October Update...

I can't believe it is already the end of October. We only have a month and a half left of our time here in Portugal. I thought I would give everyone an update as we are almost finished with our year and a half of language school. We have been very busy since Kallen's birth, with keeping up a full time class schedule as well as having my mom here for two weeks and Tim's parents here for a month. It has been so nice to have all the help and we have been able to keep up our classes. We have a new tutor who is coming to our house now, so we don't have to travel back and forth during the day with Kallen. He comes three days a week and then we still attend our regular classes on tuesdays and thursdays. In order to cram in as much Portuguese as possible this last month of November, he will be coming 4 days a week to the house as well as us still going to classes on tuesdays and thursdays. Pray for us as we try to soak in as much as possible. Tim also preaches this sunday, so please pray for him as he continues to prepare in the next couple of days.

Traeger's Portuguese is better than ours as far as pronunciation goes and the idioms of the language. He is still enjoying school and will be continuing until we leave Dec. 9. Please pray for him as he will have to say goodbye to some good friends and move again to a whole new culture.

Karis hasn't really been able to develop much of her portuguese unfortunately. She is too young to attend Traeger's school and she just hasn't had the same opportunities as him. She is doing great in her English though and sounds more and more grown up everyday. She is also now potty trained. It all happened in one day! She is doing great with it and it has been the easiest process ever for mommy and daddy! Thank you God! Pray for her with the adjustment to a new culture and that she would be able to pick up Portuguese in Mozambique quickly.

Kallen is growing like crazy and at her 1 month appointment weighed 7lbs 90z and grew 2 centimeters. She is no longer in the sleep all day mode and has started to have fussy times, but overall still better than Traeger or Karis ever were. She has already traveled all over Portugal, and has been to Spain and within the next 4 months will have been to the United States and Africa! We have already received her passport and birth abroad certificate and we are just waiting on the ssn now. Please pray for her continued health and that she would be a flexible baby with all the traveling we have ahead.

Although we have been continuing with classes and spending a lot of time on our Portuguese, it hasn't been all work. We have been showing off Portugal to Tim's parents and have seen some new places, even for us. Here are some pictures of our time with them and some updated pictures of the kids.

Here's a picture of Kallen smiling. It's the only one we've been able to photograph. She has been smiling a ton the past week or so.

This is at a beach called Odeceixe. The coast of Portugal is so diverse and every beach so different.


Karis, Grandma, and Kallen

Kallen almost smiling...

Here's all three of them.

I love this picture!

Here's another one of Kallen.

Kallen and Grandma

We took mom and dad George out for an authentic Portuguese meal. I of course did not even try it.

The "torre de Belem" or Tower of Belem

Pena Palace

This is how Kallen spent her beach days.

Here's the kids with Grandma and Grandpa. Traeger wouldn't look because the sun was in his eyes.

The kids love to hold hands while they are walking for some reason and even when they are riding on daddy and papa's shoulders.

These are cork trees. An interesting fact about Portugal: they are the world's leading exporter of cork. The cork trees are everywhere. These ones have just been harvested. The bark is the cork and every 6 or 7 years they trim off the bark and then it grows back.

Traeger found many crabs at the beach. This was the biggest he caught.

Having fun at the beach.

This is in the Algarve. The beaches are some of the prettiest beaches we've ever seen.

This is at "tres irmaos" beach or three brothers beach

More beach time. The weather has been fabulous this October and we've been able to spend quite a bit of time at the beach.