Free Blog Makeover Giveaway

My friend from college, Tyne, has started her own blog design business and is giving away a free blog makeover. You can visit her site and comment to be entered into the giveaway. Her blog is one of my favorites to follow because she is so transparent - tells the funniest stories about her life as a Mom of three little ones (and one on the way) yet also throws in great encouragement as she seeks Father daily!

other recents pics

Mason gettin some tummy time


Our cute little two year old

Entertaining his brother

With a local buddy - who is three months younger than Reister but is already potty trained! But the funny thing is he yells "ba ba" (local language for daddy) when he needs to go and his mom rushes him to the bathroom. Not sure what the connection is there ... :)

Five Months Old

Fresh after a bath...like the hair?


Finally - a smile captured!

The blue outfit was the under layer for this outfit... my little Texan! (A hand-me-down outfit from his cousin Jackson who used to live in Houston)

The Fall

a new friend

This lady is a new friend and a LOT of help to me. We hired her to come in the mornings to help with the housework and cook some yummy food for lunch. She also loves holding Mason which is really helpful when he's fussy and I'm trying to get other stuff done! PTL for XL who is a joy to have around!

How about some rice cereal?

Huh... new flavor...

Eckk! What IS this stuff?


Followed by around 45 minutes of fussiness... maybe his tummy isn't quite ready for the rice cereal... we'll try again a little later!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

This was at the end of October, but better late posting than never, huh?

This was not in the capital city, where we've been and will be moving permanently, but in the smaller city north of here. It was a beautiful day and this river is just behind the apartment there.

Fight for Life

I have to preface this post by telling you I am strongly pro-life. I refrained from commenting before the election but I really feel I must post this so you know of an opportunity to make your voice heard. In a speech at a Planned Parenthood event in July 2007, Obama stated that the first thing he would do as president in the area of abortion would be sign the FOCA. You can watch the video footage for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0XIRZSTt8

I'm not sure if signing this petition at the below site will help but it surely can't hurt.

This is from the website below:

FOCA Would Wipe Away Every Restriction on Abortion Nationwide
This would eradicate state and federal laws that the majority of Americans support, such as:
Bans on Partial Birth Abortion (if you don't know what this is, you should - google it)
Requirements that women be given information about the risks of getting an abortion
Only licensed physicians can perform abortions
Parents must be informed and give consent to their minor daughter's abortion
FOCA would erase these laws and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.

Please read the expert analysis by Americans United for Life (AUL) and sign the Fight FOCA petition at:
http://www.fightfoca.com/
Thank you!

Blog Following

Did you know you could "follow" blogs? All it means is that you list the blogs you like to read through your Google account. I added the gadget on the right side. You can click on the "follow this blog" link if you want to be a follower of my blog.

"J" - you left a comment on my baby shoes post, but I'm not sure who you are? Can you leave another comment to reveal your identity?

Baby Shoes

Does anyone have any advice on baby shoes? I never got the slip on kind for Reister but am thinking about getting some for Mason (his socks won't stay on, plus it's a little too cold for socks only). I know there are a couple different brands like the Robeez below. If you have some experience or advice on which kind are good, please leave a comment!

I Like:

Busy Cars (Infant/Toddler)
by Robeez

We Love Our Boys

Sweet Mason

Mason is so sweet - check out his beautiful blue eyes and precious handsome face! He's wearing an outfit of Reisters below
I can't get him to smile when I actually take the picture - he smiles before but when the red light on the camera comes on he's mesmerized and doesn't smile! I'll keep trying though

We assume his eyes will still change colors but we're enjoying his blue eyes for now

5 years

Micah and I have been married for five years! We celebrated Friday night (the day before our actual anniversary) by going out to eat (ALONE!) at a Turkish restaurant in town. It was very yummy (see one of the things we ordered below) Some other American friends agreed to watch the boys so we were able to get away (in between Mason's feedings, mind you, so it wasn't for too long) for a date.


We had hummus, falafel, turkish naan bread, and then this platter of beef, mashed potatoes, carrots and asparagus. Yummy!


I should have gotten a picture of us afterward with our Starbucks - we went and both got Toffee Nut Lattes to go and had finished them by the time we got back to our friends' home they were SOOO good. They don't have the Pumpkin Spice ones here, but the Toffee Nut was awesome!

It was a great night and we are so thankful for five wonderful years of marriage. We're planning to take a ski vacation while we're back in the states in 2009-10 so we're saving up for that and didn't do a lot this year.

Uncle Jon

Since Jon stayed with us four nights, Reister grew quite fond of him and asked him often "Uncle Jon, whatchyoudoing?" (he often asks us what we're doing too) Here's Reister and Uncle Jon...

Mickey Mouse!

Last week we had an unexpected but fun visit from an old friend of mine from 2002. Jon's backpack was stolen in another big city's airport down south and had to make a trip up here because there is a US Consulate and he could get an emergency passport issued. We met him in a big commercial area that has a McDonalds for lunch and then while walking around afterward we spotted Mickey and Minnie outside a bridal photography studio (later we saw another Mickey and Minnie in front of a another bridal studio - guess they are the marketing technique of choice). Anyway, since Reister is really into Mickey Mouse from watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (thanks to Sara Beth making us the DVDs!), he was really excited to go up and "talk" to them. It was really funny because Reister was drawing a HUGE crowd - maybe as much as 50 people standing around watching Reister (I know he's cute, and everyone else thought so too- I wish we'd got a picture of all the people watching him.

His cute clothes are compliments of his Nana (Micah's mom) who bought and sent Reister some great winter clothes since he had almost none!

A little update

Reister kind of LOVES lollipops - but when he says it, it kind of sounds like he's saying "Sawadeekap" which is how you say hello in Thai. I guess he kind of still remembers that from our time there in June and July!


Mason is 4 months old. I took him for his 4 month immunizations - I had to take the immunizations that we bought and brought back from Bangkok to a local international medical clinic and have them administered. He didn't really like them and was pretty grumpy for over 24 hours. But he sure is a cutey! He is 26 inches long which is about 75th percentile but only a little over 13 1/2 pounds, which is pretty low on the percentile. BUT, I'm not sure that weight was accurate because he was a little too long for the baby scale and kept putting his feet down on the counter which I'm sure threw the scale off.
He's not doing too well at sleeping through the night, but maybe he's just having a growth spurt and wanting to eat more often. We really enjoy him (especially when he's not crying - poor thing, he kind of likes to cry a LOT!) But really, he is precious and such a joy and Reister really loves him too. He is very protective and does not appreciate local people admiring Mason- Reister will go "No!!! My Fason!" (He doesn't pronounce the M on Mason very well)


We have moved temporarily (for at least 3 months) to the capitol of our province. We felt we needed to be down here as opposed to the other city for various reasons. Our life has been so crazy these last few months. I do hope it will slow down a bit and become a little more predictable, but any way, we're trusting Father that He is sovereign and in control and will sustain us as He has in the last few months. He is faithful!
I've had a hard time posting pictures lately and haven't really had a whole lot of time to blog anyway.
I'll try to get some more pictures up soon.

unexpected trip

We made an unexpected trip to Hong Kong and had a couple days to do some sightseeing as well.

Here's a family photo on "The Peak Tram" - the Japanese guy behind us joined right in... ha ha! Oh, and Mason got cut off on the side- I'm holding him -but the wet spot on my shirt is proof that he's there - he's a big time drooler!








At Hong Kong park, there is an aviary with some really cool looking birds. Reister really enjoyed it - he stood for a really long time looking out from the railing at the birds. Mason was asleep in the stroller during this one.







This is on the Star Ferry across the harbor








We ate at McDonalds one night

The Asian Squat

Reister is obviously going to take after his Dad in his ability to squat like an Asian person!

My Sweet Boys

Mason is Two Months Old!

Two Birthdays

Reister turned 2 September 1st! We got him a basketball goal and he LOVES it!

Micah turned 31 September 10th and we went to a driving range in our new city. Here's Micah showing Reister how to golf- It was a real fun time - and surprisingly nice!


Then a couple days after that, we went back to where the driving range was because next door was a place you could ride horses. Well, a short little ride being led by the man who worked there, that is. Reister enjoyed it and it was his first time to be on a horse!

Moved in...

Our stuff arrived (in not so great shape) from the Shining City (after at least two truck changes) last Thursday night. We were pretty dissapointed that the moving company changed trucks after promising not to. Most of our boxes had busted open, the baby crib gate had broken off and the crib had been scratched up considerably. But although our fridge and washing machine looked somewhat dinged up, they both still work. Some other furniture was dinged up but overall, everything is still usable and we think everything made it. There were two rice bags we had on the list unaccounted for, but we can't think of what we might be missing.
This transition has been a lot harder than we anticipated. This role is a lot more stressful than our previous one. In some ways, we're just "hanging on" by a thread. We're mostly unpacked but the apartment is still really dirty from all the boxes and dirt tracked in during the move. Micah's had to travel some so far and will have to more. I hope we can find some since of normalcy soon.
Thanks for your thoughts during this time and please keep them coming!

Just me and the boys

Well, me and two of my boys at least! Micah went back to the Shining City early Tuesday morning to get all our stuff moved down here. I'm not sure when he'll be back - he hasn't decided if he's going to ride in the moving truck with the drivers or fly back. Anyway, please be lifting him up that he can get everything packed up, phone disconnected and get back safely however he decides to travel! By the way, we're still not in our own place yet. We're staying in the provincial capital in some friends' apartment- they are on vacation right now.
Today I used the scale at the apartment we're staying at to weigh both boys. Mason weighs 12 and a half pounds, and Reister weighs 29 pounds. According to this website I found, Mason is 52nd percentile and Reister is 62th percentile for weight. Not too bad - average I guess?

Reister got up beside Mason on his own - he really seems to love his little brother. He was trying to give him the little army figure laying in between them. When Mason didn't grab it on his own, Reister tried to put it in his hand for him! It was really cute!


My little frog! After his bath...


Micah didn't want me to take this picture because Mason was screaming but I thought it wouldn't be that noticeable in the picture.


Asleep on Mommy... this was right before I handed him to Micah and he woke up - he was happy asleep!