Mason City Friends

After Christmas, we enjoyed having our friends from Mason City come visit. It was a lot of fun for our family.

Our kids got a lot of personal attention which they loved!

Alex and Urban

Holly and Asher reading books together:

We enjoyed lots of laughs together, good conversation, games, and were greatly encouraged to have them travel all this way. Thanks Alex, Holly, & Scott!

More Fun Outdoors

As fast as the snow came yesterday, it is almost gone, leaving our playground full of big, messy puddles. This is equally as fun as snow for the boys!

Snowy Day

It has been unusually snowy here lately. We've been told that usually winters are really mild here, but I guess we brought winter with us when we moved. My language tutor said it hasn't snowed this much in years.

To my son's delight it continues to snow. We enjoyed some time outside today. The snow was perfect for making a snowman so we did make a little one.

Enjoying the Park

Our apartment complex has a small park right outside. The boys have loved going outside to play.

The weather has been unusually cold here recently, but the boys are still happy to be out.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We have a slight obsession with cars, trains, and planes in our house these days. Asher and Urban love about anything with wheels.

In the current city we live in there is several malls with kids' play centers that have all of these small rides/games for a small fee. I really don't like these play centers. It is over stimulation for small children and usually ends up with one or both of my children crying because we aren't going to go there or because it is time to leave. Despite my feelings towards these places, my boys love them because they have a lot of cars you can "ride" in. So we have gone a few times and have had a fun time watching them have a blast. :)

Asher loves Lightning McQueen, so this is his favorite.

The boys riding together:

We took a little train ride that rode around the mall.

Christmas 2011

Ok, I'm finally getting to Christmas! We enjoyed a quiet Christmas in our new apartment this year. Despite, the crazy Fall we had, we were able to get our tree up and continue some of our regular traditions as a family.

The boys helped decorate cookies this year.

Christmas morning we opened up some gifts.

Asher and Urban got some hot wheels cars and a road carpet from Nana and Popi. This has been a lot of fun for them.

Bucharest, Romania

In late November, for various reasons, we needed to make a quick exit of the country to renew our visa. The closest country with the cheapest airfare was to Bucharest, Romania. We felt like this was a God thing, because we have a friend that lives there. Less than 48 hours later, we were on a plane to Romania to stay with our friend Bambi for the weekend. It was a really encouraging, refreshing weekend. We enjoyed catching up, eating new foods, and seeing different architecture than what we are used to.

Behind us is the People's Palace of Romania:

We visited an Orthodox church:

A view of the old part of the city:

Enjoying some Romanian food with our friend, Bambi.

It was an unexpected trip, but ended up being a real blessing for us!

Nana Visits

I'm really behind in updating our blog. It has been a crazy few months, but I'm going to try and catch up a bit.

In November, Nana came to visit us in Adana where we were temporarily living. This really was a huge blessing for all of us. Reed was going to be gone most of the time, so she was a big help and good company. I think the Lord knew that particular week I was going to need someone around for support. This happened to be the week of the 2nd earthquake that Reed experienced and it was really difficult to be apart during that time.

Our time consisted of taking the kids to the park each day, reading books at the house, and getting a lot of good Nana time.

There was a train that went around this park:

Asher and Urban enjoyed splashing in the fountain:

Our family: Asher was mid sneeze.

Nana, Reed, and Urban

Nana and the boys:

Reading books together:

We took Asher to the zip zip (aka trampoline). He loves it!

It was special blessing to have this time with Nana!