Eliza is 5

We had a frantic week to get back to Idaho, but we did and had a great little birthday party for Eliza. We had 4 of her cousins, two of her friends from Twin Falls, and the grandparents all came. We played pass the parsel and a cupcake walk. It was a great party.
Eliza is such a special girl. She is so innocent and sweet. She loves beautiful things. She loves to color and can color all day. She loves Barbie movies, dressing up, and playing with her friends. She has such a tender heart and truly wants to be a good girl. She is quite the thinker. She is reading a little and she asks great questions and is always trying to figure things out. She is truly a special little girl and is my favorite Christmas present.

Coming to America

David finished off his semester with a bang. He did great and we don't have to go back to Grenada. We packed up the last few days but were mostly concerned about selling our car. We have been praying and fasting that we could sell the car before we left but that didn't happen. We were given a name of a Grenadian that sells cars for you. He is a middle man so we thought we would try, but the problem is that we needed to replace the windshield but it wasn't scheduled until 4 days after we left. We left our car with some good friends and they were kind enough to help us out. We gave Sean, the Grenadian, the money for our windshield and he took $200 EC and we haven't heard from him. He totally hosed us. The windshield is fixed but the mechanic is $200 short and won't give up the car. We are so frustrated because we were trying to do nice things for others and be kind but we got hosed, this is not the 1st time either,,, just wait. The day before we left Sean called and said that the power was turned off at their home and he needed $200 EC to turn it back on. We told him we couldn't help because we were leaving the next day and we had already changed all of our money into US dollars. Now that we find out that we are $200 short at the mechanics and Sean is no where to be found we know that he took the money we gave him. Super duper frustrating.
So that is the car, we are still trying to sell it and are in the process of getting it from the mechanics.
Leaving Grenada I wish was a smooth transition but knowing us and our luck with travel it was another nightmare.
Originally we were to leave Grenada at 6:25 AM to Barbados at 7:25 then to Dallas by 10:30. This was plenty of time in Barbados to go through customs and immigration and check back on to catch our AA flight to Dallas,,, but this was not to be.
We got to the airport at 4:10 AM with 3 children and lots of luggage and LIAT airline ticket workers didn't even show up until 5:15 and they told us that our flight was delayed an hour and a half. K, that was bad but that still gave us enough time to catch our next flight. That 1 1/2 hours turned into 4 1/2 hours and we missed our connection out of Barbados to Dallas. The plane was in Trinidad and didn't even arrive until 11:15.... so now we are in trouble. We will be stuck in Barbados if we don't do anything. I talked to the LIAT ticket people and they said they take no responsibilities of flight missed from other airlines. They could not do anything for us.
David and I wanted to make sure that we did all we could to make sure we got back to the states, anywhere in the states so we started to call AA to get on a flight to Miami that was leaving at 4:00. They reserved our seats and confirmed, told us that it would be an additional $1300 dollars for the change. We didn't care at that point because we wanted to get off of the island and it didn't seem that we had a choice, so we booked it.
We finally got to Barbados and went up to the ticket desk and the lady told us that we shouldn't have called. LIAT took care of all of the passengers that missed the flight and payed for the transfer fee for them and booked them on their continuing flights. We couldn't cancel ours or we wouldn't have any seats on the flight. So that phone call cost us $1300. We were so ticked. We talked and talked to them. There wasn't anything that they could do for us and the customer relations people would have to work it out when we got home. At this point we were so ticked off and really had no faith that they would do anything for us. We were just trying to do the right thing and take care of our family. With the information that they gave us calling the reserving us seats seemed to be the best thing for our family, but again we got HOSED big time and it still makes me fume.
The rest of the flights went fine. We had to do customs and immigration in Miami also, but that was pretty smooth although there were tons of people. We got to Dallas at midnight and Michelle, David's sister picked us up and we had a great night at her house and fun morning with her kids. IT was such a blessing to have a warm welcome after being hosed and having a frustrating day. The kids were so great. They were tired from waking up so early and were disappointed when the flight was so late, but they were great on the plane and through all of the customs and immigration. They slept most of the flights. They were great.
We made our SLC flight and we were almost home.
We are glad to be back to the land of the free home of the brave. Grenada was a great experience and are so grateful that David was successful but we love America and it is a truly a blessed country.

Kid's recital

The kid's school had a recital and they had been practicing all month. I was so proud of them. They sang and did all of the acts they were taught. They didn't cry or anything.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just another Thursday for all of the students. We don't get a day off and the students continue to study. We had pizza on the Thanksgiving Thursday but on Friday we got together with the other families in our apartment and had Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious. We had chicken cord en bleu, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, jello, and pies. It was nice to be with friends and have David relax for an evening and eat some delicious food.I am thankful for so many things... the USA, my wonderful children, my husband, that he is in med school, my family, water that is consistent, and hot water.

I am especially grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the plan of salvation and prayer.

I am glad there is a day to focus on how lucky we are, I have truly already won the lottery.

La Sagesse

We went to a new beach this week. It is up the island a bit. The beach goes into the ocean for a long time, meaning you can walk with ankle deep water for about 20-30 yards. It was fun for the kids to play in. It is always fun to explore new parts of the island.

Carter dancing

Carter has just recently started to dance.

He is 9 months old and such a cutie, he is such a content baby , he loves his brother and sister, his top teeth have just broken through, and he has beautiful blue eyes.

Some pics

At the school's parade

Friday night they have a steel drum band come to a little restaurent on the bay and we went and danced. The kids had a great time.

sipping from a coconut type thing.

Halloween

We had a great halloween. My mind has been going for a month of how I am going to make halloween costumes here with limited resources and funds. Well I think it turned out great. Eliza was Rapunzel and I made her hair, it wasn't perfect but it worked for about 3 hours during halloween. I made here shirt out of an old Laker's t-shirt, in side out, cut, hand sewn for a few ruffles then criss crossed,,,not too bad. Then Fenton wanted to be an airplane so I started putting that together in my mind. It turned out great and he loved it. That is worth it all for him to love his costume. Incidentally he won the most creative costume at our little party.
For halloween the SO put on a party on campus and about 12 departments decorate and hand out candy to the kids, so the children go all over campus and trick or treat. It is quite unique and fun. Then they come back to the party and have a bouncy house, face painting, cake walk, bowling ect and lots of fun festive treats. It was great halloween and I am glad that my parents could be there with us, it made it a little more special.
Carter was a little tiger, sorry no pics, he fell asleep in the little backpack I had on. I had a sign on my backpack that said "USA or bust" :)

Best surprise

Before I came down to Grenada my parents said they were going to come visit. I was super excited about it and started looking into tickets and such. In September I told them I had found really good prices and they needed to look into it. As they researched it out they found that it was still going to be out of their budget so my mom told me at the end of September that they were not going to be able to come visit. I was bummed but I understood. It is alot of money to come down here, and I was going to see them in December anyway.
About a week ago my dad called up and said he had a meeting and met some USU guy that wanted to come down to Grenada and check out the university. I thought it was a long shot but dad has met crazy people so who am I to say. Dad told me that this guys dad was a pilot and had flight benefits and that is why he could come. Anyway my dad asked if I wanted anything sent down and of course I had a few items that I would love from the states. Then I told him that I would pick this guy up and show him around. For one brief moment I thought that this would be cool if was really my parents but I truly thought that they had decided against it, plus my nephew, the first grandchild on a mission comes home in 9 days, no way my parents would miss that so I totally displaced it from my mind.
so the night that I was to pick up this guy from USU came and I went to the airport and out comes walking my mom and my dad. I went running over to them just screaming and jumping up and down. I couldn't believe it. They were here!!!! they had flown all that way and they were right here in the middle of the Caribbean with me. It was awesome. My mind was flying... what would the kids say, what would David say... I have to entertain them and how many fun things are we going to do. It was the best surprise!!!!
The kids woke up and saw grandpa and they just looked at him like "I know you, why are you here, you aren't supposed to be here." but they loved it. They had so much fun with grandma and grandpa. They picked a great week. The kids had a little parade at school that we went to and the primary had their program on Sunday which Eliza was in and I helped with and then Monday was Halloween and their Halloween here is a bit different but fun. So we had a memorable week together. We went to the beach, pool, waterfalls, market downtown, beach, pool, and played tennis. Now they are off to see their grandkid come home from his mission in Portland.
Thanks for coming and being with our little family in our little apartment on our little island!!!!

Of course dad had to fit some Charity Anywhere in so we visited the disabled home on the island and left some hygeine kits with the maternity ward at the hospital... DO GOOD AND BE GOOD!!!

Dad drinking a sweet melon. similar to a coconut

Neighbors

We live at an apartment complex called the Flats and we have great neighbors. We had 5 families living here with 11 children. It was so fun for the kids to run from one house to the next. Eliza loved playing with her friends. At 6:30 in the morning (yes the kids get up at 5:30) she would want to play with her friends. Every night after dinner the kids were let free in the parking lot and they played until it got dark. It was a great way for them to get their energy out. The women would come out on the steps and watch the kids, talk, and kiss all of the scratches of the children better. It is a great little neighborhood we have going. One of the families had to leave last Saturday and she had 3 children. We miss their presence and it just isn't the same without them.
The last night they were here we had a bon fire and the kids loved it. Marshmallows, friends, fire, it doesn't get much better than that.

Cayden, Addie, Eliza, Fenton, Cody, and Allie
playing at the neighbors house.

some stories

The kids one day were talking about when they saw a porcupine. I asked them what they thought of the porcupine and they both said that it had pokies, then Fenton said "Giraffes don't have pokies" Why he went straight from porcupine to giraffe I will never know.

We live on the second floor of our apartment complex and 3 days ago Carter climbed up all of the stairs. He is everywhere.

I hate ants. There are significantly less here than our last place, but I still hate them. I follow them and watch them to their hideout and then I spray them and kill them all. I know this sounds normal but I feel like I am stalking them or obsessed with them. Well I found them in the bathroom. I was drying myself off and I felt little bites and I had 2 or 3 ants on my back. I looked on my towel and they were all over. I looked at the other towels and they were all over them. I was so mad. I took them to the washing machine thinking that would kill them... nope. So I had David spray all of the towels with bug spray and wash them again. After that I went through the towels individually inch by inch to get out the dead ants. I was so "bugged" that they had attached the towels so I went and found their home and sprayed them. I haven't seen them since. I have found a few trails throughout the house and I use my bug spray like mace now. I HATE ants.

shower

In the shower today, the water went out and Fenton said "the water isn't working mom. The batteries are broken, we need a new house".

Annandale Falls

Before General Conference on Saturday, the kids and I went up to Annandale falls and had a great time cooling off, swimming, and jumping off the little cliffs. It was fun to see the kids jump off a little cliff and then swim around the waterfalls. It was an awesome view and fun to be up there with my family and friends.

On the way up, we got a little lost but found these fun monkeys that we fed bananas. It was a fun detour.

Pearls Airport

On the North side of the island is an old airport and some broken planes. We went up there and looked around.

Mt. Carmel rock slide

David and Fenton going down the waterfall slide.

After David's test we went to visit Mt. Carmel falls and went down the rock slide. The kids did great. They loved it and was minimally scared.

Our Everyday

This is my dryer.
at the beach

Lance Aux Epines beach. It is about 400 yards away from our house.

my kids

Fenton with David's shin guards on

Carter riding big in the shopping cart