Friday, December 26, 2014

Merry Christmas!


Merry Christmas morning! 
Santa spoiled us all on Christmas morning!


Kiki got some playmobiles, a crayola drawing pad and a very fun book called Giraffes can't dance.




Eden got a basketball hoop, and an adorable book titled "I love you through and through".




Julien and Logan got some legos, a camera, and the Janiors book series to share.








Jon got Ghostbusters legos and some case tete puzzles.


I got some beautiful jewelry.


Boys building away!






The highlight of the day was talk to Alex via Skype!
Alex is currently serving a mission for the LDS church in Togo and Benin West Africa! 
He is a excellent missionary and loves being able to serve the people there. 
We are so proud of his choice to go serve a mission. 
He is a great example to us, and we love him very much!


Christmas Eve party!

It is one of our family tradition to have a big Christmas Eve dinner and have a Christmas program on Chrismas Eve. This year some of our friends joined us for the evening. We all had a lot of fun!

Kiki was so cute wanted to help me prepare dinner. 
She insisted on using her kitchen play knife to cut the green beans.



Enjoying our Christmas Eve feast!




For our program Jon read a very nice story by Neil L. Andersen titled Room in the Inn, and we sang many Christmas hymns. It was a good and touching program.


I grabbed some white mugs for us to draw on to remember our wonderful evening together. It was a big hit. I had also bought hot cocoa pouches, an made chocolate spoons for everyone to take home with their mugs.



Eden getting sleepy!


Kiki made a cup for Cres 


Our mugs! Kiki had so fun making them, she must have drawn on at least 3!


Sunday, December 21, 2014

soon to be 14 years!


Because we will not be home to celebrate our 14 year anniversary I wanted to do something special for Jon and give him a very cool and unexpected gift before we left for our vacation. I surprised him with an Arabic Bedouin tent. I knew he really wanted one. We had talked about getting one before moving back to the States, but I knew he wasn't thinking now. After many phone calls, and conversations with several people, one of Jon's co-workers said he knew someone who could get one for me. It was kind of a circus finding one and acquiring it because it is not something you can just pick up at the store. You have to find someone with a farm who knows a vendor. Those vendors are usually far out in the desert. Being on lockdown at the time did not help the situation because I could not go to the location to look at the tents. So Jon's co-worker Shadi had the tent brought directly to the compound. I was so grateful.
Turns out the guy who found the tent knew Jon and did not want me to pay him for the tent. He explained that Jon was a good friend and was happy to get it for him. I felt pretty bad because it was a pretty costly gift!

Setting up the tent was a challenge all on its own. Those tents are very big, and heavy, and don't come with manuals telling us how to set them up. So Julien, Logan, my good friend and next door neighbor Mary (who is actually Jon's boss' wife) and I went to work putting this "3D puzzle" together. After 1 to 2 hrs we had the tent up. It looked a little crooked and wobbly but it was up and stood on it own so we called it good. lol!



I loved Jon's reaction when he saw it. His eyes got so big and started giggling in disbelief!
I sent him right back out to pick us up some dinner. Arabic! Yum!


He had also picked up a pizza for the kids and Julien offered to babysit.
Kiki and Eden however had no desire to be babysat so...


...our romantic candlelight dinner turned out to be a family affair!


It was a fun evening none the less!

I am so grateful for Jon! I love to him so much. He is my best friend. 
He is such a hard worker, sacrifices a lot, and does so much for our family!
Hand in hand, 14 years down, eternity to go! 

SANTA!


Today Santa Claus visited our compound! Kiki was so excited to go see him until we arrived at the door. She froze! She did not want to get anywhere near him or talk to him. After more than 10 minutes of us trying to talk her into getting near Santa, and telling him what she would like for Christmas, and some bribing with suckers she agreed to give him a hug with mommy and daddy nearby of course!



Merry Christmas!


Saturday, December 20, 2014

Family Photoshoot round 2!


We are finally off lockdown so we decided to redo our family pictures. A family friend took our family pictures as well as the pictures of Jon and me, and I did the individual pictures of the kids. He did such an amazing job! Here are a million pictures! (lol! just kidding!)














Jon and me






Julien, our handsome teenager, 13 already!






Logan, our charming gentleman! (11 years old)






Kia Ora, our darling little princess. 4 years goes by so fast!









Eden, our sweet little prince! 16 months old!