Our First Christmas on this side of the Ocean

We had a wonderful Christmas with dear friends (who are like our family to us) this year, as it was our first Christmas on this side of the ocean. It was Micah's first Christmas, so of course we had to take many pics and video of him. Both kids were a lot of fun as Morgan understood presents and was excited about opening them beyond the pretty princess paper. And continued to ask "can I open 1 more?"Whereas Micah had no clue as to what was going on and loved playing with the paper and watching his Big Sister laugh and open her presents.

Micah's P.J.s say "Baby's First Christmas" and loved having the santa hat on!

Thanks to Mrs. Joyce and her class, Micah found cars in his stocking and Randall even got to enjoy chocolate covered cherries (which is a tradition for him and his Dad to have at Christmas). It was a fun surprise for him!

Morgan's new thing is polly pockets (Thanks MiMi and Paw Paw!) and she was excited to open them but kept saying "I don't want Micah to eat them!" haha! everything goes in to Micah's mouth these days!

Yes, this is a drum, but it does have an off switch! Micah loves banging on it and always laughs when it makes music.

Thanks to Grammy & G-Pa, Morgan got to dress up in her Mrs. Clause dress and loved spinning around like a princess of course!

Likewise, Micah was a little Santa and was so much fun to watch as he paraded around in his suit and hat.

To end our Christmas evening, we got together with other friends and sang Christmas carols and praised Father outside, under the stars. It was Awesome!

On our way home from visiting our friends, we decided to venture out and drive out to the coast line as we were only minutes from it. To our surprise, it was really peaceful and not crowded at all at the beach area where we stopped. Of course we were not prepared to play at the beach or in the ocean, but we still had fun watching Morgan run around and took some pics to share...

It was really cute watching Randall with the kids and trying to keep both of them from jumping in the water.

There was no one around to take our family pic, so we did the best we could...

It was so bright for Micah, he had his eyes closed a lot!

We were determined to get a family pic at the beach and this was the best we could do! haha! By the time we got back to the car, everyone except for Micah had sandy feet and we were all a little wet from the waves hitting the shore and the wind blowing the water towards us. But it was fun and we hope to go back soon (prepared to play of course).

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

It's almost Christmas and Christmas on this side of the ocean is just "slightly" different then back at home. For starters, there are no villas (which are homes here) decorated with yard art or outside Christmas lights. There is no Christmas music playing on all the radio stations and only just a few stores actually have Christmas music playing in them. The weather still feels like spring/fall with some rain and temperatures are in the 60-70's, which means no snow (for now). We might wear a light jacket and long sleeves, but no heavy coats, scarves, or mittens to keep warm.

But we do have a Christmas tree up in our living room and have our stocking out and of course snowmen for decoration. The malls and stores are still crowded, so we are not missing out on the "holiday crowds" (haha!) Here are a few pictures we have taken over the past few weeks...

Merry Christmas!

We finally caught Morgan on camera cheesing Big!

We don't know if the kids actually know what stockings are?

This was a difficult picture to take as the kids did not want to sit still, but it still turned out cute!

This is Micah's new thing: raise your hands up!

Last week, we were surprised to see this big Christmas tree in the middle of a mall. It was wonderful and made it feel more like home to us! Of course, we had to take a picture!

(I'm sure we looked funny to the local people, taking a picture in front of the tree, but we didn't care!)

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas this year!

Happy Birthday Randall!

Yep, you guessed it, 12/12/2009 is Randall's Birthday and its our first family birthday to celebrate since we've been on this side of the ocean. It's sort of been a "Birthday weekend" as we started celebrating on Thursday by going out to eat at Chili's (one of Randall's favorite places). Of course we had to get pics to share our celebration with you.

Here is Randall and Morgan enjoying chips and salsa!

Across the table Liz and Micah are enjoying our family night out!

Of course you can't go to Chili's and not eat the french fries (this one is for you Aunt Natalie)!

This is the actual day of Randall's Birthday. Liz loves to take pics! (we found out today that the timer on our camera works!)

Randall loves brownies and this made it an easy birthday cake for Liz to bake (yeah!)

And to make Randall's birthday even more special/unique... it rained for a couple of hours off and on. We have not seen good rain, where the ground actually looks wet and puddles form in the streets in over 7 months. Of course we had to get pictures of our first good rain overseas!

This is the parking lot outside of our apartment building (the sand/dirt is now mud) And of course, we just got our car washed yesterday!

So for all of you who have thought that the Middle East was always hot and dry, well today it rained in the Middle East... now its cool and wet!

HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY RANDALL!!!

If this doesn't make you laugh, we don't know what will

Yesterday while Randall was trying to bargain and get a good deal with a local shopkeeper, the kids and I were in the car waiting. Actually Morgan was sleeping and Micah was laughing and playing and talking about something...

I was able to catch him on video: the first part, he's laughing because I'm tickling him (we've recently discovered his tickle spots) and the second part, he's just talking and talking about who knows what??? (we'd post more videos of Morgan except she hides when we take the camera out; we'll have to work on that!)

ENJOY! Hope you laugh as hard as we did! (notice his teeth, he now has 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top)

Happy Thanksgiving (belated)!

We celebrated our first holiday on this side of the ocean and had a wonderful day with friends. Although Randall and Liz still had to go to school in the morning on the day of Thanksgiving, it was still a good day of giving Thanks (Randall even got his pecan pie as if he were in the states)! We were gently reminded of how many things we have to be thankful for in our lives.

It was Micah's 1st Thanksgiving and he was hamming it up for the camera!

Here we are the night before Thanksgiving, out with friends who traveled to our city to spend the holiday with us.

We're not sure if Micah was too happy about his Big Hug from Morgan, but still thought it was cute of them in their P.J.'s!

This is Micah's friend, Lucy. The two of them have been friends since they were 3 months old and now they are 10 months old. This picture captures their personality pretty well, Lucy loves the spotlight and Micah is laid back. Haha!

We thought we'd fool you into thinking we were actually on a date... haha! The stroller with both kids in it is to our left, but the scenery was really neat and reminded us of the river-walk in San Antonio.

Happy Thanksgiving (belated a few days) from our family to you!

Who was at the mall???

The other day we were at the mall eating lunch when we noticed Morgan had stopped eating her chicken nuggets (which is unusual for her) and was looking off in the distance at something or someone??? All we could see was a bunch of kids and their parents with cameras going crazy and very excited. Then as the crowds parted, low and behold stood Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in a mall in the Middle East. Does this seem strange to anyone else?

We had a moment of displacement and laughed out loud! Of course Morgan wanted to go and shake their hands and Liz had to get a picture. But as we approached Mickey and Minnie, Morgan appeared to be scared and wouldn't go say Hi. Perhaps she wasn't sure if she should greet them in Arabic of English??? Who knows, but thankfully, Randall came to her rescue and picked her up to take a picture with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Morgan was then really happy!

Does something seem different about Minnie's eyes? At least she seems a little different then what we've seen at Disney World in the States.

It's no Disney On Ice or Disney World, but it sure made Morgan happy for the moment (and it was FREE!) haha!

A Trip to the Zoo!

Yes, we know it has been over 2 weeks since we have posted new pics of the kids and we apologize for all of you who keep up with our family. For some reason, we have had problems connecting to the internet lately, but hopefully everything will work now.

Thankfully 3 weeks ago, we had a day off from class and decided to check out the local zoo. It was great for our family to get out and enjoy a day from our "daily routine". To our surprise, this zoo was probably one of the cleanest zoos we have ever visited and all the sceneries were so beautiful with half mountains/half desert in the distance. We were able to see many animals and it was so neat how close we were able to get to the animals, but of course with a thick glass wall in between us and them! Enjoy the pictures!

We figured it was about time for a new family pic!

Morgan was so excited to play in grass rather then sand! haha!

Randall and Randall #2 hanging out!

Morgan's new friend, Elie and her family went to the zoo with us

Micah is showing off his little tooth, but he actually has 2 teeth now!

It's just like Simba from the Lion King, at least that's what Morgan thought!

This tiger was in the perfect position for a picture (we thinks it looks like something from National Geographic)

Morgan is totally turning into a Daddy's Girl (and Randall loves it!)

A Wadi What???

Last weekend we had another "first time" experience of going to a wadi. A wadi is a valley in the mountains where the water runs through and sits after it rains. In the states, most people go swimming in a pool, a lake, or vacation at the beach, but on this side of the ocean, we go to a wadi to swim. Yes, there are swimming pools here, but mostly at hotels or private clubs of which cost money.

Our first taste of going to the wadi started when we were in 4-wheel drive, going off-roading in our cars, while driving through the mountains with steep cliffs on both sides of the narrow, rocky road (hope that helps to paint a mental picture). Then we arrived to a rocky area, where water suddenly appeared. Our first thought was "we are going to go swimming in that?" It's like going to play in a creek back in Texas, but with more water.

But once we got our tent all set up and stepped into the water, we realized the water was very clean and clear. And even though it was probably over 100 degrees outside, the water was cool and felt great. Enjoy some of the pictures of the family playing in the water and be sure to observe our beautiful scenery...

The water was perfect height for Morgan as she was able to stand in most places

Micah and Randall actually match with their red shirts and grey/red swimming shorts

Morgan loved playing with the rocks, she even made "rock soup" and served everyone lunch!

While Micah loved to taste the rocks! haha!

Micah was crawling all over the rocks and splashing in the water; He loved it!

This is the tent we shared with our friends and the funny thing about this picture is that the wind had started blowing hard and stuff was flying everywhere. So, while the guys were trying to keep the tent from coming undone from it's anchors and running after our things that were flying away, the ladies and children laughed and enjoyed playing in the water! It was a good time for our family to get away and enjoy the beautiful nature Our Father has created.

First Tooth!

It finally broke through and we have the picture to prove it! Yeah! Micah's first tooth is so little and so cute. His smile is about to be changed forever as it is not toothless anymore. We were able to get a few pics of him smiling really big and wanted to share them with you.

It's amazing how much and how fast our little ones are growing up! Down below is a pic of Micah in his Jumping Jimmy that we borrowed from our friends. He loves it and we are in the process of making a video of him bouncing in it. Stay tuned...

See his tooth? (bottom middle) and he eats as if he has a whole mouth full of teeth!

Micah loves to jump and yes, he's mastered crawling but wants to stand up and walk so badly!