Mi casa es su casa

As promised, here are some pictures of our new little house! We love the neighborhood...it feels very much like Latin America and everyone spends lots of time outside, walking or hanging out in their front yards. We can walk to Suzy's school, the grocery store, library, and a plethora of Mexican, Salvadoran, Indian, and Thai restaurants, tiendas, etc. 

Since our last place was fully furnished (down to the silverware, sheets, and toilet paper! ) we had to start over from scratch. Thankfully, all of our furniture was either given to us or found in thrift stores, ikea clearance, etc. 

the living room 

kitchen...a little tight but does the job! thankfully there is a laundry room off of the kitchen that comes with washer and dryer already in it...in LA it is rare to rent a house that has a fridge, washer, or dryer but thankfully this had them all! 

the kids room...they are finally sharing a room!

our room

the bathroom...the blue tile might be my favorite part of the whole house! 

living room from the other side of the room...the dining room area is just to the left of the desk

dining room...the living room/desk/dining room area is all one big open space. We really wanted benches for the dining room table b/c my grandma used to say that there is always room for one more when you have a bench! Luckily, we found these at Ikea for $9! 

without a doubt, Suzy's favorite part of the house is the garden

she spends hours out in the garden every day...Digging, planting, picking tomatoes and basil

we also spend a lot of time in the swing (E has one for him too). even though there is no grass, we have fun playing in the dirt (well they do...it still kinda stresses me out) . This tree offers amazing shade for the whole house...something we treasure so much because we now live in the hottest part of LA

we inaugurated the yard yesterday with an outdoor dinner party. it was partly a 4th of July party, and partly to say goodbye to our friend Sarah who is moving back to Guatemala where she is a missionary. The man on the right is a Guatemalan friend that Sarah brought to our Bible study a year or two ago, and he has been faithful coming by metro every week even though it was over 2 hours each way to get to Pasadena. He doesn't speak much Spanish, so Sarah would translate the study to him into his Mayan language, which she also speaks because she lives in his hometown in Guatemala. Turns out now we live on the same street as he does!! God answered his prayer to bring people closer so he wouldnt have to travel so far. 

happy 4th!