Without a Microwave

Caleb learns its possible to make popcorn without a microwave. Heck, we even made this without electricity!!

Beach time

We are headed to the beach and are unsure of whether or not we'll have internet. So, forgive us if we don't update again before the weekend. Hope your New Year celebration is happy and safe!

Bethany's lost tooth

My tooth came out last night. I loved it. It was so so so so cool. It was turned side ways too. Then my daddy pulled my tooth. I was so proud of him.

This Photo Couldn't Be Missed

Yep. Ken-tuku Fried Chicken. get your franchise today!!

Christmas Break

While we are off from school, we are trying to find all the stuff Lonely Planet missed. Like Paintball. I was awesome and once captured the flag. But now I feel like a 37-year old who did something physical and MUST SLEEP!

Wii Update

Well, the Wii works great, even if it has increased the arguing (most good Christmas presents do). One thing we learned--since all the games are bootleg versions here--the ones we bought for Christmas (at a whopping $1.59 each) don't work. One store did tell us if we bring in the BRAND NEW unit they can "upgrade" it and their bootleg games will work. We've decided to just wait believe it or not!!

Caleb loved the fact that ALL the games are rated "T" (on the back) for alcohol use, violence, and foul language. Even the dog game and Tiger Woods. A friend told us his Larry Boy game was the same way. Who would've thought Larry Boy would take such a turn?!?

It Came!

The last of the Christmas gifts rolled up on a motorcycle Wednesday morning. The website said it would be today and every motor cycle sound sent the kids scrambling. They had a horrible scare when a delivery person rolled up and they were all ready and it was just the mailman!! A huge special THANKS to our elves: Mom and Bob for going to Wal-Mart in the dark and standing in line with other grandparents and Bryan for his shipping savvy!

Some different things at Christmas

Christmas carolers in scarves, hats, gloves, and shorts. In the rain



The grandparents sent some money (and gifts) ahead and so we had an opening party via Skype. That was different but at least we could be a little bit "together". Hope your Christmas is just as good as ours has been!!

Lunch!

Here is the turkey we searched all over to find. Here, also, we are my turkey tips:

Get an oven with no temperature markings so when you are supposed to cook for an hour at 450 then change to 350 you actually bounce from 475 to 325 and back a few times for the first hour. Then keep on doing that for 4 hours

Massage the bird. MASSAGE it. With butter. Making faces helps.

Stand in awe of its golden brown goodness.

Feast! We had corn pudding, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, pea, carrots, and Angie made HOMEMADE angel biscuits with yeast and everything. Pretty incredible if I do say so myself. Especially the butter massage...

Christmas Morning Food

Talk about Christmas we had BISCUITS and GRAVY this morning!!!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve doing a little shopping, some ice skating, and dining on different food. For lunch we ate Thai and for supper it was Indian. Only the Indian is pictured. And the ice skating. The shopping was about like normal so no photos were required!

Breakfast

One recent box we received included Pop Tarts. POP TARTS! One time we saw a box of eight strawberry toaster goodies (or something lame like that; they didn't even have frosting) here for about $5. These chocolatey good S'Mores treats were a huge hit. However Dad, as the humble one he is, had to forego and only have banana bread. What a trooper I am ... I mean HE is.

The Circle of Life

There was a big holiday here Thursday. Which, of course, means lots of people took Friday off, too. And ...well, Monday is practically a holiday and Tuesday we take off... everybody loves to celebrate.

Before

After

After-After

No "during" shots sorry kids! (OK, OK its three different goats.)

Birthday remnants

We finally finished everyone's birthdays this week as Angie received a package and Bethany had her party. Here are some pix:

Nothing like a box of goodies!

This one even had Smores poptarts ... people were pretty excited.

This was before all the kids got there. Pretty international: USA, SE Asia, Finland, Holland, and a partridge in a pear tree. On the down side photos are "prohibited" in the play place. On the good side, we checked all the kids in a LEFT for an hour. THAT was MY kind of birthday party. The HOST gets to LEAVE! AWESOME!!

This gift and its bad english is pictured below in a previous post.

This is in front of Santa's Castle. I think he is due there today or tomorrow. As they were posing for this picture much attention was directed our way. Even a camera crew was filming us for some reason.

The Girls Have Their Say!

Not to be outdone, the girl's toys respond to "Builder the Architect."

Yep. "More funny to play at" AND "Simulating the True Styles and Making Carefully".


Never settle for just plain old "Wonderful" when you can have "Fully Wonderful".


Having been carefully made, of course, "All Styles are Wonderful!"

Another decked mall

Including white kids! Caleb also refused to have his photo with the giant Santa Claus and Prancer (see Christmas Party post).

School Christmas Party

We got all gussied up for a party at school. Don't we look great? Especially Angie. Caleb was unavailable for photos since he was playing the part of a preteen, wandering all over the grounds telling us how bored he was and how he would never come to another thing at our school. Normal, everyday life everywhere in the world, right? Also, note how happy Hudson was. We considered locking them all in the car since there are no laws against it here.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

That is what the great America poet T. Petty said. These particular goats are awaiting the second-biggest holiday of the year this coming Thursday. Its the Feast of the Sacrifice. We don't understand much except that each family (as they can) should provide one goat per person (a cow is good for seven people) from their family. The animals are then "harvested" as Randy would say and the meat divided among the poor of the community.

We are starting to see more and more of these around town as anticipation builds. I tried to get Angie to buy one for our yard. We could do a pardon like the President with his annual turkey but we decided against it. So these guys will likely be dinner by this weekend.

Bob's illegitimate bootleg half-brother!

The only thing I love about shopping is the bootleg stuff. Its not just that the STUFF is so bad but the English is horrible. I laughed at this one all day:

I can't decide if my favorite part is, "Popular: Had Best" "Have the call" or "ACE IN!". Vote for your favorite!! Collect me all for best results always happening! Its the only now that matters to be choosing!

Some bathroom humor

We love these pictures:

What every Mom with boys needs. This says, "See diagram." And then it shows you how to FLUSH THE TOILET.

Here is a snap Angie made. Many of the commodes are lacking what many in America deem essential (the commode part) and so you squat ... hence the name "squatty". This great photo is for the uninitiated who don't always know not to squat on the pot. That hurts the lid, you know. And can be quite dangerous.

So the other night I was running from the cops...

You see traffic here is sort of a nightmare and we were going to the mall. Well, I turned left instead of right and all of the sudden I was 30 minutes later than I wanted to be. So I found my way back only to be in a place where I needed to turn right but couldn't. So I went up and made a legal (?) U-turn and made the turn I needed to make before.

Then when we got to the mall it turned out we couldn't turn right into the mall!!! So I went up and made an illegal (!) U-turn and just as I completed it, I saw the Policeman who was three cars behind me. So I was heading to the mall as quickly as I could. And I was darting around corners, into the parking lots and into a parking place just like a real criminal.

I guess like I should feel sort of bad. I guess. But I don't. The cost of a bribe to clear it up would far outweigh my guilty conscience ... at least that is what I keep telling myself.

By the way, if you are a policemen this is all just fiction.

Ancient Egypt Studies

Bethany just finished a unit on ancient Egypt at school that included this spiritual gem...

Yeah for my Momma!

Who sent us these icicles for our tree for no Christmas tree is complete without them!!!

How about that new haircut?!? Angie used both the trimmer AND the scissors this time. She is getting GOOD!

Our "Decked Malls"

This is just after hanging out at the donut place. Everyone had fruit freezes except Craig who had Starbucks. We like weekends!!

Bethany is 7!!!

Our SPECIAL Davis last Saturday. She loved Mom's donuts so much she wanted some of them and not a cake. When we got to the donut place a number of people said, "How was it? Success?" We are becoming regulars!


If you know much about Bethany you know leaving her dry erase board was the toughest (non-person) thing to leave behind. We found this one at Ace Hardware. It was a BIG hit!




We were forced to go swimming for B's b-day. Here are some looks at our suffering (especially Dad's)! What is the temperature where you are again (except for Craces and Rivers ... you are hotter than us!)??