We have a great view of Venus and Jupiter this month from our kitchen window, as they set around 7PM. This week we tried to use the telescope to look. We got a good view of the moon, but the planets were harder to get.

While Josh was trying to get the planets in the sights, the kids and I goofed around with the camera.

We had our traditional family Valentine’s Day party Tuesday night. Making 6 heart-shaped pizzas and one regular is quite a production. I had the little boys use round cake pans for theirs.

For dinner we had pizza, salad, and lemonade. After dinner we cleaned up and then had to wait for the swarms of flying termites to die down before we could turn the lights back on to continue the party. We had a 20-minute afternoon rain, unusual for this time of year, and it stirred up the termites for swarm mating. In the morning I made heart-cut-out-cookies with the little boys and we decorated them after dinner for dessert.

After we finished, eating the 4 older kids read an original story they have been working on. It was composed of 4 pages – each folded in half. Each kid wrote one side of each page for a 16-page story – the pattern was Isaiah, Clara, Anna, and then Becca. Quite an interesting progression of events during each “page.” After that we exchanged cards, and then Josh continued our tradition of his reading a book about St Valentine.

Josh bough roses for me from Ban Lung and had them delivered by taxi van. He bought each of the girls a pink rose and chocolate bars for the boys.

Right at the beginning of the Christmas season, my electric piano died. It was a very sad day for me because it meant no beautiful Christmas music and no easy fix. We were able to send the piano to Phnom Penh and a good friend took it to a repairman who said the parts were no longer replaceable, due to the age and make of the piano. Sadness. We had an old mini keyboard that floated us through the holiday season, but that soon began to have troubles.

So back in January, my dear husband decided to take the night-bus for the first time and travel to Phnom Penh to buy us a new piano. He left on a Monday evening and was home Wednesday morning with a lovely, better than I would have hoped, new electric piano. We used Christmas money, given to us from supporting churches, to buy the piano. It’s so wonderful to have a working piano in our home again. Four of our children take piano lessons – plus I teach four other children of co-workers piano lessons – so this piano gets lots of use. It’s also what I use when I’m working on tunes for Bible verse songs. We’re so thankful that the Lord provided our family a new piano. I’m so glad to have a working instrument back in our home. And the kids have had many hours of fun playing in the huge box!!

January is always a recovery month for me – and I don’t take many pictures. I always try to get one family picture, but since it’s the one month without a family holiday I struggle to get one. This blurry picture is the best we could get.

Random January stuff: The kids went across the street to help Davi peel and cut her cassava. Besides that we are working on finishing our last 5 weeks of the school year. I also try to prepare for the next year during this time, so I’m not doing school stuff all during our summer break.

Last week I moved Micah into the kids’ room. He’s so happy to be in the same room as his siblings, where all the evening action is going on, instead of being alone in our dark bedroom…listening to everyone else be put to bed. We’re also potty training Micah – dry season is a great time to do it, since anything wet dries in a day.

Down in a valley near our team leader’s home, there is a shepherd who keeps sheep. We went for a walk and the shepherd was very kind to let us hold a 1-day old lamb. Later Anna caught a 10-day old lamb to hold.

You open the fridge and poor yourself a glass!

We had a full week celebrating Christmas. Thursday night Josh read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We started at the table with frozen smoothies and ended on the couch. I think Ezra lasted a few chapters before he fell asleep.

Friday the kids decorated the giant gingerbread people. It’s fun watching the kids design their masterpieces. I think Micah most ate his candy and frosting, but he was happy and content!

We chose to have our Christmas Eve Monday and Christmas Day on Tuesday, since the 24th and 25th were too full with church activities. Monday night we had our traditional meal of tacos (a friend sent up hard shells and beans from PP, which made it extra delicious). After dinner we sang carols and drank hot chocolate with Christmas cookies. Then we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol.

Christmas morning we had a special breakfast and then the kids exchanged gifts. I made cinnamon rolls – but they were just an extra snack. Becca worked extra hard on homemade gifts this year. She made the little boys Russian nesting animals. We bought the wooden forms and she painted them. Becca made the other kids I Spy Books – she’s been working weeks on setting up pictures for the books.

The Crowleys came for lunch and the kids’ Christmas play. This play is completely put together by the kids, I don’t have any involvement, except for providing some of the costumes.

We had a lovely lunch of buffalo roast, mashed potatoes, rolls, and salad. In the afternoon we played games and then after supper we gave gifts to the kids. It was a lovely day – everyone was happy and content and that makes Christmas special. We’re thankful for the gift of Jesus to us all…for he shall save his people from their sins. Thanks be the God.

Our church has their Christmas Eve and Day service on the 24th and 25th. The evening service went from 6:30 to 10pm, starting with a meal. The service consist of preaching and many different groups getting up to sing.

Christmas Day the service went from 8:30 to 11:30, with a lunch at the end. This year both Becca and Isaiah were in the Christmas pageant, I figured if we were directing I could ask for our kids to be included. Isaiah was a sheep and Becca was an angel. There are two readers and the rest just act. The readings were taken from Matthew and Luke.

The two kids groups and adult groups sang different Bible verse songs I’ve put to music. Genesis 1:2-3. Matthew 11: 28-30. Matthew 9:12-13b. Matthew 1: 23. Our kids sang as well, but since they are taller they are in the back.

Josh preached at the morning service. (Notice Josh behind the boys.)

Afterwards we enjoyed a great lunch and taking lots of photos with friends: children’s teachers & ladies teachers.

It was a good day. We came back and rested in the afternoon. Then we had our Khmer Bible Study in the evening. Because of all the services, we moved our family Christmas celebrations to the 26th and 27th.

December 2nd we had our Christmas decorating night. It was a very exciting night, as this year all 6 kids were putting ornaments on the tree. I divide all the ornaments up beforehand, so each child gets a bag with his/her own ornaments. It keeps it from turning into a grab-for-all. Our tree is filling up with homemade ornaments our kids make every year – it’s so full of personality. This was Micah’s first year to put the star on the tree. He wasn’t sure what to do at first.

We started our Christmas Countdown Calendar two weeks before our Christmas. This week we’ve been making Christmas cookies – one day to make all the dough and one day to cut out and bake all the cookies. 7 batches of cookie dough. 3 types of cookies. We’ll decorate them later this week. This was the first year Ezra rolled out and cut out his own cookies. When you have 6 kids working on cookies, you give up the idea of having perfectly cut cookies. We’ve got some very thick cookies and some very strange looking cookies, and they will all taste great! (Micah spent his time eating his cookie dough…but he was content!)

Wednesday we made wrapping paper. Greet feet-prints and red handprints. 10 large sheets. It’s a very exciting time with 6 sets of green feet running around. We had to spend a little time scrubbing the floor where feet missed the paper.

During the Advent season we sing Christmas carols and songs every night. Each kid gets a turn to light the candles, and every night each person gets to choose a song – that’s 8 songs a night. Four of our kids can accompany a few songs each on the piano, so if those songs are chosen they get to play the piano while we sing. Last night we had a concert with all the songs everyone knows how to play. It took over an hour. We got out the other percussion instruments, so everyone could play along or sing. It was loud. It was chaotic at points. It’s a fun a memory.

On October 29, Isaiah brought in this very bright, very hairy caterpillar. Those hairs sting and cause itching, so beware! We decided to see if we could hatch it to see what ind of moth it would be. Five days later (Nov. 4) it made a most unusual cocoon out of its hairs. It was as though it had made a mesh bag to hatch in, very unlike a normal butterfly cocoon.

Five day after it entered the cocoon phase, the moth appeared. It wasn’t as amazing as we expected, based on its bright colors as a caterpillar. It was really fun to discover and observe.

Last week Becca turned 13 – we have a teenager in our home now! Becca started the day with a bike ride with Josh and they rode all the way to Saom Kaning Village. I was busy all morning preparing lunch and the birthday dinner meal – lasagne, salad, & garlic bread. I ended up enlisting the other kids to help me. We had to grate a lot of cheese!

Becca designed her cake the day before. All the brown frosting is peanut butter frosting. We had a lovely dinner meal, then did gifts, then had cake, and then watched a slide show reviewing Becca’s past 13 years of life.

Becca’s countdown calendar included a Mother/daughter night away in Ban Lung at a hotel the weekend before her birthday. We played lots of games, ate dinner and breakfast out, gave Becca a make-over, drank special drinks twice, and stayed up until midnight watching Sense and Sensibility. We had a fun time and Josh and the other survived at home without us.

We’re thankful for our first-born daughter, Becca. And excited about starting these teenage years with her.

Last week our little man turned 2! Leading up to his birthday, I kept asking him if he wanted a cake or gifts, but his answer was always no. But he did approve of my singing Happy Birthday. He felt quite differently when I showed him his tiger cake to see if he could recognize it and then put it back in the fridge. Micah loves tigers.

Micah was not cooperative for picture taking. He seemed to think it was a game. He also has a terribly funny awful smile when he’s posing for a picture. It’s a joke in our family to try to imitate it.

We had hotdogs and macaroni & cheese for dinner with cake afterwards. Micah was such a delightful gift receiver. He got a few box of poppers and ran with them one by one to throw them over the edge of the porch so they could pop. It was so cute, and he was so happy. He really was a joy to watch receiving his gifts.

Micah is a sweet fun boy who is full of fun and trouble. He loves to have a good time. We’re so thankful for him.

For 10 days we have all even ages!

This week we had a wonderful few days having the Nhoemvan girls as our guest. Josh and Nal were in Ban Lung teaching at the Pastor’s Bible School. Ayra and the girls came up from Phnom Penh with Nal and spent Sunday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon with us while they men were teaching at Bible School.

These were very full days with non-stop fun. Lots of game playing. The kids did two different days of cooking outside over a fire. On Monday they made soup. On Tuesday they made baked sweet potatoes and popcorn. They also adapted, directed, rehearsed, and gave a performance of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. The kids all get along so well – even Isaiah who is the only older boy really enjoys the fun. So glad the kids could have this time together.

And the moms…we talked constantly and had times of prayer together. Ayra is my closest friend in Cambodia, and it was such a gift to have face to face time with her. And I love that our kids are such good friends. We all feel blessed by their visit and look forward to next year’s Bible School with hope that they will come again!

We celebrated our 9th annual Cambodian Coronation Day last week. The morning was full of crown-making and face painting. Isaiah didn’t want to have his face painted. Micah added a bunch of green glue glitter to his face after I was done. We ended the morning with a coronation ceremony. Micah was extremely pleased to be included this year. He was so proud to have a crown placed on his head. Part of the coronation entertainment is me singing and dancing. (I hide the speaker in my shirt and then lip-sync Largo Al Factotum from The Barber of Seville.)

We had a pizza dinner and afterwards had a presentation night. Each child did a presentation on a planet: Becca – Saturn; Isaiah – Mars; Anna – Jupiter; Clara – Venus; Ezra – Neptune; and Micah did one on the Sun. All the kids did great!

Other things included: Becca playing a piano set by David Kraehenbuehl. Anna gaving a poem recitation A Tragic Story by William Makepeace Thackeray. Both Anna and Clara receiving their All About Spelling Level 2 completion certificates.

It was a fun day and evening, complete with ice cream for dessert!

Some friends told us about this lake 30mins from our house, so we decided to try it once we had some sunny days. Last Saturday was the perfect day to visit the lake. We packed a lunch (complete with Coke) and spend several hours swimming. Nice place with a great tree to jump into the water from.

Two weekends ago I did a sewing project with Ezra. We turned a favorite t-shirt of his into a “pillow.”

We have a 5:30AM (of before) club in our family. These boys can’t seem to sleep in…so one of us usually sits out on the porch with them until the others wake up for the day.

They pick. They sting. They bite. Beware. Our kids are always telling us about “fuzzy” caterpillars. I finally got some pictures of two different kinds. As in the USA – avoid!

Also – Isaiah found a preying mantis exoskeleton that had been shed. It’s a wild world!

This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this: Micah is almost 2 years old and finally his right bottom lateral incisor is coming in. Normally it’s one of the first 8 teeth to come in. But Micah’s molars came in before this little tooth started popping through. For months I’ve wondered if he even had a baby tooth there. But it’s finally appeared. Weird!

Check out those big blue eyes and long lashes! I keep telling him his nursing days should soon be over….but those eyes are hard to resist!

Micah is a very sweet and cute boy. He’s very good at imitating his siblings when they are unhappy or complain. He gets to tones just right. It’s hilarious, since he seems to be making fun of them. This month he’s really started talking and trying to use words. Too much cuteness. He loves his siblings and has also learned to tattle on them. He brings much laughter to our home. Thankful!