happy halloween!!!

mutual:halloween:too much eating... (cake, candy, donuts, chocolate, jello, apples.. more candy)

the winner of the jello eating contest we had... all the kids had to race to see who could eat the jello fastest... with a straw... she beat everyone!!!

as long as i can remember we would always have the "donut on the string" game for ward halloween parties... you have to eat it before it falls on the ground.... i love it... such a great game to watch...

bobbing for apples... i thought i could get out of this one... but i guess i was wrong... so i said, if i am going, i am gonna get an apple... i dunked my whole head in... but i got one!!!

here are some more apple winners!!!

happy halloween!!!

hes home.....

october 23rd 2007... panama to atlanta georgia to phoenix... flight 27... arrival time 6:34pm.... here are the shoes that he went out with... the "originals" and now they have come home with them....
no longer elder alex clark... yeah, we are so excited that he is home... his flight was delayed a couple hours, so every half hour we were checking flight information... and luckily he didnt come in too much later than his original time... which was 5:53pm...

chocoflan...

so good.... another mexican recipe that i want to remember and share... last month when my visiting teachers were over, we got talking about chocoflan and i mentioned that i want to know how to make it... it is so goood! so... we got together last night and hermana sotelo taught us how to make chocoflan... ( the bottom half of the cake/flan is chocolate cake and the top layer is flan)

• chocolate cake mix, any kind, whatever you prefer... then mix it according to the directions on the box. set aside.


• next the flan mixture: 4 large eggs or 5 small eggs, 1 can of leche clavel (evaporated milk), 1 can lechera (sweetened condensed milk), 1 box of media crema or 1/2 bar of cream cheese (whichever you prefer), 1 tsp of vanilla. mix in blender until smooth.


• "grease" a bundt pan with caramel or dulce de leche, (that is what i used) and then pour in about half the cake mix, then about 4 cups of the flan mixture.


• next you will place the bundt pan in another 8x8 or 9x9 pan that has hot water it in, "bano maria"... then place all of this in the oven at 350 F or 180 C for the time that is indicated on the cake box for bundt cake... probably about 30 to 35 mins.


• when you take the cake out, immediately take the bundt pan out of the bano maria and put it in a ice cold bath to chill the flan as soon as possible. when it is cool enough, place in refrigerator to cool faster. next flip out the cake on a platter and there it is. (dont leave the cake in the pan too long or it wont come out of the pan clean) finish cooling for a few more hours in the refrigerator, until completely cooled, before serving.


• eat!!!

we love our visitors....

we had so much fun while our family was here... (top: right after church, bottom: marlas favorite soda shop) thanks so much for coming guys, it was so fun! i cant wait to do it again sometime!!! love you all!!! (thanks for the pictures shauna)

girl or boy????

well, i had my 18 week doctors appointment today... and as she was doing the ultrasound we got a perfect view... she, my doctor, said..."these are the legs... this is the "pompis" (translation: gluteus maximus) and this is the pubic area..." well, in that area we were hoping to see something that would give us a clue.... there was nothing... so brent says, "parece que es nina, verdad?" and she says, "well, i cant tell you either way, i am just not sure"...

so... brent thinks it is a girl, but..... says that he is not the doctor... i still dont know, but loved watching, once again, the baby move around and squirm... i swear one time he/she was waving at us... i love ultrasounds... i told brent i want to buy a machine so we could just take a look whenever we wanted.... and he said, "ok, tom cruise"....

so long story short... we are still not sure... but so very happy that the baby is healthy and happy kicking around...

... when in rome...

no i am not trying to quote "anchorman"....

we have adopted a few "customs" here in mexico..... when we go to the grocery store, and if we buy pineapples, we pull off the green top part before we buy it... it weighs less, and then you pay less... haha... you can always find a few green tops without their pineapple bottoms... it always makes me laugh...

last weekend...

we celebrated the first day of fall with the youth, seeing as it was saturday which equals mutual... both of us felt so blessed after the day was over...

we were able to get almost every single one of our youth from the young mens and young womens to this activity... i would like to call it "super mutual"... first we planned on going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead, and since that is a hour an a half away we decided that we would take advantage of being in a bigger city with all the kids, so we planned on staying there and doing a few other activities...

the best part about the whole thing... the young women were in charge of this activity, and oh my goodness, friday night i was almost in tears... throughout the week before hand i had asked certain people if they could help us get to the temple with the use of their cars... but as i was calling to confirm the plan for saturday morning, i had a few kinks in our plan... at first not very happy... but soon i came to realize that this is a very righteous activity and that if i just pray, do everything i can possibly do and then just have faith, that it somehow would work out.... and it did, what a faith booster... we were able to get 22 youth to the temple! i was the happiest person alive! i loved being in the temple with them, i couldnt help but smile while watching them. it was wonderful!

after the temple we all went to costco for lunch! those kids can eat!!! between them and the adults that were there... 13 pizzas were consumed!

here you go.... "the belly pictures"...

el bebe... this top picture is about a week ago... and the bottom pictures is from today... i really feel like my stomach is growing everyday now... sometimes it is so uncomfortable, i cant sit still very long... but i still love every minute!

the myths we have heard so far......

....that since i have not felt the baby move yet that it is a girl.. because they move around 4 or 5 months... as to boys sooner...

...because i have been craving more salt that it is a boy... if you crave sweets it is a girl...

...and then there are others that can just look at me and tell me what it is... haha... most say that we are going to have a girl.... we shall see... our next appointment is the 15th of october, and we should be able to see what it is by then... i will be just over 18 weeks along... yeah...