Iguana Park

On our way home from our six week stay in Ecuador, we got stuck for the weekend in Guayaquil, Ecuador. There is a park there called the Iguana park that has literally hundreds of Iguanas. They are all tame and will climb right up on your lap if you have food. Even the squirrels will climb on you and eat from your hands. This park is right in the middle of the city.

Maria loved the iguanas. She was a little hesitant at first, but then would pet any one of them that got close enough. She would call them dogs though, so maybe she didnt realize what she was petting.

Rocio was nervous the whole time and would stay stuck to either my leg or Isaac´s. She was clinging to Isaac at one point and Isaac had some crackers in his hand. An iguana decided to get to the crackers and climbed right up the front of Rocio to get there. Is it bad that I took a picture (see below) before running to help her? Her face, neck and hands were all scratched up. Poor Chio.

Happy New Year´s

A little New Year´s day surfing

Isaac´s siblings, aunts and cousins at the beach house

Ari and cousin Elyn - yeah, she was getting jealous

Mark, Heidi and Elyn at the temple

From left to right: Heidi (holding Elyn), Mark, Daniel, Harmony, DeAnna, Casey
on December 30th - the water is bathwater warm

From the pool to the piñata, life jacket and all

We had such a great New Year. Most of my family, 17 of them, came to Panama on the 26th and stayed a week. It was so great to see them, and it was a first for many of them to meet Ariana. We rented a house on the beach and pretty much just relaxed.

On the 30th, Heidi, Mark and Elyn were sealed as an eternal family in the Panama temple. We are so proud of them!

On the 31st we made a "muneco" a life sized "doll" stuffed with palm leaves, paper and firecrackers. We used some old clothes and and the head from the Santa piñata we used the day before to make the doll. That night we had a big bonfire, blew up the doll (which represents destroying the old you to bring a new, resolved you into the new year) and had a personal fireworks show on the beach. I´ll take that over snow anyday!

My family left on the first but we rented the house for another two days and a few hours later Isaac´s family started trickling in and by the end of the day we were celebrating the 1st with at little more than 40 Yanguez family members. What a great way to bring in the new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Ariana

Helping mom wrap gifts

Happy Birthday Ariana!!

Ariana turned one on the 25th of December. It was so fun to be able to celebrate the amazing year we´ve had with her this year. She is such a wonderful blessing to our lives! I love that we can celebrate her birth simultaneously with the birth of Christ.

We celebrated Christmas Eve in Panama Viejo with Isaac´s family having the traditional midnight dinner and gift opening. Ariana, surprisingly, kept up with us and stayed up opening presents and playing with the wrapping paper (and discarding the presents of course) until 1:30am when we decided to call it a night and take her home.

The next day, the 25th, friends and family came to our house to celebrate her birthday. We had a Christmas dinner, Panamanian style, with ham, arroz con guandu, potato salad, and a bunch of desserts. We had about 25+ that came but plenty of food left over. Ari made a haul between Christmas and birthday gifts. We have such great friends and family here.

Happy T-Day!!

The TWENTY missionaries we had over for Thanksgiving dinner

Leftovers AFTER seconds and thirds

As Thanksgiving was approaching, Isaac began to feel bad for all of the North American missionaries that would miss out on T-day dinner, so he was nice enough to invite them all over to have dinner with us (without talking to me about it first...).

The zone leaders eat dinner at our house once a week so they decided to work out the details the week before. Isaac asked them if they could each bring a dish so it wouldn´t be so much work for me. The Elder said, "so I should bring like a box of instant potatoes?". I jumped in and told them not to worry about cooking, I would take care of it. They were nice enough to have everyone in the zone pitch in a couple of bucks each, which helped, and then when Janna heard what we were doing she offered to buy since we were putting in the work. Thanks Janna! The missionaries thank you too!

It turned out well. It was alot of work, but worth it. The missionaries were very thankful for it. We had to take all of the food over to the chapel to serve it since there was no way we could fit 22 people in our house to eat. We made a 25 lb turkey, a 10 lb ham, green bean casserole, TONS of potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green salad, rolls (store bought), 4 pumpkin pies, 2 cheese cakes and an apple pie. It was a hit, thankfully.

Ariana´s Mood Swings

Is it bad that it cracks me up when she starts throwing a tantrum? Most of these tantrum and smiley pictures were taken within seconds of each other. She gets mad when I won´t give her the camera. She´s a bit dramatic.

Doh!!

3 weeks after the cut

Contrary to some popular advice given to me after last month´s post, I cut Ariana´s hair. I just wanted to trim up the straight bottom layer to line up with the curly top layer. I took her to a kids salon, they had a little car and animal seats and everything. A bored-looking barber came out and unenthusiastically told me to put her in the chair. I should have bolted then. I put her down and said I didn´t want to loose much length, I just wanted him to even it out. I apparently should have specified things a little better.

Three minutes and a heart attack later he said “all done” as I was stuck staring at her curls all over the floor. I was so sad and so mad. I heard myself lament the curls and he just sighed and said it would grow back better this way. I wanted to deck him. I definately didn´t want to pay the $7.00 for the hair cut. I was so sad, I kept apologizing to her all day and then everyday for the next week I hit myself on the side of the head everytime I looked at the back of her head. The front didn´t look too bad, albiet alot shorter. But the back! Ug! Her little curly layer was like the ruffle on the top of a window curtain. It just crowned the top of her head then there was the totally straight layer going the rest of the down. It´s not brushed down in the picture, so you can´t really see the very distinct divisions. Thankfully it is starting to grow out and I´m starting to deal with it better. Just like they say, “The difference between a good haircut and a bad hair cut is (3 weeks or 6 weeks?). Her case is definately a six weeker.

Before

After

Before

After

(She is in the washer because I have to line dry the clothes after I wash them, I am just ecstatic that I finally have a washer. Anyway, I can´t have her crawling around in the mud and I can´t leave her inside while I am tending laundry outside, she she stands in the washer while I hang the clothes up on the line. A good arrangement if I work fast.)

10 Months and So Dang Smart!

My beautiful little Ariana. I am so fascinated by her everyday. I love watching her discover new things. You can see the awe on her face everytime she enfronts something new and interesting. She analyzes EVERYTHING. She will tilt her head back and forth trying to decide what she thinks about whatever she has come across, then she´ll either pick it up and study it some more or move on. She will scan the room when looking for something new to play with, I watch her as she lets her gaze move past the 20 toys strewn across the room, then I see her face light up as she zones in on an outlet or paper or anything destructable, chokeable or otherwise not good to play with, and she heads straight for it. Why are the toys not intriguing? Just a "been there, done that" issue? Or a "this will get my mom´s attention faster" issue? She is so funny and so decisive. She´ll even get the little mischievious smile and giggle when she sees me trying to beat her to whatever she is going after.

The other day I was putting on my mascara and she had her hand out grunting for it. So I closed it and gave it to her assuming it would just go straight into the mouth. But it didn´t. She immediately pulled on both ends trying to open it. Then she pulled harder. Then she changed hand positions, turned it over, looked it over, pulled harder. I was actually very impressed at her focus. She kept trying to open it for a minute or so, then when she decided it wouldn´t open, she chucked it. I kept thinking, "is she really only 10 months old"?

Today I threw her a little piece of cereal and it landed right behind her foot. I could see her looking for it and I told her (in spanish) "it´s by your foot, behind you" I was just talking to her until I could get back over to her to help her find it. She looked at me, so I told her again "It´s by your foot, behind you". She turned and looked straight at it and picked it up. Coincidence? Can she really understand that well already?? Honestly, I was floored. Again, "is she really only 10 months old". I guess her spirit is much older than that and half the time she is probably looking at me like I´m clueless.