We're thankful for...

Jonathan (4 years): Jesus and God, church, Mom and Dad, turtles

Josiah (4 years): The aquarium, eating at restaurants, preschool, the new Christmas train

Elijah (1 year): "Mama," "Dada," milk, food, more, and the blue blanket

Our three boys said it all! We are so thankful for them and for all the ways we have been blessed over the last year. We are thankful for you, our friends and family. We pray your Christmas is as blessed as ours!

Mark & Jen

Jonathan, Josiah, and Elijah

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

~2 Corinthians 9:15

Play Time!

We were so tired after all the Christmas activities, but were ready to go after a good night's sleep. Daddy and Mommy put together Elijah's sand table and took our new scooters outside. We may even get to the rest of our toys before next Christmas. :)

Elijah having fun with the sand table: The bike fits, but I think that helmet is a little too big...
Wait...whose table is that?!

Riding our new scooters!

Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas this year was so much fun! We woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had come and eaten the snack we left for him! We had a fun day with all of our family and celebrating Jesus' birth. Daddy and Mommy got us new train engines...
A new round house to go with the trains we already have...

And a new train table!!

Elijah wasn't quite sure about presents, so Daddy had to help him a little.

Santa put new trains in our stockings, too!

Oh my!

A Very Chang Christmas

Late Christmas morning we went to Aunt Mary's to have Christmas lunch and celebrate Christmas with Aunt Mary, A-ma, and A-Kong. We had gifts for them, and they had gifts for us, too! After we opened our gifts we got to eat a special Christmas lunch prepared by A-ma and Aunt Mary. Then we got to play with our new toys all afternoon. What a fun time to get to spend with our family!

Christmas, Part 4

That's right, on Christmas night we had another Christmas celebration. We went to Uncle Larry's and had another yummy meal with family and friends. Afterward we gave and received even more gifts. We had a wonderful Christmas this year with all of our family and friends and are thankful for everyone! We are so blessed and so loved!

Christmas Is...

Jesus' birthday! Every year we get to make a birthday cake for Jesus, because Christmas is the day we celebrate Him. Mommy let us pick out what kind of cake and then we got to help her mix and bake it. When it was all cooled she helped us decorate it. I wanted to decorate, but Josiah didn't. So here I am putting on the sprinkles:

Here is my finished product!

I wonder how many candles we'll have to put on His cake?

The Night Before Christmas...

And we already got spoiled rotten! On Christmas Eve we got to go to big church with Daddy, Mommy, Nanny, and Papa. Then we had a yummy dinner with them and some more of our family and friends. Afterward we got to open presents from Nanny, Papa, and Aunt Debbie.

One of the gifts I (Jonathan) got was an ornament with a picture in it. When I opened it I said, 'Who is in the picture? Is it me or Josiah?' Elijah wasn't much for opening presents, but he liked everything that we opened!

Here we are amongst a pile of gifts and wrappings!

You can't really tell from this picture, but it is a cash register and food toys from Aunt Debbie. It is obvious that it has been a big hit in our house with ALL of us from the start!

Dear Santa

You may not remember, but last year there was quite a debate over what to leave for Santa on Christmas Eve. We settled on one orange and a glass of water. This year we talked it over again and came up with this: Mommy asked if we wanted to leave a note, so that is what we came up with. We hope Santa liked it!

Grandparents Day

Well, it wasn't actually Grandparents Day, but it was a day that we were with all four of our grandparents! Mommy and Nanny had more Christmas baking to do, so we all went to Nanny and Papa's house. It was so much fun to have all our grandparents together. We decided since we had pictures in their back yard with Mommy and Daddy, we also wanted pictures with A-ma and A-Kong. Mommy thinks we just liked climbing up on the fountain. Here is our picture: While Mommy and Nanny baked, we played outside with our new bubble machines:

Elijah isn't big enough to use the machines, but he loves the bubbles!

He also loves playing around the fountain as much as we do!

Fun Times

In December Grandpa and Grandma Chang (A-kong and A-ma) came to visit! While they were here they took us all to the playground in our neighborhood. We played on the swings and slides and just loved being outside!

This fall I (Elijah) decided that I like wearing hats. I found this Santa hat and put it on every chance that I get! Here I am riding my rocking horse and wearing my Santa hat.

Preschool Christmas

This year Christmas seemed to last for a long time! We had our Christmas sing at church at the beginning of December. Then we had our preschool Christmas party in the middle of December! We practiced our songs for a long time and then got to sing them for our parents at our party. Here we are singing 'Jingle Bells.' Then we all sat down and decorated cookies:

That big pile of crumbs is from Elijah running up to the table and grabbing cookies by the handful. He was NOT very helpful. After all the cookies were decorated we got to taste them and then take some of them home.

When we were finished we still had cookies left - on purpose! The next day we went to home where there were lots of Grandpas and Gradmas and we sang our songs for them. Then we served each one of them cookies and juice. It was so much fun!

Is This Iowa?

The weather finally cooled down and we are back to the park for our playdates again! We met our friend Isaac and his sister Anna (and their mommy, of course) at the park one afternoon. We didn't plan it, but the three of us all chose our Iowa shirts to wear that day! So even though we weren't in Iowa, a corner of the park looked like it might be. :)

And because our younger siblings didn't want to be left out, they wore matching messy faces:

Swing, Swing, Swing

Mommy quickly discovered how much I LOVE to swing! I giggled and screamed while she pushed me, and then cried and cried when she tried to take me out of the swing to stop. I really hope we get to go back to the playground and swing really soon!!



Josiah took a turn pushing me...

And then Jonathan took a turn, too!

Still-Not-A-Surprise Party

At the beginning of December we once again attended the Surprise Party! It is becoming a tradition for us to go and see the hot air balloons all lit up and the tree-lighting ceremony. They did a count-down to the lighting of the trees and then they blew up all the hot air balloons at once. There were bands playing and a carnival, too!

Elijah Jonathan
Josiah

The hot air balloon glow

Here we are with Daddy - and the new stick lights he bought for us!