Tigers

It's amazing to think that Elliana is already more than a month old. She has slept through the night a couple of times. But even though she doesn't seem to be making it a habit, I'm still okay with her getting up once a night.
Tim took Isabella and Elijah to the Night Safari here with some friends. These pictures prove that they are pretty brave! One of the older girls got to hold the cub, but ours didn pretty good petting.

3 Weeks Today

Believe it or not, Elliana is already 3 weeks old. It seems like she was born last week or just a few days ago. Alright, so I guess it's still not been THAT long. Anyway, Tim and Elijah have gone back home. And we girls are just hanging out waiting for her passport and the boys to come back. So here are a few pictures of the girls. Hope everyone enjoys these!

Chick- ow!

Lydia's idea of fun is to pull all the shoes off the shoe rack. First, she piles them up, and then slowly she hides them all around the house...it makes for a lot of searching!

Let's all go to the movies...

While we've been here in Thailand, the movie theater across the way was playing Alvin and the Chipmunks. As our kids have never been to a movie before, they were too young before we left the US and in China the only American movies they play are the most violent ones. That and they are played so loud that I leave feeling I have permanent hearing loss. So anyway, the kids had no idea where we were going when we left. And when I told them we were going to see a movie, they were a little confused because they didn't know that you could see a movie outside your home. They were shocked at the size of the screen! And they didn't have any concept that they couldn't talk in the movie. Isabella kept shouting things at me! But Elijah was the truly funny one. Isabella was mesmorized by the movie. Elijah though fell asleep less than half way through the movie. I guess he's not into the whole "talking Chipmunks" thing.
I will try to take some pictures soon of the girls and post them.

Can't always be right...

So yesterday Elijah wanted to go on my walk with me. I'm not sure why walking around in a circle is fun for a four year old, but I like the company. One thing that you have to understand is that in Asia it takes MONTHS for them to take the Christmas trees down. As we passed one of the many Christmas trees still up, Elijah realized that the music was also Christmas music. He got really excited and said that today was Christmas. I told him that Christmas had already come and gone. And he, as a four year old, argued with me at some length. He finally asked if it were Christmas somewhere else, like another country. I said no. Christmas was over and done with EVERYWHERE! And then yesterday night, we were watching CNN and lo and behold. I WAS WRONG!!! Apparently, in Russia, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th (maybe the 6th with the time difference). On CNN they were showing a video clip from a Christmas mass. And so there it is, just when you think you are confident of something...CNN proves you wrong! And Elijah was right! Yesterday, it was Christmas in Russia.

More pictures...

I realized as I was posting yesterday that I didn't have any pictures of Elijah with Elliana. So now we have some of those...unfortunately for him, she was not really happy about it. Anyway, so here are a few more pictures.

Elijah wants to hold Elliana a lot.

He's a great older brother!

Three cheers for sleeping...hip, hip, hooray!

Find something you're good at and do it!

In Elliana's case, napping!
So Lydia's a little bored, she's hoping this drawer will offer a little excitement.

A few baby pictures

Well, most of these are still from the hospital but they are new. So far Elliana has been a good sleeper. She wakes up to eat, but then goes right back to sleep...I can't ask for much more than that! Anyway, I will hopefully take some more pictures soon and upload those too. Hope you enjoy these.

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, so Christmas is already passed, but some of us spent it in the hospital. So we didn't fully "do" Christmas until the day after until Elliana and I got home. Some one thought that I posted the last blog, but that was Tim. We are really glad to be back home. So the following are just a few Christmas pictures of us opening our presents so the grandparents and great-grandparents can see. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Sleepers for Elliana

Sudoku...we are going to have to share this!

Watches

Elijah's t-shirt and the girls' jeans

An IQ booster book...are you guys trying to tell us something?

Kids' stockings

Lydia wants to wear the Stockings



Are we smarter than a 5th grader? I'm not so sure!




Lydia's animal boat and Elijah's Buzz Lightyear coloring book




New bags


Cinderella



Mama's French press

Grandma and Elliana

Welcome Elliana Noel

The pregnancy we thought would never end has finally come to an end. On Christmas Eve at 8:05pm Elliana arrived as an extra special Christmas gift. She was the biggest of our children weighing in at 8lb. 13oz. and measuring 21in. Take a look at our newest little girl below (yes, all of that hair is real).

Mom enjoys the fruit of her labor

Lydia welcomes her newest competition...I mean sister

Bright eyed and bushy headed

It's my due date...

And I'll cry if I want to. Alright, so I went to see the doctor today. He said that he felt sure that I would have the baby by the 1st of January. As you all can imagine that did not go over so well. It was a terrible sinking feeling when I realized that I am no where close to being ready. So all I can say is I'm still pregnant. We're going to try the Mexican food trick tonight. (Any excuse to eat Mexican is a good excuse.) I figure it's because I haven't been getting enough Starbucks...ha, ha, ha. Trying to keep a positive attitude.

And still...

NO NEWS! Yes, I know I haven't actually come to my due date, but I think I more look at a due date as a deadline...therefore, I'm feeling like I'm cutting it close! Pat, Tim's mom, has made it. We, especially the kids (!!!!), are excited to have her here. We haven't yet gotten to take her to all the fun places (ie. night market, elephant rides). But we have fed her local Thai bbq and sticky rice. Anyway, there's not much more to say. I hope to have something really important to post soon!

And...

Nothing to report! How sad is that? Pretty sad. The doctor said maybe next week...which would be right at my due date. But these things are never certain. So the waiting continues. The belly gets bigger. You know, the normal stuff. But Tim and I got a date two nights ago. It was a little weird to go to restaurant and not have to tell anyone to sit down, not yell, or sit down (yeah, I know I wrote that twice). We also got to walk around the night market and have wonderful Starbucks! The peppermint mocha is pretty good! The kids got to eat pizza and watch movies. Other than that, there is not much to say. I'll keep you updated!

The news...

Well, there is none. I have 9 days to my due date. But no baby yet. I promise to keep this as updated as much as possible. We are just passing time here. One of our friends has offered to babysit for us, so tomorrow, the kids get pizza and we are going out to dinner. We are really looking forward to a little time out. And we may do some last minute Christmas shopping. The nice thing about being in a country where Christmas is not a "local" holiday, shopping is just as easy before Thanksgiving as on Christmas Eve!
Isabella has only a couple days more before she starts Christmas break. Elijah is confused because we say it is Christmas time but he can't open his Christmas presents. And Lydia is talking more and more each day. Lately she's been trying to say Elliana, which has turned into "Lana." And "sawasdeekah" (which is Thai for hello and goodbye), which turns into "wah wah kah." Here in Thailand, the kids have rediscovered hot dogs (thank you Dairy Queen!) and cold cuts (yep, they didn't know what lunch meat was).
One last funny story: in the mall across the street from our apartment, there is a Warner Bros. store. I'm not sure that Lydia has ever seen Tweety Bird, but there is a big Tweety statue in the display window. As we walked by it the other day, Lydia saw it and said "quack, quack, quack, quack, quack."

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!!!