Okay, so if she weren't biting her fingernails, this would be a great shot! I guess it's a mom thing, I love all the pics of Cate!

Special Time with Uncle John

Steve's brother John and his son Jacob have come to Singapore to visit. We love having family here, showing them life in Singapore is so fun! The boys just love having an Uncle to do all sorts of fun stuff with, they especially love snuggling down for a good book, or even "2o winks", which is the Wilson word for a NAP!

Cate tries to play twister

3 Things

There are 3 things in life I have always proclaimed as being aweful. 1.Mornings 2.Running 3.Cockroaches I can't believe I am saying this, but I actually prefer to get up early in the morning now. My health is better than it has been in 15yrs or more, I sleep wonderfully and wake without pain! I actually have so much more time in the day to accomplish things, and taking a midafternoon nap is still okay because I have already been awake for so long! Now, Cate has been up since 4am the last 2 days due to good ol' jetlag, but I think this is a bit excessive. The sun won't rise for another 3 hrs. I now view being greeted by the morning sun as a pleasant way to rise! And running. Slow torturue I would call it. There was no worse way to "exercise", between being totally out of breathe, killing my knees and hips, and not to mention it's incredibly boring. Again, I can't believe I am saying this, but, I am running now! No big distances yet, but I am running about 2 miles every other day, or at last that's my goal now that we are back home. I would like to join a 10k race in the end of August, but we shall see. Oh, Cockroaches. Well, I still think they are among the most grotesque things on earth! We have encountered 2 very large ones since being home. I am normally quite against chemicals such as insect sprays and the like, but for cockroaches, I must do whatever necassary to get them out of my house!

Two Peas in a Pod

Happy Birthday Steve!

We celebrated Steve's 40th b'day the week we arrived in NY. To surprise him, I had his siblings in to visit, which is very special to him! We did some silly games and just hung out. We also went to a fun park where we did rock climbing, bumber boats and the reverse bungee! Steve even outdid everyone and did a forward and backard flip on the bungee. Hopefully he had lots of fun and realized turning 40 isn't the end of the world, or the end of fun either!

Singapore Air Rocks!

Okay, so some of these newer posts are going to be out of order in the sequence of events. But, hey, at lest I am getting them up in a reasonable amount of time.

So, these pictures are of the amazing new plane by Singapore Air. This plane only flies busines class, and let me tell you, it is worth every penny when you are flying that long with children! The service is amazing, the food is identifiable and totally edible, the movies are endless and the seats are huge, and, they lay completely flat! I was even more blessed to have an empty seat nearby, so Cate could have her own when it came time to sleep. Only thing is when you train a child to go to sleep by themselves (or the child is just realy nosey), it's quite difficult to get them to sleep on a busy plane. So, she slept for a grand total of 6 hrs on our 18 hr flight. At least she was pleasant, for the most part. As you can tell, the boys made themselves right at home, and the only time we heard from them is when thier movie was over, and they asked "Can we watch it again?" At which point it's always "YES!"

I love Singapore Air

Snowball Fight!

At one of our favorite playgrounds by gramma Wilson's house there is also an ice rink. The boys love to go there not because of the cool playground, but because they dump the ice right outside into a big heap. This means one thing...SNOWBALL FIGHT!

This was Cate's first experience with snow, and she didn't hesitate a bit. She wanted a piece of the action, it didn't take her long to learn to throw snowballs at the boys. Watch out Cate, they show no mercy!

Adventures with the Lloyds

The other day we had some more adventures with the Lloyds. First we went to Firt Stanwix and learned all about the Indian tribes in Ny and the trials they faced and the customs that are different from the way we live. It was an eye opening experience for the boys, but I think the most fun they has was when they got to hold the wooden muskats and learn the different commands! Ryan and Gramma thought this toy looked like an old time transformer.

Then we went to Fort Rickey Game Farm, and had a blast feeding the deer, and holding snakes and baby goats! Caitlyn was in Heaven with all the animals around. She loved watching, and petting, she just ran from one place to the other laughing and babbling about what she saw.

Actually, we went to Fort Rickey first and Frot Stanix last, but I loaded the pics in the wrong order. Details, details, oh well :-)

Little Mommy

We went to visit some close friends of ours the other day, they have a new baby boy who we just couldn't wait to meet. Baby Jeremiah is a sweet little one, and Caityln couldn't agree more! The whole time we were there she played very little with toys, but instead tended to little Jeremiah, giving him hugs and cuddles and putting his blanket on just so. If he wiggled even the slightest bit she would have to reposition the blanket. How precious it was watching her nurture another little being.

Just because it's naptime and she played super hard all morning, and she's quiet in the backseat, you can never assume she is sleeping!

Hole in One

We went to play Putt Putt today, and on hole number 12 Aaron got the first hole in one. It would be an undertsament to say he was very excited! Ethan got a hole in one on number 17, after shooting the ball with his hand! There is this new twist on the game, a spinner with different variations to the game, to make it more interesting I guess. One was, any opponant can be placed on the green as an extra obstacle, another was using your club up-side-down, the one they liked the most was being able to use your hands for the first putt. Well, Ethan didn't quite get what it meant, and he chucked the ball, AND, he ended up with a hole in one!! Of coarse, the siblings didn't quite think it was fair, 'cause there was no spinner at this particular hole. So, I let the other two give it a try, and Aaron got a hole in one that way as well. A fun way to end the game I thought. Caitlyn, well, she had fun running throughout the course, stealing clubs, and trying to kick the ball. So we got her a club and ball of her own. Daddy would be proud.

After days like yesterday, I really need to play around some with my thinking and emotions. We had such an amazing day with our best friends, family really, the Lloyds. Each of the children has a friend their age. Ryan and Beca and 9 days apart, Aaron and Chris are 6 mo. apart, and Ethan and Sammuel are 6 mo apart. The young ones, Zach and Caitlyn were actually born on the same day, one yr apart!

When we arrived, the first time in 1 yr, the children could barely wait for the van top stop moving. They jumped out and ran immediately to their Lloyd counterpart, and we littereally didn't hear from them for at least 2 hours. There was a huge yard to run around in, a maze to run, tire swing, huge trampoline, and trees to climb. They were in heaven!

Mandy and I could actually sit and converse about whole topics rather than be interupted mid thought, which used to be the norm when all our children were 4 and under. We went to Wegman's for lunch, which used to be one of our usual stomping grounds. One of us would call the other and say "hey, I gotta get some groceries, you wanna meet and have lunch?", or " i gota get out of the house, come out to eat with us!". Then we would trapse out with all 6 children, dodging the glaring eyes and thoughts behind those looks saying we were either crazy, or a small daycare! Today, we got the same looks and thoughts, I'm sure, but this time the children were all (well, mostly) calm and obedient, and helpful. Save for Aaron and Chris who have way too much kinetic energy, totally feeding off eachother!

These things make me really want to stay. It's really quite difficult to process the emotions with coming back to the states each yr. Do I want to settle down and get back into my normal, predictable routine, and have these times more often with the children? Or do I want to continue to have other amazing experience, seeing the world, meeting new people, developing new friends, only to have to say goodbye in a moments notice becase they have to relocate? Traveling the world is something I would never have thought we would do. It's incomprehendable, I wouldn't change what we have done. But, there is something said for staying put for a while, predictability, old friends, family and routine. I will never have my ultimate dream of raising the children modern day Little House on the Prarrie style, but, I know there's got to be a comprimise out there somewhere.

This is obviously the meloncholy in me talking today! i am just blessed by all experiences God has given us, both here and out there, in His big wide world!

Meanwhile, we will take the days like we had today, any time we can!