One of Our Family Traditions

Every year we get together with my parents and we make gingerbread houses. I love sitting around the table having this fun crafty time with the family. Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

This is Tracey's house.

This is Grandmas house.

This one is Hayden's house.


This is Hayden being silly with his house. He was very proud that it didn't fall over this year.


Here is Kayla with her house. We aren't really sure what happened. She says that the wolf from the three little pigs blew her house down. I feel bad for the poor gummy bears that were inside.

This is Gary's house.

This house is Grandpas house.


We tried to help Lyndsie make a house but she didn't really know what to think. She caught on quickly and thought that it was really fun to either eat the candy or just throw it on her plate. She had the most candy when we were finished.

This is our cutest little Carsyn. He sat in his swing wondering what we were all up to.

Blessing

On November 1st we blessed our little Carsyn. Here are some fun pictures of our wonderful day.


Before church we were looking at pictures with Aunt Becky and Uncle Willie. They are expecting their first baby in March. We are very excited for them. Finally the kids will have a cousin they can play with.

Hayden and Uncle Willie have a lot of fun when they are together.

Jill was in town for this special day.

This is our little lady Lyndsie. She is so cute when she wants to be.

This is my mom and dad. They came for the exciting occasion.

Here is the little man of the hour.

This is Uncle Willie he blessed Carsyn.

Here are the proud parents.

How time flies

How time flies when you are having so much fun! I realize that I haven't posted anything for a LONG time but here I am now. So a quick update on what has been going on. Kayla started 1st grade and loves it. Her only complaint about school is how long she goes. She is starting to read and loves to learn new things. Hayden started his 2nd year of preschool and is learning so much everyday. He is learning to write his letter, numbers, and his name. Lyndsie I think has hit the terrible twos at ONE. She loves to play with her older sister and brother. She is walking and starting to say a few words. Gary is still working hard for us and going to school. I am about 2 weeks away from having our fourth child. We are very excited with how our family is growing not only in size but also spiritually, emotionally, and educationally.

We were at my parents house and Sammy my sister thought that it would be funny to make fun of my tummy. So she got balloons for the kids to put under there shirts. It was really funny. So here are a few of those pics. I also added one of our Lady Lyndsie as well.

It has been awhile...

It has been awhile since I have posted. A lot has happened since we got back from our trip. For starters we are expecting our fourth (and final baby) on September 22nd. We are very excited but very nervous as well. Lyndsie will only be 18 months when this one comes. We have also had some birthdays. Kayla turned 6 (I am getting old) and Lydnsie turned 1! So here are a few pictures from both birthdays!

Our Trip to Taiwan

First of, taking small children on the airplane is NOT easy and don't let anyone fool you that you can just buy new toys and bribe them the whole way. There is a LOT of patience involved and a lot of hair-pulling moments that make you wish you had upgraded to at least Business class seats....

Ok, besides the flight to and from, the actual vacation in Taiwan was fabulous! REAL Chinese food with REAL Chinese cooks in REAL Chinese restaurants. We visited many street-side stands where they sell all sorts of food and other goods at very low prices. There is no shortage of food, anytime, anywhere. **Side note** it's amazing to see all the food that's available but you don't see many fat Chinese.....just a thought....

We stayed in a very high-tech hotel with self-warming and buttocks-cleaning toilets (I guess it's a lazyman's way of cleaning your butt without wiping....I never used it), automatic light sensors, and an incredible view to boot. We enjoyed the hotel so much that Hayden started calling it out "new house."

We took many day trips to Taipei (for those geographically challenged, Taipei is the capitol of Taiwan). We went to the top floor of Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world and saw the largest pandulum in the world weighing in at 600 tons. We also rode on a very fast (not sure if it's the fastest in the world or not) bullet train that traveled at 180mph (the fastest it can go is 220mph, I think). Taiwan's infrastrucutre is efficiently designed that allows anyone to travel anywhere with only public transportation. We also visited the CKS memorial. He was the founding father of Taiwan when his political party fled to Taiwan in 1949 (my grandpa was a follower. We have a picture of my grandpa and CKS posing together in a prominent position in my grandma's house). At 5pm, the CKS memorial has a flag-lowering ceremony. I captured most of it on video. It showed military men from all branches marching toward the flag and saluting while the flag is lowered, folded, and quickly brought back into the memorial. As the flag was lowering, everyone starting singing the flag-lowering anthem (I wish I knew it but I was too young when I left and didn't know that song even existed).

Apart from visiting tourist sites, we went shopping at local street corners and also large malls as well. Because we went during Chinese New Year, there were more people than usual at all the locations we went to. My aunt was kind enough to take us to the sea side where the waves crashed just a few feet below our feet. Across the Taiwan Strait (again, for those geographically challenged, the Strait is about 110 miles separating Taiwan and China), Taiwan stands in danger of military attack from China. We rented a two-person bike and took our kids on a ride along the coastline. It was breezy but it was beautiful. We saw all sorts of kites being flown. We stopped by an observation tower at the end of our ride and went to the top floor. From there, we had a panaramic view of the entire seaside area - and it was absolutely beautiful.

On the day of Chinese New Year, we ate traditional dumplins. Grandma puts coins inside 16 of them and if we got one, we can trade it in for real money. Grandma has never seen Tracey or her great-grand children. We took a picture of the entire family and I'm sure grandma will treasure that one for sure. Fireworks are allowed for up to 1 week after the New Year. Because the streets are narrow and buidlings are very close to each other, the reverberations are very loud - which scared the kids quite a bit. At night, we enjoyed fantastic fireworks show from our hotel window and enjoyed all the other night lights that surrounded my beloved city, Hsin-chu (this Chinese word litterally mean "New-Bamboo")

There is so much to tell but I believe only pictures will truly allow you to understand and feel what we went through. I will post them as soon as possible.

Happy Birthday Jill!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!! I would like to Wish you a happy birthday. We are thinking of you even though we can't be there. You do so much for my family and I want to let you know that I apperciate it! You deserve the best. Have a happy birthday!!!!!!!!

Jill came to town!

My best friend Jill came to visit us for Thanksgiving. She is very close to my family and it is alway nice to have her come out and play. We did a lot while she was here. Here are a few pictures of some of the things that we did! Jill is so nice she got us christmas presents and let us open them while she was here. Thank you Jill for all that you do! Jill isn't in these pictures she is the one that operates the camera. So we have maybe one or two with her in them! We will have to work on that!