Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderful Christmas. This morning we spent most of the morning on Skype talking to our families. Zeb's gift of the day was opening "The King" a CARS character. I am pretty sure that he is permanently attached to it now and it will go wherever he goes. Sadly, Kayleigh's main gift did not arrive today so we had to tell her that it was on a train on its way here. She was a good sport about it and seemed fine. The highlight of her day was opening the "Cat In The Hat" Game. She had played it at the Anchor Home school library and loved it. A friend of mine offered it to me since her kids had out grown it. It was so kind of her to give that to Kayleigh.

I have to admit this has been one of the hardest Christmas's I have had here. We have been here for 6 Christmas seasons and I have never cried till this one. I think it was a combination of things. Missing our families is certainly on the list. Two sets of our dear friends no longer live here with us and although we haven't celebrated Christmas with them in a long time they were in the city to call on Christmas day . I also missed other dear friends that still live here with us but were celebrating with others. It could have been that we have done the same thing for 5 years straight and we changed things up a little bit this year. We didn't get together with friends till tonight so around lunch time when I was usually surrounded by "my family" here no one was around. John says it has nothing to do with me being pregnant! Ha! No matter what it is I am so glad that my Savior can give me comfort and peace.

By tonight I was fine and we were together with our friends celebrating, exchanging gifts, and eating an awesome meal.

Thanksgiving Activities

Yesterday we went to my friend Brooke's house to do some Thanksgiving activities. First, Brooke read them a story about the Pilgrims and their voyage on the Mayflower. Then the kids made some Indian hats. Brooke also made the kids these awesome desserts that looked like pilgrim hats. Kayleigh and Zeb had a lot of fun and hopefully learned something about why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

Joint Birthdays

We decided to do a joint birthday party for Kayleigh, Zeb, Hayley and Holly while we were home. Hayley, Holly, and Zeb's birthday was in April and Kayleigh's is in June. The kids had an awesome time and loved opening all the presents. My poor sisters where left in the shadows as my kids took all the attention. I think they still had a good birthday though.

We got this hat at Buffalo Wild Wings and thought it fit Zeb's personality well!

Kayleigh the Pirate

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Here is a little video of Kayleigh acting like a pirate.

Dragon Hat

Zeb received a Dragon hat and shoes from one of my teachers last week. Kayleigh wanted to try it on and have some fun with it.

Zeb's present

John's teachers wanted to come over to see Zeb and bring him a gift. In Chinese culture you never open a gift given to you in front of the giver unless they tell you to open it. So after they were gone we (Kayleigh) opened Zeb's present to find this awesome dragon hat and shoes. Above you can see Kayleigh modeling the hat. It is quite interesting. She wanted to wear the shoes but they were a little small!

Kayleigh to the rescue!

This is our little bee, Kayleigh. When she wears the mask and hat, she is our little superhero! Kayleigh received this outfit from our friends the Huffman's and she loves wearing it and running around the house pretending she is a bee. We can't help but laugh every time she wears this.

Christmas Hat

A few days after Christmas, Kayleigh waned to dress up as a little elf. She loves wearing hats, and Christmas hats at that! She really enjoyed all the gifts that were given to her and she really loved seeing everyone on the webcam!

Kayleigh Moments

Kayleigh right after a bath. She loves to be warm and clean! When Alisa and her cousin Katheryn were little, they wore PJs that were very similar to the ones Kayleigh is wearing here.

Kayleigh styling her new winter hat that fits her too well for the hat being 2T-5T! Man she has a head on her. Let's hope there are some brains that came with it.

As you can tell Kayleigh really loves her Spaghetti. She loves it so much she wanted her cheeks to enjoy it as much as her mouth does!

This is Kayleigh's Ayi (ah-yee). We have her come and help Alisa clean the house, watch Kayleigh, occasionally fix dinner, and other odds and ends around the house. Kayleigh absolutely loves playing with her every time she comes. We are very thankful for her as she blesses our family each time she is here.

Going to the store on a cold day

This is the first day that has been really chilly. I think it is around 50 Degrees right now and rainy. Kayleigh is starting to get suited up in these pictures for an outdoor excursion to the corner store. Her head bearly fits into her little red hat! Her head size is till in the 98th percentile in size so we are starting to look for new hats.