Tree-Hugging at G+G Cutler's

We had a hard time saying goodbye to our temporary home at Grandma and Grandpa Cutler's house, but we were all excited to go!

Moving and Christmas Together

Wonderful Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave and Grandpa Cutler came from Dallas to rescue us! They brought food, laughter, fun, and lots of elbow grease. Katie packed my piles into suitcases, cleaned bathrooms, and played with the baby, while Grandpa and Dave cleaned up the house and ran errands for us. We might still be there if they hadn't come to scoot us out of there!


This is Grandma and Grandpa Cutler reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas to the boys--a Cutler family tradition. What a relief to get to Mom and Dad's house where the fridge works, there's lots of toys, and lots of love. Katie and Dave and Kimmy were already there, and Amy, James and Max arrived later.


This is Russell watching the packers pack up our air shipment on our last day in our house. Both Isaac and Russell have been so brave about this whole thing, and did amazingly well without toys for a week in our nearly-empty house. They mostly just ran around outside and inside and improvised toys out of boxes and junk!


Sadly enough, our beloved harvest gold fridge broke two days before we moved. I've been praying for the ugly thing to die for a long time, but I wasn't quite prepared for it. Isaac filmed a 3-minute inch-by-inch tribute to the thing, and I called all my friends to come over for free food while I made chicken, rolls, and frozen vegetables for breakfast!


We had to say goodbye to our beautiful Martha Washington Duck. Robin and David came to visit and we took her down to the creek for her first and final swim there (I think the water level was finally low enough that she wasn't afraid!). She is living now with the Mellors in our ward who will take good care of her. We will miss our loyal friend.


Graham tried out the bouncer this week for the first time and loved it! He also rolled over, put his pacifier in his mouth, and laughed all within a matter of days! He is endlessly happy and smiley.


The moving truck drove off with most all of our stuff. Russell was especially impressed with the sheer size of the thing. We only filled half of it, but we've certainly got lots more stuff than when we drove up to the house five and half years ago with a little U-Haul! Russell has said several times with gravity since the truck drove off, "The moving truck took our trains to India." And then Isaac chimes in, "Yea, we won't see them for a long time!"


The great thing about moving is that you find long-lost stuff--like the mouthpiece to our bugle. We barely had time to enjoy it and practice our bugling talents before it too was carted off to India. Luckily we've got some of those Legos in our air shipment so we can build towers in our empty house!


It was such a relief to finally arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dallas and settle in to the Christmas fun. We are so glad to have this stopover trip with our loved ones before we face our adventures in India!


We will miss so many of our friends in Austin. We wish we'd been together enough to take pictures of all of them, but here's our next-door-neighbor Chloe.


And here's Joseph Wells. The boys didn't get a chance to say a formal "goodbye" to Joseph, Jacob, and Serena Wells, but we will surely remember them and keep in touch.

You Can Call Us!

This is us talking on the phone to Grandma and Grandpa Cutler via Skype. We can talk to all ya'll this way at only 2 cents a minute or free if you use your computer! Technology is such a blessing for us here--it keeps us connected here so much more than expats of previous generations. I got my own cell phone last week and everyone seems to have one here. Drivers, maids, everyone.

The Fabulous Flight

The boys were angels on the airplane. Of course, it helped that we were sitting in business class, but I don't think they would have cared. We played musical seats several times for variety, but we all slept for probably 8-10 hours of the 15-hour flight. Nana sent a bag full of planes that delighted Russell to no end (and annoyed the man two seats behind who was not amused by the airplane sounds he made while playing!). And Isaac loved listening to books on tape with the headset and cassette player from G&G Cutler and Aunt Katie.

Graham slept nearly the entire flight to Delhi in the bassinet. The rest of the time he played with his dinosaur from Aunt Katie and drooled a lot.

Graham also spent some time hanging out with the flight attendant Sheri. At one point, she took him and disappeared! I was a little worried, but figured she couldn't go far with us all on the same airplane over an ocean. She re-appeared after a few minutes, and it was a welcome break for Russell to get some one-on-one attention.

Off We Go!!

We had a hard time saying goodbye to our temporary home at Grandma and Grandpa Cutler's house, but we were all excited to go!

Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Kimmy were all there to help us check in our 15 bags, 3 car seats, and one stroller. Rich had weighed each one with a bathroom scale and stuffed things in until they were 50 lbs. each. The woman at the counter was endlessly patient and helpful with us. After much to-do, we said goodbye and went through security with our 9 carry-on bags, only to realize we forgot the other stroller! Once we got on the plane, we had to wait an hour on the ground for clearance to go to Chicago, but luckily we had our bag of tricks to keep us busy!

Aunt Kimmy was a super-hero in helping us get ready to go. She made several trips to stores for odds and ends, and then got several fun pictures of family developed for us to take along to help us remember. We will sure miss her while she's on her mission!

Here's us in the Dallas airport super-excited to go!

Moving and Christmas Together

Wonderful Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave and Grandpa Cutler came from Dallas to rescue us! They brought food, laughter, fun, and lots of elbow grease. Katie packed my piles into suitcases, cleaned bathrooms, and played with the baby, while Grandpa and Dave cleaned up the house and ran errands for us. We might still be there if they hadn't come to scoot us out of there!


This is Grandma and Grandpa Cutler reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas to the boys--a Cutler family tradition. What a relief to get to Mom and Dad's house where the fridge works, there's lots of toys, and lots of love. Katie and Dave and Kimmy were already there, and Amy, James and Max arrived later.


This is Russell watching the packers pack up our air shipment on our last day in our house. Both Isaac and Russell have been so brave about this whole thing, and did amazingly well without toys for a week in our nearly-empty house. They mostly just ran around outside and inside and improvised toys out of boxes and junk!


Sadly enough, our beloved harvest gold fridge broke two days before we moved. I've been praying for the ugly thing to die for a long time, but I wasn't quite prepared for it. Isaac filmed a 3-minute inch-by-inch tribute to the thing, and I called all my friends to come over for free food while I made chicken, rolls, and frozen vegetables for breakfast!


We had to say goodbye to our beautiful Martha Washington Duck. Robin and David came to visit and we took her down to the creek for her first and final swim there (I think the water level was finally low enough that she wasn't afraid!). She is living now with the Mellors in our ward who will take good care of her. We will miss our loyal friend.


Graham tried out the bouncer this week for the first time and loved it! He also rolled over, put his pacifier in his mouth, and laughed all within a matter of days! He is endlessly happy and smiley.


The moving truck drove off with most all of our stuff. Russell was especially impressed with the sheer size of the thing. We only filled half of it, but we've certainly got lots more stuff than when we drove up to the house five and half years ago with a little U-Haul! Russell has said several times with gravity since the truck drove off, "The moving truck took our trains to India." And then Isaac chimes in, "Yea, we won't see them for a long time!"


The great thing about moving is that you find long-lost stuff--like the mouthpiece to our bugle. We barely had time to enjoy it and practice our bugling talents before it too was carted off to India. Luckily we've got some of those Legos in our air shipment so we can build towers in our empty house!


It was such a relief to finally arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dallas and settle in to the Christmas fun. We are so glad to have this stopover trip with our loved ones before we face our adventures in India!


We will miss so many of our friends in Austin. We wish we'd been together enough to take pictures of all of them, but here's our next-door-neighbor Chloe.


And here's Joseph Wells. The boys didn't get a chance to say a formal "goodbye" to Joseph, Jacob, and Serena Wells, but we will surely remember them and keep in touch.

Stranger Than Fiction

There are some days that are so crazy that all you can do is throw up your hands and laugh! On Wednesday we found out that Rich did indeed have to travel to Paris for work. We both weren't looking forward to a week without each other while one of us was in such a romantic place, so we figured out a way so that Graham and I could go with him to Paris and Ross and Claudia could watch the boys in Dallas. So Thursday I started doing laundry and packing like a mad woman so we could leave on Friday for Dallas.

The first adventure of the day came when I washed and dried ALL (no exaggeration here!) of Rich's dress pants with a waterproof gel ink pen and they all came out with black spots on them. Yikes!

So while I was calling everyone I could think of to get their opinion on how to get the pen out and directing the boys to pack their bags, I walked over to the stairs and noticed a cute little red handprint on each step leading upstairs to the bathroom.


No problem, I thought--all the paint I have within reach of the boys is washable. Then I remembered the acrylic craft paint I'd just packed in Russell's bag for a craft project they were planning to do at Grandma's house. Whoops! My darling little boy had poured a puddle of each color on the floor of my bedroom, and then when he noticed how dirty his hands were, he made his way upstairs to wash them because he can only reach the sink up there!

We have needed new carpet since we moved in, so I decided to leave the handprints there. Maybe the artwork will motivate us to get new carpet. Meanwhile, every person that walks in the door will get a taste of life with a 2-year-old!

Isaac's 5th Birthday Party

Catching a rocket balloon at Isaac's 5th birthday party. Rich and Katie took charge of the games and the party in general and did a tremendous job. They launched rockets with Alka-Seltzer and film canisters, threw rocket balloons filled partly with lentils, and launched rocket balloons attached to drinking straws along long pink strings.

Thanks to Grandma Cutler who made the fabulous ROCKET cake with Isaac's help (and only one tantrum).

Russell was pretty glum at Isaac's party until he got to hold the empty pinata. He carried it around for days, blasting it off everywhere. I'm still cleaning up the orange and yellow streamers . . .