Okay, so I should warn you all that this blog will often read like a "Kids say the Darndest Things" transcript...this is because they do!  Case in point:

Reiana, our 4 year old niece, (pictured here) stares intently at Uncle Marei for a while today, and then announces, "Uncle, you have a Giant nose."

I must say, I love Marei's Giant nose, as it fits his Giant face perfectly.

Reminds me of a day about 5 years ago - 

My friend Kezia spent a few minutes looking back and forth between Marei and I's faces, and follows with,

"Man, your kids are going to have some ENORMOUS nostrils!"

Kezia, I think they've escaped the giant nostril genes thus far.  But keep your eyes open over the course of the next few years.

Jaya gets down....the girl loves to dance!

And look - I can post in Malayalam too...

മരെഇ
ലത
ജയ
രാജ

The start of our journey to the Philippines...

 We leave this Thursday for Cebu, and are here in Rapid City, South Dakota, spending some time with family.  We left Friday evening, leaving our home behind for a year.

As we packed the last of our things on Friday, here was the exchange between Jaya and I:

Jaya: "We're packing for the Pil-a-peens.  We taking our stuff."

Me: "Yes, Jaya, we're packing our things."

Jaya: "Mama, we can't take the house."

Me: "No, we can't."

Jaya (in her omniscient toddler voice):  "Yeah, Mom, it's too heavy."