Adventures in

Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Letter 2011

If anyone reading this didn't get our Christmas letter and would like to, let us know your address so we can send you one! Happy New Year!!!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Miss Kylie had a good 6th Birthday! She got lots of fun presents - a gift card to Build-A-Bear, a gift card for a Build-A-Bear outfit, Hi Ho Cherrio, Sunny Bunny, some great clothes and a Rise of the Hokie Nation book that we can't figure out who it's from (we think maybe Grammy?)! She loved all her presents, gift cards and money sent to her :)

She picked out Orange Cinnamon Rolls to have for her birthday breakfast (and thank the Lord we can actually find them here - they're pricey, but sooooo good), enjoyed a McDonald's Happy Meal for lunch (a treat!) and wanted Noodle Soup for dinner! Daddy took the day off and we went to the Kuwait Zoo (crazy!) and to the Avenues Mall to pick out Coco, her new monkey! That evening we watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland :) All in all, it was a pretty good day!

The 6 year old with her favorite breakfast :)

Licking the icing off the lid

Blowing out the 6 candles on her orange cinnamon buns!

The Birthday Girl with her presents!

Kiddos under the Kuwaiti Flags

With an Emu walking behind them

Kylie got a Zebra pillow pet for Christmas and named her Safari. She wanted a picture with the real Safari at the Zoo :)

Our great family!

I must have taken 30 pictures trying to get one of all 3 kids in mid-air...this was the best one :) I love it!

Cute Kiddos at the end of the Zoo!

Lunch at the Food Court at the Avenues! Taco Bell for the rest of us, but McDonald's for Kylie!

Coco, getting an air bath after she was finished being stuffed

Kylie and Coco :) Kylie picked out Coco's pajama outfit, bunny slippers and sweet little ice cream cone panties for her Monkey :) Too fun!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Hi, My Name is Kylie, vol. 4

...and I am the Birthday Girl because today I turn 6 years old!!!

Job: I go to school. I'm in Kindergarten (KG2). I like school - I like computers, PE, recess. I kinda like journals. I don't like Life Lab - I like my teacher, but I don't like that the kids are so crazy and don't listen to the teacher. They start grabbing chairs to sit and they should be sitting on the carpet. I have fun going down the slides with Sami (a boy) at recess.

Interests: I like to watch TV, play the iPad and play Barbies. I like riding bikes outside and playing with my friends. I like coloring. I like wrestling my Daddy. I like having sleepovers with Jack and Megan in Megan's bed. I like to snuggle with my Mommy, sometimes take a nap with her, laying on the couch with her and shopping with her.

My favorite colors: Blue and Pink.

My favorite animals: Elephants and Pigs and Zebras also.

Reading: I'm doing pretty good in reading. I know sight words and can read easier books. I can count up to 109.

Nicknames: Bugga, Budge, Budgie, Kylie Gracie, Bugga Grace, Budga, Gracie.

Favorite Foods: Macaroni and Cheese, Tacos, French Fries, Chicken Nuggets, Spaghetti, Chocolate Ice Cream, Samosas, Pita and Hummus, Chips, Apples, Bananas, Gold Fish and Noodle Soup.

What I want to be when I grow up: A Chef or a Teacher.

Friends: Jordyn, Megan, Alli, Kevin, Ava, Jonah, Megan and Jack, James, Hanya, Emman, Amelia and Sami.

Favorite TV Shows: Barney (just discovered him!), Backyardigans, Barbie, Veggie Tales, Wolverine, Spectacular Spiderman, Sing Off.

Favorite Sayings: No I didn't! Nermal (instead of Normal - it's our favorite). I'm going upstairs to play Barbies, Can I get a drink of water?, I can't get to sleep, Stop! (to Megan and Jack when they're bugging her), May-gan!, I'm not puny! I'm going to...(get a snack, go play upstairs, go get changed into a different outfit...) instead of asking if she can (we're working on it). :) Can I go downstairs and play the iPad? (what she says when she wakes up super early on weekend mornings)!

Things I did while I was 5: Started Kindergarten successfully, broke my left arm, moved to a new country, learned to ride a bike without any help, stopped taking naps, begun learning to read, rode the school bus, flew from Bangkok to Japan to Dallas to Dulles with just Mommy to visit Grammy, learned that if you want to talk in class you have to raise your hand every time, asked Jesus into her heart!!!

Things you might not know about me: I'm generally pretty happy. I go to bed around 7:30pm and have to be woken up on school mornings at 5:45am, but on the weekends gladly wake up around 5:30am (go figure) :) I like unlocking our front gate and hitting the button to raise the garage door for Mommy or Daddy. I still love shopping with Mommy. I don't like elevators unless they have glass windows. I just learned what "tights" are (since I hadn't had a winter since I had just turned 2) and love wearing them with dresses, I am really quite sweet and fun but can be a stinker easily :) Mommy loves me and Daddy can't believe that I'm going to be 6 years old!!!

Happy Birthday Kylie Grace!!! We love you so much and are so thankful you are in our family! You keep us laughing and smiling and are a blast to be around! We love you Bugga!!!

Kiddos at a McDonald's here in Kuwait

Sisters

Jack and Kylie

Momma and her Bugga

With her Daddy and siblings

Kylie's cast - before she got it off

And the other side of it...

With the Bible Verse she wrote out all by herself!
Luke 2:11

Happy Birthday Kylie Grace!!!

Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

We had a great Christmas day here! We spent Christmas Eve afternoon baking and getting things ready to make for the brunch we hosted here with friends from work! Megan made (with Mommy and Daddy's help) mini blueberry muffins and Mandarin Cranberry Bread - and also chopped up sweet peppers and onions for our mini egg muffins!

The kids woke up around 7am and we held them off until about 7:30 before we came downstairs! We enjoyed opening presents for a while, then got ready to have people over for an 11am brunch! It was great to have friends over - Barb, Ben and Sarah, Savo, Paul, Mike and Meredith and their 2 little girls! We had mamosas, coffee, french toast casseroles, breakfast egg rolls, pork bacon (!) that Barb so generously shared with us, homemade cheese biscuits, yummy tomatoes with feta, mini egg and biscuit muffins, mini blueberry muffins, mandarin cranberry bread, cinnamon bubble bread and fruit! It was delicious and a great time! After everyone left (around 4pm), we opened still more presents and enjoyed the rest of the night! It was a great day and a great time to spend together!

Our kiddos in front of the Christmas Tree on Christmas Morning!!!

Fun Fairy Barbie the kids picked out for her!

Jack made Dan and I each a Lego vehicle - and did a great job!

Me and my Christmas Tweeter

Megan and the painting I did for her!

Jack and his copious amounts of Legos!

Kylie and Dan looking through her new Ivy and Bean books :)

Miss Megan and her lots and lots of new earrings!

Daddy with presents from Mom Mom and Pappy

What was left of our Christmas Brunch spread :)

Enjoying new Christmas presents - Megan reading, Jack playing xBox and Kylie upstairs with her new Barbie house

And Dan outside smoking his Hookah - with 2 Apples tobacco in it!

He's so cool :)

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

Our Family

Since church for us is on Friday, we got to dress up for that service AND dress up for the Christmas Eve service! Our Christmas Eve was spent getting ready for our church's Christmas Eve Kid's Program that we agreed to help at and getting our house ready for Christmas brunch! Our tradition is to go somewhere for dinner (this year was Taco Bell) and then head to the Christmas Eve service, then come home and open our stockings! We also had 2 surprises in the mail - a box from Kurt, Suz, Joshua and Tobin and a box from Greg, Melissa, Michael and Matthew - so we got to open them, as well!