Well not much is going on right now, so we don't have much to talk about. We are still doing great, and school is going great for Judah and I. I think the two week break did him some good, in his case absence does make the heart grow fonder. I have to be honest with you, our goal to only talk in Spanish this month was a no go. I just wasn't able to do it, and I caved into procrastination, or as some would say mental organization...I can do it next month has crossed my mind. We really need to be disciplined next month for the sake of our language learning. We failed this month so if you could pray for us next month that would be awesome. I am at a place where I am talking 80% of the time with my guide in spanish...they are really great, and the best part is, now I am not getting corrected every other word. I talked today about my high school days, sports, cheerleading, and Abby if you are reading this even our pageant days came up. Aaron's website is close, but today he had the opportunity to hit balls on the range, he had tons of fun, it was a guys birthday in our cell group today, and they wanted to bless him. It was his first time hitting balls, and golfing, he had fun too. There won't be any pictures with this blog not much to show right now. Just the same old same old. This weekend I am going on a women's encounter with the church here in Puebla(or retreat) all in Spanish, with no interpreters...it should be fun and educational for me. Aaron is being so great to let me go while he stays home with the kids all weekend. The next weekend we have the opportunity to go to a bull fight...all we need is a sitter, so we are on the hunt. Besides that not much new is going on. Hope you enjoy this less then entertaining blog, and of course there will be more later. Love you all and talk to you soon. We hope to plan our trip back and will have emails into those people we have the opportunity to visit.

The new Easter slideshow and the previous are both on this one. You must choose one from the start. If you want to view other "albums" click on the bottom left button in the slideshow.

We hope you all enjoyed the last update, because we are once again going to fill you in on our exciting adventures!!! This last week everything was about the same, not much exciting happened, except Aaron had a serious sickness which he passed on to me. We aren’t sure what he had, but I had strep throat, but no big deal because I was on the meds before it had time to take over. However, I did have nasty white stuff all over the back of my throat. We are all recovered now, and had a great weekend.

Here in Mexico they don’t celebrate Easter, but the death of Jesus instead, Semana Santa, and all the schools go on break for two weeks…yes that’s right two weeks. Every school but mine that is… I had last Friday off, in which we all did nothing so daddy and mommy could get better. Which we did, so Saturday afternoon we were off to the jump house fair…where there is an enormous amount of those big play places filled with air, some were giant slides, some were races, some were for basketball, and soccer….needless to say we had a great time. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures…:( We are hoping to go again before they leave town, and if we do we will try to remember to take a couple.

Our families have an Easter tradition, so we drove all over Puebla searching for Easter candy, but not much was found, we made do with what we had. Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs, and I think there is are a few pictures and maybe some video…the kids had a blast, and the eggs turned out great! Sunday morning was great, and Alyx looked so beautiful in her dress to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus…Judah looked handsome too, but there is just something about a little lady in a big fluffy dress…well maybe to me. Pictures are included. After church we headed over to our friends, Mark and Aimee’s brother’s house…Justin and Angela for those of you who know them…and had a wonderful Easter lunch! We hid Easter eggs for all the kids…about 5 dozen eggs for 11 kids, it was great!! We had a blast!!! The kids all played together until they dropped tired, while the parents tried to have somewhat of an adult conversation. Then we started a new week of school and web design. We are both now hard at work at finalizing the website…sickness put it a little behind, but it is almost there. Judah and Alyx are doing great! Judah has been out of school on break for the last two weeks, and is looking forward to going back, Dad too I think. Alyx is having fun with daddy as usual. Aaron is working hard and having fun with the kids, and I am of course hard at work learning Spanish. Time is flying by; we are already half way through with our adventure here and beginning to think of our return. Hope I didn’t leave too much out, but it’s late and I need to get to bed. Love you all and hope to hear from you soon!!!!

Well hello there folks. Sorry about the delay in writing I know that this is a little over due compared to the amount of blogs posted before and there promptness. This blog was written over a week ago, but the pictures took a little longer…so this is two blogs in one. Which probably means it may take up to three visits to read it all if you are in a hurry. Please forgive us for our tardiness. One month down and two to go….however I wouldn’t say we are counting down, Mexico is going great still, but a little busier then we expected. Still much slower then before, but filled with every day tasks that we are getting used to accomplishing. Things like eating dinner together, and every morning breakfast. It has turned into something great, no longer something foreign. We are loving the time spent together, and the time in Mexico. We are however looking forward to seeing everyone very soon.

Aaron is busy getting the EMP website up and going and planning for it to be finished at the beginning of April. After that he will be searching for clients who are ready to jump forward on the net. He already has some in mind who have mentioned the necessity of his servce. He is also trying to balance being a Mr. Mom….and it is a learning process, but he is getting the hang of it quickly. Fortunately for him there is a laundry service at the school that is relatively inexpensive, and he doesn’t have all of the dirty clothes a family of four produces weighing him down on his Mr. Mom challenge. Unfortunately he is learning what it is like to be a dad and be at home with sick kids….and on top of that which is worse is he has been very sick with a sore throat, and upset stomach…and having to take care of kids while I have to be in school. It is defiantly difficult task to take on, only having to take of sick kids while you are sick is worse. The importance of switching roles is now in effect more then ever on both sides.

Judah is adjusting to preschool, and last week had a little more difficult time then before. He had fun the week before, and faced some social challenges the prevoius week. One day last week some of the students threw dirt in his face…normal for his age, but it was hard on him, and I would say even harder on me. He has a two week break from school…no not spring break here…time off to celebrate the death of Christ. So he is home for the next two weeks. He is in a rebellious stage with the language right now and not wanting to speak it at home. My institute director says this is common in the first couple of weeks, so we are prayfully waiting it out. Other then that he is doing good, he misses Grandma and Grandpa, and asks about you often, along with Nanna and Papa, and is curious to when he will get to see you all again. Josiah, Judah says hi, and he says you are still his best friend, and he misses you very much and can’t wait to see you again. He is missing everyone this week, but making some new friends with our friends daughter Haylee, and their brother’s kids too. Oh and Haylee G. Judah talks about you often too. If I didn’t mention some one please don’t be offended, I am not here all day so I don’t get to hear what he talks about mostly, just in the evenings. I know he loves you all.

Alyx is doing well, and is adjusting a little better then Judah. She was having a hard time adjusting to the childcare last week when Aaron worked at the church, but she is doing great now, and loves the care taker. No one however will replace Alysha. You will be a story we tell her as she grows up. She is still young enough to not really know where home is, since she has been living out of a suitcase and in MANY different beds the last couple of months. As always she is happy to be with Dad all day long. She is picking up Spanish very fast, and not resistant to use it. Her speaking is still about 75% English, but she is using Spanish on her own now. We are really excited about that. She is still a Mexican magnet which is still really amusing to watch. We love to see Alex’s presence bring a smile to most she walks by.

Let’s see that leaves me. I am doing well too; Spanish is more confusing then ever. I now wish I would have paid more attention in English class. The grammatical elements in Spanish are much different, but the words are still the same. Direct objects, indirect objects, subjects, verbs…blah…ect…ect… It is getting a little grammatically crazy right now, but I have to remind myself that I have only been studying for a few weeks. I can’t possibly be able to know it all right now. I have now been educated on all the tenses…present, both pasts, and both futures…which brings me up to being able to have a decent conversation with someone…however I haven’t quite grabbed on to the past tense yet, it is a lot of information. Aaron and I have agreed that as soon as he is better and able to function some what normal we are going to be speaking Spanish in total. Even if that means our conversation will be minimal…it is important for me to learn as much as I can while I am still here…and Aaron and the kids two. Also this way our kids will be forced to learn. Today I started my first day of group classes…however there is only one other student besides me…it is really nice. They were all impressed by my language skill after only having 3 weeks of Spanish. Frankly I am impressed two. I can effectively share where I am from, how we got here…all about my family and kids…how long we are going to be here…where I live in Puebla, and why I want to learn Spanish…every thing else is pretty hit and miss, grammatical elements all messed up…I am at a toddlers level of speaking, and hoping to graduate to grade school after this month, and move into middle school, and maybe lower level high school when I am all done.

The pictures you see are from two Sundays ago…March 18th or something like that. I have completely lost track of the days, except the days of the week sense I am in school. We went to a city called Teotihuacan. This city has really old pyramids, in which Aaron took some great pictures. The trip was structured through the school and we were forced through pretty fast, but the Aaron and the kids got to go for barley any cost so that was really great. They did great, and had a great time. We bought Judah a bow and arrow and a quiver holder, he was so excited. There were some Amazing masks that I wanted, but we didn’t bring enough money, so I am hoping to find them somewhere else in Puebla. After the pyramids we went to a Sunday market thing…it about %100 times crazier then a Saturday market in Portland. It was in Mexico City in which our guide for the trip said there were about 28,000,000 people living there. That was about enough of that city for me. At this market place the kids got there face painted and they are so cute. Alyx was painted like Belle…from Beauty and the Beast, and Judah, Dash, from the Incredible. Does it get any cuter then that? We also shared our first cotton candy as a family in which Judah was so excited….a whole dollar for that huge thing Judah is holding, and Alyx only wanted to smash it in her hands…none for her mouth. We finished off the long day at the center of Mexico City where the architecture has surpassed any other place I have been too in Mexico so far. The whole center was surrounded by beautiful buildings. These are the pictures you see here too. We left at 7:30 AM and returned at 9:30PM and the kids were wiped, not to mention us. But they did great!!! I went to a different city this last Wednesday and I loved it…sorry no pictures I forgot my camera, but it war really impressive, oh and I can’t remember the name either…I might get back to you on that. The city is famous for using Onix for things…which is like marble that light can come through…I think that is a good way to describe it. Anyways, the family is going to go back some weekend to pick up a few things…was beautiful…Also there is a church that was left to fall apart until now…and it is amazingly beautiful…Aaron needs to take his camera there.

The past couple of weekends we have seen movies…in the theater. The weekend before last we saw in an American movie in Spanish….Arthur and something…I can’t remember…the kids loved it and I did two. We bought all of our tickets, large popcorn, two large drinks, two hot dogs, and candy all for a little less then $20.00 USD. It doesn’t get any financially cheaper to take your family to movie and treat them to the works. Aaron knew what was going on the whole time in much more clarity then I, but I had pretty much the gist of it. It was really cute…some parts for parents with kids had evil bugs….but as all good stories you know how it ends. And it was great even in Spanish. Judah was never bored, and Alyx was enthralled. Our friends, Mark and Aimee have been so great to us…opening up their home and having us over for dinner and a movie. It’s been really amazing, and we are so blessed to have them as friends. They are amazing people. This weekend was just as mellow, movie this time was Family del Futuro…I think….it was just as good…however Aaron got really sick this weekend, and has been out for the count ever sense Sunday morning.

Well that’s all for now. Once again I apologize for the length. If I wrote more frequently you wouldn’t have to take your lunch break to catch up on what’s going on over here. I apologize. I hope you are enjoying all of this. Oh and mom, that picture of the mountain is an active volcano. We can see it from our living room window. We have to give props to Mark though he is the one who took the picture. With all the huff puff with us living in Bend, we thought you might like to see a real Huff Puff. No worries we are safe!!!!!! Love ya all, and keep in touch.