Birthday Party Fun

Karen & Jimmy's wedding

Jorge and I attended the sealing tonight of a cute young couple in our ward. Jorge Sr. sealed them and it brought back so many sweet memories from our special day. This photo was taken just outside the front doors of the Guayaquil temple.

This is the wedding court & the tradition is that the maid of honor wears red symbolizing love and the matron wears white, not exactly sure the reasoning behind the white dress. They had a cute choreographed dance.

As part of the evenings events a member of our bishopric gave words of wisdom to the new couple.

Jorge and I had SO much fun dancing. He is such a good dancer!! I love that in Hispanic culture everyone dances from the youngest to the oldest. They also party like rock stars we left at 11:45 and they hadn't even served dinner yet. 

I won the lottery!!!

The husband lottery that is... I'm so lucky to have him. I really have the best husband. He is so kind, thoughtful, and understanding. We have so much fun together. As the years roll by (almost 4 for us) we get closer, so many shared experiences stitches your hearts together. I love you Jorge!

Birthday fun part 2.

We ended up having lunch for Stella's birthday at Plaza Lagos. This plaza is awesome they have amazing restaurants and cute shops but they also have this island ful of play equipment for kids. Stella and Renata had a blast! As part of the play equipment there are a couple of ginormous chairs and a table.

Modern version of boing chair, she loved it.

Zipline

Eating frozen yogurt (why not have a healthy birthday treat ;) ) they actually found out that it was Stella's birthday and gave us a gift certificate for a free  frozen yogurt and took our picture to post on their Facebook page. I've got to get around to checking it out...below zero, Guayaquil is the name of the place.

Stella's birthday

Look who turned two!

First she had a visit from her best neighbor friend.

Then to grandmas house for presents 

Then out to lunch

Then fun w/ her cousin Renata... you've got to love that BIG hug.

We had such a fun day. We are so grateful to have this sweet pea in our family. She makes a laugh and keeps us on our toes. She is so smart, sweet and fun. Happy Birthday!

Laying around

Stella has started this new thing where she randomly lays down wherever she is, outside, inside, at the park. She will lay there for usually 30seconds maybe.  I don't think she's tired because she still takes a good midday nap and sleeps 12 hrs a night. Does anyone have experience with this behavior? 

Fun with scissors

I'm so bummed Stella was wearing a brand new shirt today and cut a hole in it. I was finishing an email and she woke up from her nap and was hanging out in the office with me and I got distracted for two seconds... :(

Drum roll please...

This little family will be moving to Boston this Fall. 

100% Ecuadorian

Stella's eating pan de yuca, which is bread made from yuca root flour. Not my favorite but Jorge and Stella and pretty much everyone else here love it. Shes also drinking yogurt. Here you drink it rather than eat it, the consistencies to thin to eat. Pan de yuca and yogurt always go together according to Jorge. They will miss this when we move back.

Holy Moly... I'm locking her up.

After church today I was talking to someone and then someone else came by and said look at all your daughters admirers. I hadn't even noticed that all those boys were there. Of course I had to grab my camera it was to cute. Look at Stella looking up at them. #toosoon #thisallhappenedsofast #wheresherdad?

Family BBQ

This afternoon we had a big BBQ at Jorge's aunts house. Her son recently got engaged and brought his fiancé home to meet the family. They both live in Dallas, TX. They make a really cute couple. The food below starting from the left is a pan of sausages, in the middle is beef wrapped in bacon and on the right are veggie skewers.

Jorge's uncle Angel is an awesome cook! we are holding a pan with 3 whole chickens & there was still another one on the grill. There was tons of food.

Toasting to the happy couple

BREAD

One of our favorite things to eat is bread. There's no better smell than homemade bread coming out of the oven and warm fresh bread is to die for. The obsession goes so far that Jorge and I like to discover new bakeries on date night (things stay open late in Ecuador). Stella and I walked to a new bakery by our house to try it out, it super cute inside but the bread was average :(

Temple trip

These two amazing girls went to the temple for the first time tonight and it was so awesome to be there with them. Arianna in green will be serving a mission in Mexico and lizette on my other side will be serving in Brazil. They will both make such great missionaries. 

The whole crew in front of the temple.

Three mamacitas out for a walk

Special treats

Every now and again it's fun to do something different. We walked to a park by our house to play but near the park there is a Dunkin donuts. Stella got dunkin dogs (mini hotdogs) and ice cream and couldn't have been happier and ate every last bite.

Please look past my sweaty hair and face and look at Stells cute smile.

Iguana Hunting

I spy with my little eye...

In our community we have quiet a few iguanas. Stella and I went out to observe them in their habitat. She got a kick out of it, she's not afraid of them.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers day to all the moms and to those who may not have children of their own but are mothering anyways. What would I do without my sweet mom? I owe her so much, she has sacrificed so much for me over the years. We always have fun when were together. She is my best friend. Thank you, Love you and miss you!!! 

My cute husband made me a delicious breakfast this morning. 

 

We heart attacked my mother in laws bedroom door today. So fun!!

A little sweaty

This photo was taken after a short walk to the park at the end of our street and seeing that the sprinklers were on we kept going around the block and headed for home. Needless to say it was a little hot here today. :)  tonight however we have had one of the most impressive lightening and thunder storms I've ever experienced. It cooled things off :)

A little bit of everything

Drum roll please...Jorge got accepted to TCU with an awesome scholarship. We are thrilled! It's going to be a tough choice and even tougher if we get into BYU.

This is us in the doctors office yesterday, Stella has the worst cough :( the good news is that the doctor said it's just a cold. The bad news is that it costs $70 for a visit to the doctor. #worthit #cantputapriceonpeaceofmind

I'm a student again. I'm taking Art Appreciation at a local college here that offers classes in English. It's fun to be back, I forgot how nerdy I am and how much I love to learn. I'm sitting on the steps outside the classroom. 

No rest for the weary

Our neighbor had a party two nights in a row this weekend. Finally last night at 2:30 Jorge went over there and asked them to turn the music down which they did, why didn't we do that sooner ;) anyways we were both, except Stella, pretty tired today. 

The potty chair

Last night Jorge and I bought Stella a potty chair. She has been showing tons of signs that she is ready or close to being ready so we are going to give it a try...wish us luck. We were in the kitchen this morning making breakfast and she brought in her chair and sat down on it and opened up the Book of Mormon. We couldn't have scripted that better! She is so funny.

Mil hojas

Delicious pastry that has a million layers of philo dough and layered w/ cream and dulce de leche. Yum, scrum!

My first graduates

I teach the temple prep class in my ward and my first graduates attended the temple today for the first time, Jorge accompanied them and I stayed back with Stella, she hasn't been feeling that good. Today was a total payday! Seeing the peace and love they felt afterwards was so awesome. I forgot to take a picture of them at the temple but here is one from afterwards at lunch.