A rainy day.

It has rained so much the month of April, it's just crazy.  Not as crazy as the weather in Arkansas right now, but still crazy. One thing we don't have to worry about are tornados and I'm thankful for that.  On the other hand there is an erupting volcano about 85 miles from us.  (a three hour drive)  We can't see any effects from it though.  I really would like to.  So since it started raining early this morning I knew that I didn't want to leave the house today.  I decided to do a little baking.

I got this recipe from the Klings who are missionaries in Chile.  We met them in Costa Rica. It seems like one of our favorite things that we did in Costa Rica was eat.  I got so many good recipes from friends there.

Not too bad for my first time to make cinnamon rolls here in Ecuador where it's 10,000 feet about sea level.

 They were so good!

Then this afternoon I made spaghetti and meatballs.  A recipe I got from Jill McCarthy in Costa Rica.  See I told you we loved food and we shared lots of recipes.

Two Happy Kids!

You have no idea how happy our kids get when we get one of these:

They love it!  It's almost like opening a Christmas present.  Look what was inside.

Peeps!  Reeses Eggs! Jolly Ranchers!  Egg dying kit!  Bath and Body!  What's not to love?
I can't tell you how great it feels to actually get seasonal items here.  It feels like you are part of the holiday and you're not missing out.  The kids were so excited and it didn't take them long to open the Peeps and the Reeses.  The spices and the magazine were Shannon and I,  so this whole package made us all happy.  And I'm not going to lie, I ate some of the Peeps and Shannon ate one of the Reeses eggs.

We can't say thank you enough to the Cartwright family. Thank you for always thinking of our family.  We hope that we can repay you some day.

Speaking of packages, I forgot to mention that my mom sent them Dr. Pepper in the mail.  They were very happy about that too.  We really take nothing for granted and are very thankful for all the packages we get.  So thanks to all who have sent us stuff.  It really is a blessing.


You are never too old to dye Easter eggs.  Just because you're a teenager doesn't mean it's not fun anymore.  The kids had a great time.  Please notice that they did want to use plastic gloves because they didn't want to get dye on their hands.  That so would not be cool at school tomorrow.

This is funny.  After they finished dying the eggs Megan says, "Dad can you go hide them now?"  

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter service this morning, hope you enjoy this clip of the service.  You might recognize the second song, God's not dead He's still alive.





After church we went over to the park so Shannon could make the beginning of the video and I took a few pictures.

Fatherly love.

A hug from Dad.

And now for a kiss.

A face only a mother could love.  Well, maybe a nana, grandma, or meemaw too. 

And again.

Ok.  This is a little better.

Megan

I have been meaning to post some pictures of Megan for a long time now.  But due to all the rain I haven't had an opportunity to take any new pictures, until today.  I can't believe how much she has changed right before our eyes.


This was a year ago.

Megan and Madison, this was last August right before we left for Ecuador.  (about 8 months ago)  Did I tell you that we are excited about Madison coming to our house?  And Shonda, Macen, and Sheila.

This was taken in November.  (about 5 months ago)

These next pictures were taken today.

We went and watched the Passion of Christ last night and to my surprise there were subtitles in English and Spanish.  See the Lord does care about me.  Easter is going to be so weird for me this year because they don't celebrate Easter here like in the states.  There are no Easter eggs or egg hunts.  I've seen a lot of posts today on facebook about egg hunts and Easter services tomorrow and it kinda makes me homesick.  But on the other hand it will be a whole new adventure celebrating our first Easter in Ecuador.

We hope all of our friends and family have a great Easter.  We love and miss you all.

Baby got a new pair of....

......boots.  Yesterday while we were in Ambato we drove up the mountain to Quisapincha (kiss-a-pinch-a)
to check out their leather products.  I was very impressed to say the least.  I have never been a leather person, but that might be because I could never afford it.  But here it's very reasonable.  They have all kinds of boots, shoes, heels, purses, jackets, and the list goes on.  I guess I should have taken some pictures but I didn't because I didn't want to look like a tourist.

Megan found these cute little boots and feel in love.  They are pretty cute.

Today we took the kids bowling and out to eat at the mall.  The kids are out of school until Tuesday.  Thank you Samana Santa!  Tonight we are going to our church to watch Passion of the Christ.  I really will be suffering for Jesus due to the fact that the movie will be in Arabic with Spanish subtitles.  I mean He died for me and this is the least I can do.  There really is no comparison.

The food court at the mall is really pretty with great views.

Not to mention it is directly over the flight path for airplanes landing in Quito.  So you can enjoy your lunch and hear/see airplanes fly over.

Ambato

A little road trip.

Look closely at this picture.  Do you notice part of a rainbow?

 How about now?  Can you see it?  It's on the right side right above the big group of green trees.

Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

Megan has been wearing these shoes for 8 months now.  Do you think it's time for a new pair?

Hopefully we can wait 3 more months before we have to buy new ones.  I'm sure we can because she can wear her basketball shoes when she is done playing ball.  That's why we bought her low tops.

This week is holy week in Ecuador and all of Latin American for that matter.  The kids are out of school this Thursday, Friday, and next Monday.  We are hoping to make a trip to Cotopaxi, we will see.  Speaking of being out of school, the kids were out of school today because over the weekend the school was flooded.  We have been having a lot of rain this month.  I mean a lot. There are a lot of sink holes in the streets right now due to the rain.  This is suppose to be the last month of the rainy season and I'm so glad.

And Ethan needs new jeans.  They really don't look this bad he did this on purpose.  

Happy Wednesday!

A little girl that came to the free clinic at our church on Monday.

Helping the Needy

There was a free clinic at our church for the people in Lleno Grande today.  There were lots of people helped at the clinic today.    

This little old indian lady is 86 years old.  I'm sure that she has worked hard during her lifetime.  She was just so precious.  

Tena

Tena is located in the Amazon Jungle and this was my first trip to the jungle.  I was looking forward to the heat but,  it rained and it wasn't very hot.  Not very good weather for pictures either, but I managed to take a few pictures of the scenery in the rain.  

There are lots of houses like this one.  You will notice clothes hanging outside in the rain.  This is the only way to dry their clothes.  Some clotheslines are covered and some are not.  

The clouds settle on the mountains.  

Watch out for bears (Osos)!  I wanted to see one so badly.  The kind of bear that you need to be watching for is the speckled bear that is almost extinct. 

Driving through the clouds.

There is no telling what you will see on the side of the rode.  For instance, this dead horse.  There was another one on the other side of the road.

Shannon preached this morning in Tena.  We have never seen so many young kids in one church.  Well maybe I should say without their parents.  We counted 70 kids this morning and the pastor said that there is usually around 85 kids every Sunday.  Most of these kids walked to church in the rain by themselves.  

They wanted me to take their picture.  I couldn't get them all in one shot because I couldn't get back far enough.  The striped shirts are their church shirts.

This little guy is watching his brother or sister say their memory verse on the platform.  

After service they all wanted to shake our hands.  I snuck away so I could take pictures.

We really enjoyed service this morning and enjoyed meeting all the kids.  It was pretty amazing.