Hair Washing

 There is nothing like a little afternoon hair wash and braid with your BFF. Especially when it costs $3!

 towel heads!

 

Final product! Much better than this mama can do! I need to take notes :)

one last swim.....

 

We got one last swim for the summer in today. I love this picture. Deep in thought. Not sure what he is pondering....maybe why he is in a princess flost, or maybe wondering if we remembered that he does not know how to swim if he were to fall in.....

 

mermaids enjoying their last time in the water

8 months

 

Happy 8 Months sweet boy!

You are such a joy! 

You are crawling around EVERYWHERE!!! 

And you love to follow people to where the action is!

 and from there you IMMEDIATELY started pulling up on everything!

For a couple days you weren't quite sure how to get down once you got up, but you've got that covered now :)

You still love eating and will eat whatever and however much we give you :)

You like to play with your Leapfrog book, stacking rings, and anything that rolls!

You LOVE to listen to books and you have several willing narrators at all times :)

You are a great sleeper--you take 2 good 2 hour naps and sleep from about 8-8 at night

You are nursing 4 times a day now, and eat three solid food meals

 

this is the sweet face I walk in to see when you wake up---i really cant get enough of it!!

 

 

the coffee table is one of your favorite places to hang out!

 

and an open mouth shot......

we love you big boy!!

those eyes......

 

I think I've said before that we always get stopped by the local people telling us that he has huge, beautiful eyes. 

 

and then you add in the wide open mouth (which is like that almost all his waking moments) and they really don't know what to do........

Da xiong mao

 We went back to the Panda Reserve with some friends from another city whose parents were in town. It was on out summer list so we can check that one off :)

It was SO hot, so the pandas weren't out, but we got to see them inside and this was the first time we had seen little babies while we were there!

 month old little panda

Why do gigantic pandas get to have such little babies?!?

 kind of proportionally unfair.....

 3 month old panda

She seriously looked like a little stuffed animal! Love!!

 ry with the baby. She so badly wanted to "play" with her!

 

boys with the pandas who were braving the heat

 

 

Rylie with her new panda fan!

 

our whole family!

 

Ry posing with the panda

 

lots of fish!

Reid took the camera and was LOVING taking pictures of everything!

Maybe a camera is in his future?? Birthday present maybe?

  

fun bird

 

pretty peacock!

All kinds of firsts......

 

Everett on the first day of 5th grade

....notice the no shoes---he didn't have far to go!!

 

Everett with his 5th grade teacher!!

We are embarking on a new adventure this year with homeschooling! 

We pray that this year will be a great year for Everett as he learns and is able to really dive into things that he loves, and a wonderful time for him and I together!

 

His desk!!!

First Day of 2nd Grade

 

my big 2nd grader!!

 

We love CDIS!

 

Teacher Mrs. Yost 

(she is one of his best friend's mom, but she is only the teacher for a couple of weeks. His permanent teacher had some visa issues, but will be here soon!)

 

Knox and Mom dropping him off

 

He wants to be a scientist and an artist!

Kitchen Makeover

 before picture of wall

 ok--that title is closer to what I was dreaming was going to happen than to what actually happened, but I am thankful anyway :)

Our kitchen is great and has lots of cabinets, but had NO counter space and only one working outlet. 

So we decided to take out the middle section of cabinets and put in counter tops and a couple of new outlets.

 

before view into kitchen

 

the crazy that was my eating area and kitchen for 4 days because things never quite go as planned around here :)

 They took out the top two rows of cabinets and then rehung the top ones.....

they took the cabinets we removed and hung them on one of our porches to use as extra storage space--score!

picture of finished product before we could put anything on it. I think it totally opens the kitchen up.

Final product!!

Pretty good makeover for under $100---happy birthday to me :)

Sweetly sleeping

Look how big this boy looks sleeping in his crib. too fast. they grow up too fast I tell you.

love sleeping babies. sweetly sleeping.

Burger King

 

So the first Burger King on our city opened today. That may not seem like a big deal, and in the States BK isn't my favorite, but here it is pretty fun. BK is definitely a step above McDonalds which is where we went for a burger. 

 

 Everett and Nic

 

So on opening day we joined a couple other families and headed down. I was a bit afraid of the crowd we might encounter on opening day--since sometimes normal day crowds overwhelm me here :) But Burger King was ready for the crazy and the crowds weren't bad at all!

 

our family---Rylie liked it. Hard to tell what she was unhappy about here....

 

reid enjoying his drink---one minus for BK is that they serve Pepsi products.....but we powered though :)

 

follow the signs to Burger King!

on the way back to the car....

 

This is what happens when you walk around with a foreign baby.

notice the two men taking his picture.

 

 

then the crowd started to grow.......

 

and grow.....

 

we had to keep walking or so many people would crowd around that we were stuck. One guy followed us all the way to the car. I thought he might try to get in........

It doesn't happen all the time, so when it does we try to roll with it, but my one question is---where are all those pictures? what are they doing with them?

such is life living overseas :)