Preschool Graduation

On Tuesday, June 4th, Joseph graduated from preschool!

They took this picture of him in a cap & gown and put it in a frame for a gift! I love this picture!!! The sash he's wearing says "Congratulations on graduating from The Little Dears Preschool!" 

Below you can see some pictures and videos of his little graduation ceremony! 

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outdoor fun

The days have been pretty hot lately, but the evenings are still cool enough to be outside. We've had some fun times outside during this time! One day we found a really great park! We didn't even know it existed and it's very close to us!

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Random Preschool Post

It seems that there's been a lot happening at the preschool lately. They've been learning a lot and having lots of special days  too! They've had field trips and party days...most of it I don't have pictures of. bummer.

Joseph's teacher started a chat group with all of the mom's of the boys in his class. That's been fun! She'll post pictures sometimes!

Faith's teacher has gotten sick and had to leave, so they have a sub for the rest of the year. It doesn't seem to bother Faith at all. She's got so many friends, that's the best part for her!

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New Cats!

Aunt Melissa got new kittens and we were so excited to meet them!

I talked with the kids before we got there about how to be gentle with them since they're still new and they're babies. They did a pretty good job! There was one time that they did something to make Faith laugh really hard! (He laugh can be really loud.) It made the kittens scared and they ran off! haha!!

Here's a few pictures and one video of the kids and the kittens.

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Jojo Day!

April 28th is Jojo Day! It's the date that we officially had Joseph in our arms. We took him from the orphanage and he was no longer an orphan! That is the date that our lives changed forever! We were no longer just the two of us. We became a family of three. What a ride it has been! We are so amazed at what a blessing this boy has been and continues to be! His personality is so much fun. He keeps us entertained at all times.

This year we celebrated 5 years with him! Five wonderful years with my favorite boy!

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Another tooth is gone!

Joseph lost his second tooth the same day as the Easter Reading. We were all exhausted that evening. The kids went to bed and I laid down on the couch. I was surprised when he got up after he was down for the night. He came out and brought me his tooth! I couldn't believe it! His first adult tooth came in and pushed his second baby tooth out.

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Easter Baskets at Preschool

Joseph and Faith were so excited about Easter! They brought Easter Baskets to give to their friends at
school. Their friends didn't understand what it was, but they were happy about their gifts. Inside to baskets they got candy and a picture of Jesus with a verse on it.















Here's a few pictures of their classmates with their baskets! What fun it was to give these out!

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Random Feb/Mar pics

This is a pic of the kids' first face painting experience! So fun!

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friends at school

Here's a few pictures of Joseph and Faith with their friends at school! They really love their friends! When they come home talking about the fun times that they have with their friends at preschool, it makes us happy! Even thought it's hard to send them.

Joseph has only boys in his class.

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Joseph lost his first tooth!

Joseph lost his first tooth at the end of February!!

It was sort of shocking how it happened. The tooth wasn't loose that we knew of. He used his teeth to open the top of his water bottle and it came out. He was so confused that he picked it up and threw it away.

He didn't know that it was even possible for teeth to come out. So, when Tim and I got excited for him he was even more confused! haha!

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Winter Break

Joseph and Faith had a Winter Break for 2 1/2 weeks. It was so much fun to have time together as a family! We had a sort of "staycation," and enjoyed doing things close to home!

We found some fun parks to play at with just our family as well as with friends. The kids rode their bikes and they both got better at riding! We also went to the beach and to the fort...since the weather was so great!

Check out some of our pictures over these couple of weeks...

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Faith turned 4

Faith's birthday was on January 4th and we were all so excited to be celebrating this precious girl! She's our little princess and she has been such a blessing in our family in so many ways!

We had everyone over to our house for lunch that day! Faith was so excited that it was her turn to have her birthday. I still can't believe she turned 4!

Belle is her favorite princess and she had asked me to make a Belle cake for her. She also got to wear a special shirt with Belle!

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Faith's first stitches

I got a phone call from the preschool and the director said, "Faith fell down and you need to take her to the hospital!" I got into the car as fast as I could and soon found out that Faith had a cut on the back of her head. It was obvious that she would need a couple of stitches, but I knew she'd be ok.

I'm actually surprised that Faith hasn't had any other major injuries until now. She's quite clumsy, always falling down or bumping into things. Often times when she's running I find myself yelling, "Faith! Be careful!"

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Faith Day

November 21st is Faith Day at the Saltzman house!! It's the anniversary of when we went to Ethiopia and had her in our arms. A few days later we left Ethiopia with this tiny, precious little bundle! Our lives have never been the same. This girl is such a blessing in our lives!! She's full of spunk and laughter, which is so much fun!

She had been so excited about this day for a while. We had decided that we would go to Johnny Rockets and Faith was ready to order Chocolate flavored Coke! What a treat for her!

It's our tradition for Joseph and Faith to wear Ethiopian clothes on this special day. We talk about how we went to the orphanage in Ethiopia on this day and how happy we were to bring Faith into our family!! Faith got a new name that day! She went from being "Bethlehem" to "Faith Bethlehem!"

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Preschool Update

It's been more than a month since I've written about the preschool. It seems like so much has happened in this last month! It's been a huge learning curve for the kids and for us. But, thankfully, Joseph and Faith really love going to school!

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Halloween in the Middle East

Last Wednesday before the kids went to preschool, Joseph announced, "Today is Halloween and we need to dress up!" I'm not sure where he got the idea that it's Halloween since it's not a public holiday. Stores don't have decorations. Only a few restaurants are decorated. I know his friends at preschool don't talk about it, they don't know what it is.

So, we found a couple of costumes that we have and pretended like we were in America, dressing up for Halloween. Joseph was Spiderman and Faith was princess Reepunzel (as she calls her).

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Preschool Happenings

Joseph and Faith love school! It's such a joy to hear them say, "I love school, Mommy!" They wear uniforms three days a week and "sports clothes" on the other two days. One day they came home with a note that said they should wear "party clothes" on Thursday, since they were having a party. Here they are in their party clothes.

Of course they were excited about a party, who isn't? They came home that day full of sugar, but very happy! It was a special day for the preschool.

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Fun at the Beach

Last week we decided to pack sandwiches and go to the beach. We brought snacks and sand toys to share! Even though we live on an island we have to drive 45 minutes to get to a beach. It was a fun time.

I couldn't help but compare this beach time to previous years when our kids were younger. Now Joseph is one of the oldest kids and they're swimming out farther in the water! It's fun to watch them grow up!

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swimming weather

It's cooling off a little here in the Middle East...enough to go swimming again! There were a couple of months that were just too hot to go swimming. The water temperature had risen to where it wasn't refreshing to be swimming.

Joseph and Faith love swimming and it's so much fun to watch them continue to improve in their swimming abilities! Faith loves wearing her swimming suit without floaties, but she's not quite confident to swim without help. She watches Joseph swimming all over the pool, though, and wants to be able to do what he does!

Enjoy some of our swimming pictures below...

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School Started!!

Joseph & Faith started school on Sunday at the local preschool/kindergarten. (Sunday is the first day of the work week here.) Both of the kids were so excited that they hardly slept the night before the first day!! They had picked out their backpacks and their uniforms were ready!

You can see how excited they are by how they're running to their school in this picture.

I, on the other hand, was nervous. I tried not to show them that I was nervous. I was concerned about the language barrier and cultural differences because this school is in the village and they only speak Arabic there. After the first day I was happy and the second day went even better! Today, the third day, the kids actually came home speaking some Arabic. I was worried for no reason. Both Jojo and Faith have come home each day telling me how much they love their school!

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Jojo turned 5!!!

Joseph's Birthday was on Tuesday, September 4th. We were all really excited to celebrate this wonderful boy. I'm still so often amazed that we are blessed to have him in our family! He's so vibrant and full of personality!!

He was SO HAPPY all day on Tuesday. Right away when we got up we made sure to make it special! After Tim got home from work and the kids took a nap, we headed to the mall to build-a-bear! This was something that he has been looking forward to for a long time! For dinner Joseph wanted McDonalds...big surprise!

We had a party on Wednesday evening at our house too! I love this boy! I want him to feel loved and honored on his birthday. He's such a special gift from God!

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Dancing Pics

Joseph and Faith love to watch SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance) with us! Faith says, "Mommy, can we watch 'So We Think We Can Dance'?" They love to try to do the dance moves with the dancers...it's fun to watch!

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School Uniforms

One of the things we needed to do to get ready for school was go to the tailor and get Joseph's and Faith's uniforms made. When I registered them at the local preschool, I paid for uniforms. I thought it was pretty cheap for a uniform and then I realized that I only bought the fabric.

This was a new experience for me. I had to take the fabric to the tailor to make the uniforms. Thankfully I've been to the tailor a few times lately, but I still didn't know which style to ask for. Joseph's was easy, but Faith's was more difficult. I am still hoping that I chose the right style for hers.

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Olympic Friday

On Friday I got to teach the kids at Friday School. (We have church on Friday mornings.) I used the Olympics to point the kids to the Bible!

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Verses

Joseph and Faith are both very good at learning verses from the Bible! They enjoy it! It keeps me on my toes because I learn the verses with them. Below you can see a couple of videos of them saying their verses!

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Swimming in May & June

May & June have been good months for swimming! Both kids have grown so much in their swimming skills, it's been so much fun to watch them!

Just the other day they were holding hands jumping into the pool. Joseph said, "I LOVE swimming, Mommy!" Faith said, "This is fun!" My heart is so full of joy when I see my kids happy!

Below you can see a slide show of some more pictures and a couple videos...

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Faith is growing up

It's so much fun to watch this girl grow up! She has such a fun personality. I love it when she gets determined to do things that big kids do.

Just this week she blew me away by deciding to jump off of the diving board! After she does these things she feels so empowered and proud of herself!!

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B is for butterfly

We're coming to the end of our little preschool group and it sure has been fun! Joseph and Faith can hardly imagine what school is like without Jonathan, Eli, and Morgan!

This week the focus was on B for butterfly. I tried to make it fun since none of us are all that motivated to work hard on academics right now. So, the kids got to play Elefun. They enjoyed catching the butterflies!

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Pool Time

It sure is heating up here in the Middle East and this week we started swimming at the pool again! It has been fun for the kids and for me.

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Superhero Birthday Party

Last week I got to be the photographer at our friend's 3rd birthday party! It was a very fun party with a superhero theme! The kids each got a mask and had to fight ninjas (balloons)! My kids brought their ninjas home with them and kept fighting them for the rest of the day.

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J for Juice

Last week the letter of the week in preschool was J! It was especially fun for Joseph and Jonathan! They said, "It's OUR day!!" I agreed with them that the best names start with J! ;)

Part way through the morning I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the village to order some juice! I asked Diana who was in the other room, homeschooling her older daughters. She didn't sign a permission slip or anything, so maybe we shouldn't call it an official "field trip." The kids had a lot of fun!

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fun at the park!

I took the kids to a new park yesterday with some Arab friends. It was fun because there is an aviary with several really big birds! Joseph loved the birds!!! Faith loved running through the fountain. She was soaked when we left.

There's a few pictures and videos below:

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comparison

Here's a fun comparison of how much these kids have changed in one year. It sure is fun to watch these two grow! Each new stage is so much fun! 

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Joseph's friends

Joseph is a very social boy and loves to interact with the boys in the village. The problem is that there's a language barrier. They don't understand him when he speaks to them in English. I guess we need to work on teaching him Arabic!

The other day he was at the center of this group of boys. He didn't mind being the center of attention! They were trying to practice their English with him. I told them to teach him Arabic!

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Jojo Day!!

Four years ago, on April 28th, we were in Ethiopia picking up our baby boy. We celebrate this day every year and we call it Jojo Day. Last weekend we celebrated Jojo Day and it was a lot of fun! The first Jojo Day was a lot of fun too, but these kids just keep getting more and more fun! I can't believe we've had our fourth Jojo Day. I look forward to many more Jojo Day celebrations!

This boy is such a blessing in our family! Tim and I agree that we couldn't have picked a better one...God's choice of putting Joseph into our family is best! I love so many things about him. I love that he is so outgoing, happy, caring, silly, energetic, and downright cute!

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Z is for Zebra

This week in preschool the kids learned the letter Z! They got to make zebras with toilet paper rolls...they had a lot of fun doing this! Each of the zebras had different colors.

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Regular Week

Last week was a nice week for our family. It's the second week of the session at the institute where Tim teaches and we're settled into our new routine. We've been able to be in our community and have been intentional about spending time as a family! We are thankful! Here are a few pictures of our week...

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School with Jojo

Between traveling, back pain, out of town visitors, and sickness I haven't taught the preschool group for a while. So, it's just been Joseph and me doing school.

It's been such a sweet time that makes me look forward to officially starting homeschool this fall!

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Random Pictures

I take a lot of pictures of my kids throughout the week. I want so much to treasure this time when they are little and so cute! I wish I could somehow save these moments that are so precious and I know it's going by so quickly.

So, I'm including some of the random, fun pictures that I took this week. I hope you enjoy them! I sure enjoy these kids.

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Easter Egg Hunt

On Easter morning we had an egg hunt for the kids! It was a lot of fun. They all loved it and the parents enjoyed watching them! What a blessing to have so many friends to do this with and a fun yard to hide the eggs in!

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