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| Mikaya turned 3 recently and the Wonder Pets (a cartoon on NickJr) came to save the day when the cake was stolen by Swiper the fox (a cartoon character on Dora the Explorer). Luckily, Lenny (played by our friend Chris Bellar) came to the rescue and led the Wonder Pets through Shark River, the Candy Lizard Forest, and Alligator Swamp (Kirk got pretty creative when creating this game!). The kids had a wonderful time and Mikaya is still talking about it daily!
Top: Alex and Larissa Winslade
Bottom: Kolaya, Mikaya, Chris Bellar, Sam Winslade, Aidan and Jude Ruetschle
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| Kolaya and Mikaya enjoyed attending their friend Robert's "Winnie the Pooh" birthday party! They played a jumping Tigger game, did a treasure hunt, and played pin the tail on Eeyore. Mikaya's favorite part of the afternoon was making mini-Winnie the Pooh cakes and frosting them on her own. Kolaya loved painting pictures!
The pictures below are of Nathan, David, Ryan, Kolaya, Robert, Mikaya and Joshua.
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| The internet is finally working at home with a faster connection, so I wanted to post some pictures of our family over the holidays. We have had some unusual speedbumps over the last month, including no phone or internet connection for over a week, no electricity for over five days, termites that were making a nest in the master bedroom closet, wood-flooring that busted through due to water damage, and a kitchen sink that hasn't worked properly (it leaks constantly) for over two weeks. We are definitely not discouraged by this, but it has slowed us down! We have enjoyed many nights of cards by candlelight, washing the dishes in random sinks, and numerous repairmen in our house. Recently, Mikaya was praying at dinner and thanked God for the electricity. We are grateful for the many blessings we have!
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| Have you ever wanted to see Jessie and Charlie in scuba gear? Rhetorical question, I know, of course we'd all like to see that! =) While we were on our Palawan vacation, Charlie, Jessie and I enrolled in an open-water diver certification. We spent four full days reading, listening to lectures, watching videos, and practicing techniques out in the ocean. We had an amazing time and saw some beautiful soft and hard corals, a sea turtle, eels, stingrays, bat fish, nudi branches (a small snail without a shell), and many other exquisitely colored fish. I'm not going to discuss who was better at scuba diving or who did better on quizzes or the final exam because some things should be left at the beach, but we had lots of laughs and an awesome time!
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| Well, it wasn't Christmas
Island, but it was pretty close. December 25th found our family, the
Swans, Jeff MacRaild, and Catherine Bae on a small island named Coco
Loco Island (no joke). Between us, the water, and the palm trees there
wasn't a lot happening, but maybe that's how the stable felt before the
shepherds showed up.
Our
friends from Korea who visited really wanted to get to the beach, so we
spent a few days over the holidays swimming, scuba diving (for Calah,
Charlie, and Jessie), catching starfish, relaxing, and burying the
girls in the sand. It was great to see Chuck and Jess again, and even
our girls were sad to see our friends leave. Hopefully our next chance
to catch up with them will be in the states when we head back in April!
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