Sisters

The other day Lydia was holding Noelle when we overheard her say, "I love you Noelle. I am your big sister Lydia. I will never leave you. Never ever. I will always be here for you. Because we share the same room."

Hmmm, I guess Lydia will not ever have her own room as she gets older; we wouldn't want to put Noelle in jeopardy.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas together as a family....with a few new things to experience this year. Alia was able to enjoy the holiday more than we thought, since her chicken poxs began healing Christmas Eve. We went to an international candle-light service and walked out into a rainy, just above freezing night. It was a fun change compared to the desert weather of the last several years. We had our traditional prime rib roast for dinner, and then the girls went with Dad for ice cream. While they were out, "Santa" decided to come early. The girls were surprised to be able to open presents on Christmas Eve. (A family tradition of Jill's) The next morning, bright and early, we went to a friends home for Christmas breakfast. (A family tradition of Calvin's) We then came home for a Christmas nap. (A soon to be a tradition of ours!) We hope your holiday was great, too!

(Run your cursor over the pics for comments)

Picture with Santa

Last night we all went to an incredible toy store together. It was so fun looking at all the cool toys (we haven't seen toys from the states in a while) :) And Santa was there so we got a picture with the big man. I had to hold Kinzy because she was a little overwhelmed with this big scary guy with a beard.

Christmas Wonderland party

There is an excellent children's museum here. It really is quite impressive. The girls love it and we as parents have just as much fun. Last week they had a Christmas wonderland party at the museum. It actually turned into Christmas wonderland at crazy town......a little crowded for Mom and Dad. :) But the girls liked it and food was provided and there was a parade with Santa inside the museum.

Train Rides!

Making Christmas ornaments

Poor Alia started her bout with Chicken pox....she was a little under the weather

Making Christmas Goodies!

We've been able to find some great ingredients here to make some delicious Christmas goodies. Yumm, Yummm! We made party mix, peanut butter balls, & peanut brickle!

We can get all the ingredients for PARTY MIX!!!!!!

The girls favorite thing to do is eat it!

More eating.........

And.....more.....eating.......can anybody say, sugar rush

mmmmmmm.......peanut butter balls

Training her up right

I try to take a couple of hours a day and read. Since Noelle has been born she usually joins me. As you can see in the picture we always pick one of her favorite authors. I prefer to read something lite, like Dr. Suess but Noelle insists upon either John Piper, Jonathan Edwards or J.I Packer.

More Pics of baby Noelle

Momma and baby are doing great! The girls love their new baby sister....sometimes we wonder if they think she's a play toy to them!

Welcome Noelle Hope!!

This morning at 11:30 am GMT+2 we welcomed our newest addition. Jill went into labor at about 9:00 am and was delivered two and half hours later. Everything went very well. Noelle Hope weighed in at 3.2 kilos and 51 centimeters in length. Mom and baby are doing great. We are so excited and thankful for this wonderful gift. Here are a few pics for all to see!

The Park

Just a five minute walk from our place is a nice park with a playground. Even though there are swings and slides to play on the girls prefer to just run in the open soccer field.

I got big lips

Being in our new place we have noticed how many things we can get from the states that we couldn't get in Egypt. We are amazed and somewhat overwhelmed when we go grocery shopping with all the choices. The candy aisle has, of course been a big hit for our girls....and we have sometimes given in to their requests of new and exotic candies. Anyway, I thought the big lips/bubble gum was pretty funny.

Gettin' ready for Christmas

While staying here in our temporary home, some friends here let us borrow a small Christmas tree and some ornaments they had. We had fun as a family decorating our place. Unfortunately, Kinzy had to take a nap before we got everything done so she didn't get in very many pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year for Thanksgiving we had a big meal (doesn't everyone). We had some friends over and we cooked ham! Haven't had ham in a few years and it tasted good. We hung out together and played games and ate and ate. We trust you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.

Lydia loses her first tooth

While being here in our new home, Lydia lost her first tooth. She couldn't decide if she wanted to put it under her pillow to get money or carry it around in her pocket for the rest of her life. After a few days of her little tooth in her pocket we finally convinced her to put it under her pillow. The tooth fairy must have had a broken wing because it took a couple of nights for Lydia to finally get her coin! :)

Long time no talk

Hello everyone!
I want to apologize for the long delay in displaying posts. Because of circumstances out of our control we had to leave our country of residence. We have been living in a neighboring country for about three weeks now. I will update you with some pictures and stories of our adventures. Thanks for continuing to check up on us! We trust you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Better pay your Taxes

Some of you may know that we have a high class coffee shop on the ground floor of our building. When I say "high class" I mean a coffee shop where women are welcome and it also serves food. Most of our neighbors are not pleased with this place because it has attracted a bad crowd to our neighborhood.

Well....here's where the story gets good... :). Last Thursday morning I heard banging so loud I thought maybe the building was going to crash. This was followed by lots of yelling. I ran to the balcony to find several police officers and men with sledgehammers destroying the coffee shop. They destroyed walls, seats, lights, the stairs leading to the inside of the coffeeshop. It was pretty much anything their hammers would hit. Then, two pick ups showed up and they loaded them up with chairs and tables, yelled some more, and drove off. By this point the entire neighborhood was out watching....like a football match. The owner call his employees and the next 6 hours they cleaned the place up and actually opened that night! (of course furniture was a little sparse. )

BUT My story is not over. The next two days the workers brought brick, new tile, and concrete to rebuild. It looked as if nothing happened to the place. THEN, the sun set on our friends below again. Yesterday more police showed up with a paddy wagon of sledgehammers and 3 moving trucks. They annihilated the place. I've never seen anything like it. Hammers were flying everywhere. The police hauled 3 truck loads of more tables and chairs. There was a lot of yelling between the police chief and owners. After they left, the owner and his employees cleaned up AGAIN! We don't know what the guy did wrong but I actually admire his "stick it to the man" attitude. They opened for business last night, with 3 plastic chairs, one table and one sheesha. We'll keep you posted to what happens next.

A Princess Party

This year for Lydia's birthday she got to do her first slumber party. She had a princess party for her birthday. She invited four girls over and they ate cake, made beaded necklaces, watched a princess movie, stayed up late, woke up early, ate pancakes and painted fingernails. They even played "pin the slipper on cinderella" (princess version of pin the tail on the donkey). Whew! I had my first experience to the definition of "giggly girls". They all finally went to sleep around midnight and the first one up was at ten 'till six. Mom and Dad had to have their own napping party afterward.

Lydia is 7!

Making bead necklaces....those beads run all over...

Open your presents, Lydia!!

Watching the princess movie, "Enchanted".

The giant princess bed....poor Alia she wants to be included so bad :(

Pancakes the next morning!!!

The princess station

All our Princess Friends!