2010 Highlights - Part 3

Still about Christmas at the Millers. They have a really nice house with an amazing view of Mount Hood. If you were to stand in front of the big windows at the living room you would be able to see a clear sight of the mountain.

Front view. I love the big pine trees around the area. This place reminds me of Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. 

The side view going down hill. Simply breathtaking.

See those holes? They were made by moles and they're all over the place.

The backyard. I can imagine what summer would be like. FUN!

These are the babies of the house. Look at how healthy they are! So chubby! I think there are four of them in total if I'm not mistaken. The first one in the picture is Noel, a pretty shy cat and she is Uncle Don's baby. I'm not so sure if the next one is Shamu or another cat that looks pretty much the same with black and white fur. I know one of them has seven toes on his front paws instead of five. And then there's this white persian cat named Snowflake. Didn't get any picture of her though. I love cats but unfortunately since I left college god knows how many years that has been, I've developed some kind of allergy towards all hairy animals so I can't play with them anymore :-(.

I love the interior part of the house. The big windows, the fire place, the wood floor, the soothing green wall, the sofas, just to name a few.

The love of randomness

At one point before noon all of us gathered together in the living room to open our presents. The Millers with their children - Kristi and her husband Kevin, Staci and her beau, and the youngest daughter Briana and  the five of us. Here's Uncle Don unwrapping his.

Me with Aunt Dottie and the boys

Aunt Dottie looked so cheerful!

Three pretty sisters - Kristi, Staci and Briana.

Apart from some books, the boys got a rubber animal each from Aunt Dottie. Thank you so much! A spider for Emir which he really loves, a realistic looking bat for Farhan and a scorpion for Ezzat. They all end up in Emir's toy box  now because he's really into animals nowadays and he plays with them more than his brothers. He is currently the 'zookeeper' for his classroom, helping his teacher feeding  their class pets and he even requested for a real Tarantula as a pet which unfortunately would never be approved by his mother.

A feast on the eyes and stomach - appetizers and desserts. I am pretty sure I was busy helping myself with food that I had totally forgotten to take pictures of the main stuff. 

This is Miss Chloe. She is three (if  I'm not mistaken) and she is one very smart girl. She is the daughter of Uncle Don's niece, Jessica. 

I hope to meet you again Miss Chloe.

This is Carter. He is Miss Chloe's brother. And I fell in love with his chubby cheeks.

I had a great time snapping these pictures of Carter but it was hard to choose which ones to put on here. So I decided to put up them all!

Such a happy and very inquisitive baby

We had a Bingo blast. The last time I played the game was a long time ago when I was in primary school. It was fun especially when it's with families and the boys, especially Emir and Ezzat enjoyed the game very much. Ezzat even got Bingo twice! Farhan on the other hand  had a hard time focusing. He got pretty edgy towards the end of the day so he went to take a short nap until it was time for us to go home.

 Emir was practicing his new job as a Bingo caller and Uncle Don was supervising him.

These adorable children are Aunt Dottie's and Uncle Don's grandchildren. 

2010 Highlights - Part 2

Christmas is over. But our story about it has not been told. So Part 2 of 2010 highlights is all about Christmas. Lots of pictures, less words as usual. I'm a not a great story teller.
 
We opened up some of the presents that we got on the morning of Christmas Eve as we didn't want to carry all of them with us to Gresham, Portland where we spent a night at Aunt Dottie's house. Remember her from my Thanksgiving post? She's one of the two aunts that Daniel has and both live in Portland. Another one is Aunt Barbara. I'm so glad that we have some relatives nearby to spend the holidays with. Anyway, this is Ezzat with his new robe. This is from Grammy! And he loves it. All of them love their robes actually (including me!). Mine is in cream and it's so soft. If you guys were to hug me while I'm in my robe, it would feel like hugging a soft fuzzy teddy bear.

And the PJs! I LOVE PJs... I mean the boys love them :-). Thanks Grammy.

Some more awesome stuff from Grammy except the tweety bird slippers. Those are ours. I just used the picture to complete the collage.

Later that day we went to Aunt Dottie's house and we arrived there around 7pm. Had some light dinner and I helped Aunt's Dottie's daughter Briana made some cookies.We had a great time that night just chatting and hanging out in the kitchen.

These were some good cookies. Daniel shaped that one burned cookie. Can you spot it among the good ones?

 The boys probably woke up before the crack of dawn waiting anxiously to open their presents.

Emir got this awesome Snap Circuits Pro with 500 different projects to do and he started to put them together right away.

Ezzat checking amazing outside view using Uncle Don's binoculars while Daniel was being silly.

Uncle Don made yummy waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast and Ezzat was very pleased with it.

The weather forecast the night before said it was going to rain. But it turned out to be a great beautiful day. The boys had a blast playing in the backyard. I had a great time taking photos around the house. Daniel doesn't usually go around in pajamas but he ripped his jeans before this picture was taken :p

This boy needs to push his glasses up.

Farhan lost his tooth the night before. Now, he only has 2 middle top teeth and no teeth on the sides; hence the beaver face in the top picture.

Always the baby

Still have a lot of pictures to post on here. But it's getting late so I'll just wrap this up (for now).  Happy weekend everyone!

Just because...

I have to post this because I think it's super cute! My little sister is now an English teacher at an all-girl school back in our hometown after graduating with a TESL degree from one of the universities in Auckland, New Zealand. And this year she is assigned to be one of the form one class teachers. Form one is for students age 13 that just finished with their primary school. One of the things that she's excited about being a class teacher is to decorate her classroom and the first thing she did was this mural. 

Adik, I reblogged your stuff - hope you don't mind :p

2010 Highlights - Part 1

Happy New Year! Is it too late to wish? I know we're already in the fifth day of 2011 but then again, I'm always overdue on almost every post that I put on here. It's like time flies so fast from day to day that sometimes I make myself stop for awhile to think about whether or not I have  had a productive day. The kids are back in school, husband is back to work, house is quiet again for half of the day, and I'm back to the pre-holiday routines. New year resolutions? I don't really have any. Well, I sort of have them at the back of my mind, but let's just keep it that way :-).

We have a new addition to the Mukthi family - Nadyn Shahnaz! She was born on Dec 15, 2010 and she's the first daughter to my brother Nasfi and his wife Sherina Shahnaz. And she's also the first granddaughter in our family. Mother and daughter both share the same middle name, CUTE! I can't wait to meet you Nadyn - probably sometime this year? I don't know for sure but all I can say now is Insyallah. Living far away from our family can be pretty trying sometimes. We have missed quite a few important occasions since we left Malaysia. But to all my family and friends, please know that we are always thinking of all of you. 

Nicked these pictures from my sister's blog and FB.

 My brother, Nasfi and his wife, Shahnaz and their baby, Nadyn Shahnaz.

My dad and Shahnaz

My sister, Nabila took this video when my family when to Shahnaz's house to visit the new grandchild. In this video, my father let Nadyn tasted a little bit pureed date (following the Sunnah of the Prophet PBUH).

A slide show of Nasfi's wedding back in Mar 2009 which I've never put up on the blog. Feeling a bit nostalgic today after seeing all these pictures.

Speaking of weddings, my youngest brother Najmi got engaged on Dec 26 2010 to Dhiya Izwin. The wedding would probably be somewhere in July this year. Congratulations to you both!