Happy Mother's Day!!

Come on!!! You didn't really expect me to be on time with this greeting did you?!? Just Kidding. I really meant to do this post on Mother's Day but when we got home I was totally exhausted and couldn't do it. I meant to do it the next day but Brigham had the flu and we were out of power most of the day. When we did have power I was running around doing the things I couldn't do when we were out of power. Tuesday I came down with the flu and Wednesday Gabby joined me. I am so grateful to have older children. Nathan had to work because they plan to open the lot on Monday and have a lot of final touches to add. My kids were angels cleaning and cooking and taking care of me and Gabby. This morning Ingrid came in and helped them scrub the whole downstairs really good. That was so nice of her. I am feeling better now. Not 100% but I can be up and about for a few minutes here and there.

On a cheerier note - Can you guess what I got for Mother's Day from Ammon and Xela? The clue is in the pictures. In addition to their gift I got a milky way and a stuffed bear from Brigham and Gabby and Nathan gave me watermelon, cucumber and cilantro seeds. Eddy helped the kids plant them the other day. We'll take pics when we have something to show.

I hope all of you mother's had a great weekend.

Our ward had a big party for the moms on Saturday evening. It was so fun. The men cooked while the mom's participated in many various sports and games while the kids all watched and cheered us on. It was super fun once I got over the embarassment. We played a game with a long string that they ran back and forth with and we had to duck under or jump over. I did actually injur my foot slightly on that one. I will have to get limbered up before the next mother's day celebration. Then we played the broom game. We split in two teams and had numbers. When our number was called we ran out and grabbed a broom and hit the ball across the other teams line. I have to say I scored both of mine. Then we did a relay with coats and water. Then a waterballoon tossing game and then we played basketball - I scored twice! I guess it pays to live in Guatemala where height really helps in the game of basketball. The dinner was yummy! It was huge, thick flour tortillas with steak and coleslaw on it. It is my favorite meal served in Guatemala. It was a great party.

There is a picture of my kids standing with their friends and a little boy in the back in a green shirt. His name is Gady (short for something). Gabby has really bonded to him. She thinks his name is Gaby also and he pays her lots of attention. He will talk and talk to me in Spanish and I will talk and talk to him in broken spanish. We don't get very far which he thinks is pretty funny. I usually end up pulling Nathan in to help me out.

There is also a picture of Nathan with some other men. The one with the glasses served a mission with Nathan. They were never companions and don't remember eachother from the mission but had a lot of the same companions and areas. So they had a great time talking about it. He got us a room in Morales so we wouldn't have to drive back to Rio Dulce and take the boat late at night and then get up early and drive back to church. It was a nice place. He works for Del Monte and can rent rooms on their property for free. We had five beds. Guatemala hotels cater to big families and often have more than two beds. I think it is pretty funny in the picture how all of the men are talking with their hands. It is really easy to figure out how a guatemalan feels about a subject by watching their facial expressions and hands.

There is another picture of 3 little boys sitting on chairs. The one on the left is a cutie. He reminds me of pictures I saw of Nathan when he was little. Maybe it is just the hair cut but whenever I see him I see little Nathan.

Brigham was looking at the pictures I was posting and said "Hey, where's the one of me in the hammock." I showed it to him and he said "Yeah, I knew it would be cute." He is definately a little Nathan.

My kids walked up the hill in back to the jungle with Ingrid and Eddy to set a baby parrot free. They found it several weeks ago and have been caring for it until it got big enough to go free. Brigham kept telling me they had a baby chicken. If I had known it was a parrot I would have definately taken a picture.

Gabby got really tickled about the nemo comment from Grandma and although he tried to play it cool Ammon really liked the muscle comment. I haven't read comments for several days but I will try to go back and look for questions soon.

Mel