Look who's three!

This little girl is getting big quickly. On the 5th, we celebrated Trinity's 3rd birthday. This year, we are embracing the small, family party for birthdays. We had a blast celebrating her life. On the morning of her birthday, while big sister was at local school, Trinity got to stay in her pajamas and lick the icing off the spoon. BEFORE lunch. I mean, get crazy. You only turn 3 once. We had a fun morning playing together.

All day, Trinity put on her shy face when we sang to her. Usually she also buried her head in a pillow out of embarrassment, but here she faced the music.

Big sister kept a countdown going for Trinity pre-birthday so she could stay up-to-date.

This girl takes her cake seriously. Very seriously.

Afterwards, we went outside and played with bubbles. Can you tell she got some princess-bling for her birthday?

You make me smile, baby girl.

At three years old, Trinity:

• loves to laugh and to make us laugh
• has some crazy good dance moves complete with a new break-dance routine she just invented
• loves to ride her peanut car crazy fast down the hill
• will climb up behind you while you're sitting down and try to wrestle you to the floor by putting her arms around your neck
• plays the ornery little sister role very well
• begins every prayer with, "Dear God, you're so big, thank you for our friends..."
• knows all her alphabet letters
• recently was in childcare for a week where her teachers told us Trinity was a good friend and played the role of "little mama" to the other kids
• brings our family so much joy

Happy birthday, baby girl. We love you and praise the Lord for your life.

while Daddy was away...

When we got back from vacation, Kevin had one whole day to unpack, regroup and repack before he headed out for a long business trip. And since Grace's local school hadn't started back from the holiday break, we had lots of togetherness/girl-time. For me, this meant I needed a P-L-A-N to avoid losing my mind. Fortunately, we had a few reasons to celebrate. First we had a little Valentine's celebration. Any excuse for chocolate cake, right? I love having little parties like this with my girls. It doesn't take much to get them excited. We had a few friends over to eat cake. Waiting for them to arrive proved to be torture for my girls. They literally stared at the cake and willed for 12:30 to come. Two days later was Grace's 100th day of home school. I know schools in the US often have 100 day parties, and thanks to google I copied/looked up ideas to celebrate. We started out the day making 100 day hats and doing some dancing in our pajamas. Because if there is one thing my girls love to do, it's dance. And use the tv as a mirror to watch themselves dance.

Later, during school we did 100 jumping jacks, read a 100th day of school poem, guessed how far we could walk in 100 steps and then walked them, and counted out 100 kernels of popcorn for a snack.

100 kernels, popped

Grace also answered some questions for me in a short interview. Here goes:

1. If I had 100 dollars, I would..."Save the money for buying stuff, not just spend it all in one place."
2. If I had 100 pencils, I would..."not use them all in one day. I would keep sharpening them if they ran out."
3. If I had 100 mosquito bites, I would..."itch a lot because I'm allergic to mosquitoes."
4. If I had 100 friends, I would..."try to love them all."
5. If I had 100 legs, I would..."walk on each of them and it would be kind of weird."
6. If I had 100 eyes, I would..."see all over the place!"
7. If I was 100 years old, I would..."maybe die."
8. If I had 100 bikes, I would..."need to think hard about which one to ride."

And since we were on a roll, I switched from the 100 theme and asked Grace about some of her favorites:

1. Grace, what's your favorite food? "pizza"
2. Favorite thing to do with Daddy? "wrestle"
3. Favorite thing to do with Mommy? "snuggle and read books"
4. Favorite thing to do with sister? "Play with her and with our baby dolls; we like to play with Haley and Bailey."
5. Favorite thing to do as a family? "Go to Old Town and fun restaurants"
6. What do you want to be when you grow up? "A farmer-well-I might want to change my mind but today I want to be a farmer."
7. Why? "Because I think it would be cool to grow things."

Lots of books, trips to the playground, craft projects, and a movie night later, Daddy came home. And we all said "HALLELUJAH!"

the water fountain

As we finished vacation and waited to board our international flight back to the mainland, we saw something we never see here: a water fountain. You know, the drinking kind. (How developed and first-world of them!)

I chuckled when Grace asked me what it was. Seriously?! How could she not know?! But then I remembered, she really doesn't recall ever seeing one before. Grace wanted to try it out so I explained how to use it. And reminded her not to put her mouth on the nozzle. Ick.

"MOMMY! This is a-maz-ing! Look, you just push the button here and the water keeps coming! It's so cool!! And it's free!! You don't have to pay a thing for this water!!" She pretty much repeated this mantra 12 times in between gulps. After a few minutes, I finally tore her away from her new discovery, water completely soaking her shirt.

And it dawned on me, Grace doesn't remember much from our time in the States. When we first moved back to Asia in 2009 Grace was the exact age that Trinity is now, just shy of 3 years old. How in the world can that be? For the first year or two, Grace remembered quite a bit about American life. Now she remembers hardly anything except family members and friends.

This summer we'll make some more memories in the States. I can hardly wait to hear what comes out of her mouth. :)

our time away

I tend to neglect blogging about the day-to-day aspects of our life, but give us a trip and I'm on it. Somehow in the blogging recesses of my mind I must highly value the vacations we take and people who come to visit. But, I also want to remember our day-to-day happenings. So, note to self: blog more about our daily life. Whew, with that done, here are some pictures of our trip to T-land. We stayed at a resort (term used loosely depending on your personal definition) geared for expats like ourselves. The girls loved the fact that we stayed in a "tree house." It was perfect for our family and for young families in general with playgrounds, a pool, and instant friends running around. Grace played with so many girls her age (one just 3 hours older than her), and visited other friends' tree houses almost daily. I enjoyed a break from my usual role of social director/craft coordinator and loved simply watching Grace and Trinity play with other kids who speak English.

Somehow, in Thailand, Trinity decided to allow me to fix her hair almost daily. With hair this wild, anything that's not sticking straight up is considered success. You should see her morning hair-it's awesome!! Kevin and I say her hair really matches her personality: spunky and a little on the wild side.

We were B-L-E-S-S-E-D to see friends we hadn't seen in over 2 years. With 3 families' schedules and some of our friends dealing with sickness, vacation looked a little different than we thought it would but we savored the time we had together. SK5 and JD2+2, we love you!! (BTW, seeing my girls next to baby L. and baby S. made me realize how big they are getting! Sniff. I'd be lying if I said this didn't lead to a little bit of baby fever. Just a little bit.)

This little guy was sick for much of our time together and was such a sweetie. He wanted daddy to hold him when he felt bad but it was fun to see his personality come through when he was feeling better!

At the zoo, the girls got to experience their first-ever pony rides. It was by far the best 66 cents I spent on each of them all day.

How much do I love this pictures of these sweet 2 year olds? Very, very much...ice cream face and all.

Trying to get all these kids in one place reminded me a bit of herding cats...but a cute bunch of cats.

Here's just a random picture I took that I absolutely love. Pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself.

And this picture just makes me laugh because it's a common scene around here. Who says boys are the only ones who love to wrestle? I blame this on their MMA-loving dad.

Who doesn't love a good play land? This dollar-entry playground was our kids' favorite destination. Go figure.

Aside from the zoo, we also went to a night safari at a separate location, except we went to the night safari during the day (confusing?). We loved it better than the zoo and had close encounters with all kinds of hairy friends. Trinity got to feed a giraffe. Brave.

There were lots more highlights, but honestly I didn't take my camera around as much as I thought I would. But you can ask Kevin about his mountain-biking adventure and he will inform you that gravity is indeed alive and real. If you need a cheap pedicure in T-land, I'm your woman. Just don't ask me to bargain for you at the night market because I'm terrible. We flew home on the last night of Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival. As we were landing we looked out our plane's windows and saw fireworks exploding all over the city. That was a fun memory. Thank you, Lord, for time away and a chance to recharge.

a short jump out of the fishbowl

• It's that time of year again in our neck of the woods. The time of year when we see kids as little as 6 years old carrying lighters around and setting off firecrackers. That time of year when an overabundance of roosters and hens are hanging out on the neighbors' balconies in preparation for the big slaughter. That time of year when we notice fewer and fewer vendors each morning at the market as people return home for the biggest holiday of the year. Chinese New Year is on January 23 this year. It's a rip-roaring, firecracker-setting, LOUD and spectacular holiday.
• But tomorrow, our family is heading south for a little, OK, BIG vacation. This will be the longest vacation we've ever taken and we are excited! Several months back when we didn't think we'd have any of our usual meetings to attend this year for work, Kevin and I decided to go ahead and spend the money to head to our favorite nearby country for vacation with some great friends. As it turns out, we do have some business to take care of for work later in February in the same country, but we didn't find out about that trip until after we already purchased tickets for this trip. Even so, we still think it's so worth the money to go ahead and meet our friends and have time to play together as a family. I think this is the longest stretch we've ever gone without leaving the mainland, a whole year. (That might not sound like a long time but we're feeling it.) Small annoyances like people cutting in line, repairmen who only half-repair something at our house, and people shouting "foreigner, foreigner!" really should roll off our backs after 7 years in this country, but we still feel the culture stress at times. It's time to get out of the fishbowl for a few weeks. Kevin and I were laughing together the other day because lately, when strangers come up and touch our girls' hair (which of course makes them run away), Kevin has been known to just go up and touch their hair, too. Just to mess with them. He does it with a smile but do you think we might need to leave for a few weeks!? Ha!
• Grace and I worked through December and didn't take much of a break with home school, knowing we'd be taking this big break in January. She's doing such a great job and is reading and has been such a joy to teach, but I can tell we both need a break.
• I'm really hoping that during this vacation Kevin and I can really rest in Him. It's amazing how when vacation mentality hits, we tend to also take a break from good habits like spending time in His word. I plan for this time to be different. I'm also looking forward to finishing an amazing book on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas. A friend recommended this book to us and if you have a kindle, I would highly recommend it, too.
• Go eat some Chinese food on January 23 and roar or something. It's almost the Year of the Dragon!

on Christmas 2011

Though 7 years ago when we first arrived overseas I might have said otherwise, I now believe it's a blessing to have experienced Christmas overseas as well as in the US. For some reason this season of advent has been especially meaningful to me this year. Maybe it's the hard times I've seen several family members and friends walk through lately, perhaps it's the trials I've seen local brothers and sisters endure, or maybe I'm just getting old, but my heart is more ready than ever to say, "Come Lord Jesus!"

• For our family, blessings of Christmas in the States include: time with extended family; beautiful Christmas music and meaningful corporate worship; and a general excitement everywhere you go about the coming festivities. Christmas in America = great.
• Blessings of Christmas in Asia include: no annoying holiday commercials encouraging us to buy more; Christmas parties with local friends and getting to share Him with folks who've never heard; baking cookies with friends who've barely even seen an oven before; and a pace of life which, though busy, is generally less stressful. Christmas in Asia = great.

• The other day I read Colossians 1:19 which says,

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him."

What an amazing reality. God's fullness completely dwelt in Christ. Even as that tiny baby lying in a manger, there was absolutely nothing lacking in Jesus Christ. His was the fullness of God. Praise the Lord.

• Now, if you'll allow me to change the subject, Momma needed to bust out the camera the other day and remember two of my precious gifts from Christmas 2011. I've been having so much fun with these two as we anticipate Christmas and celebrate Advent. Grace is at an age where she understands so much more of why Jesus had to come. I'm beginning to understand that this parenting thing just gets more and more fun.

Merry, merry Christmas to you!!

Nana and Pappaw

I'm so grateful my girls know all 4 of their grandparents. Now, we don't get to see them every week or month or even every few months, but my girls still know our parents well. Skype visits on the computer are a beautiful thing. And when our parents visit, we get lots of quality time together. Kevin and I realize how fortunate we are that all of our parents are willing and able to make the long haul over here to visit. Let's face it; international travel is not for wimps. But leave it to family to endure the expense, time, TSA screenings, bad airline food, and hours of waiting in airport lobbies just to get some hugs from their grand kids. And I think Kevin's mom deserves some big kudos this time because even though she had a total knee replacement surgery a few months back, she was able to make the big trip. Nana and Pappaw were really flexible with whatever we threw their way. They brought us goodies, gave Kevin and me some date times together, were my constant dishwashers, and played "Hi-Ho Cherry-O" for hours on end with the girls! Hooray for grandparents! We were excited to show them our new city. Of course, we had to make it to Old Town one evening. And unknown to us, the city was hosting a huge dinner at Old Town to celebrate the new year for the Y minority on their lunar calendar. The funny thing is most Y people don't even celebrate this holiday (because they generally celebrate the Han Lunar New Year), but the local gov't wants to encourage business and tourism so they threw a big bash. The main street, which normally has cars hustling and bustling through, was closed down and instead hundreds of people were sat down to dinner.

They also had several stages and performances going at each stage. Most of the songs they danced to or sang had drinking as a big theme.

Folks would also walk around and sing to various tables. Again, most songs were drinking songs. Basically, they were singing, "Bottoms up!"

Back at the house, in preparation for Thanksgiving Nana and Pappaw were able to help us work on our Thankful tree.

Here's just a little bit of what we're grateful for this year. You can tell my 5 year old contributed quite a bit to the tree.

Thanksgiving Day 2011. You have to love the camera timer. And the seriously intense face on my 2 year old. Don't let these pics fool you...she is a HAM to the CORE and as crazy as the rest of us!

We had lots of time for pretend tea parties, reading books together,

morning snuggles on the couch,

and good old play time at the swings.

One day Kevin's dad got to join him in seeing some of the countryside, and on another day Kevin took his parents up to Dali to enjoy a little cormorant fishing.

We also headed to the big city for a few days of vacation and showed them around the big zoo. Nana's new knee held up well with all the stairs! I was really impressed!!

We hoped to hold a tiger cub again, but when we got to the "animal kindergarten" these were the only cubs we saw. And no one was going to be holding these big beasts. Do tiger cubs really grow that quickly in 4 months or are these different ones altogether? Guess we'll never know.

But you can always count on some fun Chinglish signs to add to the day's entertainment.

At the panda exhibit we had to bust out our best Kung Fu Panda imitation. Pappaw threatened to make this our next p....r card, for those of you who know what I mean. :)

Nana and Pappaw, thank you for blessing us and making the trip. We are certainly grateful for your support and encouragement. We love you!