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!

My little Aggie and Donut Lover

First, here is my donut lover:

Some friends came from Hong Kong (there is a Krispy Kreme there) and were very generous to bring us a box of six donuts! (They were consumed VERY quickly!) Reister got his first taste of these yummy donuts and learned the word, donut, too!

Now, here's my little Aggie!

This was Reister's outfit but I think he had almost outgrown it by the time we received it. I believe it's from my sister-in-law's in-laws if that makes sense!?
He's a pretty young "Twelfth Man"!

Indoor Playgrounds!

When we were in Thailand to have Mason, we took Reister to a lot of "indoor playgrounds". Did anyone else have a Pandamonium in their town growing up or was that unique to Austin? (Did anyone else in Austin go to Pandamonium? I used to love that place!) Anyway, they are like big indoor playgrounds. They have them in the Shining City, but I was never very convinced of their level of cleanliness or safety. In Bangkok, I saw the ladies cleaning each individual ball in the ball pit, and could just tell they were safer and cleaner. When we were in our new city (I really need to think of a name for it) last week looking for an apartment, I found two of these indoor play areas on the day Micah was busy with other stuff. You can pay per time (less than $2US) or get a multi-time pass for a better deal. Both places were very clean and safe - I had to let Reister go in and play by himself because I also had Mason with me. I am looking forward to utilizing these play areas once we move there. Not to mention our new city has a McDonalds with an indoor play area as well! Reister's love for cheeseburgers can continue!

Here's one of the play areas in our new city:

Catching up a little

These pictures are from July 27th (the bath one) and August 15th. That's one way I kept Reister entertained in the hotel room - Sesame Street podcasts (they're free!) I'm doing a little catch up and still have more to download from this week.

We're doing well. Staying busy as we adjust to this new place and role. We're going back to our new city tonight and going to get our apartment's keys tomorrow. We still won't be moving in yet. Micah will go back to the Shining City Tuesday to try and get a moving truck set up to move our remaining stuff down Wednesday (I have no idea how long it will take them to get it to our new city-it's quite a long trip)

Six Weeks

This past Monday Mason turned six weeks old. He is such a cute baby - he is kind of smiling now (every so often). He still smiles in his sleep and that makes me wonder if it's gas or if he's dreaming about milk.

He's been a real trooper the last several days when I've had to keep him in the sling most of the time because we've been apartment looking.

Stone Elephants

We recently took an overnight trip with some friends to a resort called the "Stone Elephant Lake Resort". I'm not sure if this small wading pool with stone elephants was the reason for the name or if there were also stone elephants in the real lake that was at the back of the property... Anyway, I thought this was a cute one of Reister!

A Place to Live

We found an apartment in the city that is two hours outside of the capital! It's in a great location and new (just finixhed being fixed up on the inside). It was a REALLY busy two days of looking but worth it. We probably won't move in for another two weeks though, because they still need to finish up some things and we need to get all our stuff moved down. Thanks for your thoughts during this time!

Here's Reister and our helper - she was probably our hardest goodbye because she's worked for us for almost two years - since Reister was two months old. She was really sad to see us go as well...


Mason in the stroller - gettin' bigger every day!


This picture isn't too clear, but here's Mason in the sling in a cute pose.

We're moving...

This is big news... we're moving... or should I say, we have moved. Since my last post, we heard of an opportunity, inquired on it, talked to Father about it, Micah took a trip to scope things out, we decided to do it, packed up all our stuff in the Shining City (left it in our apartment), said all our goodbyes, and flew to a new city to start our life over! Actually, we are still trying to decide between two cities. We're currently staying in a family's home who is not here - until we find our own place. Then we'll get our stuff from the Shining City moved down here.
It was an incredibly busy and stressful week and a half. Saying goodbye to all our friends and the place we had grown to love over the last 2 1/2+ years was not easy. Packing up an entire apartment into boxes and "rice bags" and trying to sell off a lot of our furniture was pretty tiring and stressful. But we knew it was what we were supposed to do, so Father's peace transcended our understanding.
We appreciate you remembering us during this time! I'll try to get some pictures up soon!