Don't sleeping babies look so cute?! :)

I snapped this picture of Weston this afternoon when he was sleeping on my bed... He's such a spoiled little creature and sleeps better on my bed than in his crib! It's hard to believe that only 6 months ago, he looked like this:

... makes me feel like I don't have a baby anymore! He's growing up way too fast!

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Today was another busy day in Terre Rouge...

This morning Rose and I met Donavon out at the Besace market to pick up a tank of propane that they brought from T-Goave. The market was pretty empty, I don't know if it was because of the cold, rainy weather or if it was because it was early... On my way back through I stopped to see if I could find a piece of fabric that I needed... I was glad to find exactly what I was looking for, and while the girl measured off the amount I needed, Rose and I watched them killing a goat about 15 feet away... kind of an interesting process to say the least... 

Later in the morning Grandpa Harold stopped in with some groceries... the children were all glad to see him, and when he left, Kenneth excitedly informed me that Grandpa said sometime he can go along with him! That made Kenneth's day! And I'm sure he'll remember that for months to come! :)

The boys were excited to start their second half of first grade, and that of course made the whole day look brighter! Michael can have a pretty difficult time in school. It seems it's pretty hard for him to remember... slowly but surely it sinks in little by little...

Yeye made 4 quarts of grapefruit jelly... we all love homemade grapefruit jelly! The grapefruits down here have very thick shells, so we cut just the outside layer off, leaving as much as the white that we can... Then we cut the white part off down to the fruit. The jelly is made with the white part, and the process is time consuming, but we canned a lot last year and really enjoyed it on pbj sandwiches. What takes the most time, is washing the white part until it is no longer bitter. Then we put it to boil with lots of water, sugar and spices... It's really good! And we get to drink lots of grapefruit juice from the actual fruit.

This evening the children enjoyed playing legos for a while before bed. Sometimes I think they get more fun out of arranging the blocks into interesting and colorful patterns than they do in actually building something!

Now the children are all peacefully sleeping - a quiet house... Good night!

PS. I know I've been bad about blogging lately... my camera is very temperamental right now. The sensor is going bad they tell me, so it often takes pictures that aren't good. It's frustrating to me to post pictures that I don't like... maybe I'm too picky? Sometimes I just do it - like it or not, but it bothers me. Hopefully I'll soon be back in the swing of it...

Christmas 2010...

 Baking cookies... the children loved watching.

 But it was even more fun to help!

Weston in his little hat! :) watching Mommy...

Our Christmas dinner. The children were so excited about that!

I think it was the highlight of their whole day! :)

Amy...

 We had gorgeous weather today, and spent a lot of time outside...

Rose combing Elaine's hair on the roof.

Jared giving Elaine a ride on the tricycle while Cherlise plays nearby...

Weston with Mommy...

Sunset...

 Just thought I had to share some of my favorite shots from a sunset last week...

 even though the pictures don't do justice to it...

 I just love the way the clouds look!

I don't know why it is that we often have such beautiful sunsets this time of the year, but we sure enjoy them!

Little Helper...

 Janelle (2 1/2) loves to help fold the clean laundry. She's sure going to be a big help in a few years!  - She already is!! :)

Thursday

 Here's a picture of Jonathan, Janelle and Elaine from one day when they got the privilege of going to Allegre with me! :) They were so excited about it.

I tried to upload this picture of Weston when I did the others, but couldn't get it on, so I added it now... Don't you love the look on his face?!! :) Doesn't it remind you that the hat might be just a little bit too heavy?!! :) It was definitely a new sensation to him to wear something on his head!

It's been quiet on my end...

I know... But I think I have several good excuses... the biggest being that my internet connection has been very in and out, so that it is VERY hard to upload pictures or at time even check email... Believe me... just uploading those pictures of Weston took hours, I had to start over so many times! My second excuse is that the sensor on my camera is going bad, and therefore I have a hard time getting good pictures that aren't too dark... I hope I can get something figured out with it soon...

Dads made it safely home early Tuesday morning, and are enjoying their new grandbaby! :)

Weston...

I took these pictures for my aunt who sent this outfit down for him, but I just loved his corky look on some of them, so I thought I'd share them with you all! :)

It's a Boy!

I couldn't resist posting a picture of my new nephew, Wilson Lee, born to my sister, Regina and her husband Gerald! He is also welcomed by his twin sisters, Monica and Melody. :)

Update...

The political situation remains much the same - tense. It has definitely cooled off some for at least over the weekend, but they say that things will heat up again tomorrow. Commercial flights are still not coming in or leaving... They are cancelling flights through Wednesday and we expect longer than that, as the government is supposed to release the results from the recount on Thursday... When Dad's found out yesterday that their flight was cancelled for the 3rd time, they decided to try to find another way out. God worked it out that they were able to switch their tickets to fly out of the Dominican Republic with no charge and they were able to find transportation for the 12 hour trip to the airport in Santo Domingo. So they left early this morning and are planning to fly out tomorrow, Lord willing... I talked to them a while ago and they were safely on the other side of Port, so hopefully the rest of the way to the DR border will be uneventful too... 

Port-au-Prince...

... seems to be a bit cooler today. The riots were not as numerous, and the gas stations and markets were able to be open for at least a while. The airport was able to be open for a bit today and some cargo flights were able to land. But commercial flights were still cancelled through Sunday. Dads and Lor are rescheduled for Monday and we REALLY hope that they are able to fly out then...

Beatitude for Haiti...

... "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape"...

True enough... Dads and Loretta were planning to fly out today, but due to the riots in Port, American Airlines cancelled all flights yesterday and today... They're on schedule to fly out on Saturday, and we hope and pray that by then the airlines are flying again. Lor is going home to spend nearly 3 months with her family, so she's really anxious to get there after being gone since March...

The riots are due to a foul presidential election, the people say. Port-au-Prince was completely shut down yesterday, they tell me that not even motos were on the streets. There were a lot of tire burnings and people throwing rocks... I had to wonder how the people with cholera are faring if the capital is shut down like that...

We've been having rain all day today and that is unusual for December, but it has definitely has worked to put a damper on the tire burnings out there... We also heard that they're planning to recount the votes, and have the candidates and other international observers there to watch, so we really hope that things calm down again soon...

He's sitting!

For weeks now Weston has been sitting with a pillow behind him, but he would fall over so much. Then it seemed like one day he could sit all by himself, and while he still falls over, his balance is much better! He loves sitting on a bed and watching the world go by. Isn't he charming?!!! :)

Dec. 7, 2010

Dad's are here for 3 days... A flying trip to get the damaged shop pieces reordered and get everything lined up to put it back up and hopefully finish it in January and February...

Weston is so intrigued by Dad. He just stares and stares when Dad talks!

 Can't you just imagine the thoughts going through his brain?! It seems like Dad's are familiar to him and that's why he tries so hard to figure it out... It's only been a month since Dad's were here...

Bethany

Bethany's hair was one of my recent projects... it took me probably about 4 hours to do the 99 braids - but I didn't do it all in one sitting! It was a few braids here and a few there over the period of a a day and a half... I really hope it lasts a month at least. It's really good for their hair to braid it tiny and not as often... And Bethany has a bad habit of fiddling with her hair, so that half the time it looks like she never gets combed. I hope this will last a lot longer!

Our laugh for the day...

A while ago Donovan stopped in with some flour and a battery for us... We offered him some delicious brownies that Amy had made. As we were all around there chatting, I spied Michael coming up to the pan of brownies sitting on the table. He covered them, and quickly carried the pan off to the next room! He was afraid that Donny would eat them all, and he wouldn't get to taste them! :) We had a good laugh out of it.