A little bit of everything...

A lot has been happening in our home the last few days. We made a very quick trip to Hong Kong for a visa run that I will blog about later, then we made over 160 sugar cookies for our neighbors and invited them to a party we are having tomorrow night where we will have more sugar cookies (will also blog about later). Caden has also been sick the last few days...again. We are pretty sure he has a virus, but we have fortunately not gotten it and hope we don't. Here's some pictures of our randomness that has been going.

A family photo in front of our tree

one of Britton's Christmas gifts we got in the mail, but it sure looks cute on Caden

we have been so overwhelmed with our family's kindness to send us Christmas gifts. Our tree is stocked with gifts ready to be opened when we skype this weekend.

I absolutely love his face in this picture with his new toy from some dear friends. He loves this toy and is all he has wanted to play with while being sick.

I really think he should advertise. Doesn't this just make you want to eat some Betty Crocker chocolate chip muffins?!

Caden has started sleeping on his knees with his tushy in the air. It's quite cute and funny.

love that squishy tushy

Caden's good buddy here had his first birthday! It was so much fun, and we had the most amazing chocolate cake. I'd sure love a piece right now...scratch a piece, I'd take the whole cake!

Happy Birthday Phoenix! I don't think he was quite sure why he was getting all the attention

Too cute. He was so good eating his cupcake...hardly any mess. My hungry child made sure to clean up after him. Caden actually ate some of his birthday cupcake! What mom lets their kid eat another kid's birthday cake?! Fortunately, they didn't seem to mind. When Caden's hungry, he's hungry.

I sure love what's happening here. Even though difficult at times, I'm so grateful for what the Lord teaches us daily. Looking forward to some more good times.

A few of our favorite things...

It's a joy to know how far we have come in the last 2 months. I remember not long after we got here, I nearly broke down (ok, maybe I did break down) because of the stress of learning how to cook again. There are still many stressful days, but I feel like I have so much more of a grasp on cooking and actually enjoy it. Although I don't have to cook everything from scratch, I'm certainly having to do more than I am used to. Fortunately, I have a bread maker, so I don't have python arms from kneading. I also have some wonderful friends to help me out and answer my many many phone calls for help. The Lord is so good to take care of me even when I have a bad attitude. He has always taken care of me and always will. Why do I always doubt? Even in something as simple as food, He shows Himself faithful. He has been really highlighting having a heart of gratefulness here lately. When things are going great, which I feel like they are right now, I am forced to look at coming out of a hard time and wonder if I was faithful in being grateful then too. I can't help but think I've fallen short. Fortunately, it's not at all about what I can do, but about what He has done. Oh, praise Him for this Christmas season and the precious gift He has given us in His Son. I'm grateful, simply grateful. So, with a heart of gratefulness, here are a few of our favorite things that we have learned to cook and love to eat around here.

Cinnamon Biscuits. D.E.L.I.G.H.T.F.U.L. Britton compares these to Bo berry biscuits at Bojangles. I don't know that they're that good (maybe it's because we are here), but they are certainly good. I fix them at least once a week for breakfast. They're actually pretty easy to make.

Pancakes. Obviously, this is not too difficult, but it's a favorite so it's on here. We usually make these every Saturday morning unless something comes up. I triple the batch and freeze them for that week's breakfast.

I must include a picture of my helper :o) Britton is the official bacon cooker in our home. I burn it every time. And we eat bacon a lot here. You'll see in a moment how much we eat it. They only sell it here in 3lb batches, so you best believe we buy it all and freeze it :o). I love this picture because he's wearing our house helper's apron to avoid popping bacon grease.

Pizza topped with bacon. MMMM. It's no Papa John's, Domino's, or Pizza Hut, but it's still good. I make the dough, which makes it take a little longer, but it's worth it.

Potato soup. This is so yummy and perfect for this cold weather. And, of course, there's bacon. This happened to be tonight's dinner.

Oh look, some more bacon :o) This is Britton's meal he fixes (I fix the buns)...bacon cheeseburgers and fries.

No bacon this time, but it's WAY better. This is Britton's favorite meal I fix here. Chicken nuggets. Thanks to sweet family, we have Chick-fil-A sauce...truly a taste of home and dare I say heaven?! Yes, I brought the Chick-fil-A cow from home. Fortunately, our cravings our satisfied with this little carton of sauce. Mmmm...good.

I've already posted this picture, but chocolate chip cookies are a must and a favorite. I will be making these tomorrow for some sweet ladies :o)

Come on over and eat with us anytime :o)

Days Out

Every Saturday we try to make it a point to get out in our city and practice language. We also get to see some great places and have some fun times. Here's some random views of our days out.

It seems like every turn we take there is a river. I'm not sure if it's the same river we're always seeing or a different one, but they are pretty nonetheless.

This is actually in our complex when the leaves started changing. I just love fall colors.

In our city, we have a bird and flower market, which actually has dogs too :o). They have some of the cutest dogs. Here is a little one (even smaller than the picture makes him look) in his bumble bee outfit. People here love having dogs for pets, and they especially love dressing them up.

another adorable puppy

It's really common here for the bride and groom to stand outside to be seen by everyone. I guess it's a way of letting the world know they're married. We've seen this a lot, but have never stayed around long enough to see exactly what goes on. I think I've seen someone give the bride and groom a gift, so I wonder if you're supposed to give them something when you pass by. I don't know. All I know is I wanted to take a picture of this common act, and their photography wanted a picture of me (I should have taken a picture of him too). Win-win.

On one of our days out, we went to a mall that is one of my favorite places to go now. They have great stores, a really fun arcade (with dance dance revolution), and.....

...a dairy queen! Their oreo blizzard never tasted so good!

This is a random place near this mall that was really pretty.

You had to climb lots of stairs to get to there (like everywhere else), but I thought these sections of the stairs were great, and all the kids agree. They had a ball sliding down this ramp...no, it's not wet...just slick. It was nice not being the center of attention for a change.

Since it's getting cold, we've been bundling Caden up really well. He wouldn't stay still for a picture, but this is a quick snapshot of his bib overalls, big coat, hat, and gloves.

On our way to an amusement park. I love this giant 7up tree.

At an amusement park with free admission (you pay for the rides). Too bad it was SO cold when we went or we would have stayed all day.

the trees in the park were really pretty

Caden's first time riding the merry-go-round. I think he enjoyed it.

he must be warm.

climbing some more stairs. Britton is being Rocky.

family shot

Gotta love some fresh air.

Yes!

It must be your lucky day. You get to see another video of sweet, irresistible Caden. I had to post this. If you know Caden at all, you know he loves to shake his head no, even if you say yes. We even gave him the name "little no" in our host language. Everyone calls him that. Well, he says "no" no longer. He just started saying yes, in his own special way like so many other things. This video is hilarious to us because he uses his whole body to nod yes. His hair is sticking out because he runs his nasty dinner fingers through it. The second video is just cute as I sing pat-a-cake. He gets so excited because he knows at the end I tickle him. Enough said. Watch the cute kid.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Caden Videos

A picture is worth a thousand words, but truly a video is priceless...being able to see the other person move and half-way interact is always so sweet. I even like to watch videos of Caden when he's in the room with me! Here are 3 sweet videos of him learning so many things. The first one he is crawling under his bed, the second I'm chasing after him, and the third he is clapping his hands, blowing kisses (in his own special way), hugging his head (something done here), and pointing. He can also understand clap your hands and hug your head in the language spoken here. Our house helper and tutor are amazed. It's so sweet to see him learning so many new things. Enjoy!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Cold Days and Dry Clothes

It's getting cold here...really cold. The last several weeks it's been in the upper 60's and low 70's...perfect fall weather. The last few days, it's dropped, and today it was in the 30's. Yikes! I'm so overwhelmingly grateful for something that was delivered to our home on Monday just in time for the cold, rainy weather...a dryer! It may sound strange how thankful I am, but it can take 2-3 days for things to dry, and we don't have the space to dry all our clothes inside. One of my Christmas gifts from Britton was the dryer, and I have thanked him over and over for it, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Now, our clothes dry in about an hour and a half to two hours :o) Our tutor is amazed at this. I'm glad the weather is changing, but this is piercing cold. At least, we have soft and warm clothes.

our wet tennis court.

our dryer! It's on the porch across from the washing machine

Unfortunately, I had to go to Walmart to get diapers because the supermarket had none. Caden desperately wanted mommy time, so he went with me. We made sure to bundle him up, and he sure was bundled. He was wearing his big bib overalls and winter coat, complete with mittens and this oh-so-cute hat.

Thanks to some pure extract vanilla, crisco butter sticks, and semi-sweet chocolate chips (thanks to those who sent them!), these sweet morsels were made to enjoy!

Caden playing with our tree. He looks really cute and innocent in the picture, but this was seconds before he pulled one of those lights off and made them go out. Fortunately, I could plug it back in and they turned back on. Whew! Still cute :o)

Christmas Fun

I know I just posted about Thanksgiving, but I'm really excited about Christmas too :o). On Thanksgiving, I went shopping to find some Christmas stuff. I had no idea I would find so much great stuff (at least to me anyway). Of course, it took a really long time to get everything, but alas, I got home only 3 1/2 hours later than I planned. Here's some snapshots of decorations.

This is our nativity that my mom gave us last Christmas. I miss my willow tree nativity set, but this was more travel friendly and baby friendly. I've been telling Caden the Christmas story and been trying to get him to point to the various characters. So far, he's got the most important one correct :o)

This is my oh-so-cute ginger bread cooking man in my kitchen. I just love him.

And here's another really cute snowman in the midst of some garland on our dinning room table.

I put some garland around the TV and hung up our stockings. Yes, we're watching a movie.

Our beautiful Christmas tree! I was actually hoping to get something a little smaller to fit better in the window seat. Yes, the window seat. We wanted to put the tree there, so we wouldn't have to say a billion times, "Caden, no touch." So far, it seems to be working. I'm so thankful, though, to have found such a nice tree here...it's not easy supposedly. I took this picture tonight after I rearranged our lights. Two strands of lights already went out! I was able to shuffle them around but the back of our tree and some on the sides is a little bare, but no one really sees that part any way.

A view of the room. The tree will look perfect next year in that little corner. It's just screaming for a Christmas tree.

I had to include a few precious photos of Caden. He's recently loved being able to crawl under his crib. He crouches down and goes right under. He gets out pretty easily too. He's starting to blow kisses (well, putting his hand on his mouth and leaving it there...but it's close enough!). Today, someone was playing guitar, and I so wish I had a camera because he just sat on his knees in front of the guy and bounced up and down. It was so cute. He loves music and loves to dance to the music (in his own little way). He's also getting very close to walking. He just has to let go of thinking he has to be holding on to something.

Too cute drinking from his water bottle in his REI bodysuit.

Happy Fall and Merry Christmas :o)

AND Go Dawgs!

Thanksgiving

I thought I would say Thanksgiving would be very different this year, but I'm thankful to say that it was so much of what it usually is. It was truly a time of thanksgiving and of feasting! We got together with many friends and ate food then ate some more then ate a little bit after that. I was actually so stuffed, I couldn't eat dessert until the next day! We had some great fellowship and were blessed by each other's company. We also got to skype with both our families, which is always a blessing. Britton even got to see a few minutes of the SC/Clemson game. That's the most football he's watched all season. I'm going to attempt to describe why we are thankful in an acronym. It might be cheesy, but it helps me think about why we are thankful.

T-time with one another and with our son
H-home...it feels like home here
A-another day to have more opportunities
N-nights at home and nights out
K-isses...Caden is starting to blow kisses
F-friends who think about us daily from all over the world
U-unconditional love from a perfect Creator
L-laughter...I mean gut-wrenching laughter from deep within :o)

This post is ashamedly mostly about food. Thanksgiving is certainly not all about food, but definitely part of it. The day before Thanksgiving we received 2 packages, one from my mom and the other from Britton's mom. We were so overjoyed and felt like it was Christmas! They took nearly 3 weeks to get here, but it was worth the wait. We are so grateful for so many sending us a taste of home. This is what they sent us between the 2 of them. Man, that's a lot!

On Thanksgiving, I actually went Christmas shopping and got us a tree and other decorations. Everything here takes 3 times longer than you think it will, thus, we ate dinner at 9:00pm! We had a very (not) traditional Thanksgiving meal. It doesn't look fancy, but it sure was good. We had chicken nuggets, mac'n cheese, fries, and green beans.

The day after Thanksgiving, we ate together with friends. I took the picture too early, because this is only half the food and it's missing the huge turkey (hole on the left)

I made pineapple casserole that was pretty good. It would have been better if my aunt had made it :o)

appetizers...yum, yum

desserts! Even yummier. I made the pumpkin cake in the middle of the table. I loved the cupcakes decorated like turkeys.

our hostess made these oh-so-cute Reese pieces turkeys. Britton is eating them currently as I type.

Yesterday, we got this beautiful pumpkin in the mail from a friend. I was so excited to get it. I was wanting some fall decorations and asked for a small plastic pumpkin...she sent this awesome thing! I also have some garland around a candle my mom sent. This year, we will have fall and Christmas decorations combined :o) Fall isn't over until December 21 anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!