Long weekend in Aqaba

We took a couple of days off of work and headed south to Aqaba! The weather was warm, the water was cool, and we all enjoyed being by the pools and beach for a few days.  

Beautiful sunset on our first evening.

The boys shared a room with my mom, and they enjoyed morning walks before breakfast. 

The boys enjoyed the waterslide, which was good because it closed down for the rest of the trip. That pool was one of the not heated pools, and only Nathan and the boys swam in that one!.

Eliza was a little skeptical about the water the first day, but she had fun splashing around...to her defense, it was chilly, and this was the heated pool.

All smiles at the beach! Can you see her two bottom teeth popping up?

Meanwhile....

Eliza enjoyed the pool a lot the following day!

The hotel grounds were beautiful and they had a couple of restaurants near the pool. This was our favorite because the boys could hop in and swim while we waited for food to arrive.

View of the beach and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt across the way.

View from the pier of our beach and hotel.

The water was so clear, but really chilly!

Benjamin was surprised to run into a good friend from class named Bunny. She is a sweet British girl that recently moved here a few months ago. So, for the rest of the trip, where Benjamin was, so was Bunny :).

Caleb pretending to 'adult.' 

Enjoying one last day at the beach. Each day the weather got warmer!

Caleb and Benjamin practicing writing their Arabic numbers in the sand, 0-20!

We had great sunsets at night.

We were glad to have the fun weekend away together, and to show my mom another part of Jordan!

Grandma Sue is Here and Jordanian Mother's Day

I have fallen way behind on blogging, and have lots to share over the last month. My mom came to visit for the month, and we made it a surprise for the boys. They were surprised and so happy to see her! We did lots of life and took a couple of fun trips too. The first week, we hung around. During the day she would spend time with Eliza, then do stuff with the boys when they were home from school. They did lots of reading, board game playing, and having fun!

The boys have Tae Kwan Do twice a week, and my mom enjoyed watching class several times.

It was Jordanian Mother's Day a couple days after she arrived, and she came to the boys's school for a Mothers's Day event in Benjamin's class. The kids sang a few songs and made us some sweet gifts.

I am so thankful to be a mom to these sweet three, and for my mom to be with us for the month!

Hiking with Daddy

The weather has been beautiful lately, and we are seeing lots of signs of springtime! Nathan is such a great dad and challenges the boys to do hard things, and this weekend he took them on a hike close to home. He said they did a great job hiking to the top of the hill and of course enjoyed playing around!

Can you see the little speck of Caleb at the top of the hill!

Enjoying the view from the top, overlooking our neighborhood.

What a beautiful day and fun way for Nathan and the boys to spend part of the day!

Eliza Rose: Six Months Old

Happy 6 months Eliza Rose (a week late)! She is so happy, has such an easy going disposition, and loves watching the world around her. This month, she found her toes, can roll easily from back to tummy, started sitting with support, started eating food, and she loves 'singing' and babbling at us. 

Eliza is growing fast! At her 6 month appointment earlier this week she weighed almost 18.75 lbs in the 90%, she is 26'' long in the 50%, and her head is in the 50%. She wears 6/9 month clothes and is barely squeezing into her size 2 diapers that we are trying to finish using.

Proud to be sitting! She loves being upright and checking things out.

Eliza loves bath time with daddy, and she likes to kick the water and play with little toys.

Eliza eats 5/6 times a day, and she loves her milk! It's been an exciting couple of weeks introducing her to solid foods. So far, she has had rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, carrots, and pears! 

Unfortunately, she has not been the awesome sleeper that she was initially. She used to sleep 10-12 hours straight at night, but then began waking several times a night this past month. We started sleep training earlier this week and it is going really well. She gets tired easy and the last few nights have been much better. But with a sweet face like this, she makes the wake ups a little easier :)

Eliza is getting right into the groove with the boys....or shall I say they are roping her in. They like dressing her up in their costumes, playing peek-a-boo, reading books, and singing to her. They truly adore their little sister, and we are so thankful for the love they are developing for her.

Happy 6 months Eliza Rose, we love you sweet girl!

Missing Teeth and Writing Celebration

Exciting times, Caleb lost his top front tooth! It's been loose for a while and one evening while we had friends over, he just pulled it out :).

He wrote a very sweet letter to the tooth fairy. Dear tooth faree, I love you. My sistr had her frst food today. Love, Caleb (in English in Arabic). Before bed, he also added to his note, asking the tooth fairy to please let him keep the letter he wrote her. And of course, he was super excited in the morning when she wrote him a letter, kept his to her letter there, and gave him 1 JD. We tried explaining he makes out better losing teeth in Jordan because of the favorable exchange rate :).

Benjamin had his writing celebration at school last week. We have been so impressed with how much he is learning this year in Kindergarten. He is already doing basic reading and a great job writing. He wrote a how-to-book on how to decorate cookies, step-by-step, and we made the cookie together...and then a few more that he wanted to bring home for Caleb, Tes, and us. He is such a sweet boy and always thinking of others.

And this was Benjamin's first day back at school without his cast. He wanted to surprise everyone and they were happy to see him cast-free!

Happy Sunday!

Fancy Dance

Nathan and I got dressed up and went to the Black and White Gala a couple of weeks ago, in honor of Black History month.  We had fun getting dressed up for the night ;).

It was a really nice setup! The place was well decorated, food was delicious, and dance floor was large. Nathan even danced by the end of the night :).

The ladies in the office.

Leaving to head home around what I thought was midnight....turns out it was an hour earlier and I was fooled into thinking it was that late, haha!

Here's our fancy professional picture :) It was a fun night out!