Mountain Peacefulness

This summer our friends Josh and Danielle were in America. They were so kind to offer us their car for the summer. So right before they left John went and got his drivers licenses. Which is actually not very easy since the translation into English on the test is horrible. We have enjoyed having their car for the summer. It has been nice not to rely on public transportation so much. One of the highlights of the summer for me has been the mountains. The past two Sundays we have loaded up the kids in the afternoon and driven up the mountain for a little hike. The kids have loved it and I have too. It is so peaceful up there and so quiet. When you live in a city of 4 million people ( maybe more) it isn't very quiet around here. We are so thankful we had a car to be able to enjoy some peacefulness for a while. Below are some pictures of the two times we have gone hiking.

You can really see the vastness of the city.

Not really sure what Zeb is looking at on the trail.

Glitter Lava

About a year ago Kayleigh got a jewelry making and butterfly making kit with glitter lava for her birthday. First of all when a parent reads the words lava on a box it should send out some sort of warning signs. Then you open up the box and on the instructions it says: Adult supervision is recommended on these projects. Really, I thought it would be fine for my 5 year old and 3 year old to be left alone with this stuff. So as you can imagine I haven't gotten this kit out very much over the past year. To be honest I hid it in my craft cabinet in hopes that I could pull it out again when Kayleigh would be old enough to be the supervisor! Well, as luck would have it Kayleigh found it the other day. So I caved and let them play with it. Zeb absolutely loved it! He didn't care one bit about making jewelry (thank goodness). He just loved playing with the lava. By the end he some how got it on his feet and hands and well everywhere. Cleaning that stuff up is a little tricky. Needless to say I hope the lava will be forgotten about for a while!

Layla watching them play. I am sure she will be in the middle of it when she gets older.

Layla Starts Rice Cereal

It is official Layla started solids today. John has been trying to convince me to start for a while but I have been putting it off. He thinks she seems hungry ALL THE TIME and He is right. We started in hopes this would help her go longer between feedings. I wanted to document this day for Layla's sake and mine so I can remember to put it in her baby book. I am not looking forward to the baby food phase. I remember being so excited when Kayleigh started rice cereal then when I was in the middle of making baby food after baby food I thought it wasn't that exciting any more. We can't get baby food here. Correction! You can if you want to feed your baby something with the title fish and bone on it. Not my idea of the baby food I would want to feed my kid. You can occasionally find something normal like carrots and apples but we don't have the variety that America has. For now she is still trying to get the hang of eating rice cereal. Most of the cereal just rolls of her tongue onto the bib. Once she gets the hang of it, I will be making and freezing baby food for quite some time!

5 Months!

Layla is 5 Months today! She has started to grunt at us in an effort to communicate. It is hilarious. She will look me straight in the eye, take a deep breath and then grunt this long grunt. I feel like she is really trying to talk in some ways because the grunts have different sounds or inflections. She is such a loving baby and loves to cuddle too!

Mother/Daughter Date

I have been wanting a pedicure for some time. I have also been wanting to spend some quality time with Kayleigh. When I was thinking about who I could ask to go with me to get a pedicure I thought what better person to take along than Kayleigh. She asks me all the time to paint her toe nails and finger nails. We had a great time and the ladies LOVED Kayleigh. I am no match for these ladies when it comes to painting toe nails because they are masters at doing some amazing looking art on your toes. I let Kayleigh pick out the design she wanted. I thought she did a good job.

Check out the design on Kayleigh's toes. I wasn't sure if they could fit it all on her tiny toes but they did!

Our Layla Bug

"Layla Bug" has become our little Layla's nickname. Appropriately, she has several outfits with lady bugs on them just like this one.

Foam

Here in Asia where we live mattresses for your bed are NOT common. What is common to sleep on is a piece of plywood with a nice piece of foam on top! John and I decided that Zeb's foam was getting a little too soft. Until May Kayleigh had been sleeping on it since she was two. So John went out yesterday and bought Zeb a new piece. Kayleigh and Zeb have now turned the old piece of foam into a "toy" of some sort. Using it quite creatively to build forts and such. This morning they thought they would take a rest with their little sister. They sure are a constant entertainment for Layla which is nice for me!

Our Anniversary

John and I have been married for 8 years today and I love him more today than I did 8 years ago. I am so thankful for him. He knows me more than anyone else and sometimes better than I know myself. He is awesome at speaking truth into my life and really loving me while doing it. He is so thoughtful and considers me and my best interests. In the past year we have seen the Lord do some amazing things in our marriage only to draw us closer to each other. My prayer is that God would continue to do that for many more years to come.

We had a great anniversary. We had a quiet dinner ( with Layla ) at our favorite Indian restaurant then we headed home and put Layla to bed. After she was down we headed out to the South to play miniature golf. We had a lot of fun. We didn't get to play both courses because the lights weren't working on the course. I'm not surprised. By now instead of saying "Why?" I just say "Why not!"

This is how Kayleigh and Zeb spent our anniversary. One of our local dear friends here picked up Kayleigh and Zeb in the afternoon and took them to this kid arcade type place. Then dinner at Papa John's and Dairy Queen for dessert. They had a blast and it was a nice blessing for John and I have to have a quiet afternoon and evening together.

July 4th!

I grew up being at the lake on the 4th of July. Every year would would get in our boat at dusk and drive to the marina or close to it to see the fire works. I love that tradition and miss it dearly. So this year as I was thinking about what we could do for a 4th of July celebration I decided we should go to the pool. We loaded up the kids in the afternoon and all of our friends joined us at the pool. John was able to find some sparklers so the kids had a blast lighting those before we left.

Layla loved the water. As you can see she is very relaxed.

Zeb Sings Jesus Loves Me

Zeb was in a bad mood today and found himself singing with Kayleigh. After multiple attempts to finish singing "Jesus Loves Me" and a bribery of candy on our part, he finally landed the plane and finished the song in its entirety. Notice the reaction of both kids after Zeb pushes the "Quack" button for the first time.

Layla was a little tired when I put her in the Bumbo, but she had a few smiles left in her before she went to bed. She loves sitting up and not laying down. The theme with our children has turned out to be not liking to sleep during the day. So far, Zeb (in his 1st year) and Layla have had a difficult time sleeping during the day time hours.