My Sweeties Love Their Sweets......

The kids favorite treat is ice cream. Cooper got to buy an ice cream cone when he was out with Daddy and as soon as Avery laid eyes on it she just had to have some. Thank goodness Cooper was in a good mood and wanted to share it with her.  I am also happy Darin is getting use to trying to capture all these great moments for me. He didn't even think twice to hurry and grab the camera and start clicking  away!

She really could not get enough! 

I also now notice how tall Cooper is really getting. He looks like a giant next to Avery! I know, there is two and a half years between them, but still he is getting taller.

Look how wide she opens that mouth. She loves the ice cream. Just like her Daddy, Papaw and Uncle Matt!

Cooper was trying to get him some bites in but she would just wait with her mouth wide open!

I wish we had a picture of them together because this was the finished protect of how they both looked. That has to be the cutest messy face ever.

How we have felt learning language!

How We Love Saturdays!

Oh how we love Saturday mornings. We usually start off with a little video thanks to Baga and Nana! This is one of my favorite times with the kids!

Then we head to the market and then off to the playground!

Avery loves swinging with Daddy!

Cooper wishing he was a little bigger. If he can just learn that this is basketball. He calls almost all sports soccerball. That is the most popular sport here though.

What a face! I think he takes after Darin. Don't you think so?

He looks so innocent! He had to wear his new Lightning McQueen jacket that Lily Bug got him! 

We love getting to hangout with family on Saturday. The Lord has truly blessed us so much!

Park and AMUSEMENT!

Well we went to our first amusement park here in Costa Rica.  It was very big and had lots of rides. But it was very different then the parks back at home. Differences are: put can just cut in front of you in line. Doesn't matter if you are waiting on the same ride.  Then the ride could go around once or could go around ten times. It was all on their timing and they were in no hurry. So where in the states you would get yelled at if someone got in front of you or the lines would go at a good pace, nobody cared! Pura Vida is the saying here meaning "Pure Life" and to just live life.

So here is Cooper on his first ride! He loved it! All the rides were sponsored by someone. That explains the Scott tissue on the side.

Hey Dad, do you see me going around and around?

Darin and Cooper getting ready to go on the roller coaster. It went so fast that I couldn't even get another picture of them on it. Cooper loved it and wanted to do it again but we just couldn't wait in that line again! 

Waiting in a line! Most of our pictures were us waiting in line!

We were up pretty high. I am fine with it until I have a three year old in it with me that wants to walk back and forth in it. He really has no fear, except fireworks!

This is Coop and the neighbor girls! We loved them riding this ride because there wasn't any line AND it was in the shade!

I know this picture is blurry but it shows how happy she was to get down for a little while!

Play, Play and More Play........

We love to go to the many parks they have around here. So I thought I would post a few pics of here on a couple of our many trips to the parks.  Cooper will run as hard as he can for hours when we go. It is perfect for him to get some of that energy out.

This is Cooper with a few of his friends Mylee and Evie. They are also our next door neighbors who will be here until April.

He loves to get some mommy time! I also love it!

Daddy and his little girl! She is always sticking that tongue out now that she is cutting a tooth. Darin had to make sure that I was getting the mountains in the background. If you talk to him make sure you comment on the beautiful mountains!

Cooper made a new little Tico friend. This is a big metal boat that goes back and forth and is very loud. All the kids love it though!

This is our neighbor Gabrielle. We are just playing on the monkey bars remembering when we were kids.

It was really cute watching both of them learning how exactly this thing worked.

My big boy! He is growing up so fast. Does it ever slow down? It seems like it is just flying by so far. He is going to be 4 this year. Is that really possible. Surely it will slow down. Right?

REALLY! WHAT NEXT??????

This week has felt like a real roller coaster ride.  We started out in the week with school orientation.  We got to have an oral exam and then a written exam so they would know how much spanish we truly DON'T know. So then two nights ago we were getting ready to go to bed and Darin heard someone crawling on the roof.  So he goes outside and I of course lock the door behind him and praying that nobody would jump down to get him because I was not going to open the door and let them get to my sleeping babies.  So we were looking around for about 30 minutes. Darin said he couldn't see completely on the roof because they could have just been laying down. So we came in turned all the lights off, got in bed and about 20 minutes later we heard it again. They were trying to hurry and crawl off of the roof though. So we finally got to sleep around 1:30 and are beautiful kids decided to wake up at 5:30. We were exhausted.

So yesterday we are at the school with Cooper and Avery waiting to have a scheduled meeting with the head person at the school when all of the sudden everything was shaking.  It kept going and going and everyone was running out of the buildings and the Tico's were crying. It was pretty scary. Well, it ended up being a 6.1 earthquake. Cooper enjoyed it of course.  But I actually got pretty dizzy. It didn't just have a sudden stop.  It just kept going back and forth slower and slower. The head lady has lived here for 20 years and said it was the worst she has ever felt.  Then later in the news they said it was the worst in 25 years and two girls did die in a landslide that was caused from it.

Then later last night we were getting to skype with Nana and Papaw and Cooper was all excited to tell Papaw something and he slipped off the chair and hit his eye on the wooden arm of another chair. It immediately started swelling and then turned blue.  He screamed and screamed and we actually had to get off with them.  Sorry Papaw and Nana, we love you all and hope to skype again soon.  So we got him calmed down and to bed.  Then I heard a gecko in the house. So some say it is good to have them in here but I am no Ace Ventura so Darin had to catch it and get it out of the house.  So we then got to bed around midnight and Cooper woke up with a nightmare around 2am.  So we were calming him down and he asked Darin to pray for him, which almost put me to tears.  Just a reminder from my three year old son that we should take everything to the Lord first and foremost.  Then right after he feel asleep we heard someone run across our roof, again.  So we stayed up for quite a while and we prayed about it.

I felt so relaxed after that just knowing that the Lord is so much bigger and that Satan is doing everything he can to frighten us.  Which don't get me wrong he is getting his job done at times.  But just the reminder of God is in control and only his grace is sufficient.  Look at what he has got us thru already: Lost luggage finally arrived, Cooper's surgery two weeks into our stay, a mouse was caught in the house and there is much more.  So who knows what Satan or the Lord has in store for us, but all we can do is just Praise the Lord for each trial, tribulation and victory.  The Lord has put us here for a reason and we must give Him all the glory!

So this morning we start out tired and one with a black eye, but we just ask for your pray for strength, wisdom, protection, energy and most of all that we acknowledge the Lord in everything we do. 

White Sands, Pools and Sunsets!

What an amazing getaway. This trip was right before Christmas but haven't had time to blog about it yet. It was pretty cheap with all meals included. We all took a public bus ride that was almost three hours. It wasn't too bad except they also sell tickets for people to stand in the middle of the aisle. So that made an interesting trip!

This was one of the views from the bus! It was very pretty and a little scary taking all these sharp curves and one lane bridges in this huge bus. 

Cooper was a little tired from the bus ride so he caught a luggage ride to the room.

This is one of the two beaches we could go to. The closest one had darker sand and the one that we would catch a little tram to and ride about 5 minutes had white sand! It was just so nice to be at the beach, but we did enjoy the white sand one more!

This is one of three pools. The kids pool was amazing. Cooper could touch through the entire thing. It even had that little thing in the corner of the picture that had water coming down from it and you could walk through it. Cooper loved the pool!

We didn't really fix Cooper's hair this way! He was just so hot and sweaty that it stayed that way after playing with it. Kinda cute though. What do you think?

This is what Avery thought of the beach!

She woke up not knowing what to think. Can you tell she has a very frightened look on her face!

Avery's first step into the sand. Not really sure what to think about it. 

Should I cry or should I smile?

Cooper liked Avery's float more than his. I think he likes to take anything she has though.

Two gook lookin' guys if I may say so!

The kids loved watching the monkey's at breakfast! There were five or six of them around at that time!  Cooper and Darin could have stood there all morning watching them but we had to get to the pool.

This was the gang building a mermaid on Jake. Well Cooper kept saying, "Look mommy, we're making Ariel."  He didn't quite know what the chest was so he kept putting sticks in there. It was pretty funny!

Avery enjoyed sitting and the stroller while just feeling the breeze and looking at the ocean.

We then put here in the turtle float and let her lay out in the sun. She loved getting to sunbath.

A family picture! Well, you can't tell it is Avery but she was so fascinated at the sand and water that she wouldn't look up. So this is the best we could get.

I am not sure why Cooper had these on. He would not even think about going under the water.

Ok, he must have only been wearing it to make a cute picture! Thanks Coop!

Besides monkeys, iguanas, lizards, birds...... there were also raccoons. This one came to the pool and decided to steal Cooper's banana off of the chair. They were not scared of people at all. One even came and sniffed the leg of one of our friends. I didn't like that part of all. They are just nasty animals. 

I did not even bring a bathing suit to Costa Rica. So thanks Crystal for letting me borrow one.

The baby pool was really amazing. It had a slope that Avery loved to sit and crawl on. Perfect for her to get to play in the water as well.

Well it was time to leave and Cooper was very sad about it. He thought we were moving again. So when we did get back home he said that he wanted to go back to the other house. Poor guy thinks we are always moving now. Nothing that ice cream can't help calm down and make everything be alright.