Christmas Happenings

This past week has been busy with different Christmas activites. Here's a look at a few of them....

Andy's had the opportunity to share at 3 different schools during this Christmas season. It's a great opportunity to share the reason that we celebrate Christmas....Christ came!
We had our Mission Christmas party last Sunday. This is how Joey and Ike entertained themselves while we chatted. This mat is what we like to refer to as "Taipei". In other words, LOTS of cars!!!
Ellie spent as much time as she could with Miss H
This pic is for Grandpa Kenny. Ike surprised us all (but especially me) by eating the C's fruit soup. I think he thought it was chocolate when he took it, but he ended up having 2 bowls of the stuff!!
Just to show that we really do have Scandinavian pride, M and I also tried the fruit soup. Brought back lots of memories of Grandma Bestemor!
We spent Christmas Eve down south with our friends and went to this great science museum!
There were lots of fun things for the kids
...and the adults!
Yep, Joey is without pants in this picture. He had to pull his "gag and puke" act at dinner so we had to quickly wash them before we headed home.Christmas morning!!!
Puzzles from Santa
This boy was up at 6:45am and dug into his stocking and Joey's (who was still sleeping). Guess he was excited!
We ended Christmas Day with a program at the kid's school. I was pretty impressed with the program this year...lots of Christmas songs, a magician, and some traditional Chinese music.
It was Elle's first Christmas program and (surprise, surprise) she wasn't shy at all.

KungFu

A Visit from Johnny O

Our friend, John, was here for a visit and we had a great time catching up and just hanging out. Thanks for coming, John!

Yuck!

This was taken at the "thumb" of 5 Finger Mountain.

John could even wear Ike's motorbike helmet!

Fall

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have much to be thankful for this year...family, friends, and most of all a loving Savior! We pray you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We spent the day at the C's house. Elle loves playing with Miss H!
The boys weren't really into their food so they "rested" on the couch
Our friend, John, has been here for the past 1 1/2 weeks, so he joined in on the festivities. He just left today to head back home (I'm sure his family is excited to have him back)!
And a very normal picture of these two....one goofy, one extremely serious!

Harvest time

Today the kids and I walked along an itty bitty road through the rice fields to check out the combine. They were in their glory just watching the combine and the birds that quickly followed behind it!

Fall is finally here!!

Fall temps arrived last week sometime, and it looks like they might be here to stay (for awhile, at least). We are so happy to have a break from the heat AND to pull out the long pants and light jackets, even!!!!

Off to school
Flannel pj's even!
Happy to FINALLY be able to wear his "Cars" jeans!

Model shots???

Just Joey

Can you guess who likes "Jelly" (peanut butter and jelly that is)?

Torture???

I think Elle decided it was time for payback for all the times I have fixed her hair. She really can tug on the hair!!

Happy Halloween!!!

The kids had a fun Halloween and even got to trick-or-treat at the neighbor's homes (they were really just showing them their costumes, but the neighbor's surprised them with candy)!

Our Butterfly or Fairy (depended on when you asked her)
Spiderman (by day)
A confused superhero....it was early and he hadn't had any coffee yet!
Halloween projects. I made them paint their pumpkins because I wanted to keep the pumpkin for fall treats (it's hard to find canned pumpkin here).
Halloween supper...calzones
"Trick-or-treating" time (sort of). By the evening Ike had transformed into Batman and Joey into Spiderman. Elle, well I'm not sure what she was at night....maybe candy corn with wings????

Field Trip Day

I had two very tired kids today!!! Ike and Elle went on a field trip with school so they were gone all day (they usually just go 1/2 days) and didn't have naps. They BOTH fell asleep on the couch watching their new Diego movie (thanks Grandma) around 4:30pm. Ike must have just needed a power nap because he woke up in time for supper. Elle, on the other hand, slept through all of us trying to get her up! Joey tried so hard to wake her, and eventually succeeded!!

Joey trying to wake Elle up
Ike...awake enough to eat 2 tacos, but still pretty out of it
Crazy Joey who just wanted to play with his brother and sister because he was stuck with Mom all day!!!

Time with Daddy

Of course Andy didn't want to take time to look at the camera....baseball was on!!!

What happened???

Today I woke up a bit dizzy. This is the 2nd time it has happened in the last few months, and while this time wasn't as bad as the first, I decided to go and get it checked out. I must have been feeling awfully brave because I ventured down to the local Chinese Medicine Dr (brave because I have never done this before, not because I don't trust them). He did the tests they do and then treated me. This is what my back and neck look like after his treatment (yes, that is one huge bruise)!!! He did some DEEP massage with some tool, and while it was a bit uncomfortable (ok, it hurt), my dizziness was gone. I might even go to him again if I have to. Ahhh, another big step for this missionary!

A trip leads to a fat lip!

Fun with the Bikes

Well, I finally decided it was time to buy the kids bike helmets. I know....they should have been wearing them all along, but better late than never, right??? Maybe not. Anyways, the kids LOVE them and put them on every time they go outside! We'll see how long that lasts!!

Takin' a break for a drink
Posing for the camera. Check out her "beautiful" outfit. She changed into it after school and told me that it matched because there was pink in every piece!