Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Some how we managed to take tons of video of the kids opening their presents on Christmas morning but no actual pictures. Oh well! We spent the morning at home just our family and skyping with the grandparents. Then we travelled out to Josh and Danielle's house to spend the afternoon and night with them. The kids were so excited. Josh, Danielle and now Harvey are some of their favorite people. We had a great time with them. This is their last Christmas in China and since they have been such a huge part of our lives here we wanted to spend it with them. Merry Christmas everyone!

Love this picture of Kayleigh. 

Christmas Eve

We had quite an eventful Christmas Eve. The foreign owned coffee shop in our apartment complex is moving so their last open day was today. They had face painting, Christmas movies, and a guy making fun things out of balloons for the kids. Zeb and Kayleigh had a blast and didn't want to leave. Then tonight we had our team over for a nice steak dinner and opening presents from our secret Santa. I love Christmas. This year it has been really fun to watch Kayleigh and Zeb get into Christmas more than any other year in the past. They can not wait till tomorrow. More fun pictures to come.

Zeb has a motorcycle balloon in one hand and a sword balloon in the other. Every little boys dream.

I love this picture of Kayleigh laid back in the chair ready to get her face painted.

Zeb requested a snow man yesterday. I was relieved to see that it was one of the face painting options.

My dear friend Kayla saved the day. Kayleigh requested new play earrings for Christmas and I totally forgot! When she opened her new dress up jewelry she was so excited and I was so relieved that her buddies had gotten her that for Christmas.

10 Months

Layla is 10 months now! There are days when I feel like the time has gone so quickly and then their are days when I really do feel like it has been 10 months since she joined our family. This little one continues to amaze me. I have spent the month of December trying to keep her from eating the Christmas tree and the lights. We have created several different barriers to keep her away from the tree but she has seemed to break through most of them. She can now go from lying down to sitting up on her own. Then quickly thereafter she started to pull up on things to a standing position. I am going to blink my eyes and she will be walking before I know it.  You have to take a step down to enter my living room. For months this has been a nice barrier to keep her from other parts of the house. No more I say. She has now mastered the step as well. She is a very social little bug that wants to be where her brother and sister are. If they are off in their bedroom playing she thinks she needs to join them. I hope you have a very Merry 1st Christmas my little one.

Baby It's Cold Outside Part II

I mentioned in a few posts back that the weather has been colder than normal this year. So I have been bundling up the kids a lot these days. That translates into taking at least 20 minutes to get out the door if we want to go outside to play. I am often approached by the locals for a lot of reasons mainly to talk about my kids. One of the comments I hear the most is your baby does not have enough clothes on. In this East Asian culture they think they are doing me a favor by advising me on how much clothes my child should be wearing. In their eyes I am a young mother that needs to learn the ins and outs of raising children. It is not rude for them to advise me on matters of my children. For the most part I just smile and take their advice in a kind manner. This winter I am getting a little tired of hearing "your baby doesn't have enough clothes on" so I have made it my personal goal to dress Layla in something that the locals could never say wasn't warm enough. So one morning when Kayleigh, Layla and I were off to pick Zeb up from school I put Layla in this:

Layla put up quite a fight getting in it but seemed to like it once the process was done. As you can see it is so thick that she can't even lay her arms down. In my opinion this thing is the warmest thing I could put on my child. So out I marched into the neighborhood proud that I wouldn't get ANY comments about her clothes. Do you think I was successful? The answer is NO! Most of our neighbors seemed pleased with my upgrade of the outfit but I did have one lady tell me that her hands were cold! My gracious! I guess next time I should add gloves to the outfit!

Signs Of The Season

Every year in our city there is a local Christmas fair. Vendors come to a local restaurant selling tons of things for Christmas or gift ideas such as ornaments, jewelery, and Christmas decorations. I love going. Every year the things that are for sell change and I always make it a point to buy a new ornament to add to our tree. This year John was able to go with me and help with the kids. The great thing is they have fun activities for the kids while the parents shop. It is really nice! Kayleigh and Zeb loved getting their face painted. Zeb was especially sad when we had to wash it off in the bath. He didn't quite understand why he couldn't keep it on forever. 

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We have had unusually cold weather for this time of year in our city. It usually doesn't get really cold here until January and February. So we have been wrapping up the kids really tight! Below is Layla enjoying some outside time in her stroller.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. All our friends came over for lunch around 11:30 and stayed the whole day. We enjoyed stuffing our faces with some great American food. We went back for seconds or thirds for some people at dinner. John and I ended our Thanksgiving night by cleaning up throw up. Kayleigh got sick and I was up half the night with her. I am pretty sure I have had one Thanksgiving with kids that someone was not sick. However, the food and fellowship out weighed the sickness. 

9 Months

Dare I say strong willed? This little girl is going to be something else. She definitely has an opinion and is starting to express it. She is crawling more and more and when she gets into something she shouldn't she gets pretty frustrated when you take her away. She loves to play and actually wrestle especially with her daddy. She has added a tooth since last month. I just caught her pulling up on something the other day! Layla you are a mess and we love you dearly. 

All Aboard!

A lot of Kayleigh and Zeb's pretend play has to do with travel. They often pretend that my bed is an airplane and they pack up to go to Thailand or America. When I stop to think about it that seems crazy! Crazy that my 5 and 3 year old would play pretend travel and their destinations are another country! When I was their age if I ever pretended to travel anywhere it was probably to the beach or mountains in the same state I lived in! A little over a year ago one of Kayleigh's good friends moved to another city. She still thinks that her friend lives in another country! She often asks me how long the flight would be to get there or how many airplanes does it take to get to Julianna. I didn't even fly in an airplane until I was 21 years old! Anyways, this particular pretend time was with a train. As you can see I was the conductor and they were the passengers. We all took turns driving the train. It wasn't going anywhere in particular just through a bunch of tunnels and down lots of hills. I love to watch their imaginations work as they play.

I put this sweater and hat on Layla today and Kayleigh could not stop laughing. I told her that she also wore this outfit when she was little. I just wanted to share a cute picture of Layla.

Beauty and The Beast

When I found out that the local international school here in our city was putting on the musical production Beauty and The Beast I immediately thought that I needed to take Kayleigh to go see it. So I rounded up other moms that had little girls and we all went to see it last night. It was wonderful! I must say I was highly impressed at how well the performers did. It was really entertaining. All of Kayleigh's little friends dressed up like princesses for the show. My friend Danielle had seen an earlier show and had warned me that Kayleigh may be a little scared of the Beast. I talked to her about it before we left. During the middle of the show she kept leaning over to tell me that she wasn't scared. Kayleigh loved every minute of it. I hope that I can take her to another musical in the future. 

This is a picture of all them after the show. They were all very tired because it did not end till 9:30.

Happy Halloween!

8 Months

Layla has decided just sitting and eating toys on her blanket is much too boring. She is now learning to crawl! Well for now her crawl resembles more like an army crawl or a wounded soldier but she gets where she wants to go. Kayleigh basically never crawled and Zeb did the army crawl at almost a year old so movement at this age is all new for me. I am trying to teach Zeb that not all of his toys are safe to be left lying around now that Layla is on the move. She has also started to babble a little saying "baba". She will sometimes do it on command if you get her in the right mood. She still adores Kayleigh.  I think it is safe to say Kayleigh is her favorite person even above her own mother. 

A Little Get Away

We just got back from a little get away with some of our American neighbors. We decided to pack up 100 pounds of stuff we somehow need for the kids and head 30 minutes down the road to a local resort that has hot springs. Kayleigh and Zeb thought it was wonderful that they were able to swim in October. Our room had a giant bathtub that more or less resembled a small kids pool and I would just fill that up and let them have the time of their lives. We also swam outside in one of the hot springs. We decided to go down the road to a local park and play Frisbee and throw the football around. We had a lot of fun until I busted Zeb's lip with the Frisbee. Let's just say I threw it right to him but he didn't quite catch it. It was so nice to get away even if it was only 30 minutes down the road. 

I promise these pictures are of Zeb in mid-throw. Quite impressive don't you think?

He had the throwing down just not the catching!

K and Z walking at the edge of the pool. They were dying to get in but this pool was not heated!

Kayleigh's First Dance Class

This past winter when we were in the States having Layla, John and I realized how much extracurricular activities there were to offer in America for little kids. It made us sad in a way that Kayleigh was missing out on those opportunities especially since she LOVES music and dancing. So when we heard that some local friends of ours with ballet experience were offering dance classes from age 5 and up we were thrilled. What a huge blessing from the Lord. Today was Kayleigh's first dance class and I think she really liked it. I am looking forward to seeing her learn and enjoy her ballet class. 

Kayleigh with her friends Lydia and Lily.

Got Milk?

This is pretty much the scene in my living room every morning. My kids love their milk.

Layla at 7 months

Layla at 7 months is such a joy. But haven't I said that in every monthly post I have done of her? She really brings so much joy and laughter to our family. She is sitting up now and is happy going through her basket of toys chewing on each one. She now has two teeth which came with a period of waking in the night which was fun for Mom and Dad. I am going to blink and then she will be a year old. It is going by so fast. I just want to enjoy every minute.

Happenings in the Court Yard

Almost everyday we go out to play in our courtyard. It is the highlight of Kayleigh's and Zeb's day. Kayleigh usually tells me that she needs to go out there to get some energy out. I agree with her! They have lots of fun with their friends that happen to live in our court yard. They do all kinds of things from riding bikes, playing hide and seek to picking flowers and berries off the trees. It is nice for me too because I get to catch up with the other moms. Today Danielle and Harvey came in for the afternoon to visit us. Below Layla and Harvey are in the double stroller ready to go outside. As you can see at 6 and 3 months they aren't too interested in each other. I am sure as they get older they will begin to notice each other more. 

Zeb's First Day of School!

Today was Zeb's first day at pre-school. I was a little nervous about how he would do but he did wonderful! He calls the school "Kayleigh's school" and has been wanting to go for quite some time. He was so excited and even more excited to carry his Lightening McQueen back pack. When I picked him up at school he didn't want to leave! He wanted to keep playing on the play ground. I asked him what they did at school and he said " We ate chao fan ( which is fried rice), and played. Well that sums it up. I can't believe my little boy has started school!

My birthday and thoughts on turning 32

For my birthday our crew went out to celebrate at a new Mexican restaurant that just opened in our city. Words cannot express how excited I am that we have an actually Mexican restaurant in our city and that the food is wonderful! When John and I go to America we eat as much Mexican as possible while we are there. We just miss it a lot! So I naturally picked to go eat Mexican for my birthday. I share a birthday with a guy on our crew named Justin. He also was excited about going here. Anyways, we had a lot of fun. My dear friend Kayla made me a chocolate on chocolate birthday cake which I ask for every year on my birthday. It was wonderful.

I have been sitting here thinking about turning 32 and my one thought or feeling that has been consistent in my life for a while is tiredness. When I was pregnant with Layla I was tired a lot, more tired than I was with the other two. But then again I didn't have two kids to take care of with the other pregnancies. John and I dream of having overnight get-aways where we just go and book a hotel room to sleep. I was hoping the tiredness would go away but it seems to have settled in for a long term stay. As I thought more about this I thought about my mom. At age 32 she had a 5 year old, 18 month old twins and a newborn. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I am convinced my mother was tired for a whole decade. She had to be. I also wonder if while wiping our mouths for the 15th time or our butts for the 100th if she thought about whether we would ever be thankful for all that she did for us. Well, mom I am now. As I experience life with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 6 month old I look back and think you were amazing. It also gives me encouragement to think that if she survived so will I.

Justin at the entrance to the restaurant.

My dear friend Kayla with her new adopted daughter Jubilee.

The wonderful feast!

Typical Justin and Zack.

Although, Justin and I were born on the same day he does not share my love for chocolate. He asked me to make a fruit pizza for his birthday.