Two Months Later...

... it's finally here (my laptop), and my blogging laziness has dissipated for at least a time... ;)

It's probably going to be a little bit of catch-up, since I have some great photos from the last few months, and I'd love to share them...

Installment #1: Random Events in August and September

One Saturday in August, Jenna and I took the kids to the DIF Park, and then down to the river for a picnic (although Jenna said it should be called a Pic-Juan since we do live in Mexico... lol). It was a lot of fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy perching atop the rocks alongside the river and watching the various pickups, 4-wheelers, and - yes - even mini vans go mudding in the river bottom. For the most part all the kids managed not to jump in the river or "fall" into the mud... ;)

This was one of the last pictures of the day, and I don't remember exactly why they were laughing (I think I was making weird caw-ing noises or something), but it ended up being a neat shot of their happy little faces...!

This year we had the typical rainy season through the end of July, August, and part of September... and José in his mowing suit just about made my entire year great... ;)

Never mind the fact that he was mowing in the rain... he won the best-attired award in my book... lol.

Candi and I have been getting some great one-on-one time in the mornings... and lots of one-on-one time in the bathroom... :)

I'm pretty sure I never signed up for potty-training, but praise the Lord she's doing better and the accidents are fewer and further between... lol. I walked into the bathroom a couple months ago and she was totally engaged in her book... with her leg propped up like this... very settled in and quite content with life... ;)

Every day I make lunch for Candi... and we've been trying some new dishes. Such as... chicken chow mein!!!

Dad -- she totally loved it... and her favorites? Can you guess? The baby corn cobs, of course... she even made little clucking noises that signify she thinks they're really cute... lol. She also does this "cute" noise with baby grapes, small bugs, and any baby (human or animal) that comes into her line of vision... :)

In September, Keith and Emily had dinner at their house for all the campus (also to celebrate

Emily and Gloria's birthdays)... good times.

Some pics from the evening: Uriel enjoying his carne asada - piled at least two inches high on his plate... lol (top left); Bill making faces at little Gloria - to which she eventually responded, even though here she was not amused (top right); and a view of half the group on the front porch of the new house (below).

In August, Jenna, Katie Schick and I took our kids to Nogales to go to McDonald's and play, and then to do some shopping at Wal-Mart. McDonald's was fine (even though Candi meter-ed herself - got stuck - behind the actual jungle gym area and the windows of the building) and we had some fun photo ops (we won't talk about whether or not a "kid" of my size was allowed to be in the jungle gym at all, or what a death trap that thing could potentially be if you were - ahem - to also get stuck).

Wal-Mart, however... was a nightmare. I had all six of the kids I care for with me, and while they were obedient... they were fascinated with all the stuff and just had to touch it.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I had about reached my limit for sanity by the time we finally left... and we unanimously decided that we would not be doing that again with all those kids. And then we laughed as Katie - in a stroke of genius - got the kids to play the silent game all the way home... after playing it all the way up to Nogales... absolutely brilliant!