mission: mexico

3.30.09
aiyana had a long travel day, but she received lots of compliments for her good behavior! despite leaving the house and 6am and settling in for the night at 10:30pm in san antonio, she traveled very very well. she got plenty of exercise on her 2.5hr layover in atlanta, so she slept during most of the flight time. (definitely a good thing for all onboard!)
aiyana was aware of the planes outside the window and proceeded to make sure everyone knew about them as well. she blabbed on and on to our group (and strangers,too) while pointing enthusiastically at the runway outside.

san antonio "river walk"

3.31.09
ha ha ha ha! these rocks are just so funny!

with her usual concerned look, aiyana points to the horse that's tied outside the neighbor's house. there was a goat, too. and a rooster. she enjoyed the noises all the animals made and practiced her animal sounds. her rooster call is my new favorite. she gets everyone laughing with that one.

the future rock collector explores her new terrain. she also explored her way into her first skinned knee. (it was mostly just dusty, with no real blood)...pants were worn for the rest of her mission field days.


nani found her place. when she saw her tia raquel wiping the benches, she reached for the wet towel and said "PEAS!"
she shadowed her tia and wiped whatever needed wiping!


music is music.
nani found the beat and clapped and danced her heart out.

one spring day

"two! two!"

translation: "please swing me and say 'one, two, three!'"
since "2" is aiyana's number of choice, she repeats "two...two....two" whenever she's "counting" anything. now she repeats "two" when she wants to swing on the count of three.

oh, my! is that a spider i spy?

spring break!

jenna missed her mario (but sessie got the 1st hug at the airport!)
maybe that was because mario was waiting in the car...but the 1st hug is the 1st hug! jenna was really excited to see us, too! she just giggles and squeals because she's so happy. i love it!
after a long visit to chick-fil-a, the ride home was full of cuddles. i had almost forgot how snuggly jenna can be. i'm sure we'll miss her even more when this week is through, but for now, we'll just enjoy every minute.

someone has a hard time sharing her daddy.
she climbed up and over jenna to perch on her daddy's shoulder. then, she rubbed her feet on jenna, just to get her point across.

at lunch, our friends prepared jenna a special place complete with "Camp Rock" paraphernalia. jenna was thrilled. i guess our love for jenna is contagious!

aiyana was pretty excited to sit at "the kids table", too. she loves the chance to color on inappropriate objects (like the table).

jenna was so proud that she and aiyana have matching pajamas!
aiyana was not so thrilled about the photo-op. it was past bedtime.

we're having so much fun on our spring break with our grandma and our jenna!

and the winner is...

the pink and grey sneaker!

nani used the long drive to the airport to practice putting her shoes on her feet.
she's never gotten it so close! oh, and when she gets her socks off, they go immediately onto her hands to play sock puppets. she thinks this is hilarious.

a snow story

monday, march 2, 2009

once upon a time, there was a snowstorm on a sunday afternoon. school was canceled and towns and towns full of people stayed home (or at least went to work late) for three whole days!
finally, by friday of that same week, it was 80 degrees and sunny once again. the end.

sunday, march 8, 2009


sundays, post-lunch, we clip coupons. how domestic of us.
nani checks things out to see that we have it all in order. she's a little concerned, however, because someone keeps forgetting to put coupons in between two of the plastic dividers and this "diorder" genuinely bothers her.
it's like she's playing that game [insert singalong] -- "one these things is not like the other; one of these things just isn't the same."

our coupon-clipper in training

most times, she gets tired of dealing with us and returns to her special stack of magazines. she prefers "Prevention" or "National Geographic". these are just the right size.

FREE SHOES!

aiyana won her free shoes! her daddy was the lucky recipient, so he thinks he gets to pick them out. we'll see. she may already have some in mind.

WE ARE SO HAPPY FOR FREE SHOES!



we like these


and these...



and these we like for the fall



but these are cute, too....
how can we decide?


oh, and then there's these...daddy's pick for the spring/summer is between the last two pairs.