scholar in the making

look daddy! i know the greek alphabet too!!

nomads

the "other" china

this month in national geographic there is an article called "the other china." it's an article about a place called JiuZhaiGou. it means "nine villages" and is located in the northern part of the sichuan province. we've been there; so i was excited that the article came at a time when china has been on my mind. the pictures below dont give the place justice and as a matter of fact, the pictures in N.G. dont give it justice either. the place is spectacular. and is filled with colors and legends and is truly another china.

maggie's version

tonight maggie wanted to sing patty cake. we've never really done that with her a ton and i think its been like a year since i've done it, so i am thinking she picked it up at school?
this is what she sang:
Patty cake Patty Cake
Be My man
Patty Cake Patty Cake
Be My Man
Roll Roll Roll
Pat Pat
Mark it with a beach!

priceless!

tiananmen square

here we are in the famous tiananmen square in beijing. y'all this picture of chairman mao is huge. like ridiculously big. the photos dont really do it justice. one thing i find fascinating about chinese culture is their resiliency as a people. they've been through a heck of a lot in the last 100 years (not to mentions the thousands of years before that...)
they continue to progress and change and despite the chains on them, move forward.

these two ladies were my teammates the year we lived there. both of them moved back there with spouses and stayed for years and years. one just came home. the other is still there. i couldnt find many good ones of all three of us because i guess we were always taking the pictures.
we ate together, studied together, helped each other, and even had to sleep in the same bed together! but let me tell you, we have NEVER laughed so much! if you ever have to live in a place that has rats chewing your shoes, slugs coming up your drain, or mildew down your walls-these are the gals to brave it with. those things never even bothered me because we had so much fun exploring this new world together.

moving on up!

this is maggie's first full day of "preschool!" i can't tell you how excited she (and I) am! her favorite thing is getting to carry her lunch box. even though abraham is sleeping right now and i am about to clean in silence (hooray!), i am a wee bit sad that we are already at this stage.
technically, we dont have to be at this stage but i know that they can teach and give her much more than i could at this point. she is learning like a weed and i think this will sprout a lot more in her. and she loves to say, "I go to Mount Calvary!"
love it!!! here she is last week right before we left for her first day! oh, and when we got there we met two little boys in her class and when their mommy introduced them maggie said, "come on guys! come on, lets go!" she is such a welcomer and kind hearted little one! she teaches us alot!

the arch

safari

somehow some africa pictures snuck in...and by the way, going on a safari is like nothing else in the world. seriously, its thrilling to be so close to big animals, wild animals.

cuter by the day

ah, india.

this is on the Ganges in Varanasi, India. To hindu's its one of the holiest places in the whole country. sometimes i cant even talk about the brief but powerful time I had in India. something deep inside me was stirred and i have never been able to shake it or be the same again. the things i saw, the smells, the people, the colors. the place is just overwhelming in every since of the word.

ten years

its been ten years(!!!!) since i taught in asia and got to explore a little. i took all my negatives and got them put on a cd so i could make a photo book on my mac. its taken a bit longer than i thought to get back there. but God had a path for me that included a wonderful husband and two adorable kids, so we'll see if we'll all end up there together. i sure hope so!
i'll be posting more pics as i go through them and relive some of those memories.
here is me and the Great Wall.

snow dayz

we've had lots of snow here folks. its powdery and brilliant white and amazing. i couldnt believe how happy i was to see it snowing & snowing & snowing.
my hubby is a bit eccentric and one of the lovable things he does it look at the weather around the world on a daily basis. he says its been snowing in moscow every day for weeks. i want to move there.
seriously, i have been on cloud nine with all the snow covering everything! i even had to dig my car out of the snow! so fun!
today it completely melted and now everything just looks dirty and wet and normal.
so, thought today would be a good day to post some reminders of the beauty we had!
our dear neighbor laura came over and wanted to take some shots of maggie in the snow (with her very deluxe camera...which i used for abe's shots down below). thanks laura! you are helping us keep our memories!


catching snowflakes

playmates: i cant wait til next year when they can build snowmen together!

socially conscious baby

these grapes & peas bought at Gapbaby are made by a company called "Under the Nile" and they use "13 villages" to produce these wonderful chew toys for teethers. what i love about them is its all fair trade work...from the Gap! Wonderful!
i love seeing him play with his grapes, peas, and strawberries...knowing that it employed people from all over the world! global minded baby!
(i call this first one...faux hawk in the making)

i know, i know. he's cute.

falala, lala, la la

maggie & abraham lucked out on having such wonderful grandparents. they all showered the kiddos with gifts. here are a few pictures of the wee ones opening presents. we are so thankful! excuse me, but are they not the cutest kids ever?

this apron was HANDMADE by maggie's GREAT grandmother...isnt it beatutiful? she even monogrammed it herself! i know we'll treasure this for year & years to come.


could i be any cuter?

maggie loved the signature on the baby's bottom. she kept wanting to see it. we call her Jenny. after she got her out of the box she immediately put her in her highchair and "fed" her. love it!

which one do i play with?

christmas past

here is a glimpse of our christmas break. it was filled, every night, with something family fun. we got to see lots of folks from east nashville, eat at our favorite indian restaurant (a few times), and have some really good home cooked meals too.
maggie couldnt get enough of her cousins and we're so glad she is in love with them like we are!
somebody gave sarah a "grill" or maybe that was for the kids..

daddy & uncle josh rocking out with the ukelele




maggie walked around with this camera to her eye for a good portion of the morning.

i believe

"i believe when i fall in love with you, it will be forever."-stevie wonder

after the pronouncement of our marriage, as husband & wife, we walked back down the aisle to that song. its such a triumphant song, especially the chorus. it was a theme throughout our dating life, along with the movie High Fidelity. We've been together four years since we walked down to that song. It seems like much, much more...with all the things we've done & all the children we've had!

Our anniversary was spent at a glorious restaurant, Margot Cafe. They served this (surprisingly) amazing black eyed pea hordevour for good luck in the new year. We had course upon course and i sometimes think of the dessert we had and my mouth waters, thats how good it was. After more than two hours filling our bellies we headed back to my parents to get Abraham to bed since he had such a hard time the other nights we had gone out. We had high hopes of going to a party, then lower hopes of games with the siblings, then set our eyes onto the couch. we curled up with our new christmas books and hot tea and laid on the couch together for at least 3 hours reading. it was the perfect (albeit ridicously low key) way to end the year. we've had a wonderful, but tiring year and it was appropriate for it to end with rest.

one thing we talked about that night that has become our #1 resolution for 2009 is : Don't wait for things to be perfect.
If we wait to have a full conversation, we'll never have one. If we wait until we arent tired to go on a date, we'll never go. If we wait to be kind to one another until we've had coffee in the morning, it may be until 10am.

we're realizing that with two kiddos (& more to follow) that our marriage can not wait until life slows down. We have to continue our important conversation in the midst of a toddler singing Twinkle Twinkle at the top of her lungs. We have to serve one another, even if we feel like all we've been doing is serving. We have to keep the conversation going even when our eyelids are dropping. We have to seize those babysitter opportunities even if take out and the couch sounds better. Once we're out the door, we are always so glad.

Life just gets busier. Life just gets more crowded. And with each passing year, we have to keep pushing our marriage, our Stevie Wonder moments, to the forefront. i love you honey!

this picture tells it all. there were many wonderful gifts that were opened that day and i will post those pictures soon. but wanted to give you a glimpse into that special day. when maggie opened this little ukelele, she got very serious and started to play it immediately. we've been singing at the tops of our lungs ever since we got back home. we've got a little performer on our hands...just like daddy.

all in the family

our sweet baby joined his larger covenant family on Christmas Eve. Despite the fact that he had an ear infection (that we didnt know of), he was calm and smiley and despite the fact that Maggie kept trying to blow out the Advent Candles...it was a beautiful service. I love looking at the congregation when the pastor asks them to raise their hand to join us in raising this child to pursue God, that is the most special thing to me! To see everyone raising their hand, knowing the Covenant Community of Christians will love our son.
Pastor Craig performed the service as well as Maggie's and our wedding. It's been great to have the same man be there and lead us in all these important vows.

merry christmas!

abraham-6 months


maggie-3 1/2 months