celebrating Mother's Day

We rescheduled our Mother's Day for this weekend.  And I'm so glad we did.

We started with breakfast in bed (and while the menu rarely changes the service keeps maturing.... but still lots of support from Matt in the kitchen!)

Church, a slow afternoon and then a picnic with the family.  Perfect. 

It's still hard for me to wrap my head around, that I get to be the mother to these FIVE.  What a gift. 

[Please be impressed that everyone is *mostly* looking towards the camera.]

And speaking of impressed, while it is (our) Mother's Day, it's hard to reflect on being a mother without recognizing this man right here.

Serves us well, even when it's hard.  I told him yesterday that he's like the anchor for our boat, things just feel a little drift-y when he's not around. 

Once again (third year running) he took video clip interviews of the kids and made an unbelievably precious Mothers Day video for me.  2011 there were three, 2012 there were four, 2013 and there are five little stars of my video.  Wow.

thank you Jesus

Life feels so full and busy right now that I think blogging might take a back seat for a month or so.  It's not an overwhelming or unhealthy busy, just a "this season is necessarily going to look like this" kind of busy. 

Tomorrow is our [postponed] Mother's Day celebration.  It's a house full of excited kiddos and there will be plenty to celebrate. 

just two random pictures

Is this how you carry your grapes home from the fruit stand? 

(Please don't laugh at how few I bought.... Isaac begged for grapes but I knew it was too early for really yummy ones, so we settled on a smaller bunch or three.  win-win.  We'll eat grapes til our cheeks turn green in a month or so.....)

And Lydia standing next to her art in the school stair well.

I get teary when I think about leaving this sweet little place that has served our family so well these past few years.  Moving means new schools....

visiting our new apartment

Yesterday afternoon we drove over to our new apartment (it's about a half hour from our current place).  The inside isn't much to look at right this minute.... that's the kitchen (to-be) in the photo below.  The wall behind Julianna is coming down, which will open up the kitchen (living room behind the wall, dining room to the left). 

You have to be good at visualizing, and planning, and making decisions to do this kind of a task.  It's not going to be a cake walk for me (or us), but I think we'll LOVE it once we get all the work done and move in. 

With so little to admire inside the kids bored quickly and we decided to do a little outdoor exploring.

Much much better. 

We ended up meeting some new friends and the girls jumped right in like they already lived there.

The game "eagle - chicken" (rough translation), is a big favorite around here... the kids play with friends in our current complex too.  Our new complex has a nice large playground (by Asian standards - playgrounds aren't a big commodity here) and a big basketball court/badminton court too.  Such a treat! 

This little girl kept begging me to take pictures.  She was 100% more precious than she looks in the picture.  Hard to believe, but true.  She's a feisty little one, and I promised I'd get some of the photos developed and bring them the next time we came by.  With a personality as big as hers, I bet we'll be able to find her again.  Plus, it's not a super large complex (again, by Asian standards).... so it shouldn't be too difficult. 

Luke, once again, was the crowd favorite.  People cannot get enough of his blond hair, blue eyes, and chubby legs.  It's an irresistible trio that makes Luke the equivalent of a baby supermodel. 

He covered a lot of territory - there's plenty to entertain a toddler (and no cars above ground... all underground parking! .... which was a big request we had as we shopped for new apartments). 

Now to just get started on the construction.  We are definitely diving into new waters with this project, but I can't wait to move in and get settled in our new place (although we're probably 6-8 weeks from moving day). 

all seven again

Matt is home.  He got in later than we originally hoped (and missed seeing the kids) but boy were they excited to have Daddy greet them this morning!  I was pretty excited to let him do the morning greetings and stay in bed late too!

It's inevitable.  I run high-energy the whole time Matt is away.  I stay up late (really late).  And within about 15 minutes of him walking in the door (no matter what time of day he arrives), I'm exhausted.  I love that feeling, the security of having him back, no longer singly responsible for some many things.  And I sleep, oh such great sleep!

We decided last week to postpone our family Mother's Day celebrating for a week.  With the crazies of the past few weeks (apartment looking, contract signing, etc) and Matt arriving back home the evening before Mother's Day we went for the low stress option of celebrating a week later :)

Tonight Matt and I have a "date night in" (after kids are asleep at our kitchen table!) to talk apartment details.  We hope to sign a contract with a contractor this week and get this ball rolling!

And we might start tossing around a few dates for a summer trip back to the area Matt just left?!?!?  He's anxious to get the whole family up there.  The kids are busting to go.  I think it would be incredible.  We'll see what God has in store....  

[sorry the picture is small and squished.  I don't have the time to figure out how to make it bigger but not too big right now.  click on the picture for a better view.]

Matt's morning

I told him we wanted a picture of a yak.  And I'm hoping we get it too :)

But we'll settle for this in the meantime......  While we wonder why he didn't take us along!  

singing in the rain

This afternoon the skies opened up and the rain poured down.  Buckets and buckets of rain.

Julianna was anxious to get out and get wet.  And sing.  She sang at the top of her lungs, dancing and splashing in the courtyard. 

Rain like that isn't held off by an umbrella and it just slowed her down so she ditched it.

Hello, drenched. 

 

 And oh so happy.

Biggest little brother was in on it too.  I wrung heaps of water out of that fleece jacket.  Totally reminded me of life in our old city where we got lots of summer rains that were perfect for playing. 

And Lydia?  She took the tamer route and opted for the warm water (indoor) shower while her sibs were getting silly in the courtyard.  

Matt is way up in the high mountains (I think they are higher than anything in the continental U.S.) and our rain was his snow.  He's got plenty of warm clothes and LOVES this kind of adventure, so it's a happy thing for him.  Honestly, I'd love to be there too.  [He's actually in a gorgeous area that the two of us traveled together while we were dating 11 years ago.  I haven't been there since.  He's been multiple times.  What's wrong with this picture? ha!]

Julianna begged and begged to go along.  I told her we'd wait til she was ten years old.  She would be such a great fit for this kind of trip (of Matt's) and I think she'd love getting out there and finding friends - and maybe do a little singing in the snow?