Reese is loving her little bike. She doesn't have much room to ride it around, but she's getting the hang of it.
Another 2 packages came in the mail. We got to continue celebrating Christmas. It was so much fun. I got some Christmas Blend. Thankyou, Thankyou! I had just told Ben the other day how sad I was that I had missed my chance to have Christmas Blend this year. Last year, we had been overseas for a couple of months and my dad flew all the way over to where we were to give us a special New Years. One of the things he brought was 2006 Christmas Blend. We had to go all over town to try to find a way to grind the beans, but it was so special. I had some of the 2007 Blend this morning and got to sit and enjoy it. If there were ever a way to my heart, it's through Starbucks!
Jamin got into the gifts. This was his favorite!
Reese has been playing non stop with this nativity set. She has them talking to each other, running errands, eating, and taking care of baby Jesus. It is just the cutest thing!

Christmas morning I got up and made some fresh cinnamon raisin buns and my precious Starbucks... We sat around and opened our two packages. It felt so much like Christmas, even tho we were so far away from our families. We got things we needed like kitchen towels and those amazing Mr. Clean Magic Erasers (yes, i know about the warnings). Reese got a little bike from us and lots of coloring and art things from her grandparents. Ben's sister sent us some fun stuff. A new shirt for me! Hawaii coffee! refried beans, hard shell taco shells, and never enough seasoning packet! Even a box of mac and cheese! Let me tell you, when you live overseas and can't get those things, those are the best Christmas presents ever!

Our day continued by having some of our friends over for a big meal, songs, games and a funny white elephant exchange! Reese ended up having a little to much sugar by the end of the day and had a bit of a melt down before bed. But, in the end it was such a fun Christmas. The Lord is so good!

Ben has started our own family tradition by making peanut brittle every Christmas. This year we made about 5 batches, ate one batch and made little bowls for our neighbors and friends. So yummy!

Reese was so excited to use her own rolling pin. We made some yummy Christmas cookies! It was so funny how she wanted to make every cookie shape possible. We ended up with a hippo cookie, a turkey cookie and a few fish cookies!

I guess you could say i'm addicted to baby carriers. I love my sling, which Jess made for me, but always have to keep trying out new ones. This one is from the Netherlands, i'm not sure what they call it, but i've heard it called a didymos, i think that is actually the name from Germany? It's really comfortable for long walks. The only down is that it is literally about 5-6meters and that is a heck of a lot of material to wind around my body!


Okay, this is my all time favorite carrier! This is the Ergo Baby Carrier. It is always comfortable, with most of the baby's weight on your waist. The only down side to this is that the little one has to be a bit bigger, they say 6 months, before they fit into it nicely. We were trying it out with Jamin, only to find that indeed he has to grow a bit for him to be comfortable.

I found my sweet little ones sharing a moment early this morning.

I'm finally posting pictures of our living room. Wow, it has really been a production. From trying to drill the curtain hooks through the concrete to making the curtains backwards. But, we are so excited about how it is turing out! The walls are not three colors as the picture might indicate, but just one, probably the most accurate is the one on the curtain wall. Here are the before, working on and final pictures!

This year a friend and I decided we wanted to do some things for our kids, helping them celebrate the season of advent. We are far away from our families and churches and don't have any way for our kids to experience get-togethers and services, so we planned some things ourselves. We invited a few other families and we planned two different Sunday mornings to have an Advent fair.

The first Sunday we had the kids sing some Christmas songs, led by me on the guitar! We had them make paper chains marking down the days till Christmas, talked about and made star ornaments, and did a craft with cotton balls and sheep pictures. They also got to play with special play-dough that was cinnamon scented, especially made by my friend Sonja!

Last Sunday we met again. It was only two families this time, so it was a little less formal. We still sang some songs with the kids, read them the Christmas story and had them color cards. The cards turned out a little differently than we expected so, instead we just hung them on the wall! We had lunch together and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus as we ate his birthday cake afterwards. It was such a fun day for the kids and a special day for us parents to remember!

Here is the picture of Reese sitting with her friends Nehemiah and Evangeline next to our homemade Christmas tree, proudly showing off their "cards" on the wall.

We are working on painting again! It is really helping me embrace this place, put down roots and enjoy living here! i'm so thankful for how well it is going. i'll post some pics, but in the mean time, you can imagine how the living room is changing. we don't have a ladder so Ben stacked 6 plastic chairs (our dining room chairs!) on top of each other to reach the ceiling. Since he is 6'5" you can imagine how hight our ceiling are if he has to reach even from the 6 chair hight! We moved around some furniture and now the room is looking a bit bigger and easier for people to sit and converse. My job at the moment is making more curtains. This time we are going with red. The window is high, so the curtains are 3 meters, not sure in feet? but in this country it's meters... I'm so excited about how it's turning out! Can't wait to show some pictures!

Reese and I love starting every morning with either hot tea or coffee. If i get up early with her, we share a drink while our men keep sleeping. Otherwise our morning hot drink has become a tradition at breakfast.

Reese figured out a new way for Mary to travel!

I found some white material in town, borrowed a sewing machine, and made Reese some curtains for her newly-painted room.
Things are coming together. The painting is done, the window treatment are done, and Reese is now sleeping off the floor. Now we just need some things to hang on her wall, and a little bedside lamp.

Double Take

I hate that picture of me! I need to add some more posts so that it will go away! We finished Reese's room. It was a couple of days of working on it. By the end we figured out how to get straight lines along the ceiling and floor and it looks really good. it took alot of patience to get the final look, but we can't be more pleased with how it turned out. Reese is pretty happy too!

We have plans for painting the living room/dining room too. it may take us a few days to get some more energy to tackle that job, but i'm looking forward to how it will give the home a cleaner look and feel like my own. i'll post pictures as soon as i get some curtains up... that's my next job!

Painting Reese's Room

First job, sweeping down the walls
Second job, taping the cooler, outlets, windows
Official 'before' picture
Reese and Ben working hard
What Reese was doing while we worked
What Jamin was doing while we worked
After one coat of paint

Introducing you to my kitchen. Believe me, my standards have had to change a bit, but it is doing the job for the moment. You will notice that i have an itsy bitsy stove. I am constantly using it. It is gas powered by way of the large gas tank to the right of it. It gets filled every couple of months unless you are like me and are constantly cooking and baking and have to have it filled every month! Then you will notice the microwave. I think i am probably the only person in this country with one. It was a special gift from my husband who thought i deserved one. He is so thoughtful... Next, observe big white bucket with spout. That is our water filter. The brown water goes into the top and miraculously clear water comes out. Reese's favorite thing right now is to fill up all of our glasses and cups - using the cool spigot - and leaving them around the house. Here she is showing off her chocolaty hands as we were making a cake for Daddy. Jamin is in on it too. Poor guy, I'm thankful for the highchair that some friends gave us, but he's still a little small for it and so the shoulder straps often get sucked on since they are at about eye level on him.

I have great aspirations for my kitchen in spite of it's lowly look at the moment. First thing is to paint. The color right now is a light yellow, it's fine, but I'm thinking I'll go with some Starbucks colors and get some coffee looking pictures (can i get those here?). I want a shelf along the wall for my baking canisters, a cupboard or stand for the filter and at some point a bigger stove. Who knows, maybe that will be another gift from my generous husband!

Just had to post the cutest picture of my little guy today. He is growing so quickly. Sucking on his hands, laughing when we tickle him and pretending to talk when we ask him questions are some of the things he is doing. On Dec. 8th he will be 3 month old. I weighed him and he comes in at 16lbs and is about 25 inches long. His thighs are taking over his body! We love him and are so thankful God gave us such a healthy and happy boy.

Christmas is coming and we are getting excited around here. Normally a Christmas without family, in a far away place, would be pretty hard. Last year was our first Christmas overseas, and it was hard. But this year we have been finding ways to make it special. We made a tree out of tinsel, a pole and a platter! We strung lights and made a foil star for the top. We found some candles that we light at night and put on our dinner table that give a cozy feeling. We have a playlist on our ipod of Christmas music that keep cycling during the day, and every night we have been reading as a family a daily advent reading from the Bible. We have gotten together with some friends of ours with kids Reese's age, to talk about christmas, do a craft and sing Christmas songs. So, we'll see how the month goes and keep you posted on our Christmas activities!