Photos: December 2006 - Table, Sami Chlaus, Warsi, Sign

Here's a photo of Luke and Mallory eating breakfast at our new kitchen table. In the center of the table is our Weihnachtskranz (German Christmas wreath with 4 candles, to be lit on each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas) and the Christmas Eve countdown candle Heidi got in Scotland.

A couple of photos from Sami Chlaus Tag morning. Sami Chlaus brought the boys and Mallory pillows and filled up their shoes with candy.

This is a picture of our maid, Warsi, and her son, Farhan with Mallory. Warsi's last day of work was yesterday (December 9), because she is going to have a baby in January.

And lastly, I had to put in a photo of this sign for a relatively new bakery near our house. Notice the French name to make it sound exotic. I like how the sign says "the taste are us..." What does that mean? I cannot even figure out what they were trying to say.

Photos: November 2006 - Bananas, Piano, Ship

Grant is our expert K'nex builder.

Mallory loves wearing this dress - she puts it over the clothes she happens to be wearing, and will sing and dance around the house. She has been doing lots of moves recently using this pose -- putting her hands together and moving them around.

Grant, Mallory, and I eating bananas from our banana tree. By the way, there were 123 bananas in one bunch -- I was surprsied at how many there were. We had two trees, one bunch each, and our gardner cut down the trees after harvesting the bananas. Not sure exactly how banana trees work, horticulturally speaking, but we have two new banana trees growing right next to where the first two were cut down.

It is typical to see Mallory dressed up like this. She's wearing her pajamas, but then she has a sweater on over the PJs, with a matching cowboy hat and electronic sword. The picture isn't the greatest - camera strap in front of the lens - sorry about that.

Photos: November 2006 - UN Day & Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Willis family and Ann -- everyone in pilgrim garb, of course.

Here's Grant and Luke in their baseball uniforms, representing the United States at UN Day.

Photos: November 2006 - Mallory's 2nd Birthday

Mallory turned 2 on November 10, 2006. She started out they day with a birthday present that we put in her room overnight - this slide in the photo above (notice Nash and Mallory still have bed-head).

Mallory also received a bubble gun.

Here's Mallory receiving a lot of help from her brothers figuring out her new doll.

She loves her new Magna Doodle.

Because Mallory loves clothes (she continues to change clothes countless times per day), her birthday cake included some dresses and shoes as decorations.

Letter: 27 November 2006

This week

We had a busy week with several things going on at school. Nash had UN Day at the middle school – a day full of activities and programs aimed at highlighting all the nations that are represented at Jakarta International School. The Elementary had UN day a week ago. The students are supposed to wear their national costume. Since we have discovered that the US is ‘lame’ according to Grant because there is no national costume, we decided to have the boys wear their baseball uniforms. They had fun carrying around their mitts and a baseball.

Nash just wore a red t-shirt for his costume. I have a friend that is on the middle school PTA so I told her I would be happy to help if she needed me. She is from Jordan and asked me to help at the Middle Eastern table for lunch since there were only three people helping. So on Wednesday, I was Middle Eastern. I was there with Wesma from Palestine and another woman from Egypt. They had food from Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and Palestine. Wesma kept saying to me that none of the children would eat the food because all they wanted was fast food. I laughed and said, ‘You mean American junk food?’ We both got a kick out of that especially when the USA table sold out of their hundreds of hot dogs in 15 minutes (the lunch was an hour) and we had hardly sold anything.

I went around looking at all the tables from the different countries. They were decorated so beautifully. The Indians had even hired a cook and a caterer who were on hand cooking the samosas and curry right there on the spot. The other tables had wonderful food, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, England (had the sweets table), Italy, Australia, Canada. The Canadians had snow cones with real maple syrup and huge blocks of ice for the kids to sit on. The South American table was next to us and the women danced to their music from the set up time (9:00am) to the take down time (12:30) it was fun to see how much fun they were having.

Nash came around and I asked him what he had bought for lunch. I laughed out loud when he said ‘Um, a hot dog and a cookie.’ Way to branch out there Nash.

Grant and Luke were in the school talent show on Friday night. They did their ever popular ‘Snowman’ dance. They were the hit of the show. I had had a few mothers come up to me after the rehearsals telling me that the boys were hilarious. On Saturday we were in the grocery store with Luke and several people came up to him and congratulated him saying they hadn’t laughed that hard for a long time. One even asked for Luke’s autograph. He thought that was pretty great. People can’t believe it when they ask me if I helped choreograph it and I say I had nothing to do with it. Little do they realize that we constantly have major productions going on all the time at this house.

Thanksgiving

I have found it difficult to be away from the states at this time of year. It’s just not the same here when no one really celebrates the same holidays so there isn’t that magic and excitement in the air. It’s just another month to everyone else here. I miss the snow and the chill in the air. I miss a lot about it, but we do the best we can.

We invited the Willis family and also Ann Collier (a grade one teacher at JIS who is also in our ward) over for dinner. The bad thing was that everyone had school and work so we couldn’t eat until around 6:00pm. I had made the pies for the Pie Extravaganza (Miller’s I hear you carried on the tradition! Way to go!) the day before. Ginah, my cook, helped me get the turkey in our tiny oven. I had sent her out to try to find a bigger pan because the 20 pound turkey was barely fitting in the 9 x 13 pan. I thought I had an aluminum pan but I must not have brought it with us. Ginah came back empty handed so I put it in our oven and hoped for the best. After an hour the house started to smell of yummy turkey and I had floods of memories come back to me of Thanksgivings spent at my grandparents’ homes in Rexburg and Menan.

I found some canned yams back in September and bought a few cans. I learned my lesson from last year -- if you see something you might think you need, buy it because it won’t be there for long and they will never get anymore in. I have been hoarding canned pumpkin and cream cheese. I have panic attacks thinking about running out!! My friend teased me about it saying that in a year and a half when we move I will be sending out a note to everyone saying I have 30 cans of pumpkin I want to get rid of.

We ate at about 6:30 PM, with everyone wearing our traditional pilgrim hats and we had a great time. The only downfall of the day was that we didn’t have time to relax and let the food settle before pie. We had to eat it almost immediately after dinner because everyone had to get home for work and school the next day. I was so stuffed that I couldn’t eat my usual small sliver of each pie. I could only get down a small piece of pumpkin. That’s okay. We are still enjoying them!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are thankful for so many things. When you have poverty literally right out your front door, you realize everyday how blessed you are. We are so thankful for wonderful family and friends that support us and lift us up. We are thinking about all of you this holiday season and pray for your protection and comfort.

Christmas is here

We spent a lot of the day yesterday, putting up Christmas decorations. Assembling a fake tree is not quite the same as cutting down your own, but it’s nice for here. I bought another tree this year and put it upstairs and the boys each have a small three foot tree in their rooms so we have five Christmas trees!!! It’s great. We put lights everywhere and it looks pretty good. Mallory loved seeing everything and has been walking around singing ‘Santa Clause, Santa Clause’ (sung to her own tune) ever since. She will love Christmas day this year. It’s nice to have the house looking festive.

We hope you are all enjoying this time of year.

Photos: October 2006 - Halloween

I found Nash a Dracula cape so he sat in front of our house handing out the candy while Creed and I took Mallory, Luke, Grant and their friends trick-or-treating.
Our Little Red Riding Hood. Mallory's Halloween costume.
A skeleton (Luke's friend), a magician and Elvis!

ELIVIS IS IN THE BUILDING! Or at least by our front gate. The boys decorated it for all the trick-or-treaters. Our staff love this night. They love to watch all the kids come dressed up. I'm sure it's a strange tradition to them.

Photos: November 2006 - Nash / Beijing

This is Nash's school group at the airport in Jakarta - they are all wearing Krispy Kreme hats. Nash said one of the kids in his group wore his Krispy Kreme hat for the entire 5 day trip.



Above and below are shots of Nash at the Great Wall. The blue dot of paint on the side of his head had something to do with the ensemble group he was assigned to for the event.





Nash is the one in the gray coat in the front on the right. I think the cold is to blame for the awkward smile, but its the only photo of him and the other JIS student (on the left) with the host family they stayed with from the international school in Beijing.

Letter: 12 November 2006 - Nash's Trip to Beijing

I was chosen to be in ISTA (International School Theater Association) out of 60 auditioned students. Our ensemble (about 20 people from my school) made a funny piece about walls. My part was to be Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. I tried to go over the wall but kept on falling over. It was hilarious. We worked on the 10 minute piece for two months every other school day for 2 ½ hours. I felt very proud of the piece.

On the day of the trip I anticipated so much I thought I was going to burst. Finally, we got on the plane at 8:30 pm. We arrived in Singapore at 11:00 pm for a 2 hour layover. We had a chance to do some shopping, but we were all soooo tired. After 12 hours of flying and in airports, we arrived in Beijing. My first feeling was brrrrr! It was freezing and I was in a short, topical outfit. We got on a bus excitedly and went to the school that was hosting the festival. Nobody got more than 5 hours of sleep for two days and we were all tired.

When we arrived at the school we had a chance to take a relaxing shower and eat good old non-airline food (even though it tasted horrible). That day we went to our host families. I was stuck with a boastful guy who thinks he is a leader because he can insult people. He was my roommate (not my host, of course). My hosts were sooo nice. They were Korean and spoke little English, but they were great. We did acting 12 hours a day and learned a lot. I learned about stage fighting and clowning.

I also went to the Great Wall. It was so steep we had to climb to get up a step. Each step was three feet high and ¼ foot long. The Great Wall of China is so big. It is phenomenal how the ancient Chinese built it. I also got a gameboy game, three hand painted, beautiful Chinese wall paintings, three laser pens, a bracelet (not for me, for Mallory) and a hand-crafted Chinese fan. All for less than $25! If I didn’t bargain it would’ve been $200. Wow!

Overall, it was a great experience. Everyone was sooo sad when we got on the plane to go back to Jakarta. Some people were even crying. The ISTA festival was great and I hope to do it next year. It was one of the best non-religious things that I have done.

Photos: Oct 2006 - Brisbane, Australia

The kids in front of the Brisbane temple while we waited for Heidi.

The Brisbane temple is situated on top of some cliffs that overlook the Brisbane river and the city. While we waited, the boys, Mallory, and I walked down by the river and the cliffs. The boys loved climbing around on the rocks.

Here's a photo of us with the man who made the didgeridoo we purchased at an outdoor market in Brisbane.

When we returned home, Grant and Nash (wearing the hats they purchased in Australia) tried to figure out how to play the didgeridoo. Its not easy.

 

Photos: Oct 2006, Australia Zoo

Mallory was a bit timid at first (above) around the kangaroo, but then she warmed up (below). These were the most sedate kangroos - it must be a kangaroo old folks' home.


Luke and the cassowary. We learned about the cassowary up in Kuranda - they sound like pretty fierce birds.

Nash posing outside a crocodile enclosure next to the warning sign.

 

Photos: Oct 2006 - Australia Zoo

A memorial to Steve Irwin - people had signed shirts and other stuff and sent it in.

The Crocoseum.

 

Photos: Oct 2006 - Brisbane / Australia Zoo

Wednesday night we flew from Cairns to Brisbane. Thursday morning we got up and drove about an hour north to the Australia Zoo. It was so dry (non-humid) that Mallory's hair almost went flat on top.