I just wanted ONE good picture

Is it too much to ask for just one good picture with mommy since I'm always the one taking the pictures?

 

 

 

 

It rained in Saudi.

Miles turned 9 Months Old- last month

Our little boy is growing up so fast.  He turned 9 months old on September 30th and started showing us his true personality.  He's become mobile; he climbs on anything, pulls up, reaches, & grabs for what he can get to, and is basically into EVERYTHING!   Part of Miles new personality that is showing is how funny he is.  This kid makes us laugh all the time.  He's just goofy.  He makes funny faces and random noises.  He loves picking things up, looking at them, then throwing them over his shoulder.  His new favorite spot is the dishwasher door- NOT his changing table, which he can't stand now.  Miles has learned how to lift the toilet seat up and enjoys playing in toilet water.  Ugh- gross.  We now have to keep the bathroom doors closed at all times.  He also has found the brushes that are used for cleaning the toilet bowls (which are attached to the walls behind every toilet in our house)- those are now put up.  

We've been exploring more table food with Miles, something I never would have done this early with Gavin, but I guess that's the 2nd kid for ya.  Miles is loving the food we've been letting him try.  He loves mashed potatoes, crackers, tuna, baked chicken, and rice.  He tends to be finicky with some foods, but for the most part, he hasn't turned down too many things.  Oh yea, he loves french fries... I wonder if it has something to do with how many french fries I ate while pregnant with him.  He's already had a taste of chocolate from the Chocolate Chip Banana Bread I made for breakfast and he devoured it.  He's also sneaky and put his fingers in the bowl while I was mixing the batter.  

Miles is still laid back as ever, but has started expressing his opinion when it comes to foods & eating meals.  He still eats homemade baby food, but would almost rather feed himself.  He takes a bottle every 4 hours and every evening we never know if he's going to take a dinner time bottle or if his 3pm bottle is enough for him.  He sleeps in until 7:30/8am daily and can make it to 9:00am on occasions.  

We've started working on baby signs just to see if he can pick any of it up and so far he can successfully sign "out" when in his high chair by raising his arms above his head.  We're trying really hard to teach him the sign "more" since he has started screeching when he wants more food.  Oh, I'm so ready for that stage to be over with already.  

Miles tries very hard to keep up with Gavin and is exploring the ability to stand on his own and has attempted to take a few steps here and there.  He chases after Gavin and they do great playing together.  We love listening to the two of them giggle and goof off with each other!  

 

Christmas is Here!!!

Normally, someone would start putting decorations up after Thanksgiving to allow themselves at least 3 weeks or so to enjoy the Christmas feel around the home.  So, since we are leaving for the states in about 3 weeks and won't be back to the KSA until 5 days before Christmas, we decided to decorate our house for Christmas-- just in time to allow us a few weeks enjoying all our decor and that way, we don't have to do any decorating the week we get back-- between traveling, jetlag, and unpacking you don't have much motivation.  Plus, I don't won't to spend the day before Christmas decorating the house when I'd know a few days later, I'd want to put it all up, in order to be ready for Brooklyn's arrival!  

So, last weekend after the boys' haircuts and our lunch outside, we took out the two boxes we have that stores our Christmas decorations and turned our house into a Christmas village-- okay, so I'm exaggerating, but it's definitely Christmas around the Perry house!  Gavin loved helping Brooks and I put things out and he was a huge help in putting our tree together!  He even helped with placing ornaments all around the tree. Miles was there to touch and feel EVERYTHING!  He's done awesome with the decorations around the house and other then knocking down the small tree we have, twice, he's left everything else alone.  It's moments like these, when Brooks and I realize just how grateful we are to still be able to celebrate something that means so much to us and to make memories with our kids even though we're on this side of the world.  

Gavin took this picture of his and Miles tree when it was finished! 

 

Haircuts & Hanging Out

Last weekend Brooks took both the boys to a local barbershop and they all got their haircuts.  The three men in my life were in desperate need of new dos so I went along with them to make sure I approved of the looks! =)  Plus, I was nervous that a local Saudi would be cutting my children's hair.  All worked out and the guy even styled our boys' hair the same.  Too cute!  After getting haircuts, we ran to Subway, picked up some lunch, and went to one of the parks on our compound to eat lunch and hang out as a family.  It was a very enjoyable and relaxing day.  

**I forgot to take before pictures, but trust me, their hair was long.  By the way, Gavin fell at school a few days before these pics were taken, hence the big red marks across his nose.  

The Bazaar & A Crazy Idea

Last April, I brought back some personalized acrylic cups (which I purchased and had made at Threadworks in Lake Charles- so if you're looking for some--- go check out Mrs. Melissa's stuff) from the states and gave to a few close friends as gifts and they immediately caught the attention of fellow compounders around here!  Those cups are everywhere in the states, but it is NOTHING we would ever find here in Saudi.  For some reason, Steph and I got the brilliant idea to order 150 cups (6 large boxes) and have them shipped overseas to make them available to personalize and sale at our compound's annual Bazaar (it's like a craft fair, with vendors selling merchandise).  It took approximately 3 months to get the cups ordered, shipped, delivered, shipped again, and delivered to our door (not to mention it took my mom a trip to Houston to pick them up from some friends' house who went and picked them up from a friends house and she brought them to Beaumont to another friends house-- all in order for them to get to us in a "timely manner").  Whew- I'm tired just thinking about it!

Anyways, we let everyone know the cups were coming and would be available in the fall and Steph and I went to town creating order forms, choosing writing styles, collecting rolls of vinyl, selecting emblems and images to be put on the cups and October 1st we started pre-selling the personalized cups, along with snack trays, clipboards, folders, and memory cork boards.  To our surprise, everything was a big HIT and we got busy.  For two weeks leading up to the Bazaar and the last two weeks since the Bazaar we have been cranking out orders left and right!  We had a blast doing this project and as big as it seemed to get, I don't know that we were ever overwhelmed (okay maybe once or twice).  It was a lot of fun making stuff for friends and seeing the excitement on people's faces to realize there were practical items around that could be purchased as gifts and for personal use.  Steph and I have some wonderful friends who were gracious enough to help us set up shop, who took orders while we filled the orders, and who would come and sit at my house to keep us company and stay organized with all our orders!  

Stephanie basically was running the Bazaar with a few other women so she was able to snatch up the best location for our booth-- it was filled with a work area and all!  Oh, the perks of having friends in high places!!  Haha!  So, the night before the Bazaar we brought over all our STUFF, set things up, and created a plan on once orders were placed, how'd they get filled based on priority (people from all around come to our Bazaar and we weren't interested in driving to unfamiliar places to make deliveries), and then we devised a system to know when someone's order was ready for pick up.  We're so glad we did this since the day of the Bazaar was crazy, but everything ran smoothly!  We really did sale a lot of "merchandise" and we promised all those on our compound to have their order ready within the week-- this alleviated a TON of pressure and didn't let us feel overwhelmed to finish all our orders the day of the Bazaar.  

Some of our sweet friends who helped us!

Our booth- and work station behind it!

All the loot-- we tried to be as organized as possible!

Working on fulfilling orders!  

Like the string we attached across the opening to hang order forms based on priority??!! 

A few items we sold to some friends of ours!

In order to stay organized and keep up with the amount of work we had to do, we set up shop in my house to have everything out when it was needed.  My house looked like this for several weeks, but Stephanie and I were able to both have a work area and there was room for all the stuff we used.  

Just some of the cup orders we filled a few days after the Bazaar!  

This has really been a fun project to work on and I'm happy to say we sold out of all our clipboards, snack trays, and memory cork boards!  We literally have about 10 cups left (praise the Lord), and are daily getting emails from people requesting stuff.  I'm glad we went out on a limb and took this on.  It's fun watching people walk around the compound with their cups!!  Someone asked us this morning what we were going to do next year..... hmmmm... guess we better start planning that now!!  

October Festivities

Living overseas, you may think we miss out on fun festivities that we would normally celebrate in the states, but that's not the case.  We've been celebrating Halloween festivities for a week now and have been having lots of fun. We found Gavin's Batman costume when we went to Dubai and he's loved wearing it around the house pretending to fly and be a superhero.  He even has built in muscles, which were precious!  We're so thankful we didn't have to go through another year of tormenting Gavin to put his costume on.  This year, he wore it proudly and wasn't scared of it at all.  I found Miles tiger costume online and asked a friend to bring it back with her last month!  We've been having to keep him tamed around the house and Gavin's tried teaching how to roar like a tiger.  He's pretty darn cute in his costume if you ask me!!  

Last Thursday night, our compound hosted a Halloween party filled with festivities for everyone.  The kids got all dressed up, there were games to play, costume contests, a Haunted House (which we did not participate in), pizza, and more!!  It really was a fun evening.  Gavin played and played with all his little friends and had a blast.  He learned how to bob for apples the right way, after using his hands a few times.  He got to pop balloons by jumping on them and found candy inside of them.  He chased his friends and pretended he could fly around.  Miles won the cutest baby costume contest and we got 50 SAR= $13.32 USD.  Woo hoo!  Gavin found his friend from school, Flavie, and they were inseperable pretty much the rest of the night!  Flavie is the sweetest littlest French girl around!   Brooks and I enjoyed spending time with our friends and just hanging out.  Randomly, it was a relaxing evening out and about.  

               

Monday night, our compound had a Trick or Treat night!  Brooks got to come home from work early and came with us.  Both the boys LOVED getting to dress up again.  We explained to Gavin that he was going to get to go from house to house and ask for candy.  He was pretty pumped about it!  Since our compound is semi- small and many people have kids, parents were walking around with buckets of candy passing it out since they weren't at home (and neither were their husbands) to greet trick or treaters.  I thought that was a great idea and something I may do next year.  Last year, Brooks got sick on Halloween and missed out on Gavin trick or treating so it was a special treat to have him there this year.  Other then wanting candy, Gavin kept looking for Flavie and Devin the entire time.  When he finally found them, he was estatic!  Devin came trick or treating with us for a little while, which was a blast for Gavin!  We had a great time spending Halloween with friends and making memories with our boys!!

Isn't Savannah the CUTEST little pumpkin ever?  It was glittery and all!