!

Wow, can time go by any faster? Time has been flying by and for what ever reason I have not found the time to update my blog, but fear not I have caught the bug! My goal is to get caught up, and keep on track!!!

Since January we have been running. Birthdays, starting new school year, Chris has had work events, and much more. We rented a beach house for the summer here in Peru in Asia, which has been fun. The boys have loved having the freedom to ride thier bikes on the boulevard and swim and play until they crash. The house we rented was right on the beach so the boys could play and I could be with Cooper in the house. I have lots of pictures to come so stayed posted. We have also had Chris's brother Joe here with us since January. He is here doing an internship for a few months which has been fun. Also Chris's other brother Josh came for a week as he is coming on board to work with Chris. So it has been very busy but very fun. Keep posted as the flood of pics rolls in.

Happy Holidays!

We had a great Christmas, a little crazy but I would not expect anything less. Zander got Chicken Pox a few weeks before Christmas, gotta love the vaccine! He had a mild case but I was scared that Cooper would get them. Luckily no one else got them. We had a few people over on Christmas eve for dinner and our annual fireworks show which gets more amazing every year. . Stayed up late, woke up early to open presents and then we were off to Puerto Rico. We had a great time, but crummy weather.

We kept Christmas very small this year since toys are so expensive here and we would be able to buy some things in PR. So Santa laid out all the kids presents on the sofa's and when Brock woke up he said he thought Santa had been mistaken, because he wanted the things Santa had left for Zander. Oh you gotta love the little ones and how they think. We love you all and hope that you had a wonderful holiday.