Life Lately

Since it's been a while since I've really blogged, I thought I'd catch up on what we've up to lately.

About a month ago, Paige started local school. She goes two mornings a week and really enjoys it.

Her teacher sends pictures every day of what they did that day-I look forward to these pictures so much! I love seeing her interact-she's my little extrovert!

My parents came to visit the end of October, which meant Date Nite!

My sister, Sarah, came to visit a few weeks ago and brought Adelyn, my niece, who is the same age as Paige. We had the best time!!! My mom sent a few matching outfits, and everywhere we went people assumed they were twins.

A friend of mine organized some of the foreign families to get together and hand out candy for Halloween. The girls went to about 8 houses to trick or treat and Paige is still talking about it.

A local coffee shop had pumpkins for sale one Saturday and special pumpkin drinks and treats. It wasn't exactly a pumpkin patch, but the kids had a blast!

Then there's little man. Who is just a bundle of fun and always makes me smile.

Joshua is starting to imitate everything Paige does-the good and the bad. 

We had to go to Hong Kong to see Joshua's specialist last month, and the kids loved playing in the big bed at the hotel. Our kids love hotels, which is a good thing since we travel pretty often. 

That's our life lately!

Update on Life

I haven't done a lot of regular posts lately-mostly just updates on the kiddos. So here's a long update with lots of pictures to remind me of all that we've been up to. (if you follow me on Instagram you've probably already seen most of these)

This pic is from a few months ago. We don't have a playground or backyard near our house, so we go to the university near our house to play a lot. One day we played with this little girl who was the same age as Paige. If you can't tell-it was cold out.

Since we live overseas and away from family, we try to skype or facetime regularly to keep up with everyone. Sarah's daughter is just a little older than Paige, so they love seeing each other. Sarah and I regularly send each other pictures and videos of our girls for them to watch.

My mom came and stayed with us for a whole month when Joshua was born. My mom loves to bake and Paige was more than happy to help!!

The day before I had Joshua we went to the panda zoo with my parents. Looking back, I'm not sure if it was the best choice-it was a lot of walking and I was exhausted! But Paige loves pandas and had a great time!

I forgot to post this picture-it's me in the hospital issued pajamas. Not the cutest, but so comfy!

Having a tea party with Paige and all her babies! 

Paige playing outside with her new sidewalk chalk! That girl loves to be outside.

The middle of March we went to Taiwan to work on some paperwork for Joshua. It. Was. Amazing. There were parks everywhere, it was beautiful, and we had Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Chili's! 

I love this girl to pieces. 

We went to the zoo while we were there-there was tons of walking and it was really hot, but we had the best time. 

AND, one thing I loved about Taiwan was how nursing-friendly they were!! Everywhere we went had a private nursing room-the zoo had more than one location, several of the subway stops had them, and even Costco! And the rooms were really nicely decorated and very comfortable. Loved. It. 

We were away from home for Easter, which was kind of sad. But we still managed to dye Easter eggs (I will bend myself over backwards to keep a tradition). We didn't too much-colored eggs and Paige got a Frozen sticker book. Joshua didn't get anything this year, but he didn't seem to mind. 

We have friends who live in Taiwan and we were able to have dinner a few times with them and they offered to watch the kids so we could have a date night! Daniel and I went downtown and ate at California Pizza Kitchen. 

Right after we returned home, my sister came to visit for a week. It was wonderful!!!

Paige got sick a few weeks ago with a double ear infection and uti. Poor thing was NOT feeling well and it was rough on all of us. She laid around a lot and discovered Finding Nemo. 

Paige keeps getting cuter and cuter everyday. Especially since she talks nonstop and somehow seems to add to her vocabulary every day. 

My mom sent this scooter for Paige (yes she shipped the scooter in my sisters luggage). It's a little big for her, but she loves playing with it. 

We celebrated Mother's Day this past weekend-my first one with two kiddos!!

Love these people!

That's us in a nutshell!

January Life

Here's a post just to catch up on everything that's been going on here lately. I take a lot of pictures then hardly get around to posting them.

We celebrated my birthday in January...and really celebrated for several days...it was the best!! On my actual birthday we went out to breakfast at my favorite place to get french toast. My favorite thing is to go out for breakfast!

So I should've blogged sooner because now I don't really remember much of the day. I think we ate lunch at home??? That night we went out with some friends at a western restaurant in town, then I went to a ladies fellowship afterwards and stayed out way too late. 

When Daniel and I were brainstorming about how to celebrate my birthday this year, I had a GREAT idea.....I wanted a girls sleepover at our house! With life here things are busy and especially moms with little ones, so it's rare to get good quality time with girl friends. 

So I talked to my friends and they were all on board! Daniel made my favorite cake-White Almond Wedding Cake. We decided to make it a bundt cause I didn't have the round cake pans, and it was seriously the best looking and tasting cake ever!!

One of my friends also made me a cookie cake-so you can imagine I'm not having any trouble putting on a little extra baby weight! But since I only have 3 weeks left, I figure I need to seize the day!

My friends came over, we ordered pizza, got in our pj's, had some girl talk, watched the Miss USA pageant from last year (none of us had seen it), ate cake, played games and had the best time!!!! I'm thinking of making it an annual tradition. 

That same week a friend of a friend brought back some avocados from when he traveled to a nearby country. Avocados are VERY hard to come by here and if you find them they can be almost $10 each, so they are a big treat! But I got several for about $1 a piece!!!!! Look how massive they are!!! 

One day Paige and I were in my room while I was putting things away and I couldn't find her. Then I see these little pj feet sticking out of my closet and her little voice saying "where's Paige? where's Paige?" Too cute that girl!!!

Last week we were buying fruit at the market and Paige decided to take a little rest on a stool next to the eggs. 

Paige does blanket time almost every morning for about 40 minutes. It's a great time for me to work on email, do dishes and get a few things done. She always does the cutest things during this time.

The last two days she's been playing with this box nonstop. 

We went to the doctor's this morning and scheduled the c-section for the 24th....just 3 weeks away!!! The way things are done are a little different so I have to check in at 4pm the day before....which I'm not a fan of....but I'm working on my attitude about it :)  But in good news, the baby isn't breeched anymore!

My mom gets here in one week.....I can't wait!!! I have a long list of things for us to do-prep some freezer meals and bread, get the nursery ready, clean up some mold (i know, but just being honest...it's a problem in our city), and try to make sure everything is ready before little Joshua comes. 

2012 Recap

Here is a highlight from each month of 2012!

January-celebrated my 30th birthday!!

I hope that a year from now I will be back to that size. It seems SO long ago!

February- vacation in Malaysia!

March- I think this was Easter, it's the only pic i have from March. Apparently not much else happened that month.

April- Daniel catching me licking the glaze while making TPW's cinnamon rolls. 

Able to visit a local orphanage. 

May- Daniel's parents came to visit!

Travelled to the mountains.

June- found out we were preggers!!!!

Went to the US for Caroline's wedding!

July- Did a lot of travelling!!!

August- discovered Instagram and the local Babies R Us

September- Mom came to visit!

Found out we were having a little girl!

October- Passed my glucose test!

November- Had my first baby shower for Paige!

Celebrated Daniel's birthday and being married 3 years!

December- quickly put the nursery together before coming to the States for 4 months!

SO much has happened this past year! I remember at my birthday party last year, a friend asked me what my hope for 2012 was. I told her I was hoping to be pregnant....i had no idea if that meant 1 month or 9 months, but my hope was that by January of 2013 I would be pregnant. It's crazy that I am 8 months pregnant and in America. We love our life in Asia and have been blessed like crazy this year. I'm so excited to see what next years post will look like-especially with an 11 month old!!

Happy New Year!

love

laura