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!

Growing Fast!

In the last couple days, I feel like I've noticed that Mason has grown a lot. His face is filling out and he's getting more fat on his little legs. He's a really sweet baby, but he definetely has his fussy times. He'll be one month old in a couple days! Reister is growing more and more interested in him and will sometimes cry if we don't let him "hold" the "bay-bay".



Isn't this precious?

Friends

It's really gret to be back! We have enjoyed catching up with some of our friends here- Here's a picture of Mason and Isaac, our friends' son who was born the beginning of April. There's another baby boy that lives here that was born the middle of May. Mason, Isaac and Elijah are sure to be great buddies and playmates as they get older! Mason is wearing one of Isaac's hand-me-down onesies (he has several of those!)

Here's Reister and Isaac's older brother, Micah. Reister and Micah were really happy to see eachother and play together again! They even figured out how to ride the truck together!

Just for Fun

They had this little display set up just inside the immigration check in at the Bangkok airport. A nice lady offered to take a picture of the two of us...

Back in the Shining City!

Well, it all happened in kind of a rush, but we're back! Mason's passport came in on Wednesday and Micah was able to pick it up and get the other visa we needed all by 4pm that same day. We also found out the results of the blood test Wednesday morning - Mason has a mild case of Von Willibrands which means he'll have to have some special procedures done before and after circumcision so we decided to just wait until another time for that. Reister was also tested and his results showed that he does not have Von Willibrands. Interesting, huh?
Anyway, we were able to book and buy our tickets for Thursday with just one day notice. We checked out of our hotel at 7am Thursday and were in our apartment in the Shining City by 9:30pm Thursday night. We've never been able to make the trip all in one day from Thailand before! It was so nice not having to overnight somewhere, but it did make for a long travel day. We also had to carry Mason's 2, 4 and 6 month immunizations in cooler as a carry on - that is always stressful for me, having to make sure we don't lose them or that they don't get too warm! But they were fine and we got them in the fridge as soon as we got back. Also, I was so thankful that we didn't have any accidents with any diapers - we all arrived in the same clothes we started out in at the beginning of the day. Ha ha!
I'll post some pictures soon!

Second Week after birth

I went back to see my doctor last Wednesday and we got a picture of him with Mason for the baby book. Dr. Nopadol delivered Reister too, so he's become kind of special to our family.

Also last week we got to see some friends who were passing through Bangkok. Reister LOVES their boys and is still talking about Cooper and Zeke.

Reister is getting pretty good at giving hugs!

The fun thing about this get together is that we met at Dairy Queen! That's right, it was called "Dairy Queen - Grill & Chill". Thailand has lots of Dairy Queens that only sell desserts (ice cream, blizzards, etc) but this new one just opened up a couple weeks ago in a large mall in Bangkok and we've already been three times! Ha ha!

And lastly, here's one of Micah and our boys. Mason's wearing a cute little outfit that was a gift from our friends Robb & Heather.

Two weeks old

This picture is actually from last week, but I like it!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while - I need to download some pictures (and TAKE some pictures). Things have been pretty slow since my mom left. Mason eats and sleeps and pees and poops. He's having more and more wake time every day - or night, should I say. He seems to have a fussy/gassy time between 10-12 every night. We still haven't gotten his passport. I called today and asked if it had arrived and they said no, to call again in a couple days. We'll probably call every day just to be sure. We also checked on the blood test results but they were not in, so we still can't get him circumcised - don't know if we'll be able to before we leave or not.

Thanks for all your comments! It's fun hearing from all of you. I'm not sure who Psalm 112 is, though? Can you leave another comment or send me an email to let me know who you are?

Mason is 6 days old!

Here are some cute ones of Mason from today. The bear is from Bama (my Mom's Mom)

Thank you for lifting up my Mom. She got worse before she got better, but is feeling pretty good again now. We have one more full day with her and then her flight leaves at 8am Tuesday Bangkok time. Actually Micah, Mason and I have to go to the US Embassy tomorrow to apply for Mason's passport. Hopefully we'll get that process started and be that much closer to going back to the Shining City!