Big News For Kohen

On Easter Sunday Kohen had some big news too. For a month or so his permanent teeth have been coming in behind his baby teeth. Surprisingly Kohen had zero interest in working his baby teeth out. 

 During Sunday school according to Kohen, he was chewing on his tie  -classy, I know- and suddenly his tooth was super loose. When we got home Nathan pulled it out and Kohen totally bawled. I think he was just scared, because it didn't even hurt him, it was the weirdest reaction! And it made for a really sad picture :(

 A little later he was in much better spirits for pictures. He left a note for the Tooth Fairy asking if he could keep his tooth. He even left a silly band for her to say thank you. He was pretty much giddy that she took the band and left the tooth. Not to mention the $ he found!

Loosened and out in about two hours on an Easter Sunday, not bad!

Dye Those Eggs!

When I went to boil eggs this year for dying I made an embarrassingly obvious discovery. Why I have never realized it before I don't know. I just know I was relieved that Nathan had never noticed either because that means I'm less unobservant than previously thought. Anyway, Taiwan sells eggs in packs of 10, not a dozen. Another perfect visualization of life here, so close! but not quite right.

The kids had been nagging me so long to dye the eggs that I was thrilled when it was finally time to sit down and get them done. We all had fun in the process, actually. Kennedy went about her work methodically as usual.

Aly was dropping eggs in dye faster than I could keep up with her. Even she couldn't tell which ones were hers cuz she had so many eggs in different dyes at once. She didn't seem to be too possessive about them though so it was all right.

Kohen couldn't hardly get started without eating an egg first. He must be having a growth spurt because he begs for eggs all the time these days. So this activity was obviously a dream come true.

These were some cool dinosaurs my mom sent, they turned out and the kids loved them.

Ander was a spectator on this one and he was a good sport for a long time...

But even this boy....

eventually...

Has had enough.

Thankfully it was nothing half a cookie couldn't cure.

Easter Sunday 2011

Happy Easter everybody! We hope that you've had a lovely and spiritual Easter wherever in this world you may be. We did Easter bunny stuff yesterday and I'll post later but wanted to exceed my own expectations and actually say Happy Easter on Easter for once!
PS.- I'd like to thank my sister and niece and others who helped make Easter dresses possible this year. Who knew it would take a village just to dress my children...

Daddy Daughter Ball 2011

 Recently, (though that may be stretching the boundaries of the definition) the Daddy Daughter Ball at ACC came up again. This year Nathan took both of his girls. I was out of town so the sitter who we had to watch the boys, came early and managed hair and make up. I was bummed not to be able to do that part myself because it's so fun. But I left very detailed instructions and some lip gloss and blush...

Which made the bright blue eyeshadow that Kennedy was wearing, come as a bit of a surprise! Oh well, in the end they look slightly orphan-ish but they felt beautiful so what else matters?

 This years theme was "Enchanted", a princess ball. Both girls told me that they did in fact, feel like princesses.

Their dinner was delicious, though Kenna's was mostly comprised of dessert. After dinner they danced the night away. And they even made it home before the stroke of midnight.

So, when they were taking pictures at the house, there is a series of pictures that are so "Aly" that I had to include it. Showing her in motion seems to give you a better picture of her pretend world/spunky personality. The kids like to have me scroll through the pics in Iphoto really fast so it looks like a movie. It's pretty comical. I love it:

 Anyway, the night was a smashing success. Nathan is one lucky guy TWO gorgeous dates for the Ball!

Mei Mei

Looks to me like this is a pretty cozy picture. Come the end of August it's gonna get even cozier. I feel like everyone already knows but if not, a mei mei (little sister) will be joining us in a few short months.

If nothing else you have to give us credit for the sweet A/B pattern we've got going on. :)

Taal Lake and Picnic Grove

As much as we enjoyed the beach and the ocean, on the other side of our building was this huge pool complex. It is easily the coolest pool I've ever been in. It had all of these different depths and pools within a pool and you would walk around these shallow parts to get to different areas. It was perfect for all of our different preferences.

Ander wanted nothing to do with the life jacket. He was always pushing away from us and wanting us to let go of him so he could go under the water. He loved to do this on the edge of the pool, then he would reach up himself and pull himself up. I guess the boy likes water.

And these pools also had two water slides and the kids spent a massive amount of time running up the stairs and sliding down the slides. Poor Maddie spent a lot of time hanging out over there too since the kids never wanted her to be out of reach, let alone out of sight. Maddie was a massively good sport.

Aly Roo

Kenna Jo

Kohen and the Cannon "Bomb" as the kids call it.

Maddie and Ander

Ander's turn with the traditional Chuck-the-kid pic

On Wednesday we drove into Tagaytay. I was really glad we did this portion of the drive again in the day light because it was beautiful. The Philippines are a gorgeous country.

We drove through many providences and there was a pretty low standard of living. If our children started in on anything all we had to do was point out the window to a child living a very different life and it seemed to quiet them up pretty quick.

Though they didn't have much, the people mostly appeared happy, I have to say. And we saw lot's of kids on our way back, out in the fields working with their parents. It can't be an easy life, but I felt like at least many people had a good life.

But who knows, really...

The land was beautiful. Lot's of rolling hills, mountains and farm lands.

We headed in to Tagaytay where we could find a view of Taal Lake and the volcano there. The volcano is in the background in the above picture, a close up below.

There was a lot of haze the day we were there. As we had driven through all of the villages on our way to Taal Lake, many houses had a small fire burning out front. There is only trash service in the city, outside of it you burn or bury it. We wondered how much of the haze had to do with everyone burning their trash. 

Everywhere we went there were lot's and lot's of babies. Every woman (and sometimes child) had one on their hip. It's the first place out of Utah I haven't felt out of place having 4+ children! Besides $, the trash situation is just one more reason most, if not all, use cloth diapers. 

At Picnic Grove (the only real attraction for many miles in any direction) we checked out the volcano and then headed over to the zipline. This was cool. This, I was bummed not to be able to do. I almost did it anyway but after watching the sketchy way they stopped the incoming zipline (slamming into tires on the zipline to stop them, pretty jerky) I heard my Dad's disapproving voice in my head, "I mean, if something happened, it just wouldn't be worth it." And so I climbed back down the tower and let Nathan go twice, once with Kohen and once with Kenna. 

For about $10 you got a picture and a mug with your picture and two rides on the zipline. Now that, is my kind of deal! Their pics turned out great. Kohen and Nathan were first to head out across the jungle.

Look close at Kohen's hand, he is raising his finger to point it at the girls and tell them "You have GOT to try this!"

Ander got to hang out with me and watch. He was a good sport.

Kenna and Nathan

Maddie and Aly

Then, because you couldn't escape the swarm of men and boys trying to get you to go ride the horses (I understand they are just trying to make $ but that was some hustle that went on, I wanted to give them all  money to shut it and leave us alone- it was seriously that bad. I should've taken a picture...) we headed to  the horses and the kids saddled up.

Kohen was talking this kids ear off the entire 1/2 hour they were riding. For real, this is about the only shot where his mouth is closed. So afterward we asked him what he was talking about that whole time. He said he told the kid the whole movie of The Man From Snowy River, "Except the kissing part".
That poor kid was probably wondering what in the world Kohen was gabbing about.

Apparently all Aly repeated the entire time she was on the horse was directed at the guy walking it, "Can we go faster?!"

And Kennedy got a chance to ride too. I think it gave them a temporary fix since the Man from Snowy River obsession has taken over our home.

We spent our last evening poolside. The girls were all over at the waterslides and the boys were chillin in the pool.

I was really grateful for the opportunity we had to get away for a bit. Especially to such a gorgeous place.

How I love these boys... not even words.

Thanks for chillin with us!!!!