The New Year

So, I have been negligent of the blog a bit lately. But I have a very good excuse. John's been working on his National Science Foundation grant application very intensively for the last 2 - 2 1/2 weeks, so that took precedence obviously! This picture should help you forgive me...

Wondering what that pic is all about? Well that's me 1. showing off how cute I am, 2. showing off my pregnant belly and 3. showing you why John can't resist me every night b/c that is what I look like! It's so cold at night that I seem to always have some variation of this outfit on. It gives us a laugh. Thought it would for you too.

So now that you have forgiven me, I proceed. I have a few fun pictures to post and a story or two as well. The other morning we woke up to this amazing rainbow:

And here's visual proof of one of Lu and Levi's favorite things about Nahuala, the animals. There are chickens and roosters everywhere, along with dogs, cats, cows (mostly bulls, they don't like to eat the cows, just the bulls...I dunno), pigs, and sheep.

In fact, animal words have been some of the first words in spanish to really stick with Lucy (and "princesa") just because we're always seeing them and they're so interesting to them; probably because you just don't see pigs wandering around Albany! The other day some baby chicks wandered into our courtyard. A few of Lu and Levi's friends were here playing (Ronny & Melvin) and caught one for the kids to pet. Lu ran away screaming, Levi was just laughing and petting it! Here's Ronny with one of the little babies:

And, I love this recipe, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Carbonara-II/Detail.aspx it's for Carbonara. I prefer Linguine or Fettucini but this recipe calls for spaghetti. It's been another addition to the plethora of American food our friends here are requesting I make for them. The most popular is Pizza and, I never thought I'd say this, but I am sick of pizza! Second is Lasagna and I'm sick of that too. Not to mention, those foods are expensive in comparison to all the other food I can make here and I'm always makinng it for a group so it gets extra expensive! And I'm really cheap... So I branched out to Carbonara, a bit cheaper and not so tomatoey. And lately too, fruit crisp has been a big hit too. Also, I haven't made this for anyone yet, but this is such a good Enchilada Sauce Recipe and you can make a bunch and freeze half, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Red-Enchilada-Sauce/Detail.aspx.

Also, speaking of the New Year, they set off an amazing amount of fireworks for both Christmas Eve and New Years. My pregnant self didn't make it all the way to midnight on New Years but I did see Christmas Eve and the kids did too and WOW. It was really impressive. Ever since then Levi is always asking me for "fireworks, mommy". And I forget if I said this, but anytime I blow my nose (and it's only me b/c I sound like a fog horn) he points at me and says, "fireworks". Okay, that's all for now. Love you all!