Chef Cameron

Guess who likes to cook more than me...not hard to find anyone like that, but Cameron loves to be in the kitchen with me..he definitely takes after his daddy in this regard. So, as a way to train up this interest, spend extra time with him, and use his culinary skills to bless our family, once a week Cameron now helps me prepare the menu and cook. We had a last go at it last week and it was super fun. I let him choose whatever he wanted...I think I will guide him more in the future, but he chose pancakes with strawberries (yay for the fruit), with lots of whip cream and syrup :)

Alan took the other two kids while Cameron and I got to work. He did a great reading the recipe, measuring, and even serving it all up on a nice platter.  He served the youngest girl first, and even made two extra small pancakes each for William and Laura Cate. He set the table and gave Laura Cate the best one too.  What a thoughtful, servant heart. I look forward to this weeks meal! 

Ta da! 

mixing it all up

                                                    

                                                                        including his sister 

Her scooter

Laura Cate rides this everyday!  One of the best gifts ever. I am so glad it is spring and we can go outside.  I took William and Laura Cate out this morning and as William is walking more I thought maybe when he gets outside he will want to walk even more...well, I got him out of the stroller and he immediately dropped on all fours and crawled everywhere on hard rock and stone pavement. Poor guy. Not to mention he got really dirty! Thankfully we can bath him and wash his clothes and eventually he will walk more than he crawls...so I put him back in the stroller and we chased Laura Cate around :)

Our pond

We have a little roof space and it needs work, but thankfully we have some great kids in our neighborhood who were ready and willing to help me clean out our pond.  So, Saturday afternoon some girls came over in their bathing suits and helped. I should of had my suit on too. We moved into our apartment last July and this was our inaugural cleaning. And my first time cleaning a pond as well. We  had four fish in the fall, but hadn't seen them in a very long time. I was afraid they died, but as we drained the water there they were! We were so excited! The kids had a blast and I am so thankful for all of their hard work! We have big plans for our pond and rooftop, but first we need to keep these fish fed.

Cameron and friends saving our fish...one did go down the drain :( 

our pond after cleaning! 

Laura Cate is 4!

Laura Cate turned 4 years old on Sunday, March 24.  Oh what a special day. I like having birthdays on the weekend. We could all celebrate her all day long. It started with cinnamon rolls with purple icing, skyping with both sets of grandparents and opening gifts, all before we left for church at 9:30! Whew! For days, weeks, and months all she has been hoping for was a scooter (pink and purple of course) for her birthday. Her dream came true and she was soo excited. It was really fun for us too. She can now scoot around with her brother and she can keep up pretty well even though he is 3 years older. Thankfully she is also a girly girl and loved getting rings from her brother, a cute little pink sparkly belt, and some new clothes and a new doll. She was fun to shop for!

We had a birthday party on Sunday as well and it was small and sweet. We invited the girls in her Sunday school class, so five others and it was delightful.  I will say it did not get off to the best start though because the birthday girl fell asleep (after riding around on her scooter a lot) and DID NOT want to get up or get dressed up for her own party. It was rough. I had to remind myself, it is for her, not me, not about what I want the pictures to look like or others to think. So, she ended up putting on a green cape that she loves and joined the fun way after her friends got there. I am learning which battles to fight with this precious girl and dying to myself more than I would like :) honestly.  Once she got in the groove we had a great time painting nails, playing hot potato, eating cake and opening up presents.

We praise the Lord for Laura Cate. She is delightful, fun, strong-willed, particular, attentive to detail, has a tender, compassionate heart, loves to give, quick to forgive and loves to pray and sing praise songs. We pray that God will use her strong will to be strong in the Lord and unwavering in her love for Him and that she would claim Him as the Lord of her life. I am learning so much my being her  mommy. I am learning a lot about humility, seeking wisdom, perseverance, prayer and that we do not have to parent alone...He is in it with us and God cares more about her obedience and her life than even we do.

Dentist again

I had to take Laura Cate to the dentist this morning. She was playing with a baseball and bat and hit herself in the mouth with the bat (plastic bat, but it still hurt!).  She knocked her top front tooth loose a little. I was really concerned but after two days of no discoloration, I felt pretty sure ,but wanted a dentists' official opinion. We went this morning and the local dentist was very kind, patient, and communicated well. She felt confident it would, it fall out or turn color.   I am so thankful for her and so grateful the tooth looks like it will stay put for the next few years...we hope!

Ready or not!

Cameron and Laura Cate love to get some good daddy time in wrestling.  William is just t he right size to do an attack crawl and get under Alan or climb on top of everyone.  One night Laura Cate (who tends to be very careful and thorough, though not the least bit timid) decided to she needed a little bit more protection to put up with the boys. She ran and got Cameron's elbow and knee pads and helmet and put them on. She was ready to play!  She is 100% a lively, playful fighter.  On the contrary, she will also give compassionate hugs and kisses if you get hurt. Watch out!

Strawberry picking!

We had our second annual strawberry picking trip! I just love it. It is such a treat to get out of the city with the family. We went with some friends who are moving back to the States in May to spend some extra tome with them. We only had to drive about an hour away and then we all got to pick strawberries on someone's farm. We picked two baskets full and then ironically it was cheaper to buy more n the side of the road, so we have lots that we brought home and immediately cleaned, cut, and froze to last us quite a while! Cameron and Laura Cate enjoyed looking for the biggest, reddest ones. William stayed put on my back in our carrier, but he definitely wanted to get down and gab them too. Next year will be his year to start!

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19 months and crawling...!

 William is his own fun-loving, sweet, make-you-laugh, layedback boy.  He keeps me on my toes and chasing after him, even if he still crawls. He turned 19 months old today and took the most steps ever...three! Whoohoo. I know once he starts walking it will take a while to get himself back up to speed as fast as he crawls, so I am thankful it will slow him down a bit, but I will miss him scooting around. Here are some recent pictures of him. They grow so fast. I  can't believe how much I can love him.

sweet sister

Here is a picture from this morning. He loves to sit and read with me in his rocking chair but today he got in all by himself and was looking at books. 

I am not quite sure what he was up to, but he was having fun learning about standing,  balancing, and  climbing on  blocks.  I pray that William will be a man after the Lord's heart and will stand up firm on His word. 

This is pretty funny....So, I went on an errand with LC and Will and grabbed what I thought was a role of crackers, but when I got to the store and doled out a snack, to Laura Cate's delight they were Oreo cookies. I let her have two, then I went into a store while she watched Will on the street...about 5 feet from me. She apparently thought Will needed a snack too and I came back and she had given him who knows how many cookies, which he had evidence of all down his clothes and in the stroller. At least he was a safe, fed, boy! Older siblings are the best! (that is me and William saying that :) )

Here is some pretty funny video from today, helping William walk. He was interested in our friends phone, so we tried to coax him with that, and then he saw something bigger and better and crawled after it! 

Hot Pot

Friday night we enjoyed eating hot pot ( a local favorite cuisine that is a big pot of boiling oil and spices that you add various vegetables and meat to). I used to love going with my friends, but it's not Alan's favorite meal, and it definitely is not easy to do with kids, so we don't go that often. But, this was William's first hot pot experience and I think he liked it!

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Back to school

Cameron went back to school last week. We love his school and I do think he was a little excited to go back. I do prefer all my kiddos at home so I have missed him this week. He was home for four weeks for Christmas and New Year. Cameron was such a huge help with William and Laura Cate, playing with them and helping me.

I was hoping Laura Cate would sleep in week, but she got up with her big brother, and cried every morning when he left.


Thankfully some great friends just came back from having a baby and we had lunch with them on Sunday. Laura Cate and their daughter, Riley, held hands the entire way to lunch. So sweet!

Valentine' s Day..my blogging site has had some problems so I am slowly posting updates from a while ago!

I had plans for a few things for the kids for Valentines Day but since we had just returned from being gone for a month I was shockingly overwhelmed with laundry, unpacking, and cooking. I decided I would rather choose peace and joy then try yo do more than I was able, so I didn't give the kids their Valentines gifts (memory verses on hand-prints) or "Valentine Verses" as I call them until,  yesterday! (February 16) A few years ago I got an idea from someone to make hand-prints of the kids each year as sort of bookmarks. That morphed into me writing out a verse that we hope and pray for them throughout the new year. Last year I decided to give the verses to them on Valentines Day to remind them how much we love them and are praying for them and how much God loves them too. I make two sets of hand-prints for each of them, one for them and one for me.  Thankfully the bombardment of commercialism of this holiday has not hit Asia widely yet, so I don't have to compete with Hallmark or candy companies to win their hearts on February 14... yet!  Also, homemade brownies still go a long way as a special treat!! William will have to wait till next year to get his first handprint :) but we love him sooo much!

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Planning weekend

Alan and I are away just to a hotel in town for the weekend to have some much needed planning and rest time! We try to do this every six months, but it's been over a year. We are so so thankful for our dear friends the Crosses who are staying with our kids. We pray our kids are a blessing to them and they have fun too! We miss the kids but are enjoying our time.


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