Of Hammocks & V-Family

A hammock? really? Does anyone ever really want a hammock for their birthday? Lo and behold...my husband does. So I trekked over to REI one day by myself and scoured the place high and lo for an ENO double-nest hammock and accompanying slap straps. (I'll suck up my pride and say that you really should check these out...they're pretty cool!)

But before said trip, our awesome neighbors, the V-Family, decided they wanted to go in on this cool purchase for Brandon. So, in very cool stealth style, we've been hiding the purchase for a few weeks...until saturday night.

Second part of the story... 

If you know my husband at all, you'll know it's not unlike him to request a "practice" birthday cake. His birthday isn't until the end of the month, but he thinks it's cool to go ahead and get in a practice cake a few weeks in advance, even if the cake might be different than the one I'd actually make for his birthday. Of course, it's his way of getting 2 b-day cakes in one year. So, indulging him again this year, I told him I'd do his "practice" birthday cake on saturday and we'd have it that night. 

Now join story #1 and #2... V-family, Bek & Kev, and Eden and I had a surprise 2 weeks early birthday party for Brandon on saturday night! He got a cool hammock, a nice and very unexpected surprise, and a practice birthday cake 2 weeks in advance. He was pretty thrilled. He and Eden went out on Sunday afternoon to test out the hammock behind our apt. This is our view out of our back porch:

Same picture...just cropped for better viewing of the three...Brandon, Eden, and new ENO hammock.

Ok...Third part of the blog story.

V-family is actually the main reason we had a party 2 weeks early. They leave us this week for new and exciting adventures! After 7 weeks with them in VA and a year with them here, we're having trouble coping with this as we've truly come to appreciate our time with them! We've gotten pretty accustomed to our Friday evening ritual of Settlers of Catan:

But I think Eden might miss them the most. There isn't a day that goes by that she doesn't talk about the guys (V-Family kiddos). She knows them all by name (adapted a little Eden-style), and really I think she'd prefer to play with them over any kiddo her own age. She loves them!! I dread the day that she bangs on their apt door expecting them to come see her!

We will miss you sweet V-Family!! 

Our Big Move. And some Insanity.

This past weekend we moved to a new apartment. A 3 bedroom apartment. About 30 yards away from our previous 2 bedroom apartment.
It was probably the easiest move we've ever made and will ever make. With the help of 6-7 crazy awesome neighbors, we got it done in less than 2 days.
So...now we're rearranging, putting stuff away, and acclimating to an extra 100 square feet. It's great!
And now this means that Salem actually has his own bedroom. And I'm having a blast decorating it. Turns out it's much easier to decorate a baby's nursery in America than in China. And I'm loving all the options! There will be pictures to come (for those of you that care about that sort of thing.)
It also means that Eden is thoroughly confused as to which apartment is ours, which bedroom is hers, which bed is hers (she's in a new crib), and where all our previous neighbors have gone. But...she'll get there.
Meanwhile, I think being inside a lot lately trying to get things settled has made her a little stir crazy. She's a toddler so she does weird stuff anyways, but add to it her having to be inside more than she'd prefer...well, she's making us a bit insane. So lately we've started documenting some sentences we've said to her simply because if we were overheard in any other context, we'd be committed.
Here's a sampling:

"Get your face off of the oven." When she feels the outside of it is warm, she likes to press her face against it. niiiice. not the safest thing ever.

"The chair is not food." We really thought that by now she'd outgrow putting EVERYTHING in her mouth. but no. she hasn't. so we've started really trying to emphasize that the only thing that should go in her mouth is food.

"Get out of the kitchen! Go make some cookies!" When I'm cooking she really likes to be in the kitchen with me. But obviously it's not always safe for her to be in there. So I said this one to her to get her to go to her bedroom to make her pretend cookies with her kitchen stuff. She likes to make "mnnnmns coocoos" translated: M&M Cookies.

"We don't pee in the corner!" Tonight right before bath time I stripped her down and took my eye off of her for a split second in which she ran into Salem's room where Brandon was, ran to the corner, squatted, and peed. Seriously, what goes through the mind of a 19 month old human being?

"Stop biting your knees." Really, there's not a good explanation for this. She's started biting her knees when she gets upset. ??? for real. no idea.

Anyway, you get the idea. Apparently raising a toddler can make you utter some fairly ridiculous phrases. I'm sure we sound insane to our new neighbors. Maybe we are a little bit.

Ready for preschool...

one funny explanation:
after Brandon sneezes she says, "BLESS!!!!" That's her way of saying "Bless you!" hehe...she cracks us up.

South Carolina Part 2

One of the highlights of our weekend in SC was getting to participate in "Body Life" (ie...church at home with everyone's participation and getting to share).  It was awesome and so refreshing to us as we really got used to small group style church while in The Big Chicken. While we're enjoying certain aspects of church life here in America, we've really been missing being active participants in a smaller scale Church Body. One other plus of Body Life is that Eden is a welcome member as well and that the group just adjusts to dealing with toddlers during teaching/sharing time. It's beneficial for her, us, and lets the entire Body be together. That's one part we REALLY enjoy about home church. :)

Brandon's roommate while in Taiwan came and led worship for us.

and Micah helped him

some attendees :)

the whole group

Happy Resurrection Day!!

A few pics of our Easter Sunday!!  Aren't you proud of Brandon sporting a pink tie? (voluntarily, I might add!)

Eden got to hunt eggs twice! She loved it...especially once she figured out that they opened!

Friday morning we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went with some friends for a little "Easter photo shoot!" 

She wasn't feeling especially smiley at first:

But then she got to pose with sweet Lily, one of her favorite people!

And then she got the fun stuff. She loved LOVED the bunny ears (as you can tell!) I debated whether she is too old for "nakey diaper" pics, but since we're a week away from potty training (i.e. no more cute pink diapers) I thought this might be our last chance to get cute nakey shots.

Hope you had a great Resurrection Sunday!

South Carolina

There's a first time for everything. And this weekend was the first time we've been to South Carolina! It was a very learning experience for us. Turns out, all those palm trees and crescent moons we see all over cars, doors, flags and stuff around here isn't just about people proclaiming a Muslim identity, but about showing South Carolinian pride. hmmm who knew?!?!

We got to stay with Mark & Kandy and we had such a blast that we may make it a more regular vacation spot! They live not far from Greenville, which I must say is one of THE coolest little cities around. If you are ever in South Carolina, and really the state isn't that big, you've gotta stop through Greenville and check out the downtown area. SOOO neat. Unfortunately (maybe fortunately for you, dear blog reader) I forgot my camera on our visit to said downtown area, BUT I did remember it for our trip to the Greenville Zoo!!

The highlight of the trip for Eden was of course the elephants. She LOVED Joy the elephant and wouldn't stop making her elephant noise the entire time we visited Joy. She made fast friends with Uncle Mark since he'd hold her up on the railing to see the elephants.

Another pose with some lions. :)

Then it was KiKi's turn to hold her for the monkeys. And of course Eden wanted to hold the monkeys.

Another favorite for us all were the giraffes. They were incredible! We all agreed that giraffes must have been created during that hour where God was feeling especially creative.

Eden was more excited about the lion water fountain than several of the exhibits.

And then we found a very awesome playground that we could have easily spent several hours at. I seriously wish more towns would invest in public attractions such as the parks and downtown area that Greenville had. Seriously worth a visit, especially if you've got kids!

Then we headed back to Mark and Kandy's to meet up with some more friends from East Asia! At which point Kandy dug out all sorts of "activities!" to entertain the little ones. 

What is more fun than water in a bucket?

Poor Isaac. Eden had it in for him the moment he arrived.

More to come on our time in SC in future posts! :)

Thanks Mark & Kandy for a great weekend!!

Birthday Pics!

I turned 26 on Tuesday (yikes!) and one thing Brandon wanted to do for me was to take me and Eden over to the SEBTS campus to take some pictures with the pretty blooming trees! We had a fun miniature photo shoot with daddy behind the camera. He did a pretty great job! Hopefully these will suffice for awhile for those of you requesting "belly shots!" I've done a pretty bad job documenting this pregnancy, but as you can see...I'm very much pregnant even in my oh so stealthy attempts at hiding it under a nice black shirt.  :)

Eden loved the "flowers" on the trees:

One of Eden's favorite things lately is wearing her sunglasses. Thus, a sunglasses picture:

"Give mama a kiss...meanwhile, sweetheart, let me just smash my nose into your sunglasses."

In the process of capturing the above photo, Brandon got this one. I think it's cute because it looks like she's telling me a secret. :)

And these are from today. Thursday means Gymnastics, which means she gets really worn out in the mornings and takes a great afternoon nap...sometimes a little earlier than planned. She loves having her back tickled, and this time it put her right to sleep. :)  Dada didn't mind.