Jubilee’s Christmas Crafting

This year Jubilee is loving Christmas crafts. It is really fun since she can do so many more things than she could last year. I have only done a few with her so far. A few weeks ago we made these salt dough ornaments so that we could get some off in the mail to some very special grandparents:

Today I drew a triangle on a piece of paper for Jubi and she colored it in and then glued some colorful squares to it for ornaments

Then we did a big project. I have a bunch of cardboard rectangles that I punched holes in. Then I grated some red and green crayons. Jubi sprinkled the shavings onto the cardboard and covered them with wax paper. Then I ironed them to melt the crayon. Then we peeled off the wax paper, covered them with glue stick, and stuck on letters that I had cut out yesterday. After the abundance of glue was dry (gluing is really one of Jubilee’s favorite things to do), she helped thread some yarn through the holes. Then she and Daddy hung up our banner and posed for a picture:Merry Christmas!!

Pregnancy

I keep getting questions about the new baby coming, so obviously I have done a terrible job at communicating about this pregnancy!!
The new little one is due March 3- just 3 months away!!! I will have the baby here in Cape Town - hopefully at home. I found a team of two midwives that I am Very happy with. They have lots of experience and are so gentle spirited, I feel blessed to have found them.
The midwives had me go in for an ultrasound at 22 weeks (mostly so they could see the position of the placenta.) I didn’t have any ultrasounds with Jubi, so it was a whole new experience for me. It was so fun to see the baby and definitely upped my excitement. The disc of pics will not open on our mac though, so we still need to borrow a pc and burn them on a new disc. We did try to find out the sex of the baby, but this little one would have none of that. Baby did not cooperate one little bit with that, so we’ll have another surprise- which will be lots of fun anyway!
I also went to the big Maternity hospital here a few weeks ago to meet the doctor that we would use in case of emergency. I was nervous, but so glad that there is an official back up plan should the baby or I be in distress.
I am getting things ready for the baby, but not too concentrated until after Christmas. Then, I will start sewing cute things, and the crib will move from our garage to our bedroom.
Here’s a little peek at how the baby and I are growing:

Thanksgiving

Hello everyone. Long time, no blog…. Woops!
I know this is late, but I just thought I would tell you how our Thanksgiving went. (For any Canadians reading, I am referring to American Thanksgiving, which takes place close to the end of November… I’m not that late.)
We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for all the Americans on staff with All Nations. (We let Stephen stay, and we had a few other nationalities too.) I felt like a real married woman since I was responsible for the turkey, chicken, stuffing, corn casserole, jello salad, and pumpkin pie.

This was my first time to cook a turkey, so I was a little nervous. But, you will get no funny pull out the fire extinguisher stories from me- my turkey turned out great. I wanted pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust, which sounds nice and easy- but not in Africa! There is no such thing as graham crackers, let alone a store-bought graham crust. And you can forget about pumpkin in a can. Here that easy sounding dessert requires the following steps:
1. Bake graham crackers
2. Boil pumpkin and puree
3. Crush freshly baked graham crackers
4. Make crust with crumbs
5. Mix up your pie filling, pour in pie crust, and bake!
What we Americans will do to have good pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Love to all from SA!
Tricia

Hello everyone!! Yes I am FINALLY updating our blog. After a long crazy series of delays we have come home to Cape Town. WOO HOO!!! We are oh so happy to be at home.

Our flight here was pretty miserable for me- I felt just horrible. But you are all going to love the reason I felt so sick- I’m expecting a new little Taylor at the end of February! Hurray! Aside from extreme nausea on the plane, I’ve been doing pretty well. Jubilee was so good on our flights and slept most of the time.

We came back to pouring rain, but reuniting with friends here made the weather seem less terrible. When we came back to our house Jubi looked everywhere for Adi and Ro. When she realized they were not at the house yet, she set up her chair by the front door, looked at books, and said she was waiting for Adi and Ro to come visit her. So cute! After about five minutes she gave up waiting though. She was a little shy with them at first, but she has warmed right up to them now.

We arrived here just in time to be a part of debrief for this year’s CPx. I’ve been watching the kids. Jubilee has really enjoyed the interaction with other children.

I think we are finally over jetlag. Stephen and I would have adjusted very quickly if Jubi hadn’t been awake for nearly 3 hours in the middle of the night several nights in a row. The wake-ups have become shorter and fewer every night, so I think we will all be sleeping well soon.

Well, that’s all for now; hopefully more news and pictures to come soon!

Beautiful

Hello everyone! Thanks to all who wished Stephen a happy birthday. We had a fun little party at a friends house. We played some games and had world cake and coffee:

When the weather is nice, I often walk to the beach for an hour or so with Jubilee. She LOVES it! She comes home covered in sand and worn out- she often falls asleep in the stroller on the way back. Here's a little glimpse of Jubilee getting all sandy:

On Sunday we had Christina and Vovo and their kids over and we took them to the beach for a while. Though they live only a 10 minute drive from the beach, Vovo's little boy had never been to the ocean and Christina's little girl had only been once. It was fun to take them and for me to get a chance to chat with them some more.

Then on Monday (our day off) we went to Kirstenbosh gardens- it was so beautiful. We took a little hike to a waterfall. It was so beautiful! These pics are only a hint of the beauty we saw:

Well, have a great day... more updates soon to come!
Tricia