I Could Just Watch this All Day

Trey is all boy. Observe the dirt on his shirt and face (he may have tried to eat some of it)...

'Welcome to Miami' - Children's Museum, that is!

One of the fun things that we got to do in December (pre-illness, except shingles) was drive to Miami for a weekend!  Rob was asked to speak (in Chinese) at a Christian conference.  The kids & I tagged along.  I liked Miami, even though our 3 minute walk on South Beach led me to believe that our fully clad conservative family with children didn't fit in with the beer-drinking thongy tanned-bum scene (think Will Smith video, then tone it back a tad).   

One of the high points of our trip was the Miami Children's Museum, so I've included a few pictures from our time there.  We'll start with some Trey pictures, because after viewing my last post, my dad asked, "who's that boy in the picture?"  My mom said, "I think that's your grandson." :)  Trey is looking a bit older these days.  I think it's his hair - the party isn't just in the back anymore!

Don't worry turtle - this won't hurt a bit!

Trey's favorite room = fishing!

Cosi is looking a bit South Beach with her short shorts...

Get ready dog - this will probably hurt a lot b/c this girl means business!

Right after this picture, Trey threw sand in my face.  Awesome.

Thank you Publix for providing a fun grocery store section - the kids both loved it!

An Edenfield Christmas

The bad news - both kids had the flu over Christmas.
The good news - both adults stayed relatively healthy!

The bad news - trey's tamiflu prescription cost $130 (Cosi was not given it b/c she was almost through her bout with the flu).
The good news - just the day before, we had received an anonymously sent $100 bill in the mail. 

The bad news - at the end of the flu, Cosi got a sinus infection.
The good news - we were easily able to get a doctor appointment for her.

The bad news - Trey developed an ear infection at the end of his battle with the flu.
The good news - after hysterically crying (it's not hard to do when you're sleep deprived) to the busy nurse over the phone, April was able to get him a doctor appointment.

The bad news - Trey was so sick on Christmas morning that he dazedly walked out of his room, looked at his presents and cried.
The good news - Trey warmed up and after 5 hours of coaxing finally sat inside his new Cozy Coupe truck.

The bad news - Cosi's nose was running nonstop for 5 days of excess mucous.
The good news - we had a Chinese professor staying with us and she took it upon herself to constantly wipe Cosi's nose.

The bad news - we had to cancel our Christmas dinner plans, due to the kids being ill.
The good news - we let our Chinese professor house guest cook us dinner!

Seriously though, we had a great Christmas in Florida and we're thankful for our many blessings.  Here are some pictures :)

Our very serious Cosi working on her 2nd gingerbread house.  The first collapsed due to excess pressure by the decorator.  This was not a problem, as the supplier expected such difficulties might arise and had already prepared a back-up house. 
Below, you'll see our house guests over the holiday - Ping, a visiting professor from China who is at USC for the year, and her daughter, Jessie.  We're so thankful to report that they did NOT get the Flu.

 I was a bit desperate to provide activities for the children.  I grabbed the kitchen salt and poured it on paper plates, so the kids could play with it.  My kids both immediately dumped their plates, even after I modeled drawing with your finger in the salt.  Jessie took much better care of her salt.  I don't think Jessie's mom was very impressed with my salt games.  She thought it was wasteful.  I guess it is a pretty wasteful activity that ruins food.  I'm such an American sometimes.

 On Christmas Day, we took a girls trip to a local playground.  Rob stayed home with sick Trey.  Jessie started out a bit serious, but I coaxed some smiles out of her.  The weather was gorgeous.  I was so proud of Cosi for going down the big blue slide.

 We also decorated two giant sugar cookies.  I didn't feel up to the ordeal of rolling the dough and cutting out separate cookies, so I just shoved the dough into two pans that my aunt had given me.  The girls were happy.  Jessie is really smiling - quite an accomplishment for us!  Cosi makes the funniest faces.

Kids Videos- Fall 2012, part 3

         Merry Christmas!  The kids both have the flu, and it turns out Cosi has a sinus infection to boot.  But they are now well-medicated, and this morning Cosi even woke up and said with a surprised and happy voice, "I'm not sick anymore!"  She is still sick, just not as bad as before.
         Anyway, I (Rob) have one more video to post before the flu claims me as its next victim.  When your sick kids crawl into your bed at night and wake you up by coughing on your face, you kind of know how the next week is going to play out.  For more thoughts on dealing with sick kids, see my earlier post on that topic.
          As for the video, a few weeks ago Cosi found a few caterpillars in our yard and adopted one or two.  Sadly, the story doesn't end well for the caterpillars, but in this video we can really see Cosi's tender heart for living things.

Kids Videos- Fall 2012, part 2

Trey is sick, having picked up whatever it is that Cosi has been dealing with for the past week. At least she shared something with her brother, even if it was germs...
Anyway, sick kids means fewer videos. But here's one I finished yesterday. April mentioned in an earlier post how Trey loves his play grill.  Well, here's what that looks like.  It's three different scenes- one in which he shows off his spatula skills, one in which he got the idea to sprinkle (toy) mustard on his grilled food, and one in which he put actual food on his grill.  We haven't been able to get this on video yet, but Trey now likes to close the lid of his grill and say "Hot! Hot! Bloooow..."  For a little guy who hates warm weather, he sure does like to cook out!

Videos- Fall 2012, part 1

Time for a few more videos (it's amazing what Rob gets around to when he doesn't have homework!).  April says I shouldn't post them all at once- she gave me a "2 videos per day" limit.   Today's videos of choice are a delightful peek at Cosi and Trey's sleeping habits followed by a look at the conversation surrounding Cosi's efforts to kill a moth. You may notice that at one point,Cosi refers to herself as "Mary." She started  doing that after learning the Christmas story at school.  Trey is Joseph (or "Jophes," in Cosi's version),by the way, and her toy cat is Baby Jesus...

Cosi's Christmas Dance

This year at Christmas, it was finally time for us to experience that parental rite of passage- the Christmas Pageant.  In our case, the girls of the church rehearsed weekly to prepare a dance for this past Sunday night's Church Variety Show.  We really weren't sure what Cosi was going to do once she got on stage, we just knew we wanted it on video.

To motivate her to go to the rehearsals, at some point April suggested that, after she danced, her Daddy might give her flowers.  Wow, did that ever work well.  Cosi talked about it almost every day: "My Daddy's going to give me flowers!"  Here she is in her angel outfit, holding her flowers:

The really sweet thing is that during the rest of the evening, Cosi slowly gave away most of her flowers to the other kids.  She even tried running on stage to give them to a monkey puppet that was telling the story of Christmas (he politely refused).  The remaining flowers are in a vase on a shelf, and Cosi is allowed to smell them any time she wants to.

And here is the video of the dance.  Our favorite part is when she notices a microphone and tries to talk into it.  And no, she's not supposed to be in the front row- she's supposed to be in the middle row.  But no choreography can contain Cosi...

 

Late, but still thankful (our home)

I kept meaning to write about being thankful during the month of November. Here I am - only one month late, not bad! Today I will share with you a few pictures of our home.  We are very thankful for our home.  


Here's a picture of the living room, which has mainly functioned as a play room. You'll notice the lack of couches.  After 4 months without couches, we saved up enough $$$ to buy a couch and a loveseat.  These pics were taken before, so just picture the addition of 2 couches.

Rob is working hard at our table. I was probably looking at facebook. Speaking of which, I'm thankful for facebook!  It's a great way to keep in touch with people, especially if you live far away.  It's fun to look at for one minute or more than one minute.  And- I like the birthday messages.
 

It's official- the Edenfields own a piece of pottery barn furniture.  So, it was given to us for free, but it's ours!  I have never actually entered a pottery barn store, but I hear it's awesome.

Perhaps even better than pottery barn = our 2nd kitchen!  The kids love playing with this and we can thank the Nolls for passing it down to us :) 

This is Trey's favorite toy. I bought it at a yard sale.  He grills cookies everyday.  Sometimes he even sprinkles them with mustard or ketchup.

Here's a pic with a view of our front door and kitchen.  You might also notice our baby gate, which was our best purchase ever. It keeps the kids out of the kitchen, but I can still keep an eye on them through the door or cut out section of the wall. They're often crying/whining at the gate, so I don't have to look far.

Here's a close up of the baby gate and a glimpse into our kitchen.  Our landlord apologized for the small kitchen and I just laughed. It's the biggest kitchen I've used since we got married. Chinese homes are not known for having large kitchens.

Here's a better pic of the kitchen.  Look at my spider plant. It's still alive, which is more than I can say for the $25 worth of fresh herbs that I tried to grow.  

Now we jump to the day after Thanksgiving. We did a 5k on Thanksgiving, so we hosted a meal on Black Friday. We had already started to dish out the food when Rob decided to take a few pictures. On the menu  was a maple roasted turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, candied carrots, balsamic asparagus, maple bacon brussel sprouts (my favorite!), flax/wheat bread, roasted potatoes, etc.
 

I bought my plates at a yard sale.  The whole set was only $15.  They're square shaped and a variety of colors.  I love them.

If  I ever clean my house, I'll take pictures of the bedrooms.  But don't hold your breath- that will probably never happen. 

Eating Corn

My kids think corn is dessert. I'm willing to make corn everyday if it means I get to see this kind of cuteness.

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