Memorable New Year's

This New Year's celebration was very different then the last couple of ones I've had. Different in a lot of ways, but it was a very special time and I enjoyed it immensely! Why?

Well, not only is this the first New Years Kenji is old enough to participate and understand all that is going on -- which that alone made it special -- but I had a great time this evening just doing special things with Kenji.

And another reason why it was special is because during my daily time with the Lord He said that this year would be a fabulous year. Fabulous in that it would be a year of miracles for me, both personal and non- personal ones. Grand miracles as the ones that the Lord has promised for the offensive! The best is yet to come! PTL!

As I mentioned above we spent the afternoon and evening doing all sorts of fun activities. After our special New Year's dinner, we took Kenji and Angel to see this enormous Nativity scene in a neighboring town/city, which is only about 10 - 15 minutes away.

Here are some photos of the Nativity scene, some are a bit too dark the camera was acting up ... grrr









They had a fun time running around/crossing the various bridges from one side/level of the Nativity scene to another. After a good while of doing that (our secret way of getting all their energy out, hee, hee) they managed to stay still just long enough so that I could take a photo of them.


I do believe this is his standard "it's photo time" face.


Right beside the Nativity scene there was a fireman's department and of course Kenji was in high heaven when he saw the "huge" fire engines. One of the fire fighters kindly let the boys climb up and around a fire engine. It was so cute to see Kenji so happy yet at the same time mesmerized with the fact that he was on a big fire engine.

I took quite of few photos of Kenji on the fire engine, but unfortunately and sadly only this one below came out. The other ones were too dark, I don't know why as the flash on the camera is supposed to turn on on it's own? Anyways, guess we'll have to visit the fireman's department again.


After that fun excursion we got home and had a nice snack -- hot cocoa and cookies. Then the boys had some "rough and tumble" time with granddad while they patiently waited for midnight to strike so that they could light their sparklers.

And the time finally arrived ...


There he is, quite taken aback at all the "fire" that was shooting out.


It was pretty fun to see him quite bewildered with the sparkler. He wasn't sure if he should blow out all the "fire" or whether it was okay to let it continue. Around the 4th sparkler he kinda got the hang of it and mustered up the courage to walk around with it.

He is really into blowing out candles, matches, or just about anything at any time and loves it when I bring him his food still a bit hot as then he has a chance to master his "blowing" techniques.

Triple special day!

This is our sweet friend, Lily. She and her husband kindly bought us this beautiful Christmas tree. And another friend of ours gave us the money we needed to buy decorations for the tree and around the house.

So between these two couples and provisioning, our expenses for Christmas decorations came out to be a grand total of $30 pesos. TYJ!


The aforementioned couple, Enrique and Lily.


Well today, the 29th of December, was a triple special day for 4 different people. First of all it's my moms 51st birthday!! Secondly it's Kenji's 16th month day!! :) And thirdly it's Enrique and Lily's 5th anniversary!!

Because of this we, Mig and I, decided to make mom a special delicious Mexican dish, "Chiles Rellenos". This particular dish while "simple" is very laborious due to the tedious process the chilies undergo.

That's why I gave that particular job to Mig -- aren't I a kind sister? :D It's a tricky job getting the fluffy mixture for the chilies just right, but believe it or not the "Chiles Rellenos" came out, just barely :).

And here you have the famous Mexican dish.


To tell you the truth we were making this special dinner to celebrate mom's birthday, but our friends unexpectedly paid us a visit. They had come to congratulate mom and brought her a present and cake. So sweet.

And since mom knew it was they're anniversary as well she invited them to accompany us for dinner. Hooray! The more the merrier, right? And that's how this day became "Triple special day".


Of course Kenji has eyes, and fingers, only for the cake.


Yep, that's right, shove it all in.


Aww, so sweet!

Christmas Day

Kenji woke up this morning bright and early, as always :), but we waited for Angel to wake up so that they could both open their stockings. Now we all know that toddlers forte is not waiting for things.

But Kenji didn't do too bad, that is for about 15 minutes :D, but we still had about an hour and 45 minutes to go. Anyways, here he is on Christmas morning opening up his stocking.

Yum, chocolates ...


I think I can fit one more in my mouth ...


It's a little hard to chew this mouthful, but at least it's all in.


He found his phone lying around and was enjoying it ...


... but was reluctant to share it with Angel for a little bit.


We didn't open presents this morning because we decided we wanted to do it on the 6th of January, King's day, which used to be the traditional day to open presents here in Mexico.


Christmas dinner

We decided to do the traditional American turkey dinner, mainly for Jim and Steve's sake. We made several side dishes to go with the turkey but it all didn't fit on the table at once.

And here it is ...


I think some jello would be nice after all that yummy food.


Such good table manners, what a shiner!


This is his "rascal" face it's one of his favorite ones.


Another one of his silly faces.


Family photos

Right before the photo shoots he had a fall, pretty big one too, and so the only way I got him to be happy and stay still for photos, as you can see, was bribing him with a candy cane.

And he didn't let go of it till he finished it. He is such a manipulative and naughty little boy, and stubborn I might add.

Now this photo is a special one, Kenji is actually smiling! He never smiles for photos.


Okay I did my good deed, now let's get over with this, mom.


Looking a bit sleepy, but still cute.


Like I said just going for that candy cane.


Yeah, I think this photo would have been better with just grandma & Kenji :D


He's growing far too fast. Before I know it he's going to be towering over me. He's only 1 yr. & 3 months (15 months) and he's already wearing 2 year old clothes!

The suit he's wearing is size 18 months and it fits him too short, as you can see. Not to mention his foot size is larger than the average size for his age, making his outfit look even funnier, but he still pulls of an adorable look.


It's show time!! ... here he's dancing to "Jingle Bells".

Got a bit carried away in his dancing world.

P.S. Don't miss checking out the blog on the 6th of January ... the opening of the presents ... remember :)

Being a happy helper

With Christmas rolling around "Posadas," which is a traditional event in remembrance of Joseph and Mary's search for an inn, seem to be taking place at every company, school, hospital, etc. And the school Angel (Kenji's 10 yr. old uncle) attends wasn't an exception.

Upon asking the Lord whether we should attend the Posada, mainly for courtesy sake, the Lord confirmed that it was His will for us to go and that we could even be of a help to them in some way.

The Lord showed us to help them out by bringing the drinks and "bolos" (bags with treats) needed for the Posada. There would be approximately 150 people, 70 of which would be kids.

We began provisioning the things we would need for the treat bags as well as the drinks a good 3 weeks prior to the Posada, but with 1 week till the Posada things just didn't seem to be falling into place as we had hoped they would.

At first this was a bit disheartening as we had already promised to bring these things, which meant one way or another we had to bring them. If we couldn't provision them than we would have to buy them. Something we weren't to fond of doing.

We took the situation to the Lord again and He confirmed that it was still His will for us to go through with this and that there was a special reason why He hadn't allowed the things we needed for the event to come through yet.

We began wielding the weapon of "Extreme Praise" and continued "knocking on doors/hearts" and it was just amazing to see the Lord come through with everything we needed and more in less than a week.

And that's not all. Amazingly enough one juice/milk company helped with all 150 bottles of juices and one candy company helped with all the various candies/treats we needed to put in the bolos, which was around 10 different treats per bag. What a miracle!

Anyhow, here are some photos of putting the bolos together and of course Kenji was more than willing to be a happy helper for this little job :D.


Guess that's his description of "helping" us.



It beats me how he knew that the candies were something to eat. Prior to this he hadn't eaten candies before.








And there it is; his first chocolate. And mind you he ate the entire thing and would have eaten the entire box if grandma hadn't taken it away from him.







Just as I was about to congratulate her for doing so, I catch her given him a lollipop and was quite happy about it too ... grrr ... grandma!






The proud and happy candy packagers' with the finished product.


To tell you the truth all Kenji was interested in was opening up a bag. GL!



You know I've heard people say not to give chocolate to kids close to bedtime as it will keep them awake, but I'll have to disagree on that one.

Kenji ate about 2 bars of chocolate and believe it or not when bed time came around he went right to sleep. And his sleep was deeper and thus longer. YES!!! Praise God for chocolate! What an answer to prayer ... hee, hee.


Here he his at the Posada.

Playtime

Kenji is growing up so much. There's not a day that goes by that he doesn't learn something new, or attempts to do something new all alone.

It's such a joy to see him so active, (a.k.a mischievous) a little too much sometimes :D, but then again that's what toddlers are best at.

Here are some photos of some of the latests things he's into. Like I said he's always "around & about" so it would be impossible to capture every new thing he does, or when he's lost in his own world of play and fun.













This is a little indoor playroom/area that was already in the house.



Grandma gave him this drawing board and it came just in time as along with his new passion for drawing he discover that the walls made good drawing material, ahem!





And there he is, my little artist!












This is a corner he spends a lot of time in. Like I said "lost in his own world".












I found a nice big box for him to play "peek-a-boo," but little did he know that it also served as a way to keep him in one place :D












And there is the little rascal who loves to run off and get into every kind of mischief you can imagine.












Yep, he's got an angels face but don't be fooled by his serene and passive look.













Today I caught him sneaking off towards the stairs (he thought I hadn't seen him as I was hiding from his view) and although it is very dangerous I let him continue on his own.

I was so impressed that he made it all the way up without faltering/falling I had to take pictures of his first time climbing stairs all alone.




There he goes ...










Whew, made it halfway ...









Almost there ...



















And there you have it!