Some Oldies but Goodies

These are from April 2013, but since my last post for 2013 was in March, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite pictures from last year. 

I mean  you all missed out on a whole year of our life. 

Did you miss us?

Did you even know we were gone?

I'm gonna pretend you did and flood you with posts and pictures.  

This is such a Cayden picture! Mouth wide open. Making a loud obnoxious noise and irritating the FIRE out of Chandler.

Chan doesn't look too annoyed here, but I had to put the camera down to get Cayden off of him as he was screaming his head off.

This is typical Joseph. Always smiling. I love you, Joe.

And my baby. I mean really!!!

Look at that perfect baby!

Chandler Triumph, I'm so glad you were born.

Love,
Amber

What's Been Going On This last year??

In December 2008, God moved us from a tiny 900 sq. ft. house to this house! It was a blessing from God in a time of great pain and sorrow. I wrote a post about what was going on in my life back in 2009, you can read it here I had just had a miscarriage and felt like I was in a fish bowl. After taking in several street children, the small house was caving in on me. God was so good to give it to us for just the right amount of time.

The Big House

I brought home two babies in this house, saw a son married in this house, finalized an adoption in this house, and sent a son off to college in this house. I have very fond memories and am so grateful to God for letting us stay there as long as He did.

But when you feel the cloud moving, you must go with it. Mid summer, Clinton began to feel the stirring to go back to Ban Pru, where we have our church plant.

We have a huge building (that's like a townhouse) were we have church and the upstairs wasn't being used at all.

When he first presented it to me, I was like, "Are you kidding? No way! We could never live in the upstairs of the church!! We would never have any privacy!!"

But the more I thought and prayed about it, I really felt that I was to honor him and what he was feeling and move if that's what he thought we should do. He wasn't going to push me, so the decision was really up to me.

It was going to save us a great deal of money.. the first four and a half years in "the big house" were paid for by a loving supporter, but this last year we were having to pay for it ourselves and it was a struggle. Although the rent was only $400 a month it was still more than we were used to.

Also, Clinton's heart was to be closer to our disciples and more hands on.

So be began to move.

And move.

And move.

Asian style of course. lol

He refused to get a moving truck. He wanted to save money, but after four days of moving he told me he will never do that again.

But I wouldn't dare say, "I told you so, honey."

So this was what it looked like on the side of our church/house before we moved in. But after finding several snakes Clinton decided that the land must be cleared.

After days and days of clearing and getting a digger like thingy house here, the land was cleared.

You might be wondering, "Where is the grass?" Well, there is none. Yes, you heard me. There is none. 

We live on 30 acres of concrete. This land used to be a rubber factory where they would buy rubber from the rubber farmers, process it, and load it on trucks to be sold. 

But on the bright side, our kids can ride their bikes for days and days and days. 

Here's my kitchen. Well kitchen #1. This is where I prepare the food, and wash the dishes. It's also where we eat. We pull the table out from the wall and put the kids table at the door of the bedroom (there are two bedrooms to the left of this picture) and we can fit all 11 of us. It's a tight squeeze but it works.

Preparing food takes place on that white cupboard on the right. There's about 2 ft of space to work with. It's a good thing I've been in Thailand for 13 years or I might be a little flustered about this kitchen situation.

 This is kitchen #2 and also my laundry area. This is where do the actual cooking and my laundry. It outside on the balcony. I know, you're thinking. Wow! She's so lucky! She gets to cook outside... in the rain, in the heat. Well, not all women can be as lucky as I am.

To left is the rest of the balcony which you can see in the picture below.

 Here's the front of the church in all it's glory. The top window is my living room. The door there goes into the worship area of the church and then up the stairs to my apartment.

We're currently in the process of painting the church, so I'll have those pictures soon.

I have so many more pictures to share with you, but I'll leave you with these for now. Soak it in. Then go to your kitchen, bend down and start kissing the floor, then kiss the counters, then kiss your thermostat on the wall that gives you central air, then... oh well I'l stop there.

Next, I'll share my homeschool room which is glorious and a definite plus to living here. I mean it! It's amazing. It's the nicest homeschool room I've ever had. I can't wait to share pictures with you!

Love you guys!!
Amber~

Last Week of Organized Tot School

 I have no idea what causes a tot who's moving right along week after week with school to all the sudden decide, "I'm not doing it anymore." 

That's what happened with Cayden. He's 3 years and 5 months in these photos. 

I mean, I was having SO.MUCH.FUN!! 

On this Jj Jellyfish lesson we even went to the Aquarium! I had the scavenger hunt print outs and all! I was INTO.IT. 

I love the planning, the gathering, and the teaching. I love it. I was so sad! To be honest I tried to force the Kk Kola on him but he wasn't having it. I think it was the same thing lesson after lesson that bored him. He likes change and different stuff so maybe I'll try to incorporate some different things into each lesson. I'm not really that creative which is the problem, but thank God for Pintrest. Right?!

He's recently been asking to do Tot School again. Although, he's not a tot anymore... he's a preschooler. (3yrs. 11mo). How did my baby get to be a Preschooler???

He's definitely a kinetic learner! HE lOVES sensory play!! I mean loves it! And he loves books. 

We were doing the Animal ABC's by Carrisa at 1plus1plus1

She's amazing! And her printables are so cute. She has TONS of ideas on there! 

Has your tot decided he doesn't want to do school anymore?

If so what was your strategy to get him going again?

I'd love to hear from you!

A New Chapter

It's been months since I've pulled up my blog.

As I pulled it up and looked at the banner picture, I got tears in my eyes. I can't believe how fast time goes by.

Looking at the pictures of my babies is such a reminder of how fast time truly does go by.

I shut my blog down because of Joseph's adoption. Some of you might be aware of that, but some may not.  I felt from the Lord, to shut the blog down until we finished the adoption process and can now say... "It is finished!" Praise God!!

We got Joseph 5 years, 5 months and 15 days ago. It's a good thing God keeps things from us sometimes.

 This was the hovel that he called home. 

                              Here he is with his little brother, just 13 months apart.

                             The first time he slept in our bed or any bed for that matter.


These are pictures from the first day that I met him, and brought him home.

I'll never forget that scared little boy that was put into my truck by his mother, tears streaming down her young cheeks.

I'll never forget, that little boy who cried for days and sat in front of the front door for hours with his back facing all of us. Too scared to let any of us hold him. Too scared to eat. All he could do was cry.

So many years have passed and now he's ours... his heart is ours. He loves us. We're his family. We're his mommy and daddy. Cayden and Chandler are his little brothers. He's such an amazing big brother.

His name was "officially" changed from Jedsada Kunnala to Joseph Clinton Garsee on December 11, 2013.

So now I'm officially back online and I wanted to dedicate this first post to Joseph.

We love you buddy and we're so happy you're in our life.

Love
Mommy

Fire Pit

Here's the fire pit that Clinton made last year. We. Love. It. 

It's super hot in Thailand but November through February are cooler and are much cooler in the evenings (74F). For us that's cool. haha  So we've been having bon fires a lot. The kids love it. We eat dinner outside on the porch and sometimes we roast wieners or make banana boats or roast marsh mellows. 

Sometimes we don't do anything but enjoy it. It's all about creating family moments and making memories for the kids. 

This picture is hysterical to me!! The fire was so hot that Bang decided to roast his wiener from behind the wall! We were rolling!!!

Here's Colton's idea of how to roast a wiener. : )

Baby Chan with his big beautiful brown eyes.

Daddy's holding a sick baby Cayden. He had fever and was throwing up. Not too fun for him!

We had banana boats. A super fun idea I found on the Pioneer Woman website.

You cut the banana peel and through the banana just enough to stuff it with all kinds of goodness. I laid out chocolate chips, marshmallows, coconut, and Reese's Pieces.

After you stuff them you wrap them in foil and set them in the fire for all the goodness to melt and make an incredible gooey concoction!! YUM!

I just noticed the Paracetamol on the table............ AND I took the picture from the back side of the table. LOL

What can I say, I have six kids and they're ALL boys. My brain doesn't work like it used to. ; )

What do you like to do for family nights?

Try Banana Boats and tell me how you like them!

Love,
Amber

Chandler Triumph 7 months

I can NOT believe you're is already 7 months old! 

Chandler you've brought so much joy into our lives. You're everything a mother hopes her baby will be. You wake up smiling, you love to nurse, and you love me!

You love to play with your big brothers. They can make you laugh out loud. This month you started laughing out loud and it's so cute!

When you get excited you lift up your head and bite you bottom lip throwing you head back as you smile! ALL of us love to watch you do it so we do things to make you do it over and over again. You're so precious!

I love it when you nurse and play with your foot. You grab your toes and pull your foot backwards. It's so precious! 

Most the time when you nurse you're looking right into my soul. Your big brown eyes and so captivating. I love you!

This month you've started to sit by yourself but we put pillows all around you so when you fall it doesn't hurt. You still can't sit up unsupported.

When someone comes home, as soon as they walk in the door, you start to scream. It's like you're saying. "Yay! I'm so glad you came back!" 

You love to eat carrots, squash, bananas, banana bread, and drink! If someone is drinking and you see them you start flapping your hands on your legs and raising your head up and down as if you're asking for a drink too. If the person drinking doesn't notice that you're calling for them to BRING YOU SOME, you start screaming.... but not a defiant scream. More like a little baby bird asking for some water.. So so cute!

There's nothing about you that's defiant. You're a lover! And you truly bring light.

Just two days ago, we started having you sleep on the floor on Daddy's side of the bed. We're trying to wean you from drinking milk at night cause Mommy's SO TIRED! AND we're hoping to get you out of our bed. LOL 

You've slept with us longer and than any of the others!! 7 WHOLE MONTHS. But we haven't minded because you're probably our last baby.

Daddy decided enough was enough the other night when you kicked him ALL NIGHT LONG. LOL

We have your baby bed all ready for the big moment. You can do it, Buddy! You're big brother Cayden made the jump from our room to his when he was 8 months old.... that's what we're aiming for. We'll see what happens.

Those big brown eyes steal my heart

You love to bite your bottom lip

Look at those chubby boobies

Perfect picture of you throwing your head back in laughter

Hi, Mommy!

I see you with my one little eye

Love,
Your Mommy