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". :)

Fun Dinner with friends

We had a great time on Sunday night with some new friends.
We have a friend who we providentially met in Tulsa who is from our city here. She is very nice and connected us to her classmates that live here (that have been very helpful) and her parents. Her parents took us out to eat a very nice restaurant and we all had a great time. There was a bird who spoke a lot- pretty funny. He said Happy Birthday in another language. :) Jacob and Lydia enjoyed all of the attention and they ate a lot of watermelon!

Jacob's a big boy!

Jacob was such a big boy today! He asked to wear underwear this morning and kept himself dry all day (except for a small accident when out shopping). He even kept himself dry during his nap. We went out to Papa John's to celebrate and he went poo-poo in the squatty-potty there! We were all so excited and so proud! The second picture is of his new potty that we got at a garage sale here, we think it has been a large part of his inspiration.

Pictures of Baby #3

We made our first trip to the hospital and Liz got an ultrasound so that we could see the new baby. The baby's heartbeat looked good and the due date is June 20th. Also, thank you for lifting Liz up, she has been feeling much better the last couple of days!

Who would you choose as your doctor?

We are so thankful for our friends who gave us a ton of hand me down toys when we arrived here. The kids have really enjoyed them. This is a doctor dress up outfit that was in there. I am not sure who I would choose as my doctor between the two- how about you?

Exercise for old people :)

At the playgrounds, there are these funny things like striders that we are told are for "old people". Our kids like playing on them- but we definitely have to watch them closely. :)

Drums, drums, and more drums

It took us a while to figure out what was going on a couple days ago- we kept hearing these loud drums. We went out one of our gates of our apartment and saw about 15 drums, a bunch of ladies with small flags, and a ton of big flower arrangements. They played very loudly every 10 minutes all day long for 3 days. This was to announce the grand opening of a store. Pretty fun stuff- the people here really like their drums and big fanfare.

Exciting News!!!!

Well- we have recently had a blessed surprise. 1 week after arriving, when Liz started feeling really tired, nauseated, and not wanting any Chinese food- we found out we are expecting Baby #3 in the summer. Liz is now 7 weeks along and experiencing quite a bit of nausea and fatigue which can be troublesome when you're trying to get settled in a new country. We're excited to meet our new little one in the future. Now Liz needs to find somewhere to do prenatal care here and get some prenatal vitamins. :)

We've got a bathtub!

We now have a place for our kids to take baths and for us to take a shower without getting the whole bathroom wet. yea! There was a really nice local guy who put this in for us and did a very good job. Both Jacob and Lydia had baths today. Before- we just showered them down like the picture of Lydia- and it made a pretty good mess. We are all thankful for our bathtub! :)

Treasures!

We got a very sweet package from some friends back home with many wonderful treasures inside- chocolate chip cookies, fall napkins, candles, and some toys for the kids. Everyone loved seeing things from home- what a blessing!

Things are not always what you think :)

Liz went shopping the other day and bought what looked just like the box of milk we had bought a few days prior. After taking a bite of cereal with it- she said, "this milk is bad" and jacob wouldn't eat his cereal. I tried a bite and didn't think it tasted "bad" but just not like milk. We then realized that it was liquid boxed yogurt and not milk at all. So once we realized that, the cereal with yogurt didn't taste near as bad. :)

Our Househelper

Here is a picture of our househelper holding Lydia. The kids call her "Aye" which means "auntie". She has been coming in the mornings for about a week and has been such a help to us. She will be even more vital as we both start studying language.

We signed another contract!

Well, some things fell through with the pink and purple apartment and we ended up in a different one. We think this one will actually be better for us. (Jason really wasn't too excited about the pink/purple things) We are in a great location and like the complex that we are in. We are slowly getting settled and making this new place home. These are some pictures before we moved in, once we get things a little more homey we will post some more. We still do have a purple couch, but it's a better purple and a comfier couch. We are very thankful!

Fun Physical at the Hospital :)

We've had many adventures already- here is one that happened soon after arriving. For the school, I needed to redo a physical exam to be able to be enrolled. So- I had the opportunity of going from room to room- getting a blood draw (through a window opening- kind of hard to describe, but you can see in the pic), "urine reception", an archaic EKG (kind of looked like a torture device), and an Ultrasound. Pretty fun stuff! I found out I'm not pregnant. :)