Congratulations Charlie!

There are a few people who have made their way into the deepest parts of my heart-the "I love you so much I can't explain it" part. My brother is one of those people. Though over the past 7 years I have only seen him a handful of times, my sister love for him is strong. I cry at times when I pray for him and when I listen to country music and think of him. I laugh when I think about his great sense of humor. I am proud of him, of how hard he works at something he believes in so much. I think (some of) his tattoos are really cool. I think he is handsome. I have fun memories of our circus show (walking on those big blue barrels), of cheering him on at sporting events...his team won the state football championship when they were like 7!... of digging a hole to China in Troy's back yard, of hanging out at the lake with Gmaw and Gpaw, of finding out he could rap...Y Y Yo You thought I was gonna stutter, but I slide through like butter...I still feel terrible for making him walk from the high school to the middle school when I was running late. So sorry Charlie. Again, please forgive me for those few years where I won the Jerk Sister of the Year Award!

And now he is a married man! Andy and I are excited for you and we can't wait to see you and your beautiful bride this summer! Congratulations Charlie and Devlyn! We pray God would bless your marriage, grant you deep love for and commitment to one another, and that he would bring you both great joy and strength as you walk the road of life together! We love you!

The winner is...LOUD

If I could only choose one word to describe the Chinese New Year I would have tough time deciding between QUIET and LOUD. It some ways our city is very quiet during the New Year. Everything shuts down. Everything. Most people go back home (outside the city) or on vacation. Traffic is way better and things are just low key. So in some ways Quiet is the right word.

But then at 6 am this morning I was reminded why LOUD wins out as my word of choice. Today is the last day of the 15 day celebration and we started things DARK and early with a lot of firecrackers. A WHOLE LOT OF them! Many people lit strings our firecrackers right outside our windows between the hours of 6am and 9am. EG actually really liked them. We got stools and stood by the windows to listen and watch. This is a big improvement as just a few months ago fireworks brought shrieks of terror from her! Here's a little video of a Chinese New Year performance we watched in Thailand. I think LOUD is a great word to describe this performance. Even Jack covered his ears!

This year instead of being annoyed with how early and how late our neighbors set off firecrackers and fireworks, we've decided to just join the fun. You've already seen our video of our first firework adventure. We had so much fun that we went back and bought more! We are setting off more tonight for Matt's birthday and we bought a giant box to set off when the Huffmans visit! I can kinda see why Chinese people like setting them off so much!

Birthday Video

Iknow I am way behind on most things in my life these days but I figured you'd still enjoy this video! I am very proud of myself. I figured out how to upload it and then embed it on my blog. I know that's as simple as turning on the computer for most common folk, but for me, it's kind of a big deal. So if this actually works you should definitely tell me how amazing I am.

Andy loves to make videos for our family. The plan is to make one for each child's one year bday and then make a family one at Christmas each year! So fun. Hope you will enjoy!!!

The Final Countdown

March 19th is quickly approaching and we are excited! Why? Because these guys are coming to visit! (minus Pepaw Ted-Bish, we wish you were coming too!)

Last time they saw our kids, they looked like this:

We are so excited for them to come over and see our life here and spend time with our kiddos! We've started the final countdown chain!

We are counting down the days til their arrival by removing a loop from our chain each day. I heard it's good to have a visual for little kids in helping them understand time. I thought this would be a fun way for EG to "see" how many days until Kacki, Poopaw, and Mary arrive. Each loop has something written on it about them that is meaningful to us and the kids. (Like Kacki loves to make "cakes." Poopaw is very thoughtful. Mary loves to wear headbands.) We will be reading one each day to help us get even more excited about their visit! Woohoo!

We have A LOT planned for their 10 day trip and we can't wait to sip coffee with you, talk about the Mountaineers awesome basketball season, and just enjoy each other! March 19th here we come!!!

Took down my tree

I said I would change my blog background when I took down my Christmas Tree. For the record, I actually took it down at the end of January (late but not as late as my blog would indicate!) But I am just now getting around to changing my background on the blog! My New Year's Resolution for the rest of 2010 is to stay on top of every single thing in every single aspect of my life every single day. HAHA. Too bad I haven't taken a shower in 3 days. Hope you enjoy this background. My guess is it'll be up here til next Christmas!

HAPPY AUSTRALIAN BIRTHDAY!

On my actual birthday (Feb 21st) we were busy doing tons of medical checkups, dentist visits, etc while in Bangkok so it made more sense to celebrate on a different day. So this year we celebrated my Australian Birthday, which is on Feb 18th.

You see, back in college I studied abroad in Australia for a semester. On Feb 18th, I got several emails from my friends back in the States wishing me a Happy Birthday! For a few minutes I thought I had forgotten my own birth date. Turns out Marianne or Andy (they both disagree on who initiated it) told all my friends to send me emails on my bday, but they were confused about the date. So we still joke about my Australian Birthday. This year, though I was sure my birthday was on the 21st, I was happy to celebrate early while at the beach!

First, Andy took me out for dinner and a foot massage. We went to this quaint little Italian restaurant called Mama Mia's.

Then we enjoyed a foot massage. Thai foot massages are heavenly! For about 10 dollars each, we enjoyed an hour long foot massage. Andy said the ladies who work there know which customers are parents based on who falls asleep during the massage. We loved vacation, but it was a lot of work to take care of our little ones. Within 10 minutes of starting our massages, I could hear Andy snoring. I knew my own mouth was wide open but I was so close to falling asleep that I couldn't wake up enough to shut it. HEHE. We enjoyed our hour long nap! I usually don't fall asleep because I want to enjoy every minute of it, but this time I was just exhausted! Still worth every baht! The next day we ordered a Swensen's Vanilla Brownie Ice Cream Cake! After lunch, we enjoyed this baby! Jack and EG loved singing Happy Birthday! EG even sang it in Chinese! Here I am "blowing" out the candles. Too much wind, so we didn't light them. A fun birthday Celebration! Happy Australian Birthday to Me!

If you can't beat 'em...

Here in China, we are celebrating the Lunar New Year. It's called the Spring Festival and it's a BIG BIG DEAL. It's equivalent in importance to celebrating Christmas in America. It's a time for Chinese people to go home, see family, eat lots of yummy food and enjoy time resting from their otherwise work-driven lives. For Chinese children, it means a break from school, new clothes, lots of house chores (right before the holiday they clean the house from top to bottom) and hong baos-a hong bao is a red little "bag" that has money in it. On day two of the Chinese New Year, which lasts 15 days, children get to go around to their relatives homes and collect their hong baos!

Before we left for Thailand, we heard lot of chickens making noise. Most families had bought one and were storing it in their home until the big day. A few people tied theirs to trees outside. We also saw lots of curtains and linens hung out to dry. People are serious about a good cleaning this time of year! Many of our friends traveled for days on packed trains to get home and be with their families. Most stores and restaurants close so their employees can go home. So the city is super quiet...all except...

the fireworks!

A big part of the celebration is setting off fireworks. And in China, where there are hardly any regulations on these things, regular ole citizens can get their hands on some major explosives. On the first day of the Chinese New Year and the last, (and all the days in between) fireworks can be heard throughout the day and night. On the first and last day of the celebration, IT'S INSANE. I mean, INSANE. Huge fireworks, right out our window for hours on end. Thus, the mass exodus to sunny, quieter Thailand.

While in Thailand, we missed most of the fireworks, though many of the restaurants in our town are still closed. But we got home in time to enjoy the last few days of the festival. We decided to join in the fun and bought our own fireworks to set off. Here's a video of the 15 dollars worth of explosives we bought!

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM!!

Vacation Happiness

There are many things I love about Thailand. Here are a few:

Swensen's Celebrity Brownie Sundae. (add banana)

Deli Meat. I mean it has nothing on Boar's Head, but still, it's way better than anything we can get in China.

Watching Emma Grace swim all by herself. That girl has been so brave and has really enjoyed the pool.

Watching Jack wander around our yard FOR HOURS. He is non stop and he has been so happy to have lots of space and grass to explore. I told Alisa that's what he does all day everyday-it's just usually in my living room!

ok, no more time to write tonight-my Sundae just arrived!

AHHH Vacation

We're on vacation and loving it! Don't have much battery so here are a few pics:
EG getting ready to leave-loving the new backpack!3 airports, 2 flights, a 3 hour van ride and we arrivedloving the outdoor kitchen and pool

Jack and LOVED the beach!

super fun. Eating sandwiches for lunch-a special treat for us to have deli meat and yummy thai for dinner. planning to ride elephants tomorrow!

Thank You Thackers!

Happy Valentine's to us! Thanks so much Mamma Nette and Poppa Dan and Katie for the wonderful Valentine's Day package! We love it! It arrived today, right one time! Thanks so much for the time, the money, and all the love you put in to sending it! We feel very loved! And as a thank you, here's a little treat for you-Hope you enjoy the video. I think Jack likes the bear!

Vacation Preview

Last week we spent 4 days at Hot Springs Resort in town. The hot tubs were all filled with water from local underground hot springs-very comfy! But the giant pool had regular ole tap water which meant it was COLD! That didn't stop EG from wading in to play after we had pizza pool-side! The water was too cold for Jack. Don't worry buddy-in about 24 hours we'll be soaking in some Thailand rays and enjoying the very warm water of our pool! So excited. Should be packing but I'm blogging.

Home for a few days

We're back from our retreat. We had a good time but we're really glad to be home. It was fun to see friends but always nice to return to routine and normalcy. EG and Jack both enjoyed swimming in the hot springs fed pools. I have pictures but they're not on my computer now. But here are a few pictures of our kids playing dress up. I think Jack makes a really cute cowboy! Emma Grace sporting the Bob the Builder look:

We are home until Friday and then we head to Thailand for vacation! We'll be staying at a house with our friends John and Alisa for a week. The house has a pool and isn't too far from the beach. We are really looking forward to the HOT weather, lime smoothies, and rest. Alisa and I already have plans to blast the country music while we're swimming in our pool. After a week at the beach, we head to Bangkok for LOTS of medical stuff. We all have dental appointments, check ups, and shots.

We've been talking to Emma Grace a lot about Thailand. Here are a few things she tells us about our trip: She likes to tell us that we are going to eat Thai food in Thailand. Right on, EG. She also likes to tell us that she is going to sit beside Kayleigh on the plane and hold her hand so she doesn't fall in the river. I have no idea where she got that. She also asked us who would be the pilot on our flight. When I told her I didn't know, she said it would be her Dad. Then I told her it had to be someone who knew how to fly airplanes, she then said it would be Xiao Li. Yes Xiao Li is amazing and she can even fly planes!!! Who knew?! Tonight we tried on some dresses for Thailand. She was so excited she wanted to sleep in them. We made her change into PJ's but I imagine this week there will be lots of practice runs in the dresses. It's actually been pretty hot here-upper 70's today I think-so wearing summer dresses is not totally out of place. The weather this year has been so weird, but so lovely.

That's all I've got for now-heading to bed.