Two months old!!

When Ashlyn was born I was instantly in love, I just couldn’t get enough of my little girl. This time when Sydnie was born it was different. I was instantly in love but it took awhile for me to actually “bond” with her. Since I already had Ashlyn I just didn’t have a lot of free time to get to know her. Then one day Sydnie smiled at me and my heart melted! Now it has become an addiction of mine to see how big I can get her to grin.

Sydnie is now two months old and is starting to learn how to “talk”. She loves spending time in her bouncy seat kicking her legs and watching her big sister run around. She has also successfully rolled over from her stomach to her back quite a few times. My favorite “accomplishment” (other than smiling) is that she now is only getting up once during the night. Hurray!

Here is a video of her smiling at my "oo and ah" noises. For some reason she just thinks it is great when I "oo & ah". This video was taken the first week she really started to smile so some of her grins aren't the most coordinated! She is getting better. ;)

Tree Dwellers

This week I've noticed our chickens don't seem to be around as much as usual. Even when Ashlyn and I take walks around the yard I often don't see them. Finally this morning I started to think perhaps they are flying over our wall into the neighbor’s yard. So Ashlyn and I went on a "hen hunt" to find our missing chickens. After two laps around our yard we had only spotted one. Finally on our third lap we found both of them.
I couldn't believe I had somehow missed a chicken in our small yard so I decided to investigate the area they were hanging out in. As I walked over one of them ran by me and jumped up into our tree, disappearing into the branches! When I looked up in the tree there was one of our neighbor’s hens sitting in it too! What on earth!?
I then remembered the Nicaraguan man we bought the chickens from saying they will sleep in trees at night. I had never heard of such a thing and figured he meant they just flew up on a low branch and roosted there.
We had built our "Golden Girls" a lovely home for them to sleep in like any American would. Last week Adam had cleaned it out and I had put a fresh sack for them to sleep on in there. Obviously they were not impressed because they are no longer sleeping in their home, but dwelling in our tree!

Sitting in the tree!

Rose peeking down at me through the branches.

Their abandoned home.

Oddly enough, I also discovered there was a wheel stuck in our tree. Can't explain that one.

Volcano Conception

Last week our friendly neighborhood volcano gave a burp! A cloud of ash went up in the air and "snowed" a thin layer at camp.
This isn't a great picture but it gives you an idea of what it looked like.


Volcano Conception is on Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua. It's one of Nicaragua's highest (5,283 feet) and most active volcano's erupting at least 24 times since 1883.

More pictures!

Sydnie & Ashlyn making funny faces...

Ashlyn helping me give Sydnie her first bath.

Sydnie looking around.

Ashlyn holding Sydnie. Giving her little sister kisses.