Christmas Day

We had such a wonderful Christmas day. We got to spend the day as a family singing, reading the story and opening presents. Also through the conveniences of modern technology we were able to see our families back in the States and open presents with them also. What a wonderful time of year! (Oh and don't miss Jason's nice Rudolf socks.)

Christmas Eve

Here are the kids all ready in their pjs on Christmas Eve, all excited for tomorrow. We're excited too!

Lydia found a cool hat!

Lydia needed a hat and this was the only one they had at the store we were at. Luckily it was really cheap and we will find a new one soon but for now this will have to do. At least it is funny. We really love the fake braids coming out of the sides!

Jacob and Lydia "cleaning"

One of our kids new favorite things is to "clean" things in their room with baby wipes. They have fun and I guess they aren't hurting anything. Here they are cleaning the windows in Jacob's room.

Our Anniversary

Jason and I got to have a nice evening alone for our anniversary. We went out to eat and then went walking around in a downtown shopping area where there were some beautiful Christmas decorations - what a blessing!

Christmas Celebration

We had some wonderful Christmas celebrations. Here are some pictures of us and some of our friends.

Lydia wants to be like Jacob

Lydia is so funny sometimes. One day she decided that she wanted to wear her brothers jacket and hat. Who knows, she may be a tomboy some day.

New Furniture

We finally got a desk and a bookshelf. We found these in a little shop on the side of the road. We did our best with our new language to try to communicate with the shop owners. We finally were able to get them to say they could deliver it. They brought out a bike with a little wagon on the back and "delivered" our furniture to our house in two trips. Jason had to run along side the bike to show the guy where we lived. Luckily the shop wasn't too far from our house - it was quite a sight!

Kids Dancing

The kids like to dance during our family singing time. They really get into it. Lydia tries to be like Jacob and jump but she still doesn't quite have it down. Here is a video of them dancing.

Jacob's First Week at Preschool

Well, Jacob has completed his first week of preschool. He did very well and his teacher was very proud of him. He stayed dry all week and finally got brave enough to use the squatty potty on Friday. He is also starting to brave the food that he is fed there. He is doing a great job of adjusting quickly. Jason takes him to school on the back of his bike, and Lydia and I bundle up to walk and pick Jacob up at noon. His school is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Lydia wishes she was big enough to go to school like Jacob :)

Happy Birthday to Jason

Well- Jason was the first one in our family to have a birthday here in our new home- the big 33! Liz did a great job in cooking some crispy chicken, red carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, biscuits and some snickerdoodles for desert! What fun times!

Jacob's Preschool

Here is a picture of the preschool where Jacob will start next week. The children that you see in the first picture will be his classmates. Jacob is very excited to start and was actually asking us to leave him there when he visited. He will be speaking the language before we know it!

Favorite places

We got a new rug for our living room and Jacob and Lydia love to play on it and roll around. We also all like going to KFC, the food is good, but also they almost always have a playground there which is great for the kids. Lydia is getting to be such a big girl that she can go up the stairs and go down the slide all by herself!

Jacob's "truck"

This is Jacobs closet which is one of our kids favorite places to play. Jacob likes to pretend that it is his truck or taxi and likes to take us places in it.

We have a Christmas Tree! :)

We were very excited to find a Christmas tree here. We brought some special ornaments along with us and added some from here with some pretty cool lights. Liz even made a cool gold star out of some garland. It's helped us feel pretty festive! We are thankful to our friends who gave us a gift to be able to get it.

Sunny Day at the Park!

We were all so thankful that on Sunday we had our first sunny day in quite some time. We had a great time at a local park. It's a little different than our parks- no big grassy areas- actually not really any grass at all, but it was still very beautiful! While at the park we saw some animals and rode a ride- see the next 2 posts.

A fair?

At most parks here- there is small "fair" area with rides for kids. Jacob had a very good time riding the rooster. The kids were given little nets to try to catch plastic balls out of the water and collect them in their basket. Pretty fun stuff.

A zoo?

Jacob and Daddy had fun going to a small zoo at the park. It was a little more interesting than other zoos we have seen, but Jacob really enjoyed seeing the animals- a special treat.

Funny words: Lame and Elephone

We got jacob a little present for being such a big boy and not having any accidents all week. We are so proud of him! We found this cool little toy/book basket that has some cool English on it. You can see the "lame chick" and on the bottom it says "elephone". pretty funny stuff

Also- the post of our new baby has the pic of Liz and the kids under the photo of the workers. The English text says "Life Becomes Warm, Because of Us". :)