Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Loving Music!

During our visit to Universal Studios…we were heading home, and were drawn to a crowd that had some “NYC Street Performers”…since my boys love their music…we stopped and checked it out!!  Lo and behold, little Z was the only American and the smallest volunteer pulled from the crowd to do a few dances with the crew!!  It was priceless…and afterwards, he was getting requests to have his photo taken with all of the other tourists!!!  Funny little guy!

114115128

…and for your enjoyment, a little video!

My Photog…

The boys LOVE my phone and taking photos…on any given day, I can delete about 50 to 75 photos that they just “snap”…there are a few that make the cut…and here’s to Little Brando’s budding photography career:

190191192193194195196197059032040077076075076067065061047045014


(This photo by Trevor…I love grabbing my phone and seeing what the little monkey’s have been up to!)

004


…and here is the face behind the camera!!!!

049015

Holiday Time…

Time to put that tree up.  Not such a big deal, but we are in Asia and far from home…so I’m just letting you all know, you can do it, we DO do it and we like it!  (Can you tell I’ve totally overdone the posts tonight?)…There’s no story, I forgot to put the Christmas music on the iPod, the boys were throwing “balls” everywhere and I was just happy that the tree got up…

064

060059052051050

I DO like the lights on a tree…and I like that feeling of “home”…but, the bottom line is, the tree is up and the boys are happy!  That makes this mama happy!  Now bring on the holidays!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We missed our extended family who celebrated with us last year…and to be honest, Thanksgiving snuck up on us just a bit…so, I forgot to order a cooked turkey (I own a toaster oven, JEEZ!).  We came back from Singapore on a Tuesday and Thanksgiving was on Thursday…which meant a LOT of pounding the pavement, trying to get everything just right!!  NO store has EXACTLY what you need…let’s just say, I hit about 6 of them, and a couple of them, more than once, to get 2 roasted chickens, a pan of green been casserole, a bowl of stuffing, a vat of mashed potatoes, gravy and 2 apple pies…and my toaster oven was working OVERTIME trying to get everything cooked!  But we did it, and it was PERFECT!!!  Just the way I like my holiday meals to be…yummy, relaxed and lots of love!

011

A Little Celebration

Our wonderful nanny, Sok’im, invtited us to a party at her “homeland” to celebrate a good year.  We celebrated my birthday with the kids, packed up the car and drove about 45 minutes out of town and arrived!  It was fun to meet the rest of her family, celebrate with people we already knew and see where she comes from!  …she even went to the stove (something she doesn’t do often) to make me Tom Yum soup!!!  The people in our lives here are wonderful.  We love sharing our stories and our families with each other…We love you “Ming Im”!!  (Auntie Sokím)

There was music, food, beer and wine, just for Mr. Jim!!


Older sister Chhim (who has worked for Jim in the past)

027

With Ming Im (we have NEVER seen Sokím ALL dressed up and looking so beautiful!!!)

026022021

All of the kids LOVED my camera and that they could see their photo immediately.  They also loved the “Face View” function and how they could see their faces while I was taking the photo!!  They kept asking for “Mui teit!” (One more!!)

018017016013011010009005003028


Thank you for sharing your family with us!!

054

Adventurer…The Obstacle Course…

I don’t like to fly, but I’ve jumped out of planes, done thrill rides, jumped off bridges and everything in between…I always try something once.  But I never really understood how “great” an obstacle course could be for a little self esteem!!  We went to a playground next to the water park that had an obstacle course.  It is about 3 feet off of the ground, the kids are harnessed in and they can’t hurt themselves!  Zachary was THRILLED to be big enough to give it a go…his buddy went first…and was finished by the time Z got his first 3 steps on the “high wire” done…(you can see his feet in the back next to the attendant!)
024
He started out feeling great, lots of talking and pleased with himself!  Talking about how he was a grown up now and was going to be big and Mommy should just step back and let him go...because he is an "odolt".  So I did...and I stayed next to him, talking, taking pictures and encouraging.  Let’s just say, I started feeling bad about taking pictures.  He was scared, but there was no danger…whatsoever…during the entire thing.  He had EVERYONE, brothers, nannies, friends…cheering him on.  I KNEW once he was done, he would be SO PROUD of himself.  I knew he would be upset getting there…but this was one time as a mama, that I knew I just had to keep encouraging him, letting him be a little bit uncomfortable and face his fears…because he would have been SO disappointed if I stopped it and he didn’t finish.  So…with that being said, here are the photos of that “event”.  Know that he finished with a big smile and STILL talks about how brave he was.  Yay for obstacle courses and friends who are kind and encouraging!
026027029031033037040041
Feeling a little brave half way thru and decided to let himself hang for a minute!!
049050055056057058059
Oh…just look at that face…it was so hard to just encourage him and not jump up there and help him…
060061062064065066067070073
…and HERE is THAT look…that look that my boy KNOWS he did it…alone…and made it.  He made it thru the scary parts and he is OK!  He knows he can trust his mommy and his friends and himself…I’m SO proud of him for completing it!!!
074075076