The Road is Coming!

This may just look like cement, but it's not! It's so much more! It's a soccer field! It's a clean place to play! It's a place to walk! It's a place to ride your bike! It's smooth, flat, clean and it's almost to our house! Did I mention it's CLEAN? The road from the top of our street has been a MESS! Full of holes and dips and muddy in the winter and dusty in the summer! We cannot go outside without getting COVERED in dirt! So this cement road is amazing!

The kids ALL go up and play soccer together, young and old, boy and girl!

Lavine and Annie facing off! I love this picture!

Shadi and Annie...cutest goalies! Ranz and Aram...cutest goal posts!

New favorite picture of Aram!

Toby doing some stunts...just down the hill is our house! 100 more feet and we will no longer have to wash away dirt and rocks that are forever rolling down in front of our house!

Later on, we went and sat at Nazila's house for a bit! Lavine climbing on her "mama"...a sweet candid moment!

Annie giving some private gymnastic lessons to Lavine!

oooo...it hurts so good...getting closer and closer to doing the splits!

Christmas Du (two)!

Carol made it back from the good ol' US of A and brought her brother Andrew and sister Rachel with her! We saved the best for last and had our traditional fondu with them!

Then MORE presents...just when we thought it couldn't get any better Ms. Carol gave the kids two new Wii games...they were really excited!

Ms. Carol with the new earrings Annie gave her!

Ms. Rachel and Toby with the nail polish he picked out just for her!

Ms. Carol opening the picture of "Mam Jalal" our country's president...Toby picked it out just for her! He said he got it for her because it was FREE! He must be related to Tim!

Toby trying on Mr. Andrew's new head gear!

burying themselves in the debris!

Unwrapping More of God's Love For Us!

After acting out...we opened presents! Annie was excited about a new cook book from Mimi!

My new house shoes from Toby...the 2012 model!!

a game we found for the kids at the "Langa" the used bazaar...all used stuff from America and Europe...keep getting rid of your stuff...it eventually comes here apparently!

Jesse's pirate hat and bag full of GOLD!

a new leotard from Mimi!

Best part this year was surprise gifts from the kids! Holly took each kid out this last week and let them buy gifts for each other and us! So fun! Thanks Holly...we are so blessed by you!

Way to go Mimi...Jesse will be Buzz all year!

Thanks Aunt Mandi and Uncle Ben...he's a little excited!

...and play-doh...haven't seen that stuff in awhile...Jesse didn't even remember what it was...but he pretended to be excited like Toby!

Holly got some fun gifts from her family too...the kids "helped" open each one!

They ended up buying each other the exact same gift...great minds think alike!

real pearl earrings from china to america to iraq...thanks Mimi and Jan!

a special breakfast made by Holly...so good!

hanging out together later on...playing new games on the IPOD touch!

working on our new puzzle! It was the perfect combination of peace and joy! We are so thankful for all the boxes that were sent our way...with more on their way still!

Our Hearts for Jesus!

We read our last Jesse Tree devotional together!

Jesse put the star on the top of the tree!

Then we acted out the story together...this year Jesse was the angel announcing the Good News!

Annie was Mary, Toby was Joseph and Tim was the donkey...coming into Bethlehem together!

He came...what must it have felt like to be Mary?

he was laid in a manger and swaddled!

then the wise man (Holly) came with great gusto!

offering him myrrh

Thankful heart!

Christmas Eve Party!

We got to go celebrate with all of our friends who celebrate the King! It was quite a party...there was some singing, sharing, eating, dancing and cake! It seemed quite chaotic to us. It was interesting to see that everyone talks while others are up front trying to talk! I mean EVERYONE! I don't know how anyone heard anything! Children running everywhere! Loud music! Very different experience for us! But apparently it doesn't mean that they aren't listening!

Tim and Annie dancing away! Remember Rizgar in the purple? So good to see him!

some of the faces at the party

little faces

smiley faces

What Christmas party isn't complete without a little Kung Fu demonstration?

Impressive!

His cake!

Tim got to do the honors of cutting the cake! The best part was Tim getting to talk to the Father with one young man! The next day we found out He received 6 new hearts this weekend! What a great gift!

SCHMORGASBORD!!

I have no idea how to spell schmorgasbord, but every year since I was a kid this has been our family tradition. Basically everyone gets to pick one special food and we make them all and share them. Sometimes, it ends up being a weird mix of stuff, but this year everyone went with a breakfast theme! We had face pancakes, crepes with fresh strawberries, cinnabon muffins, eggs, bacon, fresh tortillas, and pineapple coconut juice!

Tim made the tortillas!

Holly made the crepes and eggs. I made the pancakes, muffins and bacon!

Jesse requested a "Leonardo" face pancake...I did what I could!

Toby's creation!

Annie's had strawberry hair!

Jesus' Birthday Muffin! Happy Birthday Jesus! You are the Light of the World!

He needed help blowing out the candle!

then we all got to open one gift!

Tim opened a scarf and gold chain from Jesse...he said "it is for killing the bad guys!"

Annie was really excited about the glitter brush Jesse found for her! We had a wonderful morning together!