BIG NEWS!!

We would like to announce the arrival of two new additions to our family! Rocío Estefania and Maria Esther

A little over a year and a half ago Isaac and I applied for adoption out of the orphanage in Ecuador that we had been spending time at. We knew the process would take about that much time, but we figured it would be perfect timing to finish our nursing programs (which we haven´t done due to our adventures in Panama). In December we recived the long awaited news that the adoption was final. And it came with the surprise that we had been assigned two girls rather than one!

Rocio and Maria grew up together (all two and a half years of their lives) and behave in the orphanage like real sisters. The comittee were convinced that they would do better together than apart. We have known them both for almost two years and are excited to welcome them into our home.

Rocío 3 years old
Rocio just turned three. She is very quiet, unless she is thirsty. She likes to always have a glass of something in her hands and is not okay if she doesn´t. I think it may actually be related to a medical condition. She is very sweet and affectionate with mom or dad and some adults but doesnt really like other kids to touch her. She puts up with Maria´s hugs and kisses but doesn´t really like them or reciprocte them. She likes her space. She plays well with Maria, she has an adorable smile and laugh.

We are happy that our family is growing and that we have been blessed with three beautiful daughters. We are exhausted, and we hope they will start to play nice, but really, what a blessing!

We are still in Panama waiting on paperwork so that Ariana can leave the country. Hopefully we can go home soon.

Maria 2 1/2

Maria is two and a half and is soooo sweet (unless someone has something she wants of course). She has a sweet smile and gives the best hugs and kisses. In fact she is always kissing. My hands, knees, feet, every mirror we pass (reminds my of my sister DeAnna actually). Her favorite words are "mio" - mine, and "no" of course I imagine those are the famouse words of every two year old. She is very affectionate and protective of "Chio" - the nickname she gave to Rocio, and shakes her finger and says "no papá!" to Isaac everytime he is playing rough with Rocio. She stands between Rocio and Ariana everytime Ariana gets close, because Ariana is prone to pinch, claw, bite and pull hair. We are working on that....

Ariana 15 months

Ariana is trying to figure out what happened. We had to leave her in Panama with Isaac´s mom and family for the six week culmination of everything in Ecuador. Then we came home and dropped two dominating sisters on her. She seems very insecure right now and, like I mentioned above, is very physical with the other girls. She wants to be held all the time, I think to mark her territory, and they all get jealous and possessive over my lap. Our first day back from Ecuador, Isaac knelt down and held out is arms to see Ariana walk, yes she started walking while we were gone - sad, and he said "Ariana, walk to Papá" and Maria ran over and yelled "NO! MIO PAPÁ". It all began there...We are hoping they will start to love each other soon. Maria has begun to give Ariana hugs and kisses when she can avoid Ariana´s hands, so most of them come from behind. Ariana has started grabbing Rocio in bear hugs from behind, but for Rocio that is as disturbing as biting her. Any suggestions?

Bathtime - they all love bath time and want to be IN the water but we don´t have a bathtub, so they rotate buckets. Thankfully we have the pool, they spend hours out there but it is always chaos when we make them get out. At least they all agree on that.

The new and improved Yanguez family

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.)