Holiday Activities

A couple months of ago I realized that either Keely needed more stimulation or just more planned activities. She loves going to school and playing with the kids, but that doesn't seem to be enough. Sometimes I think she just yearns to learn and be stimulated. And this may be normal, but this is my first 3 year old. We didn't do a ton of activities while in the States, but I was reading some blogs for ideas and then stumbled onto some others. This one has some Christmas ones that look like they are right up Keely's ally. Also the find that I was excited about was the advent calendars! My plan was to do this Sticker Christmas tree one. Then I found this Happy Birthday Jesus Cake one. If you have been around Keely for even just a little bit you may know her fascination with birthdays. For weeks after someone's birthday she is still coloring and making things for that person. She also remembers last year in Sunday School singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. With all of that said I'm changing plans! While I was searching for the Christmas Tree post, I discovered more Christmas crafts and activities that look like fun here. I also found these Snowman Activities we may have to do sometime this month too. Please share Christmas activites and crafts you are planning on doing too! I'd love to have the ideas! We only have a couple weeks until Christmas break and then we'll probably need lots of ideas!

We are back!

We arrived back to Hong Kong last night!! The trip was mostly uneventful and we blessed with an extra seat (since we didn't buy Jordan a seat). It was a full flight, but there happened to be an empty up in the bulkhead, which appealed to the man sitting at the end of our row! Keely only slept 45 minutes on the trip to the States but both slept about 6 1/2 hours this time! Much better! Jordan even ended up turning in her car seat so that in the end she was sleeping cross ways in her car seat! Too funny!

We got about 3 hours of sleep before the girls woke up at midnight! Finally by 3:30 or 4 they went back to sleep. There was much partying in our bed for about an hour of that time!

This morning I had Keely's first parent/teacher conference, which I managed to get there for the last 2 minutes of it! Jordan rode in the sling and I ran to the school! It was kind of hard to concentrate with sweat streaming down my forehead! What a memorable first parent/teacher conference! Keely had all A's on all of her developmental skills, so there wasn't much to talk about anyway! HAHA! Her teacher was like, "Oh Keely is doing really well. We don't need to worry about her." And that was about all we talked about her! Then I was caught up about what all she had missed the past 5 weeks and what songs she needs to learn in the next 2 weeks for their Christmas program!

Jordan and I then met Jacob and Keely and we walked all over running some errands. We had to go to the bank, get our internet turned back on (since they decided to not send us any bills until we got a late notice! ha!), and pick up a package. I think it was good for all of us to get out and it was amazing to see how much they really do enjoy living here. Keely heard people always saying that she was shy when we were in the States. When we got back to our building this afternoon, she said hi to our caretaker and then she said see I'm not shy anymore! Too cute! Jordan also warmed right up to some people on the train like usual. In the States she hung to me a lot, but they both warmed up to people really quickly!

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We did have turkey sandwiches two different times on the plane!!

A great knot!

My mom and I decided to try a new project! (Project could be my middle name!) We have decided to try to make a quilt! My mom took a class and taught me how to do a square. I can do mending, but I have never been very good at tying knots! I was nervous to start my sqaures before I knew a good or correct way to tie a knot! I did a little goggling and found this great tutorial that I thought I would share. I'm sure if you do any hand sewing you know how to make a knot! But just in case you don't, this one is so easy!

Just a few more

Like every week, I end up with a few extra pictures I like that don't make the cut for the picture-a-day.

More pictures from the day we went jumping. Keely did really well on the rock climbing type area, and figured out how to use the rope really quickly.

Keely's feet started hurting from all the climbing, so we were glad they had some other things to do while we rested a few minutes. Jacob pulled a chair up so Keely could play air hockey with him.

The cousins came over last Friday for pizza and they of course had fun playing too. This was a word puzzle we borrowed from the library. It was fun to see them all playing with it even with the age span.

Another picture from pancake day.
(Keely stayed in her PJs all day along with her great bed hair!)

This one was just too cute not to share. When I am doing something in the kitchen, she has been enjoying driving her cars around the kitchen. Even little girls like to play with cars-- especially my little girls!

Some of my favorites

I just finished editing and posting the past week and half's pictures. There are a few that I really like and just wanted to post some of my favorites in case you don't check out our picture-a-day site! You can go to the link to read what I wrote about the picture if you are interested.

November 9th

November 12th

November 13th

November 14th

November 18th

The Polar Express

Last night I was reading on a blog how this year is The Polar Express's 25th Anniversary. My thought was, "Really? I remember when it had just won some awards and was a big deal when I was in elementary school. Oh, that would have been almost 25 years ago, huh?" Boy, I am feeling old. Here is a site with some activities and other things if you are interested.

The Sickies

Part of last week and this week we had the sickies. Somehow the girls caught Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. It was definitly one I hoped the girls could stay away from and I didn't ever think they'd get it here in the States! Basically it consists of a fever and a rash normally in the mouth and on the hands and feet. Babies tend to get it on their bottoms too. Jordan started out with a not-so-normal looking rash on her bottom and then the next day she stuck her tongue out at me to show two blisters! She also had a fever. Later on she developed bumps and blisters on her hands and feet. The next day Keely had a fever and a spot on her mouth, but that was it! The weird thing to me that I didn't expect was that even after the fever was gone, bumps kept popping up! One of the spots in Keely's mouth was below her teeth between her teeth and bottom lip. It was really uncomfortable and hurt. I had called the nurse at our doctor's office when I first discovered Jordan's symptoms to verify my diagnosis, but then called again when Keely continued to be in so much pain with the bumps in her mouth. They told me to have her swish equal amounts of Benadryl and Maalox. It seemed to really help and she was able to eat after swishing it. SO if your child ever gets Hand, Foot and Mouth disease try the Benadryl/ Maalox concoction!

More pictures from last week

Here is another picture and bit about our fun with our cousins.

Jordan showing off her snack of goldfish.

You can read here about the story behind the make up brushes.

Outside pictures from last week

Jacob was just home an afternoon and the girls took advantage and played hard with him.

Keely thinks it's fun to ride behind Jordan, and of course it's lots of fun with Daddy pushing!

Sometimes it's fun to ride it backwards too!

Or with only one shoe on!

More pictures from our first week

The girls enjoy playing the piano here at Mimi's house.

Here is our Project 365 picture of playing outside. Just had to post a couple more from that day (though I have lots more because it's been really nice out)!

Here is a little bit about our afternoon with the cousins, and again had to post a couple more of them playing together!

Fall Festival and Halloween

Our home church's Fall Festival was the Sunday after we arrived in the States. As I said here, with the newness of everything, jet lag, Daddy leaving that morning and possibly other things Keely decided to just where her dress to the Fall Festival. Jordan didn't mind changing clothes, though getting whiskers and a nose was a little more of an obstacle! (I ended up only taking pictures at the end of the night and Keely happened to not be in any of the ones that turned out! Oops!)

Jordan loved picking out candy from the candy bowl!

After seeing the fun of the games and the other kids dressing up, Keely decided to be a kitty with Jordan. Read a little more about our evening here.

Keely taking off her cat whiskers.

Our first week in the States

We have had a lot of fun our first week in the States! We've been super busy too! I have already posted the pictures of last week on our Project 365 blog so I hope you don't mind but I'm going to link you there to our pictures!

This past week we have:
had very little sleep several nights in a row and very early breakfasts
played outside a lot
dressed up
played with Mimi and Papa
gotten haircuts

We have had lots of fun! More detailed pictures to come of our adventures!

Hair Cuts

The girls got haircuts last week. Keely's last "professional" haircut was last year when we were in the States. She actually remembered the place where we went last year that had little cars to sit in. So, we decided to just wait and before school started I trimmed her hair. At least she has curly hair! HAHA!

Keely getting her hair cut

(Can you believe how long her hair was? You can't tell with her curls!)

Keely's new hair cut

This was Jordan's first haircut and she wasn't excited about it whatsoever! We tried to sit her in the car chair next to Keely, but that didn't fly! In the end, I sat in a chair and she stood on my lap!! They had a little play area in the front and every time Keely would laugh, Jordan would turn her head!! Good thing they are use to cutting kids' hair! Just like the haircut, Jordan is too all over the place to get a good picture of her new do...so here are a few where maybe you can get an idea!


Jordan's favorite thing to chew on when she is teething

This is our life...

Oh my goodness it has been over a month!! We are all still alive and doing well too!! We happen to be in the States right now! We have been here almost 2 weeks now actually!! Back in the summer we found out Jacob had a meeting and decided to bring the whole family back and add a week of vacation to the time. Then more meeting invitations came and since we were already coming, Jacob felt he could accept and we extended our stay. We are here a little over a month (we leave the day before Thanksgiving) and Jacob will be with us a total of 6 days or so! We arrived on a Thursday and he left that following Sunday and we won't see him again until this Saturday (two weeks later!) for 18 hours or so! Then he'll be off again! The girls and I are hanging in there and of course it's a bit easier since we are staying with my parents but it's still hard on all of us!

Before we left, I was busy with projects to entertain everyone on the plane and a few gift projects too! Hopefully, I'll get back into the swing of blogging and share some of those projects. There is one that both girls have really enjoyed. I'm a fully month behind in my picture a day project, so hopefully I got a picture for most days and I'll start trying to get caught up on that! I seem to always have some sort of project going on!!

Me Book

Keely did a Me Book at school for their unit this past month. She would come home and tell me about different activities they had done that ended up making the book. I didn't know what a giraffe and an elephant had to do with their me unit, but realized how it all came together. On the front was a paper plate face with brown hair. Inside there were pages with her hand prints, feet prints, a giraffe she painted with her height, an elephant she painted with her weight, a picture of a girl that she had glued a dress on, a picture of a girl walking (to school) that she had colored, a picture of a door that she had painted (of her flat), and pages with a baby and family picture. She was so excited and every time she opens it up she tells us what each page means and what she did on the page.

Keely show us the elephant she painted

The little girl she colored telling that she walks to school

Keely's baby picture and family picture

New Photos By Jacob

Hello everyone, Jacob here. There are new photos coming up on my photo site over the next week. Take a look and let me know what you think. A new one will appear each day for the next week or so. Here's the link - Jacob's Photos Site

YEA Daddy is Home

Jacob surprised us by coming home a day early! He was suppose to come home today around 3pm but came home last night around 7pm! He did call us around 5:30 to tell us his bus was about to leave for Hong Kong. He wanted to make sure Jordan was still up when he got home. As soon as the gate started moving, the girls made a beeline for the door. Keely couldn't show and tell Jacob enough things in the first few minutes and once Jordan was in his arms she wasn't going anywhere.



Keely did a Me book at school that she brought home last week. She had been so excited about it and about showing Jacob. She was very proud to finally get to show Daddy her book.

We were really glad he was able to come home early. We made it and survived! The first two days were pretty rough, and Jordan had trouble sleeping. Day 3 and 4 were really good and the nights went really well too. Day 5 and 6 had it's moments -- both good and bad, but the nights were really difficult with Keely. It took her about an hour both nights to stay in bed and go to sleep. Day 7 also had it's moments, but we had a fun outing right before we found out Jacob was on his way home and so we did end on a good note! Today the girls just couldn't get enough of Daddy and both were pretty bummed when he had to leave for a meeting tonight. At least we all get tomorrow together -- Keely is out of school for a holiday and no meetings for Jacob! YEA!

September Misc Pictures

Typhoon day activity

Typhoon day - morning in jammies

Cute picture of Mommy and Jordan

Cute picture of Daddy and Keely