Christmas Card 2012

Blissful Snowflakes Holiday Card

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Walk to the park

We decided to take a little adventure and go to the park! I still wasn't too sure where everything was or how to exactly get places when we went but we had been before so I figured it wouldn't be too hard. The walk down there was fun and we said hi to everybody we saw and we even had a since little breeze. We got to the park and Caleb was sleeping and Liam was thrilled! We went straight away to the swings. Swings are Liam's favorite at the park and could sit on the swing being pushed for forever.

Then we went to the slide and Liam had a blast. He could see me at the bottom where it then became a game of peek-a-boo and saying HI back and forth!

 

Hello!!

Wee!!

Climbing onto the horsey!!

Ride on cowboy Liam

Liam got so excited when he saw the "horse". I told him it was a cow and I did get him to say cow a few times. Every time he sees a cow here he calls it a horse. He just loves horses that much!!

Climbing ontp the ledge.

But that wasnt good enough! He wanted to climb over the fence to see them.

This is what happened when I took him off the fence.

 Such a sad little boy!!

He decided to stop being angry at me and give the merry-go-round a go!!

Next we had to try out the big kid swings!

Me and my boy on the big swing! He really is loving it!

All of us! Liam wasnt too thrilled to be getting his picture taken. I dont have very good aim when I am holding too kids trying to point the camera at us all and to make sure we are all looking!

Caleb thought it would be fun to try out the swings too!

Such a big boy! :)

 

My boys swinging together

Me with my boys

We were just about to start our long walk back home when all of a sudden a school class or kids comes charging the playground. As soon as they saw the boys they were instantly all over them and picking them up and fighting over who got to hold them. It was so cute to see how excited they were to hold them.

Liam was so tired and wasn't too sure what to think of other people holding him.

Caleb getting some cuddles!

 

 They have signs like this one all over the Island telling people to Keep Statia clean!

 

All tuckered out from a fun morning at the park!

we got a CAR

We didn't really know what to expect when we got here but hearing things from other people we always thought we wanted a car. We sorta had a car lined up for when we got here but since it took longer to find out if we were actually coming we told the people to go ahead and sell instead of waiting on us. We found out like 2 days later. But oh well.

We got here and it seemed like vehicles were kinda hard to come by but we found out right away that we did want one and the sooner the better. I am not in good shape to begin with and walking those hills to get back home were killer so we didn't go out too much. Just on little walks around the house. We attempted the park a couple times and a couple other places but I was too scared to even attempt the beach. 

We were excited to find out that the mechanics brother had a car for sale. Brant wanted me to go look at it but basically I said as long as its a car with 4 wheels and it can get me from point A to point B I am happy. And if something better comes along we can sell it anyway. So we decided to take it and we havnt looked back! We love it. We love that we can come and go as we please and that we don't have to bug anyone anymore and we love that we can buy groceries and go to the beach! Hurray!

Thank you to everyone here who drove us around, took us to get groceries (couldn't imagine walking home with the 2 boys in the chariot with all our groceries) and took us to the beach with them. Also a big thank you to Brant's cousins (Dustin and Lyndsey) for leaving us with a car seat for our little man! Wouldn't know what we would do without it! (even though its sometimes a fight between the 2 boys as to who gets to sit in it. Silly Liam) We have really appreciated everyone's generosity and are so grateful!

This is Brant signing the papers

This is Brant shaking the guys hand.... it was a done deal!

Just look at this bad boy!

My Boys - so happy we have a car now!! :) HALLELUJAH!

I HATE ANTS

I realize hate is a strong word and for some reason I have taken shows like Bee movie and A Bugs Life to heart and usually find it hard to kill bugs. Since living here on Statia I have completley changed my mind on the way I feel about ants. I hate them. I wish to never see another ant in my life. I have only lived on this tiny Island for less than 2 months and I am already so done with ants. I have probably killed thousands and thousands of ants. And I am not kidding. If you spill anything you can be sure to be greeted by a cluster of swarming ants within minutes and with a single wipe with paper towel you can probably kill 50 just like that. Some days I will find myself with a piece of paper towel or a wet wipe just sitting on the floor waiting for the next ant to appear so I can kill it. 

Liam is so dear to my heart, however I could make myself go crazy with all the little messes and stickiness that happen because of my sweet little boy. Not only is it a pain to clean up but its even more of a pain when you miss a spot and have a million little visitors come your way. I have tried just using water and soap or my cleaning spray to kill them and get rid of them. Today I have figured out that in order for them to stop coming (until your next mess) is by this stuff I use called Black flag. There was this other stuff called BOP at the store but apparently it isn't approved in the states but I may be investing in some of that too. I hear it may be stronger (exactly what I need).

You see the problem here is that the houses are not sealed very well and the ants make their way in through all the cracks in the walls. As well these ants seem to like current. Or else its just an easy access for them but they can be found in and around your plug ins. The last couple days I have had a bunch swarming between two electric plug ins on one of my walls. Every few minutes I would kill 5 or 20 ants that would sneak their way up or down the wall. I am not sure what they liked about going up and down because there was no food or anything but maybe just the heat from the back of the fridge, I don't know. Anyways, after spraying some Black flag around the plug ins and on the wall I haven't seen an ant for quite a few hours now and I am pretty happy about that. Sitting there watching for he next bunch of ants to appear was becoming quite time consuming and my boys were in much need of some attention.

On a little different note still having to do with ants is that they also have FIRE ants here. I had heard people talk about them and how they hurt really bad and if they bite your feet it literally feels like they are on fire. So for Sunday school we meet at the school in the little courtyard there and Liam just plays around outside there. One day he was just out there playing on the grass when all of a sudden Liam kinda starts making some noise, and comes back to the pavement, and I just had the worst feeling in the world. I rush over to him and see ants ALL over his feet and then I feel some on me and one kinda bit me and it hurt quite a bit and then it hit me....He was being attacked by these nasty fire ants. I quickly pick him up and get all the ants away. Poor kid had a bunch of little bits all over the tops and sides of his feet. For a couple days he wouldn't even let me touch his feet at all. Luckiy I brought some dream cream with us and even though he screamed when we put it on the pain only lasted for a couple days. Poor little guy. We are going to have to be more careful when we play outside on the grass now.

Almost every morning we wake up to find little bug bits on us. I am not sure what bug is biting us but the bites never fail to be there each morning. Liam woke up one day to a bunch of big read marks all over his back. The bugs must really like him cause he always seems to have the most bites.