Happy New Year!!

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Delhi but no Agra

Some highlights of Grandma and Grandpa's visit thus far...

Golconda Forts

One of the first (and plainest) of many tombs built

Nagel family walking around Chowmahalla Palace

Of course we have been regulars at Westin hotel (special bonus to see Jude there!)


Just taking a break with Grandma

With great excitement we flew from Hyderabad to Delhi on December 26th. The plan was to stay in Delhi for two nights (giving us plenty of time to explore), take the early morning train on December 28th to Agra (Taj Mahal) for one night and then head back to Delhi via late train, staying one night in Delhi to catch the morning flight home to Hyderabad. 

... 

The reality- 

We greatly enjoyed our time in Delhi on the 26th and 27th (picture update coming soon). The night of the 27th Bill and I were woken up with horrible food poisoning...truly the most awful thing ever! We made plans A, B, and C for trying to get to Agra later that day or the next day...to make a long story short we never made it to Agra due to 80% of us getting sick...so thankful to make it home on the 30th!

I am continuing to get better each day. Please pray for our family to get and stay healthy! 

Happy New Year!

Christmas morning

Harrison LOVES Jake and the Neverland Pirates! We have one very excited boy!!

Daddy couldn't resist buying Harrison his first guitar...now Daddy and Harrison can play and sing together!!!


We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! 

For 3 day straight (including sleeping) Harrison wore his bandana

Preparing for Christmas

Grandma and grandpa arrived safely to Hyderabad for Christmas!!!

Introduced Harrison to the greatness of cleaning the beater of cookie dough

Stories on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to Harrison, Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy and Daddy

Sports Day

Harrison as he is getting ready to race with his classmates at sports day!!!

Singing songs together! Harrison was pretty excited to see me (he had no idea I was coming to watch).

Not quite ready to head to school yet

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Picnic, sleeping and a new monkey

On Saturday afternoon Bill and I took a little nap...woke up to Harrison setting up a picnic for us :)

After a rough night of coughing Harrison came into our bed and slept so peacefully...this is the first time since he was a baby that I have taken a picture of him sleeping, I was always afraid of waking him up. 

On Monday night Harrison was so not ready for bed at his 7:30pm bedtime. Bill played reverse psychology and told him he could play in his room...at 10:30pm we found toys on the floor and a very cute sleeping boy. 

Tuesday morning Harrison was greeted with a new monkey from our driver, Faiyaz. Harrison was excited and immediately gave his new monkey lots of hugs!  

Before getting out of the car for school...Harrison wanted to make sure monkey was safely strapped in...

Friends

Sarika (on the right) and Saachi (on the left) jumping together- these two girls are so cute and Harrison loves playing with them! 

One last piano time before Nathan and his family leave for California 

Huge hugs with Ethan before he goes to Russian...for TWO months to visit his grandparents


So Blessed with wonderful friends! 

Christmas is almost here

You have no idea how excited I was to see a section of Christmas decorations at HyperCity...felt like I was at Target 

Our first gingerbread house! Nope I/we didn't make it...bought at the wonderful Westin hotel 

Harrison at church loving his cupcake, or should I say icing 

Harrison enjoying his sugar cookie!

Jude enjoyed his cookie and moved on to a strawberry Santa

Cuddling with Frosty the Snowman while watching Frosty on t.v. 

All I want for Christmas

Santa letter completed! Harrison also wanted to include a receipt he taped up as a letter and a separate drawling...

Feels like Christmas at my house...Thank you so much Ward family!!!

Our dear friends, Megan and Brad put together this amazing arrangements of snacks for us! I told Harrison that Daddy had a surprise for him (the goodies came via Bill's coworkers whom were working in the Seattle office for a couple weeks) right before we picked Bill up from work. Harrison has been asking for gummy bunnies for the past couple weeks and was SO EXCITED to have a pack...or two...along with a couple handfuls of Goldfish. By the time we got home it was bed time, so tomorrow morning Harrison will wake up to a new book (thanks so much Emily for picking out this special book), pretzel sticks, gummy bears and graham crackers. (NOT to be eaten all at once). I am EXTREMELY excited for the dark chocolate covered caramels and peanut butter cups...to be rationed out. However the roast seaweed will be an awesome snack tomorrow! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Christmas tree and party

Merry Christmas from the Nagels!!!

Harrison was not so sure about going to see Santa so I went with him. We had a good time at the Big Bellies Christmas party and we are very thankful for a wonderful community of new friends.

A magnetic slate with the alphabet!! Funny how earlier in the day I was thinking he needed some more letter for the fridge...not anymore 

A couple of Harrison's best buddies- Ethan and Nathan. Nathan and his family will be moving back California next week. Thankfully Gee's (Nathan's mom) best friend lives in the Seattle area so we will see each other again, and California is not too far to travel from Seattle. I will greatly miss our play dates! 

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On the Ganges

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Meet our elf... Snowmanie (Harrison loves to add ie to everything he names)

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Indian dress and Ethan's 5th birthday party

Bill and I had a great time on Saturday night at our friend Roy's wedding reception. I loved wearing my new dress!

Harrison was a little timid of getting up the ladder on the bouncy slide at first. However, once he master it he was so proud of himself and had a TON of fun. Here he is taking a break and pretending he is on a pirate ship.

Harrison and his love for icing….why use a fork when you can use your tongue!

Recordable books and auto ride

 Recordable books are AMAZING! Harrison has loved having Nana, Poppy and Debbie read to him. 

 We decided to let our driver have Saturday morning off and experience our first auto to the Westin for breakfast! We had one very excited boy! Honestly it was pretty neat to do and not a bad ride at all. 

Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving! Harrison really liked his craft=turkey hat from Nana

A beautiful morning at Botanical Gardens with friends, they guys to the left were filming a show and found the kids to be quite entertaining 

Get ready to go find turkey prints! Thank you so much Laura for inviting us all to gather for a morning of fun. First the kids ran around trying to find the "hidden" turkey prints and then a very small race before prizes where given. It was so much fun and a wonderful way to start the day! 

Why not have a cow all tied up at the Botanical Gardens!

Some of our new friends in India! From the left is Stan and Carol from Amazon and their daughter Kate to the right. Kate has been cooking for us at least once a week since we moved here. They will be moving back to Seattle in a couple weeks, we will miss them but will look forward to a reunion in Seattle in a couple years. Stella (Ethan's momma) is next to Kate then Bambi and her husband Srini. Bambi is my exercise partner and lives in our complex.

Why not have band playing in the street as we walk/dance to the wedding hall. 

And a man carrying lanterns on his head….

This picture was taken right before the heavy rain began. Harrison was a trooper and very fascinated with the band, dancing and fire crackers. They rain did not bother him at all 

While Harrison was at school today (Friday) Bill and I attended the welcoming of the bride into the grooms home, they will be living with his mother and father. The traditional wedding gift for the bride is jewelry.