Christmas photo with Santa

Henry was not pleased to be sitting nearby Santa. 

Kung Fu

The kids are taking a Kung fu class together. I need to get a video, because they are adorable and awkward. They are both trying so hard, it's really sweet. 

I also love them being in the class together. It's super sweet. Nora started to feel sick today, so she sat down by me. Calvin ran over to make are she was okay. 

They aren't always nice to each other, but I think they always love each other. 

Delinquent blogging

I know, blogs aren't really the cool thing to do anymore.  I really do spend most of my online energy posting to Instagram.  But, I do really enjoy the journal aspect of blogs.  We've printed our blog book in the past and I love to look through them and remember the year.

I also really do enjoying writing about our life and recording the experiences we have had.  It's a pretty wonderful life we lead.  I need to remember that sometimes.  Writing it down helps me to remember to be grateful.

For example, Saturday was a perfect day of ordinary joy and I loved it.  Richard didn't have to work, so we spent the day together as a family.  It was simple and happy.

We started our day with pancakes, made by mom.  Henry is a huge fan of pancakes, cramming in as many as his fat little fingers can hold.  We try to encourage him to slow down, but he is a machine.  I used to make my own maple syrup, since it can be quite expensive here (ie a regular bottle of Aunt Jemima is $6.00), but the children LOVE Aunt Jemima.  It is a required expense now.

After breakfast, we went to Causeway Bay to the Apple Store to check on my phone, which had been having some problems.  Naturally, as soon as we got to the store, my phone was working perfectly.  We were in Causeway Bay anyway, so we went to Victoria Park, watched the boats in the park and played on the playground.

 I love these people so much.  I love Nora's tie-dye shirt she made in America.  I love that Calvin always holds onto the stroller.  I love that Richard is wearing the sunglasses that I insisted he get.  He doesn't always love the things I buy for him, but he always pretends and uses them.  He is kind like that.

 I have had Henry in a swing before, but he just loved it on Saturday.  I love his sweet face.  He was content to just swing the entire time the kids played.  He got so excited when his siblings played with him while he was swinging.

People here comment a lot about Henry's beautiful eyes.  I think they are blue, but they are shifting to a blue-gray.  They are very striking.  He also has some simply lovely curls at the nape of his neck.  It is getting a little bit into mullet territory, but I don't care.  It is too sweet to cut.

 He does love his mommy!  On Monday, I had to be out of the house most of the day.  Although he simply adores our babysitter, it was so sweet to come home and have him be so excited to see me.

 Henry really loves his dad as well.  Richard can make him laugh all the time. Richard also taught Henry how to give kisses, so I am forever grateful for that.  I love some baby kisses.

 The kids joining in for pictures.  In every picture of all three of the kids, someone is delivering a headlock to one of the other children.  Anyone else have that problem with their kids?  Poor Henry is often the recipient of the headlock.

 Nora's got personality to spare, and I love it.  She is happy and funny.  She loves to laugh and I love to hear her laughing.  Except at the dinner table when they start discussing fart jokes.  Oh kids!

I love these two little boys so very much.  After the park, we went home to relax  Calvin and Nora watched Daniel Tiger, while I menu planned for the week and Richard played with Henry.  Life isn't perfect, but there are moments of clarity that help me realize how beautiful it is and how happy I am to be living my life right now.  

Kids quotes

Favorite quote from the day "I'm a good athlete, cause I have athlete's foot!" (Nora, age 6).  

Book Worms

These kids are really enjoying reading right now.  Nora loves the Rainbow Magic book series.  It's about different fairies that have adventures with kids in the human world.  

Calvin loves when we read to him.  He really enjoyed finding a book about a boy named Cal!

Thailand! Songkran Water Festival

We arrived in Chiang Rai late Friday night and spent Saturday morning at the pool just relaxing.  We didn't have really set plans for the day and we wanted to let the kids have some fun playing.  

 I love that they are getting really confident in the water and really love to play together.  They both recently advanced to the next level in their swim program.  i'm so proud!

 For lunch, we decided to go to the pizza place that Richard went to on his day's off as a missionary in Chiang Rai.  It brought back fond memories for Richard.

After our pizza, we had planned on walking around the city a bit and then get ice cream at Richard's favorite ice cream place.  When we walked outside, the store next to the pizza place had several people in front who were having a water fight for Songkran.  Songkran is the start of the Thai new year and in honor of that, the people spend 4 days throwing water at everyone.  Saturday was the start of Songkran, and not a ton of people were out, but our kids had a blast!

 They were not the best at throwing water, but they managed to soak some people.

 They would wait for cars and scooters to pass and throw water at them.

 The kids made tons of friends with the sweet Thai family that owned the store and their friends.

 They looked out for the kids and kept them safe from the traffic.

 Calvin and Nora loved this and just wanted to play all day.

 The family even invited our kids into their backyard to swim in the pool.

 We tried to get Henry in on the fun, but he was not at all interested.

 The people we were playing with were so cute.  When it was time for us to go, they cheered and told us to come back again tomorrow.

 After buying new clothes for the kids and getting a little dry, we stopped by Swenton's, Richard's favorite ice cream place from his mission for big ice cream sundae's.  It was the perfect day.

Nora Pulls Her Tooth Out

Nora wanted us to record her as she pulled out her own tooth.  She was very proud of her accomplishment.  She was brave!  She was fearless!

Six teeth down on our six year old girl.