Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Y tu papa?

This past week over Thanksgiving, Dad came down with the Denver/Altadena work team. As usual, the "old farmer" hit it off well with the kidlets, and by the end of the first day they were calling him "Yeff" or "Papi"... ;)
Sometimes I don't realize how much I miss family until they're here, but it was amazing to have Dad here for some chat time, interaction with the kids, and to share our Thanksgiving feast! Now every night the kids keep asking me when the "big papa" is coming back to visit...!
(above: Dad & Aaron at Las Chicas for shrimp tacos)
After the chicken, and before the slideshow... the pyjama attire of the four little ones.
Dad and Candi

Photo time on the couch...
Dad and Diego showing their muscles... :)

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Para mi mama [For my mother]...

... so that she knows "I'm not quite dead yet"... ;)

It has been a rather full week, and the only thing that comes across so clearly is that God is faithful. We would not be continuing on without the prayers, support, and love of all of you out there... and I praise the Lord for each of you, and thank you for all you are doing. Satan will not have dominion over this place if we can unite as brothers and sisters in Christ and stand strong with our eyes and our focus on our Father in Heaven. Our Lord will provide.

So... here is a photo montage, Mom. Just a few events with the kidlets that have happened, and that I haven't done a full blogpost on... enjoy!

Sunday morning photos make me happy...
Sunday morning photos make Candi ham it up for the camera...

The kids with the crane after putting the rafters in the church...
The older "kids" with the crane...
When Aaron gets home from school, he always tells me he's not tired, and doesn't need to "rest" for a bit. The other day I walked into the kitchen, and he had zonked out on the chair in the middle of coloring... :)

Pollito has this thing with hats lately...
And you have to admit... he's pretty adorable... ;)
Veggie Tales "Jonah and the Big Fish" movie night... the kids were amazing to watch as they danced to the music, and yelled questions to me.
Example: "Esteph... why doesn't the cucumber have any legs?"
As the weather gets cooler, the warm, snuggly pajamas get pulled out. This signifies more excuses for "cuddling" times... :)
A typical night in the casa... little kids running around in their undies!
Does it get any better than this???

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

comBATting the foe...

The Vanquisher.
In pursuit of...

... the vanquished.

Yesterday morning, I walked out of my room in our house and noticed that all the doors were open, lights were on, and there was nobody to be seen. Thinking this was some sort of strange leaving ritual for Jenna (who headed to Florida yesterday to see her family), I shrugged and headed to make breakfast for the kids, when...

Zoom! A black object whizzing by at approximately the speed of sound (well... perhaps a little less) dive-bombed my head, and (ducking while spinning sideways in an all-too-amazing Matrix-like move) I bravely scrambled across the floor toward my room again. However, I realized that the Unidentified Flying Object had headed into the back room, and as I looked around the corner, I could see a shadow zooming around the lights at a high rate of speed.

I thought it was a bird. Not so much.

Apparently a bat had gotten into the house at some point, and had confronted both Amy and Jenna before I had my turn. Amy crawled on hands and knees out the door, and Jenna did some neat sidestepping (also very Matrix-like... we have skills).

So... in the afternoon Amy and I managed to trap the bat between our laundry room, and a small hallway that opens into Jenna's room, our pantry, and the baby room. This was after very calm, collected evasions of the dive-bombing the bat seemed to determined to make towards our heads (Jon G., nothing shall be said here about the... ahem... screams you heard on the phone. We simply wanted to make the excursion a little more theatrical and dramatic for you... lol).

Well... then I managed to forget about it until it was time to go to bed. Bere, a sister who is visiting us from Morelia, was trying to go to bed, and wasn't able to make it past the laundry room into Jenna's room because of the evil machinations of the black foe... so, I cornered it in the laundry room while she slipped past, and then called the escuelita to see if I could get some backup.

Let me insert here that apparently David is a bat-fighting superhero... he's vanquished three bats in his short time here at CVE, and warned Amy and I that we should use very heavy towels to trap them, since they can bite/chew through fabric quite easily.

Hmmmm.

However, since David had already headed to bed... Jo-el became the new bat-fighting expert. :)

Heading into the laundry room, the bat was whizzing around the small space, and I managed to snap a few photos (notice picture #2 above, which was taken from an almost horizontal position as the bat dive-bombed me... photo journalist, indeed) before Jo-el threw the towel at the bat, knocked it down, and quickly trapped it.

At our triumphant cries, Bere came out and informed us that she would now sleep a whole lot better...

All in a night's work... right, Jo-el??? ;)

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Just In Case You Were Wondering...

... my sister Tifani rocks. She just received her motorcycling license and is, in her words, "street legal." This means, I am sure, lots of fun times ahead for Mom and Dad.
Did I say fun? Maybe I meant STRESSful. ;)
But basically I've just taken to calling her The Stud-ette.