tck's are the best

miss addy only has about 5 words that are understandable and half of them are chinese.

no matter how many times i explain to w that he is an american and we speak english, he either tells people we are chinese or english.

gotta love the world they live in.

thankful

so very thankful!

the plymouth feast

we had so much fun last year reenacting the 1st thanksgiving that we decided to go for another round. w and i studied squanto and how he taught the early settlers about the 3 sisters (corn, beans, and squash),  and did various activities to go with them (i.e. making corn necklaces and pottery). we listened to the thanksgiving c.d. aunt nancy sent last year at least 5 times, per w's request.

we made use of last year's feather duster, but changed it up a bit and used the feathers for head-dresses.

and then we invited friends to join us

for bean-soup, cornbread, and popcorn. tried to keep it as authentic as i could. fun stuff. i get way too excited about these things:).

gobble gobble

weston in front of his turkey. this year he told me he was thankful for: addy, mommy and daddy, nana and papa, God, grandpa, mimi and boppy, the Bible, amelia, and the Holy Spirit. seriously, without my help. when i asked him why he is thankful for the Holy Spirit, he said; "because He's with us!" awww...made my heart melt. been busy today preparing for our 2nd annual plymouth thanksgiving. this year we invited some friends to join us. pictures to come. happy t-day week!

look who's reading

toasts, polar bears, and other random things

it's been a few weeks since i entered blog-world. busy, good, full weeks. thought i'd post some pics and share some of the latest charm our monkeys have graced us with.

yesterday we went out for lunch with a group of friends. fyi; toasting is a big part of the culture here. we are all sitting around a round table and weston lifts his coke cup and announces: "i would like to have a toast." when we asked him what he wanted to toast to, he was a little unsure at first and then decided to toast to the tiger picture a friend drew for him earlier in the day. awesome.

                                                  
piled a van full of other foreign folks a couple weeks ago and ventured to "polar ocean world". our city's version of sea world. nothing like sea world really, but you get the gist. addy liked the seals and was terrified of the walruses. weston was in animal heaven. i think he would be happy living at polar ocean world.

kev took a trip to our new digs. check out the blue skies!

addy is so fun right now. her favorites: peanut butter, ye ye (the grandpa downstairs), playing in the garbage, coloring (yes, already!...weston did not voluntarily color until age 4), and goodnight moon. she is a very cute little hand-full.

let it be said of me

have had a couple weeks of wrestling, of fretting, of failing, of cleaving, of being held by Hands that never fail and never fret. clinging to the hope that this is the woman, God, in His grace, is making me.

fun friends

everybody needs to have friends like aaron and stacy. we laugh together... alot! they have made our life here so much more fun. seriously- if you ever meet them, you will feel cooler because you did! their blog is hilarious and a whole lot more interesting than ours:). for a really fun glimpse of life here; go visit them.

here is a pic of kev and aaron last summer sporting their "american pride" t-shirts. kev got them made somewhere here locally. the characters say; "lao da" (big brother). kinda a smart pun on how folks here refer to the motherland.

they also recently posted this video about the exercise equipment that is everywhere here. i only wish they had a fraction of the amount of these glorious grownup toys worth of real playground equipment. alas! hope this makes you smile and gives you a glimpse of entertainment in these parts.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/GpBMgoaSNg8

mr. clever

some funny things w has said as of late:

after a rough morning with lots of whining, i informed w that i would have to re-consider whether he would be able to watch the movie he had been wanting to watch in the afternoon. he then thought about it for awhile and responded by saying;

"mom, i really think you should show compassion and let me watch the movie anyway!"

another one.... i was looking on pinterest for a fun button to print off for a friend's card and he was hovering over my shoulder. waiting for me to read him a story, when he sighs (loudly) and says;

"can we just stop doing all this girly stuff!"

what would we do without our weston laughs?!

the battle

hope this gives you a good laugh. this went on for about 20 minutes before we took them outside. glad we gave them their swords at the end of the party!

birthday pirate

we celebrated weston's 5th birthday on sunday. cannot believe he is 5! this was the 1st year he insisted on having a party with his friends. he came up with the theme. he invited the guests. he talked about it for at least 3 months in advance. he did a fabulous job and we all had a blast!

the pirates

had to follow clues to find the hidden treasure box

pin the flag on the pirate ship

race to see who could catch the most fish

chow down on pirate cake

and beat each other with swords.

addy and i were not allowed to be pirates. we were "mermaids".

this 5 year old made the best pirate i know of and had a very special birthday. thanks all...for helping (from afar) to make it so wonderful for him!

meet sam

we have been talking a lot about fall around here. leaves, scarecrows, harvest. weston is fascinated with about anything that has to do with nature. i love learning with that boy! notice the word with. i spend a lot of time on the internet looking up answers to his questions. along those lines, w has been asking about pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns a bit this month. since moving here, i have felt a tinge of disappointment over the loss of the pumpkin patch tradition. the thought of carving one of the "gourds" here (i can't even call them pumpkins). never really crossed my mind... but a certain 4 1/2 year old convinced me that we don't really a fancy pumpkin patch to have some fall fun. meet our gourd-o-lantern, sam:

desperate times...

require creative measures. tuesday date-nite. fried rice and scrabble at the kiddie table. good times.

look who's walking...

trying to figure out a better way for y'all to see adelynn's 1st steps. let me know if this still doesn't work. will come up with a better solution for videos soon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkgvCVuNYU0

welcome back fall

 

                                                 welcome back weekend walks at the university

 welcome back mid-afternoon coffee drinks 

welcome back homeschool

welcome back saturday morning soccer

welcome back creative inside play

we like you fall

look who's walking

what's rockin' my day...

"when we depend upon organizations,
we get what organizations can do.
when we depend upon education,
we get what education can do.
when we depend upon man,
we get what man can do.
but when we depend upon prayer,
we get what God can do."
-a.c. dixon

7 years

kev and i went out for our anniversary a few nights ago. we went to the shangri la. apparently "shangri la" is synonymous with an earthly paradise. we actually just went to the hotel...for dinner. wouldn't rank it up there with paradise, but it was pretty amazing.
                                    
we were kinda out of our element


no kids. no honking. quiet music.

 brie

prawns

creme brulee

3 hours of all you can eat international buffet, reminiscing, laughing, and dreaming together. it's crazy how much we have gone through together now.

here's to 7 sweet years.

and her 2nd word is..

"ge ge" 哥哥 is chinese for big brother.

summers are for...

ice cream

birthday parties

surprise night swims with daddy

train rides

exploring

and playing with monkeys....

apparently this summer was not for blogging! think we are finally back in a temporary routine. hoping to be better with keeping this up... as the monkeys are changing by the minute! hope your summer was as sweet as ours.

pig tails

i know. i know. i am entirely too excited about doing hair! addy was way more interested in her mangoes:).

here we are again

kev and i were musing the other night over how much we love sleeping in the living room...or so it seems. we laughed about how when we first got married we lived in a studio and, hence, slept in the living room. right before we had w, we moved to a one bedroom and when he was about 8 months and we were desperate for a good night's sleep, we were blessed with a futon and moved to the living room. when we moved into this place, it felt like a castle to us...900 square feet and 2 bedrooms! our little princess is 10+ months now and it has been at least that long since we have slept through the night... so a couple weeks ago she had her 1st cry-it-out and we (at least temporarily) moved out...or should i say back?!

but it is awesome. really, it is. i have slept 8 hours straight at least twice and it did something crazy to her napping too. she actually naps! we are all feeling more refreshed around here.