Christmas Eve

 

Sooo.... What in the world does that black picture mean?

(And yes, to all of you who clicked on it hahaa, it really was just a black picture!!)

Well to explain it, I'll tell you all a little story.

On Christmas Eve, the Wakefield family members were busy setting up tables, baking bread, making chocolate covered peanut butter balls, coconut bonbons, and getting every little thing in perfect order for the Christmas Eve party to be had at our house. Every one would be showing up at our house at 7 pm... And what happened at around 6pm?

We suddenly lost all power in the house.

Now, this happens quite often enough here, and usually the lights will come back on after 10 or 15 minutes... Well, we called Sis. Gramma to warn her that we might need to switch locations, and then we finished up what we could in the quickly fading daylight.

 

Around 6:30 we ran out of light and time. It was pitch black when we started packing up everything to take it over to the grandparents.

 

We dug up some flashlights and began a sweep through the house, grabbing baked goods, coats, electronics, and anything else we didn't want stolen, just in case someone got the idea to take advantage of the power outage and have a party at the gringo's house while they were out. LOL.

 

 

 

The last of the fading light through the front window.

We finally got to the grandparent's and the fun began... We ate. But we can never seem to remember to take a picture of that :))

Then we sat around in the living room, talked, laughed, had fun, opened presents, and dressed up the grampa as Santa Claus.

The finished product....

What he really ended up looking like was like he was at the barber shop hahaa.

 

Beth and Santa!

Then we opened presents... 

 

Abner looking all debonaire :)))

 

Presents...

 

More presents...

Sometimes its funner to watch the looks on people's faces when they open their presents, than to open your own. Haha. Austin is a crack up.

 


 

Fireworks!

I just found out that most of the fireworks that we do here are against the law in the U.S.... Crazy! But no surprise I guess-- Some of these are like little sticks of dynamite!!

 

The men suddenly turn into excited kids when get these things going :))

 

What did I say....

Hahahahaaha :)))

 

Someone got tired of lighting the firecrackers one at a time...

 

These ones aren't to crazy. They just pop and shoot sparks a bit.

But then, there are some that do a LOT more! These are the fun ones!

 

And then there's the bombs that set of car alarms when they explode :D

 

These definitely provide lots of awesome pictures...

And lastly, a word to the wise. If you value your life (or your hair), don't even give me the chance to light a firecracker... Something happens when I see a lit firework in my hand, and I throw it immediately, anywhere just to get the thing away from me... Which this time just happened to be Bethany's head. LOL. Exciting stuff. :)))

^Armed and dangerous :))^

 

Well, thats it for Christmas Eve! More to come later... We have so much to post about, that its not even funny. Its just a matter of finding the time to do it!!

 

and also...

 

Happy New Year to all of our friends and readers! We wish you a wonderful year... May God bless you all.

 

*Nicole*

 

Baby Ximena

Just recently we acquired a new addition to the church family-- A beautiful little baby girl. Ximena. (Ximena is pronounced Hee-meh-na.) Little Ximena, with the big brown eyes.

We had a little party to celebrate her birth and just to have a good time with all of the ladies of the church. And we did have a good time! A good time with good food!

(Food not pictured ;P)

And of course no party is complete with out cake!

Coconut & strawberry cake with strawberry & coconut buttercream. The fresh strawberry frosting was amazing. I must say, I outdid myself. Hahahaa:))

Yes, no party is complete with out cake-- So when one is allergic to cake what does she do?

She makes little matching special gluten-free cupcakes!

I sure did feel like I was breaking rules eating this...!! 

Bethas being a good little helper :))

Ximena and her sister Nayeli.

After eating food, we played some baby shower games.

The clothes pin game....

Lordy this game might sound boring, but with the right people this game can get downright hilarious!

Sis. Mom started off to show the ladies how it was done.

The point of the game is to see how many clothes pins you can get in one hand, while you keep your other hand behind your back... Drop one, you lose.

This woman right here is one of my favorite ladies. Rocio is smart and she's hilarious.

(Read her story here.)

Momma's turn!

Can you believe, the woman with the smallest hands (not pictured) actually won! 14 pins in one hand.... Crazy... And guess who came in 2nd? Hehe meee :)) 13 pins... And boy was it painful! Haha.

Another game we played that involved a LOT of presents... Too much to explain, but we had fun!

Okay, okay, so we sat in a circle and Sis. Mom read a Bible story and each time the word "la" (feminine of "the") was mentioned, each lady had to pass their present to the left.

Hilarity did ensue.

Some ladies didn't want to lose their pretty package, and others just couldn't grasp the instructions of the game, which made for much laughter...

Cake time!

And, the beautiful layers inside.

Even though I knew what I had put into the cake, I was still so excited to cut a piece to see what it looked like!! It's like opening a present :)) Though there's always that thought in the back of my mind, "Did I take out the pieces of wax paper from in between the layers...?" LOL.

This is a cute little diaper wreath that Sis. Mom found on the internet and made! It turned out so cute!

 



Hermana Francis!

:)) I like a little cake with my frosting.

And, lastly, Momma and Ximena with the other women in the family.

There's not one boy in this family! Poor dad is always outnumbered. :))

Alejandra, Daniela, and Nayeli

Well. I'll just skip all the "I know this post is late, I'm so lame" speech... Hahaha.

I actually have a very good reason for why this post was not put up a few days ago--

Here's a hint:

Yup. Maybe some of you can guess what that means :))

I'm gone now! Either me or Beth will be on here very soon with more to say about the above picture, some Christmas pictures, and also a very special announcement!! Eeek!! We are so excited.....

Hope you all had a wonderful past few days...

*Nicole*

School Store!

Hello, hello, hello, and hello again!

Isn't it a bee-aa-uutiful day!!!

-Ricky McLean

Well that quote right there pretty much sums up how I'm feeling this morning! It is a beautiful day!

I'm on the 5th day of the school's winter break, and it's wonderful. (Yes, we still have a school! Hahaa.) And this post is to give a little update on it!

Here are just a few pictures of our boys doing school on Friday.

Arturo

 Nan

Sometimes, while dealing with this little guy's quirks (somewhere along the line he suffered a midlife crisis or something and got to thinking that he didn't have to go to the bathroom to do his business...) and with trying to think of different ways to teach something so that it will stick in his brain, I get a tad overwhelmed... but if I just sit back after mopping up his pee off the floor, and think about how far he's come, (because he really has improved a LOT!), I feel so much better. After 4 months of school, my little student can count to 20, write and say his alphabet, read 2-syllable words, do simple addition and subtraction, and his penmanship is improving.

There is hope hahaha. Ahi vamos poco a poco.

Moral of the story: Pull-ups are a teacher's lifesaver.

Alejandro

This boy is a hard worker and perfectionist.

Fabian

He is our little daydreamer. At any given time in the day, you can catch him slumped in his seat, staring off into the wild blue yonder dreaming about who knows what... Something much more interesting than his schoolwork, I'm sure. :)

All together now...

Since we use the sanctuary as the school during the week, every Friday we have to pack up everything... Beth and I dream of the day when at the end of a week of school, we can leave everything in it's designated place and leave with just locking up.

And this past Friday was a special Friday!! Last day of school before break and store day!! Every week, Pastor gives the boys a few verses to memorize and each Friday they say their verses. For every verse they memorize, they get a little bit of school cash! Sooo exciting! :)

Well, we let them accumulate their money (they also get money for good behaviour, getting a 100 on a test, and lose money for not handing in homework, or cheating on a test, etc...). After a couple of months of this, we set up the school store!! It is a very exciting day for the boys.

Here they are, with all their money out, counting to see who has what...

After we set the store up, they lined up at the door

And voila! :)) Nothing here that I'm especially attracted to, but hey, I'm a girl!

We had plenty of cars, guns, motorcycles, and action figures, and even a pair of handcuffs! 

I stationed myself at one end of the table to play cashier...

(Ummm, me? Me handling money?? Believe me, if it were real money, Beth would be handling it hahaha. I am not known for my skillZ in counting money! LOL :)))

And Bethany got herself a gun and made sure no one tried to shoplift any goods!

 Store day is pretty fun for me too.... I love seeing the boys' faces light up when they see all the toys!

And when little Eddy ran out of money, I saw him lean on his older brother Bryan, and look over his shoulder longingly at aaaallll the cool toys... Eddy whispers something to Bryan, and I hear him say "Ayyy ya no me alcanza para esoooo!!" "I don't have enough for that!!"

Eddy keeps us entertained :))

My little guy has yet to be inspired to learn his weekly verses, so sadly he was severely lacking in funds... LOL. His brothers had mercy on him though, and bought him some toys.. Which actually defeats the purpose of motivating him to learn his texts... But hey, I can't complain about kindness. ;P

And that, my dear readers, is all for today! Tune in later for more news with the Wakefields... We had a baby shower for a new little baby in our church, had a really fun party, and actually took a lot of pictures! So that will be up in the next few days.

(You know I'm jinxing myself when I say that there's a certain post coming up!!! Its like when a blogger says "I promise to be a good blogger from now on" ....and then suddenly you never see another post from them again! Hahaha.)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

*Nicole*