Growing by Leaps and Carseats!

Here is Gavin coming home from the hospital. He's so tiny (although Kaleb & Noe look little to me too in this picture) and barely fits in his huge carseat. Notice his hat- there were no pink & blue at the hospital, ONLY pink!


This was Gavin's last ride in his "baby" carseat. He barely fits, because he's so huge!


Now that he's one, he thinks he's all grown-up because he now rides in a "big boy" carseat. He loves that he is facing the front, sitting up, and he's now in the passenger side of the car (before he was on the driver side). Check out his shoes! After he outgrew all of the darling pairs that Leslie gave him, we were on the hunt to find some new shoes here. Taiwanese fashion is VERY cutesy, not very conservative. I looked everywhere for plain black, or brown, or navy shoes- dressy shoes or casual shoes, but nope I couldn't find any. We got this pair from Pablosky. After trying on almost every pair in the store we finally found a pair that fit with a little bit of room to grow. I was so happy to find a pair that fit him, that I didn't care that they're pastel blue and white with baseball, basketball, and soccer balls on them. Now I kind of wish I looked harder (but seriously, I tried). Oh well, they'll make a fond memory later!

Winter Blossoms

Today is the first day of winter and yet I see these beautiful bougainvillea flowers from my window. I do miss having a white Christmas, but my body definitely prefers spending the winter season on a sub-tropical island!

Naughty or Nice?

Today is the first day of Christmas break and Kaleb & Noe are already tormenting each other, and we're just having breakfast now- ugh! I'll get them working on an art project as soon as they're done eating. Anyway, I was thinking how nice it is that they believe in Santa. It's great that I can remind them that "if you're naughty Santa will bring you a lump of coal instead of a toy." Here is a little conversation we had:
Kaleb: "Mommy, Noe did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Noe: "Mommy, Kaleb did blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Mommy: "You two better be kind to each other or I'll have to call Santa."
Kaleb: "What is his number?"
Mommy: "It's just for parents to know. If kids know they can't get gifts from him."
Kaleb: "Will you give me the number when I'm a daddy?"
Noe: "No Kaleb, Santa will give it to you when you're a daddy."
What will I use when they can't hear the bell jingle anymore?

Christmas Crafts

Noe came home from school today with this beautiful stocking that she colored, painted, and stitched together. She's hoping Santa will fill 2 stockings for her this year!


Kaleb & Noe made lots of fun Christmas crafts at school this year. They decorated paper Christmas trees in their Mandarin class, and made Santa puppets in their art class.


In both of their classrooms they made Reindeer Candy Canes, and Mice Candy Canes.


In Noe's class they made Mexican Ojos de Dios. She made 2- one for her and one for Kaleb. What a sweet sister!

Class Christmas Celebrations

I love the environment of elementary schools! Maybe that's why I majored in Elementary Education, maybe it's because I love kids, who knows? Anyway, Gavin & I went to many fun parties today.

We were supposed to start the day at his Kindermusik party, but he fell asleep 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave, so I decided for us to stay home so he could rest. We did go up to the school though in the afternoon. First we went to Kaleb's class party, followed by Noe's music program. We went down to Noe's class for snacks afterwards (her party was earlier in the day, but we weren't able to attend). We finished the rounds with Kaleb's music program.

I love the magic of Christmas through the eyes of children. Today was a great representation of that!

Happy Birthday Baby!

My sweet Gavin is one year old! We had a simple family party to honor him and celebrate the day.


He got spoiled with some nice gifts. From mommy & daddy he got an activity walker; from Kaleb & Noe he got a stuffed giraffe; from grandma & grandpa green eyes he got a poppity pop elephant; from gramma & grampa blue eyes he got a piggy bank; from the Martin family he got some snuggly pooh jammies. He also got some cute cards. It's so fun to have new things!


Gavin got 10 birthday cakes! Well, a loaf-sized cake and 9 cupcakes that is! He loved when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, and was intrigued with his birthday candle. I wonder what he wished for?


He thoroughly enjoyed his cake and ice cream! His big brother and sister were so excited to celebrate with him. They helped him open his gifts and loved sharing his birthday cake with him. I think his siblings will be his favorite gifts ever!

Angel Tree

Adoption is viewed differently here in Taiwan than it is back home, therefore there are MANY
orphanages here. The kids' school set up angel trees with a Christmas wish for a different orphan on each ornament. I wish I could adopt all of the orphans, but since that's not possible we were happy to buy Christmas gifts for them.


The little boy we chose wanted a remote control car, so Kaleb chose this for him.


The little girl we chose wanted a hair straightener, so Noe chose this for her.


My friend Mary volunteers at a baby orphanage and she collected donations of diapers, formula, and clothing to give to them. Gavin chose to give a case of diapers to help out.

I am so grateful that I have 3 of my very own angels. I am happy that we were able to help some other angels too. My Christmas wish would be for every child to have its own loving home and family!

Boarding School Kids

The day finally arrived for Noe's Nissan Tiida commercial. They had originally just planned on having 4 little girls, but then they decided they wanted a little boy too. When they asked for Kaleb, I said no, as I wanted this to be a special event for Noe. However, they begged again, so I talked to Noe about it. She said she wanted her brother with her, so Kaleb ended up being in it too.


This commercial had a large cast. There was a husband, wife, & baby; a woman & her poodle; the 5 school kids; and LOTS of extras. It was filmed on a street (blocked off from traffic) and set up to look like it was in Europe. They even asked us 4 parents that were there to be extras too. After the kids filmed their shot together, another mom & I played window shoppers for DNKY (I love the copyright protection). Then they brought out Noe and her daughter and had the 4 of us cross the street to catch the bus. The final scene while we were there had Kaleb playing ball with the dad that was there. We were only there for about 7 hours, but they were going to be filming with the other actors for at least 20 hours they said! Wow, I never realized how much work went in to commercials. I heard that in movies for each day of filming they get 1 minute of film. That's why it takes about 4 months of filming to make a movie and that's why the actors get paid the big bucks!

Winter Wonderland

The PTA put on another Winter Wonderland extravaganza! Aren't the kids cute sittin' on Santa's lap?



Kaleb & Noe had North Pole passports that led them around to a variety of fun stops. Here they are making Jingle Bell necklaces.


They also decorated cookies, played reindeer games, wrote letters to Santa, had a coloring contest, and listened to fun stories & songs. The 5 of us enjoyed our visit to the North Pole!

White Elephant

The Activity Day kids came over for a fun "gifts" lesson. We discussed the scriptures: Matt 2:11, John 3:16, John 15:13, Mark 12:30-31, and D&C 46:8-26 & 32. We talked about our talents and how we can use them to make gifts. We also talked about giving gifts of service, our heritage, sharing with others less fortunate, secret santas, and other fun family traditions. We then played the ever-popular White Elephant game. The kids really got into the "swapping" gifts- it was fun! We ended the activity by watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and eating yummy brownies.

Just One More!

When Leonard came home from work tonight, I had dinner on the stove, the kids playing, and I was "working" in the office. He hollers back to me, "Hi honey, where are you? Are you going to join us for dinner?" Before I could answer, Kaleb says (in his best mommy voice) "I'm working on my blog, I'll be right there." I busted up laughing- what a cutie! Yes, today I have blogged a lot (this is my 9th post). Life has just been so crazy busy lately that I needed some down-time today. This morning I exercised, but Gavin & I missed Kindermusik so we could go to his Peter Rabbit shoot. After we got home I've been in-and-out of the office all day working on my blog. When the big kids got home from school, they were great at entertaining Gavin so I could work/play a bit more. Now Len's home so I can really play! However, I will sign off now as I want to go read from our 24 Days of Christmas book (scripture, carol, and story) and watch a Christmas special before the kids have to go to bed. I told you this was addicting!

Dreaming of Gingerbread Houses

The Barlow family all got together at my mom & papa's to make Gingerbread houses on Sunday. They were missing me and my little family so they called and I got to talk to most of them. Well guess what, I miss them too! I also miss making Gingerbread houses. I'm not very talented in the cooking/baking department and have made them before from "kits." However, I can't find any kits here. There are beautiful pre-decorated houses you can buy at some bakeries here, but the fun is in decorating them yourself with your family. So I'm hoping someone out there will have a recipe and pattern to make one from scratch that they'll share with me?!