Kids got Elfed!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1210022909


Now go elf yourself!

Madeline's Korean Photo Shoot

I took Madeline to a Korean photographer for her 9 mos pictures this week. The following pictures are pretty typical of those I've seen being done here: a lot of background action and props and a lot of photoshopping afterwards. As you might also notice, they also lighten the skin quite a bit here. Although she is fair, Madeline is not this pale. Maddie was not particularly smiley this morning, so she was either sticking her tongue out, waving at me, or just looking pensive....

This is my favorite:

It's snowing!

It's snowing again! Yesterday afternoon we walked to the bus stop to get Drew as it snowed (it melted as soon as it touched the ground) and this morning it was snowing again as Daddy took Drew to the bus stop. It's still not sticking, but fun all the same.

Check back later today to see pictures of Madeline's Korean photo shoot!

Santa!

We took the kids to the BX this weekend to see Santa. I wish I could say we have some great pics, but while we were busy making sure Maddie didn't fall off Santa's lap, no one was there to make the kids focus, so they're looking all over the place. Exhibit A:

Previously, Andrew said that he wasn't going to ask Santa for anything and would "just take whatever Santa gives me." When he got there, he gave Santa quite a list that included "a train that goes all around the living room: up over the couch," all around. Josh is still hoping for that aircraft carrier as well as a logging truck, cargo truck and car carrier. Does it matter that he owns all of these things already? No. And Maddie had no idea what was going on, she was just going with the flow.

Mailing Address

Don't forget about us! We'd love to hear from you this Christmas. Our address is:
PSC 3 Box 6828
APO, AP 96266-0068

Getting Ready for Christmas!

Christmas will look a little different in our house this year. We didn't bring any holiday decorations with us at all since space was at a premium. And there aren't any fresh Christmas trees available here so we bought a fake one this year. It smelled like plastic when we took it out of the box, but the upside of the fake tree is that we got to set it up already and we won't have to vacuum as much. We bought some ornaments from the BX and presto: we are ready for Christmas!

Josh likes to take pictures with Mommy's camera, this one didn't turn out too bad:

Josh then became obsessed with the ornaments and developed a "pattern" of them.

He was quite overprotective of them and wouldn't let us put them on the tree for awhile.

It took some negotiating...

Here's Maddie and her very first Christmas tree:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year we celebrated 3 times! The first was with Ainsley's co-workers on Sunday.

The second was with Andrew's kindergarten.

Finally, for the actual day, we drove up to Seoul and stayed at the Dragon Hill Lodge and had Thanksgiving dinner with practically everyone we know in the country. I'm not kidding. It was really nice not having to cook!

Here we are enjoying our Thanksgiving feast with the Bliss family. We had a HUGE group of people and despite making a couple of reservations for the max of 20 people, they only set up tables as big as 8. Luckily, we were together in one huge room. Later that night, we put the kids to bed and stayed out in the hallways talking until late.

We also walked around a shopping area called Itaewon and explored the Army post. We ended up only staying one night. The five of us were in one room and that is too many sleepers in one space! The kids slept great but Ainsley and I were up all night listening to them giggle (Andrew), talk (Josh) or kick (Madeline) in their sleep! We plan on going back for more exploring and for a two-room stay.

Joshie and one of the many giant Santas around the hotel.