russian scrabble

last night char and andy were brave enough to play scrabble with us using our russian board...we played english words using russian letters, very educational, andy and char will do well reading signs now.
and robin, we are done season one of Corner Gas already, when can we get season two? funny. especially being over here away from all the canadian products and humour, very appreciated.
well gotta go to bed, having lots of fun. tomorrow is the big holiday here, lots of fireworks already. till next time...

some proof

 

now you know char is here! more pics coming soon. 

they really made it...

we haven't taken a picture yet to prove it but they arrived safely, turns out they had a careful taxi driver, kinda disappointing:) anyway, thanks for all your notes. amanda, what i meant was 20 people. we had a big crowded loud party last night and now we are relaxing and recovering. soon david, char and andy are headed off for another russian experience, getting diapers and a few groceries. it is really snowy today. emma is loving having grandma and grandpa around. josiah and hudson are getting used to it too:)

thankyou sooooo much for all the cards and gifts and things, we have looked through some of it but there is sooo much stuff it will be weeks till we really read it all etc. thankyou thankyou thankyou...

They made it

Well at least here to Russia! They are currently in the scariest stage of getting here- the taxi ride home from the airport:) so me and the kids are just waiting for daddy and grandma and grandpa to pull up. We are having a small party here in a few hours though (possibly 20?) so don't expect any updates for a while. Bye for now!

waiting for grandma and grandpa.....

 

huddy taking a nap 

Hudson is 11 months now!

Time is going by sooo fast. Huddy is almost one (1st birthday- Jan25th!) He is a real climber these days crawling onto all the furniture and exploring everything. This causes lots of falls and tears though and his two big top teeth are almost through finally. But when he hasn't fallen and his teeth don't hurt he is a little sweety. I love his hugs and chubby cheeks. Soon grandma and grandpa will be here!!! 

christmas in moscow:)

 

Josiah wants to be a ballerina too:) Anyway, we had a great Christmas though we don't see it as being over as our real present comes on Wednesday (andy and char) and then on Dec.31st we will celebrate the big holiday here and then Jan.6th is Josiah's birthday (2 already!) and then Jan. 7th (russian christmas)..... 

 

Emma looks like she is meeting prince charming but she was really just watching Noddy. 

 

Josiah's first car (ok truck) he loved driving it around and played with it lots up until the horse came out:) 

 

the boys got a train set which is a big hit, train sets just seem so christmassy... 

 

Hudson just sat on the couch looking at all the gifts, tasting them and saying da da da da which means yes yes yes yes, or i guess daddy if he was speaking in english. 

 

Wish I could put Josiah's sound effects along with the picture. He sure loves the horse, a good replacement for the no legs left little horse he has though I'm sure he'll still play with his old one sometimes. Josiah really enjoyed opening his stocking and seeing what everyone got. He made it sooo fun, giggling away. 

 

When I saw this horse at Ikea last month I thought a definite must buy for Josiah. and he sure loves it, hasn't let it go yet. He giggled and giggled and kissed it so much. Instant friend. 

emma's new fartook

 

david and i had fun getting the kids gifts from Ikea, they were all a hit. Emma and Josiah both love pretending so emma's apron and pots and pans and cookie cutters were a good choice. She likes doing chores for real too so this apron will get well used. 

Christmas Eve

 

the kids are fast asleep and soon we will be too. stockings are ready and we can't wait. though it feels rather strange here as it isn't really christmas here yet (not till jan 7th but they open gifts and have our kind of christmas on new years eve). as i was doing my usual last minute shopping tonight i felt like saying merry christmas to people but that would be silly. thankyou so much mom and brian for calling, while we are asleep tonight you will be having great food and fellowship, wish we could be there with you, miss you all, love you all. next picture should be unwrapping! yay! merry christmas!! 

 

the good thing about the tree being so short is that the kids could reach to put up all the decorations, the bad thing about the tree being so short is that the kids can reach to take down all the decorations too:) 

 

emma and jo watching Narnia for the 2nd time. emma really loves aslan now. and jo likes the wolves, he howls when they come on, I thought they would scare them but i guess not 

 

emma in her baby pink pj's from grandma with Haven 

 

Emma with our short chubby tree, and some of her new comfy clothes. she was so excited to get a tree. we will decorate it tonight i think, though we have to watch narnia! 

Our short chubby real tree!

 

we haven't decorated it yet but i couldn't wait to show it off, if you knew what most trees were like here you would be as excited as me... we love it. we were lucky to get it before our christmas too as they usually aren't available till the end of december as here they only have new year's trees not christmas trees. some russians told us that this tree isn't really a new years tree cause it doesn't have prickly needles etc. they are right. it is an import but so are we:) 

 


thanks for the comfy warm clothes grandma marilyn!!! they fit great. mmm mandarin oranges 

We've got Narnia on DVD already!

Last night our language teacher brought us Narnia, already out on DVD! Yay! We couldn't see it at the theatre (in English) as they cancelled it for now but now we can watch it tonight at home!!! Thanks Viola!

Last night we were going to go see Narnia in english but they decided to wait till the new year to show it in english but we already had arranged a babysitter so David and I went out and did our first bit of christmas shopping. And we got a tree and it isn't charlie brown! There were charlie brown ones but we paid a little more and got a fuller though short beautiful tree. Though russians told us it isn't a New Years Tree cause it doesn't have the prickly needles etc. Owell. It is pretty. And the kids are thrilled! So it is becoming more christmassy. Here is the taxi we took back from OBI no not ikea (i think the driver bought the car from ikea or something cause he wasn't working for ikea anyway). OBI is like Home Depot/ Canadian Tire etc. On the way there we were getting cold waiting for the bus/mashrutkas so david flagged down a car (just any driver who is willing) and paid him to bring us to the metro. I wonder if it would work to do that in Calgary or Thunder Bay? No one ever tries.. very normal here though. 

We've started to decorate...can you tell where our apartment is? 

 

skipping with a bear

 

the hairy bellied clown that grew on me

 

finally figured out another way to post pics. not as easy as using hello but it works! so here are some pics from this past saturday...