had to show his hair on top.... funny it is like a fan of hair. it won't stay down no matter what. it was twice as long and still stood straight up in the air so i thought maybe shorter would look better...owell... it's the new style isn't it;) 

huddy looks a lot like josiah from this angle. they have the same hairdo now basically though hudson's doesn't sit down on his head on the top, kinda just sticks up:) 

Now that hudson is a good walker he is perfecting his soccer skills... he can go pretty fast actually too fast usually ending in a face plant. he is a brave boy. or at least that is what we like to call it when he crawls straight off the bed...  

acting out cinderella i guess as she made sure to leave one of her shoes behind:) they are pretty good at acting out the movies they watch, makes it not seem so bad watching so much:) 

emma and josiah are busy playing princess and princess this morning. they are holding hands walking around then dancing and hugging and then sitting on the couch together.. nice when they enjoy each other so much. josiah didn't want to hold her hand anymore and she asked"what is wrong husband?" 

another one of josiah cause he is just so cute 

Josiah got another haircut too...his hair grows soooo fast.  

Peanut butter and pancake syrup! what would we do without the imports you can find here.. 

Here is a picture of a new year's tree going up....notice I didn't say christmas tree.... that is because the big holiday here is jan 1st not december 25th.. i think they even open their presents on jan 1st though december 25th is becoming more popular?? we'll find out soon i guess. 

hudson ezekiel at 10 months old already! i cut his hair today a bit cause it is short in the back but his bangs and ear hairs were long and i thought it would be nice to see his little sweet ears and eyes again... 

Yay! our first russian snowman complete with empty beer bottles by his side:) his chunks of clay buttons didn't stay on very good. someone knocked it over by the time we looked out our window to see it, poor little snowman. well maybe he just fell over himself, he had been drinking after all:) 

I forgot my camera :(

well... we had american thanksgiving off as our language coordinator is from missouri so it was a great day to head to the mall. i actually did bring my camera but i left the memory card thing in the computer. too bad cause i would have had the sweetest pictures of emma skating for the first time. the mall (my favorite escape place which has an ikea, BHS-british department store, stockmann's- finnish department store and reebok, tommy hilfiger and a million other stores) has a skating rink in the center of the food court. it is filled with all sorts of people and saturdays are way tooo busy for little ones to try it out or adults who aren't ex-figure skaters or russian hockey players. you should see some of the old men twirl around. amazing. anyway. david put the cutest little wee white figure skates on emma, though she cried the whole time they were getting ready. emma is often frightened before she does something she really wants to do, maybe we looked mean forcing her to go but you should have seen her beaming smile as she went around and around holding david's hand, it was one of those moments that make you a little teary eyed:) she loved it and wanted to go back friday and today etc. but it will be a while till we get all the way there again.. so no pictures but great memories. and we had such a great time at ikea as we had more room to ourselves and could eat our swedish meatballs, roasted potatoes, baby food, fries and cranberry sauce, wine, coffee, smoked salmon with lemon dill sauce and chocolate torte all for the same price as mcdonalds...and the kids played right next to us in the kids area watching a russian cartoon spoof of E.T. it was a great day.

yesterday we had our moscow team meeting so we packed 17? of us in our little apartment and had a blast eating all sorts of finger foods. i made a yummy pesto, cream cheese and sundried tomato dip thing and tzaziki dip too and had others bring the things to dip etc. anyway. nice to have some normal american/western style days once in a while.

and it is only saturday...we still have the weekend....what should we do??

here is jo with his big eyes and his favorite horse. it used to have 4 feet but now it only has one left... he trots it around the whole house and also loves to chew on it so the poor horse is losing it's legs... he really loves his horse though. the other night he tucked it in next to him in bed. oh..and yes that is more wallpaper falling off, something to do with the freezing cold windows and concrete walls and warm heater right next to it I guess?  

emma and hudson posing so i could get some pics of the guys drinking in the morning without them noticing me:) but i wasn't close enough. anyway they were drinking at least 6 beers each and i think they had some vodka too. lots of smokes and laughing. i think it is soooo strange to have your buddy come over tuesday morning at 9am and stand in the freezing cold drinking freezing beer for a few hours. why stand by an ugly bench in the cold...why not drink inside? there were others with beer too drinking by the car garages.. now tim horton's in the morning or any time of day i understand. though i'd still rather go inside and drink it:)

i didn't sit on the bench today as there was red wine (i hope that is what it was) on the bench and salted fish and all kinds of russian snacks from a couple watching their kid play last night. the bottles are worth $ so they are always gone fast. 

trying to get a snowball 

jo chasing emma with a snowball! 

here is a russian winter stroller though this one is pretty old and unstylish (the mom is a little older than usual too) but you can see the baby is almost always lying down with lots of layers and a canopy and a sleeping bag thing. if hudson was younger i'd try to find one for him but he won't be willing to lie down for long and those strollers are very pricey. 

emma still enjoying the playground outside even in the snow 

here is another one of hudson. he is getting thinner now too....his legs aren't too much different than josiah's were. 

and here is hudson at 9 months old doing the same thing. he is really good at walking now though i think his record is about 10 steps but that may be because that is as many steps as you can do in a small apartment:)  

this is josiah at 12 months old last january when he started walking... 

josiah looking sad? thoughtful? 

josiah watched the snow for a long time yesterday. maybe today we'll get out and play in it. we got it all on sunday morning and it has stuck a day anyway. 

funny picture of josiah at 22 months old. he still has his little dimple thing when he smiles. 

david and emma heading off in the snow sunday morning. me and the boys just hung out here as we don't have a sled yet and we didn't feel like carrying them waiting for the bus. it is amazing how heavy little hudson can get all bundled up...