Merry Christmas!

We had such a fun Christmas with my family! I'm so glad we were able to come see my parents and brother and spend the holidays with them. We barely ever get to see them since they live so far away, so it's been great to be able to stay for so long. Jayna has warmed right up to everyone and loves all the attention. And of course she got spoiled rotten today!

Jayna playing with some of her toys from Santa.
I think her favourites were the phone and the doll.

Jayna feeding her baby some lettuce

Jayna the Chef

Jayna loved this toy car and was making car sounds too

My brother Sami, my mom and dad, Olya, a friend of the family,
and Gibb and I on Christmas morning after we opened all the presents (Jayna is napping).
Jayna was so tired while we were opening presents, she didn't really get how to get the paper off either. She mostly just liked playing with the wrapping paper.

Me and Sami

My parents, they're so cute!

Gibb and I testing out these sweet massagers that my Dad got for Christmas.
Gibb's on the back massager and I'm on the foot one. These are the best, I could've just sat there all day, they're so relaxing!!!

Jayna having fun on Christmas day!

Jayna chowing down on some turkey!

She would only eat this and the sweet potatoes from the whole dinner, she wouldn't even eat the mashed potatoes, she really missed out!

At the end of the day we got to talk some of our family on the phone and of course had some yummy pie. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at our house is pretty relaxed. We all hang out and have some good snacks, read a Christmas story, play some games, watch a movie, maybe make a gingerbread house. We didn't really get very many pictures, but we had a fun night. Jayna got to stay up a little bit later and then after she went to bed we watched Miracle on 34th Street on the big screen. I love that Christmas movie, it's definitely one of my favourites!

Jayna was so tired from staying up an hour late

We were listening to Christmas music all night and Jayna was dancing, which she loves to do. And then during the song Deck the Halls she started singing along to the Fa La la la la part. It was so cute! She loves making funny noises with her tongue all the time and she thought it was so fun. Of course when we tried to get it on video she just sat there looking at us like we were crazy!

Creek Park

They have some beautiful parks here in Dubai. This one we went to was right on the Creek, hence the name Creek Park. There are cable cars that we were going to ride on but the day we went was a "cable car holiday"! So we had some fun on the playground there.

Night in Dubai

Well Jordana says I never post anything so I figured I would make a short post to keep her happy. We went out last night and took some pictures. It was pretty fun playing with the camera trying to get just the right exposure. We ended up getting some nice ones.

We went to a couple of local mosque's

 

Then to the beach. Burj al arab was lit up beautifully. We only had one problem, trying to keep still for the 3-5 second exposures... Kyle, any secrets??

Christmas Dress

Today we tried to take pictures of Jayna in her Christmas dress. The problem was that we waited until after church when she was way overdue for her nap. But I figured if we didn't do it then we'd never get her all dressed up in it again, so we just went for it. This is pretty much how all the shots were turning out...

Until Grandpa finally took pity on her and stopped the cruelty

and even got her smiling again!

So we managed to get a couple decent shots, which considering the circumstances we'll have to be happy with. Poor little sweetie!!

Fun in the Sun

We're having so much fun here already. We've pretty much been doing the usual for Dubai, which includes lots of shopping, going to the beach, and eating tons of good food! Jayna is warming up to everyone slowly but surely. She's grandma's little buddy and calls her "ma", she alternates between being scared of grandpa and thinking he's a funny guy, and is still a little scared of Uncle Sami. She has been more spoiled here in the last 6 days than she ever has, if that's possible, and I'm sure we'll be doing damage control for months after this! But that's what grandparents are for, right?

Jayna bonding with Grandpa

We had a fun day at the beach. Jayna liked playing in the sand, but was terrified of the water. She wouldn't even let us go that close to it without clinging to us for dear life.

Gibb and Sami dug a 6 foot hole with Jayna's beach toy (don't ask me why they thought that was so fun).

We drove out to the desert one day and took some pictures in the sand dunes

Jayna saw her first camel

We bought Jayna her own little pool to go swimming in, since she won't swim in the ocean

My Mom and Dad

All these pictures were taken at a hotel (if you can cal it that), it's more like a huge complex with hotels and stores and restaurants and there's water all around it, so if you're staying at the hotel you can take these little boats to get to the pools and to your room and stuff.

We made it...

Gibb and I were already dreading the plane rides to Dubai. The longest flight was going to be 12 hours, and we were just hoping that Jayna might sleep for an hour or two of that. But we knew it was going to be even worse than we thought when we boarded our plane in Cleveland and had to wait almost 90 minutes before we took off. Of course we were one of the unlucky ones who boarded the plane first and had to wait all that time on the aircraft. All flights taking off and landing in Washington D.C. were grounded because of fog. We thought we might still be okay, even though we only had an hour to catch our next flight, because that flight would probably be delayed too. No such luck, we missed our flight by 5 minutes! Of course by now it's 10:30 pm, we're stuck in the Dulles airport and waiting in a huge line for customer service. Finally at this point at our luck turned and we got the nicest lady who helped us re-route our tickets, hooked us up with a great hotel, taxi vouchers, and even a little upgrade. So we stayed overnight in Washington and then flew to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and finally arrived in Dubai, only 48 hours after we left Cleveland. We must have been a sight for sore eyes. We were all so exhausted and totally jet lagged, the first couple days really feel like a blur. Poor Jayna only slept 6 hours total from the time we left Washington until we got to Dubai, and on our last flight I noticed she was cutting a tooth! All I have to say is Thank goodness for Lufthansa for having a bassinet on the plane Jayna could sleep in, that was a lifesaver! Despite all that she was so good on the trip and now the flights home seem like a piece of cake. Anyways it was all worth it now that we're here, it's so great to see my family and be in warm weather!!

Christmas Party

We went to our first Christmas party this year at our church last night. It was a good time as usual, lots of great food, good company and cute entertainment: children singing Christmas songs! But the highlight for us was definitely seeing Santa. We've been wanting to take Jayna to go see Santa this year but just hadn't gotten a chance yet. Jayna didn't really want to wait in line so we just let her play until all the other kids had seen Santa and then we were one of the last ones. Jayna sat on Santa's lap for a second or two, looking around really confused and then looked up at him and started screaming!! This was pretty much exactly what I predicted she would do. And I still think it was worth it to have waited that long just for that because I think the picture is hilarious!! (Our camera is still broken, but luckily our friend Rochelle snapped it for us, Thanks Rochelle!)

Jayna realizing she's sitting on some weird looking guys' lap

Gibb said that she was shaking after she was so scared

Trying to bribe her after with a candy cane

I know it probably seems cruel, but it was pretty funny! Poor Jayna, she's scared of Everything!

Jayna's Favourites

Book: Touch and Feel
She likes to pet all the animals and comb their fur, and now she has a new Touch and Feel Monster book from her Hill cousins!

Word: Bye-bye
Jayna says this all the time, when she's in her crib after a nap, when she's playing, when she's eating, and for about 10 minutes every morning after Gibb leaves for school

Toys: Pink Ball and Shapes
It's a toss up, she loves both of these toys so much


Food: Milk
Again it's a toss up, she likes a lot of different foods, like cottage cheese, grapes, frozen peas... but Jayna LOVES her sippy!

Game: Being Chased
All we have to say is "I'm gonna get you!", and she starts running away, or crawling away actually, as fast as she can!

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider
She loves the actions and clapping at the end