Monday, November 29

Not such a great pic, but Caleb got one of me putting up the Christmas tree. I don't think I have ever gotten a Christmas tree up so early. In fact, I think this is only the second year I have actually even put up a tree. But now everyday the boys are asking if Christmas is going to be tomorrow. I now understand the reason for advent calenders. :-)

Our beautiful tree.

Sunday, Nov. 28

We took a walk downtown today to get out of the house. Here is sergeant Caleb and his faithful sidekick Judah. Caleb found these matching shirts in a box of clothes that we got from their cousins in TX. (Thank you!!!)

Who needs a double stroller? This is nothing, you should see Caleb and Judah sit on each other's laps in our umbrella stroller.

Saturday, Nov 27

The Citadel

Amman, Jordan

Saturday we went to the Citadel with some friends who were going to take a family pic and thought we would hijack the idea. The kids had a blast running all over the place and climbing all over the big rocks.

Friday, November 26

Seven years ago today we were getting on an airplane headed to Asia. Hard to believe! Sometimes it is hard to believe we have been out of the US that long, and at the same time it seems like a lifetime ago. I found this picture from our commissioning, but was not able to find any pics from our first days over seas. I remember we gave away all our things and packed up all our belongings into 4 duffel bags. Wow! I know we flew into Katmandu Nepal and were there for about a week and then took a bus to India, not sure of where we were going to be living. Since then we have been all over the place and have definitely accumulated a bit more then 4 duffel bags full of stuff. In fact, our duffel bags have turned into kids and we have multiplied quite a bit. So thankful for these last 7 years and God's faithfulness to us. I could share SO many cool stories, but I will save them for another time.

Ok, picture for the day...We had about 13 adults and 14 kids at our house for Thanksgiving. It was a bit of chaos, but lot's of fun!! Here's a pic of the kiddos...and the next one of Isaac sleeping in the midst of the chaos.

Thursday, Nov 25

Happy Thanksgiving! My first turkey turned out great! It was SO cute because Caleb was so excited about the turkey and kept bringing everyone into the kitchen to see when they arrived. The cutest was when his friend Levi came in and looked so confused and said, "I've never seen a turkey like that! Have you ever seen the round ones?" Turns out that "round turkeys" are turkey lunch meat. So cute!

(ok, so we actually celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday here because Thanksgiving day is just like any other day here and Mike and the kids had school, and I forgot to take a picture on Thursday...so I am cheating :-)

Wednesday, November 24

Our new layout for Thanksgiving celebrations!

I moved all the furniture around while Mike and the boys were at school. Fun! Having the table in that other room makes me realize I really need stuff on my walls!

Tuesday, November 23

5 Months Already!!! Oh My!

I didn't stage this picture, I just thought that it's what it looks like they are both saying, don't ya think? Isaac is 5 months old today! Wow, how time really does fly. He is getting so big and is still such a good baby. He doesn't cry much, sleeps through the night, smiles a lot, and puts up with lots of little guys in his face all the time. We were talking yesterday about how he is either going to be a really tough kid, or a big whiner. I definitely hope for the first option, but one thing I am realizing as a parent is a lot of what we hope for our kids is up to them. Before having kids, raising kids seemed to be a pretty straight forward simple thing, oh my, how I was deceived!