6 Months in REVIEW

Yah, I'm just not good at this computer thing... there are too many other things shouting for my time... besides 3 amazing kids, an amazing husband... I have lots of church events that I serve at along with my enormous social calendar!!! So, sorry for the blog-less life!!!

Highlights...
June -
Jasmine graduates from DMK - P1 (or 1st grade)



Summer -
Actually this was the first summer in the ROGERS IN HK history that we haven't gone back to the USA. The flights were so full all summer that we couldn't go. My parents stayed for almost 3 weeks which was so great. We really enjoyed just hanging out - and believe it or not HK was CLEAR & GORGEOUS all summer.

Believe it or not these two photos were taken from OUR living room window :)





Of course we visited Disney & spent a night there at the Hollywood hotel... awesome!!!


Check out the view from our room - on the clearest day I've ever seen!!!


AUGUST --

Was a momentous occasion... JASMINE GOES TO REAL PRIMARY SCHOOL! It was a big change. She went from a 4 hour day to an 8 hour day! She's a champion. She had to skip P2 and went straight to P3 because of her age (they go on age here in Hong kong, and don't really care whether you've completed the previous years!!! strange but true.) She's LOVING school.



SEPTEMBER --

Another momentous occaions... BRIANNA GOES TO SCHOOL (and turns 3) all in the same month. She cracked us up... she just had no fear whatsoever. I think she thinks she owns the place! She just hopped on that bus the first day and turned back with a smile & a wave!!!!! Yikes, how did that happen so fast?




****ANOTHER HUMONGOUS EVENT....*****
Aaron became a captain for Cathay... This is an old picture, but I think it's cool anyways...


In September we took a MUCH NEEDED family holiday. We went to Singapore for 5 days. It was so great - the zoo, night safari, dolphin swimming and relaxing by the pool made for a perfect trip.


OCTOBER -
Jasmine was in her first assembly at her shcool. She had to memorize some lines & dress in a toga! it wa SO great.



Brianna came down with a HORRIBLE illness this month. It was quite scary. I don't think we've ever seen any of our kids that sick... here's a picture of her feet - her whole body was consumed with a horrid rash that was hot & itchy and blotchy. Poor girl, looked like she had leprosy. Thank goodness she came out of it fine after 4 days!




We went to Disneyland with some great friends - check us out - we have so many kids between us - it's crazy!!!!



Well, that takes us to now... so it's been a full few months. Of course these were just SOME of the highlights. I'm sure I've forgotten something important :)

Thanks for reading an update on the Rogers family!

Say CHEEEEEEESE please!!!!!!!

Drum roll please.........................

Here is Jasmine with her BRAND NEW toothless smile! How cute!?





Here's what she looked like just a few days ago. Seriously - this tooth HUNG ON for dear life. It just hung and wobbled. and of course Jasmine would have NOTHING to do with us pulling it for her... so there it sat for ONE WHOLE WEEK!!!!!


This was ONE week ago. Wow - doesn't take long :)

The UN-Blogger

Yes, I'm just fairly sure that 6 months between blogs means that I DO NOT blog!!!!

*Sigh* Such is the life of a busy mommy of 3. There are just these priorities that get lined up and blogging doesn't tend to be towards the top. I'm always envious of my friends like Derek, Tom and Andrew who are just blogging KINGS!!!!!!!

So I've decided NOT to go through six months of BORING information... I'll just start with today.

Last night Jasmine lost her THIRD tooth. Seriously - this phase in a childs life is just so hilarious. You don't mean to laugh, but really, how you can you help it when you see what LACK of teeth can do to a person's normally winning smile :0)

BEFORE.... AFTER....











Annabelle is doing VERY well. Her hair seems to get longer and shinier each day. I just love that kid. She's full of SPUNK!!! Her biggest news is that SHE IS READING HER FIRST WORDS! She can blend words like cat, sat, hand, sand etc. VERY impressive at 4 y/o! She just loves school so much.







Artist at work....







Brianna is a charmer as always. She is just SO funny. We call her the "Bag Lady" as she always has a backpack AND a purse full of small treasures she finds around the house!!!! If Annabelle is missing Barbie's shoe I can already know where it is!










Out an about with the Breezy Brianna!









Well, enough for now. Just thought I"d try to connect myself back to the Blogger Radar.

Buckle your seatbelts....

Ready for it?

You must be shocked that I’m even updating this thing. Are there rules to how long you can NOT blog before you’re considered a NON blogger? Surely there must be some “unwritten bloggers writing code”! Ha. Anyhow, enough with the chit chat. Let’s get down to business….

WHAT THE HECK have I been doing for nearly THREE months? Well, I’ll go with the highlights....

First off was a trip in SEPTEMBER to Southern California. It was JUST ME! I was happy to have some time off with my girl friends for some R&R (though jet lag will always kill at least one of those Rs) and some great “God time” at a fantastic WOMENS CONFERENCE at a Christian City Church of San Diego. This is a church that Linda Pesavento (formerly my HK sis) sister & brother in law pastor. It was a wonderful time meeting up with my 4 favorite women…Linda P (Sydney, Aus), Shauna K (another former HKer – but now a Vancouver bum), Crystal M (my long time pal from San Diego – waaaaay long time, like 7th grade!!!!) and finally my most darling family member EVER – Michelle. Truly the sister I never had. Anyhow, we had an absurdly fun time ☺




By the way I should take the chance to say that my friend Linda Pesavento has written a fantastic book - called KEEP WALKING. Please visit the site...buy a book. Seriously, if you know anyone who's going through a tough time in their lives, this is the book for them!

Early OCTOBER came and my PARENTS arrived from Salt Lake City. Wow. What a fantastic 3 weeks we had with them. I HATE it that they couldn’t stay for like 6 months!!!! Our new home makes having guests a real treat – honestly! We did all the traditional HK stuff – shopped, ate and shopped some more. Occasionally we threw a church service or two in there!







Just 5 short days after they left my IN LAWS (or are they out-laws…just kidding Mom!) came along with our adorable nephew Eli. The kids had the BEST time and I must say they were all very well behaved. We enjoyed more hanging out, eating and of course the obligatory Disney trip. They stayed for 2 weeks.







Then, 5 days after they left – Our BESTEST friends from Down Under came. Wow. What a fun time we had. 8 days too short. Really – there were four of them bunked in with us and it was fantastic. The highlight was definitely our trip to Disneyland Hotel. Because of course we needed to go see our friend Boise in the LION KING (he absolutely rocks in that show). The DL hotel is WORTH it – you must go if you get the chance.







((((((OKAY, is the picture thing ticking you off yet??? IRRITATING [to coin my favorite uncle's word!] I'm obviously a picture-placing-novice. Sorry for the bizarre placement. Can't figure it out... and really, WHO CARE's!!!!!))))))))

And that brings us right up to first part of DECEMBER...

Annabelle had her first “Ballet appearance”. Wow. She really knows how to knock ‘em out! She was the only one who actually MOVED on the stage ☺ Cute. Hopefully we’ve found a talent that she’ll build on for years to come. Her teacher says she’s a natural.



A highlight for the girls is always the TREE DECORATION! We love Christmas time. My favorite time of year….

And then there was last week….. This has been such a happy up-beat post, so I won’t drag it down. I’ll write more about this event in a coming post. Most of you will have heard by now, but I flew to California last Sunday night because my aunt was dying in the hospital after attempted suicide. She’s beautiful and 54. I watched her take her final breaths on Tuesday 5 December. Words don’t describe….. But, for this post, let’s focus on one thing….

JESUS is the REASON for this SEASON. I love Christmas. I’m proud to celebrate a holiday that represents the foundation of my faith!!!!

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

The one you've waited for...

...Okay, maybe you weren't really holding your breath, but here's the long awaited BLOG update. Sheesh. I tell you what, getting internet connection these days is just hard to come by! Our lovely house is still not equipped with the wonderfully fast broadband. I mean it's here….just having signal issues to the office where the computer is. Needless to say I have tried to blog like 10 times in the past week and usually become annoyed when after logging in and waiting for the “create post” page to load it’s been 10 minutes. THIS IS A WORLD WHERE WE NEED THINGS NOW!!!! (No actually..... YESTERDAY!!!!!!)

Here’s some updates on our world (Here’s Rogers WORLD in a minute)

BRIANNA

Yes my BABY has turned two. I cannot believe it. Where did those two years go?




She is such a little light. She is SO still the “Goodge”. I have to tell you this (though I have reservations!) that she is at the 100th PERCENTILE for height and weight. Okay, she's off the charts for a two year old. AWESOME she'll be 6 feet of gorgeous blonde curls & blue eyes. Sweeeeeet. Here she is with her adored sisters. "Berday, berday, berday" Is what she shouted all day long.

DISNEY

Our beautiful friend Jen treated us to Disneyland last week. We had the most amazing day. Though it was hotter than hades out there. The girls were in heaven.

SCHOOL

Jasmine & Annabelle have (finally) started school. I say finally because they've been begging me for 3 weeks to go!!!!

My little K1 student may only be 3 1/2 but she's ready for the world. She couldn't WAIT to be there. While other parents were "hanging around" for the week to "ease" their cherubs into the routine, my little angel says to me "You go now, I go to 'cool my telf"

My first born is now in the equivalent of 1st grade! Her K3 class has 12 students and a lovely Aussie teacher named Meg - who I can already see Jasmine will adore. It's going to be a great year.
(OK I have to be honest this is not a photo from the last 7 days!!! I am too lazy to upload them from my camera so I used an old one from May!!!!)

CHURCH

HUGE event this week. Our church is opening a new service time & place. May not seem that big to most, but it's huge for my little home town/community. Disocvery Bay will now have a Friday Night-TOO-awesome-for-words-church-service. So many volunteers have worked long hours and sweat buckets to get this thing off the ground. http://www.thevine.org.hk/grapevine/pages/article1.html

It all happens on Friday night....
If you are in Hong Kong...
BE THERE OR BE QUADRILATERAL. (get a dictionary).

ME!

Okay, silly but I did think I should tell you how I am doing, since it's MY blog. In two words....

Fantastically Blessed!

And WHY did I include this picture? Because doesn't it look delicious? How do I get a picture to convey the above statement...I don't. So I thought I'd present a colorful tasty looking table setting - a meal ready for consumption. That's my life! It's all there for the taking :) Oh and by the way - that's not MY plate, it's the serving plate! It kind of looks like my personal plate at the table! And YES I absolutely made this roast dinner and in a word...it was DELISH.

Alright, this was probably one of my longer blogs, but hopefully you're not sleeping because I've included pictures and centered-bolded-colored (or coloured) text to keep your eyes from wandering to the back of your head.

LOVE YA!!!!!!!

Shameful Blogger

Okay, so first I just have to say a great big

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

to all of you who responded to my last post.Wow.

Secondly I will apologize for NOT blogging over the past 27 days. I have a few great excuses. However, the BEST one is that I've had NO INTERNET at home connection until now. Well, thats not entirely true. I do have Aarons computer, but he has been taking it with him and it has all of his settings, emails, blogs etc.

I've been to Pac Coffee a couple times, but let's face it. Not the most ideal place to blog! So I haven't checked my email in over a week. WAHHHHHHHH. That is a record for like years... actually I think it's a record going back to the BEGINNING OF INTERNET!!!! Ha. You got it, ever since the inception of email, I've been a fan :)

So, some of you may ask, "What are DOING with your time if your not emailing and blogging these days, Heidi?" Well, mostly I've been decorating and sorting and organizing and shelving and tossing and finding and moving in to a new house!!!!! And I'm sure you can appreciate that between that & three kids this is basically my whole day.

Upon our arrival into Hong Kong exactly two weeks ago I walked into my BRAND SPANKING NEW 2220 Square Foot apartment. It exceeds my dreams and Aaron is just the best hubby in the world for working hard to provide us with such an amazing home. And of course all the Glory goes WHERE? You got it.... GOD is amazing and has paved the way for this place.

Okay. I've rambled on enough. Some of you are bored now. Sorry for the delay in blogging.I'm here to tell you to come and check back in a week or so. I promise to post some more great photos and possibly have something interesting or deep to say (not!)

What is a blog without a good photo? Boring. So here is a random photo I found on Aarons computer. It's of Aaron excitedly showing me the brick stone wall in our living room... and then I couldn't resist showing you my shower.... Count the shower heads....VERY VERY COOL :)

Ciao!

The Best Shower in Hong Kong!!!

I have GROUPIES!!!!!!!

I just wanted to tell all the people who check out my blog and consistently post comments...

I MISS YOU & YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to get back home to Hong Kong. You guys are so awesome and I miss every one of you. Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to read my silly boring diaper talk.

For those of you who read up on this blog and DON'T post comments (and you TOTALLY know who you are), feel free to post even the "Ned Flanders" slam-comments! Hey it's free :)

Love all you Hong Kong people. See you soon.

Okay, check out the blue skies & that GORGEOUS mountain!!! I LOVE Utah :)