Some Bday pix!

Approaching Thanksgiving!

What a week! We had no internet for most of it, it's back on now though!  

My car broke down and it took a few days before we could figure out what to do with it.  A guy from a shop nearby came out to our house and hooked our car up to a dolly and towed it back to his shop and fixed it for $75!  Thank you, Jesus!  I can't drive Aaron's truck b/c it's a stick and I don't know how to drive one!  So I had to have him drive me around or just make the runs for me, but several things we just had to cancel b/c it interfered with Aaron's schedule.  Being stuck home with no car and no internet?!  LOL  However did I survive?  Well, with 2 active boys, there's never a dull moment!  LOL  

Then for a couple days I was actually a hostage in my own home b/c outside there was a swarm of what our landlord thinks may have been killer bees flying all around our home and yard area.  Like nothing I've seen!  He suggested that they were probably migrating and looking for a home.  They seem to have landed up in our roof area where there is a space/vent.  

Then very dear friends moved away this week.  They are missionaries and were planning to head to Mexico Feb. 1 anyway, but her mother suddenly became very ill and they had to go tend to her in the Lansing, MI area.  They are dear friends and also "grandparents" to the boys.  In fact he always joked how they were adoptive grandparents to our boys.  And our boys loved them!  I'm pretty bummed about it and didn't realize how much til we said good-bye.  

We also found that Otto had an abnormal EEG that his neurologist wanted him to get.  It suggests that he's at risk for epileptic seizures.  While we're pretty certain he's never had one (although we don't know for the 1st 2 yrs of life), we're going to observe him for 2 months (looking for "staring seizures" where he could just be staring for a little while and his eyes might roll back a little) and then revisit the neurologist and possibly redo the test.  Otto is doing so great right now!  He's flourishing in his kindergarten class.  I had a meeting this week at his school to discuss his placement, how he's doing, etc (IEP).  And everyone had nothing but great things to say about Otto!  The children love him, he's very social, knows everyone by name, follows directions, is easily redirected if needs to be, has caught on to all the rules/procedures, participates, etc.  I visited the classroom twice now and the children are too cute!  They all told me sweet things about Otto and how they help him, etc.  It just absolutely warmed my heart!  The lady from the special needs class was at the meeting and she said that Otto would not fit in to her class b/c he'd be way above all the children in her class.  So he's staying in the regular kindergarten room.  I was in tears in the meeting!  I had to walk home from the meeting b/c my car wasn't fixed yet and the school is so close and the weather was beautiful and I'm so glad I did.  I was beaming the whole way home, praising God for His love and provision.  I'm so proud of Otto! 

It was an eventful week.  But God provided, took care, and blessed us!  I feel so "rich" with so much that I'm thankful for!

Veggies are good for you!

This was too funny, I had to take a picture!  The boys were wrestling and bonked heads.  Whimpering, Owen asked for ice for his head, Otto wanted some too.  So I got out a couple bags of veggies and handed them each one and they went and laid down on the floor on their own and just laid there perfectly still and quiet.  It was so funny!  In the past I've tried to get Owen to let me hold some cold veggies on a goose egg on his head and he screamed!  Otto's always been good about letting me.  This was too funny though, I didn't even tell them to do this, they just did!  

Trick or Treating!

Trick or Treating this year was a blast!!!!!  They don't trick or treat on our street, we found out, so we had to drive to a neighborhood and apparently so did many other people!!!!  There were literally crowds of people and children all dressed up!  It was so fun!!!  I've never seen anything like it!  Many people were perched outside (the weather was amazing, of course) hanging out, passing out candy.  Neither Aaron nor I were used to this, driving somewhere else to go.  We both grew up in a neighborhood with many kids and everyone participated (well almost everyone).  Check out these pix!  (Owen was an army guy and Otto was Batman)  After each house Owen would take the piece of candy that he just received out and show it to us while running back over to us yelling, "look at what I got!!!!!"  Too cute!!!!  We had to remind him at every house to say thank you b/c he couldn't get past the excitement of what he just received!  Poor Otto was exhausted.  He comes home from school pretty tired and by 7pm is ready to pass out.  Well we didn't get started til 6:45 so needless to say after a little walking, he was dead tired!  But they had a blast, we had a blast watching them, and it was great family fun!!!!

  

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

Overlooking the rooftops and of course the volcano, wearing the Guatemalan soccer team's jerseys.  They wore these home the day we traveled home and got lots of oohs and aahs!  :-)

Otto's 1st day of kindergarten!  I can't believe it! 

We're Home!

We're Home! We finished school on Friday and had another week and a half before we were scheduled to leave. We were all SO ready so we decided to come home early! We flew home Sunday and got home about 11:30pm. The boys fell asleep in the car and when we arrived home, they woke up and it was hysterical! It was like Christmas for them! All the toys they had forgotten about, missed! We were all up til 2am!!! Kept hearing things like, "oh mom, my truck!" "oh mom, my red cup!" "oh mom, my blanket!" "oh mom, my train!" They were so busy, so cute and so funny, and they played well while we settled in a bit and scoped everything out. Owen threw a fit when we finally said they had to go to bed. There were several toys he wanted to take to bed with him!
Took Otto and registered him for school, he starts afternoon kindergarten today! Oh my goodness! And get this, the principal wants to start him out in a "normal" kindergarten class, not a special needs class! She wants to give it a couple weeks and see how it goes, then we can always switch to the other class. I am thrilled!!!!! While I am not thrilled about possibly switching him in a couple weeks, I am thrilled about seeing how he does with several "typically" functioning children. Praying Otto is wherever is the best spot for him to learn and thrive and love school!