Green Warning!

Grapes, Lime aide, Kiwi, Broccoli, Rolls dyed green, Rice dyed green . . . . the brightest, greenest, most flourescent poop I have ever seen from a 1 year old!

Ok - probably too much information but that's what's happening around here today.

Our St. Patrick's day festivities were brought to an abrupt halt when I realized at 11pm Monday night (after a long and hectic day) that I had no idea where the box of green goodies was. You know, all those decorations, hats, stickers and fluff that I have purchased over the last few years. I could picture where it was in the other house since St. Patrick's Day was the last holiday we celebrated there, then I had a baby, we moved, I didn't think about it again until Monday. Where were the leprechaun kisses??? That was the part that I was really sad about because Nathan would have loved it and the other kids would have really built it up and made it fun.

Even without the leprechaun kisses we had shoes taped to the ceiling, beds standing on end, mattresses flipped sideways, stuffed animals all standing on their heads, and toy cars turned up-side-down as proof to the kids that the leprechauns had still come for their yearly visit.

Playing in Peru

49 hours in airports/on planes

8 different planes

3 hours on a train

17 hours in cars

4 stamps in my passport

Worth every bit of travel, every penny (and hundreds of dollars) spent!

It's hard to know where to begin, how to scrunch such a full week into a short post (or several short posts) and where to find the time to do it (could life really be busier than when I left?). I took a journal with me just for this trip and now I look back through it wondering what to include and what to skip and how to summarize all that writing. So much pressure . . . so here is my day of rest, blogging.

SLC Airport - early morning (thanks for playing taxi Kara!)

Lima Airport 17 hours later. Actually this was taken at the Lima airport on the way home but we didn't get a picture of them when we arrived. Shawn did a great re-enactment of our first airport meeting!

We arrived in Lima one hour late (12:40am) and by the time we got through immigration, customs, baggage claim, arrived at Shawn and Kellie's house and climbed into bed it was nearly 4 am. And church started at 8:30. It was an interesting experience sitting through a Sacrament Meeting that was all in Spanish and listening to the English translation in my ear while my head was swimming with a jet-lag hangover. In the end I found that I understood more than I thought I would, gave up on the translation and really enjoyed the day. Sunday school was the best I have ever been to and Brendan's baptism was the icing on the Sabbath cake! (Kellie's blog will fill you in on that).

Sunday was also our first exposure to the Peruvian sun. After the baptism we went outside to take a few pictures and after only about 15 minutes I felt like I was on the verge of a sunburn. It isn't necessarily hotter there, just a more direct burn to the skin. I spent the rest of the trip smothered in sunscreen.

On Monday we went to the Embassy. Not a whole lot to see and not at all glamorous but kinda cool that we could enter because we were with Shawn and Kellie. As we came out the gates of the embassy Kellie took our picture really fast - we already knew we couldn't take any from inside or the Marines would come and get us, but we weren't sure on the outside. So Kellie quickly snapped a couple of shots, just as a guard waved his finger at us and told us no photo's. The idea of "better to obtain forgiveness than permission" still got us in trouble.

This one is for you Gymboree fans! Across the street from the embassy there was a Gymboree sign, a daycare not the store but still, Gymboree. So for all of you loyal shoppers out there I attempted to catch a quick photo without the guard noticing. Well, he did and we got an earful of angry Spanish and finger waving. Evidently we aren't supposed to take pictures of anything across the street from the embassy either. The really funny part is that there is a 10+ story building going up next to the Gymboree and the exterior is all glass. I wonder how they will monitor pictures being taken there?

Monday night we went into downtown Lima and saw a gorgeous cathedral, the town square and the building (in this picture) that is equivalent to our White House (not sure what it was called). We took a picture of it from across the street since we didn't know if we could get in trouble for taking pictures of that building too, and because there were guards all around with big guns - just a bit intimidating - we also didn't dare take pictures of them.

Levi is saved - he went to confession. Doesn't he look a little nervous?

Tuesday was a day to catch up with Kellie. We walked to a breadstore (which was Fabulous!!), waited for the boys to get home from school, worked on a craft project, watched "Secret Life of Bees" together and of course talked, talked, talked. It was so nice to have some downtime with Kells to just hangout and be sisters instead of tourists.

Wednesday night we went to see the Fonseca's. Hugo and Megan were in our ward in Rexburg (Hugo was Levi's YM president and a really great friend) and they had moved to Puerto Rico about 1 1/2 years ago. In January they moved to Lima and through another friend (Thanks Silvia!!) we were able to connect with them on our trip. It was so fun to visit with them again and let the kids play with Dominic. I admit that I got a bit homesick hanging out with them because they were asking so many questions about people from Rexburg. Also, watching Megan take care of their baby girl brought on a little mothering homesickness for my own little boys. However, when you hang out with Hugo for a while you end up laughing so hard that worries are soon gone. It was great to be with them!

Dominic was having to much fun playing and refused to be in the picture. Though I took some of him I think my camera must have been set on "fuzzy" because that was all I got.

We spent Thursday afternoon at the beach/ocean. I stick with my previous theory (and fear) that water should be watched and listened to, not played in. Levi and Jeremy both went out to far and though Kellie was able to rescue Jeremy, we had to leave that up to a life guard for Levi. He didn't think that he was in any real danger and didn't think that he was out that far but from watching on shore we saw how each big wave pulled him further and further out, almost past the buoy. I'm just so grateful that there was a lifeguard there to do what I wouldn't have been able to do to save my son.

Levi waiting for the next great wave.

On a happier note, Andie, Kellie and I had a great time just playing in the sand on the beach. I have never applied so much sunscreen in one day! Even after applying it faithfully several of us still managed to have burn spots. The boys did have a great time in the water. Shawn and Levi spent a lot of time riding the waves and we managed to get video of both of them riding in on one of the big ones (but that takes more time to upload so pictures will have to do for now).

My overall impression of Peru is that it is very dirty. I'm talking garbage in the streets, everywhere. The cleanest, most secure place that I saw was definitely Kellie's house. The neighborhood is nice, the streets clean. But even just a few blocks away and it seems like a totally different city. There is also poverty there that I have only previously seen on TV but until we were driving past it my mind didn't really acknowledge that it exists. I wanted to reach out to do something, to take in the little kids in the median who's parents were selling stuff among the traffic or to toss my sandwich out the train window to the little boys reaching their hands out to us. Unfortunately, there was nothing that I could do in my week long visit that would really make a difference. However, I feel more of a nag to do some humanitarian work through the church.


And the rest will have to wait. There is more to come, just not today.

Number 2

Before I left the country Nathan was showing signs that he was ready to start potty-training. I wasn't. I wanted to wait until I got back so that it wouldn't be interrupted with the crazy schedule that would take place while I was gone.

I got back on Monday (ok - 1:30am Tuesday Morning) and Wednesday morning he announced that he was going to wear underwear.

After a couple of wet accidents he got the number 1 part down. Treats always help. But this afternoon he started crying that he wanted to wear his diaper again. I figured it was because he hadn't done his scheduled number 2 for the day (or yesterday) and was a little scared knowing it was coming without a diaper on. So we read stories while he sat there waiting for his body to do it's job. He did it!! Once again, treats help. "I'm so proud of Nathan", he kept saying!

The humorous part of this came later when he came running through the house, "mommy, mommy, come see my poop!". How can that not bring a smile to your face? He went all by himself! Then when I gave him his treat he put it on the table and told me that he had to call dad first. Oh, what a conversation:

"Hi daddy, I went poop in the potty!"

"Good job buddy! That's awesome! Did mom give you your treat?"

"Yeah, I went poop all by myself!"

And then he wanted to call Levi too.

"Hi Weevi, I went poop in the potty!"

"Way to go dude! That's awesome!"

"I fwushed it all the way down!"


One of my favorite things is a baby in a white onsie, I can't resist cuddling that. But now I remember how fun it is to see cute little toddler buns running around the house in their first pair of underwear!

Weather Report

I'm not sure if this is just a foggy winter or if there really is more fog in the country than in town but we sure have had a lot of it this year. It gets so thick that we have times of complete white out and we can't see any of our neighbors. The strange thing is that it will come and go in a matter of a few minutes and it is also very patchy. On a drive into town we can leave our house in a complete white out and hit several clear spots during the 5 minute trip.

( LeRoy's new shed out back)

On this particular morning we had a beautiful sunrise and at about 8:00 I thought to myself that maybe it would actually be a sunny day. By 8:56 this is what it looked like.

That is actually the sun trying to show it's face in the fog. Only an hour earlier it was shining in all it's winter glory, giving me a glimmer of hope for a warm day. As usual, it was just another very cold, windy, greyish white, Rexburg day. I don't put much trust in the groundhog and his shadow but I'm not at all surprised at the expected six more weeks of winter.

Useful Information

Who needs Encyclopedias when the internet is available? Evidently we do. We bought a set in 1995 as a new edition set. During the last 13 years it has had such little use that I wonder why we keep it. Now I know why.

Derek and Justin spent an afternoon building towers, huts and bridges. Derek even constructed a bridge tough enough to hold Justin. Probably not good for the books, but at least they are getting used and the boys are having a good time.

Orange ya gonna eat it?

Nathan fell in love with this orange. First he told me, "it matches my shirt! Orange, orange". Then when I told him I would cut it up for him he refused because he didn't want to hurt the orange's nose. He packed it around for a good part of the day until he could no longer deny his hunger and then he still kept a close eye on me as I cut it to make sure that I didn't cut the nose.

Wanted: scratch paper

Justin and Derek are on an oragami kick. They are going through paper like crazy. They have found ideas online, from books at the library and even learned from friends little tricks of the trade. So far they have made boxes, boats, cows, penguins, birds and planes in all different sizes.



They have used up most of their old homework papers (even Levi and Erika's) and are now looking for more paper. Mean mom that I am, I won't let them use the new office paper for the project.

Gymnast Justin

wowed the crowd with his stunts at our Primary Talent Show.

I cringed everytime I heard his feet hit the stage, praying that his ankles would hold out. He probably should have had his shoes on to do it but he's as bad as Erika (and me) when it comes to shoes so barefoot it is. Next time we'll borrow some mats for him.

Stringy Valentine's Day

Six years ago I had the wild idea to use a full skein of yarn per kid and run that yarn all over the house with a Valentine at one and a red treasure at the other end. Every year it has fallen on a school day so I could string up the house while the kids were at school and the party began after school and went through dinner. Keeping the tradition alive on a Saturday took some early morning effort on my part but it was so worth the surprise. The kids hadn't mentioned it at all so I asked them afterward if they had been expecting it. For some reason they didn't think we would do it at our new house or on a Saturday. Hah! Well, the tradition lives on.

I started at 6am. It took me a full hour set up the table for breakfast and to string up all 6 skeins of yarn. By the time I was finished I felt like I had spent the hour doing squats and stairs. It's hard to get a picture of the colorful spider web of yarn but believe me it was beautiful. The stairs is where I could get the best picture because each person crossed the stairs twice.

Justin had a primary activity at 10 so after I had spent an hour and a half keeping Nathan out of the string we finally woke everyone else up. There were teenage grumbles of "it's only 8:30" or "it's Saturday!" but they got up anyway. The sleepy, groggy kids that stumbled out of bed were soon enthusiastically winding up yarn as they covered the whole house on a Valentine treasure hunt. Nathan didn't know what would be at the end but he had a great time leading LeRoy along the green string that was labeled his.

I wondered if Levi was to old for this tradition but he assured me several time throughout the day that this is his "favorite holiday tradition ever". Justin's favorite part is that I make it difficult by winding and weaving around anything and everything I can.

This was the first year that LeRoy was a part of our stringy mess. Usually he is at work so it has always been something between the kids and I. He was surprised to find at the end of Nathan's string that there was a gift for him as well. I ordered personalized M-n-M's for him that had our picture as well a 2 different LeRoy sayings on them. He loves them! He called his dad to tell him about them. He told several of our neighbors at the primary activity about them. He is taking a bag of them to Montana to show all the guys. Luckily they came in 3 individual bags so he has opened one up to eat, the other one will be displayed on his nightstand (probably forever, or until Nathan sneaks off with them) and he's saving the other one for who knows what. We'll probably serve them to our grandkids at our 50th wedding anniversary.

Erika immediately changed into her new pajama pants

Derek was thrilled with his tongue depressors (225 of them) and roll of masking tape. He has already built a house, 2 tanks and a truck, 2 catapults and a bow and arrow set.

Nathan has stayed plenty warm indoors with his new Elmo hat and gloves.

Levi is all ready for a 6 hour flight with his travel size Guitar Hero.

Justin's addiction to hoodies lives on in red.

FHE Birthday

Among the craziness of getting 4 hours of office work done, exercising, sister phone time, scouts and my little boys, I spent a good part of Monday in the kitchen fulfilling Justin's very detailed birthday requests:

* please bring No-Bake cookies to school for my class, at least 32
* for dinner can we have meatloaf, baked potatoes, homemade bread, oh yeah, and purple jello?

It sounds a bit like the kid is starving but really he just soaked in the joy of choosing all the food for the day. Yet, when asked what he wanted as a gift, "I don't know" was his response every time.

We had a bit of a party for Justin and all went bowling for FHE. I think my boys have played pool to long and are used to bank shots. Levi was able to catch on video some of Derek and Justin doing wild shots as they bounced the bowling ball off of the bumpers 2 or 3 times and still managed to get strikes and spares that way. This one is Justin . . . (sorry the lighting is so bad)

Just for the record: I beat everyone with a spectacular score of 135. Ok, so it isn't that spectacular but since I rarely make it over 100 it ranks up there with Olympic gold in my mind.

Nathan tried bowling once and declared "that's not very fun". He spent most of the evening around the corner jumping around on the Dance Dance Revolution pad as it cycled through a demo.

After we finished bowling Erika and I went head to head - or rather foot to foot - on the DDR. It was my very first time. Since Erika chose the level and the music we did a pretty fast paced, upbeat dance. I can now see why people lose weight with that thing if they do it daily. It was great fun and oodles of laughs for my kids. Sorry, the video of that will remain in the Edwards Family Archives for my grandchildren to some day make fun of.

Happy Birthday Justin!

Justin is such a great brother, reader, gymnastic-er, scouter, laugher, writer and smiler!

I can't believe he is 10 and will be in middle school next year! It boggles my mind to think that he was temporarily our last. Life would be so different and . . . incomplete. Justin seems to defy a good part of the theories on middle child syndrome. Being the baby for 7 years somewhat solidified his playful, entertaining, bat the eyes and get what you want 'cuz you're cute position in the family. We wouldn't have it any other way.