honduras

matt was given an amazing opportunity. john has had two kids graduate from trinity since matt started there 6 years ago. every year he asks matt to come with him to one of the many countries he and his wife's organization, the children's impact network, has orphanages and other ministries in. and every year matt says the same thing, "i would love to go, but we have kids and no money." the night of graduation john asked matt to come with him on a trip and again matt said, "nothing has changed john. i would love to go but i have kids and no money." the next day john called and told matt to pack his bags they were flying out on tuesday. so matt did just that. he packed his bags, mowed our lawn, cleaned the pool and we filled a duffel bag full of things for the kids in the orphanage that he would be visiting. we even had someone donate 12 soccer uniforms and 8 soccer balls! it was a quick trip, only 3 days, but matt was able to visit several churches, the orphanage and a school. 

the picture above is the new property that has been purchased to build a new orphanage compound. it is going to have a girls dorm and a boys dorm and they would like to build a nursery too for babies. john and his wife are interested in trying to make it as green as possible! they are just waiting for the money to be raised before they break ground on the property. 

this is a road that led up to houses on the mountain side. matt said they were 8,000 feet above sea level. the majority of the crops in the area are coffee and banana plants. the workers get paid next to nothing, some only 2 dollars a week to work the crops. 

one of the kitchens in the house matt visited. i can NOT imagine cooking meals for my family like this. i told matt anytime he hears me complain about my small kitchen or the fact that i have to cook three meals a day for my family, to bring me into the computer room, pull up this imagine and just sit me down in front of it. talk about perspective....

this mother had no diapers. so she made a hammock for her baby and put him on top of a bunch of plastic bags to catch the urine, so it wouldn't fall on her bed underneath of him. no words. i have no words for this...

inside one of the houses. mud floors. 

the reason matt walked up the path was to see this house. a missions team from mississippi had been there all week helping to build this home from a family in the community. it has three rooms and a bathroom and only costs $5,000 to build! it is all cinder blocks. they were having a dedication service for the house while matt was there. he told me that the local pastors work closely with the organization to make sure that the families who get houses like this own the land and that there is no abuse in the house. the abuse of children is a huge problem.

 the inside of a school.

 matt also visited a coffee farm.

beautiful mountains in the back ground.

 a worker turning the coffee beans, all done by hand. 

this is where the roasting and packaging of the beans is done. 

 this is the pool area of the hotel where matt and john stayed. it is also where the missions teams stay that come to help in the area. beautiful. 

 john and matt close to the site of the new orphanage. 

it was a good trip. matt had never been on a short term missions trip outside of the u.s.  he really enjoyed his time with john and we are both curious to see what the seeds that were planted will turn into in the future. 

night swim

sunday night while matt was at a class at church, i got penelope to sleep and i took beatrix and micah on a night swim. matt worked really hard to get the pool light fixed and they thought it was magical swimming in  the dark with nothing but the light under the water. 

raspberries

penelope's firsts {part one}

 look at me! 

i'm sitting in a high chair for the first time.

 i'm the first baby in the family to get fed by a sibling. 

and i liked it. 

six months

WARNING---
this post has an obscene amount of pictures of penelope,
but the days are going too quickly and i want to remember all of her different facial expressions. 

 penelope is 6 months old today!

she is laughing, eating 3 ice cubes of baby food 2-3 times a day, chewing her fingers, doing barrel rolls across the bed, sleeping for 2 or 3 hours at a time {a bit of a regression}, attempting to crawl, mostly just scooting using her forearms and toes, staring at micah and pulling beatrix's hair if she gets too close to penelope's fingers, giving wonderful baby kisses, and growing. too. quickly. 

slow down pipi! 

 

we are so enjoying these baby days. 

new hair

 i got my hair done this morning,

complete with feathers.

 after which we relaxed in the office and watched arrested development...minus children. 

i love nap time.

if you see this...

...you will know it's us. 

these are now on the back of our car.

thank you husband.

me me me me me....poop

today was the first day of summer break for matt. we decided to run errands together and finish off with free lunch from chick-fil-a courtesy of some coupons. on the way home everyone was happy and feeling nice and full. as the kids were playing and chatting with each other in the back seat i was telling matt about the conversation i had had with rhonda about beatrix on wednesday. i told him that she had suggested that when we are together as a family we try to make a game out of singing songs together. i said that she had told me to take a song that we all know and than fill in all of the words with only me-me or be-be or ba-ba, bo-bo.  rhonda thought it would be good for beatrix to repeat those sounds over and over again. matt didn't really get what i was talking about so i suggested trying it with twinkle twinkle little star. it failed. no one wanted to sing that song. matt asked, "what about that apple and banana song? how does it go again?" so i sang, "i like to eat. i like to eat. i like to eat apples and bananas. o loke to oat. o loke to oat. o loke to oat opples and bononoes." everyone dissolved into giggles. they were all on board after that. i sang, "me me me me. me me me me. me me me me me memememe me meeee!" beatrix and micah burst into fits of laughter. beatrix grinned and grinned. here was a whole song that she could sing! pretty soon she and micah were singing it by themselves. matt and i looked at each other and grinned. than after a loud round of memememe meeee there was a pause as they were holding out the last note of the song and than beatrix shouted, "POOP!" we all died laughing. i mean really and truly died laughing! she was telling a joke and she knew it. she sang the song again, "me me me me. me me me me. me mememememem me memememe...POOP!" hahahaha! it was so funny!

just yesterday i was sharing with a friend how i had taken an evening a few nights ago to read back over our family blog. i had laughed at all of the funny things micah had said when he was bea's age. i was sharing with her that later that night while i was laying in bed, i started to cry a little when the realization hit me that i didn't have any stories like that recorded for beatrix. i guess i had to mourn a whole different phase of this apraxia thing. and here today i was given a blessing! beatrix found a way, granted a gross way {ha!} to get us all to laugh and to share her voice with us. me me me me... poop! man, i love that girl!

friendship bracelets

 i'm returning to my youth. 

i sat in front of the tv last night after the kids had gone to bed. surprisingly, penelope was asleep too and matt had gone out with a couple friends. instead of being productive i got out my box of strings and made some thing to wear. it spilled over into this morning's activities too. penelope went down for her morning nap and matt was still sleeping so i sat down while the kids were watching cartoons and made a few more. i made one for micah, beatrix and matt. it just feels like a summery thing to do. what better way to signal summertime than with an arm full of bracelets and a couple strings around my ankles?

cleaning

i don't remember how old i was when i started helping my mom out around the house. i don't ever remember  a time in my life when i was assigned chores either. matt and i differ a bit about how to go about teaching our kids to "help" out around the house. i am more of the persuasion that if we raise kind and thoughtful children they will naturally want to help out. as far as i know all my siblings are pretty tidy and i think that all of us are very helpful as well. matt on the other hand was raised to have assigned chores and a cleaning schedule. he is extremely tidy, when he wants to be. you can't make that guy do anything. he will do laundry, clean toilets, iron and fold clothes, and wash dishes, however there is no sense of obligation coming out of that guy. he does it when he is ready to do it. over the years he has defiantly gotten better at doing it if i request it though. anyway, two days ago micah and i had picked beatrix up from school and as soon as she got in the car it was "can we go swimming? can we go on a walk? will you play a game with us?" on and on. i hadn't gotten anything done around the house except for laundry all week, so i told them i had to clean. then the kids surprised me and asked if they could help. even though i knew it would take ten times longer i decided to let them help out since that was going along with my way of thinking when it comes to cleaning. encourage when they want to help out. i told beatrix she could get her swim suit on and clean the shower. 

 micah got to vacuum our bedroom floors. 

and yes, we use a shop vac to vacuum. 

 they both told me they were so tired after we finished! i said, "tell me about it! i do this all the time and in every room." and lest you think it was such a utopia time of learning and that i am such a great mom...the only way we got to halfway finish the bathroom was by letting little miss cry in her swing. it's hard to find time to clean, please the older children and hold a baby all at once! :)