April-June 2012

The Easter Bunny had a special visa to come visit us in Saudi...that just made our first real Easter so special (since we didn't celebrate it last year).  Last repat I came back with loads of eggs and Easter decorations, thanks to my sis and friend Jill for stocking up on the Easter goodies last year. 

Hudson was the only one to welcome the Bunny into our home, later on Tobin and Skyler warmed up to him. 

We had two other families over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt in our backyard.  Sheri and Roseanna's family.  Roseanna has twin boys, Noah and Joshua (these guys age) and a 10 year old boy, Devin.

Mr. Bunny with Sheri and I.  Sheri's my tennis and workout buddy.  She has a daughter, Sara (these guys' age) and Sean, a 5 year old boy.

Dan helping the Hudson open his eggs.

Everyone checking out their goody eggs.  You can see the outside of our little addition.

The dads with their kids and Mr. Bunny.

On occassion, this is how we nap, on the couch:  Hudson

Skyler

Tobin

This is what they were up to one day:  underwear heads, Tobin cracking up a storm on the floor. 

Skyler, Tobin, and Hudson

Some pictures from Mrs. Helen school.  Everyone can write their first, middle and last name and their siblings names.

At the beginning of June, we let Rhena, our housemaid go.  She was only with us for 6 months, yet there were lots of issues with her and we felt it was a perfect time for us to not have live-in help anymore.  Kids are so much easier now, they are pretty much self sufficient and independent.  We're doing the house cleaner/babysitter route and so far it's working out.  I don't think we'll go back to live-in help anymore unless I have a full time job, but that's way down the line. 

In June, Dan had a day off from work...that means a Bahrain trip for us.  We met up with Teresa and her family.  Teresa is another one of my tennis/workout buddy with Sheri.  We made a stop at Ric's first for a breakfast of bacon and pork sausages.  YUMM!!!!  Then we spent the day at the hotel pool before heading out to a dinner of grown ups and met up with some more of our friends.

Skyler going down the slide.  She can officially swim after 6 months of swim lesson.  One day during she swam about 15-20 feet to and from her swim teacher and she did this several times.  The boys can swim too but only for about 5 feet distance.  So proud of them!  We did this same trip last year, but I can tell this year the kids are so much more confident in the water (thanks to their swim teacher Mrs. Kathy).  They were dunking their heads in the water and doing the swim strokes from class....another year I think we can sit back and sip on Bloody Marys or whatever cocktails we want while they play in the pool. 

Tobin

Hudson

Yup that's the kid hotel pool.

Teresa and Max, 5 yr old son.

Teresa and Oli, 3 yr old.

Kids having their dinner as we get ready for our dinner out.  This was the first time we used a babysitter from the hotel.  They basically just stay in the room while kids are sleeping and we're downstairs at the restaurant.

These little Bahrain getaway gets us all refreshed and makes it feel normal for being over in the Middle East.  We LOVE Bahrain!!!

Jan-March 2012

January marked the beginning of a few transitions:  they stopped napping, we moved them into twin size beds, and new pre-school all this at almost 3 1/2 years old.  It was such a struggle to get them to nap, I spent more time "trying" to get them to nap in their room and by the time they did nap it was too late in the day...not good since it pushed back bedtime and we can't have that going on!  So by the end of January, we started "resting on the couch".  Sometimes they slept, sometimes just reading books or watching TV.  They are finally into shows, meaning they can actually sit on the couch and finish a show.  Their favorite is Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse, and Dora and Diego.  They can't get enough of those duo.  By now, they can count in Spanish 1-15 and their colors.  They also know the same thing in Vietnamese.

Sleeping situation:  they were not comfortable in the crib mattress on the ground anymore.  They kept rolling off of them and waking up at night or they would all squished next to one another on the carpet.  So we got out the bed rails for Skyler's bed and pulled out the trundle bed underneath hers and brought in another trundle bed from the other room.  Gave them all new twin size sheets, full size pillows (no more of the little 12" square Aramco pillows, and new full size blankets.  No more of their baby blankets, it's being stored in plastic bins up in their closet.  They still have their lovies and they'll always have those unless they decide they don't want them.  It's worked out great, they sleep so much better now.  And we put their door knob back on the door. 

A few months later, the CD player in their room stopped working so we couldn't play their sleep music.  We just told them it broke and there's no more music and I guess they're OK with it.  All of these transitions will help us greatly with traveling...less stuff to bring. :-)

After a year of waiting and doctor visits for Tobin, etc. etc. we finally got approved for hardwood floors upstairs where it's carpeted.  The testing came back and Tobin's severely allergic to dust among a few other outdoor plants.  They did the installation in March and I just love the floors, there's no musty smell anymore especially with all the pet hair.  We also added on an area in the back of the house where our patio table used to be and made it into a sunroom.  It's surrounded by windows and I LOVE just sitting there relaxing while the kids play outside. 

We had professional pictures taken by a lady on camp back in January.  She did an amazing job capturing these precious moments.  We may do this every year now. They were taken at the big park on camp.



she had us do funny faces



Tobin



Kids have been going to new pre-school too since the end of December.  They are at Mrs. Helen and just adore her and she adores them.  I can tell they have learned so much from being there. 



Skyler



Hudson (oops supposed to be before the school pic)



Tobin



Dan's parents came to visit back in February.  Hudson and Skyler modeling the tshirt from Aunt Carol.



Tobin with his new piglet animal from Aunt Carol



Thanks Aunt Carol for these gifts!



Grandpa Bob, books and kiddos (Tobin, Hudson & Skyler)



on their way to the nearby park





Grandma Gail and Tobin



One of our excursion, Hudson was NOT happy at all!



With their visit, we took the kids out to the souks, an Arabic restaurant and the camel rides.  We don't normally take them "off camp" much b/c of the crazy driving here.  But they did well and so did we! :-)

These guys couldn't wait til summer to get their hair cut especially the boys who kept saying "it's too hot" and moving the hair off their faces.  So what's a mom to do but get out some scissor and give it a try.  I think I did a decent job.

Hudson



Skyler wanted her bangs trimmed.



Tobin

And lastly, my babes with some Pooh slippers I bought from a girls trip to Dubai to see Duran Duran.  (Tobin, Skyler and Hudson) 

I love their age now, I can finally see the light! :-)

major catching up (09.11-12.11)

So I've been major slacking on the blogging...frankly I just don't have time anymore as they're getting older and they're not even 4 y.o. yet!  So I've haven't blog much since last summer but as this year repat is slowly approaching, I realized I haven't captured any of "their" moments and don't want to forget it one day.  So here goes...I'll just touch on major points but they have a bunch of special things and moments they do DAILY and it's IMPOSSIBLE for me at to capture it all in this blog, while I try best to atleast capture them on photo.

After coming back from last year repat, we tackled potty training about a week after we transitioned back into Saudi time.  I was really worried and had everything laid out:  lysol wipes, plastic bags, 3 potty chairs, stickers, underwear, even the puppy pads we had leftover from one of our last doggies (that somehow got packed in the shipment).  We used those on the sofas, dining chairs, and carseats for about 2 months.  We rolled up all the rugs and they couldn't go upstairs during the day to play since we still had carpet.  Started on Wed. after swim lessons (will tell more later) and by Friday they all got the basics of it.  First two days, the normal expectations, they didn't really get it, they would pee but couldn't do on the potty, mess every where! Then they would pee one little drop just so they could get a sticker, over and over. Then Skyler was the first to pee the most on the potty and I clapped and danced and yelled "Yahoo".  After that they all LOVED the YAHOOS so much, they all did it right!  I was getting worried about the poop part, but they finally pooped on Friday morning.  Actually Tobin first then Skyler.  Hudson didn't do the deed until Saturday morning, thank goodness b/c school started that morning!  I was so relieved!  We continued with this and by two weeks, they all pretty much got it! During that two weeks, they were still wearing diapers at nap, but one day, I forgot to change them to diapers for nap time and they napped in their underwear with no issues.  So we moved forward with that too...only diapers at bedtime now.  Some mornings they wake up with dry diapers and some wet...not tackling this until we get back from repat this year {which you'll read about it a year later} :-)  Incase you're wondering why I'm not doing pullups at night... because we're in Saudi and I haven't seen it anywhere and it's too much to bring back from the States.  I do have them but I use it for traveling. 

A big milestone for them and us!  LOVE that I only have to write "diapers" on our shopping list about every 2 months.

Hudson showing off the undies he picked.

Tobin, Skyler and Hudson testing their chairs out.  I made the little boards with their names so they could put stickers on them when they did they deed.

Of all day for their first swim lessons to began, it had to be the same day as potty training. Didn't plan it this way, but I finally got a hold of their swim teacher after weeks of playing phone tags with her, so when she set the date, I couldn't say no.  And we didn't want to push potty training back either since my goal was to do it after they turned 3 and ALL of us (kids and parents) were ready and we were!  Thank goodness starting two new things didn't backfire on us.

Our first real vacation as a family- Sri Lanka.  We went to the beautiful island during the second Eid holiday (Muslim holiday) so Dan didn't have to use any vacation days.  A lot of Aramcons travel during these times.  We picked Sri Lanka, firstly b/c it's only a 5 hr flight from Bahrain and we didn't want to spend too many "travel" day for our vacation, it's kid friendly, and of course the tropical ambience.

The 12 room beach hotel we stayed at was PERFECT for us.  It has direct beach access, pool, and the staff was so kind and accommodating.  They catered to everything we wanted and made sure everything was to our satisfaction.  It felt really relaxful, as relaxful as it can be considering we have the little people with us.   

The chef usually welcomed us with this friendly breakfast plate every morning.  It just puts a smile on all our faces.  We took tours during the day so we ate out at the local restaurants for lunch and have our dinners back at the hotel. 



View from our room



This man waited on us every day during our meals and was so pleasant to us (even with all the mess the kids made).  Skyler and Hudson were running around dancing and he couldn't resist joining in.

one of my fave pic:  Tobin, Hudson, Skyler

(Dan remembers Skyler crying but I don't)

one of the pool moments:  Tobin pulling up his shorts :-)

the sea turtle conservatory, 5 min. from our hotel.  Hudson holding the little guy.



my boys



Skyler





we visited a lot of places from mask museum, silk worm factory to the batik factory.  While Dan and I are trying to buy a batik fabric, kids found ways to entertain themselves.  

They were more fascinated with this bull as we were leaving the mask museum.  All holding their new hand crafted puzzles.



Tobin in the car ride, so happy about his puzzle.





One day we traveled south to a city called Galle.  All of us sitting on top of the Galle Fort.  It was really hot and Hudson refused to wear his hat.  



Mask Museum, I think they were kinda scared of these.



Elephant tour, kids really enjoyed seeing these guys...I think they finally realized these are big creatures.  They've only seen them in books or videos.  I don't think they remember them from the Houston Zoo. (Hudson, Skyler, Tobin) 

So sad I'm noticing their shoes and they've already outgrown those. 





Skyler being silly, this was during one of our lunch outings and we were on the way back from the restroom and she keeps on grabbing my legs so I had my camera handy!





Lunch after the elephant tour.  Love how they're looking in all different directions.  That's just a statue of an elephant.  We were all too exhausted to do the elephant rides...maybe next time when they're older.



Second Christmas in Saudi.  This time we were not going back to Houston since we already went during the summer months.  Thank goodness I brought back ALL of my Christmas decorations and they didn't get confiscated.   I've taken up basket weaving and made some in the festive holiday colors. 



Our home outside.  I also made those (4) green wreaths.  Have to get a little creative here as there's no Target you can run to for your holiday decoration needs. 



Wanted to start the gingerbread house tradition with the kids but couldn't find them anywhere.  We happen to be in Bahrain celebrating Dan's bday with friends and went to the mall afterwards and there it was a Gingerbread house kit in one of the specialty kitchen stores.  Next week, had kids working on it.  They were all pretty cute doing this as they couldn't stop licking the icing.  We also made cookies and left them out for Santa with some milk.



Christmas day:  Hudson





Tobin and Skyler ( I don't know why they're not happy)







Got 2011 over.  Feel a little better, now just need to finish catching up to present day.  Another awesome year for our family!