Skylar Cecily

Skylar is now officially 1 1/2.  That means that she can:

-walk, run, talk, make big messes and go to nursery.  (I'm the nursery leader in our ward so it's not really that big of a deal.  She's been in nursery for about 4 months now anyway.)

So this post is dedicated to Sky!

This was her Valentine this year which sums up a lot about her personality.  In photo #1 she wouldn't pose and only cared about trying to break into the pool area.  In photo #2 I gave her a heart cookie cutter to hold thinking that would help her pose better but she immediately tried to push it up her nose and cover her face with it.  In photo #3 I gave her some flowers and thought that would help with the photo taking but they were just too fun to smell so we just decided to stop and smell the flowers instead of getting a great shot with her full face showing.
These were the 3 best photos I got which just tells you that she's a busy girl right now with lots more important things to do than pose for photos.

This is how Skylar addresses everyone in our family:

Daddy = Daddy
Mommy = Mommy
Sammy = Sassy
Bailey = Bay duh
Carson = Car key
Jack = Dackie
Marnelie = Marnie

We love this girl and she is so much fun to have around!  She does scream loudly when she wants something but I guess you have to scream when you are the smallest person around a bunch of big people.

She is lucky to have the 2 best big bro's and 2 best big sisters a girl could ask for.  They sure love her!

She is the main attraction with all of her siblings friends also.  She's always getting carried away by her big sisters and brother's friends:

She even gets carried away by our adult friends sometimes!

She's a girl with many hobbies: here she is doing one of her favorites: pulling all of the dishes and stuff out of the kitchen cupboards. 

Here she is captivated with her favorite TV show: Teletubbies.  It's the only show that has ever grabbed her attention and when it comes on she screams, "Tubbies!" at the top of her lungs!  (Sammy was our other kid obsessed with teletubbies.)

Here she is sitting at my desk making an important phone call.

 We know for sure that she's a Daynes because she loves chips with mom's homemade "Christmas salsa."  Sometimes the chip becomes too cumbersome and she just eats the salsa straight with her hand.  This stuff has quite a kick.  Girl after Bailey's heart!  Bailey was eating kimchi at this age in Korea and lovin' it!

We're sure glad you could complete our family!  Hopefully we won't have to endure many more of these tantrums...but we love you anyway. xoxox.

Duathlon Day!

Today was Bailey and Carson's first duathlon!  Mike also did the duathlon but this was not his first...and his distance was much longer than B & C's race.  That means they ran, biked and then ran again.

The duathlon was at East Coast Park in Singapore.  It was a nice, overcast morning (Singapore overcast that is, which is never too cool) for our runners.

Bailey had a great showing and finished in 2nd place for her age group.  Carson also had an excellent race, finishing in 5th place.  He was amazing on both of the running portions but struggled a little bit with the transitions.  He was in second place on the first run but got passed by a lot of boys on the biking portion of the race.  That was mostly due to the fact that he was riding on Bailey's mountain bike.  So, he should be so proud of himself for finishing in fifth place!

It was great to have some friends to hang out with before the race: Mason Gammons and Holly Lesser!

 It was sweet to have Sammy there to cheer on her friend and sib's in their races!  Next time she might as well race since she had to get up at 6:30am to go support the racers anyway.

                                                                Everyone's a Winner!

Since Bailey scored second place she got a silver medal and $100 voucher for running shoes at a local   running store.  The other girls weren't there to stand on the podium.  The third place girl's mom stood on the podium for her...too funny!

Carson was hanging during the awards ceremony.

Gotta love Bailey...this all American girl was Irish dancing her heart out at the SAS County Fair a couple of hours after finishing the duathlon.  They have a new dance called Gypsie which was really

fun to watch!

As for Mike...lame, I know, that there's no photos of him.  He was hard to catch b/c he was running around all morning getting ready for his race.  We had to leave him on the East Coast so we could get back for Sammy's commitment at the school fair.  We watched him start and he looked great!  It was a bummer that we didn't get to see him finish the race though!  Such a fun Saturday!

Bollywood!

Mike and I had a great time at a Bollywood party last night!  It was at our church here in Singapore.  Fun idea:  they brought in 2 Bollywood dance instructors and split everyone into 2 groups.  We each learned a different dance and then we came together and had a "dance off!"
We had to learn a 2 minute dance routine in about 45 minutes. 
I wish I'd taken more photos but here are a few:

Here's Carrie and I posing with our hennas.  We spent a few days in Little India this week getting our outfits ready.

The ladies!

The men!

 

Notice Mike in the front (the guy with the sweet wig!)

My friend Malia - she won best costume.  Doesn't she look great?

  We were definitely glowing after all that dancing!!!

Thaipusam

OK..I know that I should be finishing my post on Italy, writing my Africa and Philippines posts, etc. etc.  etc. BUT...I just can't resist posting about Thaipusam, a Hindu festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
It is believed by Hindus that on this day, Goddess Parvati presented a lance to Lord Murugan to vanquish the demon army of Tarakasura and combat their evil deeds.

Thaipusam is a celebration of the victory of good over evil.

Many devotees bear milk, water, fruit and floral tributes on pails hung from a yoke and carry them on their shoulders to various Murugan temples, far and near.  In Singapore they get their piercings and their heavy loads at one temple and then walk barefoot 4.5 kilometers to another temple.

Many fanatical devotees go to such extent as to torture their bodies to appease the Lord. So, a major feature of Thaipusam celebrations is body piercing with hooks, skewers and small lances called 'vel'. Many of these devotees even pull chariots and heavy objects with hooks attached to their bodies. Others pierce their tongue and cheek to impede speech and thereby attain full concentration on the Lord. Most devotees enter into a trance during such piercing due to the incessant drumming and chanting of "vel vel shakti vel."

After 6 years in Singapore now I had been meaning to go to this festival for several years.  Usually my friends go in the middle of the night and I haven't been excited about that.  This year, my friend Carrie and I decided to go in the morning when the kids left for school.

We parked in Little India and walked down Serangoon Road where we saw many people who had been pierced and were walking with their families to the other temple:

                                            This is the temple where they begin their walk.

 Here's a pair of shoes that many wear on the walk; definitely not near as comfy as my Tom's!

                      The families bring milk and prepare it for their family members to carry.

This man was leaving the temple to make the walk on only one leg.  Wow!

We watched this guy get "hooked."

Then we saw him get pierced.

We watched the chanters putting people into a "trance" so that they couldn't feel the pain.

Watching his tongue get pierced made me pretty queasy.

We had to take off our shoes when entering the temple grounds.  We decided to keep our shoes in our bags with us...there were hundreds of shoes on the grounds so we thought there was a good chance we'd never find them again.

What an education we got today!  I can't wait to take my older kids to this festival sometime and ask them if they think what our church requires of us is too much.  I think after seeing this they may decide that being a member of our church is a piece of cake!