Fun with friends & the outdoors

We had friends over today.  R & R came over with their mom. We haven't seen them since January and it was good to seem them.  R (the boy) is like 6 months older than Little M and R (the girl) is like 6 months older than Little H.  It's funny to watch the boys play together. It's amazing the difference between the girls.  Funny to see the stages that Little H will soon be entering.

After Little N was done with school we decided to go play at a grassy area, just to let the boys run around and play.  We had lots of fun and I think we will have to go there more often because the boys just didn't know what to do with the grass.

A busy Sunday

Happy Mother's Day everyone!
     Sundays always feel so busy, rushing to get ready, get to church on time, keeping kids quiet and then getting them to go to Sunday School, mixed in with Little H wanting to eat and getting a cuddle in.  Today was more (but in a fun and exciting way) so because we got to pick up my Uncle who was visiting to see some of the missionaries in Taiwan.  Little N was very excited to see Uncle Matt and proceeded to tell him everything about his life.  Little M was excited but just wasn't able to get the words out to have anyone understand him.  I was also more than a little concerned about getting to church because I needed to get Little M to a bathroom (attempting to potty train -- first full day -- more on that later!).
     The Toddler Sunday School class was asked to come up to the front to sing and do the motions for This Little Light of Mine.  They were so cute just sitting there and some trying to do the motions and others not. John did a Children's sermon and Little M just laid underneath his daddy's legs content just to be near him during church which is a rare moment.
      At VEF there are SO many young children -- babies, toddlers, elementary age, junior high/high school, who we also need to involve during church.  I've come to the realization, which I realized when we sang Jesus Loves Me during the worship time after Little N's eyes lite and he told me, "Hey I know this song!  Hey church is for me too!" We need to be actively trying to figure out how we can involve our kids in our worship time on Sunday morning (or whenever you meet for worship) because we are raising up the next generation of Christians and if we don't include them now, how will they know that Christianity is for them also?  We can make sure that there is Sunday School programs available but if there isn't something for them during the worship hour how are we drawing them in?
      I've heard people complain about adding Children's song or questioning why it would be necessary for children's songs during worship time.  Singing songs whether they are hymns, praise songs or children's praise songs during a church service is all the same you just have the ability to touch different people in different ways.  If you involve people in your worship time you are making Christianity real to them and giving them the tools to share with others.  Right now my son is singing songs both in English and in Mandarin praising God all because they are fun, simple to understand and he is being a witness to his teachers and classmates.
    I'm SO sorry for this long (probably) run on sentences and thoughts but it's on my heart and in my mind.  
   After church we enjoyed a quiet afternoon just catching up with Uncle Matt.  I don't have the best pictures but I'll share what I have! Thanks Uncle Matt for spending time with us!  We loved visiting with you and chatting.

 Enjoying the playground at the flower market! 

Happy Mother's Day

Today is a very special day, mothers are being honored around the world. I want to honor two very special women - my mother and John's mom. Thank you for being there through thick and thin!  We love you and are so thankful for you!

A drive and a hike in the mountains

We went on a drive up into the mountains.  We haven't done that in a while but it was SO much fun.  Driving around and just seeing the mountain scenery was just what we needed.  Then we stopped for a walk to go see a waterfall.  We were able to take the stroller up to a certain point and it was the second time Little H has been able to be in the stroller.  Little M and Little N took turns sitting on each other's lap when it got to steep for them to walk up the hill (or when they got too tired!) We got to the waterfall and had our picnic as we finished our picnic it started to rain so we hurried back to our stroller before it down poured.  Unfortunately we walked/ran down the hill in a downpour of rain not prepared at all, thankfully a sweet lady shared her umbrella with Caristy and Little H (mostly because of Little H). We were soaked but had a blast just spending time together as a family.

Little H - 4 months

Little H is now 4 months.  It's really hard to believe that she's been around for 4 months.  She is really a beautiful baby and we love her dearly.  She has learned how to roll from her back to her front. She is so proud when she does that. I'm not sure how big she is yet. I'll have to see how tall and how much she weighs tomorrow.

Little H and her brothers

Early Mother's Day Gift

So Little N made me a Mother's Day gift in school.  He made me a beautiful card and then he made me a beautiful flower arrangement.  I'm very blessed to have three wonderful kids!

Tired

These kiddos were exhausted!  I love my kids!

Cleaning Windows

So in our new apartment we live on the 13 floor and we have been wondering how to clean the windows.  Today Little N shouted at John saying, "Hey dad look at the guy on the ledge." We were shocked when we looked outside and saw two people on the ledge cleaning on the window. We will not be cleaning our windows that way....we'll try to find a long window wiper to clean our windows.  We also had to tell both Little N and Little M that they were not allowed to climb out of the windows. Thankfully we have child safety locks on all the windows.

The way I view Friendship

It's hard when you live in a foreign country and have to meet new friends.  Well it's not hard just when you live in a foreign country it's hard when you take a while to open up to people. I am working on trying to be good at being a friend and being open to meeting new people.  I have been blessed with the people who have been kind enough to be my friend.

This month the theme for Clickin Mom's 12 month project is Friendship.  Please join me in looking at how Jeni views friendship.

 Old picture but a goody!

Happy Birthday to Caristy

Today was Caristy's birthday.  It was a mellow day.  Little M enjoyed going to the park and I enjoyed going to Costco to get birthday ice cream.  I also go beautiful flowers!

A beach day

After picking Little N from school we decided to go to the beach.  This might be a never ending theme on this blog for the next coming months, sorry!  We haven't found many sandy beaches in Taiwan and most people don't use them except to fish or go crabbing.  They don't necessarily go to the beach to go build sandcastles and dig holes.  As a result the beaches here aren't always the cleanest beaches...you find all sorts of things, mannequin heads, bottles, styrofoam, etc.
We still like coming to the beach because you by the water so you get a breeze which helps with the high humidity (at least in Caristy's mind) and you can be outside enjoying the outdoors without complaining about the hot weather.  When it gets to warm you walk into the ocean really quick to cool off.  We enjoy coming to the beach so much so that we bought a beach tent, those half covered tents, so that we can have Little H protected from the sun and sand. We are enjoying the beach and even our new little friends that we find as we dig our holes.

 Little N has a new hair do because on Saturday he decided to cut his own hair. Cutting it pretty short was the only  way to fix his hair. 

 John proud that he found his "friend".

 The boys digging in the sand. 

 Meet our little friend - Mr. Crab

 Holes to play in and make a mess in! 

 Staring at the water making sure it didn't get to close! 

World Vision Taiwan - Lively Taiwan, Happy Family Walk-a-thon

Our Church (Victory Lutheran Brethren church), not just the VEF, joined a bunch of other churches to celebrate and bring awareness about how important family is.  Taiwan has one of the highest rates for divorce and doesn't have the best view on family.  So our church joined other churches along with World Vision Taiwan to do a walk-a-thon to help raise awareness about the importance of family.
It can be hard trying to find ways to join together with the whole church with us not being able to speak Chinese, this was one way that we could work together. We walked in the pouring rain along with hundreds of other people - handing out fliers and explaining what we were doing, singing songs and being united together.  Today was important day because it was International Family Day and so walking around with other families and just sharing Christ love and not being afraid of a little rain showed that we were united in sharing how important family is.