Wednesday, July 30, 2008

a few more videos...

steve's morning announcement for family night (we asked him to do this about 30 seconds before he went up!):



one of the teams singing "amazing grace":



Kaitlyn singing in the talent show:



Sarah singing:

chubby bunny

one of the games we did during family game night last week was "chubby bunny." basically you just shove as many marshmallows into your mouth as you possibly can and try to say "chubby bunny." it's pretty funny to watch and just as funny to try for yourself!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

annual meeting

ok, these pictures are pretty out of order, so please bear with me!

last week, we had our annual meeting for all of the missionaries in mexico. we had a great time seeing everyone and spending time with our mission family.

meet sarah brungardt. she is one of my all time favorite MKs ever! some of you will remember her from october when she told me i'd probably swallowed a STINK bug. :)
mackenzie wasn't a big fan of having her picture taken this week, but i was able to get this one when she wasn't looking. i think she and her sister had a lot of fun this week.
on our way out of town, we stopped at HEB to stock up on some things we can't find in Guadalajara.just look at all those biscuits! 4 different kinds + cinnamon rolls!!the kids performed their VBS songs and got REALLY into the dancing!
sarah just LOVES taking self portraits.

laura and i with one of the other Journeymen, Rebecca. Rebecca works in El Paso at the Spanish Baptist Publishing Houselaura and i with brungardt girls, sarah and rachel
the ostertags and i organized "family fun night." we did an amazing race style scavenger hunt with different challenges set up all over the hotel. here they had to eat the doughnut off the string
here they had to sing "amazing grace" to the tune of gilligan's island
after our game, there was a talent show. kaitlyn ostertag (one of my other favorite MKs!) sang "open the eyes of my heart Lord." she was SO nervous but did a great job!
bowden shared his favorite verse and why it is special to himsarah sang "how great it our God"
this is patti sorrell, my supervisor. i will be working with her in vancouver as well.
mackenzie was not in a picture taking mood at the gala, but kaitlyn was happy to snap a quick picture with me!


all of the journeymen went out to eat one night at italliani's. it's an italian chain here (shocking, i know!) and the closest thing we have to olive garden. our group was so much smaller this year than last and we missed everyone who has left this year, but we still had a great time.more family game night: making a pyramid by laying down blindfolded
and finally: "chubby bunny" shoving as many marshmallows as possible in your mouth as you can.
laura and i after the ladies' banquet
leanne and i after the banquet. leanne used to live in GDL, but now lives in Richmond. i'm looking forward to seeing her again in Dec. when i go to debriefing.
on the way into town (see, i told you these were REALLY out of order!) we stopped at HEB and picked up some mint chocolate chip ice cream. this it nearly impossible to come by (baskin robbins is the only place we've ever found it before) here, so we were really excited. it was SO GOOD!!!
at the gala, those of us who are finishing our terms were recognized and given certificates.
landri normally won't let anyone take pictures of her, so i was pleasantly surprised when she wanted to take a picture with me!
i've got a few videos from the week that i will try to post soon as well, so be watching for those!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

what a bum!

it's noon here and izzy just FINALLY got out of bed (and only because laura went downstairs to get some breakfast. clearly we're having a highly productive morning around here!) i took izzy out a couple of hours ago and she promptly went right back to bed. what a bum! i went in a couple minutes ago to grab a quick picture of her and she sat up for a minute, yawned a few times and then flopped back over. it must be tough being that cute!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

"mini-gansta"

bowden and his friend, Adrian, got new hats and sunglasses last week. when i came to get something out of the van one day while we were out working with a volunteer team, this is what i found. they had so much fun dressing her up and getting her to pose. isn't she adorable?!? my favorite part is the white sugar all over her lips leftover from the donuts she had just finished.

4th of July (again!)

yesterday, laura and i celebrated the 4th of july with our mexican friends. they didn't really care about the significance of the holiday, but they did enjoy the food (although they thought the baked beans were pretty weird! nothing like any of the beans here!) and we sure had a great time going waaaaaaaay overboard with decorating and decking ourselves out with some of the stuff i brought back with me last month.

don't you just love my headband and laura's hair ties? haha
our "family portrait." izzy had red, white and blue bows for her ears!
she even got a red, white and blue toy. like i said, we went ALL OUT!
just a few of the decorations
we borrowed an ice cream maker from the haynes. it was really noisy though, so we plugged it in upstairs where we wouldn't have to hear it. doesn't everyone make ice cream in the bathroom?my friend, Ana, and i. we met in March of last year and hung out a lot. then, in august, i lost my cell phone...and her phone number! she thought i just didn't want to hang out with her, and i was really upset that i had no way to get in touch with her. i prayed and prayed (and had several other people praying) that i would somehow just run into her (not so likely in a city of 6 million). then, in january when my dad was here visiting, we were walking around downtown and all of a sudden i noticed Ana just sitting on a bench as i walked by. we were both so excited! after much shrieking and laughing and jumping up and down, i was able to explain what happened and get her number once again. God is so faithful! we haven't gotten to hang out much this semester because she has been working and taking french classes, but i was so glad she got to come yesterday. we have plans to get together this week too. here is a picture of (almost) everyone who came. way more people showed up than we imagined. there were close to 30 people here!
for dessert we had banana pudding, and a flag cake (please ignore the fact that we had to use blackberries instead of blueberries. you do what you gotta do here!) our mexican friends were so impressed that as soon as we got the dessert out, they all started taking pictures of it!we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers (well, actually we just got it all ready and lit the grill, then let our friend, manuel, do the rest!) and had potato salad, baked beans and chips. yummmm
everyone loved the food!
izzy did pretty well most of the day, but she was worn out when everyone left! she's pretty much done nothing but sleep ever since the party ended!

it's rainy season

...can you tell? haha. it's raining at least once every day, so laura and i are getting tons of use out of our rain jackets right now...and so is izzy! since i have to walk her to the end of the street every time she goes out, i picked her up a little rain coat while i was in the states last week. she loves it and it really does help her from getting soaked when she goes out in the rain and then tracking it in all over the house. now, if only i could find her some boots...haha!
this is what we call izzy's "crazy eyes" they're huge!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

a little izzy

while i was home, my sisters asked me to send them some new videos of izzy. so here ya go girls!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

4th of July

for the 4th of July, laura and i went to the park with the haynes and the ostertags. it was a beautiful day and we had a fabulous time! we played a great (albeit looooooong) game of wiffleball, cooked out, had a bit of a water balloon fight (ok, we really just attacked becky!) and then played a great game of kickball. and all before the afternoon thunderstorm!


i think laura was trying to tell me something when she pitched the ball straight at my face! i still go the run though, so ha! ;)
on the way to the park, we were all talking about 4th of july family traditions and becky mentioned that "it's just not the 4th of july without water." granted, she meant a pool, or a lake or something, but we decided to help her out and give her a lil water to make her holiday complete. david supplied us with some water balloons and we waited until she had NO idea and then attacked!






we had an all-american cookout. hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, dill pickles, potato chips and peach cobbler. yummmm!


after we got home, laura and i tried to take a walk in the rain, but it wasn't really raining too much. oh well. we did get a nice picture with a red, white and blue sign at a school near our house though!