Zoe Turns 1, January Adventures in Cambodia 2018

January was a month when a lot of things hit at once. I know I can usually eek out a blog post between the kids, and the part time job, and the house work, and the Bible study, and the homeschool, and the working out, but this time it just wasn't happening. But that's for another post. Today I want to celebrate the good things that happened this January.

On the top of that list, is our sweet Zoe turning 1!!!


I remember when our first child turned 1 and had a party with lots of relatives and gifts. By the fourth child you realize that 1) you don't really need that much stuff and 2) they're not going to remember it anyway. There's always the drawback of missing family while abroad, however.

We tried this astringent tasting fruit at the market again.

We found a really cool place with a great swimming pool and playground where you can go for free if you buy food. That’s why Talia has rosy cheeks here, she’s a water baby who will stay in the pool until you make her get out!

The playground was really nice too.

It’s next to a golf driving range, so everything is covered with a net roof to catch stray balls.

The kids really enjoyed it and slept for a good 2 hours when we got home! Ben was at an Environmental Summit in Singapore for five days because the group of students needed the principal along for the trip abroad, so napping children meant more sanity for me!

Ben came home really impressed by Singapore! It was clean!

It had great museums.

And he especially liked the Singaporean chicken and rice!

I’m glad he’s back home!

6 Years with Elias

It’s hard to believe that this guy....

Used to be this sweet little answered prayer!

For his 6th birthday, Talia and I filled ice cream cones with white vanilla cake batter and sprinkles!

His class was really excited to eat them.

Especially frosted with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

For home, Talia and I experimented with turning yellow cake batter (with sprinkles) into a tie-dye cake.

Elias loves all the colors, so sprinkles and tie-dye seemed appropriate.

It turned out fairly well!

Cutting into it was pretty impressive for him. His “wow!” made me smile.

It was really fun, we might have to do it again sometime.

We are thankful for six years with Elias. His stubbornness, silliness and sweetness are his defining marks. He has really taken off in reading this year! He loves his baby sister in the sweetest way. He has adjusted to school and not had any trouble going this year. He’s always teaching me new things he learned from Khmer class. We are glad he’s part of our family.

Thanksgiving: Ben, Friends and Food

Thanksgiving abroad can be depressing if you don't actively create your own celebration; even better if you add friends. Last year we didn't really know anyone (especially from the U.S.) to celebrate Thanksgiving with. I was also really pregnant and we were saving for the baby. A turkey is pretty expensive here, so we just had a simple dinner at home. This year, however, was better!  Friends from my bible study group got together and had Thanksgiving. The five families who were there all had a few kids each, and they had a blast together running around outside in the (rare-to-find) garden play space. We enjoyed chicken, stuffing, salad, broccoli and cheese, quiche, and many desserts along with great conversation.


Thanksgiving also fell on Ben's birthday this year. I find that appropriate! Not because he's a turkey, but because we are thankful for him. ;) We celebrated a day early with apple bread and sweet potato pie. I also made him cinnamon rolls the next day to take to the Thanksgiving feast, and made sure he got one. Ben likes plain vanilla ice cream most of the time.

At the store we had to dig through flavors like sweet corn, taro/yam, cheese, durian, jackfruit and ruammitter, before finally, at the bottom, we found plain vanilla! Vanilla ice cream with apple bread is amazing.


I'm thankful to not be pregnant this Thanksgiving but rather to have all of my children where I can hug them. I'm thankful for my husband who takes us on so many adventures. I'm thankful for you, because if you're reading this, you're probably family who cares.

Birthday in Cambodia

We got to try a typical Spanish restaurant for my birthday, (not Mexican). By "typical" I mean even the name was Típico. ;) Literally.Of course, my favorite part was the churros!!!

I guess I don't look very happy here, but I was! So many nice people wrote me birthday messages. I think my birthday is one time I really see the myriad of places and people who've touched my life.

The kids loved churros too. Big surprise. 

Even Ben who hardly ever likes chocolate had a few. I think he might've preferred cheese to chocolate on them. 

And my awesome boss got me a birthday cake!

I know that I'm blessed more than I deserve and I appreciate all of the ways my family and friends made my birthday special.

Zoe 3 Months and Ezra 3 Years

We've been experiencing the early rains foreigners call "mango rains" that come before rainy season in between humid, scorching days. School has returned to normal after the Khmer New Year holiday and time keeps marching on. Look at these kids!

Can you believe this very-loved baby is 3 months old already?

Both boys love her very much. It's sweet to see a new side of them, that will one day make them good fathers, emerge.

This boy turns 3 this weekend!

He is mischievous, curious, into everything (especially water lately: water hoses, bathroom sprayers, water bottles- and always making a mess) energetic and a sweetheart.

Thinking of the fear that accompanied his birth f(rom being forced to birth in a hospital so far from family and in a culture I had a hard time trusting) I am very thankful for the lesson in trust. Everything went perfectly. Looking back I see many things that worked out perfectly for his birth: the quick, 6-hour labor, the hospital leaving me alone and letting me sign refusal forms and then, this... He was born just a few months before my best friend died, and there's nothing so comforting as rocking a baby through your tears to find hope for the future.

Ezra means "God is my help" and that's what his birth and life so far have taught me. I'm sure I'll also need much more of God's help to raise this curious, energetic boy into adulthood! 😂

We love you, Ezra! Happy birthday!

Elias Turns 5!

Elias has been looking forward to being 5 for several months now. Play places are scarce here, as public parks don't really exist, especially around where we live. For his birthday, we went to a mall that had a fun play place inside and the kids ran and played for a long time.

Another fun thing at this mall was the stuffed animal-like child version of motorcycles they could ride around a non-developed floor of the mall.

Instead of cake, he asked for doughnuts from the bakery. The kids enjoyed theirs on the way home in the Tuk Tuk. Elias and Ezra crashed as soon as we got home. That is birthday success, right there!

Something Elias has been wanting for a while was this exact book of a collection of Curious George stories. My grandmother had given that exact thing for us to bring in our luggage before we even knew that's what he wanted. It was hard not to laugh, then, when he mentioned wanting it while I knew we had it hidden. He was very happy and has been reading it constantly since he received it.

Happy Birthday, Elias! We love you!

September School, Birthday and Baby News

We've been deep in school routines and work lately. My second-born finds change the hardest, so it's nice to hear that he's adjusting better to classroom activities.

Some more exciting news we found out since the last post is that our new baby is a girl!!!! Everyone was hoping for a girl and very excited to know. I don't have check ups here, we just called a reputable ultrasound clinic and went. I think it was $15 for everything. We are also almost finished getting the midwife plane tickets! It's exciting!

My Talia turned 9 this month. To celebrate, we went out to a big mall with a dollar store (the best) and got really good pizza! That's rare since pizza on the street here is sweet and has weird toppings like boiled eggs. Instead of a birthday cake, she opted for doughnuts, also a rare treat.

On the way home, it started raining and the kids were excited to ride home in a downpour with the sides down on the Tuk Tuk.

Family pitched in to get her a good used bicycle, which she has wanted for years. She was ecstatic! Here, the best bikes are used ones from Japan. The shiny new ones from Vietnam break every time you look at them... But that's a story for another day.

Birthday Weekend

May is full of so many family birthdays, but I will have to hug them all when I get home. I had a fabulous birthday with friends and family!

My teacher friends took me to a great restaurant with nice outdoor seating and tasty pizza. However, that outdoor seating turned into a memorable moment when a bird sky bombed the girl next to me! Thankfully, everything washed out well and no harm was done.

They insisted on this photo, too.

Ben took us to Puerto Paraiso, a mall in the same city as the church we attend, and we ate at a 50's diner. Afterward, the kids loved seeing the spotted fish and the crabs in the marina waters. We took their picture in this:

Then our friends threw me a poolside pizza party with chocolate tres leches cake! Talia swam until she HAD to get out and everyone had fun.

The next day everyone was sick except for myself and Elias, so we went to school, where even MORE surprises awaited. I am so spoiled. I know it. I'm surrounded by beautiful, loving people and so blessed. ❤️ 

Ezra turned 2!

Can you believe this boy is 2 already?! I barely can. For his birthday he had a small party at his class.

He had fun at school and then on his birthday got to go to the party of another friend where he played a lot.

He slept really good that night.

Happy birthday, Ezra, we love you!

Ezra Turns 1

Ezra playing with a birthday gift.

I can't believe this little guy is now 1.  I remember when he was born in the desert and the mental agony of  not knowing how his birth was going to go in a foreign hospital and absolutely hating being forced to go to a hospital at all instead of being with my midwife since homebirth was illegal. So, naturally, I decorated this desert baby's nursery in penguins. (How much farther from the desert can you get than Patagonia?) 

This baby is such a sweet heart! Ezra loves to be in the middle of his siblings every moment. He likes to meet new people and always makes eye contact to figure them out. He's notorious for making eyes and smiles at older ladies and toddling up and hugging you on the leg and laying his head against you before toddling off to play again. He gets a lot of loving and gives a lot back in return.

So far he can wave and say hi or bye-bye, Pawpaw, bubba, Ta-ta (for Talia) and love you (luh-ooo).

Many of his family members hadn't met him before coming to his first birthday party, and it was really special to get to spend time with them.

This was my first time using fondant to attempt a (blue) penguin cake.

Happy first birthday, Ezra! We love you!