The 2011 Picture in Front of the Tree

Merry Christmas!

For previous years see 2009 and 2010.

It's Your Party Baby Jack

We celebrated Jack's 1st birthday last week with some friends and some cupcakes.

Mimi even joined up via skype so she could see some of the party.

I had to wake Jack up from his nap so we could start the party. He was a little sleepy at first.

I thought it would be fun to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday party, so we had a caterpillar cake and some snacks from the book. Confession: I've never read the book and I have no idea if these are really the same snacks, but I did like making the little signs for all of the food.

We also printed out all of Jack's monthly pictures so that everyone could see how much he has changed in the past year.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jack and then big brother Asher blew out the candle for him. Jack really didn't care about anything, but getting his hands into that bright icing.

Asher was very careful cupcake eater on his first birthday. I expected Jack to dig in and get dirty and he did not disappoint.

At first he just picked at the icing, but then he got going and didn't even stop to use his hands.

He was a very messy birthday boy.

But so sweet.

Happy Birthday Baby Jack!

The Last Time

We started moving last Wednesday morning about 5:45 am. Why so early? Well, to beat the morning traffic that starts around 6:30 am and lasts until about 10 pm.

The first day Roger and a friend took two cargo van loads to the new house. We really don't have too much, so this got all of our furniture and most of our stuff. Since then we have been bringing a few things over at a time and buying everything we need to furnish this house.

Today we brought the final big load over, the boy's beds and our clothes. Yesterday the fridge was delivered, an AC was installed, the hot water heater was hooked up and the internet guy finally showed (two days late). Tonight we will spend our first night in our new home.

Last night the boys took their last baths at the old house.

First little brother.

Then big brother.

This morning Jack woke up early to go with me and drop Asher off at school. Jack's last time to sleep in his first home.

I guess with the job we have and the life we live we will continue to move often, but I think the hardest moves for me are when we leave a house that we brought a new baby home to. This makes home number 5 for Roger and I (Louisville, Surabaya, Vancouver, 1st Bangkok House, 2nd Bangkok House) and home number 4 for Asher.

So far we are loving the new house. Extra space, good Thai food near by, a little less traffic and there are kids everywhere! Pictures and more to come once the dust (literally) clears and we get our stuff unpacked.

Jack Loves Cake

We celebrated Jack's 1st birthday yesterday with a party at our house. I'm still sorting through the pictures and videos, but here's a sneak peek of what's to come.

That boy, he loves cake.

Back to School

Asher's back in school after a long break. We were a little nervous to send him back after having him at home with us for 10 weeks.

Tuesday morning he walked right back into school and took off running when he saw his teacher. He did give a little whimper when Roger started to leave, but actually ended up leaving Roger once he saw his friends were already on the playground.

Here's our little Thai school boy on his first day back.

Just so you know last May when he started school those shorts were well below his knees and during the past month he has grown out of his school shoes. Turns out it is really difficult to find school shoes unless it is the beginning of the school year. Jack and I finally hunted down a pair at a Big C five train stations away from our house.

The week went well. The main problem we faced was convincing Asher to come home from school each day. If it were up to him he would stay there all night to play on the playground with his friends and sing songs with his teacher.

Of course, Asher's favorite day of the week continues to be Jesus Shirt Day (also known as Thursday).

He found some red sunglasses in the toy box to really complete the ensemble.

The older Asher gets the more we learn about his school. He will know give us somewhat of a report at the end of the day. For example, we learned that he ate noodles for lunch everyday except Thursday, on Thursday he ate rice. Also, one of his friends threw up during nap time on Friday. At first Asher told us that he tried to throw up in his bed, after a few minutes of questioning we got to the real story. We additionally learned while singing Jingle Bells that he may have a friend named Bell because every time we sing that song he starts jabbering about, "that my friends name."

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek into our new house.

The house actually flooded a few weeks ago during the Great Bangkok Flood and we are waiting for the owner to get it cleaned up and do a few repairs. We are hoping to be moved in by the end of the year.

This is the main downstairs area. I guess the front part will be living room and the back part dining room. The house we live in now has lots of windows and not a lot of empty walls for hanging pictures. This house has lots of space for pictures and I am really excited about getting to display some of our new family photos.

Off the back of the main room is the kitchen. Lots of space for cooking, but it needs cabinets, a fridge, an oven and some counter space. That very back room you can see is the maid's room. We will probably just use it for storage. Our washing machine will also need go somewhere near here.

This is the downstairs bathroom. In a house full of boys we couldn't ask for anything better than a urinal in the bathroom. Nice touch.

This will be our office/guest room. I'm really excited about having a place for Roger to work and for people to stay. If you have visited us lately you know that our current guest room is our living room couch and our office is the kitchen table. With Roger starting to teach a lot more this will be a nice place for him to keep his materials and prepare for class.

Now on to the upstairs. This is the top of the stairs and the spot that is going to make me finally have to buy a baby gate. We've made it this far without having to ever buy all that baby-proofing stuff, but I'm pretty sure somebody will fall down these steps if we don't do something.

This is our bedroom. That little space in the back of the room will probably be our closet. We are soooo excited that Bangkok finally got an IKEA, it is going to make this move much more affordable. We are thinking we can buy some shelves and stuff to turn that little nook into a nice closet.

The other side of our bedroom and the bathroom. I really have this dream of one day living somewhere with bathroom cabinets, but I will settle for this nice set-up. If I turn the AC on in our bedroom I will be able to get out of the shower and not sweat! I am really very excited about this.

This is Jack's room. The perfect size for his crib and changing table.

Asher's room is pretty big and I am thinking it will look pretty empty with just his little toddler bed in it. If we still live here in a few years there will be plenty of room for the boys to have bunk beds and share this room.

As you can see it's completely empty and there's a lot we could do with it. Unfortunately we have no idea if we will be in this house for more than a year, so we are really in a weird spot as far as deciding how much work to do. We really would like to paint, but are going to hold off on putting in a bathtub or getting bathroom cabinets.

We will keep you updated as we move and get settled into our new home!

The Hampton Family Pictures

While we were in the States we had a photographer friend take some family pictures for us. This was the first time we have ever had professional pictures taken of the boys.She did an amazing job. Thanks Makenzie!

Here's our current favorite, it has been framed and is hanging right by our front door.

This picture makes me want to get married again so we can have Makenzie take engagement pictures for us.

The boys are making funny faces (we were finished soon after this) but I still love this picture.

Another favorite that is already framed and displayed in the house.

We got a few pictures with Mimi.

And then we took some pictures with the train, this was by far Asher's favorite part of the day.

Check out her website: Makenzie Lynn Photography and give her a call if you are in Western KY!

The Latest Hampton House (Part 3)

So, maybe a year ago I started a photo tour of our house. And then I had a baby, learned a new language and got really busy. Now a year later I really want to finish up this house tour because we just might be moving in the next few weeks.

Here's what we have already covered:

The Latest Hampton House (Part 1)

The Latest Hampton House (Part 2)

Here's Asher's room.

It's probably one of my favorite rooms in our whole house. Probably because it's one of the rooms we've done the most to make our own. When we moved in he had floral curtains (that were definitely not blackout) covering all of his windows. My neighbor took me to China Town, helped me pick out fabric and then made his curtains. Her husband went to the hardware store, bought the curtain rods and hung them up for me. I did help a little, I sewed about 100 key rings on the top of the curtains so we could hang them. I was very proud. Also incredibly blessed to have awesome neighbors.

Here's a picture of the other side of the room.

We got Asher's bed second-hand and almost everything else is from Target. Ideally I would have loved to have hung a bunch of pictures of cars, motorcycles, etc. on the wall above Asher's bed. But I think that wall must have been added after the house was built because it appears to have the consistency of cardboard and I'm pretty sure it couldn't hold much more than the one little sign that's already on it.

We actually had this changing table made at a local shop. We took a picture of two different tables we liked, told him we wanted it to be taller and gave the guy an extra sheet from Asher's bedding so he could make a cover for the cushion. He made it perfectly. Jack's cloth diapers live here and I think once we are done with diapers it will be a big toy shelf.

The boy's closet is a bit disorganized at the moment. It has good days and bad days. Since I try to buy all of their clothes in the US I have those storage bins at the bottom for storing clothes that are too big at the moment.

Now on to Jack's corner of our bedroom.

His sweet little crib is holding up well and he uses the same bumper that Asher had. I found those green storage cubes at Target and when we move Jack should have his own room and a place to put his stuff.

And, now the other side of the room. Formerly known as our bedroom, now known as a place to keep junk and feed the baby.

And finally our awkward little space at the top of the stairs. Easily the hottest place in our house and usually the messiest. This is where I throw junk, keep the dirty laundry and store our suitcases when we are threatened by flooding. See that big dest on the left? It's too big to fit down the stairs, same thing with that bookshelf in the back, so we are pretty much stuck with this set up. Oh well, it's a great storage area and we use it as a place for visitors to store their luggage.

Also, the home of our linen "closet" and our new towels. That video on YouTube demonstrating how to fold fitted sheets has seriously changed my life and these new towels we got at Target are amazing even when line dried.

Hopefully our series will continue with our new house in a few weeks! But seriously, I've been saying that for 18 months so try to not get your hopes up and then be really disappointed when it doesn't happen...again.

No Comments, Please.

Jack wore this to church last week.

This is what they said to me:

Baby Jack is so sexy today.

Did you forget his shirt?

He's so pretty wearing girl clothes.

Really? I thought it was just a cute little duck outfit.