Last blog post everrrr!!! We have just returned from the amazon what?? It was the craziest/ coolest thing ever and 10x more beautiful and better than you could imagine. We saw monkeys, tarantulas, ate bugs, got cleansed by a amazon healer, swam in the Napo river, learned how to salsa dance etc, and also had to say goodbye to our babies in a one week period. We cried so hard our eyes kind of felt like sand paper the next day hahah the people here are so amazing though, They just kept comforting us as always and wanted to make sure we were okay. This has been the most amazing experience of our lives and our kids here will always have a part of our hearts. We have learned to wash clothes by hand, tie a cloth diaper, live with 20 girls, speak a little Spanish, throw a spear, how to de flea a bed, how to keep 8 toddlers amused all by yourself,just basically how to live in a foreign country without your family, and soo much more! Crazy that coming home is actually going to be the real adjustment. One of the most important things that we have learned is to never take our families or what we have for granted. Must say we will never forget swinging from vines or seeing the second largest tree in south America or how Nicole fell in love with our guide Javier and Anna and the bar tender had a real connection... gotta love the amazon! Thanks for following our adventure in Ecuador and tune in next time for more crazy international love! hahah  Ps: after a 17 hour flight delay we will finally be with our families in the morning whooo!! Xoxoxoxo Anna and Nicole

Birthday dinner

Sunday Dinner

40 some odd pounds of meat!

Happy 4th of July!!!! This afternoon at the orphanage we had a big 4th of July party... bbq, decorating all the kids wheelchairs for a parade, bobbing for apples, and we also got the pleasure of making potato salad and cheeseburgers for 100 people... :) It was honestly a blast of a day and so fun to show the Ecuadorians how to fiesta USA style. haha speaking of... we decided to plan a flash mob for when everyone was eating dinner so we had someone turn on the song Party In The USA and one by one we just all joined this synchronized dance ahah it was so great to see all of the tia´s faces like what the heck are these freaks doing?? haha In other news we have also realized that the stereotypes you would have about tons of girls living together are for real hahah Rumor has it that if you put your hair in 2 braids and put conditioner in the ends that will grow faster... I heard wrong and have been putting lotion in the ends ahah ooops.  There is also a girl who always asks things like... If I leave my face wash on through the night do you think it will make my skin better? So of course we all said yes cause we didn't think she really would but yep she did hahah Me and Anna had Sunday dinner and we made spaghetti.. Homemade rolls and "easy" brownies. Yummy! Also I was lucky and got to go to testimony meeting this Sunday! I don't know what came over me but I just decided to go up and bear my testimony! I wish I could say that I did it in perfect Spanish but who am I kidding I used a translator hahah also on Sunday I had made a scripture chart for martin and told him i would get him a ctr ring if he read every night for two weeks and this past sunday he also finished that! He was sooo stoked and it was so adorable. He has also been asking us to pray before we eat lunch and dinner. What a cool kid!! It is going to be so hard to leave all them! There are so many little things that happen every day that just make you fall even more in love with them. Every morning when I get to shift at Milagros Cristian (who is paralyzed from the waste down) scoots as fast as he can down the hall to come give me a hug with the biggest smile you have ever seen on his face, Laurita when she wants to say her prayers points up the the picture of Jesus on the wall then folds her arms all ready, when I go in and kiss Orvie in the morning on his cheek when he is still in his crib giggles so hard that sometimes he snorts hahaha just adore all of them. Hope everyone at home had a good time celebrating the good ol U S of A. xoxoxo Nicole
Supp people! this morn i had trini so i sleep in a little then we get on the bus and head up to turi which is about a 20 minute drive but while on our way up there strangest thing happened they were having a parade for the fourth of july so we jumped out and joined in... just kidding i wish but the police had crossed off the way to get up there soo we had to turn around and go home but as nicole told you earlier osso was having a party for the fourth so we went home and helped with all the food and such and ended being really fun to help with all the food... me and nicole mixed like 20 pounds of beef for the hambugar patties and it was lovely with the smell and freezing cold texture of the deep raw meat good thing i ve seen my dad gut a dear and could mix it with my bare hands haha thanks dad! then we got all ready and headed to osso where we decorated the place and all the kids chairs and them and then we took all the kids and made our very own parade and if i dont say so my self was quite the site, we took up the entire street and had a line of about four cars behind us for a little while... pretty legit! then after the 20 ish minute parade we headed back and started doing some games and then got all the food ready and got my face painted and just looked way to cool for school haha but i must say it was quite the sight seeing our whole group in all red white and blue including most of our Ecuadorian friends dressed up too yeahh represent! then ate and had some dang good burgers and salad and all that good ole American food! then we were lucky enough to have fire works even though they arent exactly legal we had some good bottle rockets but the best part of my night was when the fireworks were going off Christian from Esperanza was right next to me and he put his arm around me and it was just the cutest thing and he just held it there until the show was over!! ohhh i love that kid and all of the others! then we cleaned up and headed home and had quite the singing blow out in the bus home but even though it was hard missing the fourth back home this was a pretty dang good fourth Ecuadorian style!
hope all of you had a wonderful fourth too! love you all and god bless America haha :) xoxo anna

Hola from Ecuador!! 2 days ago we celebrated my birthday and Anna and the girls made it a blast :) I woke up and Anna had made me chocolate pancakes and eggs (yum) and then I got to spend the whole day with my party people at Milagros. I taught Laurita how to whip her hair back and forth (jadynn smith style)and then after we went and got dinner and Anna had made skor cake! Tradition has it over here that everytime it is someones birthday over here they get there face shoved in the cake. Needless to say they got me good and I couldn't open my eyes for like 5 min hahah all in all it was a good day. I did get a little homesick but maybe that's cause everytime I call my family they are boating or doing something like that... Haha (there arent supposed to be any fun things without me hahah) Last night we did a talent show at HML and my girl Anna Irish danced! She only usually does it for select groups so it was a pretty big deal :) some girls sang the song Temporary Home by Carrie underwood (youtube it) and of course cause I'm a baby I started crying. Isabel was sitting on my lap ad she just turned around and started wiping my tears and telling me not to cry. It was just so ironic that considering the circumstances she was sitting there comforting me. These kids are insanely amazing! Ive realized lately that every time I talk about my family here I always can´t help but get the biggest smile. (other than when im talking about them doing fun things) I love you all alot!!! Nicole

Holler from ecqui!!! All the ladies in the house have boyfriends so we got shafted out of phone time tonight so here we are blogging.. hahah We have boyfriends but they are all just under the age of 10.. and have bed times of about 6:30. Serious note: we are 23 days away from being home and it is really starting to freak us out!! For all of you lovely people who have never seen the video clip on youtube from one of Uchtdorf's talks called the tender moments (or something close to that) go look it up!!!! Tonight that was what our devotional was on and it was awesome. Nicole's heartbreak experience of the day: having Leidy start bawling when I had to leave after shift.. Anna's heartbreak experience of the day: having to walk into a room that smells like poop and having all the kids smiling and just knowing that I was the only person there for them that day. Anna's happy moment of the day: there was a bunch of people in Leidy's casa today and having her come to me to hold her hand when she was overwhelmed. Nicole's happy moment of the day: reading scriptures and saying prayers with Martin/Cristian/Marcelo and looking over and seeing Laurita in the corner by herself saying her prayers without even being asked too... these kids just keep surprising us by teaching us more and more everyday and showing us that we have more love in our hearts than we thought possible! We dread the day when they have to become memories but we know we will see them again in heaven:) To our mom's: fire up the rice cooker for when we get home...hang up the laundry lines... and put a bunk bed in nicole's room because we are going to have a hard time not waking up to each other's faces every morning. ahaha we love you all!!!! ps.. we are throwing a throwback dance party for our friend jenni's birthday in t minus 5 minutes so wish us the best of luck... it's about to get cray.We aren't making a big deal about it or anything but we did put some fliers up around the house... ahaha lovin life! xoxo Nicole and Anna

Giron Ecuador

anna babe

serious face

Ecuador is lovelier than ever!! The other morning I was pumped because I got to feed Camilla (one of the new premie babies) I feed her the whole bottle... She proceeds to throw up the entire thing all over me.. Literally a projectile motion ahahah next thing that happened that morning was me and Anna were in the sala playing with the itty bitties and one of the babies kind of looks like a troll and cause she is always laying on her back she has these nasty side mullets so I decided I had had enough so I decided to give her her first haircut haha! Anna stood guard and I just went at it. I know it probably seems like I'm always breaking rules but I justify it by saying it's for the child's benefit :) Today we got to drive 4 hours to the Guayaquil temple! Sooo amazing and it made us realize how lucky we are to have so many temples so close to us. The workers were grateful that we were there and it was funny cause they couldn't pronounce McMillin so they kept saying Micano or something weird like that hahah Guayaquil is like the Vegas of Ecuador and you should have seen how stoked some of the girls were over seeing a  Mcdonalds...  hahah We have all been craving American food like crazy. Things like peanut butter and American candy are basically like gold these days!! Besides wanting American food, you should also see how 15 girls in a house together act when they haven't even been able to hardly look at boys for over a month hahah crazy stuff. Sorry for the side tangent haha but after the temple today we went to this iguana park and  there were just tons of the creatures roaming all over. Surprise surprise nature woman Anna was scared to death:) We are also proud to say we ate from our first sketchy street stand last night as well and our stomaches so far have weathered the storm hahah it was meat on a stick and it was actually really good! When in Ecuador right? The heart break moment of the week was when I was playing with Marcelo and he asked me if I was going to be his "amiga para siempre" (friend forever/friend for always). He is at the age where he understands that people are always walking in and out of his life. Such a hard thing! Also... If anyone wants to adopt my baby Orvie until I am 25 and married I would be forever grateful hahah kinda serious. Haha! Fun fact of the day: KFC is the largest American company in Ecuador. Xoxoxo Nicole

Walk in my room and see a girl laying in my bed... hahah never a dull moment with 15 girls in a house.

All the girls from the May group

Buenos Dias familia y amigos! Soooo Yesterday Rosa asked me to take her home with me to the states.... It's awkward sometimes in those situations first because I have mastered the art of speaking Spanglish and rosa doesn't speak that.. Haha and also even if I knew Spanish better what would I say? She is so funny and sweet and it's sometimes hard seeing that side of things.The music scene is also pretty amusing here. They go wild for One Direction and Pit Bull but yet Rosa doesn´t know who Nicki Minaj is... needless to say that kind of upsets me.. hahah just kidding. I have also started dreaming about taking some of the kids home with me.. Last night I dreamed I smuggled Marcelo home and the CIA was after me hahah the kids are amazing and we love them sooo much it's insane. Me and Anna have really learned that we have more love in our hearts for them than we even thought possible! They teach us new things every day :) Today at azogus me and Suzanne were feeling ambitious so we decided to clean both the bathrooms and the kitchen... Without gloves. As sick and twisted as it sounds as we were cleaning we looked up and noticed that the roof was made of cardboard boxes in that area of the house..the spirit came so strong and we both thought of the hymn Because I Have Been Given Much. A lot of times here I have gotten almost angry at how good of living conditions we have at home. Why am I blessed to live the way I do? is a question I'm still trying to figure out. There is a special needs boy Brayan who sits in his crib all day  at azogus so today i decided I was going to chance it and take him outside with me and deal with the consequences. He just cuddled up and was so sweet. Once again... These kids are amazing!! Today has been pretty hard because Rosa dropped the bomb on me that it was her last day working for OSSO and also Linnea and Kylee are leaving. Sometimes living in a house with about 16 girls can get pretty crazy but we have all gotten really close so it´s hard to constantly be having to say goodbye to people when they leave. I was curious before I left what the things I would miss most about home would be (besides people) and I have finally decided.. here is the list in order...: 1. my own shower!!! the idea of being able to take a shower and not have it turn off or turn cold when someone flushes or turns on a sink seems like a dream. 2. Cafe Rio.. weird that we crave it like crazy??? 3. privacy.. if I had a dollar for every time Ive been walked in on indecent... and that´s all I can think of right now. Last night we decided to have a sleepover with a bunch of us in my room and we managed to fit 5 girls on 2 queen size beds. Pretty exciting!! hahah love you all!! and shout out to my poppy!! haha I have no doubt the best dad in the whole world and I hope you have the best Father´s Day ever! I had an experience the other week where I was skyping my dad and there were other girls in the room and when I got off they were all saying things like "oh I wish my Dad acted like yours", or "that´s so cool you and your dad have that good of a relationship". One of those things where I don´t know how I got so lucky to have him! Not to mention he gives the best advice in the whole world and has a way of making me always feel like everything is going to be okay! Love you a lot!!!! Nicole

whats up people of our blogging community! so last friday on the 8th of june i was lucky enough to celebrate my 19 birthday here! also i was lucky enough to have the most wonderful best friend here to make sure it was amazing! So that morning i woke up to the familiar ballad of happy birthday and found my self waking up to all the girls in the house singing to me and nicole holding a plate of waffles, a beautifully cut kiwi, and a smear of ecuadorian peanut butter must say one of the best breakfasts ive ever had! i had an off for the morning so mostly just read and talked to cute jenni who also had an off with me. then for afternoon shift i went to my homeland cunas and fate finally brought me and nicole together for a shift ha after having a crazy dancing party with us and the kids were fed them and got them ready for bed. as i am changing one of the kids the worker, marta, got out her phone and started playing music which was a little strange but i didnt think anything of it then to my surprise the second song to come on was happy birthday and hermana jessica came in and started dancing with me and so i can officially say i danced with a nun and then marta gave me a piece of chocolate which was bomb by the way. as i am changing the last kid who was giving me quite the rough time and making sure i was sweating a little while changing him linnea who was working in the other casa came a grabbed me and whisked my away to the kitchen and as i am walking into the kitchen the lights were off and all the casa kids were staring at me and what do you know in the middle of the table a scoop of ice cream with seven candles burning bright was waiting for me. they sang me happy birthday, but in spanish of course, and hermana jessica had the biggest smile and all the kids were loving it so thanks to nicole and linnea i got danced with and sang to by a nun, two workers, and six ninos, quite the day at the orphanage! then we proceeded home and went out to tutto freddos (a restaurant in town) and weirdly the whole town came out to celebrate my birthday, as well as a corpus kristi which is a holiday celebrating sweets and stuff like that, but we went to dinner ate some dang good american ecuadorian food and then headed out into the party. so if nicole or i have not told you yet americans here are celebs so saying that everyone was staring at us like we were aliens is an understatement but its cool i enjoyed it as well as nicole. haha. as we were wandering they had some strange towers of wood looking material that was covered with paper and ish like that, that they said they light on fire and its really cool but unfortunately we did not see them actually light it on fire but i am sure it was pretty sweet! also we watched some strange street dance group that had quite the crowd around them but werent really doing anything beside dressed in womans clothing and fake fighting/dancing... definitely one of the weirder things ive seen here. then rising into the night sky we saw paper lanterns so we weaved our way through the crowd to where they were and some how nicole and i got to light one off which i am pretty confident to say was the most magical moment in both of our lives... and then we galloped off into the sunset... just kidding but it was a defining moment for my birthday! while we were setting off the lanterns some ecuadorian girls were next to us and had some sashes on so i am thinking they were royalty of something but they ended up pulling me and a couple other girls into a picture with them... pretty cool haha. there was music playing so we all were dancing and just having such a good time until we needed to head home so we caught a taxi and returned home. nicole still had one more surprise for me she made homemade peanut butter cups. needless to say they were super amazing and the perfect ending to a great day! dont know what i would do with out nicole because she made this birthday one of the best ever! love her to death! hope all of you are doing good and thanks for putting up with my joking manner of writing. love you all! <3 anna

Eating our treats at the park:)

Giron, Ecuador

What a week it has been :) first it started out by Anna falling asleep in my bed with me and hearing me sleep talk in Spanish... Needless to say I was stoked!! Then, reading scriptures with Martin and having him get mad at me for not opening with a prayer..having him proceed to give the sweetest prayer I've ever heard even though it just sounded like mumbles:) Today we drove 2 hours to the city of Giron and went on a hour and a half hike to the 3rd largest waterfall in South America. We had a few yes man moments...like on the way there when the bus driver asked us if we wanted to ride on top of the bus it took me and anna less than 2 minutes to climb up :) (dont worry mom and dad we didn't die hahah ) then when we got to the waterfall it was freezing and windy and the guide asked us who wanted to jump in first and without even thinking I just yelled me!!!! They tied a rope around my waste told me to watch out for rocks and said I had less than 10 seconds to get to shore after I jumped.( once again I lived:)) Words can't even describe how amazing today was!!  There are certain things that happen here that you can't describe. Like the feeling you get after a orphan asks you if you have parents and you have to look them in the eye and say you do or when you hear a child pray that some day he will get a mommy and a daddy.  Xoxoxo Nicole

It has been an eventful couple of days!! Friday was Kids Day here (yes it´s a for real holiday) and in the morning we got to take the kids horseback riding at the naval base then in the afternoon we got to walk to the park with all of the kids. It was a super fun day and nice to have a change from the normal schedule. I was lucky because somehow I was managing to push Laurita´s wheel chair and hold Christian´s hand as we walked haha now I understand why mom´s always say they need a few more arms. Yesterday me and Kylee had an off in the morning and it was a blast! We slept in, then made breakfast and we got 3 new short term volunteers so we walked into town with them. They were going on their city tour so we kind of separated because we were going to run errands. There was a big parade going on and we realized it was for Kids Day the day before. I feel like there are always fiestas and things going on in town and I think Ecuadorians really know how to have a good time!! haha After we hung out there for awhile we went and picked up my glasses for school and driving and now when I wear them my IQ raises a few notches... haha but now here is the best part of all... we saw the other girls across the street so I lifted up my arms all excited and full on  hit a guy in the face... chances are good that I might have broken his nose.... ahahah I just said "lo siento" and his wife looked like she was going to fight me and he was just holding his nose in pain so I basically just turned the other way, grabbed Kylee and ran. hahah whoops!! We ended the morning off right by buying ourselves some roses for 6 dollars!! Yes it´s pathetic to buy yourself roses but we just thought it would be cool to say we bought flowers from a flower market in Ecuador hahah There was also the big Ecuador v. Argentina futbol game last night and during shift at Milagros in the afternoon all the kids were PUMPED. Christian, Martin, and Marcelo were all in their jerseys and we were doing a countdown the whole time. When I told Martin there was 30 minutes till game time he started yelling and waving his bib around in the air, it was awesome haha! They get really into it over here and even all the nuns were watching the game. On a more sad note we got another baby on Friday and I found out that it is Marcelós sister.. he already has two at OSSO and I guess the social worker found out his mom was pregnant again so she basically hunted her down and once the baby was born had to get her to bring it to the orphanage (for reasons I don´t know) It was the first time in a year since the rest were dropped off and she was just bawling. The whole thing was just a sad situation but they are better off at OSSO. Things are great here and insane that it has already been a month??? yep! Fun fact of the day: both eggs and milk are not refrigerated here. love you all!!! Nicole

I am most definitely starting to think I am a curse considering the other day at Cunas we got ANOTHER new baby while I was at shift... she is 2 months old except she is a premie so she is teensie!! Once again she was just left at the hospital :( 3 of the kids in Milagros (I realized I have been spelling it wrong this whole time) have strep throat so that is really sad and basically my immune system is going full throttle... haha Brayan was having such a rough time the other day so I rested his head up on my lap and I noticed his fever was really high and by the time I lifted him off, my shirt was all wet from his sweat... I felt so bad!!! He is normally always smiling and lately he just cries all the time. It has been making my day lately though because when I get there for shift Cristian from Casa Esperanza will just yell "mi amigo!!!!" and then he always pats right next to him for me to come sit. He is paralyzed from the waste down, has cerebral palsy and is so much fun to hang out with. Monday at HML Fabiolla named her baby doll after me so that pretty much made my whole life :) hahah It always feels so weird leaving at the end of shifts because there you are doing everything their mom would be doing all day long and then at 6 when it is time to go home you just have to leave them there. I had the hardest time the other day because I had been playing with this tank named Edu all shift long at Cunas and then he was upset about something so I was holding him then all a sudden it was 6 and I had to just lay him in his crib and leave or else the bus would leave me. It just really isn´t fair to them but I guess we just have to make the most of the time we do have with them! So here is how a typical shift goes at Milagros... get there at 7 and feed them breakfast, at about 8 get all the kids out of their wheelchairs and hang out on the mat and do therapies for an hour, 9 to 10 is bath time (exciting) hahah then I do the girls hair and get all of them dressed, 10 we have snack and then until 12 we do an activity (mostly has to do with soccer:)) So there ya have it!! I bought the girls new hair ties the other day because all of theirs had been falling apart and you would have thought it was Christmas. Laurita just kept saying "WOWWW" and wanted to just keep looking at them. Ahh I love her, these kids are the sweetest! All of you will also be pleased to hear that we do in fact have wipes in Cuenca which is a huge blessing! hahah Also, we have been playing cards at night and you will all also be pleased to hear that I am the reigning scum champ! hahah Oh, another cool thing that happened I can´t remember if I already wrote about... but I taught our bus driver Carlos´s son (Carlos Jr) a secret handshake (background information: all the girls are in love with Carlos because he has hair like Uncle Jessie on Full House) and Carlos Jr always has me do it every time I get out of the bus and then the other day as I was getting out Carlos turns around and goes "my turn"! That also made my whole life. hahah just kidding but life in Cuenca is amazing and beautiful!! It´s been such a great experience for me so far and I am loving every second. I am also happy I got to skype my poppy tonight:) A few times every day I feel horrible for not always appreciating the little things and my family and friends growing up and realize how important it is for me to remember all of these reality checks I have been having. I also know that my mom Anne has been along on this adventure with me this entire time and that´s such a blessing.  I love you all a lot and can´t wait to give you all big hugs when I get back!! Nicole
PS thanks to Aunt Lisa I just filled up the whole journal she gave me, and the picture in it meant a lot:)

Hola everyone! well sorry for my absences from the blogging scene i am slacking a little bit. But as for my adventure over the past little while are the other night we had a bonfire that was really fun. we went down the street from our house and built a fire and just sat around it and talked and told some good ghost stories. Also i got to go to church this week which i was really excited for! it was really fun because we got to take three of the little kids with us. I was lucky enough to get to have the baby from Malagrose cuddle with me the whole time. I am not sure why but i really like going to church down here because its cool to see how the church is the exact same and you can still feel the spirit even though you cant really understand anything but also see some unique Ecuadoran quirks too. Yesterday i had the morning off so i read and then headed into town. i absolutely love town here because theres nothing really to compare it too in the states and just to see all the unique stores and people just really fun. during the afternoon i got to go up to a little town called Turi, i think ha. Turi is set up on one of the hills so when your driving up there you get some of the most amazing views ever! once you get to the top theres a small church, which they light up at night and can be seen from Cuenca, but there is a look out and its probably one of the coolest views because all you see is the white and red brick houses that just cover everything. when we get a picture up there ill have to post it so you can see it.Trini is the preschool up in Turi we go to and mostly we just help out and play with the kids. They absolutely love when you sing so we sang for a good while and then ended up making a mess by finger painting but that was my favorite part because you kinda got to see the kids personalities because some would mix all the colors together, others would keep the colors separate but still paint with them, and others would just not touch it haha pretty funny. After afternoon shift we went to HML and played some basketball and did hair there with the girls. Surprisingly nicole did not get hit in the face by the basketball, probably the first time ever because for some reason the ball is very attracted to her face... but who isnt haha so if you didnt already know HML is an all girl orphanage and well yesterday a boy came out to play and we were all a little confused but i guess his sisters are there and they didnt want to split them up... poor kid has to live with 50 ish girls, looks like my dad had it pretty good :) After HML a couple of us went out to Tutto Freddos and had a last hoorah for Lora who has been here for 5 months and leaves tomorrow :( sad going to miss Lora Loca! but thats the gist of my day haha hope it was somewhat entertaining haha oh nicole is yelling from the bathroom to say she says hi... so hi from nicki minja! love you all!

ps nicole really isnt in the bathroom she actually is just really blocked up soo yahh ha
pss nicole is actually fine going to the bathroom she is just normal like all of you... fun fact of the day :)

Bonfire!

Dinner out on the deck

Cathedrals in the city

HML hairstyles... skill!!!

more HML hairstyles :)

The days are starting to go by faster and faster!! :) In Malagrose yesterday Laurita´s family came to visit her which was a sad thing to see. There was no love between them and I felt like they didn´t even know her and she kept wanting to come color by us. In the 3 weeks I have been here they haven´t visited once so I take it they don´t very often. It´s just a sad situation because like Lady, her family doesn´t want her to be adopted but they don´t want to take care of her either. I am taking Spanish lessons from this guy named Enrique twice a week and I started two nights ago. Everyone told me I should do it and that he is really young and attractive then he got there and he is old and wrinkly... hahah Long story short no one else wanted to do it so I am doing it by myself and he is so entertaining. When I say a wrong answer or he gets frustrated he stands up and stomps his foot I just say lo siento a lot hahah Last night at HML I got there and Isabel and her little sister Fabiolla were running around yelling my name. It was the cutest! I love them so much. I had a good time in Malagrose this afternoon too... first off Martin kept trying to give me "noogies" so I told him I had eyes in the back of my head (Grandma Vicki style) and I could see him then he was just super freaked out and kept looking and touching the back of my head ahaha I already told Karson but all of the cute little boys remind me of him.. Marcelo who I always play soccer with is just like Karson. He is good at every sport and even though he is in Casa Alegria he is always just hanging out all over the place. He is only 6 but because of his living situations he acts like he is about 16. Today he was helping me wash all the kids hands before dinner and then this song came on the radio he liked so he just started dancing with me! haha So we full on had this big dance party in the middle of getting ready for dinner and all the other kids were just laughing at us like we were crazy. Tomorrow me and a few girls are in charge of making sunday dinner and we are doing bbq chicken and mom´s homemade oreo cookies.. hopefully it will be as big a hit in ecuador as it at home:) It was also really funny today because I was at Casas in the morning and Lorena who is about 5 made me read the same book called "Froggy´s First Kiss" to her literally 6 times ahaha and most the time she just wanted to skip to the part where the little frog got kissed by the other one. I think I have it memorized:) Fun fact: At lunch if the kids don´t eat their food the nuns make them stand on a chair in the corner and that is the ultimate punishment for them and they just stand there and bawl and bawl.. pretty sad!!  LOVE YOU!!! xoxox Nicole

Yesterday was a very eventful day!! I spent the morning at Malagrose as I usually do and it was a lot of fun! I was in charge of activity so we made those little fortune tellers out of paper and pretended that we could tell the future. ahah For afternoon shift I was at Casa Alegria which is mostly the little healthy toddler aged kids (including my girl Lady). I have been sucking up to the worker so she has given me more "hold Lady time" haha just kidding but really I had a lot of fun with her today. We swung on the swing set and played in the sand. It is always especially  hard for me to leave her. Marcelo came and got me to play soccer with him but that didn't last long because Lady kept running in wanting to play too :) The shift started out kind of rough because I was sitting on the mat with the kids and I was looking in the opposite direction of Christian (a 6 year old autistic boy) and all a sudden he just falls on top of me and bonked me so hard on my cheek bone.. I haven't felt that much pain in awhile haha! Most likely I will be bruised tomorrow but that is okay! Then at the end of the shift I was feeding Jon (hes about 2) and then everything I had just fed him came back up.... so that was a good time. Hopefully no one reading this has a bad gag reflex ahaha But the craziest part of all..... all a sudden the Tia comes up to me holding this TEEENYY baby and starts rattling off in Spanish but surprisingly I was able to understand that the hospital had just brought a new baby and he was 8 days old.. no name.. and his parents had just left him at the hospital. She asked me to hold him and it was insane holding a baby that small and my heart just broke for him! It was just pretty hard seeing that happen first hand. I don't mean to make this a depressing post but there's a slight possibility I might have walking pneumonia or bronchitis... hopefully not though!! Everyone says that when you go to the doctor here if you have any type of fever they always give you a shot in your butt and that doesn't sit well with me hahah good thing I don't have a fever but anyways, on a happier note we went to this nice restaurant called Goda for dinner last night and they had crystal glasses so we all had a good time playing them Miss Congeniality style :) Fun facts of the day: at restaurants they give cough drops instead of mints here and when you flush the toilets they spin the opposite way. love you all a lot!!! Nicole

We are officially the seniority in the house and it feels pretty weird! It is interesting to see the new girls and realize that it was only us about 2 weeks ago and seeing how much we have learned already. Today I was training a girl and she started asking me who is easiest to feed because she gets nauseous when food falls out of their mouth, I couldn´t help but think what will happen when she has to bathe them ahaha I have also realized that you know you really love a child when they throw up on you twice in one day and you don´t even care hahaha Orvie has been sick so its been pretty sad. I was sooo proud of Laurita today, I had her walk between 2 parallel bars for therapy to get her walking again and she did so well!! Then she just gave me the biggest hug after because she was so proud of herself too haha I have also been making friends with some of the workers which has been a good time. We just attempt to talk and then end up using baby talk on each other to communicate because that´s basically all we know haha! My friend Rosa and I just sing the Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull song together because it is always on the radio when we are feeding the kids. So the Saturday before me and Anna left some friends took us up in the canyon on Cinco de Mayo for our own little fiesta and we kept playing the song "Papa Americano". Yesterday we were all playing soccer and how we play is that each tia(that´s what we call the workers) and all the volunteers grab a wheelchair and we all split up into teams and just go at it. haha all the new volunteers at first think you need to be gentle but no.. if you aren´t agressive you won´t last long.. hahah So anyways we always have music playing when we are outside and all a sudden that song came on. I don´t know why but it was just such a cool moment for me hahah actually being in Ecuador, playing soccer with some of the coolest kids on the earth and just basically lovin life haha. Not to say it isn´t hard sometimes, but I really am happy to be here. Me and Martin are becoming best buds and he always sneaks a kiss on my cheek when I say goodbye hahah Linnea, Anna and I were listening to a conference talk out on the balcony today and it was pretty cool because we just picked a random one from October 2011 conference and it was Uchtdorfs about how without God we are nothing and how he knows and loves us. It was exactly what we needed to hear and not just for ourselves but reassurance that Heavenly Father is and will continue to take care of these kids.Also, if we do make an impact here it will be through him. I had my afternoon shift at Casas and not going to lie it was a nightmare. There were a few times when I just wanted to sit down and cry. ahaha I can´t remember if I have said this before but the orphanage run by nuns called Tadeo Torres feels like you have just walked into the Sound of Music.. and how the kids act is just like that too. When the nuns aren´t in the room they go APE literally they are discipled harshly all day, so when they realize they can take advantage of you, they do. And they also think it´s fun to tell the nuns you did something you really didn´t... hahah like for example I put Carmen to bed and as soon as the nun walks out of the room she starts screaming crying for no reason just to make it look like I did something to her... needless to say Casas is probably my least favorite shift..... hopefully I will grow to love it, I just need some time :) ahah Anyways, just realizing everyday how lucky I am to have the people that I do in my life. LOVE YOU ALLLLL :) Nicole

hi everyone! sorry ive been so terrible at writing on the blog i always forget about it but i am going to try and be better! so over the past week everything has been pretty good. i am feeling a lot more comfortable at the sites especially cunas. some funny things that have happened to me was yesterday i was at cunas and my self and one of the workers, Betty, were changing the little kids when she burped and then continued to burp for the next five minutes. kind of strange especially that she didnt say a thing about it but whater ha, that same worker thought it was hilarious when she accidentally step on my foot... so she continued and would laugh every time, also about two days ago again Betty was changing Emillo and she had just taking his diaper off when he began to pee ha she just sat there with no expression until Emillo had relieved him self haha good times. just a little in sight to the cuna kids, there are eight older kids (all under the age of two) and six itties (all under the age of one) they are all super hungry for attention so they will do anything to get it. for example pablo is one of the older and bigger boys and if someone else is sitting on my lap he will some how squeeze his way on to my lap and push the other kid off... quite amusing but really sad that they need it so bad! its crazy how the little things are what can make or break your day. also i have realized how the Lord is helping me through all the ups and down and honestly i can say i could not have made it thus far or any further without his help! love and miss everyone! and keep it classy in utah! :)
love anna

It has been a little over a week since we first got here!:) And everyone knew it was coming.. if I were 25 and married I would most definitely be adopting a few of these kids! haha Words can´t even explain how amazing they all are. I feel like I have learned more this week and had my heart broken more times than I have during any other week in my life. I have learned that I never will ever take advantage of my family. Wowww do I love them so much! I got Karsons letter today and it made me so happy!! I have been getting cute notes from my family in my socks and shoes and every time I get one it just reassures to me how great they are. Also, I have decided that when I have kids I will most definitely not take them for granted. I have also become extremely aware of how much Heavenly Father is aware of my life. Every day something happens that lets me know he has heard my prayers. I have been praying to understand Spanish better so I could better bond with the kids and the other night I was talking to my roommate Andrea and responded to her in Spanish.. ahh it was incredible and I honestly just caught myself off guard haha It´s such a blessing to be here and I really hope I am able to learn to love more and better. Something I have also realized is that I need to learn to discipline better as well. haha when it comes to rowdy kids I usually just get trashed haha. I was playing with an autistic boy named Christian in the sandbox the other day and I thought we were having a great time till he started throwing it at me hahah I wasn´t sure how to respond and I just don´t deal well with those situations. On Monday night we went to HML (the all girls orphanage) and my friend from last week named Isabel remembered me. Ahh it made me so happy. She just ran up yelling Nicole and introduced me to her little sister. She saw my green eyes and just kept saying verde! and showing all of her friends. Would have thought they hadn´t seen green eyes before haha It broke my heart because I realized that Isabel is the closest thing to a mom her little sister has and she is only 9. It´s hard to even comprehend a life like that. These kids are amazing. Last night I was asked to be the Casa Milagrose (Miracle House) Site Leader. I am beyond excited. I ADORE the kids at that house and being site leader means I get to spend one shift a day with them :) At Milagrose we have Orvie who is about 2 and has cerebral palsy, when he came to the orphanage he had been abandoned and was malnourished.. you could see all of his ribs and bones. He is one of the sweetest little boys I´ve ever met and loves to fall asleep when you want to feed him haha! Next is Laurita and she is my little buddy. She loves to give hugs and I am determined to have her walking before I leave. She used to walk but because of lack of therapies her legs have gone stiff. She loves coloring and bossing people around :) Guapo is one who I probably know the least. He is autistic and loves textures and twisting different materials around by his mouth. He hates to be approached but if he approaches you then anything is fair game. I am determined to be approached :) Jorge is about 18 and is the one who is pretty difficult to bathe. He communicates by making loud noises and loves to grab onto things. Roman is hilarious and you can tell he has a lot going on in his head. One second he will have this really serious face then the next he will be laughing so hard. When he was little he was also abandoned and was found scooting around in the market. Bryan is 16 and so sweet. He likes to be talked to and treated like a 16 year old but he also loves playing tricks on people and being read too. Blanca is gorgeous and loves to swing. The only times I have seen her smile is when she is on the swing or when me and Andrea sang "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion to her. Maybe she was just smiling because she realized how tone deaf I am haha Finally we have Martin whose about 18 I think and so awesome. I wrote early about him but he knows both English and Spanish and loves being the goalie when we play soccer. He is the biggest helper when I am at shift and when I have no idea what I am doing he always lets me know if I am doing something wrong haha! Today I had my off shift with Andrea and we went to go pick up her fiance from the airport. 5 of the girls are leaving tomorrow to go to the Amazon and then home to the States, then we are getting 7 new girls on Friday. The rules were that they couldn´t be alone so I got to third wheel it up all day :) haha just kidding. It was really fun and her fiance Tyler knows Spanish so he was able to barter for us when we went shopping. I am excited to move into the comfier bed when these girls leave. I have been on the top bunk and if you imagine the worst mattress you´ve ever slept on it´s probably 10x worse:) haha xoxoxo Nicole

We have officially left the honeymoon stage of our trip where everything was lovely and wonderful and entered the oh my heavens this is hard stage haha. Everyone says this stage doesn´t last very long so we are crossing our fingers it doesnt :) Yesterday we got to go to church which was just what we needed! Of course we were missing our moms for mothers day but it was great to go and feel the spirit. Church here was a new experience because everyone basically walks in late and everything was just more relaxed but obviously the spirit was still the same even though we didn´t catch much of what they said. Last night for devotional we learned all the kids background stories. Its crazy because we have only been here  a week but already love them a lot. Hearing about their hard lives was literally heart breaking. Nicole´s buddy Lady who she got in trouble for holding has a mom who was about 16 when she had her. She is a prostitute and is super into drugs. Her mom doesn´t want her to be adopted but still doesn´t want her so Lady is just stuck in the orphanage. Pretty ridiculous and needless to say it reassures why we are here. If we ever see her mom... ooo hold us back hahah just kidding. We feel selfish for ever missing home because they don´t have one. We made a friend with our bus drivers kids and they are hilarious hahah (Nicole) taught them a nice handshake that they like to do 100 times a bus ride probably and they always tickle us and say "I lub you" haha that is how it sounds with their spanish accents. We always also say dice.. and then say some funny english phrase and its funny to hear them say it in their accents. thats probably bad but they laugh at us too when we try to speak spanish to them. Today we got to go ziplining and it was amazing!!!!!! So fun, and now we are adrenaline junkies haha It was kind of awkward though because one of the guys helping us down and hooking us up to the line was attractive and we didn´t think he knew english so we were all just joking around about him the whole time and as we were walking out Nicole said: i love you! then our group leader told us he understands english so thats great hahah Anna also thinks that if you say something english in a spanish accent then they can understand haha. the other day she caught herself saying "your so pretty" in a spanish accent to one of the little girls... we could not stop laughing:) she felt pretty dumb haha. Fun facts of the day: The other day when we were walking home from church we saw a man lying on the ground passed out drunk. that was weird! Also, bananas are the largest export from Ecuador and second is roses! Men don´t buy roses for women that they love because they are so cheap here, they actually buy sunflowers! ps.. we are not allowed to add pictures of the kids on facebook or a blog until they are private and we don´t know how to do that so thats why we haven´t added any yet :)

It has been a good couple of days and I am starting to get used to things here! I have yet to change a poopy diaper yet which is surprising but I did have to help bathe a few grown men today which was a new experience for me!! haha I worked in Casa Malagros with my roommate Andrea and it is the house for special needs as well and they are a little older and can understand quite a bit. Martin can understand both spanish and english and is constantly trying to tell us things and it makes me kinda sad when I can´t figure out what he is trying to say because he gets frustrated too. My goal is to be able to communicate with him better. At Malagros there is also little baby Orvie who is soooo cute!! Its really sad because he has a disorder where his muscles aren´t very strong and they have been trying to put him in a wheelchair without kneck support and you can tell he is just miserable. I finally found someone harder to feed than Kars.. haha trying to feed Orvie today was quite the experience haha moving his head side to side, blowing bubbles, coughing the sopa all over me hahah love it. Last night we did a talent show with the primary for Mothers Day and it was super fun! We did this interesting dance to "my little buttercup" and i could not stop laughing for some reason. Another little boy did a dance to Michael Jackson.. sparkly jacket.. glove.. the whole bit! Haha he knew the whole dance and was so cute. Me and Anna get to do a shift today together in Casa Alegria. I loooveedd that place. There is the cutest little girl in there named Lady and we instantly bonded and she was just holding my hand and kept running up and giving me hugs hahah At one point she was standing there brushing my hair out of my face and one of the workers just goes "don´t hold lady!!" so obviously im confused and bothered and now i have a beef with that worker ahah just kidding but i guess i will just have to give her lots of hugs when the worker isn´t looking. xoxox Nicole

I forgot to say a couple fun things that happened to me in Casa Malagros. The other day when i was there at the PM shift Martin wanted to read his scriptures so we did. He would get all excited about certain scriptures and would have me mark them. He got baptized last year into the church and it was really cool to see him so excited about it. Even though I used really broken Spanish while reading it he still understood and loved it. This morning in Cunas was good, the little kids were so cute. I got to feed some itty bitty babies and play with them. xoxo Anna
Happy Mothers Day!! We <3 and miss our mamas:)

Hola everyone! Just finished shift at OSSO A which is the cute little babies! Ecuador is beautiful and it all seems like a dream! the work is hard but completely worth it! today is my first off which is must needed and i think we are going to go into town and look around. yesterday i was in OSSO M and was probably the best shift i have had so far. all the kids in that house are special needs and we just had so much fun dancing and singing (mostly me since most are in wheelchairs and cant talk to well) and then one boy and i sat and colored with chalk for a good while and we made the coolest chalk picture ever super colorful that consisted of a sun with a butterfly and flower with rain clouds next to it haha random but pretty awesome! i really do love those kids! also something special that happened today was me and three other volunteers took five kids to ride horses at the military base next door. super fun and nice to get out of the orphanage! fun times in Ecuador! xoxo Anna :)

Today I had top one of the top 5 most amazing experiences of my life. We do two shifts a day both at different orphanages (there are about 6) and my morning one was at Casa Esperanza. It is for children (and a few adults) that are highly special needs. At first there was a lot to taken like schedule things, who to feed first, how to bathe them, etc but they are seriously amazing I can already tell. We got to go outside and play with them and they loved when we would push them around the sidewalk. For our lunch break we went into town to get Vitamin C because my roommate was throwing up all night and another girl has pink eye and lets just say that was a fail hahah I walk in.. "necesito vitamin c" they couldn´t decifer past my american accent and so we just gave up haha shoot. after that we went to our second shift and I was with Lora and Pressley and we were going to the off site that is 40 minutes away called Azoegus. It was honestly the poorest conditions I have ever seen (the other main orphanages we work in are pretty nice conditions). We went in and cleaned all the bathrooms.. my mom has taught me well and we made them shine!! after a few moments of gagging i got through it and did my job haha then we got to go out to the little playground they have and play with the kids. imagine tons of 2 to 9 year olds extremely dirty, lots of lice in their hair, and tons of runny noses. but wow did they have so much love to give and were also lacking an insane amount of love. at one point i had a little boy (who reminded me of karson) on my back and two little girls in each arm. they wouldn´t let me put them down.. my muscles are going to get really big!! haha i have never experienced anything like that and my heart really broke. i have never met sweeter kids in my life. i was holding a little girl who was sad because she had been pinched by another boy and because i don´t know very much spanish all i did was hug her and say.. "tu muy bonita" and she got the biggest smile on her face and called me her "amiga" and kissed me on the cheek. i can´t even put into words how amazing it was to be there. i didn´t even mind that they wouldn´t all stop playing (and pulling) my hair and kept trying to kiss me on the mouth hahah don´t worry though i did a deep clean shower when i got home and dodged all the mouth besas :) we don´t go very often to that orphanage but i can´t wait to go back they all cried when we left. it put things into perspective for me being there firsthand. its so hard to comprehend that these amazing kids don´t have families and live like that. i am going to get anna to blog soon about her adventures because she was at different sites today:) sorry i didn´t use very good punctuation and capitalization in this.. it is a spanish keyboard and im not used to it! xoxoxo Nicole

One more thing we forgot to say.... I (Nicole) picked up a pipe today from the market and thought it was a finger puppet and started playing with it ahaha needless to say I have a lot to learn :) We also tried a new fruit called granadia (not sure if thats how it is spelled) but it had the texture of a pomegranate and looked like boogers. hahah ohhh Ecuador :)

Holaaa amigos!! Buenos noches from Ecuador! We have had quite the experience getting here and have learned that the words "si, hola, and gracias" can be used in almost any situation when you have no idea what is going on. We spent last night in Quito where we were shuffled to a basement and told "goodnight" thats it. hahah We took one look at each other and couldn´t help but laugh. We woke up early and took a flight to Cuenca and we LOVEEEE it here!!! Our self esteem has raised a few notches and we kind of felt like movie stars walking through the airport. Everyone was staring at the tall chick and blondie walking through. (you would have thought they had never seen one of our breed before) We also think that Ecuadorians must have a nervous twitch or something because everytime they see someone white they honk.. haven´t been able to wrap our minds around that one. We got to Cuenca and all the girls were super nice and welcoming. They have all been here a month or longer and 5 of them are leaving next week and we are getting 5 new ones after they leave. (there are a total of 8 girls in the house) We had orientation and then went on a tour to all of the orphanages and through the city... AMAZING. It is gorgeous and feels like a dream.. we kept pinching each other. We played soccer at the special needs house and they were so fun. We already fell in love with the kids and they all are so sweet. We would say besa as we were leaving and they would come give us lots of kisses on the cheeks. The little kids in the cuna part of one of the orphanages in particular were sad to see us leave and kept giving us hugs and holding our hands. The city was so fun to go through. We walked through the flower market and we just wanted to stand there forever smelling them. There are so many fun shops and you can get DVDs for 1$ they even have Hunger Games and The Vow so holerrrr if you have any requests. ahah! The food is way yummy and all the girls say they have gained weight so hope yall took a good look at us before, because we are coming back 20 lbs heavier and with cornrows and staches. LOVE YOU ALL xoxoxoxoxoxo