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.