What's been going on?

So I'm going to try and blog at the end of the week to just give a brief update of what's been going on with us. Maybe this will help me be a better blogger :)

We just sent out our most recent prayer letter. I've also uploaded a link to it if you are interested in seeing it electronically.

http://www.4shared.com/document/e74E8M8O/November_2010.html

The Elementary does the World's Fair every other year and it was fun to watch the kids prepare. Zach's class studied the United States, and Miriam's studied Slovakia. You can see the videos of their classes performing their songs on posts below. But here are some pics of them in their classrooms.

Zach was playing hide and go seek at a friends house and he decided to hide in the shower, when he tried to get out he pushed on the glass door and the hinge came off the top and fell right on his big toe. Needless to say there was a lot of screaming and crying, and instantly it started to turn purple. This is a picture of what it looked like 2 days later. We decided to take a little pressure off of it with a quilting needle and some paper-towels, and then on Monday at school it popped at recess. It's looking much better, and we've been told countless times how brave Zach is, but we still think he will lose the toe-nail. He's a tough one!

This weekend the middle schoolers performed the musical Aladdin and did a great job! It was fun to watch the talent of these young kids.

We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving with friends, enjoying some relaxing time with lots of good food! I'm sure there will be pictures to post of our feast. We would love to hear from you of how you spend Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to the weekend too because we usually start to decorate for Christmas. Woohoo, it will finally be time for Christmas music!

King of the City

King of Jungle - English and Slovakian

Fifty Nifty States - ICSB

Harvest Party Fun

Click here to view these pictures larger

Miriam's baptism

Miriam was baptized at church yesterday. We are so proud of her desire to show others that she loves the Lord and wants to follow Him.

Addison Road - What Do I Know Of Holy w/Lyrics

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs....

Back to Bon Bons and Soap Operas

Zach has officially started Pre-1st grade at ICSB. He is so excited to be doing everything that his sister does in the morning to get ready for school. But as he told me this morning he's glad he gets more play-time at school than she does! He's in a class with 8 other children and has a wonderful teacher who is also one of my friends. Makes for a very easy transition. Above is a picture from this morning as we were heading out. He informed me I needed to stand in the same place as when I take Miriam's first day pictures. We had a decent snow-fall last night so we're all bundled up. A little different than a normal first day picture in shorts and t-shirts :)

Here's a picture of me and Zach in his classroom. What a big kid, at least I was able to keep the rabbit ears down in this picture.

Our latest prayer letter

You can check out a new website I've recently found and download our latest prayer letter.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/14820581/97159d64/sharing.html

Please let me know if you have any issues with this link, it's the first time I'm trying this:)

Hope you enjoy!

Pictures of Prague

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=128099&id=787049656&l=74b94e77e1

Thought you might be interested in scrolling through our pics from our vacation.

More Catch-up

So it's been a while again since I've blogged and wanted to post a couple pictures that have been special for us.

These are of Miriam:

First Day of School

Last Day of School

She's looking forward to second grade already and can't wait for school to start. We are so proud of her. She has a math workbook for 2nd grade that we got from a sale and she wants to work in it so she can be ahead of everyone when school starts.

I still have pics to post from her 'heart' birthday party. I'll probably load them as a link from our shutterfly page.

We had to say good-bye to some good friends of the family. Our kids have been playing together for 4 years. That's more than half their lives. These pics were from the day before they left. Trevor, Maggie, Zachary and Carissa are greatly missed by our family.

We received a wonderful package from my mom which contained lots of goodies for the whole family and beautiful birthday gifts for Miriam. She's really into horses and barbies right now so that cool. She's actually saving money right now for a boy barbie.

We got together with some other couples for a BBQ night at the McLemore's house. We all ate well and had a great time hanging out together. The kids love playing and being silly with Justin and Oliver.

Another highlight of June for us was getting to meet our friends new little boy, William Lee Custer. The Custer's have been in Budapest as long as we have and are good friends. We've been so excited for arrival of this little baby and had a great time getting to meet him.

And just a couple final pictures of the kids playing outside during some of the brief times when it hasn't been raining.

It's been a good summer break so far. The kids are involved in a program at school learning about the Roman Empire and they love it. Miriam dresses in Toga and Zach takes his sword, shield and breastplate everyday. I've been sorting through pictures to continue to scrapbook and try to catch-up on that too. Aaron has been holdling Open Gym at the school 4 days a week and working on some school projects as well. We are excited to celebrate 4th of July with friends and then go on vacation to Prague. There is a Crusade family there traveling and have offered their apartment to other Crusade families to use at no cost. We are still trying to decide whether to drive or take a bus there. It will be good to get away. Many have told us how beautiful Prague is.

Long Time Since I've Blogged

I know it's been a long time since I've blogged, and it's not that there hasn't been stuff to blog about, but I've sort of got hooked on the Facebook world. I did want to take a second and kickstart our blog by sending out a huge thanks to some friends of ours at our Home Church, Patterson Park. We received a box from them yesterday with lots of goodies in it. The box was so great that I actually need to update our list of things we miss because they shopped so well.

As you can tell the kids were really excited, so much so that they labeled the Mac and Cheese with their names. We had a great time opening the boxes and are enjoying all the fun things that were sent. I have some new material too to start some new quilting projects. What a way to bless us over here and let us know that you are thinking and praying for us!

Please check back as I will try and update some of the fun things that have happened in the last couple of weeks, including Miriam finishing up 1st grade and her birthday party.

Interesting New Driving Restrictions

We recently received an e-mail alerting us of this new decision about driving in town. Many have thought it was bizarre, but it's real. Our license plate ends in an even number, so today we were okay because of the warnings, and next week is the 18th, but after that we'll see. Hopefully the restrictions will be lifted! Just thought this was something interesting to share with you, not something they would ever think of trying in the States.
Smog alert issued, road traffic limited in Budapest
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky issued an open-ended smog alert in Budapest effective 11 am on Sunday, imposing restrictions on road traffic. During the smog alert, vehicles whose licence plates end in an even number should be used only on even dates of the month and vehicles with odd numbers may only be used on odd dates, the statement said. Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky issued an open-ended smog alert in Budapest effective 11 am on Sunday, imposing restrictions on road traffic. During the smog alert, vehicles whose licence plates end in an even number should be used only on even dates of the month and vehicles with odd numbers may only be used on odd dates, the statement said. The alert was introduced after the concentration of dust floating in the air has exceeded the limit of 100 microgrammes per cubic metre for two days in a row, on Friday and Saturday. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany urged ministries and state offices on Sunday to strictly adhere to the regulations of the smog alert, government spokesman David Daroczi said. Public transport vehicles, police, ambulance and fire services and vehicles of the diplomatic corps are exempt from the restrictions. On Sunday and Monday, police will not issue fines for violators of the smog alert restrictions, police spokeswoman Eva Tafferner said. However, there will be roadside checks throughout the city and on main roads entering Budapest and officers will warn drivers of the restrictions, she added. According to weather forecasts the dust concentration will decrease in the coming days.

Great Are You

I was listening to this song tonight and thinking about the words. It just made me silent thinking about how much He loves us even though we are so small. It puts a lot into perspective.

That Sneaky Tooth Fairy

So, as you can tell from the picture Miriam lost another tooth. Today was the first day back to school and she woke up so excited. She has told me she missed her spelling tests, timed math tests and recess. Her top front tooth, plus two lower teeth have been wobbly, and we've teased her about needing to pull the top one, but this morning she came downstairs and showed us that she pulled it out after we put them to bed last night. She was quite excited to come down and show us, especially since it was a surprise to us. She was getting ready to go up and see what the Tooth Fairy left her when Aaron called her over to talk to her for a second, so I could go up and put the coins in her tooth pillow. Thank goodness Aaron's wallet had some 100 forint coins in and I was able to get everything arranged before they made it upstairs. She was quite excited with what was left in her pillow and that the Tooth Fairy made it there. I know one day these things won't be so important, but right now it's a lot of fun watching them use their imagination.

Happy Birthday

I wanted to include these videos, but unfortunately they all have to be done seperately from Youtube, unless someone else knows a better way, open to suggestions....
Just some fun things from the holidays.

Coming to the Tree

Sentimental moment

Away in a Manger

Happy Birthday Jesus