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