Then and Now...

Above is a picture of Preston and Bella Grace at about the same age. They look so much like each other, but I don't think they look like Tim or myself. Preston was taken around May of 2008 and Bella March of 2012

Above was Preston's first trip to the pool in April of 2008 and below is Bella at the pool on our visa run to Bangkok in March of this year. My 2 little cuties. 

and just like that it's gone

TIME...Isabella is 7 plus months old. I just can't believe it. I remember with Preston, time seemed so slow. Everything was a first and I was always so anxious to get to the 'next phase'. With Isabella I am in no hurry. I want to just freeze time and squeeze her and kiss her forever. With every new phase I am happy for her, but sad to see another moment in time pass. I know it is the way it's supposed to be, but Im just so thankful for my miracle (both of them for that matter)! Half a year has passed and with each passing days memories that I will cherish for a lifetime are left in their place.

A new day

The other day a dear friend gave us this baby bath tub. It sits on top of our bath tub. Preston especially likes it because he can take a bath at the same time. As you can see Bella Grace LOVES her bath. Im so thankful for friends in our community who are willing to give and share of different things that they no longer use. Im pretty sure the only time we have bought Preston clothes is a few winter things when we were in MN 2 years ago. Otherwise my kids have been well taken care of in hand-me-downs from friends and gifts from home.

In other happenings around our house, Tim leaves for Thailand on the 30th of May and the kids and I will follow on the 1st. We are so excited for the break. Tim will be with us of the first week, and then leave for some meetings in Singapore on the 8th of June. The kids and I will stay with friends for the week Tim is in Singapore. Im excited to connect with friends, speak Thai, and eat Thai food. Of course we might sneak in a trip to McDonalds as well (sshhhh don't tell anyone)!

The last big news around here is that Isabella is fully crawling around and is officially into EVERYTHING! She even has her first bruise on her cheek from falling forward on our chair. BOO! She is so cute crawling around, and Preston follows her like a great big brother making sure she doesn't put things she is not supposed to in her mouth.

cooking with my language helper

2 weeks ago my language helper asked me if I could teach her how to make cookies. We decided to make a lesson out of it. I taught her how to make chocolate chip cookies (thanks to the chips my mom sent me) We would then go over all the recipe in Vietnamese. I learned a lot of new vocabulary and we had a great time. 

The last word on our Easter

Preston's Easter basket had the last 2 stories for our Jesus tree. Through our lent season I think we completed 35 stories of the 47 I wanted to do.  We got to share many of the stories from our tree with visitors who would come to our house.  After we told the new stories, we got ready and went to a near by park and had a lovely picnic breakfast with close family friends. 

 It was an amazing spread of muffins, fruit, yogurt and much more. Preston and his friends had fun playing at the playground and when we were done eating we went across the street to begin the egg hunt.

Preston had fun finding the eggs we dyed the day before and the ones I filled with yogurt covered raisins. 

Isabella slept in Grammies arms most of the morning. At 9am we came back home and got ready for church. 

 We actually remembered to get a family picture afterward. Then everyone took a nap while I cooked a huge spread for dinner. We had our lent small group over and broke our fast with communion.

 It was a memorable day full of fun, friends, and celebrations over our Savior. All day Preston kept saying, "He is Risen" which we would respond "He is Risen Indeed!"

Grammie provided some entertainment for the kids when dinner was over. Her Jack and Jill story is always a hit. 

You are MISSED!

Grammie came 2 weeks ago! It was the perfect time for her to be here. She played with the kids and was the first to rise when Preston woke up in the morning. She came with so much energy. We LOVED having her here and seriously shedding tears at our house since she left yesterday. 

WE MISS YOU GRAMMIE COME BACK!

Lent tradition leading to Easter

Many of you have seen the elaborate Advent tradition in which I have made 25 ornaments out of clay and other things which hang from a live branch. It is a season of expectation. Lent is different in that it is a time of reflection, more somber. I made this tree out of cardboard and painted it brown. I put it up on a wall in our living room. I then followed patterns that I had and made these ornaments out of construction paper. Each one represents a story from the life of Christ. Preston can point out any ornament on the tree and tell you the story. You can see from the picture below that there is a palm branch which was the first of our holy week ornaments. It was the ornament for Palm Sunday. 

 This visual of the stories I feel gives Easter a more prominent place in our house. It keeps us on track as a family to have quality devotion time.  Plus we have been able to share some of the stories with guests we invite to our house.

Also for Lent, we have been meeting with other adults on Wed. night and going through a book. We will be celebrating Easter together as a small knit group. 

It has been a reflective season of fasting and prayer. We are anxiously anticipating Sunday when we can rejoice in the fact that "He is Risen"

If any of you are interested in the patters for the ornaments email me and I'll send them your way. I think the original creator did these in felt, but construction paper was perfect for us.