Winter Wonderland Bazaar

winter wonderland bazaar

Today was the Winter Wonderland Bazaar at Calvin's school. The kids had a blast and I got some Christmas shopping done. It was a very good time. Calvin loved the big slide as you can see, that is him in the green shirt. He would jump and literally fly about half way down before his little butt would even hit the slide! And Alayna got to have her face painted with a pink butterfly. She sat really good and looked so cute! Oh, how different boys and girls are. She went down the slide once, but was much happier to get her face painted and Calvin had to be pulled of the slide when it was time to go home. Click to see more pics!

Thanksgiving at the Godwins

Here are some pics from our Thanksgiving at the Godwins house. Mainly I am putting this out here so you can all see how amazing their house is! We had a nice time and the kids had fun playing and staying up late. We are so thankful for our new friends this year. We can't imagine Kuwait without them!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends. We are cooking the Turkey and all the fixing's right now. We have a lady that Ryan works with coming over to eat with us about noon and then we are heading to Stewart and Anita's for dinner this evening. Should be a fun filled day with about 3 weeks worth of calories! But that is a worry for January 1st! We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Here are our lists:

Dawn: For our family being together, Our Skype phone, The sale of our house, Stewart and Anita, That I am Ryan's Wife (as opposed to his possession) and that I can wear what I want and have independence and freedom, for a house with maids quarters! (can't wait!!!), our scanner, AFN, signs in English, the kindness of those who don't have to be kind, English schools for the kids, Starbucks McDonalds and KFC - A taste of home!

Ryan: After living here in Kuwait almost two months, I am very thankful for two things: my Christian faith and the fact I am an American. Other items I am thankful for: selling our house, my supportive wife (moved half way around the world to keep the family together), our awesome kids, our health, my free Yukon - with free gas, books on CD for my long drives with Arabic radio, and term limits - at worst we only have 8 years of the Big O.

Calvin: My Mommy, for God and all the people, school, for Thanksgiving, for playing Noggin on the computer and playing with my Dad.

Alayna: Pizza, Peanut Butter, Baby Baby and cheese.
(can you tell my little girl likes to eat!)

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!!

Happy Day!

We hired a Live-In Maid today! I am so excited! She will move in on December 1st. We spent the weekend interviewing people and decided on one and offered her the job this morning. Her name is Nor and she is Filipino. She has good english skills and she holds her own sponsorship paperwork so we will not have to assume responsibilty for her. If I have to be in Kuwait for two years at least I can take advantage of some of the good things about living here. Hopefully this will go well and she will do a good job. We are a little nervous, but we are hopeful as well. Merry Christmas to me!!!!

Peddlers and Paddlers

What an exciting week! Alayna learned how to peddle and is loving riding around the courtyard on the "red rojo" tricycle. And Calvin is an official swimmer now! Once a week at school they have swimming lessons as part of the PE program. He has made an amazing amount of progress in a very short time. Thursday at his lesson he actually swam from the teacher to the edge of the pool. With his head under water, kicking his feet, and doing the "crawl" with his arms he swam right to the edge! Then we went to the pool today and he just couldn't do it enough! And he loved holding the side of the pool and then going under to touch the bottom with his feet and pop back up. And he didn't want me to help him either. My babies are growing up!!!

Thank you!

Here are some pics of the kids with some goodies from the grandparents. We got "Giant" cookies from Gramma Puffie and Grandpoly and new clothes from Nana and Papa. Many of our family and friends have sent things to us, and we are so appreciative! We feel so loved! The kids love getting boxes and finding out what treasures are inside. Thank you to all of you who have sent us wonderful things! We miss you all.

READER!!!

Calvin is doing so well in school! They really push reading and math skills and he is rising to the occasion. Here is one of the books he is reading now. They send home 3 books each week for them to read at home and then they work on group reading while at school and individual assesments routinely as well. One Proud Mama!!

A little Holiday Spirit

Well, I decided to add a little holiday spirit to the blog. I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but now that we are overseas we have to starting thinking about Christmas a little earlier. Since I have to be worrying about gifts and Christmas cards when it is still 80 outside, I need to get creative to find ways to feel in the Christmas spirit! Speaking of which I still need lists from some of you out there. You know who you are! I know I haven't given ours yet, but I promise to get on that this week. I have to go pick up Alayna from school now. I might even put in some Christmas music this afternoon! HO HO HO!!!!

We knew it would happen!

Well I knew it would happen eventually, but never thought it would happen this soon. Calvin is picking up the British accent! You can hear it when he speaks and even in his word choices. He tells me that he "sat Beautifully" at school today. And also said the other day that we better "Tidy Up" before Daddy got home. He has a friend that's name is "Adam" and he says it with a very British accent, it is too funny. Alayna has avoided it so far, but Calvin is in school 5 days a week and it is beginning to show. Oh well, we will have plenty of years to re-Americanize his speach.

Dinner Party

Friday night we had our friends Stewart and Anita over for dinner. It was their daughter's birthday so they brought cake for dessert. I served my Chicken Tortilla Soup and it was a big hit!(Thanks Steve and Dianne)! It was a lot of fun and the kids played together really well and we got to have a nice meal. It felt good to do some entertaining and have the house cleaned and get out all my fun dishes. Sydney is their daughter and she was turning 6 and I think Calvin has a bit of a crush on her! He told Ryan, as Ryan was putting him to bed, that he thought Sydney was the prettiest girl he has ever seen. Ryan asked Calvin if he wanted to go tell Sydney that and he got very worried and said "No Daddy, it is a secret". My little boy is growing up.

Happy Hour

Every Thursday night at the Embassy they have "Happy Hour". We hadn't been able to get there yet because Ryan usually gets home a little too late to go. This Thursday he got home early and we decided to try it. We weren't really sure what to expect, but we were very pleasantly surprised. There is food to order, everything from chicken nuggets for the kids to steaks! And best of all you can drink alcohol! I got to have a glass of WINE!!! I was so happy!!! There were lots of kids there and they had a bouncy house set up as well as soccer goals and balls to play with. There was also a room with some toys and a Disney movie playing for the kids. The kids had a blast running around and bouncing, and Alayna had nothing but popcorn for dinner! They even both got to have a Diet Sprite! It was a lot of fun. I had 2 glasses of wine and lets just say Happy Hour was very HAPPY for me! Oh my goodness did I get drunk off 2 glasses of wine!!! I guess that is what happens when you haven't been drinking for over a month! I told Ryan from now on I am going to be a very cheap date and only want 1 glass when we go. I think it is this next Thursday that "THE" Papa John of Papa John's Pizza is going to be there making pizzas! Alayna will be in heaven! We are going to make a point of trying to go as often as possible. It is a great way to meet other Americans and the kids get to run and play as well. We are so lucky to have access to the Embassy and all of the privileges that go with it.

Another Good Week

Hello Everyone! We had another good week full of all kinds of fun. Calvin was invited to a birthday party on Tuesday night at McDonalds. Now this is not what you would normally think of as a "McDonalds Birthday Party". They have a special party room with a sounds system and an employee to lead the kids in activities and games as well as another employ to video the entire thing! Calvin had a blast. There were about 30 kids there, kinda crazy!

Then on Friday our friends Stewart and Anita's daughter Sydney had her birthday party. It was co-hosted with another little girl and this one was on the beach in a party tent. Now when I say tent, I need you to think, elaborate wedding tent, not backyard tent. This thing had clear plastic sides, a red fabric ceiling and chandeliers! They had about 800 balloons in the room! (I am not making that number up, Anita told me how many there were!) The theme was a Luau so there were lays and inflatable palm trees as well. Then we of course had a DJ and a "hostess" to lead the party games. WOW! The kids had an absolute blast and when we got home they both took HUGE naps!

Saturday we went to the pool again. This time we were smart and packed the kids some lunch, so we got to stay a lot longer. The kids could have stayed all day! They really love it there. And Calvin is getting very brave; going under the water all the way and jumping in off the side. For dinner on Saturday we went to Applebees! Isn't that crazy! It is like 5 minutes from our house! It is amazing how "normal" things feel here. We are really enjoying our time so far.

Miracle at 1500

We got the craziest phone call tonight! Someone put an offer in on our house! Yup that is right, we now have a signed contract to sell our house in O'Fallon! We can't even believe it and the other weird thing was that within the same hour as the offer, we also got an email that someone had applied to rent our house. I guess the stars had aligned and today was the day for our house worries to be over. We are still in a state of shock and we are feeling so blessed right now. Thank you to everyone that was praying for the sale of our house. Thank God for answered prayers!

Week in Review

Wow what a busy week! On Monday Alayna had a field trip to Pizza Express to make her own pizza and then get to eat it! One would think that this would be the best day ever for Alayna, for those that don't know Pizza is Alayna's favorite food. Well that morning she woke up feeling a little under the weather with a very runny nose and a cough. My plan was to drive her there and then have a coffee right next door at the Starbucks with my friend Anita. Well Long story short Alayna is still having a rough time with this school thing so the teacher asked me to stay and I had to drink my coffee amongst 20 3 yr olds! Lovely! Monday night I was invited to a get together that the women from ASG - KU do on a monthly basis. ASG-KU is all those who work at Camp Arifjan. So there are only 32 positions on the base that allow you to bring families with you and of those slots there are currently only 15 spouses here at this time! So they have a little get together once a month. It was great to get to ask some questions that are specific to being a military wife here. It was a nice group of ladies and there is one that has 3 little ones about the ages of my kids so we are going to try and get together sometime and play. Just nice to meet some women and get out of the house for a night. The only bad news was that I was told that doing my Taste of Home Entertaining business here is pretty much not going to happen. There were a few other ladies in the group who also do direct sales businesses and they said it is just not something that they allow here because of some Kuwaiti Laws here. I am a little sad about that. Then on Wednesday I had a coffee meeting with the other Mom's in Calvins class. There were 5 of us that showed up and it was just amazing to sit at a table with 5 women from all over the world! We had one from Nigeria, Cyprus, Jordan, a Christian from Jerusalem, and Me the American! What a neat experience! You really learn that we are all the same as mothers of little ones and go through the same battles every day. We also had to go the the Embassy several times this week, we inprocessed the Health unit on Wednesday. Back to the Alayna illness.....we ended up back at the Health Unit at the Embassy on Thursday and she had an ear infection and was put on antibiotics. She is really starting to feel better, but now Calvin has started. Hopefully he can avoid the ear infection; no fever yet! The weather has turned cooler here and it was in the mid to upper 70s last week and tomorrow it is suppose to rain and only be 68! It is actually quite pleasant on most days. Overall it was a very good week and we are feeling very happy about being here as a family! Miss you all very much!

Swimming in November!

Radisson Pool

Saturday is the only day for us that both the kids are off school and Ryan is off work, so it has pretty much been deemed Family Fun Day! Today we went to the Pool at the Radisson SAS Hotel. With our Embassy badge we get a free membership to their Viking Club, which includes a gym, outdoor pool, and indoor pool. The outdoor pool was amazing! There is a little kiddie pool as well! The kiddie pool was heated and felt like warm bath water and the big pool was just the right temperature to feel a bit refreshing with out being cold. When you get to the pool there is an employee to walk you to your chair and get you settled and put the umbrella up for you and you can also order food or something to drink (non-alcholic unfortunately). And the best part is that this is less than 10 minutes from our house!!! I think we will be spending many Saturdays in the next 23 months at that pool! As always click on the picture above to see more!