Alex

It was so funny to see him go from being silly and crazy, to serious and focused when he put on this army outfit.  It cracked me up!  We could hardly get a smile out of him!

And here's a glimpse of who's coming up next: Savannah.

1 Year Old Fun

From Brad. My friend here in town reminded me of a Christmas letter many years ago when I remarked that my twin boys loved to throw things down the stairs. One day many years ago we captured this phenomenon on video, its one of our favorite memories.

Thankfully, they never got a hold of my cell phone or other small electronic gadgets :)  They're many years older now, but they still love to smash things (me too). Its easier to do living on the 13th floor.

Modeling Pics

by Amy

So, several months a friend of our asked me if I'd be willing to take my kids to her friend's photo studio.  I think they wanted to use my kids' pictures as advertisement for their studio.  So, since my kids were up for it, I decided to take them.  Three hours and over 400 pictures later, we left the studio.  It was crazy!  They had my kids try on all kinds of outfits with different backgrounds.  I hadn't been to a photo studio since my boys were 2 years old.  Thankfully, this was quite a different experience!  They could actually look where they were supposed to look and smile on command!  And, since I wasn't paying any money for these pics, I didn't really care how they turned out.  So, there was no pressure from the mama!

Have no fear...  I do not plan to post all 400 pics, but I thought I'd take a few entries and post the best pics of each kid.  I'll start off with a few of my favorites with all three.

Check back in a few days and I'll post some great pics of Alex!

My Pedo

Is he cute or what!  I love this kid!  Peter is hard working, diligent, quick to share, a sucker for details, and just plain fun to be around!  I'm so thankful that the Lord placed him in our family!

No, it's not his birthday....So why am I singling Peter out?  Because on Christmas Eve he took one of many steps towards becoming a man....

He lost his first tooth!  He had been wiggling it for a few days (and grossing me out!  I can't handle wiggly teeth!)  So, on Christmas Eve he went to brush his teeth and came running into the living room rejoicing that one tooth had finally fallen out!  His bottom, middle two teeth had been loose for a few weeks.

Then, just a few days later at breakfast, Peter smiled at me as he was eating his gingerbread house cereal and I noticed the second bottom one had fallen out too!  That one we didn't find, so I'm assuming he swallowed it!  Oh well!  I don't like to keep teeth anyway!

He's quite proud of his missing teeth and is always sticking his his tongue through the hole they left when he smiles.  It's cute to hear him talk, too, because he has a hard time saying a few words!  Alex now has fun grossing me out with his wiggly bottom tooth, so I'm sure his will be falling out any day now!  We'll keep you posted!

One more pic....  This is from the Christmas Night service.  Look at that crazy HEAD!

My Husband Rocks!

It's true!  Brad is so great for a number of reasons, but today he's great because he made my son so happy! 

More Christmas Fun!

So, even though the tree’s down, the lights are packed away, and the decorations have been put up, I though someone (like my dad) might still enjoy seeing the play-by-play version of our Christmas.

After spending the Christmas Eve morning at the kids' school, we came home to some yummy hot chocolate and let the kids open a couple of gifts.  Then, while they played, Brad and I both hit the kitchen!  My only responsibility for our yummy Christmas meal was dessert, and asking Leigh to make the bread.  Brad handled the main course by making some rockin’ alfredo sauce that we poured over angel hair pasta!  It was lovely!  This is one of his “specialities” but since it requires quite a bit of heavy whipping cream, we only allow him to make it once a year!  For dessert I made some vanilla malt ice cream. Special thanks to the awesome ice cream maker my dad gave us last year for Christmas, and the malt milk powder some friends from the States gave us.  It’s definitely Brad’s favorite ice cream these days.  And, we made a chocolate crown birthday cake for Jesus.  For birthdays, I’m usually the one that handles all the decorating of the cakes and it takes several hours.  At Christmas, my kids join in the fun!  It goes way faster and although the final outcome may not be as “professional” looking, I’m sure Jesus is pleased with the joint effort! 

This year everyone had their own point on the crown.  (Savannah helped with a few other parts as well.)  Peter’s point is on the left; Alex's is on the right.  Then, Savannah's was left of the middle and mine was right of the middle, leaving Brad's point in the  middle.  (Brad’s goal was to be simple; my goal was to use up the icing in left in the bag. Both goals were accomplished!)    

After eating our yummy dinner, we moved to the living room for our family candle light service.  We enjoyed reading, praying and praising the Lord for the precious gift of the Christ born to bring us life, over 2000 years ago! Then, I divided the gifts and let the kids take turns opening.  One of Savannah's favorite gifts this year was a real microscope!  She has had so much fun looking at hairs, flower pedals, grains of salt and sugar, and several other small things.  

Unfortunately, being the slacker mom that I am, I didn’t take any pics of Savannah with other gifts.  She did get quite a few books, a quilt making kit, a science kit, a few radio dramas, and several other things.

Peter and Alex also had fun opening gifts!  One of my favorite things they received from my parents were these cute PJs..

Dad, do you like how I labeled these packages from you?  

Oh, those are some cute little men!  


On Christmas morning, after dumping our our stocking and eating breakfast, we all worked together to prepare 60 baggies of Christmas cookies.  We bundled up, as it was super chilly outside and went to pass out cookies and booklets to our neighbors and those that work near our home.  We have done this every year since we've been here and it's one of my favorite Christmas traditions.   Then, we came home in time to do a video call with Sue!  She enjoyed seeing the kids open her gifts.  She gave Savannah a set of 10 books, some Polly Pockets, and several crafty things.  She gave both boys a special set of legos.  They were in Heaven!    

Here Peter is helping Alex put together his new Toy Story Train Lego set.  

Woody, I mean Peter, is so proud he put together his Airport!  

Christmas evening, we went with several friends to a special Christmas Service.  It was great!  And, I was excited because Brad and I were able to understand so much more this year than last!  That's always encouraging!  And, as usual, they asked us to sing a song for everyone.  (The service had a bit of a talent show feel to it, so some white people singing in English wasn't anymore strange than the grandmas singing and dancing with ribbons.)  We had two other American friends with us, so they were good sports and joined in the fun!  We sang Hark the Herold Angels Sing.  I'm sure it sounded awful, but oh well!  

Notice Peter's hair! We left the house right after he got out of the shower, so he put his hat on over wet hair.  By the time we got there, it was dry, but CRAZY!  All of our friends commented on it!  Oh well!  

The funniest part was when Brad asked each of our kids to say something in the local language.  After introducing us, he passed the mic to Alex first, and he said, "Merry Christmas, Jesus love you!"  Everyone thought it was so great to hear this cute kid speaking their language, so they politely clapped a bit.  Then, Alex said, "Oh, no need to thank me, you're welcome," in asianese of course, and that cracked everyone up....including me!  That kid is such a ham!  


So, all that to say, we had a wonderful Christmas 2010 and are so looking forward to spending Christmas 2011 with our family in the States, Lord willing!    

Alex the Hutt

From Brad.

The beauty of digital cameras is that you can instantly identify bad pictures and delete away. However, sometimes we forget to do this. When Alex was born, he was 6 lbs 13 oz. This is compared to his brother Peter who came out a mere 6 lbs even. I always had Alex pegged as a power slugging first-baseman who struck out too much, but also led his team in RBIs (a good baseball website will help you ladies make sense of that last sentence). As just a 2-month old baby, he was a chunk. A healthy chunk. So much so, when I took this picture below...

It was named the “Alex the Hutt” picture.  Why you ask? Let’s switch from baseball to Star Wars. In Star Wars episode 6, we are introduced to a spacelike slug creature named Jabba the Hutt.

Can you see the resemblance? I guess Jabba isn't wearing any diapers, that's an obvious difference.

But how times have changed. Alex loves to run, laugh, play baseball, ride his bike and anything else that's active. He does love to eat but you wouldn't know it from this picture...

He's a skinny one. We often get criticized, admonished, encouraged (let's assume the best with our local friends here) to feed him more. "he's too skinny! Let him eat more!"  Well, he's a Morello, we're not too worried about him. :)