Hello, It's my Birthday Today!

Those were the first words out of Claire's mouth any time she answered the phone yesterday! Ha!!! It cracked me up! Sadly, I wasn't able to get this post up until today due to lots o' internet problems, but better late than never, eh?? :)

So, here is my tribute to my little baby Princess...

Here she is in the hospital...a little sweet newborn baby:



This one was taken at about 1 Year. She still has that same smile! :):



She was (well, she still is) rather mischeivious and devious and gets into just about everything. She was always getting into the medicines and rubbing them all over the place. The first time she did this (about a year earlier than the following photo), she and Josh had taken all the eczema cream and the desitin and rubbed it all over the walls, doors, NEW carpet and themselves... I was too upset to think about taking a picture, so this is one of the following desitin episodes! :)



This was her 3rd Birthday. She is pink and princessy all over! (Which is SO weird to me, as I don't like pink, and was never into fluffy, pink, girly stuff...right, mom? So, I'm hoping this is all just a phase...although it has been going on for rather a long time!!)



Here is her 4th birthday! This is one of her brand new pretty dresses that she got (I had it made for her out of the same material as my Wendy costume. The tailors here are fantastic!)



Here are the kiddies waiting for the cake. (Again, Claire is sporting a new dress made for her earlier that day!)



The Blowing out of the Candles!! Everyone helped! :)



Claire got some new shoes from our housekeeper:



Here she is among her 'spoils'! :)




Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! We love you! :)

Tradition

Today, I finally figured something out. A lot of the things that have been going on in church have really been bothering me. For example, the branch choir. Ugh. I know it's one of those 'music major' things--but I just can't stand ward/branch choirs. Here can be worse. They're never on pitch, they sing the wrong parts, they don't even listen to the piano, they drag like CRAZY, and they belt out EVERYTHING. There is one dynamic, and that is LOUD!! Oh, it bothers me! But, today, finally, as I sat there listening to the choir sing, I realized that I just need to give up on letting it bother my musical senses. This is the way they sing in Africa, and no amount of music teachers coming through town is going to change that. It is their tradition. Instead of fighting against it and letting it bother me and interfering with my feeling the spirit of the message they share, I should enjoy (well, as much as possible) the cultural experience. It's time for me to listen with my spiritual ears, so to speak. It doesn't matter if they can't keep a tempo, or if the person leading the music just plain can't do it, or if they NEVER sing that stupid C#, or if the tune they learned is totally wrong. That's the way they do things. It doesn't change the words--and hymns are supposed to be a prayer. Are prayers perfect? No, they're spoken from the heart. These people are singing from the heart and regardless of how much the music hurts my ears, it is their prayer. I should listen to the prayer and the spirit and not let other distractions take that away. Wish I would've thought of that when I was in Guatemala cringing away through the music...

The Great Pumpkin

Well, I've heard it over and over again that there are pumpkins here in Cameroon. My housekeeper says they grow them in their village! Today, we went on the Great Pumpkin search. We walked into the very bowels of the Mfoundi market (the biggest fruit/veggie market in the city) and found a lot of hot peppers, tomatoes, carrots, green beans, dried beans, smoked fish and live chickens...No pumpkins. After walking for about 15-20 minutes we got to this one stand where the boys had led us to (there's always boys around begging to help you and guide you and carry things for you...) and they told us (finally) that there are no pumpkins in Mfoundi right now. Thanks guys. Oh well. At least we all got some good exercise. Josh kept complaining about how everyone crowded him and it smelled bad. Well, yes, it's true. It's a really crowded market, and it certainly doesn't smell like a flower shop... But it'll make a good story to tell his kids, right?? :P

Well, we had to leave our search for pumpkins (and thread, too, as I am in the process of making Claire's birthday quilt and I have run out of thread...) to get Josh over to his first ever swim lesson. He seemed to take to this one much better! He actually got in the water, and eventually had enough confidence to go all the way under! Good boy! He appeared to have a lot of fun. Claire and Andrew start their classes ('Aqua-Tots') in two weeks. I'll bring my camera! :)

So, while Josh was swimming (and I was watching), Devin roamed the grounds with Claire and Andrew. He talked to a lot of the guards and they all told him to go to Marche Coletone for pumpkins and thread. Luckily, it's a much less crowded market, and it's close to home. So, after the swim, off we went. Devin found the thread in a matter of minutes--and it's CHEAP here! Woohoo! He got me 3 spools of 400 yards each for a little less than the equivalent of $1! I'm going to stock up! Unfortunately, we drove up and down the market, but saw no sign of pumpkins. We stopped and asked a few people, and they still had no idea what we were talking about (they all seem to think we're looking for watermelon. But, I ask you, is watermelon orange? No.) So, we came home empty handed. No pumpkins for us this year. :( How sad. Which means we won't have one next year, either. Oh well. We'll have to think of an alternative...

Kid Shenanigans

Well, now that the internet is unreliable, my posts are either feast or famine! :) Tonight, Devin is gone... :( He's in Douala (a city about 3 hours away) for today and tomorrow. Not as long as Egypt, but I still don't like it when he's not here. I always feel very 'blah' and don't want to do anything at all. I think when I'm done with this post, I'll go eat some Cheetos and read something new.

So, here are some fun things that we've been doing the past few days:

Andrew now loves to wear Claire's hats! He is seen in one most of the day... (and night, it appears...)


Josh decorated the couch. He said it made it more comfy. There's barely room for him, so I don't see how...but, oh well. They thought it was funny!



The kids are showing me how strong they are! :)



Josh is off school this whole week...so he has been joining us for Claire's 'classes'. Here we are doing the letter P. Claire did her letters just fine...



Josh actually spelled out the letter 'P' (or PE as he says). He's really into spelling things out lately. It's good!



Then, we made Pumpkin Prints by Painting with Potatoes... they thought that was pretty cool! (Their hands are blurs they are stamping those potatoes so fast!)



and here's the finished product:



We had the missionaries over on Monday, as is our tradition ever other Monday. After dinner, Elder Baker (or 'grandpa' Baker) takes the kids over to the couch and reads them stories while everything is cleaned up before Family Home Evening! The kids love it--they love to be read to all the time, so they are completely mesmerized! :) (Sorry the pic didn't come out very well...it was sort of dark...)



And, here we have breakfast this morning! The kids ate Cheerios! Andrew is happy about it...



So is Claire (sorry about the, uh, nudity...she decided to start undressing before she was done...)



Josh got a little creative:



And here is his finished product! :)


He said it was Dad. Since he couldn't be there to eat breakfast with us, he made a nice Cheerio portrait of him! Looks like an artist in the making, eh, mom? :)

What fun! :) We're always busy here, I suppose. Except for yesterday and today. I've been tired beyond all reason. I even took a NAP yesterday! *Gasp*! So unlike me! I laid down on the couch to take a little break and read the Ensign when low and behold an hour had passed by and the Ensign was on the floor...Doh! I'll have to try again. I never do that.

I have managed to do a few things, though. I walk outside to sit on lawn chairs to watch the kids play...and I supervise as they color... :) I did make bread today, though, so I've got that going for me. And I made dinner, too. Our poor housekeeper got really sick today, so I piled the kids in the car and took her home by force (otherwise she won't stay home and get better!!!!) then took the kids over to the commissary and let them pick out a few movies. That's always a fun adventure. Luckily, I didn't see hardly anyone, which was good because I still hadn't showered and was in some pretty scrubby clothes. Oh well.

I officially got my travel orders--so now we're set to come back to the good ol' US of A for this new little friend to come! Our flight is all set, hysterically expensive though it is...we got a hotel reservation for our nice little layover. We get to stay in a Holiday Inn Express! Woohoo! Indoor pool, free hot continental breakfast, 2 Queen beds, cable television (like anything is on...)...we are set! Devin got his and Josh's flight plans all made up, too. They're actually coming out earlier than expected (by a day) which will make our anniversary better! :) So he'll get to Idaho on the 18th instead of the 19th. Then maybe he'll be over some of the jet lag so I can drag him off to the temple to do some temple sessions for our anniversary! Oh, I CANNOT wait to go to the temple again! It's been over a year!!! YIKES!!! All I can say is, I don't care where our next post is, I just hope there is a somewhat accessible temple nearby!!!!!!!!! (Ghana and Nigeria are NOT very accessible...)

Tomorrow, I plan to have a nice playgroup here at our house, and then...well, I don't know. Maybe I'll eat some more Cheetos while the kids aren't looking. :)

O

Claire and I have been having so much fun! Here are some more things that we've done together:

We did the letter O-- We made a chain of O's:



Then we strung Cheerio's onto string for necklaces. I made one for Andrew. The necklaces didn't last long! :)




We've been doing some Halloween-y projects:



There are pumpkins and 'ghosts' done using tissue paper (the ghosts are outlines of Claire's feet that have been cut out. She didn't want white ghosts--so we have a pink one and a blue one); decorated ghost outlines (which we did with Josh); and a black piece of paper that has white handprint ghosts on it. The white paint was so thick, that we didn't even have to use any glue to put the googly eyes on them! :) It's been fun!

Holy Buckets, Batman!

I got to do the coolest thing today! One of the bathtubs has almost no water pressure since the water pump was last 'fixed' (about a week ago). So, today I got tired of waiting, and just got a big mop bucket and carried water from the bathtub with water pressure to the non-water bathtub! It was hilarious! Reminded me of the time on my mission when there was no water inside the church building and we were having a baptism, so my companion and I, and a few Elders, filled up the whole font with buckets of water from a spigot outside! Ah, good times. Yes, I'm in Africa. It's so funny! We have 6 bathrooms: only 4 of the toilets are remotely useful (two don't flush), only one has a bath with water pressure, and there are 2 with useful showers. That's why they give us so many bathrooms. So that if 2 or 3 or 5 go out, we're still alright. :)

Overkill

I think yesterday was one of the busiest days we've had in a very long time!! It started off at 6 when everyone normally wakes up. Devin decided to go for a jog with Andrew, and Josh and Claire have started the tradition of Saturday morning 'cartoons' (we have a few seasons of Looney Tunes...). By 8am, Devin and Josh left to do some work helping to clear out some things at the commissary. At 10:30, we had an evaluation swimming class. We wanted to have Josh and Claire (and maybe Andrew to some extent) have swimming lessons. Can't beat year round swimming weather! :) Well, Claire is definitely young, but pretty willing to try new things, and Josh wouldn't go in over his knees. Poor kid. He used to be like a fish...but his eczema is acting up a bit and is making it somewhat painful to go swimming. :(( Well, after that, we had a lunch date with a very good friend. That was so nice and relaxing! Just to sit and chat and eat while the kids just played! :) Then I ran Josh over to a party--except that we were an hour late because I had to stop by the house on the way to wrap his birthday gift and throw my cinnamon roll dough into the breadmaker! I finally got Josh to the party, then went home and put my feet up for 2 minutes because I was SO HOT!!!! Yes, I'm at the 3 million degree body temperature phase of pregnancy. Yuck. Anyway, Devin and the kids got home, and then I got busy rolling out the cinnamon rolls and getting them ready to rise and bake, then getting everyone bathed and dressed after I cut Andrew and Devin's hair, so we could go pick up Josh and go to a little dinner party/get together for work. We ended up being an hour late for that one, too, because of all the baths and finishing up the cinnamon rolls! Oh well. By the time we got there, I was ready to just sit and do nothing. I pretty much did just that. It still makes me laugh to be offered a 'stiff drink'! Is it something I will ever get used to? I don't know. Most, if not all, of the people here know we don't drink anyway, so it's mostly just a joke. Oh well. But, that was another nice time. Lots of people, lots of food, lots of rain, and the kids all played together in a playroom, and I don't think I saw any of them for more than a few seconds at a time--they had a ball! We finally got back home at 7:30pm, threw all the kids in bed (they all fell asleep VERY quickly!) and collapsed! Whew! This morning I woke up ready to stay in bed all day long! Wish I did! ha!!

We got our Bar-B-Q grill up and working now. Friday, our housekeeper grilled fish on it for us! :) That was fun! She bought them from a fresh fish market that morning, gutted them on the back porch, and seasoned them to perfection! mmmmm... They were so good! Bass fresh from the Atlantic Ocean! Weird.

Here is our little back 'porch' with our BBQ, gas tank, and the 'little' fishies waiting to be grilled:





So, as far as our internet goes, it has been switched to a different carrier. We're not sure how long this will last, but we'll see. Devin's not even sure if it will be available during the day or just 'after hours'...I suppose we'll find out tomorrow. Hopefully it stays up. I don't like not being able to post things. It makes me feel all cut off from the world!

(Quick update: It IS on only after work hours. So, we'll see how it goes. It will definitely give me that much more time during the day! Ha!)