Los Sanders Family

Apple Picking!

2010-09-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

I was so exited to go apple picking, I always wanted to do it. Growing up in Honduras never gave me a chance to get to know an apple tree. Most of the fruits I got to know where coconuts, guava, mangos, papaya and so on. Just tropical fruits.
So this was an activity we did with some of the Relief Society sisters and I had a lot of fun.
Isaac had fun picking up the apples from the tree, but everytime he did it he bit them. He probably had two & a half apples. One of the things he liked the most was looking at the animals. Isaac and I have been learning animals from an animal book he has. When I say I have been learning it is because I didn't know a lot of the animals and because the book is in English I had to get the dictionary and translate them (I felt bad when he would ask for the name of the animal in Spanish and I didn't know it). But anyways he is doing a good job learning the animals and the book consists of 100 animals and so far he knows at least 60. I promised when he learn all of them I would buy him a fish.(I wanna buy him a Nemo fish, he wants it too, except Mark thinks it is too expensive).Well anyways he liked looking at the animals and he recognized a lot of them from the book. He also got to "ride" a tractor. He loves cars, all types of cars and he's fascinated whe he gets to ride in any type of car, especially the bus and the train.
Here are some pics I got of us picking some delicious and juicy apples.

The girl on the back is a friend from the ward.

Castle Island Beach!

2010-08-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach on Friday. I was a little disappointed because the beach was a little different than what I was expecting(a "little" different like prime rib is a little different from ground chuck - note from Mark) It was really pretty though, and I was a little cold by the end of our walk, I still don't know how I am going to handle the winter time here.
It looks like our summer days are going to be gone very soon, but we are enjoying the nice weather so far.
Here are more pics of our walk on Friday. All we have to say is that we really like Boston and there are lots of things to do here, we are hoping to have family and friends come visit us.
ENJOY!!!!!!

Our Tiger!!

2010-08-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

So we had a BBQ in our apartment complex yesterday and I was somewhat disapointted because I was thinking about North Carolina BBQ and Mark told me that the BBQ's here are a little different, like hot dogs and hamburgers, but anyways it was free and I can't complain. They also had a woman painting all the kids' faces. They looked so cute. I decided to take Isaac so he could get something cute done on his face. I was thinking about a car, but he saw a boy with a Lions face and he liked it. The girl who was painting their faces suggested a Tiger and I didn't care so he got a Tiger's face and he did really good as she was painting his face.Here are some pics:

The beginning of the process.

He was really happy when he saw himself in the mirror for the first time.

He didn't want to go take a nap because he wanted to see his face on the mirror. I also found him doing tiger faces and when I went in the room he stopped doing it.

We are in Boston!!

2010-08-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Finally we made it toBooooooossssston!
We are really excited to be here and Mark is excited to start school tomorrow.
Yesterday Mark and I were celebrating our 6th anniversary and we decided to go out and explore a little bit in the city. Isaac was really excited because he got to ride the bus and the train. Isaac is really funny and he enjoys living in "the Boston" like he says it.
Everytime we mention we are going home, he says "no, go the Boston" hahahahaha, so that is what he calls our new house, the boston.
So anyways we were exploring and decided to go and rent a kayak. We had a lot of fun, it wasn't anything like going to Roatan, Honduras last year but we had a fun day, and of course I had to take a camera with me, so I was allow to bring my point shoot camera, (just in case we ended up in the river).
Here are some pics and I will be posting pictures of our apartment soon.

2010-07-21T22:14:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to let you guys know that we are moving next week to Boston.
We are trying to pack and hopefully we will be done soon. We are really exited about moving up to Boston, I think it will be another great adventure like the one we had in Honduras, except this time we are gonna be able to visit family. We are sad to leave our family again and we'll miss them a lot.
I'll try to keep you posted after we move.
I'll be posting new pictures soon...

My cute boy!!!

2010-07-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

These are Isaac 3 year old pictures.

Hope you enjoy them!!!

He is pretending he is asleep.

B-day party pictures

2010-07-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

I know is late but I wanted to share some of Isaac's b-day pictures.

Some of my friends here in Fayetteville.

I looovveeee this picture. I think he looks just like his dad. he is so funny!!!

The cake.

I wanted to thank my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law (Elizabeth) for making this beautiful cake. The kids loved it.

Opening Presents.

I'm glad my family came to celebrate with us.

Hello!

2010-07-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

I know it has been so long and I'm sorry I haven't posted anything. I have been so busy with my photography bussiness and now we are finally moving on the 29th of July. But anyways, I just wanted to say HAPPY 4th of JULY! My sister-in -law Catherine and I did this. It was my idea to do pictures with the sparklers with a very low shutter speed.

My name. KEYLA

Mother-in-law. MOM

my husband MARK

A neat JULY

This is Catherine writing her husband's name. BRIAN

Good news for our Family!!!

2010-03-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you may already know, Mark got accepted to the Masters School Leadership Program at Harvard University. We are really exited, although I am not exited about the cold weather and moving again, I think I better buy a good coat and some good boots.
Please congratulate Mark, he's been a little modest and won't tell anyone unless they ask.
The Program will be for a year. I think we will be moving at the end of July or beginning of August and the program will end next August.

Como algunos de ustedes sabran, Mark fue aceptado al Programa de Maestria en Liderasgo en Educacion en la Universidad de Harvard. Estamos muy felices, aunque no estoy tan emocionada por el frio de aya y por la mudanza, creo que voy a comprarme un buen abrigo y unas botas.
Porfavor feliciten a Mark, el es un poco modesto y no quiere decirle a nadie a menos que pregunten.
El programa va a ser por un año. Creo que nos vamos a mudar los ultimos de julio, principios de agosto y el programa terminara el proximo agosto.

2010-03-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

This are a few pics of my child. He is getting cuter and smarter everyday. What can I say, he is my son!! lol.
I took these couple of pictures in Durham while visiting some friends. I was glad to have help while taking the pictures. When I try to do it by myself, he likes to touch the camera and after each shot he wants to see the picture. I think he is trying to make sure I'm doing it right.

I made him pose for me and I was surprised he did it.

The other day I was shopping at Target and when I was about to pay, I saw Isaac holding this hat. I didn't even notice he had it. He must of grabbed it from the shelves. I had to buy it, I think he looks cute and of course he wanted it. I think sometimes having an only child makes me spoil him more. Isaac definitely gets his way a lot of times.

That is a cute smile, I love this picture!!!!

I think Isaac might give me trouble when he gets older. He has so many fans anywhere we go, and of course all the fans are women. Not just young women, but older women too. There was a young woman in Honduras that wants Isaac to go back when he gets older. Mark told her no, because by the time he is twenty, she'll be thirty-five.

This are his two favorite stuffed animals. Pablo from Backyardigans and Brandon a dog we bought him in Honduras.

ICE AGE 2

2010-01-30T11:19:00.000-08:00

Today we had some snow here in Fayetteville NC, but mostly it was ice.
We took Isaac out so that he could see the snow, being his first time to kind of enjoy it. Unfortunately last year we were in Honduras and were not able to see the snow, and the year before that he was 6 months during the winter time and we did not have a very cold winter that year.
Isaac was sick last week but he is feeling better. We took him to the doctor in Durham because he doesn't have a pediatrician here and none would see him sick as the first time visit. So we went to Durham. He had a bilateral ear infection which was causing the fever.Thankfully he is better and we don't have to stay up all night with him anymore.Here are a few pics and a video from today, hope you enjoy it!!!!!

Hoy tuvimos nieve aqui en Fayetteville Carolina del Norte., pero mayormente era hielo.
Sacamos a Isaac afuera para que pudiera ver la nieve, era la primera vez basicamente que la disfruta un poco. Desafortunadamente el año pasado estuvimos en Honduras(no me la tomen mal eh, nada mas lo digo por la nieve) y no pudimos ver la nieve, y el año antepasado Isaac solo tenia 6 meses y no lo disfruto, pero tampoco tuvimos mucha ese año.
Isaac estaba enfermo la semana pasada pero ya esta mejor.
Lo llevamos al doctor en Durham (en otra ciudad como a hora y media de aqui) porque no tiene pediatra aqui y ninguno lo iba ver por primera vez solo porque estaba enfermo, entonces fuimos a Durham y tenia una infeccion bilateral de oidos que le estaba causando la fiebre. Lo bueno esque ya esta mejor y no tenemos que desvelarnos mas con el.Aqui hay un video y unas fotos de hoy, espero que las disfruten!!!!

My cute boy

2010-01-24T11:54:00.000-08:00

These pictures were taken on Monday and I meant to post these pictures last week, but like always there is something going on.
On thursday Isaac started feeling sick and last night we had a rough night with him. He had a fever of 105 F, but fortunally we were able to get it down. (**note from Mark: He threw up all over me, I love being a parent!!!) He seems to feel just a little bit better but we are hoping that his fever is not going to come back.
I had a good time trying to take these pictures, he did not seem very happy when I pulled my camera out, he thought we were gonna go outside and play but I wasn't planning the same.

We were walking on the back of the apartments and Isaac saw this little bicycle sitting on the back porch of our neighbor and he stole it and I I let him do it because I wanted to take a picture on the bicycle. We took it back once we were done.

These are just a lot of pictures I took.

I was torturing Isaac, I was trying to put him on the swing standing up but he did not like it.

I got a few pictures of him making some cute little faces.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

He was tired and wanted to go home and get the lollypop I promised him.

I let him get into our neighbors car. Isaac loves trucks.

I love this pictures, and you might be wondering how I got him to pose, well I told Isaac, lets take a picture for grandma and he is like, picture for grandma, grandma. I got him to sit and I put my hand on my chin and he did it for me too.I said this picture was taken for grandma, now I have to give this picture to grandma.

These is Isaac's gift for letting me take pictures, and he was enjoying it.

2010-01-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a long time since I posted anything on the blog, and I'm sorry, but life has been really busy lately. Mark, Isaac, and I came back from Honduras on November 18 of 2009. It was a hard move from one country to another, then 2 weeks later we moved again to an apartment. We are living now in Fayetteville, NC. My in-laws live here and it is very nice to have family close to us, since in Honduras we were by ourselves basically. So it has been a great blessing.
Mark is still working with the NC virtual public school, I stay at home but I am planning to start my photography business soon. We are trying to get back to normal life, though I don't even know what normal is anymore.
I feel blessed that we are back and even though it was hard to move from Honduras because we made great friends down there. We are happy to be back and happy that I get to stay in the country without any legal problems.
I took a few pictures of our apartment during Christmas time and I meant to post them but you know how it goes with Christmas and moving so, here they are. I also took a few pictures of Isaac a few weeks ago and a few recent ones I took with his cousins Emily and Adam. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will be posting a lot from now on since blogging has become a little easier thanks to my sister-in-law Elizabeth.
I hope to be in touch with all of you who look at our blog and sorry again.

He does not very happy because it was very cold and he got tire of posing for the camera. This was 2 days ago.

This picture was a few week ago.

Playing on the play ground in our apartment complex.

The biggest news!!!

2009-10-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post a few pictures we took of our family on the weekend and a few pictures I tried to take of the boy, and as you can imagine a 2 year old does not sit still for pictures, but I think I got some cute ones. I wished he would sit and do what I say when taking pictures.
And the other big news I wanted to share, although some of you already know is that my visa was approved.
Last Friday we called the U.S consulate and they told Mark over the phone that it was approved and that we needed to call on Monday to make an appointment. So Mark decided to go to the U.S consulate instead of calling because they don't answer the phone until 2pm if they answer it at all. And while there the lady at the reception asked him if he had my passport and Mark didn't understand why she would need my passport. We really thought that I was gonna have another interview and that I needed it to give them more information. We thought that the interview was probably gonna be in a month or so. But when Mark asked why, she said if you bring the passport in the morning it will be ready in the afternoon. So because the consulate was gonna be closed today Mark is going tomorrow and in the afternoon it will be ready with a seal on it and after that I can go back to the U.S whenever I want to.
I don't want to disappoint anyone but we are not leaving very soon yet, well at least we don't know yet. We have things we need to do before we go. We have to sell our car and I need to say good bye to family. Like many of you know last year I found my dad and I met a brother and a sister I did not know they existed. I also have my brother in Copán (my home town) and now that I will be gone he is going to be the only close family member of my family in Honduras. So I need to spend some time with him before I go and of course we also have friends that we need to say good bye to. We will keep you updated when we decide to go back so we can see our family and friends.
I also wanted to thank all of you who prayed for us that we may go back to the U.S and that we would be protected. We appreciate your faith and your prayers and your fasting.
And here are some pictures, of our family, but especially from our cute and handsome little boy.
Enjoy!!!!

Oreos and milk!!! Ummmmmmmm!

He knew I was taking pictures so he didn't stop moving.

I want to touch the camera!!

2009-09-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Isaac has a favorite "puzzew." He completes it about 5-6 times a day and many of fit has been thrown when the "puzzew" can't accompany him in the car, the dinner table, the bathtub, or the potty. He has been getting better and better with the alphabet as well. This is him going through the alphabet with his mama. If it doesn't sound quite right to you, it is in Spanish although the "t" gets a little english love.

In our apartment we have a water cooler. Keyla and I figure with work and the boy taking so much of our time, we need a place to meet up and talk every so often- hence the water cooler. That, and we live in Central America where drinking from the tap is like russian roulette with your digestive track.

Anyways, Isaac is always trying to see what he can get into. This time he found a place he can literally get into (well except for his large cranium). He did all this on his own while mom and dad were talking to friends through skype, and not paying attention to him. So we saw him, ran for the camera, and made him do it all over again. Of course this time he had to be coached. Either way, if the UNC linebacker falls through there's always a future in contortion-ism.

This picture doesn't really do justice to how small that compartment is.

With a little more coaching from his dad, we will be ready for Letterman. Do they have a "Stuff you make your son do" category for the Stupid Human Tricks??

"Isaac reading a book"

2009-09-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

This is a video I recorded a few weeks ago. So I went to the bookstore and I bought a Winnie the Pooh book for Isaac . The book has like ten bed-time stories and they are very short. I tried to read it to Isaac but he wouldn't let me read it to him. Then I recorded this video of him reading the book, but we haven't figured out in which language he was reading(The book is in Spanish). I couldn't understand anything he said but maybe you can. Let me know if you know this strange language. I hope you like it!!

2009-08-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

We went to Roatán, it is in the Caribbean, it is one of the bay islands in Honduras. We were celebrating our 5th anniversary an we had a wonderful time, especially because we did not take the boy and we were able to do a lot of stuff. I don't want to sound like a bad mom but sometimes it's easy to to do some stuff without any kids. I missed Isaac a lot but I think he missed us more than we did. When we got home he was trying to make us mad by throwing stuff on the floor we guessed he wanted to get punished. He missed us so bad he wanted us to punish him but we couldn't, we missed him so much that we wanted to hug him and kiss him.
Well we wanted to share some pictures and hope you like them, and if you ever come to Honduras you have to visit this place. You will never regret it, I promise!!!

The air plane we flew in.

I had to buy glasses because I didn't have any and I thought I did not need them, but I was wrong.

We rented a kayak and the wind was so hard we got carried WAY out to sea and on the other side of the reef in a few seconds. The kayak rental guy told us that people don't usually come back from that far out, he was so worried we were not gonna make it back that he asked somebody with a boat to go and pick us up, but we were able to get back on our own after a WHOLE lot of non-stop rowing.

We rented a scooter for a day and it was the best idea ever, since taxis are so expensive and you can go whetever you want for cheap (to rent it for a day was the same as one taxi ride) .

Keyla taking pictures while Mark was driving, eh! eh! eh! eh! eh!...

We went to eat to this restaurant and the food was delcious, every time I think about the food I get hungry and want to go back.

The Restaurant

I'm sorry this picture doesn't look too good, I had to scanned it because they didn't let you take pictues with the dolphins with my own camera, ofcourse they want to make the money selling a 4x6 at $10 each.

I wanted pictures of me and I convinced Mark to take me some, he did n't look so happy doing it.

I had to ask someone to take a pictures, well the truth I had to convince a lot of people to take us pictures.

Una hermosa puesta del sol. A beautiful sunset!!!!

We went to see the dolphins but not just see them we went snorkeling with the dolphins.
This was fun, eventhough this animals made me nervous when all of a sudden they appeared from no where when you were swimming with them, they made me a little scared, I can't imagine swimming with sharks.

My hand touching the dolphin. It feels so weird!!!!!!!!

We also went snorkeing, but this time just to see the reef and it was gorgeous.

When you come to this palce you never want to get out of the water.

This is the restaurant of the hotel and it wasn't very good so we went to eat to other places.

The outside of the hotel.

We went for a walk to the beach and of course I asked Mark to take more pictures of me.

The pool in the hotel.

This is what happens when you ask someone to take you a picture with a professional camera.

I am not showing our feet because I think they are pretty, but because this is how you feel and do when you are at the Bay Islands, just relaxing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found some beautiful flowers and I couldn't resist to take more pictures.

Just in case you ever want to come to this place I wanted to share pictures of the inside of the hotel ( Mayan Princess) which I liked a lot because it was bigger than our apartment in Tegucigalpa, except it didn't have a second room, but Mark and I considered coming and living here for a few months.

A full equiped kitchen with everything you need, except you don't cook like I did while on vacation.

Just buildings on the island.

Isaac doing some exercises...

2009-07-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

After the success of the "Isaac-presses" I have tried to broaden Isaac's exercise regimen....

Here we tried some "weighted" jumping on the roof, (it was weighted b/c that little mane-fro is worth more than 5 lb ankle weights)

CHECK OUT THE VERTICAL!!!

Like I said, 5 maybe 10 pounds...

Well after his mama made us cut his hair(in a non-mullet-esque hair do) the weighted jumping lost its effectiveness. So we moved to a more routine exercise...

I know what you're thinking, pullups at his age may be a little advanced, or maybe your thinking why his father is letting him hang on his own several feet above the ground. Let me just say I was responsibly spotting him the whole time(keyword being responsible) and...

...his mom let him do the same thing, so there. In fact it was her idea, she put ME up to it.(alright that may be stretching the truth a bit.. but still she was an accomplice, after all who do you think took the 1st picture????) Anyways, as you can see he had some trouble with the whole pulling his whole body weight up so we decided to move to a machine and help him work up to his whole body wieght-that's right-bring on the lat pull downs:

In the video I drift back so you can see the 10 lb plate he's pulling. Yes I saw he was cheating a bit on the counting which is why we had to go all the way to 15. As for the 11 - 15, I didn't teach him that directly. Kid is a sponge everything you say is coming out at some time or another.

Overall I think he is coming along nicely in his progress as a UNC linebacker class of '29. Now I have to start planning the mo-hawk and one word linebacker name for his jersey. Reed has dibs on Clank, but maybe Hammer or Wedge. Oh well still got a few years before i have to submit the paperwork for the official name change.

2009-07-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken in Copán Ruinas. We went with Grandma, Papa, Becca, Michael Brown(aka Bwown by Isaac), Leah and of course us. Copán was an ancient Mayan city close to where Keyla grew up.

An example of the landscape as we drove out there.

Michael Brown coming back from Nature's call.

Nature called more than one person, although the culprit in this photo will remain nameless.

Laughing over the pictures of the call...

Still don't understand why we let him be in charge of children.

She looks sweet and calm here, she wasn't this calm after walking in the heat for a couple hours.

Keyla's two cousins that live here in Honduras, and one who is visiting from NC.

A ceiba tree, native to Honduras. The Mayan priests used to pull off the thorns and pierce their ears, tounges, and "other parts" as a part of their blood ritual.

Mom ponders what "other parts" the priets pierced with the aforementioned thorns.

Macaws that live there in the park.

The guide (guy in the cowboy hat) was our guide through the park. He's been there a while giving tours. He told us that he once was the guide for Spencer W. Kimball, that will tell you how long he's been doing this.

This was one of the alters that the Mayans used for human sacrifice. You can see the grooves carved in to aid in the dispersment of a certain liquid.

Becca just realized why the top half of the alter is darker than the bottom.
(hint: it has to do with the liquid that the grooves are for)

Isaac wanted to take over the job of guide.

Leah was evicted from the chair as soon as we had to start climbing the pyramids.

She found a new method of transport.

The group, at the end of the tour. Leah got to take her clothes off. It was all we could do to keep her father form doing the same.

Mom playing with Keyla's camera + Keyla playing with photoshop = the above picture

2009-07-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

This is Isaac's B-day invitation

2009-07-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the video I couldn't post because it was too long.

2009-07-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

The day my in-laws arrived in Honduras was Isaac's B-day and I had already planned a birthday party for Isaac that afternoon. I was able to do it because I had a lot of people(friends and family) helping. The party was in my home town and I invited old friends even some friends I hadn't seen for more than eight years. The party was very fun and the kids had a lot of fun too.
We ate Carne Asada and it was delicious. I had a lot of fun even though the weather was really hot. Well I wanted to share these videos with you and then later on this week I will post other pictures I took on the trip.
I tried to upload the video but it did not work because it was to big. I'll try later.

2009-07-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a few pictures of my in-laws trip to Honduras. We had a good time and there is lots to tell, but I'm just gonna start by sharing a few pictures I took in a park called El Picacho in Tegucigalpa. Isaac turned 2 last Thursday so I wanted to do a photography session. He wanted to move all over the place and did not want to stay still, but I think I came up with some good pictures. He is very cute and very photogenic and he has gotten so big, I can't believe he is two already.

I also took a few pictures of Becca and Mitchael and Leah, maybe not a few, I think I took somewhere around 200 pictures of them only. Anyways, we had fun and we were so glad they came, even though it was hard to see them leave. Hopefully we will be back in the U.S in a few months.

Leah on this picture was climbing over Isaac and Isaac did not move. He let her do whatever she wanted. I think they look very cute together.

This is a very nice picture of Grandma and Papa, Leah and Isaac.

Look at that tongue.

Did not want to stay still.

He is trying to show his two fingers for his two years.

He is saying two.

This is a good looking family.

Grandma and Papa. So romantic!!!

Our little BATMAN

2009-06-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a few pictures before we go on our trip to Copán with my in-laws. I know it has been a while since I posted anything, but here are a few pics of our beautiful boy and of course our family. We are so excited we are having family over from the U.S. We really miss our family and our friends.
On Thursday the 25th is going to be Isaac's b-day and he is turning two, oh yeah he is a little grown man now and very smart, I think too smart.
I will post some pictures and videos when we come back from our trip. I know we are going to have lots of fun. Byyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our little BATMAN

He likes to get into everything.

Learning with exercise...

2009-06-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

I have revolutionized early-childhood education and child obesity in one fell swoop and let me tell you I couldn't be more psyched. Now most can see the learning involved but may have a question about the obesity part. That one is simple, if your child is obese than this won't work. Nothing inspires responsible parental control of weight than having to lift the little butterball above your head every day. Anyways I present, my solution:

Comayagua

2009-05-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

On good Friday we went to Comayagua (the colonial capital of Honduras) to see the "Alfombras." On Good Friday they create Easter-themed murals made of sand right on the street. The details are pretty amazing. Most of the murals are done by families that live there in the town. They start planning weeks in advance and make cardboard and wooden stencils. Then around 9-10 pm the night before they start creating. People start arriving around 8:00 am and by 2:00pm the alfombra is ruined by a religous processional that goes right through the street. Seems like a lot of work for just a few hours, but it was nice to see.

This one above was made from cofee and other natural items. The white part is coffee neams before they are treated/roasted (they are white/cream colored when they are first hervested.) The dark brown background is fine ground coffee.

After the alfombras, we went to Pizza Hut (fine Honduran cuisine) and met up with Keyla's half brother and sister(on her dad's side.)

Keyla, Carlos, and Sabina

The next day we went to see the cathedral in Comayagua. It is the oldest in the country (built in the 1570's). The bell tower to the side still works with all original parts.

This is Carlos, Keyla's half brother. He is so far the only Honduran I have foiund, taller than me. (I'm huge in Honduras!!!).

Go Tar Heels!!!!

2009-05-07T00:11:00.000-07:00

Ok this is a little late, but if you are surprised, then you obviously don't know me. Anyways the Tar Heels won the National Championship this year and needless to say I was more that a little excited. I REALLY wanted to be on Franklin Street jumping over bonfires. I'll have to say that it is one of the most home-sick moments for me in Honduras. Beyond that, there wasn't anyone I could share my excitement with. I tried to explain it to my friends here in Honduras, but it kind of loses its excitement after a 5 min explanation. So young Isaac was drafted into Tar Heel nation. Just to be clear, I had planned on his forced conscription since he was born, I was just going to wait until he was potty-trained. So as the clock was winding down Issac got out of bed (was taken out of bed-just a question of symantics), and watched the last few minutes of his first Tar Heel championship. I can't tell you how excited he was. In the absence of the words I have submitted the pictures of said championship celebration. Just for the record, I wanted to see if he could jump over our "bonfire"(see picture below) but his mom stepped in and played the good parent role.

I know that it looks like he is yawning, but he is actually cheering, (I promise)

Our trip to Cayos Cochinos

2009-04-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

"Our new car"

2009-03-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a couple of pictures of our new car. It is a Suzuki Aerio 2004 and we really like it. It was a good decision to buy it since we are gonna be here for another 9 months probably, at least that's what they said at the U.S consulate.

CHIMINIKE

2009-03-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

This was about two weeks ago. We had a lot of fun.
Enjoy the video!!!

2009-03-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted anything on the blog. Life has been a little busy lately, but we are doing good here in Honduras. I wanted to post a few pictures of Isaac eating a mango, it looks delicious doesn't it?. I also wanted to post a few pictures we took while we were eating at T.G.I Fridays and Isaac and Mark were playing like little kids. Isaac of course is a little kid but Mark is not a kid any more, even though he acts like it most of the time(*note from Mark: I object to your western-world, masculine-dominated society's definition of "kid" -- if you compare me to Methusala, for example I am still very very young and have quite a bit of growing to do--end note from Mark).
We also wanted to let you know that we already received the last packet of papers from the lawyer and on Monday we are going to go to the U. S consulate to drop it off. After we do that we are gonna have a waiting period of 6-9 months for the next appointment and that is when we will know if I can go back to the U.S or not.
We also bought a car a few weeks ago. It was getting expensive and dangerous to take taxis all the time, plus we are gonna be here for a little while and buying a car was definitely worth it. I don't have to worry about dropping a cell phone on a taxi or riding in buses and getting my camera stolen again. I will put a picture of our car next time I post something.
We will keep you posted if anything new happens.
We are very exited to hear that my parents-in- law are coming to Honduras this summer, we are planning to take them to beautiful places here in Honduras. Anyone who would like to come is welcome!!!
Enjoy the pictures!!!!!

We had a delicious dessert, brownies with icecream hummm!!!

"Valle de Angeles"

2009-02-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

We had a church trip last Saturday to Valle de Angeles, which is a town close by where we live. It is a very touristy place and a nice town(very expensive too). We went and spent most of the time in this park and we had a lot of fun. I spent most of my time taking pictures, for all those who don't know I've decided to become a professional photographer and I am really enjoying it. I have a lot to learn, I have barely started with photography classes online. After I lost the first camera I was very disappointed, but now I want to keep going with my dream.
Isaac as you can see has grown a lot. We are trying to convince some of our family to come down to Honduras and visit so they can see how big our boy is and enjoy a little bit about this beautiful country. Hope you all enjoy our blog.

:For my love"

2009-02-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

Recent Family photos

2009-02-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

The Fair

2009-01-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

We went to visit my dad a couple of weeks ago and I was able to meet a lot of family, including uncles and cousins and I was able to get some genealogy work started on the side of the family that I was never able to meet. We also went because the fair was in town and we wanted to eat a lot of delicious Honduran food. I think we gained a couple of pounds after all we ate, but I think it was worth it.

2009-01-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

He sure wasn't a happy boy but he looked very cute after his hair cut. We wanted to make him happy by giving him a sucker but when he realized the sucker was covered with hair he wasn't happy anymore. We decided to cut his hair because he started to look like a girl, even after we cut his hair people still asked if Isaac was a girl.

Christmas in Honduras

2009-01-07T00:27:00.000-08:00

2008-12-14T20:20:00.001-08:00

I wanted to share with you all a few pictures I took this past Saturday.

As I told you before, I found my father and I went to visit him yesterday.
It was very nice to see him again after 18 years and it is also nice that ha lives kind of close to where I live, about 50 miles south of Tegucigalpa towards the pacific coast.
Mark thinks I look just like my father. What do you think?

This is a neighbor of my dads who likes to spend most of her time in his house.

This is my dad's wife in the kitchen.

This is a river close by my dad's house. I think it's a beautiful place and is a very quiet town too.

We went to the park and Gaby I wanted to tell you that I found some "mangos verdes" green mangoes, and they were very good.

2008-12-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures from my birthday:

I wanted to thank Mark for the surprise he prepared for me. Especially after losing my camera and my cellphone. Well if you wanna know about the surprise I will tell you. So I was taking a nap in the afternoon on my b-day and when I woke up Mark had both of our laptops connected to web cams on the table. In one of them was my sister and her husband and a cousin, on the other my in-laws and in the middle was my birthday cake. They all sang Happy Birthday to me. I really appreciated it. Especially because that week was a very long week for me, and I also want to thank every one who sent a b-day presents to me.

The party was wild!!! A little bit of Coke and the boy had already taken his pants off. It was all I could do to keep his father from doing the same.

We also had some friends and neighbors over after that surprise. This was also another surprise because I didn't know we were gonna have people over to sing Happy Birthday to me again.

Some stuff going on with us in Honduras.

2008-12-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

Hi! Everyone, I just wanted to update you with our family a little bit more.
This past week was a hard week for our family. Last Tuesday we had our first interview with the U.S consulate and as we were told by our lawyer, this process is gonna take several months after we turn in a waiver that we are working on. We are gonna get our second interview between 6-9 months after we turn the waiver in and hopefully that will be the date when I get my visa, so I can go back to the U.S.

As many of you know, last week Mark went to the U.S for a few days and one of the reasons why he went was because I wanted a Digital SLR camera to star taking photography classes and a computer for me to be able to take online classes. Well I went to pick up Mark at the San Pedro Sula Airport and then we went to my home town to visit and to be at a high school graduation since we were "padrinos"* of a girl, a friend of mine who was graduating. Then we came back home to Tegucigalpa. On the way home, in the bus someone stole my camera with the bag, the extra battery, the memory card and the lens. It was a hard time for us, especially for me since the camera was my B-day present and I was so exited about the camera, exited to start my photography classes. The saddest part was that all the pictures I took at the graduation were in the memory card, and basically I was the only one taking pictures at the graduation.

It's been a very long week, also because the day after my camera was stolen I lost my cell phone. I dropped it while I was in a taxi and we were never able to find it, so I lost all the info in the cellphone. As you can imagine most of us don't keep a address book with numbers anymore, at least I don't but after losing my cell I think I'm gonna start using one in case I loose my cell again.

Not everything has been bad news this week. I also have something good to write about.
Maybe many of you don't know but I grew up with my grandmother, because my mom died when I was three and a half years old. and I knew my Dad but last time I saw him I was probably 6 years old. One day as I was talking to the wife of the owner of the building where we live it crossed my mind that maybe her husband would be able to help me find my dad because he is an engineer. The only information I had about my dad was his name and knew that he was an engineer too.
The owner of the apartments sent an e-mail to all his colleagues and most of the engineers in Honduras asking for Carlos Green. So after a few days someone send an e-mail back saying that she knew an engineer with the last name Green, but she did not know the name, so I got the number and I decided to call and ask for Carlos Green.
When I called and asked for him the person who answered told me that he wasn't there and I asked when he would be back. He said that he was not there anymore and that he did not know where he was but that he could ask his dad. He asked me to leave my name and number and he promised that he would call me back with the info. I told him my name "Keyla Alas" and he told me that he recognized that last name and that he knew a family with the same last name from a town call La Entrada Copan. I couldn't hide myself anymore so I told him who I was, the daugther of Carlos Green and he told me he knew my mom.

Well to end the story he is my cousin and he helped me contact my dad, and the day before my B-day he called me and it was very weird to talk to him, it was like talking to an strange person. I have not seen him yet, he lives about 2 hours away from Tegucigalpa and I'm planning to go see him sometime next week.

(*padrinos are a latino culture thing were someone who is going to have a big event, wedding, baby christening, graduation, etc... they will ask a friend or family member to accompany them in the event as well as to help with the cost of the event or to buy them a gift. This still exists in American culture with godparents of a new baby. Padrinos is the spanish translation of godparents.)

2008-11-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

This was about two weeks ago, and I'm sorry I don't seem to keep the promise of blogging at least once a week, but I try.
This is my friend Enma, she came to visit me for a few days and we had a good time.
We decided to make lasagna because she thinks my lasagna is good. We made it one time when she went to the U.S and visited me for a week, well the lasagna was good but was expensive to make. Here in Honduras food is cheaper but when you buy American products i very expensive because they import all the American products from the U.S and the price is at least double from what it is in the U.S.
We also went and had a facial done and it felt really good. To tell you the truth I had never have one done.

This is me wearing a Mexican hat.
And here we are under the hat with Isaac.

Here is Isaac with his hat.

The mama is trying to get a kiss.

The mama getting a kiss from the boy.

He is not a happy boy
I don't understand why Mark can't be serious at least in photos

A little bathroom humor - you may want to skip it if you think like my mom...

2008-11-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm gonna tell you the story because Mark wants me to tell you:

We were back in my home town and one day my cousin invited us to go to some "swimming pools" in another town close by and let me tell you that this was a very very small town and the swimming pools were almost like regular swimming pools except they didn't have a filtration system and the water came from the mountains which means the water is very cold.
Before I go on let me tell you that in Honduras we have a lot of water issues, which means that you get water in your house every other day if you are lucky or every 2 to 3 days. We also don't have sewer systems in some places because a lot of areas are really poor.
So we go to the swimming pools and because the water was so cold I didn't get in. I had some stomach issues and I went to the bathroom and found out that it was just the seat with a hole in the middle with a very deep hole in it and a bucket on the side to flush the "toilet", so I decided to just wait until we got back home.
We were in our way back and a couple of minutes later my cousin realized she forgot the parrot she took with her. We went back to get her and then I really wanted to go. It didn't help that the roads weren't paved and ahead of us the police were stopping every one. Of course they wanted to get some money from us because my brother didn't have his license. So the police made us wait there to see if we would decide to hand over some money. I couldn't wait anymore.
I went to the first house I found and I saw a little girl and ask her If I could use her bathroom. She goes inside the house and comes back and she says: WE DON'T HAVE A BATHROOM" and I said, WELL WHERE DO YOU USUALLY GO? and she said "WE GO BEHIND THE HOUSE BY THE FENCE" and I said WELL, CAN I GO THERE TOO?, CAN YOU SHOW ME WHERE IT IS? She took me and I did my business basically on her backyard, so I left and thanked them for letting me use their bathr... I'm sorry their backyard. ( I also had some company back there, the dog came to say hi to me).
I'm sorry this might not be a funny story for some of you, but for Mark it is.

Keyla

(PS from Mark - I'm sorry I enjoy bathroom (er..backyard humor) and trust me this was way more funny for me from the spectator position than for Keyla. And if you don't enjoy a little bathroom humor please know that it's my fault and not Keyla's and just skip on down to the pictures of the boy.

Isaac on the phone

2008-11-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Isaac has a lot of hobbies, one of them is dancing and the other one is talking on the phone.
When he talks he kind of says"ao" trying to imitate his mama when she's talking on the phone and says " alo". He is 16 months and he has learned a lot, now he can say "ojo" which in English means "eye" he also knows where his "pancita" (belly) is, and his "nariz" (nose). He also has a lot of hair and a lot of curls that we don't know where they come from, according to Mark those curls are not his, but they are definitely not mine.

Isaac and the turtle

2008-11-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Isaac and the chickens

2008-11-02T07:02:00.000-08:00

Isaac goes to the "farm"

2008-11-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

This was more than a month ago, but I wanted to show you pictures of the fun day we had with Isaac and all the animals there where in our friend's parent's house.

This is a turkey getting ready for Thanksgiving.

More family pictures

2008-10-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Isaac dancing

2008-10-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Honduras

2008-09-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

We are in Copán Ruinas and Isaac is having fun climbing the stairs.

Isaac and Mark are eating a big Baleada which is a flour tortilla filled with refried beans, traditional Honduran cheese a cream.

Isaac wants to throw himself out his mom's arms.

Mark and the boy again.

Do you see how beutiful this is?
Like I said before come and visit and we'll take you here.

The Sanders Family visiting one of the most famous Mayan Ruins.

Beautiful Macaws outside the ruins

This is the museum in Copán Ruinas.

And here is Mark picking his lip and reading.

Keyla and Isaac in a place call Aguas Termales (Thermal Springs) The water here is really nice, it is a beautiful place with a few pools that have natural hot and warm water that comes from underneath the earth. When you come here you never want to get out because the water is so relaxing.

See what I told you, even babies enjoy it.

Isaac and Mark swiming at one of the pools.

Mark and Keyla visiting one small Mayan Town call El Puente (the bridge).
It is about 10 Km from where Keyla is from.

Mark at the top of a Mayan building.

Poor Isaac was sweating because Honduras is really really hot.

Keyla and Isaac having a fun time in the Hammock.

This is Isaac's little friend from upstairs.
Isn't she cute?

Isaac sleeping. Tired after a month of traveling, he was glad to finally have his own place to sleep without any noises or mosquitos.

Here are more pictures of the apartment.

We finally have a place to sit.

We live on the second floor...

...on the right.

This is the view from the terrace on top of our building.

And this is the view of the terrace on top of our building

Our new apartment

2008-09-07T21:35:00.001-07:00

Here is Isaac wearing his dad's hat and having fun in the apartment now that we finally have one.

We just moved to our new apartment and we finally got internet.
I'm sorry we haven't been in touch for so long, but it has been crazy. I can't believe it's been a month since we came from the U.S, but it's been a good and a different experience.
Here are some pictures from the last month and we promise we'll try to update our blog as often as we can now that we have internet.

This is our kitchen

This is the view from our balcony, we think this is a nice place and anyone who would like to come visit is welcome.

This is our hallway and there is Isaac walking all over the apartment which is what he does all day long since he started walking about 3 weeks ago.

This is the balcony door and part of our living room. -->

This is Isaac's room, we have an extra bed that will be taken out soon, so we can put a crib where the small bed is.

This is the ceiling in our apartment.

He can climb and... uh...unclimb?

2008-06-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Isaac has learned to climb off the bed (without making a headfirst dive for the floor). The pro to all this is that he no longer makes the aforementioned dives. The con, well when he is done getting nursed (that would be his definition of done and not his mother's) he can more effectively run away from his mother and get back to what he does best: search and destroy.

Vamos a Honduras...

2008-06-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since we have updated this blog- sorry we're not as good as Liz and Laura at this. We just wanted to let everyone know that we are moving to Honduras this summer. We have decided (w/ lot's of prayer) that it is time to finish Keyla's immigration situation. We will be leaving sometime in August (we think) and the whole process should take about 6-8 months to resolve.

I am really excited about living in another country. Keyla is not as excited about leaving behind the things she has gotten used to living in the US (and when it come to having to leave behind my peanut-butter I get a little sad as well) And my mom is a little less than excited that we are taking her grandson out of the country. We both believe that this is all for a purpose and that everything will go well. We will have internet while there (I will need it to work) and so hopefully we will get better at updating the blog. You can email us while we're down there and we will also have a US phone number so you can call us. Anyone who is looking for an excuse to leave the country is welcome to come visit us. I never know how to end these posts so...

Angel Pictures

2008-04-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

I took Isaac to JC Penney studio to get some pictures done. They had the angel background and wings and I couldn't resist buying. So I guess Mark will have to get another job to pay for all the pictures. (note from Mark: I have done the count and we "officially" have 2.3 photos for every day that Isaac has been alive who-yaa )

Llevé a Isaac al estudio de JC Penny para sacar unas fotos. Como tenían ya las alas y el escenario no pude resistir. Parece que Mark va a tener que agarrar otro trabajo para pagar por todas las fotos. (nota de Mark: He hecho las cuentas y tenemos "oficialmente" 2,3 fotos por cada día que Isaac tiene de vida.)

Isaac eating a pear.

2008-03-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Isaac likes to crawl into the kitchen and pull out things from the fruit/vegetable basket. Today he found a pear and thought he'd sit down for a meal. We should have posted an after picture of the disaster but we didn't think about it. Anyways he finished the whole thing save for the core (although if it hadn't been for dad's sharp eye it would have gone down as well.)

A Isaac le gusta gatear a la cocina y sacar las cosas de la canasta de frutas y verduras. Hoy encontró una pera y decidió sentarse a comer. Deberíamos haber puesto una foto del desastre después pero no lo pensamos en el momento. De todos modos terminó toda la pera menos el corazón(aunque si no hubiera sido por el ojo cuidadoso del papá éste hubiera sido tragado también.)

Our new blog

2008-03-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well, there's no resisting it anymore. I am now officially a blogger (sounds like an insult). Anyways we wanted to put up the blog so that you can see our family grow and keep up with the Sanders. We'll post things in English and Spanish so that you can learn another language. Let us know what you think.

Bueno, no hay manera de evitarlo ahora. Somos oficialmente 'bloggers' (suena como insulto ¿no?). Queríamos poner el 'blog' para que pudieran ver a nuestra familia crecer y mantenerse al corriente con los Sanders. Pondremos las cosas en inglés y en español para que puedan aprender otra idioma. Déjanos saber lo que piensan.

-Mark