Saturday, December 28, 2013

聖誕節 Christmas 2013

A few pictures from Christmas 2013... 
Guess who was in charge of the Advent calendar this year?  ;)

Date night

Christmas morning!  聖誕節早上!




Christmas afternoon with friends  聖誕節下午跟朋友們


New Christmas pajamas!  新新的睡衣!

Helping Dad with Christmas dinner
Keira做飯做得很好,像她的爸爸
Helping make Christmas cookies
Keira做聖誕餅乾

Hoping you had a blessed Christmas, and wishing you a Happy New Year!
聖誕節快樂!


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving from Taiwan

We are thankful...

 
...for this precious little girl...

...and for wonderful friends...


...and for quirky Taiwanese kitchens...

...for a gluten-free feast...


...and for baby Max, Keira 的朋友...

...for these awesome house-mates...

and for morning-after-Thanksgiving pajama cleaning parties.


...and for all our friends and family across the ocean.

Happy Thanksgiving from Taiwan!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

On Learning Chinese

"To acquire the Chinese language is a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of hope, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methusaleh."

William Milne, missionary to China, 1813






Monday, October 7, 2013

Happy 1st Birthday, Keira!


Here are a few pictures from Keira's birthday weekend...



Helping Mama clean our apartment before the party.  "Sweeping" is one of her favorite activities.

Opening packages from grandparents!


Keira's gluten-free, sugar-free birthday cake.  (Actually, it tasted pretty good!)

First time playing with bubbles--thanks Caty and Dillon!

Fun with friends!
All those new toys, and the cardboard box is still a favorite.  :)

Thanks to everyone, near and far, who helped make Keira's birthday special!



Friday, September 27, 2013

Look Who's Walking

On Wednesday Keira started walking all by herself!


By Friday afternoon, she was toddling all over the playground.


Way to go, Keira!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival (or Moon Festival) in Taiwan.


We spent a fun afternoon with friends that included making traditional pomelo hats and sampling moon cakes.


中秋節快樂 !  

Friday, September 13, 2013

We're Back

We're back in Taiwan after five awesome weeks spent with family and friends in the USA.


Here's a quick family update...


Keira's happy to be making daily trips to her favorite neighborhood park again.  She's also fully recovered after coming down with roseola infantum (a high fever followed by a rash).  It wasn't too fun, but we did enjoy the extra cuddles.


Kalan is adjusting to his new teaching job and is really enjoying it.  He's also doing a great job as a part-time stay-at-home dad while I'm at Chinese class each morning.  Each day I come home to find lunch prepared on the table, and all the clean laundry hung up to dry on the balcony!  I could get used to this. ;)


This was yesterday's composition homework entitled "My Day."  Two weeks ago, I didn't even know how to write "I" in Chinese, so you can imagine how most of my free time has been spent recently.  

It's good to be back.





Friday, July 19, 2013

America, Here We Come

Tomorrow morning we leave for the USA.  We're so excited to see our American family and friends!


We're not as excited for a 24-hour plane journey with a 9-month-old baby...but it will be worth it.  We can't wait to introduce her to everyone, and to our favorite American things: grassy backyards, bonfires, cheese curds, lakes you can swim in, the Rocky mountains, and starry night skies.

America, here we come.








Saturday, June 29, 2013

New Wheels

Kalan surprised me with a new bicycle!  First family ride was this morning.