And So the Story Goes

*******SOOOOO after I posted today I realized there was this other post I started but apparently never finished (oops!). I figured I might as well post it also even though there are some repeat pictures from what I posted today. Forgive me!******** 

Things continue to go well for us here in Beijing. I know I need to post more often so I don't flood you with so many pictures all at once, but get ready because here they come!

 I have had some requests for pictures of our apartment. Wish granted.

Dylan's Room

He LOVES his play area, but thinks we need some more toys :)

The Kitchen

Our bedroom (don't mind our laundry hanging out to dry)

Living Room (This is the room you walk into from the front door.
The front door is exactly to your left in this picture, I am standing in our
bedroom taking the picture, Dylan's bedroom is the closed door in front of us,
and if you turn left before going into Dylan's room you will be looking at the
clothes washer and off to your left would be the bathroom and off to your right the kitchen.)

The bathroom (you can see the reflection of the shower in the mirror)

The shower

The clothes washer (off to the left is the bathroom, off to the right is the kitchen)

It's a cozy little place and it meets all of our needs and it's starting to feel more like home. I have a hard time wanting to decorate too much because 1. We are only going to be here for a few more months 2. (this is the biggest reason) I don't want to spend lots of money on things that won't be worth shipping home. So I'm just mostly sticking to decorating with the souvenir type things we buy like our singing bowl and a jade dragon and some hand stitched pictures Ryan bought at the Great Wall the other day.  We also have a few plants I am struggling to keep alive.
Our fun activity one Saturday was going to IKEA :) That's a CRAZY place to be in Beijing on a Saturday. SO  MANY people!!! And the BEST PART... 1 Quai Ice Cream Cones!!!! That's like 17 cents! AWESOME!!! Dylan LOVED it! When I had decided he had probably had enough he looked at my ice cream and was mad when I wouldn't give him more.

This is the furniture section... About a gazillion people just chill'n on all the couches.
I have never been to an IKEA in the states, is it like this there too? 

Delicious Ice Cream... and why yes, we did get 4 cones for under $1.00! :) 

This little guy especially loved it! 

He also LOVES his new high chair :)

Dylan rejoices as he eats a strawberry all by himself (*note his very first ever head bruise)

In North China they turn off everyone's heating at the same time. This year they turned it off on March 18th which also happened to be the day it snowed.

The view of our neighborhood from our kitchen window (we are on the 4th floor of our building)

 One Sunday on the subway on our way to church I heard some cricket chirping. I figured it was a cell phone ring (my mom's cell phone ring is chirping crickets, so it kind of made me reminiscent of home). After hearing it a few times and thinking nothing of it, this man sitting next to Ryan (who was holding Dylan) pulled out a caged cricket from his pocket! Not even kidding! Who knew 'Mulan' wasn't just blowing smoke about lucky crickets! :) 
 

 He was showing the cricket to Dylan and I HAD to take a picture. Just then, he pulled out ANOTHER cricket. I couldn't even handle it! How many crickets did this guy have on him!? He started to reach into his pocket AGAIN... but this time he really did pull out a cell phone. But seriously, this guy goes around carrying crickets in special cages in his pockets for good luck. Welcome to China!

Check out the size of that thing! "Add a cricket for some luck, and even you can't blow it" -Mulan

This is us at the silk market (it's one of the Beijing tourist traps so of course we had to try it out!

At the silk market the girls in this store couldn't get enough of Dylan and so they gave him this glamorous head piece. 

Dylan was invited to his very first birthday party for his friend Eilee. He had a REALLY good time playing with all of the girls and helping Eilee open her birthday presents. Silly Boy! I also learned how much he LOVES balls! 

Hang'n with the girls

"Hey, it looks like you could use some help"

One day we were at Ryan's campus waiting for him to get out of class so I decided to take some pictures of Dylan in front of this cool statue.  

        It didn't take long for other people to gather and ask if they too could take pictures of him

               On the up side of the paparazzi, I had them take a picture of Dylan and I together! :) 

This is the first time Dylan has ever sat on grass. He liked to crawl around on it...

...But mostly he liked to eat it :)

We had a wonderful Easter thanks for wonderful friends who invited us to celebrate with them. This is a delicious dessert some friends made 

and these are some fun Easter toys Dylan was given by some generous friends.
They are fruits and veggies you can cut apart.  

Can you tell he likes them?

 They have a holiday here called Tomb Sweeping day. It's a day for them to pay respect to their ancestors (much like our Memorial Day). We had a good day spending time at the zoo with some friends. It's a huge zoo! 

The Giant Pandas

Great friends, awesome trees and the blossoms are starting to bloom!

From the zoo you can take a boat tour. I love how this seems to capture old China in the front and new China in the back

The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven. Such a majestic building! 

The Temple of Heaven

 On March 11th, 2013 I noticed Dylan's first little tooth coming through. It was the bottom one of the left side. At 9 months old I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get those darn teeth! It wasn't but two weeks later I saw another pearly white on the bottom next to it and then about one minute after spotting the second one on the bottom, I saw these two on the top. So in a matter of two weeks 4 teeth popped up! Currently (May 2nd) he has 3 on the bottom and the two fangs on the top. 

My little guy likes to do things a little differently. I love his little fangs! :) 

 I LOVE spring! Even though it means allergies, it is absolutely my favorite season. I love to see things come to life after sleeping all winter long. I love the rejuvenation I feel as I enjoy God's beautiful creations. I love spring showers (especially here in Beijing because it helps clean the air) and I love the warm sun on my face. The whole world just seems a little more lively, a little more happy. I LOVE SPRING!!!!

To enjoy the first day of spring I went out with a few friends and our babes to stroll around the park.
We stopped to grab lunch at a subway and a few Chinese ladies came up to say hi and to look at our
babies. BUT something is not quite right... at least to the foreign eye. Can you see it? Probably not unless
you make the picture a little bigger. Look close though....

It's a common sight here in China... children's bums. These are called split pants and instead of diapers
these are what the children wear. When they have to go to the bathroom, they honestly do their business
just about anywhere. In a garbage can in the subway, out in front of the grocery store, in a gutter in the street...
anywhere. 

 ANYWAY... back to the beautiful spring day! 

Gotta LOVE that sunshine! Gotta LOVE great friends!

Dylan & Mommy

Whitney and Carter

Jessica and Reece

We LOVE our friends! (and yes, Dylan did take off his shoes and socks!)

 On the way to my friends house I walked by the grocery store and outside they were having this big extravaganza. I was curious as to what was going on, so I went to check it out and it was an Oreo extravaganza! They has a ball pit, a trampoline, a swimming pool, a blow up obstacle course and lots of other stuff to celebrate Oreo's birthday! ALSO the oreos were on sale for two dollars! :) Of course I had to buy a bunch (my dad would be proud) because they are one thing that truly reminds me of home. 

Me and my Oreo loot!

 For Conference Sunday we got together with some friends to have lunch and watch conference. A pot roast dinner, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls with salad and fruit....oooo.... just looking at the picture is making me hungry! I felt like I was home!!! :) 

Did you think I would EVER post again?

Please tell me that being a bad blogger doesn't make me a bad person... Today at church I had a friend as me if I had a blog and a bit sheepishly I admitted I did, but hadn't posted anything since we first moved here. So on this Sunday afternoon, between Sunday lunch company and Sunday dinner company I thought I would put up a little blurb on my blog.

I can't even begin to catch up on the million and one adventures we've had while living in China, so I'm not even going to try to recount them all. Suffice it to say we have had some wonderful experiences and I am at a place where I can honestly say I will miss living in Beijing. Of course there are some things I will not miss AT ALL, like the pollution or the random piles of trash on the street or the fact that cars do NOT yield to pedestrians in any shape or form. However, it's amazing to live in a place where there are countless adventures within an hour away. I have come to appreciate a new culture of people that I previously had little understanding of. There is a certain novelty about living in Beijing that makes each day a new experience.

This kind of talk makes it sound like we are wrapping things up here in Beijing... and that's not totally untrue. When we first got here we were planning on staying for a year, two semesters of school (Feb 2013- Feb 2014) But a while ago we found out there is an early end date option for the Fall semester which means Ryan could finish up the beginning on December and we could make it home for Christmas. We had planned to do things this way without telling anyone on the homefront and just show up on doorsteps as a Christmas surprise, but as it turns out, we are going to be moving home earlier than even we thought (mid-endish or November) to make it home for a sibling's wedding. So our Feb. end date has all the sudden become a November end date and that's going to be here before we know it. As excited as I am to go home to BEAUTIFUL America and be with friends and family, I sure am going to miss Beijing!

Our plans from there on out... we will spend about a month in Utah with friends and family and then move forward into an internship of which is currently undecided. By the summer of 2014 we will be back in SC to finish our last year of Ryan's IMBA and then from there we will just have to see what life brings us.

As for now we will continue to enjoy life and all that comes with it one day at a time and maybe, just maybe I will get better at this blogging thing :)

I LOVE these boys!

This kid has so many facial expressions! I can't get enough of 'em!

I love this little man and he sure does love his Nanners monkey

Ryan's class took a trip to the Great Wall. He got permission for Dylan and I to go with them, but of course that morning I woke up with the flu :( Ryan was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures for me

Dylan and I were able to get to the Great Wall with some friends a few weeks later

He was a great hiking buddy!

This stud muffin's all ready to go to church. What a good look'n kid!

The Old Summer Palace
 There is no shortage of beautiful places to be seen in Beijing

Dylan sure has a way of making the girls swoon :) 

It never fails to amaze me how much they stack, balance and tow on their bikes. This load was bigger than some of the cars on the street.

This boy LOVES noodles!

"Hey mom, I found this left over piece of cake."

It's delicious! 

Dylan and I are on a multiple entry tourist visa which means we have to leave the country every 90 days (poor us being forced to travel :) ) So for our first visa trip we jumped over to Korea of course! We had a blast exploring places and meeting people from Ryan's mission! It was so incredible to finally get to see so much of what I've been hearing about for years!!! 

Such a beautiful hike

Sleepy angel

We were able to explore a Buddhist temple on Buddha's birthday. That was super cool! 

As part of Buddha's birthday celebration they had these lanterns EVERYWHERE! So gorgeous! 

Seoul, South Korea Temple

I am SO grateful I get to be with these boys for eternity! Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan

So right before we left for Korea I made some comment about it on facebook. Come to find out some good friends of ours from the states, Kami and Nathan Averett, were going to be in Seoul at the EXACT same time!!! It was SO fun to meet up with them and do a session and see some of the sights. What a wonderful and unexpected taste of home!

The classic Chinese pose. They ALWAYS do this in pictures

My good friend Kami got this AWESOME shot of Dylan. I mean, how perfect is that?! 

Has anyone ever had Yak's milk ice cream? I HIGHLY recommend it! It's AMAZING!

This is not a traffic jam... well I guess technically it is... but this is typical Chinese traffic. This is at an intersection right down from our apartment. The driving here is CRAZY! I swear no one obeys any rules. It's just a free for all! 

It was fun to watch my little man play with this bowl. Of course it found its way to his head :) 

Dylan's first birthday was a BLAST thanks to all the wonderful friends who shared it with us! We are blessed to have so many good friends here in Beijing.

Dylan is our little monkey so OF COURSE we had to have a Monkey birthday theme

Not quite sure what to do with the candle

Pretty happy about the cake and I LOVE how you can see his little vampire teeth in this picture! 

Ryan was brave enough (because I wasn't) to give Dylan his first haircut

We gave Dylan a sucker and he was super patient about it all! He handled it like a champ! 

If you have made it to the end of this post, thanks for taking the time to care about our little family and our adventures EVEN THOUGH I'm terrible at keeping your updated. Who knows.... maybe I'll get better...maybe :)