Musings on life, parenting, Jesus, and more...

For New Years Eve, our neighbor invited us to a party at one of the resorts on the beach here in Mazatlan. It didn't even start until 9pm! The kids were super excited to get to stay up so late. (Normally we would not have brought them, but my neighbor was bringing her girls, and everything here is so family friendly, we figured... what the heck!) It reminded me of a fancy summer wedding back home. Big tents set up outside with nicely set tables. A delicious buffet of food and dessert. Open bar. Live music, and a huge dance floor. We had a blast and the kids and I literally danced the year away. The band was awesome and the fireworks went off literally right over our heads at midnight! Here's a little glimpse of the evening. The background music included is NOT that of the actual band, it's just some Spanish music I was able to use for free in the video.

Home school with the girls has been hard with a rambunctious 2 year old in the mix, so I had my friend call a daycare that we walk by everyday on our way to the fruit stand to find out how much it would cost to have Kenton attend. When I found out it would only be 200 pesos a week to have him go Monday - Friday from 7am - 3pm, I thought... "Sign us up and when can he start!" We visited the facility and it looked clean and safe, and all the staff or "maestras" were very friendly. We needed to provide some basic documents in order to have him attend - things like copies of passports, medical records, pictures of us, and proof of our address here in Mazatlan. It took a few days to get those things in place, but this morning I packed his bag and we headed over. Here is the list of what he needed to bring with him: A roll of toilet paper A package of baby wipes 4 diapers 2 changes of clothes Toothbrush Hair gel and Comb Yes, hair gel was actually on the list...

Really? Out of all the awesome pictures in this video, it had to automatically select a shot of my rear end (or "bum" as Kenton refers to them these days) to be the cover photo? I wish I knew how to change that, but I don't - so for now I'm just going to get over it and say... enjoy the video. I promise the rest of the pictures featured are MUCH cuter!

I think it was about a year ago that I just went nuts one evening and cleaned out my entire closet. I probably got rid of 75% of what was in there. If it didn't fit, it was gone. Because really how good does it make you feel to walk into a closet full of cute stuff that you can't wear! If I hadn't worn it in the last year... it was gone (even if it did fit). If it was ripped, stained or had a hole in it, it was gone. If I didn't feel good about myself wearing it... well that was a tough one, and has taken some time, but I'm finally getting to a place where I truly see the value of having less. Less clothing meant I could decide what to wear and get dressed faster, leaving more time for my family. In May of this year, God sold our 5 bedroom, 2700 square foot home in the largest subdivision in Molalla (more on that later) and we moved into a 3 bedroom 1200 square foot apartment in Wilsonville. Hello downsizing! (This is an old picture from righ...

Twas the noche before Christmas and all through la casa, not a creature was stirring – Caramaba! Que Pasa? The niños were tucked away in their camas, some in vestidos and some in pijamas. While hanging the stockings con much cuidado, in hopes that old Santa would feel obligado. To bring all children both Buenos y malos, a nice patch of dulces and otros regalos. Outside in the yard there arose such a grito, that I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito. I run to the window and looked out afuera, and who in the world do you think that it era? Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero, came dashing along like a crazy bombero. And pulling his sleigh instead of venados, were eight tiny burros approaching velados. I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre, was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre, “Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto, Ay Chato, a Chopo, ay Macuco, y Nieto!” Then standing erect with his han...

God's hand has surely been on this adventure of ours. Today's guest post comes from Rob after winning the grand prize "UberSanta" promotion from Uber and Mastercard. Here's what he had to say about the experience: God's blessing when least expected... Today I won a 30,000 peso (about $1500 USD) shopping spree just by taking Uber. Uber just recently came to Mazatlan and has made our transition here much easier by allowing us to put our destination address into the app and avoid struggling with the language barrior since we speak very little Spanish. It has been our primary means of transportation since we arrived last month. We heard about the UberSanta promotion through an email (which we had to take the time to translate since it was all in Spanish), but we were already using Mastercard for our Uber rides, so Shay and I both entered the promo code in hopes that we might win a small gift.  Little did we know that Rob would be the GRAND PRIZE WINNER of a sh...