The New Addition

More Fall Pics

Enjoying Fall at the Buffalo

37 Weeks

View more on Emma's blog.

Visit Emma's Blog

Hey all! We started a blog just for little Emma so we don't crowd this blog with the million photos, videos, and stories we'd like to share with the grandparents and anyone else who is interested in how she is growing, etc. We will still have Emma and family snapshots and a few stories here and there on this blog but she's got her special place now. Check it out and keep it on your "favorites": http://emmabates.blogspot.com/

The link is also to the right of this blog under "links". Enjoy!

We're Home!

Igor picked us up from the airport. We were startled when we heard English and Spanish over the intercom after 2 years of being out of the country.



Igor made us a great breakfast with food we hadn't had in a long time. Yeah for fresh orange juice, fruit, and bagels!



Todd's family met up with us in Ft. Worth. This is our nephew Austin trying to decide who to draft for his fantasy football team. Todd is just happy to be hanging out with his favorite person.



Austin, Todd's sister Gina, and Todd at a great Texas restaurant in downtown Ft. Worth.



The family back together again!



Katie and Uncle Don



Todd and his high school soccer coach.



Todd and his youth pastor, Neil.



Katie and Chelayne, both over 8 months pregnant! You can't tell in the photo and that's what we want. :)


Todd's best friends in Arizona.


Todd's birthday dinner at the Yard House in Arizona. He's 28!

First Portrait of Emma

This is little Emma in the womb at 3 pounds and 4 ounces. We were blessed to be able to have a 4 dimensional ultrasound yesterday. It was the most surreal and beautiful experience to be able to watch her on a TV screen moving around and playing as the doctor examined her heart, lungs, and made sure she was still a she. :) Emma is healthy from head to toe so far and she's still a she as far as we can tell. The midwife in the room at the time looked at this snapshot and said, "look, she's praying." If you can see, she has her hands up in front of her face. It looks like they're folded together. This is how the local people on this island pray. Todd and I also observed that it's very possible that she has my German button nose. :) What do you guys think? Isn't she beautiful!

The Growing Belly

Katie at 30 wks, 7.5 months or so.

SE Asian Delites

Our favorite place to eat on this island is a strand of seafood restaurants right on the beach where you can see the sunset. I know, we live a hard life here. You can order fresh fish, shrimp, squid, or lobster caught that day! They add vegetables and greens along with fresh fruit juice like coconut or mango. Your table is literally in the sand right near the shoreline. You can imagine how beautiful it is. Unfortunately, we only have a few photos of the seafood before it's cooked. The last time we ate here, we had our friend Elizabeth with us! We're so glad we got to see you Elizabeth!

Russian Delites

Ever since Todd traveled with our friend Igor to Russia, the desire to eat authentic Russian food again has never left him. There is only one Russian restaurant on our island. Usually we avoid restaurants that don't do international food well, which most of them don't. There's always a few spices or a few exchanges they make in the ingredients that Southeast-Asianizes the food! But here's our tribute to Igor and delicious Russian food:

No smiling in Russian photographs.
When Todd went to anything touristy in Russia,
he just let Igor talk and most people thought he was Russian!

Russian dumplings. Mmmm!

Borsche, a Russian soup. It was close but not the same as in Russia.You have to say it in a low voice with a Russian accent, "I eat Borsche."

It's the hospitable thing to do in Russia to drink a shot of Vodka before a meal. Well, this was a local drink that wasn't quite as tasty as Vodka. Still, we enjoyed our Russian-Southeast Asian experience.

Us at our Retreat

We are back from our trip and had a great retreat with our friends this past week. Katie is around 6 1/2 months (26 weeks) pregnant and feeling great. Only 1 month left until we get the blessing of going home to the States for 6 months! We can't wait! We love you family and friends! (and Emma loves you too ;) )

Hindu Monument & Museum in Town

We call it "Moridor".

From motorbike to car

Since we're adding to our family, the time has come to take a few more measures of safety. We got a car that's really comfortable, spacious, yet not too big. Driving in this country is quite the adventure. Here we drive on the left side of the road and rather than a lot of rules, there's more like a philosophy of driving. It's "give and take". You sort of go with the flow and yield a lot but rarely to you have to come to a dead stop. Additionally, cars share the road space with motorbikes, animals, people, and religious ceremonies that are often going on where groups of people will walk a few blocks down a road playing traditional music. There is no speed limit anywhere. How many of these things are normal in the States? Yep, ZERO! :) We also have to install seat belts in the back because it's not that normal to have them in cars here. We still have our motorbike for quick trips and fun outings. Check out the ride:

Baby Emma is Growing

Last weekend Todd and I had a great time getting to see our little baby at our second ultrasound. It's most likely a girl and we are naming her Emma, a name from Katie's mom's side of the family. We we were able to really see her sweet little face, hands, legs, and heart in 4D so it was an incredible image of her moving and turning and looking straight at us! We finally started thinking through what it's going to be like to be parents and have a daughter. We're feeling joy as well as the surreal feeling of the fact that we are adding a member to our family. It won't just be the two of us anymore! Below is me at 4 months and then me at 5 months. I'm not too big, YET!

Our Visitor

We recently had a new visitor drop in.
Can you find him?
(sorry about the bathroom pic
but that's where he decided to reside)

See him now?!!
Ok, he may not look that big, but in real life,
this guy is HUGE and intimidating.

Since we didn't want to get near the guy,
Todd used our porcelain cleaner and sprayed the acidic fluid
until he looked like this. Eww!!
(I stood on a chair outside the bathroom the whole time.)

Play Time at the Park

After two months in our new location, we traveled north of our city to catch some cool/Fallish air! It was the coldest we've felt in almost 2 years! We even had a fireplace in our hotel room! I know it doesn't look cold in these pictures, but at one point I had 5 layers on!! Hmmm...but that's probably because I don't know what "cold" is anymore. Anything that causes me to have goose bumps is a sign to pack on the layers. Have we acclimated some to the tropical weather, I think so. Enjoy these photos from our time at a park in the area. We flew a kite with Anna and spend time with our friends.

We're Expecting!

Ok, we promise this won't become the "baby blog". (We'll make a separate one later.) We're almost 3 months pregnant. It's been quite an interesting experience going through the first few months while living in the heart of the tropics! I've been told to eat alot of protein if I want a boy and alot of fruit and vegetables if I want a girl. Hmmm...interesting concept. One of the questions Todd and I are asking ourselves has been, what is this dude or dudette going to look like?? Below is a baby photo of me and Todd. Can you imagine a little person that looks like us put together? Crazy!

VISA Run to Singapore

We spent most of our time in China Town.

MMmm! Dumplings!

Ok, you may not understand,
but it gets exciting when you have
your first Subway sandwhich
in a year and a half!

AND New York cheescake!