it's family photo time

It just wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't take a family photo to send to our 300 closest friends and neighbors, would it? So, we decided that yesterday would be "The Day" ... got the kids dressed and ready and headed out the door to the local photo developers. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "absolute disaster" and 10 being "roaring success", I was giving this outing a solid 4.

First, the local photo developer's shop is, quite literally, a hole in the wall. With temps hovering at about 50, I figured we'd be pretty chilly during the photo shoot.

Second, the photo guy and his wife are about 60 years old. Last time I was at their shop getting digital prints developed I had to show them how to upload my photos to their computer. Hmmm...

And, last but not least, Julianna has developed a decided dislike for strangers, and both these folks fit that category.

But, in the end, it turned out quite well. I was shocked to discover that in the back of the photo shop they had one of those doo-hickies suspended from the ceiling like the JCPenney photo studio, where various background colors roll up and down like the maps in my 7th grade classroom. (The one in my 7th grade classroom was about a generation newer than the one here in town, but, hey, it still worked!)

We managed to get a few shots that I labeled "I can work with that...". They gave us the digital copy of four of our favorites. The whole experience cost us 45 minutes and 3 USD (including the snack we bought for Julianna to stave off her hunger pains).

Here's one that ended up on the cutting room floor. The photo we ended up choosing is headed to your mailbox in the next few weeks! hope you enjoy :)

Lydia's 100 days

In Asia families celebrate a baby's 100th day of life. Lydia actually turned 100 days old last Friday, but we didn't get to celebrate then - so we had a party last night (when she was 107 days old). 35 folks joined us for dinner at a restaurant near campus. After dinner, we prayed for Lydia (and for us, as parents).

We also announced Lydia's name in the local language. Her name is ke qing ya. Ke is our family name. Qing is her "generation" name - all of our kids will be ke qing something. Qing means celebrate. Ya means elegance. It also sounds a bit like the last syllable in Lydia. (Julianna is ke qing en, "celebrate grace").

Here's a few photos from the party.

Julianna and some of her admirers -


The Huffmans were the only other Americans there -here's Andy with Emma Grace sitting next to Matt and Lydia at dinner.


This guy LOVES to hold Lydia. She seems pretty content herself.

decorating the tree

We decorated our tree last night with a few friends - Lydia was already asleep, but Julianna had a grand time.

Lydia "talking"

Lydia has added a few activities to her daily repertoire - she really likes to interact and "talk" with all of us, especially Matt. She coos and squeals and squeaks in response when we talk to her.

She is also enjoying her Bumbo - a little seat that we got for her (our friends Sloan and Ginny are moving back to America and left the seat for Lydia to enjoy). We put the Bumbo on the table and sit Lydia there during meals - she gets to be a part of the family fun.

Here's a little video of Lydia in her Bumbo, "talking" to the camera. Also note that she has picked up a new challenge in the last few days - attempting to stuff her entire hand in her mouth. If "stuffing hand in mouth" was an Olympic sport, she might qualify for Beijing 2008! (Speaking of, we have plans to go - and even bought our plane tickets - but are currently without event tickets... hoping to get some in the next ticket lottery. Our flight to Beijing leaves on the evening of August 15th, Lydia's first birthday. Beijing with its 14 million residents and the chaos of the Olympic games doesn't sound too kid-friendly, so the girls will be holding down the fort back at home while we spend a few days in BJ.)

murder mystery photos

Grabbing a free moment here (both girls napping!!) to finally post the photos from our murder mystery party. Remember it was a 1920s gangster theme?



Matt's character was a gambler - let's hope he didn't bet much on this hand!


This is the whole crowd - these folks are some of our best friends in Asia.

up four flights

Yesterday afternoon we moved our Christmas tree from the stairwell entrance to our apartment on the fourth floor. (The tree had been stranded downstairs since we bought it Sunday afternoon - it's so heavy, we knew no one could possibly steal it.) Matt recruited a few workers from the local market and they helped tote the thing upstairs.


Andy came over to help too. After the workers left, we got the tree positioned "just right"....


Lydia (fortunately) slept through most of the chaos and woke up from her nap just in time to help water the tree!


Matt and I put lights on the tree and put out some decorations for the house last night after the girls were in bed. We'll wait and hang ornaments with the girls one evening this week. Julianna just woke up and walked out into the living room - she seems pretty pleased with the lights and the tree.

I sit out here most mornings and read - for the next month or so I get to enjoy not only the morning quiet, but also the lights of the tree ... it's one of my favorite things about the Christmas season.

not your average Christmas tree farm

The four of us just got home from our annual "hunt for a Christmas tree". Buying a Christmas tree here just isn't the same as it is in the States... this is anything but a simple trip to the tree lot in the parking lot of the local home improvement store. Most people here don't even know what a Christmas tree is, why you would want one, or what it should look like.

Our first step was to locate the nearest tree/plant market. After church (and a quick lunch) we loaded into the car and told our driver, "we'd like to buy a pine tree, do you know where we should go?" He assured us he knew just the right place, and off we went. After a lot of stopping and asking folks and doing our fair share of u-turns we located a potential tree seller. At one stop, the owner assured us he had just the right thing, and led us through the tree lot to the back of his property, passing all sorts of trees (none looking the least bit like a Christmas tree). But, he did have a few pines, and we chose the only one that was small enough to fit in the apartment.

Next , while the workers at the farm dug the tree out of the ground and located an appropriate pot, the tree farm owner found a truck (with driver) that could deliver the tree to our house. So, here we are, back in our apartment, ready to get out our Christmas decorations (actually, it's just me and the girls, Matt had to run out to an appointment).

The only problem is, the tree is still downstairs. A live, potted, almost 2 meters tall Christmas tree is quite heavy, and we live on the 4th floor. It took four men (manual laborers) to lift the tree into the delivery truck. So, when Matt gets home we'll tackle the "how to get the tree up the stairs" problem. He'll probably end up going to the local market and looking for a few guys who want to make some quick money by carrying a Christmas tree up a few flights of stairs!

Here's Matt and Julianna with the tree farm staff. The guy on the right side of the photo facing the camera is Qiu - a driver that we frequently use (he really enjoyed the hunt and was quite determined that we get just the right tree).

And, me and Lydia with the tree we bought - on the left side of the photo. See the much larger tree over my left shoulder?? We thought it sure was nicely shaped, but it wouldn't even begin to fit in our apartment!

when bad goes to worse...

Well, at the last minute we canceled our post-Thanksgiving plans and the family is here at home, not at the weekend get-away with our friends. A situation with Matt's work escalated from bad to worse on Friday morning, and we needed to be here, not away on vacation. (If you want more details please email and I'll be glad to update you.)

Our house was full of local friends for most of yesterday afternoon and well into the night. How many people can you feed with 40 boxes of take-out fried rice?? Lots! ... but not without a few rice-on-the-floor casualties.

In the evenings I frequently give Lydia a bottle of expressed milk - it gives me a nice break and I get to eat dinner without a baby in my arms. Lydia enjoyed last night's bottle in the arms of one student, surrounded by a rotating audience of 5-7 other college girls! She's never had quite that much attention :)

Anyways, I spent part of the morning (yesterday and today) taking the carved pumpkins from Wednesday night and turning them into pumpkin bread, muffins, pie, etc. Julianna had a grand time sitting on the counter and sorting through pieces of discarded pumpkin.

Hope you are enjoying your leftovers :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day with lots of friends. 6 families and all their kids - 13 kiddos in all. It was a full house.

We leave tomorrow morning for a three day, two night get-away with three other couple friends of ours - Huffmans, Greenes and Deans. The 8 adults, and 4 kids (Julianna is the oldest and Lydia the youngest) rented a little 'house' at the resort with hot springs where we stayed a few weeks ago. It'll be a lot of fun. So, I am offline and not posting for a few days. Here's our family Thanksgiving photo:


One of the perks of Thanksgiving with our friends the Shickleys (who hosted us today) is all their play stuff - Julianna loved this little slide.

happy thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day! We are so thankful for so many things, and have lots to celebrate. It's a little before 7am, the house is still quiet, and I am up and at 'em... lots to get done today!

Last night's celebration was super fun - we had a HUGE feast and then sat around and decorated a "thanksgiving tree" (a dried up branch stuck in a pot) with paper leaves. We wrote things we were thankful for on the leaves. After that, we carved pumpkins. (yes, i know that's a Halloween thing, but when you live overseas you can flex on details like that)! Each pumpking carving team had one local and one expat. Admire our handiwork below:


Well, really gotta run today. Happy thanksgiving to all of you. We miss you terribly, especially at holidays, but are so thankful for the community that God has provided for us here!

sentences!! and a trip back in time

Not sure how this snuck up on me, but I realized this morning that Julianna is starting to use sentences! Pretty exciting stuff, huh? First, a disclaimer and a helpful vocab list, then I'll share a sampling of her newest skill set. Disclaimer: her poor grammar is not indicative of mine (as far as I know, I conjugate most verbs correctly). Vocabulary to know: Julianna refers to herself as "Nana" and to Matt as "baba".

So, are you ready? Yesterday at breakfast she heard Lydia waking up and said, "Nana go see Lydia". Then, this morning, again at breakfast, "Baba eat yogurt too". Conclusion: Julianna's mind is sharpest at breakfast! Either that, or it's still early enough in the day that my brain has not yet gone into "super overdrive mode" and I am paying enough attention to what she says to realize her accomplishment.

Here's a photo of the little genius modeling her mommy's house slippers (no one wears outdoor shoes in the house here in Asia).
I thought it might be fun to pull out a photo from last Thanksgiving - Julianna was 11 months old and I was newly aware that Lydia was on her way....

Isn't she cute?

Another day on the road to recovery here... Julianna better again today.

I love this time of night, when the girls are sleeping and the day is winding down. Usually, after dinner, Matt starts the bath/bed routine with the girls (we don't do baths every night) and I work on the mess we created during dinner. We both finish up about the same time (depending on the size of the pile of dishes by the sink) and breathe a sigh of relief.

This week we are gearing up for several Thanksgiving celebrations - Wednesday night with a group of 8 (locals and Americans) and then Thursday we join four or five other expat families for a big feast. The host family has four kids and Julianna thinks they are great! She squeals and giggles and runs around the house trying to keep up with them. It'll be fun...

progressing towards health!

Today is the first day that I can confidently say I have seen significant improvement in Julianna since this whole thing started 9 days ago. Yea!! We did not go to church this morning (no need to infect the entire nursery full of kids), so it was a quiet day at home. We had a fun time playing with "the babies" late this afternoon - Julianna was careful to make sure both Lydia and her baby doll were covered with a blanket (it got quite chilly today).


















Late this afternoon the whole family went for a short walk around town (it's a small town, so a long walk is out of the question!) Here we are just starting out ... still in our apartment complex. Our apartment is at the very end of this path, fourth floor on the left.
















I am carrying Lydia on my back in a "beibu". All the local ladies use them. It's very cozy and Lydia loves to snooze while riding back there. When I have Lydia in the beibu and Julianna in my arms the two girls are facing one another (over my shoulder) and they love to talk. Julianna says, "Lydia!! Hey Lydia!!" Lydia coos.

The not-so-great thing about Lydia in the beibu and Julianna in my arms is the combined weight of almost 40lbs!! Try carrying that load up to the fourth floor :) (The stroller weighs an additional 13 lbs, but at that point, I stop counting!)




This is main street (and the only street) in town. You can see that traffic is not a problem! I can stroll right in the street. Julianna is showing off her pink wardrobe - pink hat, pink coat, pink pants. That's pretty much par for the course around our house - when we sort laundry the piles are "darks", "lights" and "pinks".
















Along with the Huffmans, we are the first foreigners to ever live here in KC (a suburb of the big city we lived in for the past three years). It's kind of like a mill town - all the folks work for (or are retired from) the factory at the end of main street. Four apartment complexes, an elementary school, middle school, and some small stores and businesses (like hair salons, the bank, post office, a fruit/veggie/meat market, etc) make up the rest of the town. It seems like most everyone knows most everyone else. And EVERYBODY knows about the foreign families. No secrets here. But, all in all, the folks have been very welcoming and seem glad to have us around.

to the doctor again

Julianna wasn't getting better and had some new symptoms, so we headed back to the doctor today - he thinks she has type 1 herpes (explains the sores in her mouth and her fever). A significant chunk of the population (worldwide) is an asymptomatic carrier, so she could have picked it up anywhere. Many adults have antibodies to it, which explains why Matt and I have not gotten it, and Lydia is still getting my antibodies (lucky her!), so she is pretty safe. Still, it is very contagious.

It will "run its course" in a few weeks, the sores should get better and her fever should slowly subside too (its already better today than it has been). In the meantime, Julianna gets to eat lots of ice cream and benadryl can numb some of the discomfort.

She's snoozing now and Lydia just woke up for her afternoon snack! Gotta run....

not getting any easier (but the NC package helped!)

Things are not getting easier around these parts. Julianna still sick (doctor on Thursday thought it was a virus and she could fight it herself). But I think I might need some medicine to continue to fighting her crabby attitude!

Dryer fix-it guy did arrive, took two hours to "fix it" and left. It is quieter, but I haven't had a chance to see if the drying time is faster. Yesterday, when the washer and dryer were both running at the same time the fuse blew and now the outlet is busted and won't work. (in the past, I ran them at the same time with no trouble.) At least it was sunny yesterday - we're sticking with the sunshine for now.

I did have a good evening cooking with Erin Ashley after the little girls were in bed. Matt and Andy were both gone til late and we made meals for the freezer (lasagna, meatloaf, chili).

We did have fun opening up a package from my parents!! Julianna got a new set of jewelry and LOVES it... she even shared with Lydia and me - we each got to model the bracelets and necklaces for a brief period of time.

Here she is digging in to the goods (Lydia was there too, see her feet in the bottom left corner?? )