Hmmm?

Hannah enjoys dressing Ethan in her clothes. In this photo Ethan is dressed up to play Hannah's daughter. I wonder, do I have anything to worry about? Perhaps a drag queen in the making? Or do the fingers in the nose and the kung fu kick he tried a moment earlier clear him. Last time Hannah dressed him up, she even put girl panties on him! This time she let him retain that much masculinity.

After he was dressed up he came into the living room talking in a high pitched voice and pretending to open the girl presents under the tree. I don't think though he'd be too excited about the contents! I'm sure the boy presents would have him back in jeans about as fast as he possible could do so.

Pictures from decorating

What a cute Christmas tree.

This is one of systems Hannah had of taking many decorations at once to the top of the tree. She would string up about six or seven balls.

This the other method I refered to in my last post. Sting the balls on the ladder. Very effective. They had a great time.

Christmas tree

Hannah and Ethan masterminded the Christmas tree this year. Hannah was very clever about it. She would connect the christmas balls together by there hooks, climb the ladder and procede to hang them one by one. Her other method involved hanging them in a row on the ladder and thm reaching down and getting them. She was very organized.

Really Nathan and I did next to nothing, a few lights and tinsel. Hannah and Ethan took charge. They had a great time, now of course they want Christmas to arrive a lot sooner than it will.

Family posting

About a week ago Hannah lost her first top tooth. She's having a lot of fun with it. She keeps putting her tounge in the whole and saying "look at me Mom, I have a pink tooth". There is just something a little more significant about loosing the top teeth vs the bottom ones. The visual mark is much more pronounced.

Ethan is going through his own changes as well. He keeps getting bigger and more grown up. He and Hannah are the best of friends and play so well together, a great help to me in that regards.

Both of the kids are so excited about our coming baby. I have lots of baby movement now, and if I pay close attention I can see my belly wiggle with the baby. The kids want to see and the the other day I tried to lay as still as I could. I think Hannah actually did see a movement. Ethan ofcourse thinks the natural rise and fall of me breathing is a kick. It isn't but it didn't diminish his excitement.

We all trooped to the doctors office again yesterday. They do a short ultrasound for the heartbeat each visit. So the kids were able to see the baby again. It was Nates first time to go with me so he saw the little one too. He is a definate boy, showing off his wares rather obviously. So no doubts as to his gender. I think that makes the planning of things for me so much easier.

All else is well. The weather is getting cold. You may all laugh, but it feels cold to me. I'm sure it is in the 60's but when yu are used to 90+ this is what winter is. I had goose bumps when out and about yesterday.

Baby Update

On Thursday we had the big ultrasound. It was so much fun. Hannah and Ethan were able to join me and see the little guy. He wasn't laying in a position where we were able to see his face much, but at one point you could see he was sucking his thumb and playing with his fingers. Very adorable! For the most part he had his head snuggled into the placenta and was quite content there. We did see all his arms, legs, toes and fingers and that is fun too.

If you haven't picked up on the gender, it's a boy! Everyone is excited to have him come. Nathan was our resident expert and called the gender. I was dreaming little girls but felt it may be a boy. Hannah was hoping for a girl, but doesn't seem at all dissapointed that she is having a brother. Ethan doesn't care either way, as long as I have another baby of the opposite gender later. His master plan calls for one of each, not at the same time though.

For those of you who know my sister Heather. She is also pregnant! She married last March and they decided over the summer to start a family. She is about 9 weeks now and feeling it. She has not been feeling well. I keep telling her it will mostly pass and get better and to just hang in there. Our babies will be about 3 months apart, very exciting! I am glad that my children will have a cousin from my family. Now when we go to see my Mom there will be someone to play with in the future!

The Beach

Hannah loves running into the water. As you can see it is very shallow and calm in the Gulf.

Ethan likes to play in the sand. He won't venture in very far. Even if I am with him, he runs to the shore as fast as he can most of the time.

Both kids love going to the beach. The weather this time of the year is beautiful. When we have time the beach is where we want to be.

I wish that I could have done this as a kid. This day we spent two hours in the late afternoon relaxing at the beach. It is a 45 minute drive from our house so we don't go as often as I would like. But hopefully we can go once a week or so while the weather is good.

Halloween

Hannah was a chef and Ethan was Superman. They had a great time.

Nathan was the master carver of this Jack-O-Lantern. He and the kids designed it.

Rumblings and mumblings

The moving is done and we are just about settled. There are pictures to put up on the walls and a few miscellaneous boxes of junk. Other than that it is done. I have a few really good friends that went above and beyond and helped me get it all done.

It is so nice to be in the new place. It is much bigger. From room to room it is also quieter. We can watch tv at night and the kids cannot hear it in their room. Once doors are closed it is hard to hear anything else in the house.

All else is well. The kids are meeting some new friends. The neighbors upstairs have three children, 2 are older than mine and one is younger. They go up to play sometimes and once the kids came here. They are Sudanese and their english isn't very strong. But they seem to all have a good time anyway. Hannah hasn't learned their names yet, but I'm sure she will.

I have discovered one of the reasons that Mothers are encouraged to stay home. It is during the day that my children and I really "talk". I am often amazed at the subjects that come up. We have talked about crazy things like why do we have blood and how are bodies will be changed after the resurrection to really important subjects such as how repentance works. We often discuss gospel topics of a wide range. If I were not home a lot of these opportunities would be missed. If my children went out of the house for school the same would be true. Many of the school lessons we have lend themselves to discussions as well.

I must say I am gratefull to have this blessing. I haven't always felt it a blessing as an outside job would be a lot easier most of the time. But it is worth it to do this work. I feel the love my kids have for me and see how strong our bond is. When they aren't driving be batty we are having a great go of it :)

The Big Move

It seems that we were able to find a suitable new apartment after all. We made the deciosion late Friday night on the new villa we will be living in. It is the ground floor and much roomier than our current second floor. Saturday we looked it over again with the landlord to see what needed to be done. Sunday and Monday we packed. Monday evening we moved everything in. Now it is Tuesday. Both housed are a bit of a hazardous area, but I'm sure by the end of the week the new house will feel like a home and the old house will be completely empty.

I'll be offline a few days while we get internet installed at the new house. I'll catch you all up next week on anything else going on in our lives.

Family Happenings

As fate would have it, Dina will not be coming. Things have a way of changing and I'm sure this is for the best too. Actually, Nate and I both had a "feeling" about this a while ago. I am feeling great and doing well, so we are going to try to go it alone for now. I have been doing housework, laundry, school, and still doing fun things with friends. I figure if I ever want the "farm" I better get used to being self sufficient. Of course we won't push things too far. If my body says things need to change, we will do things differently. So family and friends don't need to panic that I'm over doing it. I rest plenty.

I do however finally have a working vehicle. This has made the greatest difference for me. Now I am free to run about when I want to. This week alone I have gone out more than I usually do in six weeks. It's been fun if not a bit exhausting. It feels good to be busy again, its been too long a time that I've holed up in my house without interacting. So this is one great change!

School is getting better. Hannah is catching on more to the rythm of classes. Ethan is somewhat of a distraction. We're working with it though. He has his own school work which he enjoys. I guess I could say life is good. Everyone is pretty happy. What more can I really ask for!

PS. Correction to my last blog. Nate did do dishes with me! So he doesn't draw the line there. He is deffinately stepping up to the plate with this baby!

Dissapointed

Well Dina was supposed to arrive last night on the 16th, that wasn't able to happen. She was stopped in immigration in the Philippines. We thought we had all our paperwork in order. But, as is too often the case with immigration everywhere, there was a new rule that our friends here hadn't heard of yet. We have one more paper to get. It will take us another week to process that and then she can come.

I feel bad for Dina, it was a long hard day for her by the time we found out what was going on. She battled the best she could. In the end she had to go home. But we'll get it all sorted out. Hannah and Ethan were especialy disappointed, Hannah had a cry.

In the mean time it was a good lesson learned for us. Next time we will do our research better. However, Nate has been rising to the occasion lately. He has done more housework this past week than in the past few years! Well maybe not quite that long, but he is being very helpfull. So I will still get things picked up and vacumming done while Dina is not here. I can't vouch for help with the dishes though. I believe he draws a line there :)

Getting Practice

A friend of mine came over with her 2 1/2 month old baby boy. Hannah had the chance to hold him and feed him a bottle all by herself. She did a great job and enjoyed it immensly. She's been wanting to hold and feed a baby for quite some time. Ethan also "held" the baby, though with much more help and a much briefer session.

Great practise for next year!

More Soccer

Here are a few pictures of Hannah that dropped off the last soccer blog. She had possesion of the ball a few times which was pretty exciting. It is nice to see her putting in the effort to go after the ball and not be too shy.

Soccer has been a lot of fun for all of us. Here are a few pictures of both Hannah and Ethan. Hannah is the flying ponytail. That is how I could always identify her on the field. Ethan is ofcourse the little cutie with the big cutie :) Nate is a good coach, and he is able to run around a little better than I can.

The first week we did soccer Hannah was in an older age group for 6 & 7 year olds. Mostly boys who have played a few years and were too aggressiver for her. She was too intimidated to join in. The last week we went I asked if she could join the 5 year olds, much more her playing style. She ran her heart out.

My Bedroom Back

Yesterday I was the energizer bunny. I had loads of energy. Even at night when I really was exhausted my legs still wanted to keep moving. I had one of those "it can't go another minute" moments. I know I am supposed to take it easy, but sometimes it just can't be helped. We have a little apartment and have been sharing a room with our kids for about 9 months. We did this so we could use their bedroom as a kitchen rather than use the room we were using as a kitchen. Our previous kitchen was at the top of a long flight of communal stairs in our villa. It is now a storage/laundry room.

Anyways, there never really was enough room for the bunk beds in our room. Separating our beds was a set of wardrobes for privacy. I always had to squeeze one way or another to get by either to make the kids beds or open my closet. Nathan has been sick of it longer than I have, but yesterday was the last of my tolerance for the situation. I pushed, pulled, heaved and hoved. Now the kids live in the new kitchen/their old bedroom. I had been using about a third of the room as a school room, no longer. Their bunk beds are pushed up against the corner wall. Their closet is butted up against the foot of the bed. Then I strung a sheet to make a privacy curtain between the kitchen and their beds.

Our bedroom now feels enormous, even though I added two pieces of living room furniture, a desk and soft chair. The living room now hosts school. It feels a little larger since I removed the desk and chair.

Of course the entire house was trashed after the rearrange. Everything under a bed, on top of a wardrobe, and hiding elsewhere had to be shoveled up into the living room. I did manage to get it all cleaned and put away today. So for a few weeks at least I will feel like the house isn't crowding in on me.

It really was a fun project. Every once in a while a woman just needs to tear into the house and cause a little havoc.

Reading Marathon

This week I hare reread the Little House on the Praire books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. (Minus one book I have lost) I have to admit, when I read these books I realize what a life of leisure I enjoy. I know they are childrens stories, but they hold a wealth of information about Pioneer and Homesteading life. I am amazed at the amount of work Pa and Ma Ingalls did each day to make sure the family had food and clothing. Once upon a time in my life my own mother worked long hard hours to do the laundry and put up food for the family, but those days are long gone.

What really impresses me the most is the family attitude toward work. Laura doesn't shirk an unpleasant task but meets it head on. They take joy in their work and go it with a cheerful attitude.

I have a long way to go to get up of the couch and dig into the messy house around me. If you have never read Laura Ingalls Wilder books, do so. They are delightfully written and charming tales from an era of American Histoy that really is foreign to us now.

One thing as I read I found very distrubing. Everyone pretty much hated the Indians. The prevailing attitude of the day regarded the phrase "the only good Indian is a dead one". How a society can reach that collective opinion about another group of people constantly amazes me. yet I know today the same types of statements are made around the world by various groups. Sad and distrubing is the words I have for such sentiment.

Hospital visit

It has begun, at least to a certain extent. Saturday I discovered I was spotting. I went directly to the hospital, as this has never happened to me before. I am glad to say that everything is fine. I had to stay in hospital about 30 hours for observation. Most of that 30 hours was actually waiting for an ultrasound and a doctor to view it and release me. I am not bleeding anymore. I do have a low laying placenta, probably why I saw some blood. But it is not severe and will likely self correct as my uterus expands later in pregnancy. I do need to take it easy though, go figure. That isn't anything I haven't heard before. But it all ended well and I am home. It was actually a good time to get a feel for hospitalization here and the process before some really serious happens. All in all the hospital we've chosen seems pretty good, even if a bit busy and slow to action.

Ramadan Timings

Last night we went on a family date to the mall. The entire purpose of going was to visit Virgin Book store. We arrived at the mall shortly after 5:30. During Ramadan that is a great time to go places as the majority of the population is home breaking their fast. The down side is that a lot of shops are closed. We shopped and puttered around a long time waiting for our store to open, which wasn't until 7:30. My thought is this, the shop keepers know that all the none fasting shoppers WANT to be shopping while everyone is home eating. Breaking the fast is abut 5:30, so what is the point ion staying closed until so late. We still had a good time at the mall and I did buy a couple of books. I then proceed to stay up VERY late reading the book I had bought. The joys of Ramadan. Nothing is really available when it is convenient.

My Hooligans

Hannah LOVES to play dress up. She prefers playing princess, but if that isn't available dressing up Ethan as a girl seems to do the trick. This picture was probably May of this year.

This is the living room of our little apartment. We have a bedroom, bathroom, sudo kitchen ( no running water) that is also our school room. Upstairs we have another room for laundry, storage, and at one time I used it for a kitchen. Big time inconvenient as you actually are leaving our living area to get to it.

We don't have many kids in our neighborhood to play with. Here is a picture of Hannah and Ethan with their friends Osama and Arwa. Osama and Arwa live next door and are the main playmates for our kids.

In the Beginning

I figured it is time to start blogging. I enjoy keeping up with my friends through their blogs and guess it is possible others may want to know what we are up to. Pretty much this will be my blog, I can't imagine Nate actually getting into this at all.

As for what we are up to, we still live in Doha, Qatar. So far we are doing well. The kids and I are trying to find things to fill our time. This week I enrolled the kids in a soccer program. It starts in about a week. I hope it goes well.

I'm about 11-12 weeks pregnant. I'll post updates to that as time goes along. I have found a really good doctor and things are going well so far. Time will tell.

Since this is my first posting I'll leave things at this. I'll figure out more things to write about another time.