Christmas 2013

It's a different kind of Christmas this year for us. We are sitting in 88 degree sunny weather in Bangkok, Thailand. We are here for a week and a half for some visa stuff before returning home. It happened that all this had to take place over Christmas. At first I was not at all thrilled about the idea, BUT the Lord has ways of surprising us. It's been a lot of fun so far, especially getting to eat some amazing food we haven't had in forever. Britton and I both said we are gaining weight on this trip! There is a Christmas tree set up at our Guest House, and there are lights and Christmas music everywhere. Christmas Day we are having a special time as a family in the morning then planning to head to a water park! Like I said...a different Christmas :o). I hope to post about my sister and brother-in-law's trip and our trip here soon, but for now, this is our Christmas Card picture this year. I know it's nothing you haven't seen, but Merry Christmas to all!!

A special Christmas package

We got our first Christmas package in the mail December 1st! Britton's mom was super on top of things and was so great to get us I think 6 or more packages!! We were blown away every time we received another one! The first package was special and had several decorations to get us in the mood. She sent the boys their very first Christmas tree. I ended up decorating Grady's tree while he was napping because he was more interested in eating and throwing the ornaments than decorating with them. Caden on the other hand was so excited to decorate his tree.

He couldn't wait for Grady to go to sleep so we could decorate his tree.

 He was very meticulous.

 And super excited when it was finished!

 So cute. Donna sent several new little ornaments then he also had special ones from years past on there as well.

 Donna also sent me this glittery present to hang on my wall. I love it...especially when the light hits it at night.

 Grady's little tree. He also has some special ornaments.

 Caden and Grady both got cute shirts. Caden's has a snowman body, and Grady's has a santa body.

 The presents aren't placed as neatly as I would place them, but it's because Caden absolutely loved helping put the presents under the tree when they got here. There got to be so many I didn't bother rearranging the gifts. We will open them all up when we get home from our Thailand trip (more to come!). I was so happy that the last few packages came the day before we left!

Christmas Décor

I love Christmas...especially here. It makes me feel like home is all around me when everyone else allows Christmas to pass by like another day. It's a cheery time with holiday food, time with family, and decorations. We've been so fortunate to have family all the way over here last Christmas and this Christmas (more on that later!). I set up for Christmas actually before Thanksgiving, which I had no problem with although others scolded me for it! We'll be in Thailand over Christmas, so I wanted us to enjoy our décor for a while. So, I set up over a few days. Here's our Christmas home.

Our tree

 Sweet Grady loves our tree and all the ornaments on it. He especially loves pulling off the ornament that says "Caden, World's Best Baby." Ha. Poor kid got a bunch of spankings when the tree first went up. He can sure make some cute crying faces. He's learned well though and hardly ever touches it now. He just glares with excitement. So sweet.

 I love window decals. It makes me feel like Christmas is everywhere outside too. We also hang up our stockings on the window since we don't have a fireplace...that would be nice.

 I got this cute little snowman the first year we came. He's actually moved from this spot since getting new decorations.

 I have a beautiful willow tree nativity set, but there was no way I was going to pack that heavy wooden set up and bring it here, so my mom gave us this sweet set before we left. I love that the boys can play with it and not break it :o)

 We have lots of Christmas books that I'm thoroughly excited about and so are the boys.

 I drew a new picture on our chalkboard. I tried to recreate my own willow tree nativity. This has become such a fun and relaxing hobby for me as the seasons and holidays change, especially when I can watch Hallmark Christmas movies :o)

Fun in the Mundane

When nothing really exciting is happening, we still find ways to have fun. The days seem to pass by so quickly, but I'm thankful for my little blessings that are my kids.

We started a new routine with Caden, because he is just not tired when Grady goes down for a nap. So, after lunch he has his own personal play time where he can play in his room. He usually chooses to read in his window. I set up a blanket, pillow, and huge stack of books and he reads through every one of them. He often reads out loud too (see the video below). While he has his own time, I have some quiet time too then we have mommy/Caden time, which has been a big hit. I'm going to do another and much longer post on all that.

 I posted this picture because Grady loves these little Cars slippers, but it's hard not to focus on his ultra sweet cheeks. Makes ya just wanna kiss those cheeks all day!

 "These are cool!"

 I hate it's blurry, but I had to post the picture because Grady's face just cracks me up. He's been making this face lately. There's nothing behind it, just making a different face.

 I love Caden's face here. I think it's cute. I mostly love that Caden and Grady can switch seats now in our stroller, so Grady can actually sit in the back when Caden wants to lounge in the front. Once Grady actually starts having an opinion, I have no doubt the arguing will begin. Can't wait.

 Our nearby mall with the playground in it also has a little waffle stand. The people here never eat waffles with syrup, but at least at this place they give you chocolate syrup. Ha! Caden ate an entire waffle while Grady and I split one.

 These days Grady has loved getting a toy or book and rolling onto his back and hoisting his legs in the air. I laugh every time he does that because growing up I always put my feet in the air like this. My favorite thing to do was watch TV while balancing something on my feet (sometimes large objects, like a rocking chair). Guess I passed this strange gene down.

Here's several videos of Caden reading by himself, Grady enjoying some new shoes, and Caden and Grady jumping on the trampoline at our favorite playground (I love Grady at the end trying to jump).

Turkey Day - take 2

Food. More Food. And a little more food to go with the other food. Oh man. We ate SO much food on Thanksgiving! Actually, we got together with 2 other families the day after Thanksgiving, which was actually still Thanksgiving Day in the states. We planned it that way just so that the boys could watch football. Ha. It was nice to hear them jump up and yell at the TV. Been a long time since that's happened. We had such a great day of food, hanging out, resting, and more eating!

Our wonderful spread. I made crescent rolls, ranch mashed potatoes, devilled eggs (actually Britton made those! So proud of him!), butterscotch chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels. We also had corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie, French silk pie, puppy chow, and hot apple cider. Hungry?!

turkey, stuffing, and gravy!

 After our bellies were full the kids and dads went outside before naps to get in some football. This was Caden's first time actually playing football, and he of course loved it! They even went back the next day to play some more. Caden was still talking about it even today, and explained to me that you need to charge at the person and touch them with both hands then run to the other end. Haha. This was the best shot I could get of them being 21 floors up!

Here's a short video of them playing some football. See if you can pick out Caden. He's in a gray and red coat and gets knocked over at one point.

 Before nap time, the kiddos had to read a book.

 Oh yummmm. Hot apple cider. I also really enjoyed doing my nails in Christmas colors. I added a red nail with a Christmas tree :o) We also enjoyed watching several Christmas movies while falling asleep and playing games!

 Oh yeah, more food. I seriously couldn't eat anymore food, so I took my dinner plate home to eat for lunch the next day. It was soooo good.

 Yep. Good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day - take 1

Yes, Thanksgiving was just last week, but we actually had our first celebration on the 17th! Over 25 of our friends came over for a big Thanksgiving meal. Fortunately, everyone brought something to contribute to the meal. A friend came over and spent the night to help me with our imported 17 pound turkey! We had lots of laughs through the process but had a fun time.

Neither I nor my friend wanted to really clean the inside of the turkey, so this bird did not get very clean on the inside. AND we totally left the head in there because we didn't want to reach in there to pull it out. Ha. We're such wimps. The starting process.

 My friend brought her oven, which is the exact same one that I have, so that we could cook all of our stuff at the same time. We first put the turkey in her oven, and when we did, the rack kept falling down! We quickly took it out and stuck it in my oven where it did the same thing, so we put a pan under the rack to support it and slid the turkey in with the bag scraping the top burner. Oh man. The turkey barely fit and was way too heavy for my little Asian grill. It fell twice, but we fixed it. We got up at 7:00 to fix this thing, so we didn't have a ton of time for error to have it ready by 11:00!

 It turned out wonderful!! It was nice and juicy (thanks to the stick of butter we put in the turkey and the stick of butter we drizzled over the top!).

 Our hubbies were so great to carve it for us because we were done with this bird! Oh, and they found the head :o)

 What a yummy spread!

 And even yummier desserts!

 Each family wrote down what they were thankful for on foam pumpkins and taped them to our windows.

 Oh how I love Thanksgiving. Friends. Food. Fun.

Down Time

We had some down time from the time my parents left until Thanksgiving. I love down time. I feel like things happen without you even realizing it until you look back at pictures like this.

Once Grady turned 1, he started eating pb&j's. The first one he gobbled up quicker than his big brother. Some days he's not interested because he had such a big breakfast, but he loves eating like a big boy. Kid can put away some food at dinner.

Several weeks ago, Grady got sick (I think mostly from having 3 new teeth come in), and Britton took one of the foam pieces off one of our beds and put it on the floor for him while he watched Praise Baby so he wouldn't run around and get out of breath. Such a good daddy. Such a cute baby.

One of my best local friends here invited me to an art gallery where she had one of her own oil paintings on display! There were a lot of paintings there.

This was her painting. Beautiful! It really was my favorite painting there. She said I could have it but it wouldn't travel well, so she is going to paint me a new one. :o)

with my friend and her painting

This was another one of my favorite paintings there. It's a girl in a minority group. These groups are very common in our country.

I've posted a photo like this before, but weddings happen often at this hotel we almost always past. I love this cute young couple and their wedding photo. It's common for the couple to stand outside welcoming their guests and giving them candy as they enter. Most all of the brides rent their dress instead of buying it. This particular bride yelled in English to Caden, "you are beautiful!" Ha.

This was an unfortunate day for a delivery guy. He got off his motorbike just as we passed by and as he picked up his giant bag of fish, it ripped! The fish started flapping on the ground then got still really quick because they immediately started dying. The guy grabbed a big tub trying to save the fish. He had some help, but that's just typical occurrence living here. I saw a live rooster tied to a fruit stand yesterday waiting to be sold as dinner. I don't like buying dinner when it's looking at me.

Yes, another picture of him eating a pb&j, but he's too stinkin' cute, especially the way he's holding his hand.

One night we went out to eat and rode in a taxi to meet some friends. Caden had not napped that particular day, and when I looked over at one point, he was sacked out. Poor kid was tired!

Yep, more eating. I'm really just impressed more than anything at how well he's feeding himself. Soon he will be feeding himself as well as Caden. Grady is much more interested in learning. I think Caden would be content the rest of his life if someone fed him. Ha. Wouldn't we all?!

Here's a short video of Grady feeding himself his mashed potatoes at KFC.