Our New Home!

We love our new apartment! Just wish we could have you all over to visit and see it in person! Enjoy!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

 Wow! What a view! (click on picture to see more details) This is the view out our new apartment. It's looking straight east. All our windows are on the east side. As you can see their doing a little construction, so we might not have this amazing view of the mountains for long, but we'll enjoy it while we can. :)

Ezra and I decided to go to the grocery store and take a few pics of the neighborhood. He's such a good little helper.

This is the front door into our apartment building. There is a large fence around the parking lot out front with a guard station that has someone in it all the time making sure no one gets in that isn't supposed to be there. No bums in the stairwell this year.

This is the mini supermarket that is just to the left of our front door above. It's in the bottom of our building. It has a ton of items. Even has a few Up and Up brands imported from Target! There are many more imports here than last year and in more common places.

This is the street that our building door faces, just out the fence to the left. This is looking south towards the mountains.

This is the other super market that is about 5 minutes or less walk from our front door. It is larger than the Fresh Market and between the two places I can get just about anything I need (except meat, cheese, green beans, broccoli, peanut butter and olive oil - I have to go to my old place down town for that).

Here we are inside the Orgil Supermarket. Ezra loves to peek out and help me shop. Of course, the people working there like to check him out, too.

And here we are back at home with our Kruger bag full of groceries. This is our apartment door. 

Next post, we'll give you a tour of the inside!!! So, check back again soon!

Our Little World Traveler

I can hardly believe how well our little Ezra did on the trip to Mongolia. God was so kind in giving us such a calm and adaptable little baby. We had so many people on the plane say, "Wow, I didn't even know there was a baby on board", or "He was such a good baby". 

Ezra is a natural at making new friends. This is Steve. He was so sweet to Ezra and loved playing with him on our long flight to Beijing. Ezra was melting hearts left and right with his big smile.

We were blessed to have the seats with extra leg room and a little bassinet to put our little buddy in for the long flight. Unfortunately, he was a little big in the shoulders for this particular one so he only slept a couple hours in it. But he did get lots of naps on Mommy, which helped Mommy sleep, too.

It was nice to be able to get up and stretch from time to time. He had some sweet cuddle time with Daddy, too.

Here we are at the Beijing airport. He's peeking out of his new "car seat". He loves being close to Mommy and falls asleep whenever he's in it. You can see our sweet stroller on the right, too. That was a big help in toting all our carry-ons through the airports.

We had breakfast in Beijing at the Pizza Hut. Yes, Pizza Hut serves eggs and bacon at 6:30am! This is our second visit here for breakfast and becoming a new tradition.

Our final leg of the journey...hang in there, Buddy! This was definitely the hardest leg, simply because I think the whole being-stuck-in-an-airplane thing was getting a little old for Ezra. But he did get a little nap in before we landed. We used EarPlanes and fed him or used a pacifier during take off and landing and his ears seemed to be ok. On our first leg from MN to LA they might have bothered him a little because he fell asleep during the landing and once we landed and he woke up, he started crying because his ears weren't popped yet.

Here is Ezra's first look at Mongolia...the frozen tundra! They had just received a fresh coat of snow for his arrival...imagine that! The snow king strikes again.

Gerlee and Orna were so happy to finally meet him! 

He's already making the girls go crazy!

 He's made lots of new Mongolian friends! And we look forward to making lots more. Everyone that passes by on the street notices our little bundle under our coats. When they stop to look they say "Ямар хөөрхөн бэ?" which means "How cute!?". 

Thanks for all your love and prayers. We could tell many were praying for us. We're so happy to be here, even though it was so hard to leave our dear friends and family. 

We love you and miss you all!!

Farm Livin'...

It's been great living on the farm these past couple months. It's so quiet and peaceful and we've loved the extra time with family. We thought we'd give you a little taste of what we've been up to. Matt has loved his role as "Farm Boy" and I've equally loved taking care of the animals, the chores around the house, and helping with mealtime.

Here's Farm Boy next to one of the many tractors he's gotten to drive this summer. Just about every day he gets to drive some type of farm equipment like the tractor, grain truck, bobcat or 4-wheeler. 

Most of the time he's been helping my dad with their new addition. 

It's coming right along!

He's also had some side jobs to help make extra money. Here he is power-washing some mossy steps. Like he says, "Sometimes you gotta get a little on ya."

We spent a couple weeks in the Twin Cities working on staining a house, too. Here is a before and after section of the house. 

And of course, you have to meet the newest addition to the farm the two baby calves.

They are soo cute! I don't know if we will be able to eat them...we'll see. :) 

I think if I don't name them it will be easier.

And here is my buddy, Sugar. She keeps me company and helps me take baby for walks. She just can't help but need lots of love and attention, which I'm happy to dish out. :) She's a good dog.

A farm just isn't complete without kitties! These three musketeers are Judah, Mabel and Wilson (L to R). Judah is a boy and the other two are girls. There mom is all black, so don't know where their beautiful stripes came from. We have a few other momma cats running around, too. These guys were born right before we got back.

I've also been enjoying my time playing piano. I started taking piano lessons again and have been loving the challenge and accountability and learning new things (that I should have learned already!). I hope to brush up on my skills and maybe teach piano someday, maybe even in Mongolia.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all had a great summer! We've been enjoying our time at home with friends and family. Just 13 more weeks until we get to meet our wee little lad! Time is flying by....

We love you all dearly and look forward to seeing you again soon!

Matt, Jess and Baby

To market, to market to buy...

Well, we don't exactly buy fat pigs here (they are too expensive), but we do get a variety of other things from the markets around town. This post is a tribute to my Mom. Sorry, it has taken me so long to show you what the markets looks like!! Soon we will be home and we'll have many pictures to share with you all in person, hopefully. :) 

First, I'll take you to the "Black Market". This is not the illegal kind that you think of, it's just what it is called. This is one of the first places we visited in UB. This stand is where we bought our white dishes and salt and pepper shaker.

The market is huge (about 2 football fields big) with row upon row of vendors selling just about anything from clothes to rugs to appliances, and even gold fish and puppies sometimes. :) And indoor markets to buy meat, veggies and fruit. This place is usually PACKED when it's nice out, but we happened to be there when it was -20 and windy so there weren't too many other brave souls looking for a good deal that day.

They love purses here! (Mom, you'd definitely be able to find one you like here!) Mongolians are very fashionable, so you will find many "designer" labels at the market (mostly from our neighbor to the south).

Next, we'll head to the meat market. Our good friend Odka takes us to the market very early in the morning when we need to get more meat to cut up (see one of our earlier posts to see that process!). This is one of the delivery trucks. It's about -20 outside so there's no problem keeping the meat cold. :)

And here's another delivery truck. Not quite sure what these lucky animals are, probably sheep. They eat a LOT of mutton here.

 So, once the meat is delivered and off-loaded, they bring it inside and cut it up and sell it. This picture is blurry because as I was taking it someone looked at me with a stern face and told me I can't take pictures here (don't really know why?). Here is Josh and Jennifer looking at some horse, I believe. The last time we were at the meat market we bought our first camel and some more horse, no beef. The beef is about twice the price as camel and horse, and we think they all taste about the same. (Of course, now that I'm pregnant, camel and horse haven't sounded as appetizing as they did before.)

Now, we'll head to Mercury, where we buy all our veggies, eggs, beans, and import goods (for the most part). There are two big rooms with individual vendors all around the room, selling mostly the same stuff: fruit, nuts, dry-goods, oil, peanut butter, etc. There isn't much you can't find here. Last week, I splurged and bought a package of pre-made hashbrown rounds (34 for $4). They are so yummy!

These are my olive oil (extra virgin, cold-pressed even!) and cheese ladies, they are mother and daughter. They are both very kind and generous, and always give me and my friends a good deal. The daughter knows a little English and likes to practice when I stop by.

The back room has all the veggies and meat (we buy our meat at the meat market above which is on the other side of town, but we do get our chicken here). Again, many vendors all selling mostly the same things.

Here is my veggie lady. She is also very sweet and kind and always has a huge smile on her face when she sees us. As you can see, she has many yummy veggies: spinach, cilantro, broccoli, cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, garlic, onions, radishes, mushrooms, and usually if she doesn't have it and I ask her for something, she will go get it from a friend next door, like green beans, pumpkins, or spicy peppers. :) No shortage of good eats here, so come on over and I'll whip something up for ya!

And last, but not least, my fruit lady (she's on the left). I took this photo from our living room window. Her stand is right on the corner near the bus stop. So every time we catch a bus, she smiles and waves at us. She also knows a little English and often asks me how to say things. Earlier this same night, I bought a bunch of apples from her and went home and made my Grandma Mildred's apple crisp (and was it yummy!). I took a piece down to her once it was made and she was so excited to try some American food. I saw her later from the window, sharing with her friend next to her (it's the white box in front of the lady on the right). It's amazing to me how even though they are all selling the same thing, they don't seem to care if you buy something from them or their friend next door. They never seem to harbor any ill-intent towards their neighbor, but they are friends and work together and help each other. She is so sweet, just like her yummy fruit! I'm sad to be moving soon and not see her almost every day, but I know that He will bring me another fruit lady when we return to our new home in UB.

Hope you've enjoyed the tour of the UB markets!

We look forward to seeing you all soon and tasting some good home cooking!

Much love to you all,

Jess