I'm back...

Okay, I suppose it is finally time to wake up from my blog hibernation. Anybody miss me? I have a good reason for such a prolonged absence...wanna see??

I look kinda goofy in the picture...I was trying to ensure that I did not end up with a double chin...So the belly is not just from overeating-it's a baby GIRL who's going to come join us in the beginning of March. Yay! I would have blogged about this earlier, but for the first couple of months I was feeling so gross that I didn't want to. Then I thought I might as well wait for the ultrasound so I could have some really exciting news to share.

Guess I'll post some photos from our last 3+ months:

Here's my little Buzz Lightyear (who may not have removed the costume since Halloween) and the Little Mermaid. They had lots of fun this year and got lots and lots of treats.

had a great time helping me make cookies.

Hailey sporting my Halloween wig.
At the pumpkin patch with cousin Ellie. The surprise rainstorm was lots of fun and Hunter made sure to get very dirty.

Hunter enjoyed his first pony ride. What a cute cowboy.
Hailey was very excited to find eggs in the chicken coop.

Hailey's first day of school. She is going to pre-k two days a week at the baptist church. She loves it and is learning so much.

Look at my good little miniature golfers. They had lots of fun but they sure don't play by the rules.
Having fun with ice cream after a crazy game of mini golf.

I'm surprised at how entertaining it was to bury my children in the sand. We went down to Galveston a few times this summer. This was the trip we took for my birthday. It was such a fun day. (also coincidentally the day I found out that baby #3 is coming)

In the morning at the hotel the kids were having a lot of fun hiding behind the curtains. This is there reaction when I discovered them.

Wow, now I'm all the way back to June when we got to stay down in San Antonio with our friends Kelly and Cory. Cory's parent's were nice enough to watch all the kids so we could go see Wicked. So much fun!
Kelly and I being a little goofy in the car.

Hailey and her friend Aurora.
And lastly a nice little picture where my son is cross-dressing. Though Hailey informed me that this is the boy dress up clothes because it has the brown leopard print.

What we've been up to

So I must end my blogging hiatus. In the last couple of months we've had lots of visitors and lots of fun, so I better post some pictures before I lose them. Let's see, so after Ben's mom and sister were here in March we got my friend Heidi and her son Jonah. I seem to recall that everyone was feeling under the weather at the beginning of the trip, but we managed to have some fun anyway. (Consider yourself forewarned: there will be a lot of pictures)

Kids playing at the fountains, always fun.

Heidi and Jonah at the bounce place.

We convinced Ben to watch the kids so we could go out to dinner and a movie with my friend Carrie.

A standard for visitors at our house: homemade wontons, yum.

At the end of Heidi's trip my dad come out for a bit. Heidi and I have known eachother since like 4th grade, so it was fun for her and my dad to get to see eachother briefly

When dad was here we had fun going to the beach-and since it's so far after the fact I'll only post one pic.

Sibling love.

Thanks for coming grandpa.

I think it was in May that Ben took Hunter to the father son campout...but I really don't remember. They had fun.

Hailey and I like to go on dates when the boys go camping.

One day I walked in Hunters room to find this...what a rock star.

These pictures don't really go together chronologically, but doesn't this seem like the perfect reaction??

At the end of May mom and Ken were here for a visit. The only picture I have from that trip is when we made Ken slave away helping Ben to refinish the table that has been in our garage for a year.

One day Kelly and I were a bit loopy and were showing off how we can still rock the side pony.

Some time during June my son took cross dressing to a new level. Ben is wondering if he has failed as a father.

We took another trip to the beach, this time with Kelly, Janalyn and their kids.

cute boy

pretty girl

One day the kids matched for church so we tried to take some photos. Someone was fussing for most of them, so here's a decent one.

Ok, I'm done posting pics for today. Stay tuned next time for photos from our San Antonio trip, new baby cousin and my birthday.

Its time

This morning I woke up and really missed my friends Amy and family from Taiwan, so I decided that 4 months after our trip I can finally finish blogging about it! Hold the applause. Okay, so on our 5th day there we ventured out on our own again. We took the MRT over to the Chang Kai Shek memorial and the I was so proud that I was able to find my way over to see the LDS temple with the awesome new chapel they built next door. (Course I managed not to take any pictures while we were there). We wandered around at lunchtime until we found a place that made dao shao mian (shaved noodles--so so good) and just had that with yummy fried rice. So now for pictures from the day...

Ben made me take this picture like a 100 times. You can't see it unless you enlarge the picture, but he is standing down in the middle of gate arch thing to show how huge it is.

You have to be impressed with my skills here. I set the camera up on a curved stair railing and actually got a decent shot with a nice background. Whootwhoot.

I like this picture cause I have one that is almost identical to it that I took 6 yrs ago at the end of my mission.

The buildings are so pretty

Ah, and here's me. I'm cute.

That night Abner took us to the night market. I love night markets. They are so crowded and full of culture and cheap stuff. I think I bought some clothes for the kids and a couple things for myself and only spent like $15.

It's great cause you can barely squeeze down most of the rows

Here we are waiting for the MRT so we can head home. Another thing I love about Taiwan is how safe it feels. Now driving doesn't feel safe cause it appears that if they do have traffic laws no one follows them...but what I mean is that I could walk around at 11/30 at night and not feel too worried. I would be so terrified of a night market in Houston...

The next day (day six perhaps)-Friday-we took the train and ventured up to Jiu Fen again-then on the way home we took the wrong bus or something and took hours to get home.

Some views off the cliff at the restaurant where we ate lunch.

I love all the lanterns lining the stairs.

We spent some time in this little shop picking out the perfect pair of shoes for Hailey. It was impressive watching the lady make them. Hailey loves them so much I think she wears them every week to church.

I bought something from this guy last time I was in Taiwan so it was fun to get Ben a dagon picture for his office from the same guy. He paints characters with the side of his hand and then uses a brush for some finishing touches.

A view of the shops

Well, I didn't finish our trip yet, but there's only 2 more days and not too many pictures, so I shall post the rest very soon.

I have not died...

...though some days I may wish I had.  I don't know why I just haven't been motivated to blog the last several months.  I do think its funny that I still have a squatter toilet as the first thing you see on my blog.  One day I will finish posting pics from the trip and things since then.  But not today.  Hahaha.  So here's a picture that the kids will hate me for when they are older.  Yes, the toys are strategically placed.

Where did the last month go?

Ok, somehow the last like six weeks disappeared and I managed to blog about nothing.  So, if I can even remember all that we did I will finish blogging about Taiwan (but perhaps not all today). 

So lets see, on day 3 of our trip Mr. Xue (Amy's husband) took Ben and I down to see the ceramics museum in Yingge. It was pretty interesting to learn about the history of pottery in Taiwan and we saw some really beautiful pieces there (unfortunately, since it was a museum we have no photos).  All I really remember is that they apparently made the first modern toilet and in that section of the museum there was a tv screen inside a toilet bowl.  Ooh, speaking of toilets I did take a picture of  a squatter toilet that one would get to use in public (this trip I learned that they were much easier to use in a dress)

After the museum we went down to the old street to buy some bowls and stuff to take home. It took me forever there cause there are so many different things to choose from. When we left there we had 25 rice bowls (8 for us, 7 for the Gwilliams and 10 for the Hongs-we must like them the best!) 

I just liked the signs at the gas station...

That night we got together with my friend Pan Chuan Mei (my new member...but I don't think she's going to church much these days...) and went to see Taipei 101--the tallest building in the world.  It was really cool-we rode the elevator to the top and it was so stinking fast (the world's fastest in fact) that everyone's ears popped cause we were going up to the 89th floor.  We saw all the views of the city and then we walked up 2 more flights of stairs to the outside observation deck-it was really neat, and kinda creepy.

So I obviously didn't take the above picture since we went there at night...but I just wanted to show how seriously tall the building is.  The buildings around it look so tiny, but they're not!  So here is a blurry view out one of the windows.  Pictures through glass at night just don't do it any justice.

Here's Chuan Mei and I standing in front of the giant damper ball.  This thing weighs 600+ tons and serves to reduce the effects of wind so the building doesn't sway when it gets a-blowing.

Ok, now on to day 4, Wednesday.  Ben and I decided to just take it low-key and do a little bit of exploring on our own (I wanted to see if I could remember how to find things).  Well, I couldn't find my old apartment, but we had fun wandering around markets and shops.   

Here's Ben posing with our favorite side-of-the-road treat.  Butter Tire Cakes-they taste kind of like waffles with hot custard in the middle.

I borrowed this vest from Amy cause it was so cold there.  She made me hide my purse under it for safety.

After like a half day of wandering we came home and took a nap I think...never could recover from that darn jet lag.  When we woke up we found that once again they had outdone themselves with some wonderful food.

Ben affectionately called this thing "the jellyfish"-Amy thought that was so funny.  It's like a doughy dumpling with meat in the middle.  He said they were really good.  I got out of eating a lot of food since I was a vegetarian last time everyone saw me.

After my first dinner at Amy's around 4:30 I went with my friend/last companion Ke-ren to have dinner at her place.  Before this trip I had no idea that she had gotten married.  She really made me nervous to meet her husband, but he was a really nice and  friendly guy (he's from Syria and he gave me a really beautiful handmade tablecloth).  

Here's Ke-ren and Aliwawa

Oh, and Ben asked me to get a picture of my first ride on a scooter.  So cute.  It was pouring rain on the way to her apartment, so I was wearing a nice poncho too.

Ok, I finished like half of our trip.  I promise that before 6 more weeks go by I will finish my Taiwan posts.