The Holidays

Wow, the holidays flew! Per usual.

Christmas was fun. We started a new tradition on Christmas Eve of new jammies for the boys and a movie with popcorn. Josiah loved it since he actually understood what was going on!

Christmas morning, we skyped with my family as we opened gifts. Malachi was content with the 1st gift he opened. We had to pry him away to open more! Josiah was content with finding out what new toys he was getting. He scored some fun games and books as well. Everyone collaborated to get me a lot of coffee-related stuff. I'm now learning how to master making lattes on a simple, at-home machine. It's waaay different than the one I used at the coffee shop!! Nonetheless, I've enjoyed several lattes thus far. Our families really spoiled us all this year!

 

Later that afternoon, we went to a friend's house who hosted a "wrapped in bacon, dipped in chocolate" party. Oh. My. It was all delicious. We considered that to be our lunch and dinner, so we ate a lot! The kids had fun, too, being around other kids while sneaking to the food tables.

Turning 29 was also fun. A few days before Christmas, Michael and friends coordinated to throw me a surprise party. I sure was surprised! A friend asked me the day before to go on a prayer walk with her. I tried to change the day, but she wouldn't have it. I thought something was up, but had no idea it would be a surprise party! The party came after actually prayer walking in sub-zero temps. They sure lead me on a bunny trail to get me to the party! It was 80s-themed, so we enjoyed watching old commercials and talking about the good ol' 80s.

On my real birthday, 3 friends and I went to an Indian restaurant--my favorite place to eat in town. We got lost, got stuffed, and laughed more than I've laughed in a long time. And I laugh a lot. Everything was just extra-funny with those girls that night! I still don't feel 29. Next year may be a hard one for me...

And, on New Year's, nothing was planned. A few people showed interest in doing something, so at 2pm, we decided to play hosts. We ended up just sitting around and chatting, eating an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies, 2 batches of popcorn, and watching Lincoln. The movie ended 2 minutes past midnight. We said "Happy New Year," then everyone ran out to get to their beds. Lincoln was a little slow-moving for that time of night.

And now, we have 4 weeks to kill until we go to Thailand. What will we do?! Not much involving outside since the "feels like" temps have been in the -30sF lately. Yikes!

Update in a List

One week of school left! PTL!!! Waaay ready for a break!

Once school is over, we'll have an entire 2 months of free time! About 2 weeks of that will be spent in warm Thailand to attend our company's conference. The other 6 weeks will be spent doing projects that have been put off for months, staying warm, catching up with people at home, and finding creative ways to keep the kiddos entertained.

Christmas is in 1.5 weeks and I haven't bought a single present.....

Christmas is in 1.5 weeks!

Malachi is walking like a champ! He started a few weeks ago with lots of falling, but really mastered it last week. I now have no time to escape anywhere without him following right behind. :)

Josiah keeps calling Santa "Noah."

I turn a year older in 2 weeks. Eek! Is it bad if, in my head, I still consider myself to be about 22?

He's on a roll...

A few nights ago....

Josiah (sitting next to Daddy): "Daddy, you're brown."
Daddy: "Yep, are you brown?"
Josiah: "No, I'm tan."

We talked about this with him maybe over a year ago when he noticed one of our teammates was "brown." But that was a year ago. Amazing how little brains can remember so much.

Where does he come up with this?!

Tonight, I was asking Josiah about where we and others live. Here's the convo:

Me: "Josiah, where do we live right now?"
J: "uhhh..."
Me: "Chhhh--?"
J: "China!"
Me: "Right! And where do Grammie and Papa live?"
J: "In a box!"

No idea where it came from, but I died.

Let the Tallies Begin!

For those of you who receive (and read!) our newsletter, I put a tidbit in the most recent one about how you should guess how many times I'll fall on the ice this winter. Well, it has begun. Ice: 1 Ashley: 0

Yesterday, Michael and I took the kids to eat lunch with our small group. We rode our bikes because the temp was just above freezing, the snow/ice had melted where we were riding, and, most importantly, it was literally a 3 minute ride.

I decided to put Malachi in the ergo carrier because the past few times he has ridden with me, he has cried his eyes out while sitting in the seat behind me. He was happy to be snuggled close to me for the short ride. Plus, with him attached, it meant he couldn't reach down and pull off his socks. Yes, he was only wearing socks because the kid has no more matching shoes. Why? Because he has pulled them off during other bike rides and thrown them over-bike, never to be found.

The ride there was fine. No drama. Then we began to leave. I noticed the road we had ridden in on was now icy, which was strange, since the sun was out and it didn't feel colder. At about the same time that I noticed it was icy, I wiped out. The bike flew to the side, and I landed straight on my rear. I let out a yelp, which caused Michael to swerve to see what happened, which caused them to do a half-wipe out. Malachi and I were fine..actually, I'm not even sure he noticed anything had happened. Knowing him, he probably thought it was fun! I looked up, though, and Michael's bike was on it's side, and so was Josiah. He was whining, but not hurt at all. Just a little shocked.

Then I noticed the Chinese man who had watched the whole thing happen. He stood there for a minute, still watching, not sure what to do. (They're not really a rush-to-help kind of culture.) He did meander my way and pick up my bag for me, though. He said to me, "Too icy"(in Chinese). Yes, thank you, sir.

So we walked over the ice, then re-mounted and rode home on the ice-free roads.

Lesson learned: ice always wins.

Do they make chains for bike tires?

Too Hot for Pants

Josiah gets the quote of the day award.

Tonight, he was running around like crazy, acting goofy. The heat (uncontrollable radiators) is on full-blast, so it's toasty in here. Add running, and he was sweating. I asked him if he wanted to take his sweats off.

He said, "Yeah, I'm too hot for pants."

We died.

Halloween

I never post pics on here because they're all on Facebook, but here are a few from Haloween.

My kiddos haven't experienced the whole trick-or-treating thing (although, thinking about it, I'd never let them just go out in the States..only a mall or church or something!), so a few of us at school threw together a party. Theme: painting/carving pumpkins with our tutors. They really don't celebrate this holiday here, so it's kind of nice to "celebrate" only the things we want to. (i.e. no ghosts, witches, scary stuff, etc.)

Josiah enjoying painting..surprisingly!

2/4 looking at the camera isn't bad, right?

Baby turtle playing with Dr. Felder's instruments.

Emily and Dr. Felder. haha!

All the punkins

hahaha