Ultrasounds are SO COOL!!!

Yes, the hospital here got a new 4D ultrasound machine and so the doctor said I "needed" one. Either he's really changed his approach or he wanted to use the fun new toy! Either way, I am really excited about them. They seem really clear to me. All of these are face shots. Enjoy! I sure did.

Her hand is kind of blocking the left side of her face.

A nice side view.

We had a hard time getting her to roll over. I think she's a little shy.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!!!

Sunny, beautiful Thailand!

We have finally made it to the last stage of the pregnancy journey: I'm in Thailand! After 2 days of no internet, we are finally fully set up. I've had my first check-up, and everything is fine. I also had an ultrasound. I am going to try to post pictures of those soon...it was 4D!!! Very cool. Well, after a long day out, I need to try to get some school done with Isabella. Hopefully I will have those pictures up soon...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I know I said that I would post soon. This is as soon as it got! So first of all Happy Thanksgiving. It's over here, but I know you guys are still finishing up. I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful to know that my turkey will be a little easier to buy next year, ha ha! I am also thankful that I have less than a month before Elliana is due. I am thankful for the great kids that I have and that they have all been healthy. I am very, very thankful to have Tim as a husband! And I am thankful that I will be in Thailand in 3 days! Anyway...

This was taken the day after Thanksgiving.

Isabella has lost another tooth. We tease her about losing all of her teeth at once. She has really enjoyed having a couple of days off from school for Thanksgiving. And she is really excited about going to Thailand. She reads like crazy. But she most enjoys math and science, this she inherited from her Daddy!

Nice new gap in her mouth!

Isabella's favorite book this year is Little Pear.

Elijah is loving his preschool work. He follows me around the house in the mornings asking if we can do his school yet--even on the weekends. Sometimes he will cry on Saturday nights saying that I forgot to do his school. He is starting to grow up really fast. We realized recently that he was just a little older than Lydia is now when we moved over here. It is amazing! He is now learning his letters and sounds, and can spell his name and recognize numbers 1-19 (20 seems to be the problem number for him).

Elijah's favorite book is a fairy tale book.

The boy loves his "heroes!"

Lydia is talking more and more. About half Chinese, half English. We have found though that she is shy of strangers and won't talk in front of a bunch of people. She is probably NOT excited about going to Thailand as Ayi won't be going with us. I am concerned that the three months we are there she will forget her Chinese. She is also into EVERYTHING. She likes to climb up the cart we have our microwave on and hang from it (when the door opens, she has an abrupt landing). She likes to go in the bathroom and get her tooth brush (or anyone's actually!). And most of all, she loves the cell phones!

She's our brown-eyed girl!

She loves to pose for pictures...except she HATES to sit still!

Busy with not much to show for it!

Well, I am well-aware that it has been nearly a month since my last post. We have been very busy over the last month though. We've had some friends move into town, and so we have been helping them get set up. Along with that Tim's had a birthday, and although I did make him a cake, no picture was posted as it was the ugliest cake ever made. It was a German chocolate cake, which does not NEED to be pretty, but I like pretty cakes none the less. Other than that most of our busyness has been in daily activities, in other words, not very exciting.

Bella is over a 1/3 of the way done with her school year. It seems to be going by very quickly. She really enjoys it. She has almost finished reading the Beginner's Bible. She has conquered simple addition and subtraction, for the most part. She is really enjoying learning about the Ancient Egyptians.

Elijah also is cruising through his pre-school year. He is enjoying his school even more than Isabella did when she went through it. I am constantly amazed at the differences between our children. Bella was good at somethings but not as good at other things, and it seems that Elijah is her opposite. He is very good at some of the things she struggled with. It is a constant reminder to me that my children are not factory produced to be just alike!

Lydia also is learning at a break-neck pace. Over the last few months since I started up school with the other two, Lydia has been going down stairs to play with the other Ayi's (aunties) and children. She is the first of our kids to speak Chinese. She is talking more and more each day it seems...half English, half Chinese! It's really cute, I have to admit!!!

Well, we are off tonight to a friend's house. I'll try to post some pictures soon.

Haircuts

Note: Just as I am about to write this blog, I go to check out one of my friend's blog while I am waiting to be signed in. Turns out her baby, Georgia, just got her first haircut too!

Lydia's hair has gotten very long in the front and in the back. In the front it was hanging down in her eyes. Yesterday, in a desperate attempt to help her look like her hair was fixed and not just shaggy, I pulled it up...four times in a hair band and two or three times in a clip. Out of great frustration then this morning, much to Tim's disappointment, I decided to give her bangs. Anyway, it didn't turn out great (mostly because she was shaking her head the whole time) but hopefully it will get her through the awkward stage! Below are the Before and Afters! It may be a little hard to tell the difference, since we always pushed her hair out of her face before we took pictures. Enjoy!

Before

After

Funny day

On October 1st, the new month started with, unfortunately, no cooler weather! We keep hoping every morning that we will wake up to much more comfortable temperatures...but none so far. The kids will finish their first nine weeks this Friday. We are pretty excited to get to print out Isabella's first report card. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the kids to start the month out!

Isabella lost her second tooth. She is very proud of her gap.

Even superheros need a nap!

Elijah, while playing in his Superman, costume sat down for a bit and promptly feel asleep!

The girl just loves to have her picture taken!!!

Correction

I realized from the comments made on the birthday cakes that there was a slight miss understanding. I appreciate all the encouraging comments about my "skills" as a cake decorator, BUT I cannot take credit for all the cakes that were pictured. I did make the Batman cake. But the girls cakes were made by a good friend, Robin Capps, while we were in the States. And she is a FABULOUS cake decorator. That girl has skill! Anyway, I didn't want to take credit for her beautiful work. October is Tim's birthday, and so I will be tackling a new cake. He really likes German chocolte, so I will be attempting one from scratch (including buying the coconut, cracking it open, and shredding it myself). It's a little intimidating, but I like trying new things...even though the carrot muffins didn't turn out so well :(.
Well, starting tomorrow is a national holiday here...which means the kids around town were in school Saturday and Sunday. In other exciting news, our small import store sold avocados this week. There is guacamole in our very near future!!! That should be a national holiday! Hope everyone has a great end of September!

Birthday Cakes

Well, the weeks are slowly ticking by. I don't have much to say, but we are celebrating the fact that I have only 12 weeks left (only 8 and a couple of days here) until the baby's here!!! But anyway, as we have just had Elijah's birthday cake, I thought I would go ahead and post pictures of all the birthday cakes from the year (since I forgot to do that).

Batman...

Princesses...

And butterflies!

Man of Steel

Elijah for his birthday got a Superman costume...wow! did he like that! He runs around the house now singing the Superman theme song. So here are the pictures (sorry, they're a little blurry) of him as the Man of Steel...move over Tom Welling!On top of all that cuteness, Isabella did the funniest thing tonight. Swimming season is almost over here. Tonight, we went to McD's to eat. When we got back to our complex, we went through the big gate which goes right past the swimming pool. As we passed, a man wearing a swim cap and a speedo came toward the pool. Isabella hollered out, so I looked down. She was covering her eyes and said, "I hate seeing people naked!"
Have a great weekend everyone!

School and skill

Well, the school year is in full swing. We are about to wrap up the 7th week already! The kids really are enjoying their studies. I am amazed at how quickly Isabella's reading is improving and how much she now wants to read outside of "school time." And Elijah begs me every morning to start his school. You would think it was chocolate cake the way he begs to get started. Anyway, the following are pictures of them at their work.

Here is Elijah asking for the "lion story." Right now he is about anything that growls! He is memorizing a verse every week, reading Bible stories, reading poetry and nursery rhymes, reading stories, and, of course, doing his work book. The work book is by far his favorite. I think he feels very grown up to be following directions and busy about his work!

Here is Isabella and Daddy working on her math. Since Dad likes math and science, he teaches these subjects with her. I think math may be her favorite subject alongside reading. Besides these subjects, she also has history, handwriting, spelling, Bible, and read-aloud (which is where I read books aloud to her).

And like most kids, ours love to do art. We keep a poster of their art work (sorry, it's a little fuzzy!) up so that the work is up for others to see. As you might be able to see from this picture and the one with Isabella doing her math, we have a little school corner in our dining room. We have a small table and chairs, world map, US map, number chart, and all of our school supplies in this area. We use a white board to separate the school corner from the other distractions in the house during "school time."

So I've told you about the school, and now for the skill. Lydia has learned something new...we're not thrilled with it, but it is funny to see. As we have been working on teaching her to point to her nose, mouth, eyes and ears, she has learned something for herself. She has found that her finger fits nicely INSIDE her nose. She isn't picking, just sticking! I was sitting on the living room floor last night, when she walked down into the living room and across the floor all the while her finger up her nose. I have to admit, it was pretty funny looking. She was proud of herself and her find!

Disneyland and the Birthday Boy!

Yesterday was Elijah's birthday and as some of you know, we came to Hong Kong to celebrate...namely to go to Disneyland in Hong Kong! The weather was perfect. It was overcast most of the day with about 15 minutes of rain during dinner time which cooled everything off for the rest of the evening. Everything was so nice. We met up with some other friends who live in a different city and we all went together. The kids played themselves out! We stayed from the time it opened to the time it closed. It was one of those really memorable family vacations. Anyway, Elijah enjoyed his birthday, although he was a little confused since we haven't yet had a cake for him. We took well over 150 pictures yesterday, so the following is simply a sampling. Hope you all enjoy!

Blogger's block

OK, so maybe it was more like the summer lazies! I know that I have had plenty to write about, but just sitting down to do it has been a little difficult to do. So here's all the news (from oldest to youngest) from the summer:

Isabella has hit a big milestone: she lost her first tooth. She also started 1st grade last month. She loves it and is doing well. She is really turning into a good reader. She tries to read anything with words on it! In less exciting news, she also got her first stitches. She fell and hit her head on a cabinet. But she was very brave and hardly cried once the shock of hitting passed. She was very brave when she got her stitches (once the doctor let Daddy come in with her).

Serious student takes a break!

This missing tooth! She's pretty proud.

Strike a pose!

Elijah has started preschool. He LOVES it! His favorite thing is his workbooks. Right now, he is a coloring machine too. He spends probably 2-3 hours a day coloring! He is also learning his numbers...a math teacher friend helped us with that the other day. He showed us a great trick that has really helped Elijah. In less exciting news for him, he got his first black eye...yeah, I know, this is starting to sound like child abuse, I PROMISE we did not inflict these things on our children. They really did fall. I was baking cookies and he ran into the kitchen to see if they were done. Instead he ran into the kitchen door frame...which is pretty sharp. It gave him a little cut on his eyebrow and a nasty looking black eye. It's almost healed now. And in 2 days he will turn 4 years old! I can't believe he is so grown up. We have a special birthday planned!

He's still working on smiling without closing his eyes.

The boy's got skill: winking is the new "trick!"

What a handsome boy!

Lydia is growing fast. Her eighth tooth is pushing through. She runs everywhere she goes. She answers to both English and Chinese. She will eat both American and Chinese foods (she loves broccoli!). She says several words, not very clearly sometimes, but we understand. Her favorite thing to say is "go go." We can't buy baby gates so we have to chase her out of rooms that we don't want her in. She also uses some sign language to tell us she wants more to eat or if she's all done. Her personality comes out more and more each day. One of the other funny things she does is that she shakes her head no to every question we ask her...I don't know that she understands, but she knows that it makes us laugh.

She loves having her picture taken.

Smiley girl!

"I promise not to sit still again like this for a week!"

So for Elijah's birthday, and a family vacation, to Hong Kong. How many kids can say "For my 4th birthday I went to Hong Kong!" And on his birthday, we are going to Disneyland in Hong Kong. The kids are really excited. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited too. I think that they are going to love it. So tonight we leave on a weekend of Mickey and Krispy Kreme doughnuts! We promise to take a bunch of pictures and post them when we get back.

This is our helper with the kids. She wanted to have her picture taken with them! Lydia, especially, LOVES her Ayi!