Shock and Awe

Now to let you in on our time here so far.

We haven't had WiFi and sometimes not even Internet for the five weeks we've been here. I can't really imagine the world without internet.

I feel like I've been cut off from the world.

So the first time that I brought Nitcha to the grocery store, she was like, "Mom, now I know why people come to America and never want to go back to their country. There's so much food and everything is so clean and pretty."

We were both in shock as we stood in the vegetable section of Kroger! I didn't remember there being so many gorgeous fruits and veggies. I really wish I would've had a wide angle lens to capture the beauty. This was just one section of three!

I mean, all of you know how much there is here, but when you see it through a picture I think it's even more eye opening.

Then there was day two of our time here when the garbage truck pulled up in front of the house.

You should have seen my boys! Oh MY WORD!! They couldn't move. They were in shock and awe of this huge piece of steel that rolled up and was picking up trash cans and dumping the trash into the back.

Neither of them had seen anything like it in their lives. After he picked our up and proceeded down the road, they ran down the road watching at each house.

It was the high light of the day!!

It's the small things that make the MK happy!

I'm going to be catching you up on our travels since we've been in the USA. God has rolled out the red carpet for us and I want to share it with you.

Love,
Amber

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

All in the family

 This post has taken me FOREVER!!!!! I've been trying to move my iPhoto pictures to another program and it's giving me SO much trouble!! For one, I'm not a techi AT ALL! So I've had some major/minor bumps! Thank God in heaven that I was able to save my pictures!!!

So, I thought it'd be fun to share some of what's going on with the children via picture.

Joseph and Cayden started school 7 weeks ago! This week's almost over moving them on the week 8! I can't believe how quickly time flies! I feel like I barely get Monday started and it's already Friday. We've having so much fun with school even though some, our son Chase, would call it chaos. ;)

Joseph started 1st grade and Cayden's in Tot school.

For Joseph I'm using Sing Spell Read and Write for his phonics, Abeka Math, and Sonlight Core A for History, Bible, Science and Language Arts. We're all, Daddy included, really enjoying it!

For Tot school we're doing what we can with a tornado for a son. Getting Cayden to sit still for even 5 mins is a HUUUGE task! Some of his favorite things are playing with blocks, as long as cars can drive over them, playing with hot wheels, reading books (which he loves), and sometimes I can get him to color, but not often and not for long. ; )

I dressed Colton and Chase like twins until they begged me not to. I think they were 9 and 11. :)
Some habits never die.

Colton and Nitcha celebrated their 1st anniversary in May and found out they were pregnant the same month! We're ecstatic that we're going to be having a grand baby!! This should be a new experience for all of us! Their baby is due March 30th. 

We recently took family pictures, which was a large undertaking for our big crew in this Thailand heat. We waited until 5:30 but after only 5 min we were all sweating bullets. This was the craziest picture taking session in history. Chase and I were running back and forth to check the pictures between shots. Not to mention we were wrestling 3 children under 6 which is a huge undertaking!! Kids are almost impossible when taking pictures.

We finally got one we ALL loved!

And I really love the black and white version.

All our boys. Look at the faces on the three small ones....my point exactly. Taking pictures of little guys is a challenge!!

Chase is taking a stab at some small modeling jobs here in the city. We were taking some shots for him to send to them.  I know I'm partial but I think he's gorgeous!! He's grown so much in character over the last year which makes him even more handsome. We're so proud of the man he's becoming.

Here's our Tazmanian angel! The helmet suits him as he's running around like a mad man most of the time. We can hardly keep up with him, but he sure is cute!!

Okay, those cheeks.... some one help me! I can't stand it!!! I think he might be the prettiest baby we've ever had! He's just beautiful! And so sweet. He loves me. I love him.

He looks at me with longing eyes when I walk in the room or pass by him or when I'm feeding him. It's so precious! I didn't have this experience with Cayden. He was more the, "Feed me woman"..kind of baby.

God is so kind to make my last baby so affectionate. I could look at this picture all day and never get tired! Baby Chandler, I'm so glad you were born.

I thought I'd share with you what's going on in our house.

What's going on in yours?

Love
Amber

All the brothers

Well, it just wouldn't be right if I didn't make a post with a picture of all the brothers with Cayden. Here's Joseph, who is a VERY good big brother, smiling so proud as this is the first time he's gotten to hold the baby! Can you tell he's one proud big brother?!?This picture is worth a thousand words............ two generations here! 19, 17, and one day old!! God's ways are far beyond our imagination!! If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be having another baby, I would have laughed at you and told you you were crazy! But when got plants a seed in your heart He makes sure that there's enough water, and sun light that it will bring forth fruit. Our Cayden is the fruit of a seed planted by God. Chase Tanner with Cayden The biggest brother and the littlest brother.....Colton said to us, "This could be my baby!" Our precious Bank with Cayden. Bank is the only brother that can't come into a room and not kiss the baby or come stroke his little head. He really loves him! This blesses my heart so much!!

Boys at a sand pit behind our house

Judah and Michael Bang... sorry the pictures sideways

Here's Chase making bricks for a new house.

  

Unloading the wood for the new bridge

  

The boys carrying wood to the work site for the new bridge

  

Colton carrying in driking water for the work crew. They were in the jungle so there was no running water

  

Colton working on the foundation of the bridge

  

Here's the finished bridge. Just over that bridge is where the Burmese children will go to school

  

The boys have gone to work

Last July, the boys went to Baan Naam Kem to work with our friends, who are working with the victims of the Tsunami. They worked for three weeks and really loved it! Well, the Pruetts have invited them back. They wanted the boys to come up there before we left for furlough. So, this morning we put the boys on a bus. It'll take 7 hours for them to get there. As Clinton and I were walking off, I said, "Can you believe that our boys are old enough to put on a bus IN THAILAND?!? It seems so strange to have boys that are half grown! But, my heart is full of joy knowing that we can trust them and that they will have a wonderful time. They're going to help build a bridge across a river where our friends are building a Burmese school, for the Burmese children living in that area. The Burmese are refugees from the Khmer Rouge(sp?) or killing fields that happened in Cambodia years ago. So these children have no citizenship in either country. The Puretss have a burden to help these children get an education. The boys will be putting in 8 hour days for the next 10 days. They are both excited about the opportunity to work. Please pray for their safety and their health. i'll keep you posted

The Garsee boys

  We just went and had some family pictures taken. The boys are now 15 and 13. Aren't they so handsome!! 

Here's a picture of the family at Christmas

   

Here's the beautiful family banner that Clinton's mother made for us while we were on our family vacation. I've been meaning to put a picture of it on the blog for a while but.... SO, here it is. All of the fabric is Thai silk. She hand stiched all of it. Each color that you see is a seperate piece of fabric. Isn't it beautiful!! 

DAY 18

Well, we made it 18 whole days! When we pulled up to Todd and Carrie's house, Colton came running up to me, threw his arms around me and gave me a big hug and kiss. Chase, casually strolled over and gave me a half hug. Everyone that we talked to said what a blessing the boys had been while they where there. Todd had a team from the states working with him, so the boys were able to join in on that. Everyone on the team continued to compliment the boys and their hard work! Praise the Lord they're good for someone else... : ) While the boys were there, they cleaned out a boat,built a house, plumbed a house, dug a ceptic tank, roofed a thatched roof house, and lots of other odds and end jobs. They both seem very fulifilled in their time there. I've created a photo album to share pictures with you. Let's see if it works or not.

DAY 12.....................

Well, if you can believe it the boys have now been gone for 12 days!! They are having the time of their life. Chase still says he doesn't miss me.. : ( poor mommy! Colton is having lots of fun but misses home too. The boys have gone camping, built a fort, gone on a boat ride, gone to the waterfall, swam, cooked a "restaurant style" breakfast,which their Aunt Carrie said was very good, and the last few days put in 8 hours a day working on projects to help with the Tsunami Relief work. Chase wrote me an email yesterday that said, "Mom I worked all day today taking apart a boat just to rebuild it back again. There are boards that are connected to 20 beams, so in order to get the one board loose, I have to take out twenty nails and loosen it from the 20 beams it's connected to. But, I'm tired. Colton, worked for two days building a work shed were the workers will make bricks. Colton is working with a crew of Burmese men, so that makes for poor conversation. And for any of you that know Colton, he's dieing not being able to talk! Chase is working with Thai men therefore being able to practice his Thai. They both said that the Thai people up there speak much clearer than they do down here. Chase said he understands everything that the people are saying. The two week mark will be Tuesday, but neither of the boys are ready to come home. So, looks like we will go up on Friday and get the boys. We'll stay the weekend there and hang out with the Pruetts and return home on Monday. The hard part for the boys will be coming back home to home school and a schedule. So much is happening there, that having a hourly schedule is pretty hard to accomplish. However, our home is run like a "military camp" as the boys would say. lol We have 8 more weeks of school and then we head to the Philippines to the FIRE Asia Missions Conference. Will write more later.

Colton clearing some land that they will be rebuilding on. Doesn't he look like a man?!?  

Here's the boys with three of the Pruett children, after a hard days work, or would that be play?!?