December 2017

We had a warm and sunny start to our cold December. 

We went on a visa run to our favorite resort in Thailand, the Novotel. 

This is the view from our room. What a sight. 

 The kids LOVE this pool. It has a great slide as you can see in the background and is a good height for littles. 

There is a great seafood restaurant down the beach a little ways that we always enjoy eating at. 

The resort put bunkbeds in our room for the kids this time. The loved them. 

This is how we spent every morning after breakfast. They had the Jurassic Lego game and Ezra and I loved playing it together. When we got back home we ordered one of our own. 

One of our favorite traditions is making a gingerbread house. I brought this one to India back in January. 

Isn't this just precious!? 

We went to the movies with friends and these girls are so sweet together. 

Ezra turned 5 in December! 

He is just amazing.. so kind and creative and he really tries to be obedient. 

He requested a Transformer themed birthday party so we decorated the house and had lots of friends over to celebrate this wonderful kid. 

Ezra had a Christmas party at school and needed to wear "party wear". 

Isn't he just so handsome?? 

Christmas was a lot different this year. It was the first time we didn't have family with us because usually we've been in the States or Luke's mom has been here but it was still a sweet time. 

We started the day opening presents. 

Their favorite was the kitchen set from grandparents. 

We had a few different outreach events that weekend to share the meaning of Christmas and it was a great way to use the holiday. We love our church family. 

We ended the night at TGI Fridays enjoying awesome steak and thanking God for another great year. 

November 2017

 We love holidays, especially Christmas trees so this year we decided to put our tree up on November 1st. There are no Christmas decorations, Christmas music on the radio, Christmas movies on TV etc. here so we like to celebrate big inside our house to make up for the lack of celebration in the community. The kids loved having the tree up early. We put their Melissa & Doug wood train around it which was a lot of fun for them. 

Sadie also loved the Christmas tree. 

Though we put up the Christmas tree, we still totally celebrate Thanksgiving as well. For one of our special movie nights we had turkey cookies and watched Free Birds. The kids helped me decorate the cookies and did a good job. 

The kids and I drove by ourselves across Punjab one week after we spent some time working alongside Luke. It was a big step for us and so wonderful. 

As I drive my little red car across India, I sport this awesome new decal. It's the shape of Texas (where we're from) but it has an Indian henna design inside. 

I love this picture of Madelyn and her friend from one of their playdates. 

I know Madelyn won't want to match me forever so I like to take advantage of it now while I can. This is us matching for church. 

The press wala's (man who irons clothes on our street) daughter has become a sweet friend of the kids. She comes over almost every day to play. They have a language barrier but love to have fun together. This is us all out for ice-cream together. 

 I was walking through the market and just had to take a picture of this. The man is feeding this cow some roti... you don't see that in Walmart. :) 

One weekend some friends of ours came in town and we went to the carnival together. Luke and our friend's son went on this crazy fast ride. 

Ezra's favorite ride was the bumper boats that he and our friend's youngest son rode. 

Our church has a lot of children and since we meet in a school they get to play on the playground after church which is so much fun for our kids. 

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. 

We started the day with a "turkey" breakfast. 

 We had two Thanksgivings. The first was our family Thanksgiving with just one other family in town and we made the whole meal and had a great time of fellowship. 

I like to have a family Thanksgiving so that we get to enjoy the leftovers. :) 

Then later we had a big pot-luck Thanksgiving with about 30 other expats in town. It was a wonderful way to celebrate. 

October 2017

October is one of my favorite months because the weather starts to cool off and we go into full-on holiday mode. We do a lot of themed cooking and baking. Some of my favorites are chicken pot pie with pumpkin shaped biscuits on top and any dessert with Reese's pieces on top. 

The nice weather also means Madelyn and I get to pull out our boots which she was super excited about this year. 

The kids love to dress up and play together. 

We finally tried out the paddle boats at Sukhna Lake and it was really fun. The kids loved it. 

Ezra and I love to make jack-o-lanterns. He loves crafts as much as I do. 

 We also fixed our back yard twinkle lights which I LOVE! 

When the weather gets nice, the kids and I like to go out with Luke into Punjab. 

The kids are old enough now that these trips are really easy and so much fun! 

I love this sweet photo. 

Diwali was at the end of October this year. We had a few guests staying with us which made it extra fun. We got the kids little gifts, grilled burgers outside, and watched fireworks with our neighbors until late at night. 

This is Ezra in his precious winter uniform. I love his matching hat! 

For one of our special movie nights we watched Hotel Transylvania and made bat cupcakes. Pinterest is such a great resource for these ideas!

 We started a new tradition this year. Our own "boo at the zoo". We dressed the kids up in their costumes on Halloween and took them to the zoo. They really loved it. 

It's hard to replace trick or treating and big festivals at local churches but this year we tried. I bought candy and covered it in little cups then hid them all over the house. The kids then got to do a scavenger hunt for them and had a lot of fun. 

Any activity that ends in a basket full of candy is basically a winner for these two. 

The kids smiling with their loot. 

We had our traditional Halloween meals. Pumpkin pancakes, jack-o-lantern quesadillas and worm cake. 

October is full of holiday spirit and fun which keeps life great! 

September 2017

 September has brought so much rain! This is our 4th year living in India but our first time to experience a real monsoon season. Prior years it simply hasn't rain much but this year it has rained a lot and the kids are having so much fun. 

We love to play on our roof top in the rain because it floods easily which is fun to run in. (But I can drain it easily too.. don't worry.)

I love how easy it is to make this kid's day. I found this cartoon cake pop for a dollar in our market and surprised Ezra after school. He was so excited.. kids are SO fun! 

We have been adding more and more costumes to our dress up wardrobe and the kids have so much fun being creative and playing with them. This is Madelyn in a skirted Spiderman outfit.

All the rain and slightly cooler weather has been great for our garden. The flowers and bushes are flourishing and I love enjoying them each day. 

So.. Madelyn loves to be a helper. This is her helping me fill the dog's bowl. I found her this way and couldn't help but just laugh and thank her for feeding the dog.

 I knew she was being too quiet. :) 

 This is a picture from Madelyn's first movie theater experience. She did really well. 

The kids love playing with water balloons! 

 We have an amazing waterpark outside of our town. They have a really big kids area and the water is shallow enough that we don't have to worry about the kids drowning. It has been such a blessing in this hot season. 

The 13th was my birthday. I had a busy day of meetings but Luke and the kids surprised me with cake and sweet hand made cards when I got home that night.

 Madelyn is growing so fast and looks like a little girl not a baby anymore. 

She has a little best friend in town and it has been so sweet to them play together and love each other. 

 We took a family trip to the village and the kids had a lot of fun. 

 This is a well at a person's house which is their source of water. Ezra loved trying to pump it. 

 Every Sunday this sweet man walks his camel down our street giving rides to kids for 50 cents. Ezra was finally brave enough to ride it and it was such an experience. I love living in a place that avails awesome adventures outside your front door.