PenangMalaysia Trip:
Kean Lee a guy from work took me to the other side of the island to Batu Ferringhi. It sounds like a big Star Trek convention but it’s just a bunch of "Hawker" food and street venders. I guess Hawker is a people, like Gypsies, but famous for food not for steeling your children. We found the black market DVD’s and I bought the re-release of Bambi for the kids for a dollar. We’ll see how it works. We ate all kinds of good and interesting food, the coolest was a 100 year old egg, or “country egg”, I took some pictures, it was pretty amazing looking, and not half bad. As far as finding something that Sarah the kids would like…well, all the clothes are American brands albeit knock-off’s, no local brands or anything.
The Muslim guy’s are singing their prayers outside right now, reminds me of Israel. Driving around here is scary, well driving myself would be crazy but riding along is bad as well. They drive on the wrong side of the road and every once in a while I’ll get startled when I look up and see that were on the wrong side of the road. The motorcycles are like flies, it looks like they are constantly in a motocross race, swerving in and out of traffic and passing cars on either side. The drivers here even make Israelis look like good drivers. I went out to lunch with the guy's from work every day to some new place. It was all good food but I’ll never remember the names of any of it. I ventured out at night and went poking around one of the shopping malls close by. Again nothing great, I got a waffle cone with chocolate and mint ice-cream. I don’t think it’s that they have great ice-cream here in south east Asia (I remember the ice-cream in the Philippines as being really good too) it’s just that when it’s as hot as it is any ice-cream is great. The language sounds familiar like they are all speaking Pig-Tagalog or something. Reading the signs I can tell a lot of the words are similar. It’d be fun to spend enough time here to learn the language. Anyway it was a fun trip, other than getting there and coming home. If any of you ever fly to Asia try to get a Singapore-Air flight, they are great compared to any other I’ve been on.

Aaron

Hi Everyone! We have been having a super time at Grandma and Grandpa's house this week! Arwen and Noah both love the kitties to death! They love to play with Uncle Josh. He does a good job (unless he has to share a precious treasure, you know!) Noah finally loves everyone and will let them hold him. I hardly ever even see Arwen, she is so busy having fun! Yesterday we a really fun tea party. Grandma went to Berry's and got lots of really fun, yummy treats for it. She made us homemade hot chocolate with whipped cream and little baby cookies. Both Noah and Arwen ate none of their dinner, probably because the treats were at the table, tempting them. When tea party time came along, they had so much fun.

We went down to the public swim center on Saturday for it’s grand re-opening and went swimming (it was free) with 1000 dirty kids. They have this giant kiddy pool and we splashed around with the kids. The kiddy pool is kept at like 85º but skin and bones Noah was blue lipped and shivering after a few minutes. Arwen will need to relearn all her swimming bravery this summer, but she had fun. Noah just broke a glass full of water and though it was the greatest thing, naughty little boy. Arwen was assigned to give the closing prayer in primary next week and was very proud of it, I forgot that Sarah would be in California, the poor little girl cried and cried when she had to give it back. Sarah finally got her new couches, they actually look good, and we were able to give our old couch away easy enough. They are the same easy clean (we’ll see about that) microfiber type couches that Matthew and Bethany have. I’ll be heading off to Penang Malaysia (just below Thailand and above Singapore) this Friday, I’m not looking forward to the jet lag, but it’ll be fun to check out a new country.

Love,

NASA

Big news. We finally figured out why we have a skinny little rash monger these days. At Noah’s 15 month Dr. appt, his Dr. convinced me that he thinks Noah has an allergy. Noah scratches himself like crazy anytime he doesn’t have clothes on and the Dr. said that’s not normal. Anyways, I took him to an allergist who poked his little back with lots of sharp things to see if he had any reactions. The poor little boy had to not scratch his back for twenty whole minutes. Even with a sucker and me holding his little hands and walking around in circles over and over again, he had hard times. He kept saying, "Owa,” and tried to scratch his back. After it was all done, we found out he’s allergic to peanuts and soy. By the way, soy is in EVERYTHING processed. So, thanks to the little boy, we are totally eating healthier—nothing that’s not made from scratch. It’s fun, but a big change. We have to put steroid creams on him everyday and give him allergy medicine if he is itching. But, the rash on his face is just about gone. And, even more amazing, he eats now. He eats A LOT! I guess sometimes a reaction to foods you’re allergic to can cause loss of appetite. Now, all day long, Noah stands at the fridge and begs for food. Yea for Noah!

Other than that, there’s nothing else new. I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese last weekend while Aaron was on a really fun Scout camp out. It was frozen outside and they all had tons of fun sliding on the frozen beach and hiking to the frozen waterfall. You should see the size of the rock he brought home that has a hole in it. It’s amazing!

I (Aaron) went to the beach on a “campout” this last Friday and Saturday. “Campout” because we slept in a beach house, but it was 100 years old and had no insulation (the boards used for siding were also the walls) so it wasn’t lavish or anything. We got set up, cooked some dinner and then around 10:30 went out to the beach to play. It was very windy and below freezing but we had to play something. Me and a few of the boys ran out first and were running on very hard sand toward the waves when we hit ice and went sliding. The beach was frozen solid, we skated on ice for a while then looked at the stars, it was perfectly clear and we saw a few meteorites and found it hard to find many constellations there were so many stars. We played tag and capture the flag till midnight. We lost a few leaders and a few boys to bruises and sprained ankles. It was pretty much the scariest environment imaginable for rough games. The sand was hard as cement with patches of slick ice, sticks and rocks were frozen into the ice and sand. Underground streams were bubbling up in places then freezing to make frozen ice mounds. The wind would blow gusts of sand from higher dry dunes in wisps out to sea. We lost enough boys and leaders to call it quits around midnight and played games until around 2:30. I introduced the boys to UNO for pushups so we added sore arms to sore legs and bruised bodies. I somehow made it out unscathed but sore as the rest of them. The next morning I took a walk down the beach. I wish I’d brought the camera. A frozen beach isn’t something you see to often. About a mile down the beach was what looked like a frozen waterfall. I walked to the end of the sand and went back to get some more people to check it out. I took the Rodgers boys and a Waters; I trusted them not to die climbing on rocks. I estimated wrong and it was a long way to walk on rocks, which gets painful after a while. We found some good treasures along the way and marked them. Mostly buoys and such, but just about to the waterfall I found a huge rock with a perfect hole in it. I marked it and trudged on. The waterfall was amazing, all icicles and weird ice formations. It was awesome to see, we went another quarter of a mile to a archway carved out by the waves. One the way back one of the boys wrapped an icicle to show the others and we loaded up with buoys. I found a stick that looked strong enough and when we reached the rock with the hole in it we slid it on and carried a 50lb rock on two of our shoulders all the way back to the cabin, with a few whispered comments as we walked by people. We were pretty proud of ourselves, but very tired.

Arwenisms:
During one of her prayers, she said, “Noah is tender, and I am tender. Mama, she’s big. She’s….like….ummm….14, so she’s not tender. But please bless me and Noah because we are tender.”

She runs around the house telling us she is going to “mermatize” us. Something to do with mermaids, I guess, but I have no idea!

Anytime I make a mistake, like today when I spilled some sugar while making cookies, she says, “Mom, are you sorry?”

We caught her having a talk with Noah the other day because Noah had just gotten in trouble for something. She said, “Noah, these are the consequences. If you are bad, there are consequences. You get in trouble.” We’ve had lots of talks lately with her about the consequences of wetting her pants.

Noahisms:
At Chuck E Cheese, Chuck E came up to say hi to the kids. Arwen thought it was great, but Noah was very concerned. Then, when the big mouse touched his cheek, he FREAKED out and tried to dive out of his high chair into my arms. Poor little guy.

Noah loves to tell us about “puppies and kitties” and make cute little tickle signs with his fingers. He loves animals.

He learned the word “No” and loves it. He uses it for everything while waving his little hand at whoever he’s talking to.

Love,

NASA

Hello! I am going stir crazy being home alone with two sick kiddies while Aaron is in CA on a business trip. We have had fun though! Noah had a well child appt on Monday. Do not worry--the Dr is not concerned about his weight anymore (Noah is still below the charts) but I guess after watching the little string bean climb all the handles on the drawers to try to get to the sink and then climb a chair to and sit in the window cell convinced him that he is getting his energy from somewhere! Noah also threw an awesome tantrum. He threw himself on the ground and bashed his head on the cold floor, It was great. And the Dr. wondered if I had problems with him throwing tantrums. Who me??He is now concerned because Noah has a rash all over his face (since before Christmas) and he scratches himself bloody on his back when he is naked. We are off to an allery and dermatology Dr next! The Dr looked in Noah's ears and the poor baby has a double ear infection. Does Noah not have pain receptors? I never would have known!!The next day, I decided to cut Noah's hair because he was looking kind of scruffy--that and I thought it might help make his rash not so noticeable. Well, he flinched because it scared him and I had to buzz him. He looks ridiculous--there are a few little tufts I missed and his rash---yeah, well it looks 100 times worse now. Poor little boy looks like a skinny, rashy, cancer patient. Sorry Noah!!!!That's all from here! We are just hanging our till we get to see Aaron again--we all miss him like crazy!!

Arwenisms:
Arwen sang to the tune of “knick knack paddy whack..”—“Heavenly Father will come down from the sky. I will give Him my toys and he will give me new ones…and a treat…a sucker.”I clipped her fingernails on the same day I cut Noah's hair. I cut one of then pretty short so she needed a band aid. When she got up the next day, she looked at her finger and said, "Its ALIVE!!" Then Noah cried and she ran in his room saying, "Let's see if Noah's hair is alive yet...It's not!"When I was cutting Noah's hair and he was crying, Arwen started to cry and said, "I'm telling my Dad what you did!!"

Noahisms:
He begs for two things--his ba ba (bottle) and candy all day. I give him bottles, but he doesn't get much candy and he gets so mad!!He walks around the house saying, "Da Da" looking for Aaron.He loves to wave and say, "Bye Bye" to everyone.

Love, NASA

I forgot to tell everyone last week--Arwen is a sunbeam now! Yea!! She's very excited and showed us all the way home how she can be reverent. Too bad it only lasted the 5 minute car ride. The kids and I have been going room by room and getting the house organized. (Actually, while I'm organizing something, the kids are in another room making a disaster. I think it's mostly one step forward and two steps back, but it's been good.) We went in for our ultrasound today. Everything looks great and we found out we're having a boy. Arwen kept saying, "Noah, we're having an Evan baby." Arwenisms:"I was a little boy. Now I'm a big girl because I go on the toilet." She's very proud that she is officially potty trained now. We're pretty happy too. Noahisms:Noah's new favorite word is "happy." He can say it perfectly. It's so sweet.He walks around the house holding as many of Arwen's little tiny plastic care bears calling them "Ba bas."--his babies. He feeds them pretend bottles too.

Love, NASA

Last Monday night, we all went to the Portland Zoo to ride the zoo train. The entire zoo was covered in Christmas lights and you can take a 10 minute zoo ride around the park to enjoy them. It was so fun. Arwen loves the train! Noah had fun too! Friday, Aaron took the day off and we went down to the coast (despite the fact that the forecast said heavy rain). It ended up being a pretty nice day--just showers. We had lots of fun watching the waves crash on the rocks. We looked for whales, but didn't see any. We stopped at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner! Thanks for the gift card Mom and Dad. It was really fun!! This has been a crazy year for us and appliances. Remember back in June, our TV broke. Not long after that our phones died. We replaced both of those. Then, around Thanksgiving, our microwave fried itself. Then our printer stopped printing. Now, just last week, our million dollar, state of the art washer machine decided to stop draining water. My clothes came out soaking wet! I called Sears where I got it (after
looking online and seeing that EVERYONE that ever bought this machine has the same problem eventually) and they offered to send someone out. I opted to call someone else (hoping they would be cheaper) only to find that NO ONE will even touch that machine to try and fix it. Great. So Aaron opened it up last night, disassembled everything to try and find the problem. As he was doing that, I was telling him how I read that lots of people online said they found socks in the pump that drains the water. Aaron thought, "yeah right." We took the pump out (that's like the size of my hand) and guess what we found in it? One of baby Noah's socks! We have NO IDEA how it could have gotten in there, but we got it out and now my machine works again. The only problem: The last load of wash I did when it broke was ALL my towels. They have been sitting wet in the garage for a week. I CAN"T get the mildew smell out. I've tried vinegar... Any suggestions would be great--that or I have to go and buy all new towels! Anyways, Aaron is Mr Fix IT around here! He also built a little shelf out of cardboard to hold out DVD player and VCR on the TV to keep Noah from destroying them on the ground!Arwenisms:
Noah made a mess of a roll so I asked Arwen what we should do with him. "Put him in the garbage."
Arwen was talking to Noah in the car when he was crying and she said, "It's okay Noah. I used to get sad when I was a little boy too. Now I'm a big girl and I'm happy."
Noahisms:
We have his picture as our screen saver (him and pippen). Whenever he sees it he says, "Tickle, tickle." and "puppa."
He's become pro at sign language. He says milk and more and thank you all the time now. It's too cute!!

Love NASA

Our week started out fun. Aaron took Monday and Tuesday off. On Tuesday, I woke up before Arwen to make baby muffins for her birthday breakfast. We got her a little tiny fairy tea set for her gift and thought baby muffins would be fun. When she walked down the stairs when she got up, she gasped and said, "Oh, my tea set!!" She was so excited. She spent the morning pouring milk for us and her fairy friends. She also got a karaoke thing that shows her dancing on the TV while she can sing to the songs. She loves it!! We went in to Portland to the mall. At one of the department stores you can see Santa and they also have this really great little train the kids can ride for free. We didn't see Santa. But she did ride the train 6 or 7 times! It was so fun to watch!! We had a really great day!!
We have also had a really fun Christmas holiday. Aaron and I enjoyed sitting on the stage at church and singing in the ward choir, while a woman in the ward sat with the kids. It was so fun and the choir sounded pretty good I think. It was fun to watch the kids open their presents from everyone! Of course Noah's favorite thing of the day was the screw driver used to put batteries in new toys! Good old Noah!! Arwen has had so much fun playing with her kitchen set. She makes us dinner all the time now!! We had a yummy turkey dinner with some a young couple in our ward. It was lots of fun. Then we played a couple of games with them. Overall, we had a great day! Thanks to everyone for all our great presents!!

Arwenisms: After seeing Santa from the train, Arwen reported that he was a big, red, scary monster.

Noahisms: The little guys runs around screaming and yelling like a wild monkey all day. He has finally found an appetite lately too and eats more than his sister.

Love, NASA

Just thought this one should make it up as well.















Aaron

Hi! We had a really great time in CA for Thanksgivng! The kids had a blast playing with all of Josh's toys and of course with Josh too. The other day we were in the car with some friends and Arwen was telling her friend Jake all about Josh and how he was her friend. IT was pretty cute! She also had a great time playing with her old friend Evan. It was fun seeing M and B too! Thanks to everyone for such a great time!This weekend we went and got out Christmas tree. The kids think it's just great. Arwen has hung lots of Noah's toys up as ornaments. She has even hidden a care bear or two in there to take "naps." She's already broke at least 5 of my decorations too. Way to go Arwen. Every time I look at my Nativity, the sheep are in different spots. That girl!! Noah really likes to play with a little plastic snow globe that has an angel in it. He shakes and it and says, "Ba ba," for baby.
Yesterday we went to the Nature Park to try and take our family picture. I think 2 or 3 may have turned out from the hundreds we took!!
All is well here and we hope everyone has a great week!Arwenisms:
We have been going through each room and finding things we don't need or play with anymore to give to DI. When we were in Ar's room, she kept telling me not to give any of her bears away to the kids. I kept telling her that of course I wouldn't. Then she stops and says, "Mom, you can give me to the kids."
Arwen was bearing her testimony for FHE while standing on the piano bench. She fell off so I told her not to stand up there anymore. Then like 3 minutes later she took a flying leap to land on it right when Aaron was moving it. Instead of her body landing on it, the tip of her nose did. She tore it all up and had a purple ring around it. IT was soooo funny to see though despite the fact she got hurt.

Noahisms:
Noah climbs on top of the VCR and DVD player so he can turn the TV on and off. It drives Arwen crazy. I even caught her spanking him the other day because of it.
Poor baby somehow got knocked down yesterday and was laying on the ground screaming like he was dying (which he does a lot). When I got to him he was all boody. He bit all the way through his lip and now has a fat, purple lip and won't eat anything.

(Grandmas--your Christmas presents will be a while in coming--I've been waiting for a time when the kids are both presentable to get photos of them taken to finish the gifts. As soon as Noah's mouth is better, I'll get on that!!)

Love, NASA