It's been too long :(

Wow, how have I neglected this blog for soooo long?  I've missed two years of posting pictures and anecdotes.  That makes me so sad.  So much has happened since 2013.  Alex was in fourth grade, and Santi in 2nd.  Now they are sixth and fourth graders! Alex is in his last year of primary school.  I can't even begin to catch up!  They have played soccer, done tae kwon do and swimming.  They are taking ukelele and  drumset lessons (Santi uke, Alex set).   Alex has joined the middle school youth group at church, which he LOVES.  They let him even though he's still a grade behind.  Santi is in the 1st-4th grade group and does not love it :(  He wishes he were with Alex.

Alex got braces in March of this year.  He will have them two years only, hopefully.  Santi is still in the process of having teeth pulled and waiting for molars so he can get his.

We lost Abuelita, it will be three years in April.  My grandpa also died a few days later.  2013 was a hard year.  Maybe that's why I posted so little?  

We got a DOG!  I truly never thought that would happen.  It was an incentive and reward for Alex and Santi.  They love her so much.  We have almost had her for two years.

Santi and Bella

My teenage mutant ninja turtle.  Dec 2014

Ready to sing in the school chorus Dec 2014

Bella and her rubber chicken that lasted a day before she destroyed it.

May 2015.  On the way to Cancun.

We are still here!

First day of school 2015

Summer 2015

December 2014

Dec 2014

Hanging out, December 2014

Grandma visit December 2014

Dec 2014

July 19, 2015 Alex turns 11!

May 2015

July 11, 2015 (I turned 40!!)

Dec 2014

Rudolph, Dec 2014

All the photos are out of order.  Sorry!  But here we are.  We are still here, sorry for not posting for two years or so.  I'll try to do better!

Santi lost his first tooth (with a little help)!

Happy New Year from the Gomez Boys!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Alex and Santi's tower

Santi asked me to put this on the internet so everyone could see it. The boys worked together to build it.

Tree!

We got our tree on Saturday. We haven't put up a tree for a few years since we weren't in our house last year and the year before we went to the states for Christmas. It's still not all finished because it's huge and we don't have enough ornaments to fill it up yet. We're going to make some this weekend though. Alex found an old elf costume he wore a few years ago for his Christmas program at school and put it on, and took a self portrait.

Revolution Museum

We really enjoyed this museum that is also known as The house of Los Hermanos Serdan. The Serdan brothes and sister (and mother) were a big part of the start of the Mexican Revolution. There are a ton of bullet holes in this museum (from the small battle fought here)! I think it's my favorite of all the ones we've seen so far. I love when the museums also include kids' activities. This one had an ink etching that the boys did on tissue paper. It turned out nicely.

Visit to La Casa del Alfeñique Museum

Alex has a year long project for his Spanish group to make an anthology of Puebla. It includes going to about two museums a month and writing a summary about the visit and his observations. I have been enjoying this project because many of these museums are ones I've never been to before. He likes it, except when I make him do the writing!

Party

We celebrated Elias's 1st birthday and Josh's 4th a few weeks ago. It was a fun time and the pozole was yummy. The kids had lots of fun.

Life is life is life

Life is so good and so hard and so heartbreakingly stretching these days.  I don't even know how to express the heartwrenching reality of it all.  Raising these boys and being present, really present, not half listening to their conversations (and boy do we have a conversationalist here (ALEX)), but really really listening and affirming what they are feeling and doing and being honest and real and HERE;  that is the challenge of my life right now.  I used to think having babies or toddlers was hard...and it was, and I would end up exhausted by the end of the day... but this is somehow so much more emotionally and mentally demanding than I could have imagined.  But it is so good.    

This is our life: doing homework (so much homework), asking hard questions about God and life and heaven and science at bedtime (the hard questions are always saved for bedtime!), and taking care of Abuelita and doing tae kwon do, and spending time together.  I have been trying to cut out tv and videogames almost totally because of some behavior problems at school and it is really helping.  So that means more time to play and build things and color and draw and relearn how to not be bored without electronics to entertain them.  They are learning to be compassionate and understand that sometimes we have to be with Abuelita in her house for long periods of time.

I don't know if I will ever get caught up with our pictures from this year but here are a few from dressup days at school. The first one is from Independence Day and the second from 60s day. Instead of doing Halloween their school does Crazy Week and they dress up daily for a week.

Pictures

A lot of things have gone without documentation on my blog this year like birthdays and a kindergarten graduation. For a very long time I was unable to post pictures. I still can only post them using html format and I'm not sure why. That's why none of the pictures have captions anymore. But I'd rather do it this way than not at all. Here are a few pictures from July and August. Santi's kindergarten graduation, Alex receiving second place for 2nd grade and Alex and Santi's birthdays. On Alex's birthday we took the boys bowling and had a great time. On Santi's we had angry bird cupcakes and he invited a few friends.