Thanksgiving photos

We had such a great Thanksgiving Day with our friends. Julianna likes turkey and Lydia's favorite is definitely stuffing!



After lunch and naps Josh played some kids songs on the piano while Julianna and her friend Kayleigh had a little sing-a-long. It was so fun!


At home we've been doing lots of decorating. The girls are fascinated by the tree and the gifts underneath :) This morning Julianna asked again if she could open one of her presents. The answer was, again, "no". So she changed her tactic, and asked if she could open one of Lydia's presents! What a thoughtful sister :)


Lydia loves to unpack the boxes and set ornaments on the branches. It doesn't make for very stable decorating, so for almost every ornament she sets in the tree, at least one falls off!

Thanksgiving celebrating

We started our big Thanksgiving celebrations last night with a turkey dinner and all the fixins... sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, broccoli salad, stuffing, gravy, the works! Yum! Mom and I cooked for a group of local friends and it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun :) Oh yeah, we made pies too - pumpkin, apple and pecan!

There was only one minor snag in the cooking process - no water! Argh! It is uncanny how often we have a water or power outage on Thanksgiving Day. In fact, my first three Thanksgivings in China were consecutive power-outage-Thanksgivings - how likely is that?

Each year the story is a little different. This year's sounds like this: Tuesday mid-afternoon a work crew finally shows up to work on a bad water leak in our apartment complex. I mean, BAD water leak. Basically, what used to be normal ole ground cover has turned into a gushing fountain.... and it's been gushing for over a week. So, the rubber-booted work crew shows up, turns off the water line, and starts digging. At nightfall they leave their big hole in the ground for more (hopefully better?) tools and assure us the water will be back on by midnight.

Fast-forward to Wednesday morning. No water. A quick glance out the window assures me that the hole is still big and deep and the workers are conspicuously absent. Uh oh. All morning long I keep hoping for some workers, and some water. Nada. We cook anyways, and wash dishes using bottled "tong" water from our water machine. Xiao Li washes and washes and washes..... the rinse water becomes toilet-flushing water, and Mom keeps cooking!

At noon on Wednesday we hear water in the pipes. What? The workers apparently came back, turned on the water, and the hole is filling up but we don't care - we're rushing around the apartment flushing toilets, running the washing machine, taking showers and doing even more dishes!

Water stayed on til 5, when it was off again for an hour or so. Came back on and, as far as I can tell, was on all night long.

The confusing thing is that the leak is still not fixed. But the water runs. And for that, this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful. Today would actually be a great day for those workers to get their act together and fix that pipe and fill in the hole - we'll be in town all day celebrating with some friends and eat more turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

guess what we did yesterday??

We bought our Christmas tree! Yay! As usual, it was quite an adventure and we didn't get exactly what we wanted, but it was lots of fun none-the-less. [For more details on Christmas-tree-shopping-a-la-China check out this post and this post I wrote last year.]

Here we are with the tree we bought - it's not a fraser fir (like they sell in the States) or even a pine (a close approximation)... it's a cedar - tall and narrow, and it smells great!

Tonight we put some lights on the tree, and the girls started in on some of the decorations. Julianna kept saying, "oh, it's so pretty", and Lydia really enjoyed pulling ornaments out of the box and carrying them over to the tree.

I'll post more photos tomorrow :)

Grandparents are for spoiling

Well, Mom and Dad have been here for a week, and the girls are definitely LOVING life with their grandparents. There are just so many fun things to do - and their grandparents make great playmates! Here are a few of the ways they spend their time:






It will be a tough adjustment back to "real life" when their grandparents leave :) In the meantime, they are enjoying every single minute!

photos at the park

We took a few photos at the park yesterday afternoon and I can't resist sharing them.

I just LOVE Lydia's expression in this one!


And I thought the hand-holding was especially fun :)


We're still wondering about baby #3 and I keep thinking I'll go for another ultrasound any day now. I will be 23 weeks tomorrow, so hopefully the baby will be big enough the ultrasound tech can make a confident decision about the sex - I've lived with "probably a girl" for over a month now!

hand-me-down happiness

When I was a little girl I was a part of a long hand-me-down-clothes-chain made up of all my little girl cousins.

Lucky me, I was near the top of the chain, so the clothes still looked pretty decent when they arrived in my drawer :) Next in the chain was my cousin Julie. She's 13 months younger than me, and for most of our lives, we both lived in NC. I wore a pink striped bathing suit one summer, the following summer it was Julie's. My winter boots? Destined to one day be on Julie's feet :)

The next generation has arrived, and the hand-me-down chain continues - in reverse order! Julie's little girl Caroline is 14 months older than Julianna and we're on the wonderful receiving end of some super cute clothing! My parents arrived with a suitcase full of 3T clothing and I loaded up Julianna's dresser. She's worn 'new' clothes every day since!

Julianna picked out this little dress for preschool on Tuesday morning.....

and opted for a more casual sweatsuit and bunny rabbit slippers yesterday.....

before snuggling into some new pjs last night!


Thanks Julie and Caroline! We are LOVING all the fun clothes, and I love watching my little girl run around town (or the apartment) and knowing she is part of a "hand-me-down" chain just like her momma was years ago.

[Actually though, I guess my "chain" isn't officially finished either.... my new favorite maternity jeans are borrowed from guess who? That's right! Julie!]

my busy, busy Lydia

A few weeks ago Lydia (without my consent) signed herself up for the "world's busiest 15 month old contest" and she's busy practicing her moves. Her transition from hesitant walker to everywhere-and-back-again-baby was almost instantaneous.

It's amazing to watch her move. Xiao Li joked that Lydia must spend her day thinking up new reasons to walk somewhere. If you watch her closely, you'll notice that occasionally she walks in a complete circle - just walking for the sake of walking.

Her new moves need a little perfecting however, and she's sporting some pretty serious bruises on her face - but in my opinion, they just add to her overall cute-ness factor :)



Yesterday Matt and Dad took the girls out for a picnic lunch. A belly full of lunch just revved Lydia up for some more adventure!



After lunch she had one of her characteristic missteps and face-planted onto the ground in front of her. Luckily, it was grass and she rolled over for an awesome view of the big blue sky.... And a little rest from her weary-ing prep for the "world's busiest 15 month old" competition.


It's so fun for me as a momma to watch her enjoy this new stage of life. She is so fun :) [And so opinionated, but that's a whole 'nother topic!]

life with the grandparents!

My mom and dad are here and the girls are enjoying every single minute. Julianna didn't want to go to bed last night - I had to convince her that her grandparents would still be here when she woke up!

We spent a quiet day around town yesterday and then went to church this morning. I have a lot of shopping planned for when mom is here, and I think we might get started tomorrow, leaving Matt and Dad to watch after the girls.

coming soon.. to an airport near you

My mom and dad are "in the air" right now, on the final leg of their journey to come visit us! We are EXCITED - they land a few hours from now! The girls are already in bed for the night, and Julianna knows that she is eating breakfast with Grandmama and Granddaddy :) We've had a great day talking about their arrival and all the fun things that we'll get to do together.

It hasn't been a really smooth week - us three girls have all had pink eye - can you believe it? Julianna had a really mild case, but Lydia was in bad shape. I was the last victim to fall, and it is miserable, let me tell ya! Lydia is on a stronger antibiotic than I am and hers cleared up really quickly. I, too, am much better today, but still feeling pretty yucky. Oh well, at least we got through the worst of it before our visitors arrived!

Can't wait to post some photos of my parents with the girls :)

how many months worth of groceries??

Most of my groceries come from the local market - fresh fruits, veggies, meat, dry goods. But not everything that my western-cooking heart desires is available at an open-air market! So, it's in to town that I go.... to one of the "western-ish" grocery stores. I try to limit my in-town trips, since it requires lots of time and money to get there, and also because I just like to simplify life :)

My last trip was two months ago, and I am now convinced I can go at least three months between trips - that's my goal for the spring semester! But with the holidays and lots of visitors right around the corner, I was due for a BIG shopping trip and decided today was the day.

The girls don't join me for these trips, but they do love to check out all the loot when I get home. Then, they help me stock the pantry with all our goods.

Lydia woke up first from her afternoon nap, and she made a beeline for the stuff, which I had left sitting inside the front door for the three of us to unload together. She sat down right beside the biggest bag, and started to pull out goodies. (Stores here do not provide plastic shopping bags, so shoppers bring their own bags, and bag their own stuff. I use this great big bag from Ikea along with some other sturdy shopping bags.)


Then she decided she wanted to get a better look at the goods.....

...and headed off to find another vantage point....


.... was momentarily distracted by the challenge of emptying my purse, which I had left lying beside the bags.....

.... and then headed back to the pile.


Julianna is my best "bag-unpacker". She faithfully empties each bag, exclaims over the purchase, and then brings it to the pantry for me to stock. We now possess 9 jars of peanut butter (6 crunchy - for eating, and 3 creamy - for baking). Other goodies? 4 cans of Duncan Hines cake icing, Digestives for making graham cracker pie crust, a large jar of mayo, bbq sauce, canned creamed corn, Ritz crackers, lots of sizes and shapes of pasta and even two cans of refried beans!

I was disappointed to leave without lasagna noodles (again! they have been impossible to find for almost the entire fall), boxed heat treated whipping cream (for making sour cream and whipped topping) and pepperoni. Oh well.

After the bags were emptied, the girls got in the biggest bag and pretended they were "sailing home in their boat". [Notice that Lydia is holding a half-eaten jar of peanut butter - she's a better at emptying the pantry than loading, so it's a race against time for Julianna and me as we try to get everything put away while Lydia takes advantage of the open pantry doors to search for interesting stuff!]

a dinner delivery

Living out here in the "burbs" limits some of our dinner options. Basically, I cook. From scratch. No frozen this or pre-cooked that or "quick and easy" meal-in-a-box. It's one of the things that I love about living here - cooking from scratch with super fresh ingredients. But there are days when I hate it - when I would love a quick and easy dinner option :)

There are two restaurants in our little town that will deliver to our apartment. And only one western restaurant in the bigger town nearby that will bother to bring food all the way out here. (Yes, the food is cold by the time it arrives; and, Yes, we order it anyways! Hey, a western meal that I didn't cook myself is a treat to be enjoyed, cold or not! I usually preheat the oven and warm it up when it gets here.)

One other option that we LOVE is when Xiao Li cooks for us - she is a great cook and whips up yummy stir-friend lunches. I think I could eat her pumpkin soup once a week for years and never get tired of it.

But a week or so ago we had a special treat - Xiao Li cooked dinner and delivered it - piping hot - to our apartment! Pasta casserole, homemade bread and fresh salad! We managed to take a quick photo before the girls started devouring the food.

I do love to cook. But a night off is a treat, especially when Xiao Li is cooking!

the holidays are just around the corner

The holidays are fast approaching and my kitchen assistant is properly attired and ready to help with the baking.


What do I need now? Some Christmas tunes! My favorite-neighbor-who-currently-lives-12,000-miles-away, Erin Ashley, believes that its ok to start listening to Christmas music during any month ending with the three letters '-ber'. So, in that spirit I'd love to hear your Christmas music recommendations because I'm eager to invest in a few new CDs for the holidays!

another murder mystery party!

Last Friday night Matt and I attended our second Murder Mystery Party. It was SO FUN! I have reconciled myself with the fact that I will probably never successfully guess the murderer at one of these things - I am way too distracted by having fun with the other guests to really get involved in the actual solving of the murder but I have a great time regardless!


The theme this year was "Murder among the Mateys" - a party in a fishing village overrun by pirates. Josh and Danielle (the hosts, playing the role of the governor and his wife) were busy trying to get rid of pirates. Kayla and I were the governor's daughters - and he had offered a large cash reward and our hand in marriage to anyone who captured a pirate! Here I am with my "family"....(we rented our duds from a local costume shop).



Matt played the role of Sealegs Sam, a merchant sailor, who turned out to be the murderer! (Isn't that skeleton great? Josh and Danielle rented it from a little shop near their apartment that sells science-class related school supplies!)

If you have never been to a murder mystery party I TOTALLY recommend going - or maybe even hosting! (Though, honestly, hosting one is a LOT of work!) They are great fun :)

roommate anniversary

November 3, 2007 was a momentous night for our little girls - it was their FIRST NIGHT as roommates (I only know the date because I posted about it on our blog and was able to go back and check the date - yay for blogging!). Lydia was a mere 10 weeks old, and Julianna had been in her "big girl bed" for about three weeks. What a difference a year makes!

Since this roommate relationship is pretty much permanent, I decided to make it something we celebrate :) No, I am not naive enough to think that celebrating "roommate anniversary" will eliminate all future complaints of "I don't want to share a room with my sister", but I'm hoping it puts on the path to thankful, not grumbling hearts!

So, we designated November 3rd ROOMMATE ANNIVERSARY and yesterday was our first celebration ever. I took photos of each of the girls in their beds .....



... then headed out to the dining room where the girls were thrilled to find balloons on their chairs and little gifts by their places at the table.....






And, of course, no special breakfast is complete without muffins cooked in the muffin man baking cups. (The girls ADORE these muffin cups, and their mere appearance turns an ordinary muffin into an extraordinary experience.) I like them because they make for some really cute "muffin eating photos".


Here's to many more years of Roommate Anniversary celebrations!

rain rain go away

It should not be raining. The rainy season should be over. I should not be trying to figure out how to entertain the girls when we are cooped up inside all day long. This should be one of my favorite times of the year - brisk, but not too cool... perfect playing outside weather. But it IS raining. Again. This morning. And the weather forecast is not hopeful. Argh.

The three of us did not leave the house all day yesterday. Hooray for church this morning, which (although I dread the long ride in to town) provides us with an opportunity for escape from our apartment. Erin Ashley, if you're reading this, I really miss the chance to visit during rainy weather, and let our kids get all their squirrely-ness out!

At 4:30 yesterday afternoon we pulled out the play-doh. Admittedly a risky move, with Lydia at the table. Sure enough, she took her first bite at approximately 4:32. I glanced over and wet, green-ish play-doh globs were spilling from her lips. Yuck. Oh well. What are rainy days for if you're not going to eat a little play-doh?!?!?

Matt walked in the door a little after 5:30. I (actually, we) were desperate for some relief from the boredom! He was soaked after a long day outside (and a lot of time on his bike) in a mostly-driving rain. But it was a warm welcome home!

These are the days when I can romanticize life in America. What if I could load my kids (in carseats) into my minivan (parked INSIDE a garage) and drive to _______(you fill in the blank: the library, the store, a fastfood restaurant with an indoor playland, a friend's house). Or what if we just had a little more room here to stretch out and run around inside the house?

But I know that in reality long, rainy days happen everywhere in the world. And moms think they might go crazy. But they (usually) don't. Afterall, it could be worse. How, exactly, do you entertain kids in an igloo, I wonder?