Christmas Is Coming

Well, I suppose it's really not, but you have to understand how hard I am finding this!! I feel like I haven't had Christmas for about 3 years...maybe even longer! I didn't get to decorate at all last year, as we had to pack out mid-November, and we got here on the 21st of December, so we had NOTHING here for us to decorate with! We didn't get our Christmas decorations until mid-March! And Devin wouldn't let me decorate then... :( So I missed out on Christmas last year. We had a cute little Christmas tree that our neighbors set up and decorated for us, and on Christmas morning, we used some of Devin's socks as stockings, since we didn't have our real ones yet! Very memorable, of course, but I LOVE Christmas!!!!!

Devin and I have been known to randomly burst into Christmas songs lately, and at this very moment I have Mannheim Steamroller Christmas playing (or one of them, as we have, I think, all of their Christmas albums). I am very much in the Christmas mood! I'm so excited to have the best of both worlds this year, since I'm planning to decorate for Christmas in August (Yes, you heard right, AUGUST--don't worry. I won't be offended if you laugh and think I'm nutty. My housekeeper laughed at me when I told her, and I didn't fire her.)! So, I will get to enjoy my house decorated for Christmas time, and then leave at the end of November/December to enjoy a good ol' western US Christmas complete with subzero temperatures and (hopefully) some good snow! I'm looking forward to fires in fireplaces, sweaters, hot chocolate, candy canes (I don't really like them, but they are very Christmasy), sledding, snowball fights, snowmen building, eating a lot of REAL food (he he he...), and caroling outside while freezing your self to death! I'm so looking forward to this! I wasn't for a long time, then I finally resigned myself to the fact that we're going to be there for the holidays and freezing weather, and now I'm super excited! I can't wait!!


I hope you will forgive me a moment of nostalgia...

Let it Snow!! Here it is snowing in Rexburg...isn't it pretty? My parents' backyard. I'm so sad I wasn't there this past winter to enjoy the enormous amounts of snow they got!!!!


Here it is after a few more snow storms and a little shoveling! That fence is a good 6 or 7 feet tall... :)


The Christmas Kitty. Stupid cat.

(These pictures were taken by my little sister.)

Here's a funny little story that has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas. Last night I was thinking to myself how nice it had been--that for THREE whole days we hadn't lost power even once!! Those nice long stretches are so nice! I must have jinxed myself, though, because in the middle of the night, the power went out. Blah. That's the worst, because that means the kids' A/C gets knocked out. If I don't get in there within a few minutes to turn it back on, inevitably one or both of them will wake up and come wandering in. I'm not sure if it is because the heat rises so quickly, or if they are just like me (and the rest of the Edwards clan) and have to have that constant fan noise. But, either way, I didn't get in there fast enough last night, and had some fun with Claire in the middle of the night. Oh well. That's not so out of the ordinary. She was my best sleeper--she slept 12 hours straight through the night at 3 weeks old...until she was 2. And now...she sleeps through the night maybe one or two nights a week. *sigh* I guess she is just trying to help me be more prepared for another newborn. :)

Pastimes

We have a new pastime at our house lately. The kids have discovered that if you push the 'demo' button on the piano, it makes all the lights blink, and if you push a button under one of the flashing lights, it makes a song! So there are probably 20 different songs to choose from. They turn it on, turn up the volume, push the demo button, and choose a song--then dance like crazy! It's actually quite funny and keeps them entertained for about an hour at a time! Whew!

Claire and Drew at the piano! Someday, I'll have to teach them that the piano actually makes sounds from the person playing it, and not just the demo buttons that blink so enticingly! :)



Here's Andrew...happy as always!! He is sporting the wonderful red truck that everyone loves! :)


I also had my first ultrasound today. Everything is fine. It was definitely an interesting place to go for an ultrasound, but I survived without too many injuries (just kidding), and even got to say 'Bonjour' to the little cashew (I don't like peanuts very much, but am very fond of cashews...) who really isn't a little cashew anymore! That's always fun, and really makes it much more real. Sadly, they didn't give me any pictures this time, so I can't add to my enlarging collection of ultrasound pics. Now I just have to sit down and really decide on a doctor and start making some phone calls. *sigh* So much to do...so much time...

Picnics and Gardens

Yesterday was another installment of our 'Mummy and Me' summer fun. We had a Teddy Bear Picnic! It was so fun! The kids really enjoyed it, and regaled their father with all kinds of stories when he got home from work last night! :) They got to give their bears 'tea' using a small tea set (which you were very brave to use, Leonora! :) I was so worried someone would break it!!), which Josh thought was the funniest thing! :)

The teddy bears' tea party! :) It's such a cute tea set!


The teddy bears ... well, perhaps not the teddy bears themselves... are having a snack!


We threw 'Honey Bees' into a 'Honey pot' (yellow things into a bucket decorated very nicely), colored bear pictures, sang '5 Little Teddy Bears Bouncing on the Bed', and even did an action rhyme ('Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around'). Then, while the kids were not paying attention, the bears were all hid, and they were told to find them and they'd get a prize! Well, they all thought that that was a fabulous idea. Josh found most of them, which he boasted of quite happily to Devin over dinner (which was oatmeal, by the way. Yes, I'm a bad mom.)! :) We had a nice snack time, where my little munchkins ate pretty much everything in sight. Or at least, they piled everything in sight onto their plates. Between Josh, Claire and I, we ate an entire full bowl of microwave popcorn. I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed that, as it is processed and has lots of preservatives, so it sat happily with my nauseous stomach. :) We played with a parachute and sang some songs and blew some bubbles. The kids really enjoyed themselves. But I must always admit that I wonder if the kids ever enjoy themselves half as much as the moms do at these events?? How nice it is to get with other moms who are in the same situation you are--staying home all day long with little people who don't always have a lot of conversation skills yet--and TALK! Oh, it is fantastic!!!! It makes the rest of the day very bearable, to say the least! :)

On another note, I looked out the window today, and what did I see? No, not popcorn popping on the Apricot tree... But I saw that we had HUGE cucumbers on plants that I didn't even know were out there!!
The garden! You can see the cucumbers if you look really closely.

Woohoo! So I got three of them and sliced them up and we ate them for a snack today! Yea!! We also have a bunch of soy bean plants with lots of soybeans on them!! Cool, eh? It's always fun to have little surprises in the garden. Especially when you're not expecting it. :) That was a nice thing.

We also had a 'real' dinner tonight! I made up a nice big batch of black beans, then made Devin and the kids make some homemade tortillas and scrambled eggs, and we feasted on Central American fare! Yea!! Super yummy! And we had a lot of very happy kids after that! (Not that they weren't happy after eating cinnamon rolls as a snack during playgroup today, but that's a different sort of happy. Luckily, the cinnamon rolls I make are of a very different variety, and are actually GOOD for you, so I have no problem giving them to my kids...or anyone else's for that matter!)

My Mom

Today is my mom's birthday, so I thought I would make a tribute to her as I did my dad. Funny thing, though, as I was trying to find some pics, I ran into some struggles. Half the pictures I wanted to use weren't the right file type, so I couldn't fix them the way I wanted to. There were some from the same time as the ones from my dad's birthday list, but I don't really want to use the same ones. Then I hit upon a brilliant plan: I went to my family's MyFamily.com site and stole pictures from there! I wish I would have done that for my dad's, because there were some sweet ones from that one, too! Oh well.

So, Mom, this one's for you!!! :)

This is the cake that I would make for you if I were there...can't you just taste those chocolate dipped strawberries?? :)


Here are some beautiful roses for you, Mom! I know they don't smell as good on the computer...and I know it's a picture of the ones that Dad gave you for your anniversary in march, but, hey, it's the thought that counts, right??


My mom was always so good to come to my rescue for a few weeks after each kid has been born. She only had to travel to Utah for the first one...but the second one she had to go to Pennsylvania and hang out in our tiny little trailer, and for the third she had to go to Washington D.C., although I think that one wasn't as much of a trial as there are lots of fun things to do there... :) So, this time, I'm giving her a break. She doesn't have to come to Africa for #4, we're going there instead! :)


Mom's always been very trusting with her hair. This haircut was given by my sister (it's a good haircut, sorry it's so blurry!). But it puts me in mind of the time when we were living in California and my mom needed a new haircut. Funds were tight at the time, so my mom asked ME to cut her hair--I was TEN YEARS OLD!!! Sufficeth to say, it didn't turn out very well, and she had to go in to town and get it fixed anyway. :) She trusted me a lot at that point.


She is always game to go places, even if she perhaps didn't really want to...but she did it to be with her family!! (She even sometimes allowed herself to be photographed, however unwillingly, at said outings!)


Me and My Mom on the metro! :) Oh, I think we both hated having our picture on this one... :)


My mom always tried to make holidays very special! She decorated for all of them, including us in the decorations (which sometimes got a little interesting...I remember all those Halloweens where we drew our own ...uhhh... beautiful window decorations which would consist of some hardly decipherable pictures of pumpkins, witches, black cats, etc... ). Our house always looked so beautiful!


My mom would go to the moon and back for any of us kids --not to mention my dad! And she quite often has in the figurative sense! She is a super mom--she cooks, she sews, she reads everything, she plans and executes and still manages to have a clean house. How? I have no idea! I can't! :)


My Mom Did It!! She worked herself to death and managed to come out with her degree--finally! :) We are so proud of her! :)


Doesn't she look happy? The graduate! :)


Yes, this is a PAINTING by my mom. She is incredible! No wonder they let her graduate with her degree in art! Isn't it fantastic??? (It's a painting from a picture that my dad took of the temple in Rexburg, Idaho)


The Amazing super mom!!! Not only is she the mother of these four fantastic people (myself, my two brothers and my sister), but she managed to pull off my wedding almost single-handedly! She MADE my wedding dress, she MADE ALL 4 bride's maid's dresses, she made the tablecloths for the reception(s), she made the centerpieces for the tables: which consisted of a little wreath of silk daisies and a giant candle (which, yes, she MADE) with a silk screened sticker on it that she had drawn that said Devin and Emily, December 20th, etc.etc. She MADE cream puffs and a chicken salad to put in it AND a frozen fruit drink--to be able to serve at BOTH of my receptions. I'm surprised the woman didn't collapse! That is what I call dedication!!


Isn't she beautiful!?!? What a great person inside and out!!!


We love you, MOM!!!

Another One?

Yes, it is another post about food. How obsessed can one person get? Really, though, you never know how much you have until it's gone, and then you miss it! So, everyone out there in the US, enjoy your fast food and easily got commodities! :)

Our commissary got a dry goods shipment in last week. So, I went in today for a little shopping. Oh, I got A&W ROOT BEER AND CREAM SODA!!!! CHEETOS!!! CHIPS AHOY COOKIES!!! FRITOS!!! Now, honestly, these are things that I didn't buy on a regular basis even when I lived in the states and they were there all the time. Maybe it was because I do know that the stuff really is quite nasty...but also that it was always THERE. Things are always more dear to us when we can't get them anymore, right??

We got to take Andrew and Claire in to the health unit today...we think Claire has mango worms. Here's a little interesting info on the mango worm:

Hanging your clothes outside to dry in areas of high tropical rainfall can be risky if they are not ironed properly. Mango flies or myiatic flies are common in these areas, especially during the hot and humid summers.

If clothes are hung outside, it is possible for a female fly to lay eggs on them, especially when the clothes were contaminated with urine or faeces. The clothes are then worn and the eggs penetrate the skin. People will usually complain that their body is itching and within three days, painful, boil-like lesions occur. Over the next three days, pus emerges from each sore as it gets ripe. Once the sore is expressed a worm comes out of it.

The fly is found widely in large parts of northern South Africa, as well as large parts of Africa. Dogs and rodents are usually the hosts, but humans often become accidental hosts.

Gross, eh? Yah, they're pretty nasty. But, she's ok. And she got a sucker out of the whole thing, so it was all good.

Tomorrow I get to have my very first ultrasound. Should be interesting! I'll update again soon! :)

My Dad

So, today is my dad's birthday. I must admit, that I am the WORST person in the world about remembering birthdays. I remember ON the day, but hardly ever long enough beforehand to send anything...and it is, of course, worse now because not only do I have the forgetful pregnancy brain, but it takes at least 2 weeks for any mail to reach the US from here. Sorry, Dad!!

I thought, this time instead of sending a card, I'll write up a little shpill here on my blog and let everyone see what kind of guy they're dealing with here! :P

My dad is always thinking...he he he! He has an answer for everything, and usually a joke to go with it! :)


Ah, my dad and his camera! I remember those wonderful days when we would do family photos, and he'd set up the timer on the camera and we'd all try to smile, or do funny faces! :)


Where there are children, my dad is also! :) Dad has a way with kids. They naturally go to him and hang on him and love him. Maybe because he just loves them back! He has no inhibitions when it comes to playing with kids--he just sits right down with them and plays on their level.


Dad appreciates good food! :) Good stuff, like cinnamon rolls, homemade bread, barbequed steak with baked potatoes, ice cream.... As long as it's not fruit or soup! :) I also should mention that he is amazing at building, refinishing, and making everything around him look beautiful! He refinished this table in the picture...you should have seen it before!!


Dad can make the best of any situation he is in, and still make it fun! No matter how uncomfortable it might be for him, he makes everyone around him happy!


He is always happy, happy to be wherever and with whomever. And everyone is happy with him!


Everyone trusts dad implicitly. No one ever questions my dad's integrity. He can be trusted with kids, work, secrets, you name it!!


Dad has always been very supportive of everything we've done. I don't think he ever missed an event we were in--be it some random marching band half-time, a concert, or a graduation, he was always there (whistling loudly! :)!


Happy Birthday, Dad! We love you!!

Fun Times

I haven't posted any 'normal' happenings lately, so I thought I'd sit down and write a few. Andrew is 'napping', and Josh and Claire are happily watching Little Einsteins (the Firebird one, so I approve). It's a nice moment of quiet without any other pressing engagements! :) Devin should be home any minute because it's Friday and he gets home around 1pm or before on Fridays. What fun!

Today, we had a nice morning. We all got up and ate our yummy breakfast (Kellogg's Fruit Harvest...ohhhhhh that stuff is GOOOOOOOD!!!) then I got to exercise--Exercising is always a funny experience for me now. Today I said it's time for exercise, and Andrew yelled, "Size!!" and ran and stood in front of the TV! Josh and Claire cuddled themselves up on the couch for a good watch. :) So Andrew ran in and out of the room while I jumped up and down, and Claire and Josh did the 'couch potato'. It was great! Then, some FM guys came over and brought us some new patio furniture! I definitely wasn't expecting any...but apparently they stopped by yesterday and asked our guard if we had any patio furniture. Nope. So, they came today and brought us some. What a funny thing to be 'deficient' in. We hardly sit outside. Maybe it will change now?? It's a little glass table with four chairs and an umbrella. So, we'll probably end up having more al fresco dinners and lunches. As long as the bug zapper is plugged in, I'm ok with that.

After the exercise and table setting up, I went grocery shopping with my friend. It was hilarious! I went and got my usual poulet blanc (chicken breast, or white chicken), then decided I wanted some pork...I REALLY want to make my pork in mexican gravy over rice with black beans....oh, it's heavenly!!! I just have to get a plug adapter for my crock pot and I'll be in business!! Then, I decided that I was hungry and wanted a ham sandwich!! They have ham lunchmeat there! And it's the GOOD stuff!! Well, funny thing. I was looking over the ham, and there was one, 'jambon fume' which looked to be about 8,000cfa (or about $16) cheaper than everything else! Everything was around 9,000cfa a kilo, whereas this one was only 1,100 cfa! So, I thought, that is a GREAT deal!! So I got a whole kilo! I was really excited for some lunch meat...and as she was slicing it, I kept wondering why in the world that one was so much cheaper than all the rest... Well, then she handed me my package. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the little price sticker. No, it was not 1,100 cfa. It was 11,000cfa! And since it was just over a kilo, it was around 12,000cfa! So, I spent around $25 on sliced ham lunchmeat! But, oh, it's SOOOOOOO good! Then I went and spent the rest of my allotted grocery money for the week on a nice block of CHEDDAR CHEESE! Oh, so good!! I pulled out my handy dandy cheese slicer that I got for my birthday a few years back and enjoyed myself thoroughly!!
Here's the 'spread'! What fun!!!


I giggled a lot, and the kids probably thought I was a bit loony, but they enjoyed themselves, too! :) So, for lunch today, we had ham and cheese sandwiches on freshly baked croissants...YUM!!
The finished product:

I'm so silly! But it tasted SO good and felt so much like being at home...ahhh...

After our shopping spree, we went back behind the grocery store to a big park that is back there! I didn't know it was there! But my friend did, and boy that's a great place to go after the kids have been really good while you're grocery shopping! It costs a couple of bucks to get in, but it's pretty worth it since it has this little airplane ride, a big thing with slides and tunnels, some swings and spinny things (sort of like merry-go-rounds, but better because there are seats on them), and I hear that they even have a giant blowup castle there in the afternoons! That would be a fun thing! Sadly, I forgot my camera on our little park outing, but I'm sure we'll go again and have plenty of opportunities to take pictures while there.

And here's another funny thing I happened on the other day. What would you think if you came upon this? :)




Andrew and Claire were climbing up the 'wall' of our computer room/den. They sort of look like they're floating! :) What funny kids!! They're about 15 feet or so up from the floor. Andrew would then scream until I came over, and as soon as I came close enough, he'd just let go of the wall so I could catch him. Very trusting!

Here's another funny: yesterday I was VERY sick. I couldn't keep ANYTHING down at all. It was awful. I tried all day long to eat various things, and nothing worked. I had another terrible headache, and I just wanted to lie down with a pillow over my head and pass out! Well, after the kids were finally in bed, Devin brought out some Deluxe Chips Ahoy cookies...I probably ate ten of them!! They were the ONLY things I was able to keep down yesterday! AND, after chowing down on all those cookies, my stomach settled right down, I was able to sleep, and I feel absolutely fantastic today! So, that just goes to show you: Cookies ARE good for you! Reminds me of the time Josh 'made' breakfast. Apparently, he decided we were going to have marshmallows...and he turns to Devin and says, "Did you never know that I only ever make natural marshmallows?" Ha!!

Toddler Olympics

Saturday we had a fantastic activity at the home of my friend: The Toddler Olympics! It was so much fun!! This will be a mostly picture post, so enjoy! :)

First, we have:

What's a Welly, you might ask? Well, that's how they call rain boots in the UK! :)

Josh had a powerful throw!


Andrew wasn't sure what to do...


And the wind up...


Yea, Louis!


Next:


Josh picked up on this one quickly...


Claire looks like a frog...


Andrew and Louis took a few minutes... :)


Here are two events:


Getting ready for the Egg & Spoon race! All lined up!


Josh and Sanders are off! Why are they both looking back and down you might ask? Well, apparently, Claire and Cecelia misunderstood and thought it was an Egg TOSS, not an Egg RACE, so on the word GO, they simultaneously tossed their eggs into the air! What a riot! :)


Our Fearless Face Painter, Jaime! :)


A few shots of me getting my face painted...


She had the coolest face painting kit: Complete with pencils, paints, glitter paint and even stencils for perfect stars and hearts! :)



The finished product! :)


Devin got one too! Very patriotic!


Claire got a pretty pink butterfly! (Josh got a dinosaur head, but he was always running so fast I don't think I got a shot of it...)


Next Event: (This one is running in a straight line across the lawn with a yummy chocolate cookie in hand to give to mom at the end! Of course, I didn't actually eat the cookie, I had to give it back to the kids. Claire ran so fast across the grass that we didn't get her picture. She just wanted to get to me as fast as possible so she could eat her cookie!!)


Josh is running in a very straight line! Go Josh!


Almost there!


Come here, Andrew!!


Andrew made it! :) yea!


Another fun Event:


Jump!! Pop those bubbles!!


The Last Event was a whole family participation one! :)


Here's Josh after going through the obstacle course a few times...There were tunnels and bridges and water pouring down and flags and even a giant parachute (which was actually a mosquito net, and I found that to be very appropriate! :))


Through the Marathon!


Awards!!


Andrew wins!


So does Josh!


Even Claire wins!

(And the best thing about these 'medals': They were edible! Mmmm! Lollipops for everyone! And the guy giving out the awards: The British High Commissioner! Cool, eh??)

Yea, UK! :)


Andrew is enjoying his Award!


Our fearless Leaders! :) Thanks SO MUCH, Leonora (and Jaime and Giles and Louis)! It was SOOOOO MUCH FUN!!


Fantastic Food! (And it was here that I found that there is CHEDDAR CHEESE FOUND IN YAOUNDE!! HEAVEN!!)