Aren't they cute?

With Samuel more mobile now Katrina and he are really enjoying one another. She has always enjoyed him, but now that he can chase her it is really fun for her. Samuel just laughs and laughs as they play chase where she laps him time after time. Our new house has a little lap that they can run/crawl and it is one of their favorite pastimes.

9 Months and Counting

Well, I am 9 months now! We moved into a new house a few days before I turned 9 months so we have been a bit busy (hence this is a bit late in coming, please forgive me, no, forgive my mom!).
I weigh 22 pounds and I am measuring 29.25 inches long. I am wearing 12-18 month clothing and some of that is even a bit tight going over my head.
I am still army-crawling (which I started at 7 months) and just this past week I started acting like I might crawl normal as my sister calls it. Who knows? Mama thinks I will just army-crawl to walk since I am so fast and efficient. I guess only time will tell.
Speaking of walking, I pulled myself up for the first time at the new house the day after we moved in. Grandpa saw me and told Mama about it. He was so proud for being the one to see me standing by myself (well, holding onto my little toy basket) for the first time. I have been pulling myself on stuff ever since. I like to stand. I feel so proud.
I have two teeth, the two front bottom teeth and I drool like a faucet so everyone thinks I am getting more teeth too. Again, only time will tell!
I am NOT sleeping well during the day or at night. I am constantly itching my nose and mouth and therefore Mama made an appointment with an allergist to begin ruling out possibilities. She is not convinced I have an allergy (although I think maybe I am allergic to some sort of environmental thing) but she says that we have to start somewhere by eliminating things and both Mama and my doctor thinks allergies is a good place to start.
I am still as lovable as ever, even though I am not sleeping well. Mama wishes I would sleep better but says that she couldn't love me any more than she does. And then, the next day she tells me she loves me more today than yesterday. I think she needs more sleep!
Oh, one more thing, I love my papa SO SO much. When he comes home I reach for him and sometimes I even prefer him to Mama. Mama says she feels badly but really she doesn't. I even say "Papa." It is not necessarily in relation to Papa, but I wouldn't tell him that... Papa is the proudest papa ever and he loves me mas que nunca too. He also tells me that he couldn't love me more and then the next day he says the same thing Mama says. He might need more sleep as well.
So, that about sums it up for me for my 9 month report. Any questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

Fastest I have ever gone

The day we closed on the houses (we sold ours and bought the new one on the same day) our only concern with what we had left to move was bringing the riding lawn mower to the new house. Pancho had drained the gasoline out of it, preparing it for the winter (way earlier in the fall when he was no longer using it to mow) and we were debating whether to bring it to 5707.
Well, we decided we would have to bring it since we did not find a new home for it with someone else so my dad hooked it up to the back of my brother's truck (which also participated in the red truck brigade but since it is not red I could not include it's picture!) and pulled Pancho behind it the 6-8 blocks that it is to the new house.
When I looked out the window and saw Pancho coming he had the biggest smile ever. I ran out and captured these shots on the camera and when I asked him how it went he said, "It is the fastest I have ever gone on that thing!"

Red Truck Brigade

We moved two weeks ago today but three weeks ago tomorrow we were given access to the new house and therefore moved the majority of our things then. It was super nice to be able to get most things into the garage of the new house so that the last week there we could concentrate on final details (touch-up paint!) and the like.
Pancho organized a crew of family and friends to come and help with the big move and most of the guys had red trucks! My dad filed his FORD F-150 to the brim (first red truck). Our dear friend Rich McEvoy and his son Ben (who came and helped) lent us their flat-bed truck from their bee business. It is amazing how much stuff you can get loaded onto a flat-bed (second red truck). And finally our close friend Brian came with his Chevy 4x4 (I hope I am right with the make of the third red truck!).
It took a few trips with all the trucks loaded to the max but we got it all over to the new house in pretty good time. I think it took about 3 or 4 hours maybe, including talking time and eating.
So, thanks to Dad, Shawn, Ben, Derek, Brian and Nick for their muscle-work a few Saturdays ago. Your work did not go unnoticed and we will be having a gathering during the month of November to thank you for all you did to help us move.

VERY low signal

We still do not have internet but I took some time to update this where we do have a connection. So, you lucky blog readers you... I am writing a post when there are lots of other things to be done, uploading the only pictures we have, taken by our dear friend, Dan Sterken.

We hope you like them and we hope you remain faithful enough to withstand this long bout of no internet with us!

No internet

We are moved in and settled (in record time!) and we are waiting for our internet to be transferred. I am at my parent's house posting this! Things went smoothly. We had lots of help and worked very hard. Samuel was diagnosed with an ear infection in the midst of it all (Monday) and that made things rather interesting unpacking, but we got it done. Everything is in its spot, praise the Lord, and today I was able to return to some of my normal tasks (ie. Esther Bible study, writing thank you notes, making lunch for my brother and his lovely wife, etc.) So, please bear with me on this little forced hiatus... Thanks!

Note to Self

When moving here are a few things to consider ahead of time...

Be sure to label your paint cans when you paint so you know exactly which can to use to touch up which room.

About that, always (I mean ALWAYS) be sure you have enough left-over paint for touch-ups later on.

When thinking about what you will need in those final days in the "old" house, consider extra toilet paper and a bar of soap.

Along those lines, when planning meals for that final week, be sure to set aside all spices and recipes that you plan to use. Just having the main ingredient will not do. Buy a lot of packaging tape.

In the new house label the bedrooms according to the box labels for ease of delivery on moving day (numbers are also acceptable).

I am sure more will surface later and I will add to this list.

We are moving...

And we have not announced anything on the blog for various reasons

1) Until closing nothing is official, right? (we close on Friday, the 16th)

2) We have been a little busy with packing (from the time we made the decision and signed the paperwork and put down some earnest money to the closing is going to total 17 days)

3) Samuel is getting another tooth and is quite miserable, wanting to be held (which is so unlike him) and cuddled instead of wanting to play... so the packing is frequently interrupted by long spans of time where I just sit and have anxiety attacks while holding Samuel (if you have read my blog for very long or if you know me at all, you know that living in transition and upheaval is not my cup of tea (I have been having many cups of tea during this process to calm myself down!) and having boxes literally everywhere has been very wearing on my soul)

So, with that being said, I will explain a little history while Samuel and Katrina are napping (feel lucky, readers, I should be doing touch-up painting around the house but instead I am using their nap time to inform you).

Maybe about a month ago Pancho and I were talking about possibly putting our house on the market. We have a two-bedroom, very comfortable home but in time, as the kids age, we were pretty sure we were going to be looking for something a bit bigger. We had heard through several friends that houses in our current home's range were selling rather quickly in this market and that it might be a nice time to take advantage. So, we contacted our realtor who was eager to work for us again. She immediately asked if we were interested in a trade that the builder in our subdivision was offering to some folks. We had considered a trade about a year ago but did not feel it was a good fit for our family. So, I said I did not think we would be interested now. Well, apparently the builder is in a bit of a different position financially this year and his offers were much more appealing. So, to make a long story a tiny bit shorter, we looked at three new construction homes in our current subdivision and decided to negotiate an offer on the one pictured above.

It is a two-story, 3-bedroom home with several of our "deal-breaker" features (third-car garage, big entryway, 1/2 bath on the main floor, entrance from the garage into the kitchen, etc.). We are more than thrilled that this trade is working out and we plan to sleep there this Friday night! Last Saturday Pancho organized a crew of men from church and family to come and help get all the boxes and big furniture moved into the garage of the new house. We have been sleeping on an air mattress, Katrina is using Samuel's crib mattress as her special bed and Samuel is sleeping in the pack-n-play. Our plan for Friday is to have everything loaded up in a few trucks when we leave for the closing around 9:30 and after closing to head to the new house and start unpacking.

Oh, the new house is about an 8-minute walk from where we currently live! We really like our subdivision and it is a nice place for young families. The new home is on a cul de sac which will be really nice for the kids (and us!).

I will post more pictures as time allows (or as I am hounded by friends to get them posted -- ahem, Sarah!).

La Cremita, Eat Your Heart Out

When I moved to Venezuela in August of 2000, one of the first Venezuelan foods I was introduced to was empanadas from La Cremita. La Cremita was a little restaurant (I use that term loosely here) that sold several types of empanadas and they were quite famous in our city. For those of you who are not blessed enough to know what an empanada is... An empanada is a stuffed pie-like pastry that is deep-fried. One type of empanada is called empanada de pabellon. Pabellon is a typical Venezuelan dish consisting of rice, black beans, shredded beef and plantains. The empanadas de pabellon have all those things minus the rice. Tuesday evening we had pabellon for dinner. I purposefully made WAY more than we could eat (even though we typically get really full on that meal!) so that Wednesday night we could have empanadas de pabellon. This is was my first time making empanadas without the gracious help of my mother-in-law (who is a fantastic chef). The first few did not turn out and broke apart before we were able to get them into the oil, but thankfully my husband studied his mother's cooking tactics while living at home and knew just what to do to make them work. We added some more flour to the dough and he put the empanadas together while I fried them.

Here is the finished product served with homemade guacamole (recipe courtesy of my mother-in law).

And here is the cook (minus her trusty side-kick who came to the rescue yet again!). I have not had the privilege of tasting an empanada from La Cremita for many years now, but from my memory I only have one thing to say, "Eat your heart out, La Cremita. Eat your heart out."

Photography 101

Last week at the apple orchard two of Katrina's friends had their own cameras. Katrina was quite impressed by this and really wanted her own camera. So, we had our old Kodak digital lying around and Pancho decided to give it to her. She has been practicing her photography skills ever since.

Here I supply you with some of her better photos.