Guatemala 12/08

Oh, the fun that was had on our trip to Guatemala. We left Christmas Day at around noon- which is a tradition my family had for years as I was growing up. We always had a quick Christmas morning with gifts, etc. and then we packed up and headed to the airport. The boys were so excited to see Grandma, Grandpa and cousins. It was more exciting than Christmas! They had no problem leaving behind all of their toys. They knew that they would have more fun than they could imagine....and they did.

First day at IRTRA (sort of Guatemala's answer to Disneyland).

Alex having the time of his life on the "Caterpillar" with Grandma.

IRTRA'S Disneyland Castle- they use a a pyramid

At the resort with Grandma

We went to small branch on Sunday....the kids made fast friends with all of the Guatemalan children.

Zach and Will were great buddies on this trip.

Cousin line-up

One of many meals with all 21 of us at one table.

Life-sized chess was a highlight!

Ready to head to the water-park.

We helped over 500 Guatemalans be fitted for eye-glasses at the eye-clinic we put on one afternoon.

Cousin-races while waiting for the clinic to end.

We headed to a church camp about an hour a way from Guatemala City where we played with the orphans and had a picnic with them.

The Orphans
The look on his face sums up how we all felt about this trip- SO MUCH FUN, SO MUCH FAMILY, SO MUCH HAPPINESS. We loved it.

Alan and I were laughing about Will falling asleep on the old man next time him on the plane ride home. We were all exhausted.

Thanks Mom and Dad!! We love you!

SuperHeros

Check out these tough-guys. Who says boys don't like dress-ups?

oh the joy

...and complete excitement.

Before I forget

Will's prayer tonight:
"Heavenly Father, Thankful for this day. Thankful for my new primary teachers. Thankful for my Buzz Lightyear gun so I can shoot everyone and kill the lamanites. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

New Years Update

SO- Since I don't have time to catch up on what's been going on in our lives, I want to make 2 very important announcements instead:
1. The Cleanse begins again tomorrow. Anyone want to join in the fun? So far 11 people are joining me in the madness. I went to 4 grocery stores today in search of healthy food. Let the fun begin.
2. Registration for the The Camp Pendleton MudRun is open! If you want in, you must register ASAP. It always fills up within 2 weeks. Just FYI, this is one of our favorite traditions, we LOVE the mudrun. It is a great way to stay motivated to hit the gym. If you think you can't do it, you are wrong. If I can do it, anyone can. Join us!

All I want for New Years.....

...is this precious Guatemalan baby girl who also happens to be an orphan.

My boys

She captured Alex so perfectly in this one. He is, by his very nature, such a serious little boy...who then will shock us with his silliness at times. I feel like this pictures captures that-there is a gleam in those little eyes.

Gingerbread making...and eating

Brower, Chipman, Curtis Families...could there be a LOUDER group? No. It was a blast and Alan's masterpiece is sure to win the contest taking place this Friday night at the ward party.

Tomorrow is the day.

Alan is going to make this thing private for me tomorrow....since I am technically challenged and even with the help of several of you I can't figure out how to do it. If you already left me a comment on my other private post, great. If not and you want an invite, comment on this one with your email address. I will feel better when my craziness is only read by those who know me and hopefully love me in spite of said craziness Goodbye.

Oh yes I did.

Celine Dion with Allie. So fun. Her husband gave her tickets as an early Christmas gift, and then didn't really want to go...lucky me! That woman is amazing! I can't believe how talented she is....just hugely energetic and engaging. Who knew that I was a fan? Not me, but now I know! I knew almost all of the songs....which was scary but can be blamed on Oprah since she is a Celine fan and has had her on the show repeatedly. I should probably be embarrassed to admit this but I think Celine is more my style that Coldplay. No hate mail for that last comment please.

Email from Ms. Warren (aka The Teacher)

Hi Mrs. Curtis,
I truly enjoy having Alex in our class! He is a great kid. Just a little glimpse of our reading lesson today....after I read a story to the class, I asked "What do you think the author wanted us to learn from this story?" I called on Alex, who was eagerly raising his hand! He said, (and, let me tell you, I didn't think that any one of the kids would get the author's intent...) "I think that the author wanted us to know that even if you are small, you can still do great things!" He was exactly right! Alex has such great insight. I was so impressed! I really don't think that any other student could have figured that out! His face was beaming! Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you...and, of course, those moments are the reasons that I love teaching!
Ms. Warren

Oh how I love my boy.

I'm not sure I should announce this...

...but it looks like we have an ASU fan on our hands. Really though, who chose the SunDevil as a mascot??

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Best we could get

Aren't you all excited to receive our Christmas card this year? The goal was a nice little family photo to capture Thanksgiving 2008....and this was the BEST we could do. Are you kidding me?? Whose kids ARE these? Wish us luck...we are actually having a professional take our family pictures this Saturday. Boy does she have her work cut out for her.

Thankful

So much to be grateful for
Including:
Cousins
chocolate mouse pie
our talents and the ability to share them
Will's list: quesidillas, strawberries, spotted dog
Alex's list: stuffed animals and his mom
My list: Alan, Alex, Will, my fam, Alan's job, perspective and so much more

Side note: We roll in the door after an amazing feast at my sister-in-laws. I tell the boys it's jammies and straight to bed. Will's response: "But mom, we didn't eat dinner yet!"

With the Janie-girl

Keep dreaming babe. Could she be any more precious? Our whole family is in love with her and we love to borrow her whenever her real family lets us.

Will-Guy-Will-Bill-Will-Monkey (this is what he prefers to be called)

Will was very into Thanksgiving this year....except that at his preschool feast he would only eat the pumpkin pie. Here he is in all of his preschool glory: Will the Indian.

Up close and personal with Coldplay

Alan's buddy gave us AMAZING seats to the Coldplay concert last night. Too bad I'm too old for such shenanigans. My ears are still ringing and I only knew 2 of the songs....and I sort of needed to be at home brining my turkey and baking pies. But Alan was loving it-the drummer in that band rules.

Soundbites

Recorded for our posterity......
*At dinner a few weeks ago...Will's prayer: "Heavenly Father, thankful for the food, thankful for Halloween, bless me I can sleep with mommy tonight, name of Jesus Christ amen."
*On the way home from preschool today..."Mom, I got a butt rot. We gotta put on some butt cream to make it better."
*One night a couple of weeks ago I was making our annual Dinner in a Pumpkin. My kiddos love this tradition and were anxiously anticipating it all week. After I put it together and stuck the pumpkin in the oven, I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes. After just a minute Alex came running over to me and put his hands gently on my face, "Mommy, what are you suppose to be focusing on right now? I think you are suppose to be focusing on making us our dinner in a pumpkin. Please FOCUS mom." I guess the bossiness is contagious.
*Will has the goofiest little habit lately...everything he says is upside down or turned around. Here's a guide to Will-speak:
HE SAYS: HE MEANS:
Unbuckle me!=Buckle me!
I rolled up the window=I rolled down the window
Mom you are the boss of me!=Mom you are not the boss of me!
*After picking Alex up at the bus stop, I was chatting with a friend of mine about some pressing issue. I guess it was taking a while because Alex gets out of the car and yells. "Mom, stop all of this nonsense and get in the car! We are ready to go home!" Very rude but also very funny.

Palm Springs/LA

Alan had a conference for the PCSO in Palm Springs last week. When he found out about it a few months ago it seemed like a good idea for us all to go together....but it was only 4 days after we got home from Disneyland and I was too tired!! We ended up going anyway and it was a blast. We spent time with some our dental school friends who are now orthodontists as well. We also got to spend some time with Nana Trudy, who is Alan's mother's mother. She is a lovely lady and our boys had a wonderful time playing with her mallard ducks, eating dinner with her at the club, and giving her plenty of zerberts, which I'm pretty sure she was not a fan of by the end of our time together. Dinner with Nana and Cathy

After the conference we headed over to Los Angeles to spend the night with these darling boys (friends from our time at UCLA) and also to dress up like this:

and go to one my besties 30th birthday party. The dress was "festive forties," which is no big deal when you have access to a costume trailer. But when you are a soccer mom that lives in the burbs, it can be a bit of a problem. And let's just say we don't really have great thrift stores here. We had a great time thanks to our amazing friends who took care of our boys and treated us like family. As we left they told us we could head to Hawaii and they would happily care for our kids for a week- and they were SERIOUS. We may be taking them up on that in the not-to0-distant future!

Oh dear....

Now if only I could figure out how to make this thing private!!

Dear Aunt Danielle

In case you ever wondered if Alex enjoyed your Christmas gift from 2 years ago, here is the proof that indeed you gave a gift that lasts.

Is it a problem that I want to consume this child?

Self-portrait by Will.

The Happiest Place on Earth

And it truly was for us. We are not huge theme-park people. We've never even taken our kids to Disneyland before. But at ages five and three there could not have been a more perfect time to go! Will is so tall that he could ride everything in the entire park except one ride. He even did space mountain like a champ. Here they are on our first day planning out the route while waiting for the gates to open.Thunder Mountain Railroad- a definite favorite. We went 8 times over the 2 days.The only character our kids cared to meet. They really don't know many of the other hotshots at Disney. Alex spotted Pluto and I told him to go introduce himself to Goofy. The lady standing next to me was very quick to point out that that was in fact PLUTO, and not Goofy. Who knew? Not me. Cousin Jackson joined us with Todd on Friday afternoon. These 2 were inseparable. They were partners on all of the rides...but the absolute favorite was Splash Mountain. Alan and Todd got into a huge water-war, which I'm pretty sure is not allowed, but they did it anyway. We were ALL soaked. Todd always makes everything a party... it was so nice of him to meet up with us.We went non-stop and completely wore ourselves out. After two full days we were exhausted and came home a day early. Two days was the PERFECT amount of time for us. The best part is that when we asked Alex what his VERY FAVORITE part of the trip was he said, "Having breakfast at the hotel!" It really takes so little to please that child.

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008: Success. In case you can't tell, Alex was a "friendly ghost" (who refused to have his face painted, but was ok with crazy white hair.) And don't mind Will's Batman costume that happened to be about 2 sizes TOO SMALL. I bought it a month ago but the kid is growing like crazy and by the time Halloween came around he had the most painful looking wedgie ever. He didn't seem to mind one bit.

Fire Safety FHE

Our good friends the Bates had us over for Fire Safety Family Home Evening a few weeks ago. The night was capped off with some serious smore making in their backyard fire pit along with some scorpion hunting...which pretty much makes me want to die. I can't stand scorpions. Like jump-up-and-down-screaming-at-the-top-of-my-lungs can't stand them. One was killed by a bare-handed John Bates right in front of me. I seriously thought I was going to faint.

Privacy Please

We're going private. Just leave a comment if you want an invite.

My Morning

All I did was take a shower...and while I was doing that Will became "Will-guy shooter man." And in case you are wondering I dropped him off at pre-school looking exactly as he does above and I'm pretty sure his teacher thought to herself "This woman is a terribly inattentive parent" and I really don't care what she thinks. My kid rules.

Life is busy, life is good.

We are resurfacing after surgery. Things have been beyond busy... I used to feel like I could get a handle on things, lately, not so much. Thank you to all of you who have kept us, and most especially Alex, in your prayers. We have felt so loved, supported and buoyed up by those near and far. Our mantra is we are "cautiously optimistic" about the results of the surgery. Only time will tell how successful it actually was. You wouldn't believe how brave our boy was...he shed no tears and had much less anxiety than I. He and I shared some great moments during his recovery. I loved having him all to myself and we made it through the whole ordeal together.
And now life is back to business as usual...except we have so much going on that I can't wrap my head around it all. Halloween is upon us and I can't tell you how many times Will has asked, "Is TODAY Halloween yet?" Something to add to the To Do List: make a countdown chart to the big day. There is nothing I would rather do than be the mom of these two boys. Life is good.

Here we go again.

Alex is having surgery on his eyes for the sixth time on Wednesday. I am scared, anxious, and hopeful. The surgery is to correct a condition he has had since he was one-year-old. Our families and many of our friends are fasting with us tomorrow. I believe in the power of prayer. I know many of our friends from all over read this blog-if you can, please add Alex to your prayers on Wednesday. Thanks- we love you for caring about our little boy.