Snowy Illinois!

We were THRILLED to land last night at O'Hare to lots of snow! Kaitlyn spent quite awhile outside last night helping Grandpa Weiss snowplow the driveway. We were thankful for the warm coats, hats, mittens, and scarves that were brought to the airport for us:)

Wow! We've had quite the time the past week since we left Singapore. We spent about 4 days in Japan with Klaus's. Kaitlyn had such a good time with their girls that there were many tears on the way to the airport and it's safe to say that she (and all of us) walked away with new friends. We are thankful that they welcomed us with open arms and showed us around a little! We also spent an evening with Akito and Marie Inoue and some time with Akihiro and Carrie Ito. We were treated to a nice meal at a Japanese restaurant - complete with a fish that you eat head, guts, bones and all! To be fair I need to admit that I couldn't bring myself to try it although every one else ate theirs. Akihiro gladly ate mine for me! I have pictures that I will try to get posted sometime soon.

Than it was on to warm, sunny California - oh, wait! It was on to cold, cloudy, rainy LA! I have always pictured southern California as very warm and while it was warmer than Tokyo and much warmer than Chicago we still needed jackets. When the sun did come out on our second day there it was warm as long as you stayed out of the shade - relatively speaking:) A huge THANK YOU to Justin, Robin, and co. for putting up with us for 2 days. They were brave to put up with 5 jet lagged people!

Speaking of jet lag - when you put jet lag and an insomniac person together it is not a pretty sight! Three of us are adjusting pretty well and two of us are having a harder time...

Coming To You From....Changi Airport, Singapore

I'm posting to you from Changi Airport because....

Well, because I can! We are checked in for our flight to Tokyo and the kids are playing at the indoor playground here at the airport. There is also an outdoor swimming pool, a butterfly garden, seats that are more comfortable than my living room furniture, and shopping galore! It's supposedly one of the best airports in the world and right now I'd have to agree. No one is rushing around or stressed and the announcements over the PA are very calm and reassuring and not obnoxious.

I am going to go and sit in a chair with my feet up for awhile and read:)

Signing off,

The Most Relaxed Traveler In The World

The Tree, OH The Tree!!!

WELL...


Yesterday, the tree went over.







It took me this long to be able to mention it...







All is well except the two SAS Memories ornaments I just bought the twins for our tree....(and a few cheap ornaments.)






OH WELL, the ornament

s are just THINGS, right?

I got a good jog in because of it, though!

Sunday School

A few weeks ago I took pictures of our Sunday School. Ryan had left that Saturday for a business trip and wasn't there and I believe that Ethan was down for a nap.

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We have had fun using the Betty Lukens flannel boards along with our weekly lesson. This story was the beginning of the Christmas story lessons.

We usually sit at the kitchen table with Ethan in the booster chair and Ryan in Kaitlyn's spot. We have to keep Ethan entertained with fruit snacks otherwise he tried to run around and be disruptive=P

I JUST GOT HUNG UP ON BY A TELEMARKETER!!!

Christmas In Singapore

I still haven't figured out how to put pictures in the correct order of how the day progressed so I apologize that they are a little mixed up. We had our Christmas yesterday to give the kids a chance to play with their Christmas toys a little before we head home this Saturday. We started off with a picture in front of the tree while they were still dressed nice from church followed by swimming (yep, on Christmas!), a trip to a dumpling restaurant for supper, playing in the "snow" on Orchard Road, and opening presents before bed. Here are some pics:

This is the restaurant we ate supper at

Kaitlyn playing in the "snow" (actually bubbles) on Orchard

I squatted down to try to get a picture of Ethan and he squatted down with me! He walked all over the mall and up and down Orchard Road carrying 2 Little People, 1 zebra, and 1 stop sign.

Eating at the dumpling restaurant.

Pork and fried rice

Ryan with our pork and seafood dumplings.

Shrimp and pork dumplings

The kitchens are surrounded by windows so you can watch the chefs making the dumplings from scratch. It's quite a process and fun to watch.

A Shout Out to the Mom!

I, and I alone, put this baby together tonight!!

My "Baby" Who Isn't Really a Baby Anymore...

He's growing up, this little one that I still call my baby. I sat and watched him play this evening with some delight as I realized that he's learned new things and some sadness as I watched what's "baby" about him slip away. This evening in the pool I realized that he was holding on to the side of the pool and letting his legs float behind him until they reached the surface and than he was kicking and saying, "Kick!" Later on after his shower he was playing with his "Cars" character cars and saying, "Hug!" and "Kiss!" while doing just that to his little car.

When we left Singapore last June he was going through a tough stage where he'd scream a lot. He doesn't do this anymore and just as I predicted it ended once he could talk. He's turned into a happy, content toddler who loves to sit and be read to and loves to dance to music, any music. He loves it when his big brother and sister come home from school and when he wakes up to find his daddy home from a business trip. He hums and sings to himself while he's playing with toys. He loves to line cars and Little People up in a line and move them around.

I miss my little baby but rejoice that he's healthy and growing! And really, he'll always be my "baby", right?

At Your Own Risk

Okay - so I realize that when one puts up a Christmas tree in a house that has a two year old growing it in one does so at one's own risk. If said two year old topples over the Christmas tree and smashes all one's decorations to smithereens on one's marble floor there isn't much room to be mad, right?

NOW - when one's six year old kicks a ball in the house after repeatedly being told not to and knocks off your favorite candle holder and IT smashes to smithereens on the marble floor I think that there is much room for frustration! Aforementioned six year old (did I mention boy?) is still awaiting what his consequences are going to be...

Oh - nothing has actually happened to the Christmas tree...yet!

Fountain Fun

Every time I told Ethan to smile for this picture he stuck his finger up his nose!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

While we are on the subjects of birthday's I thought I'd share a few pictures I received recently of my neices and nephew's birthday cakes...

Kaylee got a tiny purse cake for her first birthday!

Anna got a bigger purse cake at the same party!

And Keegan got a crayon birthday cake for his second birthday!
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The following video is from Ethan's birthday. It's of him playing with Little People so most of you may find it quite boring - this one is for the Grandma's and Aunts:)

The Tree Is UP!

Kaitlyn, Kenton, Lovel and I trimmed the tree tonight with all lights off except the tree and Christmas music in the background! This is my FAVORITE time of year:) We'll see what the tree looks like in the morning in the daylight... =0

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Ryan and I had to run some errands this afternoon - at one point we were on Orchard Road listening to "Let It Snow" blaring from loudspeakers. We both looked around at the Singaporeans and wondered what they know about snow...!

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One of our errands was to replace Ethan's green card. We were IMPRESSED that we walked out of the government building 40 minutes after we walked in WITH GREEN CARD IN HAND! That was with 30 numbers in front of us! Ryan says that when he has gone to the US Embassy to add more pages to his passport it's taken that long to get someone to notice he's there:)

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Hope everyone is enjoying the day after Thanksgiving shopping! Ryan had a gift certificate to a department store called Takashimaya so we stopped there to buy a few Christmas gifts for the kids. It was the closest I've come to being in a US department store during the Christmas season - complete with crowds of people, Christmas decorations, and holiday music...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm SO excited for tomorrow! I'm looking forward to having turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and lots of gravy:) We are going in together with five families to have a regular, ol', American Thanksgiving meal at our neighbor's condo across the hall...boy are we looking forward to it!! I still have to get the pies made and get the ingredients for the green bean casserole but the good news is that the stores won't be any crazier than normal and there won't be a big rush on Thanksgiving ingredients either:)

Other than that we've been staying busy as usual! Ryan's been around this week which has been nice. I've worked at the PTA book fair for the past three afternoons processing the books that the teachers picked out for their classrooms. They all have a budget to get new books with.

Kaitlyn is at her first overnight playdate with three other girls from her class - we'll see how it goes. I'm a little bit nervous! Kenton's wondering around a little lost without his buddy...

I took Ethan this morning with me to Starbucks with my friend Melissa and he skipped the whole way into the store from the carpark! While it's fun to see him grow up enough to be excited about something it's sad that my baby isn't little anymore:( We also went to playgroup this morning before I took off to the book fair and as we were leaving he turned to the hostess and said, "Bye, Karen!" She nor I had any idea that he knew her name!

We are praying that everyone of you has a Blessed Thanksgiving! We are thankful for our blessings and our freedoms even though we are half way around the world:)

This video is of a home in Pleasant Grove, Utah. There are more videos (and much better quality) on their website www.holdman.com.

Merry Christmas From The Weiss's

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

It's hard to believe he's TWO!

Ashton, Kenton, Kaitlyn, and Jack all had fun playing the computer and Wii. Jack is in Kaitlyn's class at school and Ashton is in the same grade. Kait is not one bit bothered by the fact she is the only girl!
Misha is one of Ethan's favorite people right now! They are in the same playgroup together and E walks around the house talking about her a lot.

The Cake!

When we started singing Happy Birthday Ethan jumped off his chair and hid around the corner!

And Then There Were Five

Tina and Betty were up at the crack of dawn this morning to begin their trip home! One had a wake up call for 4:15am and the other for 4:30am. It was a little lonely walking back up to the condo at 5am after their taxi left but I went back to bed for a few more hours:)

We finished out their trip yesterday with a few hours by the pool followed by a quick wet market trip and an exciting walk home from school in a true "Singapore Soaker!" I don't think that they really wanted to experience that last one while they were here...

We went out for supper to a dumpling restaurant that was really good (even the kids liked it!) and than came home for an early bedtime.

We had a wonderful time together and Kaitlyn told me this morning ALL about the sleep over she and Betty have planned together for next summer:) We will miss you two!

Sentosa Island


Orchid Garden

The Singapore Zoo

Thanks, Joan, for our little bit of Fall!

Christmas Cards Are Done!!!

Thanks to my "Assembly Team" for helping me to get all my cards done early! I wanted to get them out early so that everyone knows where to send their cards to so we don't miss out this year:)

Well, we are on Tina and Betty's last day here! We spent yesterday on Arab street doing some fun shopping and now today hopefully we will be able to park it by the pool. If it rains (quite likely during rainy season!) we will just walk around the wet market again for awhile since Betty saw some shops down there she'd like to walk through. They leave at 7:20 tomorrow morning (5:20pm Wed night.)

Catch Up

Whew! We've been keeping busy, busy, busy with our company and the time has just flown by! Hard to believe that they will be leaving in a few short days. Ethan is going to miss his personal assistants and Kaitlyn is going to miss having Betty play school with her for an HOUR at a time...!

On Friday the twins had off school so we went to the Jurong Bird Park. We hadn't been there before and unfortunately the kids and I didn't make it much past the playground/water park area. Tina and Betty struck out on their own to see the birds and than we all met up for lunch at the restaurant at the main entrance. My neighbor Melissa and her son Jack went with us as well. We came home for a few hours to rest up and than all of us but Ethan took off for the night safari at the zoo. We had a nice time there, as well, despite all the flashes going off on cameras after being repeatedly told NOT to use the flash!

Saturday we took off around 10:30 and after dropping off Kaitlyn at a playdate we headed to the Botanical Gardens to see the orchids and walked to Orchard Road to eat lunch at the Singapore Hard Rock Cafe (Kenton's pick!) Than we walked down Orchard Road (high end, up scale, not affordable to me, shopping) to the MRT station and went out to Sentosa Island. We took a cable car ride out to the island and as we were coming out of the building (Up 6 stories) I heard Ethan do a sharp intake of breath. I'm not sure that he didn't think we were going to fall! We walked around Sentosa for awhile before heading back home to give the kids supper and head them off to bed. Ryan, Betty, Tina, and I walked up to the Civic Center by Causeway Point Mall for some really good Thai and conversation sans kids:)

After church on Sunday we spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool to counteract the busy day we had on Saturday! Around 5:00 or so we walked up to the MRT and took the train to Clark Quay where Betty and Tina got to try Chili Crab (a Singapore specialty) at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. We followed supper with a relaxing, sight-seeing trip down the Singapore River on a bumboat.

Today we dropped the twins off at school and set off through the wet market so they could see how the average Singaporean shops. We hopped on the MRT again and headed to Little India where we walked around and shopped until we were rained out! We ducked into this good little restaurant where we had our lunch. I have to admit I was a little skeptical when we walked in as it was a vegetarian place but my Asian noodles and veggies were GOOD! After Little India we took a cab home and relaxed until the kiddo's came home from school. They did homework and supper and than we walked up to the Civic Center again, this time for shoes for Kenton (his teacher called me this morning to tell me they had fallen apart at school!!!) and a hair cut for Ethan (you are welcome, Mom!) Than because everyone, including the adults, had been well behaved we got ice cream cones from McD's before walking home!

I will post pictures later when I've had time to upload them all onto the computer. I need to grab some off of Tina and Betty's camera's too and than we'll be good to go!

Kaitlyn's News

She lost her first tooth today! She beat her brother on this one and I have to admit that I gagged when I saw her pull it out...Not a very supportive mom, I know!

I said something like, "Ewww, ummm, great! Maybe you should save it and show it to dad. Oh -you're supposed to put it under your pillow! But I don't want to see it..."

A Girl's Trip

Monday after we dropped the twins off at school Betty, Tina, and I headed to Bintan, Indonesia for a few days. We stayed at a different resort than my trip a few weeks back - this time we stayed at Nirwana Gardens. It was much like the first place I stayed only this trip it rained for most of the time we were there. We finally had some sunshine on Wednesday so we got out early and soaked up as much as we could. I discovered the hammock's on the beach and I didn't want to leave! All the rain and storms had stirred up the sea which is normally pretty calm and produced some great, crashing waves!

A Day at the Zoo

After church on Sunday we all went to the zoo for a few hours before coming home for supper. We saw an elephant show that we hadn't seen before and a Splash Safari show that was fun. When they asked for a few kid volunteer's at the Splash Safari show Kaitlyn volunteered and was picked to help feed a sea lion. She was rewarded with a big, fishy KISS!

:)

Betty and Tina arrived safely this evening! We had a few mishaps in getting to the airport in time but we were able to meet up with them and all come home together. I guess I have a few things to figure out when meeting guests at the airport! It's so different than having a car that you can just hop into and quick run to pick someone up.

We came home and ate a pizza supper by candlelight:) out on our balcony - it was a perfect evening for that - and then I got to work unpacking my suitcase that they so kindly brought over for me. I had Joan stock up on a few things for me as well as send a few birthday gifts for E and Christmas gifts for K & K. Good ol' US prices!!

Anyway, everyone is in bed and I should head that way as well. Hope everyone has a great weekend! We will - we have guests for church tomorrow!!

:(

Tina and Betty were delayed in Tokyo tonight so we won't see them until tomorrow at 5:30pm (3:30am your time.) It's a bit of a bummer but at the same time we actually have a crazy Saturday for once so it may all be for the better.

I feel bad because I just realized that people have been leaving comments on my blog which I have not been getting. Usually Blogger sends me an e-mail when someone leaves a comment and it hasn't been doing this for the past week or so...anyone else experiencing this problem??

Nothing Says Fall Better Than...Pumpkin!!

I'm feeling festive so I have a batch of Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins in the oven! I love, love, love the smell of baking pumpkin and cinnamon. Although now I have a problem - my recipe only called for 1/2 c pumpkin so I have most of a can left. Anyone have a recipe that they care to share for the leftover pumpkin? Please leave it in the comments or e-mail me...

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Kaitlyn just wrote me this note:

"to Mom i Love (surrounded by a heart) you thank you for all the things that you have DONe for me i will miss you on Monday at scoole Love (another heart!) Kaitlyn

Look on the back of the papere

On the back:

Mom i Love you Do you Love me?

(insert a stick figure drawing of a little girl saying, "i love you mom" and a mom saying, "i love you to Kaitlyn."

this is a song i relley (really) love i thingck you will love it to!

Jesus loves me this i noy

for the Bibel tels me so

yes Jesus love me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus love me the Bible tells me so

6 Year Old Boy For Sale!!!!

The Madness That Is Called Halloween

If you click on this picture and make it bigger you can see the hair glitter! She didn't care so much what she was as long as it included hair glitter:) BTW: you will notice further on that Kenton wore a different costume to school than he wore out Trick or Treating. Who knows why!!

Our unprofessional pumpkin!
This is the front gate to our apartment.
One of my friends who lives on the main road of the neighborhood said she had at least 3100 trick or treaters before she got tired and closed up.

This kid made us laugh! Word on the street is that his tactic worked and he got a lot of candy:)

I figured since the locals can take pictures of my kids I can take pictures of theirs! This 4 month old was dressed up as Dracula.

A lot of the adults were dressed up while they were taking their kids around.

This year we had a pirate and an angel. We would have also had a pumpkin but Ethan was home sick.

While we were taking this picture my neighbor kept saying, "Come on, guys, Smile!" Her 10 year old (the one behind the Scream mask) said, "I AM smiling!" =P

The courtyard of the Primary School.

Kaitlyn and Maya getting ready for the Halloween parade around school.

Kenton and Sophia listening to a story before the parade and Halloween party.

When you watch this video listen to the noise level. Also watch the cat on the roof!

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Quick Ethan update. His fever broke yesterday but than he started throwing up and has diarrhea. I'm thinking that he picked up another virus when I had him into the 24 clinic a few days ago - there were kids throwing up all over the place... BUT, overall he's doing better and is acting more like himself.