It's Our 10th Anniversary!

10th Anniversary!

Wow! It's been an awesome 10 years and we are still so glad to be married to each other! Even though we didn't have grandparents nearby to watch our kids, a good friend of ours watched our kids so we could go out overnight. Dan just brought me a bunch of pink roses-so romantic!! I'm sooooo thankful for the wonderful husband I have!

Activities in December

December 2010

This month has been fast and fun so we've just put a whole bunch of pictures together of what we've been up to. Click on the cute pic of our kids to see lots more. The photos will hopefully explain themselves! Merry Christmas!

Alexis' Piano Performance

Piano 1

Piano 2

Alexis had her end-of-the-year piano class performance. She and 4 other children from her class played together. They each had a little cloth mouse and used that mouse to play high notes then low notes. Then they played on the black keys and did glissandos on the white keys. It was too cute to watch the teacher trying to get five 4 year olds to do the same thing at the same time!

The "Library"

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Library #1

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Library #2

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Library #3

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Library #4

I took these pics awhile ago but thought they were too cute to pass up! Lucas and Alexis turned our living room into a library and helped Dan & I check out books. Our kids have such great imaginations!

Christmas before Thanksgiving!

Christmas #1

Christmas #2

Many people go on holiday (vacation) starting Dec. 15 for about one month. This means all schools including Sunday School finish by the end of November. Lucas & Alexis had their Sunday School Christmas program before we celebrated Thanksgiving! Click on the pic of Lucas the bird to catch a few more photos of that fun day!

Joshua is learning to walk and he loves it!

Joshua walking #1

Joshua walking #2

Lucas plays baseball!

Lucas playing baseball

Lucas is now a few games into his baseball season and just loves it! It's so great to watch how his skills have improved so much in the last year. His team is called the Imps (wish they would've thought of something else...). He plays in the Under 8 league and has games every Saturday morning. Click on the pic above for a few more glimpses of a recent game.

Warm Baths

Warm Baths

We visited Warm Baths which is an area about 1.5 hours outside of Joburg. It is known for its natural hot springs. There is a water park where most of the pools are warm water pools because of the springs. We camped with 3 other families. There were 8 adults and 14 kids. What a party! This was our first time sleeping in a tent with kids but it went well and we had so much fun. Great to have such a refreshing weekend. We went October 22-24 so we celebrated Joshua's first birthday while we were there. Click above and see a bunch more pictures or enjoy the videos below!

Alexis' Princess Party!

Alexis' 4th Birthday

Alexis had two little girls over for a princess party to celebrate her 4th birthday. They started by coloring princess pictures and then spent quite a bit of time putting on glitter makeup. They had so much fun! We also read the story "The Princess and the Pea." I then hid a ball under one of 4 pillows and the girls had to sit on them until they felt the "pea." I had more planned but they just wanted to play with Alexis' dollhouse which was just fine. I'm glad they all enjoyed it! So, click on the carriage above to see more of the party!

Alexis' 4th Birthday!

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The dollhouse was daddy's special project for Alexis' birthday. He thought of the idea, designed it and found someone with tools to help him build it. I did a bit of decorating which was also fun. Needless to say, she loves it!

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Joshua & his Birthday Cake

Joshua & his birthday cake

Click on the picture above to see a few more messy pictures of Joshua eating his cake!

Joshua is one year old!

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Recent fun!

Being silly!

Joshua at 11 months!

Joshua-11 mo.

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J #3

J #4

Having fun!

Joshua with tp

Joshua & daddy

Joshua & Lucas

Joshua & Alexis

Capetown-part 2

Capetown #2

We finished our time in Capetown with a visit to Table Mountain and Robben Island, two famous landmarks. Table Mountain is flat on top thus giving it the "table" look. When the clouds cover it in the afternoon they call it the "tablecloth." Robben Island has a maximum security prison. It is where former South African president Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner. We learned a lot about South African history on that trip. The last fun event of the week was letting the kids stick their feet in the freezing ocean water just one time! Brrrr!

We only had one little hiccup in the trip - Lucas made one trip to the emergency room. He was sitting in a car where you put money in and it moves. He later explained that he leaned too far and fell out...on his head. He was quite dazed. He didn't cry but he also didn't remember things for several hours - thus the visit to the ER just to get him checked out. He was fine and we were so thankful. We arrived back at the lodge a short while later and he was very frustrated with me when I wouldn't let him climb the outside wall and jump off. Hmmmmm....!

Homeschool Displays

Recently, all the homeschool children in our organization put together a display of something they were currently studying. Lucas and Alexis have been studying the ocean and its animals in science so we picked that for Alexis' theme. Lucas had just checked out a book on robots at the library and it showed several different ways to make one at home. He was enjoying learning how robots work and learning how to draw them. So we picked that for his display theme.

Homeschool

Homeschool #2

I did my hair all by myself!

Alexis' hair

Alexis' hair #2

Our First Few Days in Capetown

Capetown Trip

The finance team here in South Africa visited Capetown at the beginning of September for a week of meetings and retreat. This was Joshua's first airplane ride and he did great! The lodge where we stayed was a 5 minute walk from the ocean so the first night we took a walk down there. We saw whales!! It was so amazing! Usually we just saw a fin or tail but one time there was a whale that actually jumped out of the water. So cool! On the first day we visited the town of Hermanus which is famous for its whales. Every year at this time whales come very near the shore and this is the best place to see them. We were not disappointed! We watched 2 whales swim side by side down the shoreline. Alexis' quote of the day - "All this whale watching is making me hungry!"

Our 2nd day was also full of adventures. First we went to an area called Boulders which is known for its African penguins. These are relatively small penguins that live in the sand along the beach. After lunch at the wharf we took a tram ride to the top of Cape Point which is the southernmost tip of South Africa. It was soooo windy we literally had to hold on to our kids at all times. We didn't want them blowing away! We then took a 15 minute drive down to the Cape of Good Hope which is the southwesternmost tip of South Africa. Click on the picture above to see lots more photos of our first 2 days in Cape Town.

Lucas' first Piano Performance

Lucas and Alexis had only been to their music class 5 times when their teacher, Marianne, decided to have a piano performance party for all the students. Lucas practiced his little 12 note song all day and was ready to go. He volunteered to be the first in his class to play. There is a pause at the beginning of the video because the music Marianne placed in front of him was not what he had been told to practice. He played what she asked and still did a great job. We were so proud of him. Alexis decided she wasn't ready to play in front of others and that was just fine for us too.

A few September videos of Joshua

Joshua loves books!

A few August videos

Go Big Red!!!

Husker #1

Husker #2

Joshua - 10 months

Husker #3

Alexis - 3 & 1/2 years

Husker #4

Lucas - 5 years

August 2010

August 2010 Happenings

I wanted to get caught up on pictures before we head to Capetown next week. Lucas still enjoys homeschooling. Now he's waking up at 7am and asking me to get up and do schoolwork with him before breakfast. How can I refuse? Alexis loves to do creative things like paint, color and dance. Joshua is on the move! (It's a good thing I wear tennis shoes all day!) He's cruising along the furniture and learning animal noises and car sounds. We hope you enjoy this collection of pics!

Family Band

Family band #1

Family band #2

Family band #3

Family band #4

Something Fun...

Here's a few fun thoughts for you. The kids were reading a library book that showed a picture of the inside of a basement and another picture of a furnace. We had to explain what those were. The other day I had to explain that for many people in America a dishwasher is not their daddy! Dan and I had a date night the other night and we left to find a restaurant at 6:30pm. We were grateful that there were still 4 restaurants open at the mall when we got there. Most stores close by 5pm although there are 2 grocery stores that usually stay open until 6pm. By 6:30pm the streets are empty and everyone is home for the night. We still haven't quite gotten used to that. When we tell nationals that we were used to a 24hour Walmart they have a hard time grasping that concept!

Rhino/Lion Park

Rhino/Lion #1

Rhino/Lion #2

A few weeks ago, the entire Finance department took a day to visit the Rhino/Lion Park. We enjoyed seeing lots of animals as well as having a braai (that's South African for BBQ) and fellowship. All the excitement just wore Joshua out!