The Christmas Countdown Continued

No Christmas can be complete without lots of Christmas cookies!  Emma helped me make 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies and they were yummy!  They were tested and approved various times by the entire family before we handed them out to friends and neighbors.

One of the kids' other favorite Christmas countdown activities is "making a Christmas scene with funny shaped toys and shaving cream".  However, it almost always ends up in the "covering most of your body in shaving cream" activity.  This year all three of them were at the table, but Olivia did not want any part of that "stuff" being on her hands. 

Walker ended up with the most all over his body.

And Olivia let me put a little on her nose too.

And she proudly shows us where her belly button is since she is only in her diaper!  Did I mention how hot it is here?

And the kids being dramatic in the mirror.

And this is towards the end, as the shaving cream is covering the entire table and most of Walker.

The kids exchanged their gifts to each other on Christmas Eve Eve, as we call it.  Walker got a miniature train set from Emma.  He loved it!  I am amazed that it made it through until Christmas and even past- it was a whopping $3.00! 

Emma got pink string and assorted pink beads from Walker.  She loved them and made a beautiful necklace and matching bracelet.

And we think that Olivia would have been perfectly happy with only receiving Emma's old baby doll for Christmas because that is the only thing that she has played with! 

The kids love to gather up tons of books while we get ready in the mornings.  Even little Olivia loves to sit and look at her books.  Notice that "baby" is very close by.  She doesn't get far without her!

And sweet little Walker could sit and look at books all day long if he has his teddy with him.  In fact, if I ever lose track of him for a few minutes- I can almost always count on the fact that he is in his bed , with his teddy and looking at a book.

Iguazu Falls- Brazil

Last week we were able to go with two of the couples on our team to see Iguazu Falls in Foz, Brazil. This trip made Chris's 8th trip and my 4th. However, none of our kids have ever been (unless you count when Emma was in my tummy). So, we wanted to visit one last time before we leave and we wanted the kids to get to see it now that they are at ages that at least two of them can truly enjoy it. And we wanted to take our newest teammates because they had never been either!






 
This picture was taken right as we got outside of Asuncion, but it is a typical side-of-the road float sale found all over Asuncion and nearby towns.  We are in summer here and it is hot!  And what better thing to sell during hot weather than some floats?
 

We waited in traffic for 2 hours to cross the border and bridge from Paraguay into Brazil.  We were in Ciudad del Este, which is known as one of the most corrupt cities of the world.  For blocks before you get to the border, there are thousands of stores selling just about any kind of electronic gadget you can imagine.  And at a price that brings people from all over Paraguay, as well as from Brazil, to buy them.  Brazilians cross over the border and then carry their goods or load their vehicles to cross back into Brazil.  However, there is a limit on how much you can take back across, so it is fairly common that they try to find ways around these laws.  This is a picture of two guys who were tying ropes around their newly bought goods and lowering them through the one opening over the bridge.  I am not sure who was catching all those goodies down there, but these guys sure were in a hurry and were looking over their shoulders every two seconds!  And that would be one of the many reasons that this city is known for corruption!

We finally arrived at the falls.  Here is the crew that traveled together, minus our fabulous photographer, Lydia.  Can you tell the sun was in our eyes?

Here is Emma and Walker!

And here is one of the many rainbows we saw.  As we were looking at this scene, we were amazed that there are still people who deny that this world has a fabulous Creator!  He sure did create some beautiful stuff!

Here is Emma and her sweet friend, Vivian. 

Emma and Walker as we get closer to the falls.  I love Walker's face in this one!

And me and Olivia taking it all in.

And Walker's favorite part of the trip was probably when his daddy rode him backwards down the steps in the stroller.  And there were a lot of steps!

Daddy, Emma and Walker as we got closer to one of the falls.

And my two sweet, tired girls on the trip back home.  I love that I happened to catch them holding hands.  It doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas Crafts Galore

The kids and I have stayed super busy with Christmas crafts. One of our favorites was making light catcher ornaments out of jello powder.

Emma displays them on a broomstick.

We had a little bit of everything- from Christmas shapes to a moon and an apple. 

(Yes, the green on is an apple)

And another favorite, that was shared with me by my friend Amy, are string balls.  They are so easy!  You just blow up a balloon, wrap it with string and then paint a mixture of glue and water over it.  Let it dry and that is it!  You can hang them on the tree or just lay them on a table as decoration. 

Emma and Walker played with theirs before they put them on the tree.

They turned out pretty cute and look great on my tree!

And the next one was pretty much my craft.  I have been trying to figure out how to decorate the table for our Christmas dinner of 16 people.  I am trying to stay on a very modest budget, and most of the Christmas decorations here are pretty expensive.  I bought a few Christmas balls, a green basket to use as the centerpiece and fill with holiday somethings and I wanted something red to place under it to offset all of my green.  I had planned to make a red felt table runner and cut out white felt pieces and let the kids glue them on to look like snowflakes.  However, after asking in 4 different fabric stores and no luck on felt, I have been trying to think of something else that would be simple and inexpensive.  I finally thought of this:

These are my 5-point "paper" snowflakes, made out of red fabric!  I am just going to spread them out along the table and set my other decorations on top of them.  We'll see how they look with it all together, but I was actually pretty pleased at how they look by themselves!  No sewing and very budget friendly!  And as all snowflakes- no two are alike!

And Emma and her friend Vivian really enjoyed using the scraps from my project to make their own creations!

Going Paperless- christmas cards

Okay, so we didn't go completely paperless this year with Christmas cards.  The kids and I made cards to hand out at church and to our friends and neighbors here in Paraguay.  However, it would be virtually impossible and terribly expensive to mail Christmas cards to everyone we know and love in the U.S.  So, I resorted to free e-cards.  Last year I discovered http://www.smilebox.com/  I am a fan.  You can create an account and use it to send out e-cards completely free!  And they are beautiful.  You have about 20 options, you can personalize them and even add up to 25 photos on several of them.  And you can also post them to facebook, your blog and many other networks- also for free!  And when people comment on them, it sends you an email.  I also posted our e-card for this year on my blog today.  So, hope you enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Another free ecard by Smilebox

Going Paperless- magazines!

As we have started preparing to move, my urge to organize everything in my house has greatly increased.  I want to throw away or sell almost everything that we have that does not have sentimental value, just in order to decrease the clutter that we have created in the last 7.5 years that we have lived here.  Recently, we have been sorting through our filing cabinets to decide what we really need/want to keep and what we can throw away/live without.  It has encouraged me to go paperless in every way that I can!  I found a pile of magazine clippings that I had saved a few years ago that had good ideas in them for recipes, crafts and great gifts.  I hated to throw them away, because I still really liked the ideas.  But, I certainly didn't want to keep the paper copies.  So, in my quest to sort through them and find a way to get them onto my computer, filed into a place that I could find easily when I needed them, I found a fabulous website!  It is called coverleaf.com.  You can create an account with them for free.  And once you do, they have hundreds of magazines that you can order digitally.  I am a huge fan of Disney's Family Fun magazine and for $6.00, I can get a year's subscription to it without a single piece of paper clutter in my home!  And with the coverleaf account, I can access past articles, clip the articles I like and create folders to easily view them and share them with others.  Now when I am looking for a craft idea, I can get on my coverleaf home page and look through my albums for "craft ideas"!  And I know that I will like them because I already picked them as great ideas!  And, if you are already a subscriber to a magazine that they have, you can sign-up for the digital copy for free! 

Check it out!

http://www.coverleaf.com/

What I Will Miss and What I Won't Take 2

I think I can safely say that most stay-at-home moms in the states would be green with envy to know that the average Paraguayan has house help.  And I guess most anyone who is the cleaner of their own house, would be as well.  In the US, it costs a fortune to have someone clean your house, and therefore it is considered a luxury, or only for the very wealthy.  But in Paraguay, it is the norm for the middle class and above family.  In fact, most of my neighbors have a nanny for each child, as well as a maid who cleans their house.  My family has been blessed to have someone in our home 5 days a week since a little before Olivia came along.  It has been fabulous!  I did a lot of research to know what a good price was for someone to work with us and amazingly enough, the normal price for someone who works with you all week long is around $8.00 a day.  And it helps me so much!  It has allowed me to still be involved with activities at the church and on the team, homeschool without having to worry about cleaning the house or doing laundry, more time with my kids and to have a little "me time" or "me and Chris time" most nights when the kids go to bed without having to worry about getting caught up on house stuff.  And, since she is in our house daily, she knows our kids and their routines very well.  So, when we need a babysitter- she is the one we ask!  The kids absolutely love her and she is fabulous with them.  And it gives them and me spanish practice daily.  And when I need to run errands during naptime, I take the kids who are awake with me and she is at the house in case the sleeping one/ones wake up!  And most afternoons, she fixes a home-cooked meal for us for dinner.  It has been such a blessing that I never could have imagined in the US.  Especially since in Paraguay, cooking and house cleaning take about double the time that they do in the US!  And not only does this help me, but it helps her.  It gives her a chance to have a job, help her family pay their rent and get an education for herself.  Prior to working with us, she was having trouble finding a job and therefore she had to quit school.  When we move to the US, I am going to miss Rocio!  She has blessed our family in so many ways and my kids consider her part of our family.  When they pray at night for our family, they include all 5 of us, Toby (the dog) and Rocio.  And I know that she is going to have a hard time when we go, because she loves our kids dearly. 

And now for what I will not miss....a lack of central heat and air.  Our house is a two-story house with lofts above the second story in both of the kids' rooms.  The only central heat and air unit in the whole house is in the living room.  The three bedrooms have window units.  Our bedroom has one by our bed, but the other bedrooms have the units in the loft.  In Paraguay, summer is from around October until March.  And when I say summer, I am talking about an average of 108 degrees!  It is hot and humid.  The hottest heat I have ever experienced in my life!  And since our upstairs only has 3 window units in total, there are lots of spots in the upstairs that the air never reaches...the two bathrooms, the hallway, the office area, etc.  So after taking a shower in the heat, you get out and instantly start sweating.  And you can forget drying your hair!  Who wants to blow hot air on their head in 108 degree weather and no air conditioning?  Every night at bedtime it is a chore to figure out if the kids need just a fan blowing on them in their room or if it is hot enough to require the air conditioners.  Since the air conditioners are above their actual rooms, it takes the units a while to cool the rooms down.  And running 3 air units all night long, every night for 6 months out of the year is not exactly cost efficient!  So, we do our best to keep costs down, while keeping the kids and ourselves somewhat comfortable.  Our most recent problem is that we only have 2 working floor fans!  And one of those we have to jump start every night.  We don't want to invest in new ones since we will be moving in a few months!  Poor Olivia has a heat rash most of the time and that is with sleeping in just a diaper.

  And not only is a lack of air an annoyance during the summer, it makes for a pretty cold winter.  Those same window units are also our heat source during the winter. (At least two of them are because one of them only has a cooling unit)  And they don't heat the same areas that they don't cool in the summer....bathrooms, hallway, laundry room and office area.  So, in the winter, the houses that are designed to cope with the long summers, are ice boxes in the winter (even though the winters here are fairly mild).  They are made to avoid direct sunlight and they have concrete walls and tile floors.  This is fabulous for allergies and cleaning, but in the winter, it is SO cold!  There are days that my feet do not get warm until I stick them in hot water for an extended amount of time.  In order not to freeze, we have to have plug in heaters in bedrooms and bathrooms when we are in there.  So, winter consists of moving an electric heater to whichever room you are in.  Needless to say, I long for the day that I can just flip a switch and have my whole house heated and/or cooled at the same temperature!  And to not have rooms/areas that we totally avoid because they are just too hot or too cold to be in for longer than a minute or two.  Having an office, bathrooms and laundry rooms and often bedrooms that you avoid due to their temperature, is something that I will not miss in the slightest!