Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving day we went to the Shelley's house to celebrate. We had a huge feast that included things like green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, mac-n-cheese and rolls. Can you tell that casserole was a theme to our Thanksgiving feast? We had Laura and Matt and her parents over for Thanksgiving as well. Kayleigh was so excited to have her friend Julianna there to play with.

This is the dessert spread.

Kayleigh with Julianna's baby doll. They continued to put her down for a nap and told us not to go in the room where she was sleeping.

Here Kayleigh, Julianna, and I are trying to do a craft. The key word here is "try" it took a lot of us to figure out how to put this little house together.

Here is the whole crowd minus Zeb. He was sleeping. He always seems to miss out on getting his picture taken. I'm sad we don't have any pictures of him on this day.

Zeb's First Solid Foods

On November 12th we started Zeb on solid food. We gave him bananas and he loved them! You can tell by the picture below just how excited he was about them. Starting solids for him was way past due. My little Kayleigh could have cared less when she started her first solid foods but Zeb was more than ready. Milk was just not enough for him any more. The first couple of days the food just poured back out of his mouth but now he has gotten the hang of it.

Picnic at the Park

The Saturday before last we decided to pack up the kids and some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and head to the park. It was a lot of fun. Saturdays are usually our family day. It is always nice to take a break from our normal routine and go have some fun. This park is unique in that it has some rides that you would normally see at a fair. Kayleigh loves any chance to hang out with her friends Bright and Zion and we love to hang out with their parents! We had a great time and even had an audience at times.

This was for the 2008 Olympics. We thought it was quite impressive.

Not quite sure what kind of face I am making there. I think I might have had food in my mouth!

This park is on a lake that you would have to pay me a million dollars to swim in but it makes for a beautiful view!

My Little Carolina Man

My little Carolina man is 6 months old now. He has been around for half a year. He brings so much joy to our lives. One of the things that I prayed for about him before he was born was that he would bring laughter and joy to others. I can already see God has answered my prayer. He makes us laugh everyday. He has so much joy himself that he can't help but pass it on to others. We had our friends give Zeb a Chinese name. His Chinese name is "Yi Le"( pronounced: ee luh). This name comes from Genesis 22:14 where God provides a sacrifice for Abraham in the place of Issac. Abrham calls the place on the mountain "the Lord will provide." Zeb's Chinese name means provision. I thought this was very appropriate because I had prayed for a long time that my next child would be a boy and God provided!

To Cute Not To Post

I know that Halloween is far gone and that November is almost over too but I couldn't resist posting this picture. My mom had given my kids these outfits for Halloween but I never got around to making their picture in them until after Halloween was over. The murder mystery kept me too busy on Halloween to have time to take the picture.

Friday Night T.V. Night

Every Friday night John and I host a t.v. night at our house. Everyone in our community is invited to come watch Amazing Race and Office. It is fun to have people to hang out with and watch American t.v. Below is some of our faithful attenders. It is especially fun for me since I don't get out much as a mom. Being very social, I really like to host people at my house. This is a perfect opportunity for me to have some good times with friends.

Eight Tea Cakes Without One Bite?!

Kayleigh and I read lots of books. There is one in particular that is her favorite. Ellie, one of our friends, gave her a counting book and we read it everyday. She has most of it memorized. One of the lines in it is "eight tea cakes sat without one bite!". Well, this morning during Bible time Kayleigh and I were reciting our memory verses. I asked her what Psalm 1:6 says. This was her reply....."The Lord....eight tea cakes without one bite!". I am pretty sure that isn't what Psalm 1:6 says! I guess she is getting all of the things she has memorized confused in that little brain of hers. She never ceases to amaze me on how much she can retain. However, sometimes it comes out at random times!

Carpet Time

Most every day we have what I like to call "carpet time". This is a time where Kayleigh plays by herself for a while. I had to make it carpet time since Zeb is usually asleep in her room. Unlike most American homes we do not have a lot of carpet. Most of our house is hardwood floors. We do have a small piece of carpet in our living room. The basic rules are that she has to play by herself for a certain amount of time and she is not allowed to leave the carpet area. This time is help me get some things done around the house and I don't have a little two year old under my feet all day! I didn't start carpet time until recently so it is still somewhat of a new concept to her. The first couple times I tried it she basically stood at the edge of the carpet with her toes hanging off. She asked me about every 3 minutes"Mommy I come out now?" However, yesterday she finally decided to take advantage of all of her toys that she has to play with and not just stand there the whole time. I realized that she had gotten really quiet so I thought I would check on her since quiet usually means she is up to something. I found her here:



After a few minutes of watching her she started to quietly say "help me Mommy". She had gotten stuck and couldn't get out. She is quite the character.

Zeb Singing

Yesterday we had Bible time and afterward in the singing time, Zeb wanted to sing along with Kayleigh. Here is a video showing just how it happened!

Murder Among the Mateys!

For Halloween 2008 our friends Josh and Danielle decided to host a murder mystery party. The theme this year was Pirates! We had dinner, played a pirate game and then had to solve a murder. It was really fun to act out the part that we were assigned.We had a blast and it was a great way to spend our Halloween. China is a great place to put on parties like this because you can always find really good and inexpensive costumes!

Captain Redbeard

Captain Redbeard and his first mate Merciless Morgan!

Captain Redbeard and his sister Sharktooth Brandy. I had lived on the high seas all my life!

The Governor and his wife. Notice the awesome skeleton they rented for the party.



The whole gang!