Happy, Happy New Year!

Feliz Cumpleaños Mami!!

Merry Christmas sleepy-heads!

Kenji woke up bright and early (of course ... grrrrr) and was so excited about making a yummy, special C-mas breakfast for everybody. Of course when I say "Kenji wanted to make/Kenji made ..." it means mommy has to do it. :D But it wasn't too bad, because I recruited aunt Liz, hee-hee. I made eggs with ham and cheese and orange juice, she made the biscuits and Kenji helped the both of us. What a shiner! :)

Christmas orphanage event

C-mas vacations begin!

Yay, school is over for the year!! (whew) :D When I informed Kenji of this, this is what his reaction was; "Oh, thank you, thank you mommy!!!" -- with a very surprised/excited face on him. He kept on repeating those words while literally strangling me! heh It was so cute to see his reaction and his immense joy.

He likes his school/Kinder, don't get me wrong -- of course there are good days and bad days as far as his mood about going to Kinder goes -- but he's happy to not be going for a bit. Actually, I don't think he quite understands how long his absence from school will last, as I had told him he was getting 20 days off and two days later upon waking up he said; "Mommy I don't want to go to school today, pleeaase can I stay home with you! Awww... ;(

When he returns home he just loves to give me a run down on what went on at Kinder. It usually consists of what child behaved ill-mannered and what happened to the aforementioned child, how he didn't act like that naughty child (ahem, need to work on this SRness :D), how he stood up for his convictions and didn't eat that "yucky candy" (his own words, ehe) -- though sometimes this grand statement of his is avoided (by him of course) at all costs, heh.

Yesterday his Kinder held their Posada (sadly the parents weren't allowed to attend - no pix) and today was the their "Christmas Festival/kids presentation" and the parents were allowed to attend -- you bet! :D I was oh, so very excited about it as it was going to be Kenji's very first time up on a stage participating in something like that!! And I was just desperately hoping he wouldn't shy out of it at the last minute (a lot of kids did) but he was a shiner and didn't get 'stage-shy'. (Unlike me when I was young, heh).

Out and about witnessing!

We were invited to sing at "Festival Artistico" a cultural event that was being managed by the 'Ingenieros del DIF de Gomez, Palacio' and to our surprise the Theater (the place it was held at) was packed with young people and thankfully we were allowed to read a Christmas reflection after the Gilb Duet sang a couple of songs. The young people responded pretty well to both the Duet as well as to the reflection we shared with them. And what's more one of the Ingenieros called us over as we were taking our leave, as he said that the reflection had really touched him and he would like to keep in contact with us and get to see our wide variety of Christian products. TYJ!

There is a L.P. Gas company here who kindly helps us with a 50% discount, as often as is our need, so we offered to sing at their company's "Posada" as a gesture of gratitude for their faithful help. The manager was very thankful and pleased with our participation as even though we may have only sang a couple of songs and read a small Christmas reflection, he said that he felt something different about us -- as opposed to the many other singers/entertainers they had -- and that our music and reading sent off such a serene spirit to all! TYJ! What a testimony of His power and spirit!



Click on the link to watch a clip of folklore music;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArkOSiE6tLI

Click on the link to hear the Gilb Duet;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j8y4NTmM_E

Neighborhood Posada

20 de Noviembre

Here we are at Angel's school in Gomez Palacios, Dgo., attending the "Kermese" held in honor of "20 de Noviembre." I decided to ask if Kenji could come to Angel's activities, rather than have him go to his schools "Kermese" activities alone, since they didn't allow parents to attend and they weren't going to do anything real traditional. Angel's school agreed to have relatives join them, so off we went to partake of some traditional foods, music, and festivities! Yay!

The idea of the "Kermese" was for people to buy the food they wanted to eat (for a much more reasonable price than normal) and through this avenue raise some funds for the school. You would pay at the "caja" stand and then get a little paper stating the food you were getting and then go exchange that paper/ticket for your delicious plate of food! It was fun for the boys to do that and they were quite happy to be doing so all on their own -- I didn't get pictures of that. :(

Anyways, they boys enjoyed themselves tremendously, had their fill on delicious Mexican food, and Kenji even got up to dance to some blarring Banda music! He loves it! My little gringo-Mexican, heh! I'll let the pix do the rest of the speaking. Enjoy! :)

Happy helper!

Liz is here, yay! She actually arrived about a week ago. I'm so happy she's here!



I'm not sure what got into Angel, but one day he just all of a sudden started doing the most hilarious dance whilst "eating!" He actually came up with everything, from the head bob, to the knee wobble, and the up and down thingy, even the butt move! :D You've got to see it, it's pretty funny! And of course he just loves the attention he gets from it, ha!

Guanajuato Trip!

We're back from our trip! Thank you all for your prayers for us while we were away. The trip itself was great! The weather, well to me, was pleasant! The kids stayed healthy and also had a great time! And what's more the Lord did sooo many little and big things/miracles to show us how much He loves us! One of them and probably the most outstanding one was... Well, let me back-track a bit. Just hang on a second first I want to say; Angie, I was so glad to see you although I was a little sad :( that I wasn't able to spend much time with you (or more like you weren't able to spend time with us, heh) but I know that it was for an important reason. By the way, your part in the play was very well done! ;) Silly you, thinking otherwise. :P

And of course it was great seeing old friends like; Yamie boy, Chispita, Jesse, Nadia, Sharon, Sam, Timmy, Steph, Jamie, Shelly, John & Mya, (actually scratch out John's name :P --ILY John) and Esteban to name a few. And we, Kenji and I, even made some new friends! :) At first it took some time for him to warm up to people, but once someone took an interest in him (gave him the time of day, etc.) then he 'automatically' let go of his shyness and his tender, sweet, cute and lovable little personality came out. My precious love was so sad when it came time to leave. He just couldn't understand why we couldn't stay there, in Guanjuato/campsite, to live! Awww, sweet muffin!

Okay now, well to begin with, going to Guanajuato/Cervantino was not at all part of our plan. As clearly it would mean a lot of money to fork out!! But His ways are not our ways! -- as we all so well know, but sometimes fail to remember, heh. When we briefly mentioned the Cervantino event to a GM (soon to be AM) friend whom we thought may be interested in going we thought of perhaps just one person going to accompany our friend, yet our friend didn't give us a solid answer till literally a week before the event was to begin! But that's not all, she surprised us by saying "why don't we all (our home and her) go to the Cervantino? We can take my car and maybe I can interest my husband in coming along too!" (The husband is slowly but surely drawing closer to us -- the Lord -- but isn't quite as "ahead" or "close" as is the wife, so to agree to come along on this trip would be nothing more than a major miracle)!

Upon hearing this news we immediately brought it before the Lord as there were a lot of different opinions amongst us and things to consider like; kids absence from school, how would we raise the needed money is such short notice (6 -5 days), sleeping arrangements (since we don't have tents to accommodate us all) to name a few. The most logical thing to think would be that there was just no way that it could actually work out, although the idea sure did sound inviting to all, but were we in for a BIG surprise when the Lord told us that indeed it WAS His plan that we ALL go on this trip and that He would supply the funds for our trip.

Although our friend offered to travel in her car, it wasn't clear just what she had in mind as far as gas expenses, tolls, admin fees, et cetera. We figured it would be something like 50/50 for gas & tolls so we went along and began preparations for the trip, and passed the word amongst our closest friends/contacts to approach them about helping financially towards our trip, but because it was such short notice not many were able to help. And with departure day almost upon us we wondered if perhaps we got it wrong in regards to the Lord supplying the needed funds for our trip. Yet we still felt it was His plan that we continue on and all go.

As we began our journey, on that much awaited date, and with thoughts like "what are we going to do about the lack of funds" running through our minds we were abruptly and yet so pleasantly interrupted with our friends (oh, by the way the husband did agree to come along!) announcing that although we had invited them to partake of this Cervantino/witnessing event (something she felt very thankful for) they in return wanted to do the inviting (and in case folks don't know, in Mexican culture, and most other ones too, when one invites someone somewhere it usually means that the one inviting is also the one who is paying) of this trip and stated that all expenses -- gas, tolls, food -- were on them!! We couldn't believe our ears!! His promise -- of supplying the needed funds -- was indeed, albeit in a different way, fulfilled! PTL!

That was the most outstanding thing/miracle the Lord did to show us His great love. The next biggest thing/miracle was that he supplied a place for us to stay, and again free of charge! A sweet couple whom mom has been ministering to for some time now, not too long ago moved to Leon and upon simply hearing that we would be in close proximity insisted that we stay with them! We hadn't seen this as an option because we assumed that it was quite a ways away from the Balneario -- the camp Cervantino's location -- but it so happend to be that their place was only about 20 minutes from the Balneario! Not bad at all! TYJ!

We were having a wonderful time, not just participating here and there in the Cervantino, but also in taking the trip as a bit of "down-time" as a home as well as getting to know Guanajuato a bit, but unfortunately our friends got a call Thursday afternoon with news that their presence at an important impromptu business meal Saturday afternoon was urgently needed. So, what that meant was that we would have to, sadly, cut our week trip short. :( sniff. But at least we got to partake a bit of the weekend concert/witnessing on Friday. So that was a good thing. We left early Saturday morning and made it back home in 7 hours -- stops for food and bathroom included!

Here are some pics of a little bit of our trip... I had wanted to get pics of everyone -- us and our GM friends -- in the car, traveling, eating at restaurants, fellow-shipping, hanging out with old friends, distributing flyers, witnessing etc., but it seems that for the most part it slipped my mind to pull out the camera in such instances. :( Oh, well, at least I got some pics to remember our very first trip as a home!

Flash back!

Guess what?! Today at 9:00 a.m. we, as in the home, will embark on an adventurous trip! We're traveling down to Guanajuato!! Hooray! This will be the first time in the past 2 years that we go on a trip/"vacay"/ or simply take some down-time as a home! It's gonna be wonderful!! :) -- We'll be away from the 27th of Oct. to the 2nd of Nov. so if you're reading this anytime between those dates pray that our travels/trip goes well, for everyone to stay in good health, and most of all for it to be an enjoyable and memorable fun trip! Thanks!

Oh, I almost forgot. Happy 23rd Birthday (^) James! Hope it's a good one! (party)

The other day I saw a video clip of Dakota, Kenji's cousin, who is 10 months old walking! Yay! It was very cute to see the little guy attempting such a feat and it obviously brought back memories of when my sweet squishy was just as little and made his first attempts at walking too. Exactly 2 years ago, to the date, Kenji fully took off walking! :)

Wow, 2 years have gone by, I can hardly believe it!! This city/house we're presently in will always hold a lot of significance to me after all this is where he learned to; walk, talk, be fully potty trained, run, had most of his molars come in, had his first major accident/s, falls and cuts, had his 2nd birthday, learned heaps and heaps about the Word/Spirit World, how to use a computer, to read and count/simple addition, to ride a trike, a scooter, to play soccer, volley-ball, had his 3rd birthday, started going to Kinder, learned to stand up for his own convictions and sooo much more! I'm so proud of my handsome, sweet boy!

I love looking at older pictures and videos of Kenji from time to time. It brings back sweet memories and makes me so proud to see just how much he's learned since and how far he's come. I don't think I ever posted the videos of him walking so here they go now! And I threw in a couple more, heh. Enjoy!

This is a clip of his firs attempt at walking when he was 10 months old. He's far too excited which is why he kept on loosing his balance, ha! But he actually was able to walk for a distance of like 3 feet on his own before tumbling over.



And here is a clip of when he finally took off walking completely at 13 months old. The reason being is that he got scared of walking because some kids pushed and shoved him one too many times and he refused to walk until we got here to Torreon. I love how he stops himself -- looks as if he will topple over, ha! Awww, my sweet squishy 'turtle' love!



This clip is far too cute!! My little selfish Virgo, ha! The chips were a shiner prize for walking again!

His first e-mail note!!

Today, I checked my mail and to my lovely surprise I had a message, but what was even more surprising is that in this message was another little note directed to Kenji alone! Upon informing him of this and of the person whom the note was from his face lit up! He had had a phone conversation with this lovely person a few months back which consisted of none other than good and naughty dinosaurs and cockroaches -- of how he doesn't like cockroaches!! These topics, mind you, are biggies for him -- my little animal/creation lover. Heh.

Anyways, back to his special first note. He can read/recognize his name so I made him check out to whom the little note was directed and when he read aloud his name his face was in shock, ha! I read it to him and showed him the photos that were attached and he was overjoyed at the simple fact that he got a note from a far, far away place.

Here's the little note he got:

Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 6:13 PM

To Suko and Kenji: A little note with a lot of love

Dear Kenji!

I love you! This is Grandma Margie and I am now in Canada, a long way away from Mexico, for 3 weeks! I saw the pictures of you with your new school uniform and you look so handsome and like a little man! I am so proud of you for going to school now and learning a lot of new things! I am sure you are a good little witness to all your friends and your teacher! I pray for you, that you will like school, have a very sweet teacher, and that you will be in good health so you can make a lot of progress in your learning! Here it is already cold, but the trees are many different colors... The Lord makes His creation so beautiful!

The other day, we went to the Niagara Falls which are some of the biggest in the world! I am sending you a picture so you can see how big and powerful they are!

I send you a big hug and lots of prayers,

Grandma Margie

So sweet! He loved it! And it was so funny to see him scrutinizing the picture, while saying; "where is she mommy, me don't see her?" Ha! Guess he expected to see her as well. Awww ...

Here is an older video (around August) of Kenji making mention of dinosaurs/animals. He really got into dinos after watching "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaur," hence his comment about good and naughty dinos in the video. Heh. -- I love the facial expressions he makes half-way through the video!



Our room got so messy -- I don't know how, ehe -- that in the end I had more inspiration to move to the next room, then to clean up my previous room, ha! Seriously my room has never been this messy!

Oh, and you'll notice some of Kenji's photography talent -- or the lack of it, heh -- towards the end of the picture slide. Kenji wanted to take a pic of me, but I never thought he would take one of me in 'parts,' ha! Those pics were his very first try, I'm sure that soon enough he'll get it down a little better. :) He seems to have this thing for computers, phones, and cameras right now -- well actually more than ever as he's been maneuvering a computer since he was 1 1/2 and would have gotten his hands on the camera too, but that I didn't permit, heh.



Kenji put to good use abuelo's clean pair of socks! Ha!

Kinder it is! TYJ!

Okay so this is not really new news (I'm like a month behind here, heh) but yes, as the title states, Kenji is going to Kinder now!! Hmmm, let me back track a bit. Well, due to many, many things (I'll save, you the reader, the details :D) happening, changing in the last couple of months and with things not panning out as I would have liked them too (I guess our ways are not His ways, right)?! :) I found myself seriously tossing up the idea of putting Kenji into Kinder not only for the obvious reasons; schooling, fun, etc. But also as a means for him to interact with kids (he's the only kid here, other than my 12 year DS brother) and get to practice and better learn Spanish!

Now as you all know, or at least parents, heh. Tuitions are not cheap! :D Speaking of tuitions, I knew that I didn't want to put Kenji into just any school - a public shcool. So with that factor alone the amount of money I would need in order to put him in Kinder could easily have been doubled! Yes, I'll be honest here, worrisome did hit, for a bit. Until I armed myself with faith, (you'd think lots of it but no it truly felt like I only had a bit of faith to put forth due to the many things I was experiencing at the time) and put the Lord on the spot through prayer. I told Him that to be perfectly honest there was NO way that I could afford such a thing, so He was going to have to do something, a VERY BIG something and pretty soon, as we were already in the beginning of August and school years begin towards the end of it.

Well, inspite of my little faith :D the Lord, unbenownst to me, had already began to prepare the way for the impossible - in my eyes. One day, our August Prayer Day, (we have a sweet friend who joins us for this occasion and she likes to bring lunch, wine and bread for communion) while chit-chatting at the table our friend out of the blue tells me "You know I see Kenji very restless. He needs to get out of his at-home environment. He needs little friends, don't you think? When the school year begins, why don't you enroll him into my Kinder, I'll pay for it!" Then she added, "Can you do that, like does your group allow it?" I explained to her the latest about that very subject and she embraced it very happily. It's given her a greater respect for us (The Family) to see that we aren't stuck in the past but are rather moving, changing, expanding while also remaining so radically different from the endless churches she well knows. I was SO amazed, baffled really, and ever so thankful to the Lord for once again coming through for me! TYJ!

(This friend of ours has known the Family for many, many years, but sadly didn't really know much about us, our doctrines etc., until we came in contact with her through some FM brethren here and began to get her up-to-date with how the Family is presently. She loves it, everything! And on top of joining us for our monthly PD she wants to begin having devotions with us 3 times a week! - for now. She's a labor leader, a go-getter type of person and has a connection, in some way or form, with many affluent families in the city).

As the month grew closer to the end - enrollment time and the like - I wasn't totally sure how much or what exactly our friend had in mind to cover financially. She had told me, that Prayer Day, we would talk about the details later. So with my faith a little stronger now, yet at the same time a bit apprehensive to find out if I would have to put forth some money towards Kenji's tuition, books, uniform etc., as I clearly had literally $ 00.00 for this. If it hadn't been for my mom's encouragement to leave it ALL up to Him through prayer, I would have worried myself sick, again. Silly me. :D

Anyways, with just a week away from kids starting school our friend called us and asked me to come by her office and sign Kenji up. I had butterflies in my tummy, I really did, as I made my way to the schools office. After the sign-up paper work being completed, she said; "Oh here, take these 2 sets of uniforms (shirt/shorts & shirt/pants) and sweater. And later when the winter uniforms and P.E uniforms arrive, I'll separate a set for Kenji. Is size 2 fine?" Size 2 looked closer like a size 3, so it was perfect! But that's not all, she then added; "He'll need a set of "Kinder I" books, let me see if my bookstore friend still has some." After the call she gave me a slip of paper and told me if I wouldn't mind doing her the favor of picking up the set of books down town as she wasn't sure she would have the time to do so that day but didn't want to loose those books, as it was the stores last set. And added, not to worry about a thing she had already worked out the payment. -- Would I mind merely picking them up?!! Heck no!! :D

So that's the brief (ha!) version of how the Lord not just answered my prayer - to have Kenji go to Kinder - but my desire as well, which was to have him go to a private school and to boot it's bilingual, and only 2 blocks away from our house! And the only expenses I had to make were buying him new tennis and school shoes and the pics they ask for when you sign them up! It couldn't have been better, or easier, or cheaper! He really does spoil us! :) TYJ! Today will mark 4 weeks of attending Kinder - what a shiner! Thankfully this time around he did a lot better when being dropped off - he hardly cried - TTL as that made it sooo much easier on me. :) -- My baby, I miss him so much when he's away.

It's taking him a little longer, though, to adjust to the new surroundings/environment, etc. But he's getting there, slowly. :) The other day I learned that he made a little friend! Yay, Progress! And he's beginning to communicate a little more with his teachers. What I really liked, though, is that his main teacher is both his Spanish and English instructor, rather than having 2 separate teachers for each language - that would only make it all the more difficult for him to adjust and grow in confidence. So I'm happy for that. :)

Okay, well I'll leave you with some Kinder related pics and of an activity we did with a couple who faithfully comes for weekly classes, as do their kids. Enjoy!

Viva Mexico! Viva la Patria!

This year round we weren't able to take the kids out and about to celebrate "El 16 de Septiembre/Dia de la Patria," -- because just a couple of days ago Kenji came down with a high fever (39.8) and Angel was still battling with a lingering cough and cold. Thank the Lord Kenji's fever is gone now and Angel is doing a lot better.

What we did do, though, was let them partake of the festivites via TV. It was actually a lot nicer, in my opinion, because we got to see a lot of the traditional things that happen on this memorable day. They saw the colorful and beautiful typical dresses that girls used to wear as well as the attire men wore, sombreros and all! They also saw various traditonal Mexican folklore dances like; "Jarabe Tapatio, La Culebra, El son de la Negra" among many other plus a whole lot of Mariachis!

Oh, they also saw desfiles, Viva Mexico cheering, how people show respect to the flag and heard the National Anthem, charreria, a slew of different Mexican dishes and firecrackers go off and all! So all in all it was a fun and new experience for them, even if just from home! And I told Kenji that we would make a Mexican dish for dinner. He chose chicken flautas, so we made that and all the trimmings that go with that particular dish. We also had some meat empanadas that a friend brought. -- The flautas were delicious!! The empanadas were also good, but far too spicy for me. :D

Granddad and Steve are away on a trip. They been gone since Kenji's birthday and still have another 3 weeks to go. Poor Kenji misses his "sweet abuelo" as he calls him. Actually he misses him so much, that the other day he told grandma; "Abuelita ya no te quiero llamar abuelita, te quiero llamar abuelito, porque el no esta aqui conmigo." Awww, I thought that was so sweet!! He just wants his abuelo back, no matter what! Heh!

And now I present to you some video clips of our cooking and of my very own patriotic fanatic! Ha! I'll add some pics of the meal and stuff later.





Click here to watch the boys preparing the trimmings. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u0CTvqehlc

Click here to see my little fanatic cheer for his country! Ha! -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2N9dsMiOsI

A day I am so happy for!

TO MY DARLING KENJI:

Baby love, happy, happy birthday!! I hope you had a fun time on your birthday, my dear, but most importantly I want you to know how happy and proud I am of you! You've grown up sooo much this past year I don't even know where to begin, but here are some things that stand out to me the most:

I thank Jesus for giving me such a sweet, loving, smart, considerate, polite, and handsome little fellow like yourself!! I don't feel I've done much to deserve the kind of unconditional love you give me daily, but I am ever so thankful for having this privilege. Thank you for loving me even when I am most certainly not in the most lovable mood -- like when I get frustrated with you at times and come close to loosing it :( and wish you would just behave a tad older. At such moments you never fail to run to my side and give me a smile and a huge hug and say; "It's okay mommy, don't be sad, it's my fault. I'm sorry!" even when sometimes it really isn't your fault. You just overlook my mistakes and love me anyways -- you put me to shame at times, really!

And I just love how attuned and considerate you are to my needs. Whenever I have a tummy ache, headache, backache, or any other ache for that matter, you're quick to come to my side to kiss the hurting member and comfort me -- even if you're in the middle of playing some exciting game between you and your toys. And the way you comfort me is just too sweet! With just a simple cry of "Kenji mommy's tummy is hurting..." you're by my side reassuring me to not worry or cry because you're here and you will pray for me to get better.

Furthermore the earnest with which you pray with is too darling and there is just no way that Jesus wouldn't answer your sweet sincere prayer; "Jesus, please help mommy tummy (or whatever is hurting) not hurt more, please Jesus. Me call on Almathor and 'Lixir', in Jesus name, amen." I love you, my sweet love! Thank you for looking out for mommy, being so considerate, strong and full of faith, and for loving mommy too much! XXX I seriously couldn't ask the Lord for anymore! You, just the way you are is more than I deserve! You truly are an angel - my angel! ILY soooooo much!

I am quite impressed with how much you crave, treasure, and love the Word, Jesus, and anything to do with those things. You never seem to get enough! At times I wonder if you really understand what I'm reading when we read things from older kids pubs like "Prospector, Gen Up, or MLK's" suited for older kids. But every time you amaze me with your understanding of spiritual things at such a young age. And as if that weren't enough how you try to apply what you read, or recite a verse or key promise you've learned, given the opportunity, is truly fantastic!

Here is something I want to congratulate you for, a truly great spiritual achievement you mastered this last year. And every time I think of it, it brings me great joy and pride. I'm amazed with the depth in which you've grasped the concept of "asking Jesus everything." And what's more that months ago the suggestion to listen to Jesus about something came from you! I didn't think you were ready, but you proved me wrong! It makes me so happy to see you now launch out on your own and listen to Jesus, on whatever matter concerns you presently. Nothing is too small to ask Jesus about, for you. I'm so proud of you, my little spiritual samuri! You really have lived up to your name significance, TYJ!

Oh, another thing I'm so proud of you for achieving this last year is reading! Yes, that's right, you now can fully read short one vowel phrases! And you're progressing quite nicely in your "Tommy and Meg" sight reading books too! Yippee! In no time you will be reading "Grandpa Jake" bedtime stories to mommy! - Will be looking forward to that! :) I wish I had a video clip of you reading, but thanks to someone (ahem) not cooperating quite as much to this, I haven't one. But as soon as the opportunity arises I will snatch a clip for memories sake.

These are just a few things I love about you and for which I am so proud of. But above all those things, what I am most thankful for is; that you are mine, mine, MINE. Totally and just mine :) - I'm pretty selfish, ha! But in a good way. ;) I'm blessed to have an angel like yourself to love me unconditionally, care for me kindly, cherish me highly, forgive me endlessly, and put up with me daily! I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU! HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, my champ!

A birthday prayer for Kenji:
"Jesus, thank you for sending such a perfect little bundle of love, a bubbly little one, my very own angel in disguise, Kenji, to me. I don't know that I've done anything to deserve such a gift of love, but I am ever so happy and thankful for him. Having him these last 3 years has been such a joy, blessing, and privilege. If it weren't for him (and You of course) my days would be sad, gloomy and not much to look forward to at the start of a new day. But with him in my life there is always something fun and exciting to explore together. And no matter how much of him I have daily, at the end of the day I just can't get enough!

Sweet love, I praise you for all the progress both physical and spiritual Kenji has made this last year and I ask that You please continue to keep him close to You and Your Word - desiring it. I also ask that You will help his little gift of prophecy to continue to grow, help me to remember to make more use of it throughout the day and most importantly to feed his faith so that his connection to You will be firmly set and that it will cause his child like faith to grow and grow and never quench.

Please send by his side a band of specialized warriors to watch over him, care for him, and speak to his heart and mind. Help his connection with his angels and spirit helpers to stay strong as he enters this new year and the many challenges that await him, especially in Kinder. I pray that he will remember the Word he's hid in his heart, call on it and use it to help him face whatever befalls him. I pray You give him confidence, faith and courage to be the sample You want and need him to be.

I also pray that You will help me be a better mom to Kenji, one who is more like You and less like myself. Give me strength, love, faith and wisdom to handle him as he grows a little more into his peculiar little self this year :D and help me to stay attuned and open to the heavenly childcare help You've mad available to us. Help me to always keep my eyes on You and on the fantastic future You have planned for us! In TPOTK, Amen."

Here's the scrumptious breakfast we made for Kenji's birthday; fruit, eggs and turkey bacon, and pancakes with milk. He wanted to eat outside on the balcony and in pajamas!

I decided to just take video clips of the happenings, rather than having to sort through so many pix in order to post a select few. So enjoy! -- With some I simply put the link of the clip, so CLICK ON THEM TOO or you can subscribe to my You Tube channel by clicking on this link here http://www.youtube.com/kenjiluna I might throw in a couple of pix as well.

Thank you, Angie, Liz, Esther and Ez for calling him! He was so flipped to be getting so much attention - calls. And Mig and Amber thank you for the little birthday song video clip, he loved it! Couldn't get him to stop singing the song to himself, ha!

Click on the link to watch Kenji making his breakfast. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCK8aZhsEc

Click on the link to watch the boys enjoying their breakfast. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmmCTEwgtrU





Click on the link to watch Kenji receiving his last present and riding his scooter. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYyzoNrb5uA

Click on the link to watch Kenji opening his Cars memory game. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35LxMTeH_JA

Click on the link to watch Kenji playing memory. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEZThdtkoaM

And here are some photos of the outing we had in honor of Angel's birthday, 27th of August. The Lord supplied 2 big pizzas, spaghetti, and a delicious salad! Oh, and to boot, an ice-cream for Kenji - Angel really isn't into ice-cream, he was more than happy with his meal. TYJ! You'd think we would be satisfied with all that food, but somehow we still had some room for carrot cake! A friend called and asked if she could bring Angel a cake for his b-day, so sweet. And we let both of them open one of their presents that night - Angel's birthday.


Click on the link to watch Angel blowing out his candles! -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moCrVKb4c9g

Click on the link to watch Angel opening one of his presents! -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTLT0QikEWI

Click on the link to watch Kenji opening a present of his on Angel's b-day! - He didn't want to be left out, heh. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Ve9SXQvfc

Mommy's rest day is the highlight of the week!

The reason for this is because when I'm resting abuela and abuelo care for Kenji and it is then when Kenji gets to do a handyman project with abuelo. This time they made a weight bar from scratch! In other words they cut, sanded, and spray painted the wood to create Kenji's very own set of dumbbells! Ha! I assure you Kenji is in high heaven for this! :)

Just the other day it was grandma Margie's birthday so we sent her a little e-card and a couple of days later, much to our surprise she called to thank us for the card! When Kenji learned that I was talking to grandma Margie he pipped in "I want to talk to her too, mommy!" so I passed the phone to him and he just started chatting away with her. Ha!

He's usually pretty shy about talking with people on the phone, but fter greeting her he right away asked her his #1 favorite question; (the one he asks anyone who will give him the time of day) do you like cockroaches!? That got them started on a full-on conversation about bugs, animals, and the like! Oh, one thing though, he was sure to warn her that some dinosaurs are veerrry naughty, because they're carnivorous! (that's been his latest new word and fascination) But in heaven they won't be naughty or eat us! Heh! Such cuteness, if I may say so myself!

Some more of Kenji's cute thoughts:
* Yesterday Kenji overheard me telling mom that my ear was hurting me a bit. He quickly came to my side and asked me; "Why mom? What you put inside? A bean, papaya seed, a little bit of tissue, a rock, food? What? What you put inside?

At first I was a bit bewildered at his question, but then it came to me. Long ago when Kenji put a papaya seed in his nose, it began hurting him and it wasn't till about 2 weeks later that we took him to a specialized doctor to inspect his nose (we didn't know for sure if he did or did not have something stuck in his nose those 2 weeks) and out came a little papaya seed with growth and all! Yuck, I know!

So anyways, I realized that he was asking me what I had put inside my ear, because he associated my ear pain with his nose pain of long ago and I guess he figured I must of stuck something in my ear, just as he had in his nose! Ha! Quite the analysis there, Kenji! Heh!

* Upon returning from the park, Kenji walked in to the kitchen and asked me for a cup of water. After having his fill on the refreshing water he turned to me and with his hand on his chest said, "My heart is bubbling, mommy! You want to hear it!?" with a very concerned look on his face. Ha! - I guess "bubbling" was the closest thing he came up with to describe his fast-paced heart beat!

Guess what? It's 10 days till Kenji's birthday! Whoo-hoo!



Here are some pics of a awter park we went to earlier this month (I had forgotten to post them) and the other ones are from the recent things we've done this last week. Enjoy!

An answer to prayer!

Immediately upon returning home - Home Sweet Home! - quite miraculously the Lord supplied a summer course for the boys; Chris, Angel and Kenji. The sweet man in charge happily agreed to give us a hefty discount and on top of it said Kenji could attend the course for free! TYJ!

Because of the rather late date we put them into summer course, the boys would only be getting about 10 days, but they were happy for that in itself. The only unpleasant thing about it, well mainly for us grown-ups, was having to wake up early to see them off at 7:30! :D The course was from 8am - 1pm and the location was a bit on the outskirts of town, but not more than 20 minutes away, so it wasn't too bad.

The course consisted of P.E, manual activities, basic swimming techniques, and Angel's favorite, 1 1/2 hours of free swimming! Heh! Chris made quite a bit of progress (he didn't know how to swim prior to this) - he learned the basic techniques fit for a 4 week course in 10 days alone! And Angel, well, he did not think it necessary to learn from the coaches and much preferred to do his own free-style swimming. :D And although I knew Kenji wasn't going to come out of the course swimming and all, it was still great fun for him to be around other kids and do something out of the ordinary.

Well then, and now some pics of the aforementioned summer course and some! :)

More adventure!

Visiting relatives!

Well our trip down was a bit long, I think we got a little lost :D, but we survived it and what's more safe and sound! Kenji was such a trooper; sitting relatively still for so long, sleeping as he best could in the back seat with 2 other people there, AND he didn't throw up! -- Iv'e noticed that recently he's become more sensitive to motion sickness. :( Poor baby.

Upon arriving we searched for our relatives, of whom I hadn't seen in 13 years. I think Esther hadn't seen them for more years than that. We stayed with them for the duration of our stay in Guanajuato and it was so nice to be able to spend time with them, seeing as most of them were off work. Unfortunately our uncle was only able to spend 2 days with us and as silly as it may sound, I totally forgot to take pics with him. Duh!

The first of our site-seeing outings was the annual event, La Presa de la Olla. I can't say I have all the facts about its history squared away, but in the slide show of pics you'll see some pics of a "waterfall" and what I did learn about that is that a long time ago at a certain time of the year they would set the prisoners free. Well, sort of, it was more like if they survived the fall down the waterfall then they would be free! -- I assume there used to be a lot more water, if anyone were ever to be able to survive that fall!

In the days following the kids - Chris, Kenji, Kalel, and Yoshana - were invited to go to a little birthday party way up on a hillside/mountain. The weather up there, well in Guanajuato itself, was so pleasant -fresh/breezy- totally my kind of weather! And on the way back home we stopped at a lovely little spot that overlook part of the city. It was quite dark already, but the kids enjoyed exploring and taking pics with some rather old artifacts and machinery of sorts.

Well, here goes a large sum of pics. :D Enjoy! I'm sure there will be lots more pics - there's more places to see! - so check it out in a couple of days from now. :)

P.S. The photos of buildings or statues are for mom's sake, she'll recognize and know what it is, etc. -- It brings back memories.

Our trip begins...

Our vacay route changed a bit, we were going to go to some cabins in Chihuahua then head down to Guanajuato, but in the end we ended up paying a visit to my sister, Angie, in Saltillo and afterwards to a long time friend of Esther's in Monterrey. It was a on-the-go type of decision, but in the end all went well and Kenji got to make some new friends.

Being, by nature, a little bit shy and a loner it took some time before he launched out on his own to play with the other kids. But once he gained some confidence (and was reassured that I wasn't going to leave him in that place alone, ha) he really enjoyed interacting and playing with the other kids.

When it was time to continue our trip, Kenji was really sad to be leaving his new friends; Haylie, Ray, Evan, and Max. He even asked me if we could bring them along, but once I explained how sad their mommies would be without their kids, he realized that it probably wasn't the best idea. My smart cookie, heh!

Oh, one note-worthy piece of news, :D, is that Kenji got over his fear of water! Well I can't say it was really a fear of his but more like a hesitation to get in, seeing as it was just about his first time to get in a pool! He got in a pool once when he was a wee little baby, but that was ages ago, heh, so I guess you can say it was really his first time as far as he is concerned. It took about 5 minutes for him to warm up to the idea of being "on his own" - with floaties - in the water, but after that he refused to have me hold him at all!

Before leaving Monterrey we visited the Safari there. We, Kenji and I, had already been there once in December of last year, but we didn't have the chance to see it all - it's quite big. So it was fun going to the other half of the Safari.

And so now our journey continues... off we go to Guanajuato! Stay tuned! :)

Fun with animals!

A couple of weeks ago we took the boys out for a little "excursion" and to visit a park they hadn't been to before. There really wasn't much to the actual park, but there was a pond of sorts and lots of ducks! They really enjoyed feeding the ducks and chasing them too, of course! Heh.

The week following that we had a friend (who's blind) of a friend pay us a visit with his leading dog. The boys were overjoyed to have a huge dog in the house, ha! They thought it was great fun playing with him as if he were a big stuffy -- climbing on him, lying on him, poking and massaging him to name a couple few mellow ones, ha! Oh and the pics of the water fight is from a ways back,(notice Kenji's long stringy hair) just forgot to post them back then. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Oh, yes I almost forgot! We (Kenji and I) have been invited to join Esther and her family for their 1 month vacations! Yippee! The Lord gave us the "green light" so we will begin our first leg of travel, DV, Friday the 3rd. It looks like our first stop will be to some cabins in Cuauhtemoc, Chih. Sounds like fun - I love the mountains and all that comes with that scenery!

Then, DV, we'll make our way down South to Guanajuato while of course visiting any potential sight seeing towns or places. So if you're reminded of us do shoot up a prayer for our safety, protection, fun, and enjoyment. It will be a first of a lot of things for Kenji -- especially traveling in a car for long, long hours -- so pray that he can stay happy, well-behaved, healthy, etc.

I'll try to post during our trip, but I don't promise it will occur. So enjoy these "couple few". Heh. :D Cheers!

Happy Father's Day!

I want to take a moment here to congratulate both Mig & Ez, my brothers, on this very special day because if I'm not mistaken this Father's Day is their first "official" one, no? Well then, 3 cheers to you both! :)

And here's a quote I came across a couple of days ago, that I think does the subject justice:

* To be a father is to fulfill a noble vocation. But fatherhood is not for everyone: it is not for cowards or for those who are unsure of themselves. Once you become a father, you remain a father until you die. A true father must be a leader – a captain who guides his family’s ship through perilous waters to safe shores, a general who rallies his troops to take on the daily battles.

On the other hand, a father should also model love and compassion. Jesus was not afraid to compare himself to a hen gathering her chicks. He also wept. These qualities belong to true manhood, and a true father will seek to embody them.

I know that you both have what it takes to be fantastic fathers (a true father) to your little boys in every way -- be the perfect balance between love and discipline while also partaking of the simple joys that these tender ones revel in. Yet most importantly, teach them through your own example of kindness, courage and faith! I love and admire the both of you!

And here are a few other quotes on Fatherhood that I found interesting. Enjoy!

* Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad. —Author unknown

* Until you have a son of your own, you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. —Kent Nerburn

* A father carries pictures where his money used to be. —Author unknown

* You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.
—Polish proverb

* Someday you're going to be thankful that you had a part in those children's care and training. You will have helped form another human being. That's thrilling! Are you equal to the task? No, but God is, and He will help you if you try! -David B.B.

* Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction. —John Crosby

Following are some videos of Kenji reviewing his math in a fun way and at last I'm able to catch his lovely little voice on camera (he gets camera shy sometimes) and also his words are a bit more decipherable now, heh. :) So, enjoy! Pics of today's happenings will be added later on today, DV!

Family Day fun!

Today for Family Day we opted to stay home, due to the weather being ridiculously hot. So me and mom did our best to make the boys have a good time. Here are a some pics (okay a lot of pics) of all the fun the boys had!

Employ the Twin Sisters

Well, I thought I'd add something else to this blog -- quotes/paragraphs from the Word that speak the most to me presently. So here goes the first post of this kind, hopefully there will be plenty more coming. :)

Jesus:

"When something doesn't turn out the way you thought or hoped it would, it doesn't necessarily mean that your faith has not met the challenge or the occasion. One of the fundamentals in calling on Me and availing yourself of the power and weapon of prayer is in allowing Me the freedom to work as I please and as I know is best.

Remember, I see waaaayyy out in front of you, and with My great love for you and others involved in the equation, I always have the big picture in mind. But rest assured that when you put Me on the spot and your faith commands action and you are meeting the conditions, you can be guaranteed that the outcome will be for the best -- even if it's somewhat different than what you expected.

I delight in working contrary to natural expectations, while still holding true to My promises. You may have your goal or desires set on the supply of a certain need, and that's understandable. So while you may be visualizing that need supplied in a certain manner, My eyes are seeing way beyond the supply of just that need.

Remember that My main concern -- the reason for it all -- is to win the lost to Me. You are of such incomparable value to Me, because there are no others like you. That's why if there is ever any way I can use you to help in the chain of events of reaching or witnessing or winning others to Me, I will do so. I may take you on a roundabout path in answering your prayers, but you can know that that path is for a very special purpose and reason. I just work on a higher plane than you do.

Often you discover while taking those steps (of faith) that I had a higher plan, a greater answer, and the solution was not in your analyzing and picking apart your faith, but your part to play was in proceeding in faith in a spirit of trust. That's when faith's twin sister steps on the stage; trust. Faith and trust walk hand in hand, and very seldom do they walk alone.

So when you get one of those "unexpected" answers and you know you've prayed in faith and met the conditions I've shown you, you can almost always know that I have something bigger and better up My sleeve for you. -- One of those cool answers that you know only I and My helpers could have possibly engineered and brought to pass. And what do those type of answers do? -- They engender even more faith. So it's a win-win situation."

("Greater Faith Part 2," ML#3632:38-40,42,45,47)

Fun, fun and more fun!

Two Saturday's ago was our official Word class day, but that week we decided --the Lord showed us-- to instead just have a little get-together with our 12 FS students and get to know each other a little more. So we planned for it, sent the word around to our friends and to our lovely surprise the very day of our get-together just so happened to also be one of our friends birthday! Yeah, double the fun!!

At first when we heard his birthday fell on our get-together day we we're quick to let him know that he didn't need to feel obligated to come, if they already had other plans as a family to celebrate his birthday, but he said "No, I want to spend my birthday with you guys! I feel such peace and serenity when around you guys and I want that on my birthday." Wowsy! Must be Jesus' presence he perceives! ;)

Our afternoon though calm and peaceful was at the same time full of fun and excitement as the grown-ups sat around the table and just chit-chatted and got to know each other a little more as friends. The birthday man and wife both really enjoyed themselves and it was great seeing them just lighten up a bit and be themselves --no pretense or any of that yucky stuff. :D

Mind you that when our visitors arrived most of them said they could only be here for a short while 1 1/2 hours or so, but they all (with the exception of one) stayed close to 4 hours!! Whoo-hoo, that was a big surprise, but each of our friends individually expressed that they had a great time and some have already asked when we will be doing something like that again. Ha! Ummm,... in a months time?! :D

Both of the couples faithfully show up every Saturday, and there are a couple few other single individuals who show up every now and again, and although our class is officially 1 hour the shortest class we've ever had has been 1 1/2 hours, not including over-time/chit-chatting! I guess they simply thoroughly enjoy themselves that before you know it time has slipped on by!

Sunday is Family Day, so we decided to take the boys to a new and different place then the usual picnic park event. :) Went down to the closest mall and the Lord quite amazingly and immediately supplied the boys 200 pesos worth of electronic money to be used on... games!

These kind of games were a first for Kenji -- my little sheltered boy, heh, not really actually -- and as such he was at first a bit overwhelmed at all that was around him, but after a while he gained a little more confidence and couldn't get enough of a little basket ball & hoop game, riding a motorcycle, playing air hockey, riding a train, and bowling to name a few! I didn't get to take pics of all the things he did, as in some I had to be there with him, thus I couldn't take the pic. :(

Then we ended our day with a little "once in a full moon" treat -- hamburgers and ice-cream!! And they got to do some climbing and running around at the play-place. That got them real nice and tired -- and yep they went to bed without a fuss, (for a change) God be praised! Heh!

Just yesterday Steve and I attended a friends wedding and reception. It was fun, a change from the daily routine, and we got to witness and win one soul! And he wants to come over for Bible classes! Yay! You'll notice a very tired Suko somewhere in the pics. Didn't have much to drink, I promise, but the reception ended at 2:00 am so just imagine how tired I was! :) So there you have the rundown of our weekend fun! TYJ!

Pictures following:

Big boy things!

The boys love doing handyman jobs, well they actually love just playing around with grandpa Jim's tools - more like spreading them everywhere, heh. So after much frustration on his part he finally found a way to keep them out of his tools!

As of two weeks ago, he begun doing a handyman project with them at least once a week. So far they've put up a little wooden fence around our new plants (which they also planted by the way) and their latest project; a bird feeder.

The boys are in high heaven during handyman project time, well Kenji is at least and for the most part Angel is too -that is when he's not in 'distraction land.' Ha! It was Kenji's first time painting and he loved it! When he returned to me he said, "Me get paint on hands, it's okay, grandpa put stinky stuff on me hands, now it's all gone." Awww, my little one is growing up too fast!

Oh, yes, in other news our family of birds has grown. We now have a grand total of 5 -- 2 grown up ones (parents) and 3 baby birds. I'd never really seen a baby birds' growing up process so it was quite cool to see it with our batch of baby birds. Oh, and guess what? Our baby birds are a month or so old and the mom has already begun laying more eggs - 6 eggs so far. Last time she laid 11 but only 3 hatched. Well, see how it goes with this new batch.

I took this opportunity to teach Kenji about birds, and from our baby birds we learned that in about 10 - 13 days from being born they; grow a lot, get their feathers/color, start looking more like birds, fly/flap their wings, and that once they come out of the nest it means they are then able to peck/eat food on their own and withing days they get down the whole flying thing.

Happy Mother's Day!

Felicidades en tu Dia Mama! Te amo mucho y doy gracias a Jesus por tener una madre como tu al igual que una amiga, un apoyo cuando estoy en mis bajas, mi propia aconsejera, pero mas que nada doy gracias por el ejemplo que me has dado de ser una luchadora, un discipulo y dar mi 110%. Te amo mucho! -- Gracias por ser una magnifica abuelita. - Kenji

We had a wonderful Mother's Day, thanks to Grandpa Jim and Steve who kindly took the boys for us so we could go out shopping for ourselves! What a treat! I can't remember when was the last time I actually bought myself something. So Mother's Day seemed like a good excuse for it. :D

Later on in the afternoon we had a BBQ and some ice cold beer! Yay! The guys prepared/cooked everything - baked potatoes, salad, frijoles charros, and meat of course, and on top of it they cared for the boys most of the day! We pretty much didn't move a finger all day! :) :) And then ended our wonderful day with a great movie out in the fresh air - terrace/our new "bedroom." Ha!

I gave in and decided to go ahead and give Kenji his new Thomas the Engine bed set even though his bed base is still not ready. :( He loved it! When it came time for bed he didn't want to lie on it at first because he said he would squish Thomas and James, ha! So cute! It took him some time to get used to the idea that James was a train, heh. When I told him this he said, "No silly mom, James a boy, not train." So I had to explain that 'James' in itself is just a name that can be given to either a person, or a toy/train, etc., - like his - and that it didn't mean that the James he knows is a train. As I think that's what he thought I was saying, ha! What a goose! lol

Children's Day

Here are some pix of some of the things we did to celebrate Children's Day! The Lord supplied everything, from entrance fee, to lunch, and even a super premium peach Häagen Dazs ice-cream for each of the boys! (I was sooo jealous)! :D

Due to the heat being just about unbearable, we didn't stay long at the La-la Landia, but the kids had a blast nonetheless! Upon arriving home we did some projects, bathed, and then ended their celebration day with a movie!

Oh, I almost forgot, as a special reward for being such a shiner with his potty training at naps and bedtime (he doesn't wet his bed at all anymore) I decided to present to him his new Thomas the Train bed set and bed, (his mattress has been on the floor these past months) but unfortunately the people building his bed did not have it ready in time to give it to him as a "Children's Day" present. :(

I think I'll wait for the bed so that I can give it to him as a complete little reward for his progress, or I may give in and just give him his new bed set regardless of the bed. As I do want to post pics of his bed set as it's oh, so cute! :)

My little guy is getting big!

Ummm, yes that's usually what happens as time goes by, Suko. :P .... I know, I know, but I'm just so happy with all the progress my little tyke is making that I had to blog about it. :)

Simple joys!

The other day it was the kids movie night, so I put on something that I knew would catch Kenji's interest, but to my surprise he wasn't really into it for the moment. Instead he said; "Me no want to see movie. Mommy, me do something fun with you?" So I said; "Sure, my love, we can do something special and fun together! What would you like to do?" He thought about it a bit then enthusiastically said, "Hmmm..., me want to do school with you!"

Hearing that made me so happy and proud of him. Sure he doesn't always think this way about school, for the most part he gives me a hard time when it's time to start school, but once he gets started he really does enjoy it! Ah, such simple little joys! I just hope he can keep this mindset (of school being fun) for a long, long time. Heh.

I've started him on a bit more of "bigger" kids kind of school -- pre-writing, counting/adding, reading, (both sight & phonetic) etc. And so far he seems to be liking it. More than trying to rush him through things just to try and "make" him smarter, I figured I'd just go at his pace (seeing as boys aren't as into school as girls are :P) but so far so good. He's picking up his phonetic reading pretty well and can read one vowel words all by himself and is also making steady progress with his "Early Bird Readers" - sight reading.

He is also doing real well with his pre-writing! He enjoys doing a thorough job when writing or coloring (Virgo traits kick in, yay) and hardly makes mistakes, holds his crayon real well, in spite of his just about non-existent interest for coloring/scribbling when he was younger. (That is supposed to really help kids in their writing ability later on down the line).

Now as far as math goes, I've noticed he's quite good with numbers and quantity concepts. Again, I'm taking this easy and just following his leading, but already he can count to 50 - with the exception of getting some of the "teen" numbers mixed up every now and then. For a while he would get his 'five' mixed up with 'nine.' Ha!

Oh, and another little tid bit is; I recently did a 'heads up' on how many spirit helpers he knows (and I mean knows their name and what they help us in) and it amounts to 24! Wowsy! I'm so proud of my little "spiritual samurai." :) It's a given that he needs a small hint with certain ones, but over all he has a fantastic memory!

Okay, I'll stop blabbing/bragging :D about my little guy and leave you here with some pix of school/projects/activities from the past couple of weeks as well as a video of Angel doing some homework. He's making SO much progress! :) There should be some other videos of him in the related videos. Take a peek at them all, it's worth it! ;)

* Little disclaimer: I'm sure you've noticed Kenji's new 'do in the post prior to this one & this one. Well, I took him to a hair salon a while ago and the lady did a terrible job - even after I had specifically told her what I wanted. Grrr... oh well I guess it will grow out again soon enough, and you know actually it doesn't look too bad on him. Or maybe he's just that cute for anything to look bad on him. :P JK.

Okay, now get this. The other day while brushing his hair I noticed a nice little chunk of hair right on the top of his head being about 3 cm long so I asked him, "what happened here, did you cut your hair?" To which he replied, "the lady no do it nicely, mom, me fix it." Riight! He must have heard me and grandma say that, heh. I guess I'll have to do his partition to the other side for some time now. :D