eating ethiopian

its been a while since i wrote and a lot has happened. One highlight was our meal at an Ethiopian restaurant. The girls all loved the food and loved eating with their hands and not having to use plates. It was a great experience!!!

bowling

After a very LONG week, we got to leave campus on Sat. night and go bowling! John and Karen came down for the day and we went to eat and took the girls bowling for the very first time. Ayden was so excited to not be eating in the cafeteria!!! They had a lot of fun bowling, Annie Lynne was so funny, she would sit down and then push the ball down the lane and then say goooo ballll goooo ballll over and over until it finally hit the pens. Addie half the time would drop the ball in front of her and then try to kick it down the lane. Ayden on the other hand took it pretty serious and really tried to do her best, she said it was just like playing Carsyn's wii game. They all had a great time, it was a fun first bowling trip.

This picture is annie lynne putting on Karen's bowling shoes.

daddy's shaving cream

this is what happens when we have one minute with daddy's shaving cream!!!

ayden's b-day

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. These are pics from Ayden's 6 b-day party.

Ayden with Aunt Karen
Ayden with uncle Landon at her party, he has his dora party hat on!!!

Ayden's 6 year old cinnamon roll picture. ( a few days after her b-day)

Ayden's donut picture the morning of her b-day.

Ayden had a great six year old birthday.

Karen came today!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so surprised!!! didn't know that she was coming for my birthday and we has so much fun. here she is pushing me on the swing. but then I showed her that I could swing by myself!!! I learned this week how to start myself on the swing and I can go High!!!


Here is my posing in my birthday outfit from Karen. I love to pose!!!

Aunt Karen is reading to me, I loved spending time with her. We had such a good night. Thanks for coming Karen.

pulled tooth and birthday

Aunt Karen came to visit me tonight and she brought a party with her. We had cake and hats and dora plates. It was lots of fun and I was so excited to see her. She played on the playground with me and I got to show her around the campus. we had a lot of fun tonight.

I went to the dentist this morning and came home with one less tooth! Now I am missing two on the bottom and one on the top. Now it is going to be really hard to eat corn on the cob!!!

Eastern life

Just thought i would give you a funny/scary story. One of the restrooms here has an Eastern toilet (squatty potty) Each of the older girls have been to it three times and as of now we are 0-6. For some reason we can not seem to make it completely in the hole!!! Funny now, Scary for the future when we have to use one.

Ayden't writing

Hope you can see this!!! Ayden wrote this during our small group worship time this morning. One of the best things about being here is all the time set aside to have small group bible study/worship, and the kids do it with us. Ours are the only ones in our group and I think that is great because it is preparing them for the future.

If you can't read kindergarten writing it says: I love my God My God is awesome He loves me

many bumps and bruises

We have had an interesting weekend. Saturday the girls had fun with their daddy while mama was in a class all day. Since it was raining daddy took them to the movies. How fun!!! Then before going to bed that night Addie was jumping on the bed and hit the head board with her mouth. It was so sad:( Her nose and lip was bleeding everywhere. This morning when she woke up she looked so funny, she loved looking at her mouth in the mirror. I took this picture below just a few minutes ago and it looks much better now. So Addie has a busted lip and as you can see below Ayden has a swollen eye. Not sure what is going on with her eye, but she woke up with it swollen yesterday. (maybe a sti). Hopefully by in the morning we will all be in better shape headed to school:) Kirk and I were thinking today and realized that we have not brought any of our children to a doctor (other than well baby visits) in almost 2 years. (dec. of 2007, Annie Lynne had RSV). However since arriving here 3 weeks ago we have seen a doctor twice. Once for Ayden's mouth and once for Addie when she was not breathing well. We do not know what is going on, but please pray. As you can see bumps and bruises do not stop them they are still smiling and playing!!!
Just one more thing tonight during our cultural worship time we were in part of Africa. Ayden love the music she was dancing all over the place and Addie had her bible open following along (even though the sermon was not in English). During prayer addie had her eyes closed and her head and mouth just a going praying with him. None of the service was in english but our kids loved it. Kirk said Ayden would definitely fit in with that culture. She likes to be where it is hot and she loves to dance and sing loudly.

more teeth missing

Ayden lost another tooth tonight. She was so excited!!!

Over the last two days i think she has shown everyone on campus her missing tooth smile, and now they will all have to see the smile again with two missing!

We have had a busy week but are so thankful the girls are well. We are learning so much everyday we do not want to miss anything!!!

In the middle of all of our business we do have time to laugh and Ayden and Addie gave us lots to laugh about last night. While I was running bath water last night and undressing Annie Lynne, Addie undressed herself and ran out into the living room. Of course our living room we share with others and they were all in there talking. Of course Kirk made her run back to the bathroom and when she got in the tub Ayden was waiting. As I listened from the other room I heard Ayden tell Addie "don't you know the bible tells us to cover our bodies, i can't believe you just did that, you are never suppose to uncover in front of other people." This went on for about two or three minutes. Addie did get her laugh from everybody, but she also got the lecture from Ayden, not sure if she thought it was worth it or not.

Ayden's tooth

Thank you so much for praying, Addie is better!!!! She will be able to go to school tomarrow I only had to miss one day of classes.

Ayden had a great night. After visiting with some friends and having too much ice cream and candy, Ayden lost her tooth when we got home. She was so excited!!!!!!!! one down only 19 left to lose.

Addie's sick

My very energetic Addie was not feeling well today. I got her from school around nine this morning and she was not feeling good. After lunch kirk and i took her to the doctor. She had been wheezing a little, so he gave us an inhaler for her. She is running a little fever now and just fell asleep. Its so sad and she was so sad that she couldn't go back to school today. We are praying for no fever tomorrow and that she is breathing much better. Please pray with us, not only do we want Addie back to herself, we don't want to miss any of the very good teaching.

I tried one more time and a pic of Addie (or Laura Ingalls as some would call her) loaded!!! She has been called Laura Ingalls every time I braid her hair, its so funny. This is here swinging on the swing at the playground. If you can see behind her you will see different quad's and then in the very back is one of the school buildings. Not theirs, of course theirs is on the other side of campus. I will try and take a picture of our house tomorrow.

sorry there's no picture of Addie. the wireless connection we are working off is NOT good.we can only get online at certain times and sometimes just certain places in the quad. I got the first 2 pics up and then the internet slowed down. The girls had a good day, but it is starting to sink in that this is home and not just a short trip. Addie did great after she got to school this morning but at breakfast did not want to go. But I am so thankful for what all they are learning. Ayden learned about India this week and today they painted with "henna" on her hand. It has been so great for Kirk and I too. It's A LOT of WORK but we are learning and growing more then we ever imagined. Will try to post more pics tomorrow night.

This is Ayden pushing Jeremiah on the swing. This is their class pet and it was Ayden's turn to take him home. He came with his backpack which contained: 2 toys, pj's, toothbrush, sleeping bag, and 3 books. Jeremiah had to play with them on the playground and will eat with us in the cafeteria. Ayden has had fun with him, but her sisters have loved him just as much. Right now he is sleeping in their bed with his own pillow and blanket. (if you can't tell from the picture he is a stuffed animal pig. He also came with a journal so ayden could draw of picture of what they did and we could write a few sentences to share with the class tomorrow. She is LOVING school and her teachers.

This is Annie Lynne's cinnomon roll birthday picture. I didn't get it before we left so its a week late. This was on Sunday morning.

good day, sad night

we had another good day at school. Daddy brought us to school this morning, mama had an early meeting. We had fun playing with him before school! After school daddy picked us up, mama had another meeting, but we didn't mind cause daddy took us to the kids library, so fun! addie and annie lynne picked out a book and mama read them tonight to us. after the library daddy had a meeting so mama took us to one of the playgrounds we had not been to yet. This campus had FOUR playgrounds!!! we love it!!!
the day was good, but tonight when mama was reading out of the "Little House" book (we are on book 4) Laura's dog, Jack, died. I cried and cried and mama laid in bed with us until i went to sleep. Long day and many more to come, I'm sure. But God is Good and He will give us the grace and peace we need, just like He did Laura. So thankful that we serve a God that is in control of all things!