Campamento!

We had Stake Young Women's Camp this last weekend! I've never heard of this being done in the middle of February before, but considering how sweltering hot and mosquito infested it is here starting in March, I'm sure glad we had it now! We arrived at camp Friday night and had fun setting up the tents, playing games, singing camp songs, and staying up way too late! I actually was brave enough to bring Ethan to camp with us... well, really I had no other choice but to bring him. Justin was out of town that weekend which meant either I go with Ethan or not go at all. So I took my chances and took him! He actaully did great! He went to bed on time and slept through the night being my cuddle buddy, which I loved! Although Ethan did great, I told Justin that he needs to be home to take care of him next time. It was a lot of work making sure he wasnt playing in the bathrooms (see picture below as to why I didnt want him to play in there), keep him from being attacked by a rooster, keep him from strangling a poor puppy to death, and making sure he doesn't jump into the fire. By the end of it, I was exhausted but had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from camp...


Me and the young women

Ethan was fascinated with the smoke left over from the fire he tried to kill himself in



And last but not least.....
The Bathroom!!



I still cant believe I actually used this bathroom! I guess I should feel lucky that there even was a toilet. Dont worry, I Germ-Xed it up after since there was no hand washing station. Oh the joys of camping in Mexico!

What Do Boys Love To Do??

They love to fly airplanes of course! If you remember, going back to a previous post, Ethan is and still is obsessed with airplanes. A few weeks ago Justin went to California for work, and bought Ethan a cheap airplane that flies! Every Saturday since then we have been out at the park flying his little airplane. He absolutely loves it and will say "Whoa! Airdane, Airdane, Whoa!" So here are some pictures of their airplane adventures...

Watching the plane in flight

It got stuck in a tree and Ethan is running to the rescue

We are so sad that this last Saturday, the plane took it's last flight and broke. I guess that is where grandparents come in right?! Hint, hint...:)

Valentines Day!

We had so much fun for Valentines this year! Justin has been super busy with work and out of town a lot for the past month or so, so we were super excited that we would get to be together for Valentine's Day! He actually flew in from California in the afternoon and then that night we went to a Stake Valentine's dance at our church for the married couples. The dance was a blast and I forgot how much I missed dancing with the Latins (for those of you who didnt know, I studied abroad at the end of my freshman year in Guadalajara, Mexico- we would go dancing just about every other weekend with some of the locals!) Justin was such a good sport to fast dance with me, even though he really doesnt like it. We had a meal provided and a live Mexican band for the music as well. What was the best part about the dance though?? We actually got to go out on a date by ourselves! This is a really big deal considering we haven't been able to do this really since we moved here. One of my young women at the church came to our home and watched him for the night. The dance lasted until 1 or 2 am (which is how most mexican parties are) but we were so exhausted, we only made it till midnight- which is late for us! We had a blast and it was so nice to get away and get all dressed up!



There were tons of people packed into a very small dancing space. It was a lot of fun!

On the left is our Bishop and his wife with some other people from our ward on the right- im still not sure what their names are, turns out im really bad at remembering names down here.

I love you so much Justin and thank you so much for marrying me! I look forward to many more Valentine Day's with you!

Mexicans Love to Party!

It's true, the Mexicans love to find any excuse to throw a party and I love being invited to them! My next door neighbor, Cristina, has a little boy (Kahia) who just turned 1 year old on Saturday. Now birthday parties here are not quite like our parties in the states, in fact, they make our parties look pretty lame. There was tons of yummy food (as in a full course meal), playing, toys, pinata, etc. for the kids and the adults. The day before the party, Cristina invited us to go over to her parents house to help decorate and play. Here are some pictures of the kids playing in the backyard....

And of course I had to add some cute ones of Ethan in as well...




The next day was the big fiesta...

Cristina, Kahia, and us.. isnt his costume cute?? The party was themed from the tv show The Backyardigans.

What's a party in Mexico without a pinata??

This is Ethan being terrified of the pinata. The harder they hit it, the harder he cried. It was pretty funny actually. He never is scared of the pinata, in fact he plays with it, until they start hitting it. I wonder if he thinks it's a real person or animal and that they are hurting it by hitting it and therefore that makes him sad? Anyone know?

Me and my good friend and neighbor, Ana. She has 2 little boys and we love having play dates together. She is an absolute sweetheart!


All the moms and the kids!
It was a lot of fun but I'm not about to go through all that stress for one of Ethan's birthday parties. After all, we are Americans and therefore don't have to live up to the expectation, right? :)

Ear Infections... Yuck!

Yep... Ethan's got infections in both of his ears. He never had ear infections until he hit about 1 year old and has had it 3 times since then. I guess I didnt quite realize how super lucky I was being ear infection free for the whole first year! He developed a pretty bad ear infection over the Christmas holidays and even after the antibiotics, he would still dig his finger in and pull on the ear. Because he was still happy and not running any fever I thought it would just pass and well... it didnt. It got worse. Today he started running a fever of 102 and was super sensitive the whole day, he would just cry and cry over nothing. After a few hours of this high fever (even after motrin) I decided that it was time to see the doctor. Luckily he could see us right away and easily confirmed my theory. The doctor told me that they are both very infected, one being worse than the other, and that there is puss, swelling, redness, you name it. So he loaded us up with antibiotics and we hope that our little buddy wont have to suffer anymore. I had no idea that it was that bad though because he has always been so good and was never too fussy (except for today). Poor little guy!

On a side note I just want to say how grateful I am for insurance. How have I come to realize this you might ask?? It's because our insurance doesnt cover a thing down here in Mexico (im not sure any insurance would) and so we have to pay for everything out of our pockets! We just spent about $150 bucks for the appointment and medication today, and we had to pay about $700 bucks for my misscarriage and $70 for each appointment with the OBGYN! Ouch!
Through living here, I have come to appreciate so much more just how lucky we are in the states and how easy it is to take those blessings we have for granted! I love the good ole USA!

Altata Beach

This last Saturday we went to the beach that is closest to our home here in Culiacan. It's called Altata and is about 20-30 min away.. not bad eh?!

Ethan was terrified of the waves at first and wouldn't take his eyes off of them, not even for a picture...


He looked like this most of the time pulling our fingers to get away from the waves.. poor little guy...

But after a while he got used to the waves and had fun throwing shells into the water with daddy.


He actually got a little too brave one time and was quite surprised when the water ascended up a little higher than he thought it would and he got soaked. He was a pretty good trooper though and still wanted to throw the shells, but kept a good distance from the water after that!
We absolutely love living here and are enjoying every minute of it! We feel so blessed that we are able to have this wonderful opportunity to make good friends, be out on our own, and experience and live another culture and language! Maybe we will just stay here forever :)

Hey! Look What I Can Do!

I can make a diaper cake! This is my first one ever to do so don't judge it too harshly :) I thought it wasn't all that bad considering the lack of crafty supplies there are here in Mexico (seriously there is nothing...one more thing to add to my "Things to get in America" list). One of the girls I used to work with in Casa Kanguro is having her baby this month and because I am now a stay at home mom and have time to do these crafty things, I thought I would finally give it a try! It's pretty plain jane but it's loaded full of diapers and that's all that really matters right? The girls had never seen anything like this before (which surprised me) and at first they thought it was made of marshmellows. :)

Speaking of giving birth, did you know that almost all of the births here in Mexico are via C-section? It's true. People are always amazed when they hear that Ethan was delivered vaginally without problems and we just tell them that it's not very common in the states to give birth any other way! The Mexicans have a lot of "theories" as to why this is the case. Here are some that we have heard:

-The Mexican people are just to little to give birth vaginally- it would kill them (my question is how did the Mexican race survive so long if that was the case?)
-The government is paying/threatening/bribing the doctors to automatically deliver via C-section in order to control the birth rate (this one I could believe considering how corrupt the government is here)
-There are just too many risks giving birth vaginally and it's better to not even try
- and my favorite is: the doctors are just lazy and C-section is much easier- I definitly believe this could be the answer!

So if we were to have another child while we are still here in Mexico, we have luckily found an awesome doctor who is very pro vaginal birth and who works in a very new, nice, and modern hospital who I would trusts with delivering a child. Sorry, I kinda went off on a tangent but I thought that whole C-section philosophy was interesting. Are C-sections really prevelent in other foreign countries? Anywho, the baby shower was a lot of fun and Im excited to make more of these in the future!

Other Americans!!

So the only other Americans we have seen here in Culiacan, is the Wright Family and they just happen to live in the same neighborhood as us! The parents, Erin and Jason, play for the orchestra here and they have 2 kids, Nate (4 or 5?) and Clara (2). At least 3 times a week, we get together and let the kids play at each other houses while we speak much needed English to each other (I will have to admit that it is quite refreshing for me!). Both the kids speak both Spanish and English fluently (as well as the parents) and are both such cute, good kids! I finally remembered to snap a few pics this time of the kids playing.


Clara, Ethan, & Nate. They had so much fun playing at our house this time and Ethan was actually willing to share his toys-this was a shocker!

Ethan sticking his head out of the castle window

All 3 kids playing inside the castle


Ethan has been doing this very cheesy grin lately to everyone. We say " Ethan, say 'Hola!' to someone and he gives them this very fake, strained little grin of his. He seriously does it to everyone, it's pretty funny...Thanks Aunt Caryn for teaching him it! :)