Wagstaff Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from the Singapore Wagstaffs

That’s right the biggest news this past year is that we moved our family to Singapore. We got here in September and will be here for several years. We are truly enjoying the move! Singapore has been a wonderful place with wonderful people and lots of fun things to do for our family. We have enjoyed the Zoo, swimming, exploring other cultures like Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Indonesian, museums, parks, malls, and tropical rainforests.

Devin has a great job with the law firm O’Melveny & Meyers as an Associate Lawyer. He is working way too hard and too many hours but finds the time to be with our family. He is also teaching the 6 year olds in Primary on Sundays.

Naomi is home with the kids exploring every aspect of Singapore, and making friends from all over the world. She loves to blog, sew, and read in her free moments. She is serving as Relief Society Secretary in our ward.

Spencer is 3 ½ and talking unceasingly, the taxi drivers her call him a “Chatterbox.” He is taking swimming lessons, going to Joyschool, playgroups, and learning how to be a great big brother.

Marianne is 21 months, she loves, animals- dogs, horses, chickens etc. . . which she refers to each one fondly as their sound they make, like neigh-neigh, cluck-cluck . She is starting to talk lots and has quite the personality coming out.

Other news from this year includes:

Graduating Law School from BYU in April!

Studying for and Passing the California Bar!

Visiting San Francisco, Lake Powell, Washington DC, and Prince Edward Island, CA with our Families.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Come and visit us soon, we have room for guests!

Love,

Devin, Naomi, Spencer, and Marianne Wagstaff

Christmas is coming

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

Ben and Cheryl left us this tree which we were grateful for, it is adorable, it makes me think of a Charlie Brown Tree -the top is leaning you cant really tell, but it is ours, we have collected ornaments from all over the word and it is always fun to open them up and see ornaments from our honeymoon, to having new babies, to other trips.

I am beginning to collect Nativities, here is one from Spain, we have one from the Philippines, and are going to get one from Singapore next week.

This Week- preschool, thanksgiving, Breaking Dawn

It has been a fun week in Singapore, we had Thanksgiving Thursday with a few families from the ward and preschool where we made Christmas ornament and then I had a girls night out and went and saw the awesome Breaking Dawn!

I love these girls, here is Jane- my Australian friend, Cleia my Brazilian friend, and Jenna my England Friend. We all went and sighed, swooned, cried, and whoo hooed, at the right places. IT was great, can't wait for part 2!
Here are the kids riding home from Jane's house on the LRT, which is a miniature MRT train (subway)
Marianne and Desdmond
Here is Spencer and Jake enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner
Our friends the Gatlin's hosted Thanksgiving we brought homemade rolls and Potatoes, and we had the best pecan pie. They live in a nice home which made it really fun for the kids to run around.

We Passed the Bar!

Devin is now an official Attorney! He passed the California State Bar!

We are so proud of you, what a huge accomplishment! He never has to take another test again!

This week. . .sick kids. . . long week

You can't see it but I took this picture because it was raining outside but the sun was shining (that doesnt happen in Ut) bright and everything looked like it was sparkling with diamonds, just a memory I wanted to remember today.
Here is my sick baby this week, we have been reading books a lot. Wed she had a temp of 103 but we are now on antibiotics and feeling better
Devin worked from home last night so I could go to the grocery store I just went across the street- here is the loot I carried home, I look rather ridiculous cause I hate going to the grocery store so i try to get as much as I can, the crazy thin is I am usually carring all this with 2 children tagging along. Other times I will go to a bigger store like Giant or Fairprice Finest and take a taxi and then I just have the bags and bags to log from taxi to elevator to hallway to kitchen. that is sort of easier.
Marianne feeding her neigh-neigh
Giving one of her dirty looks

Pillows

I have been wanting to make some pillows to match our bedspread, I had extra fabric so I have been trying to experiment. here is a couple that I made

I saw this one on Pinterest and thought it was adorable so I thought I would try it.

http://pinterest.com/pin/143411569353665225/

So i did not make this I found it in SG at an Indian store- i thought it was gorgeous. and it was only $10.00
But I did make this one, which I love, I bought the form at DI in the states for $2.00
I have one more blue one that I am working on, that will be small with ruffles.

Chinese Wedding Dinner

We were invited to a Chinese Wedding Dinner, This is quite the event. They had about 400 people there and we were served a 9 course meal. They have a toast, the bride and groom walk down the isle- change at least once into another outfit and walk down the isle again, which this is all projected onto huge screens so that everyone can see.One of the courses was a duck, if the head is pointed toward you that means good luck, we also had scallops, shark fin soup- which i understand is very expensive, fish, rice, a dessert. We ate for 3 hours
Me with the bride, sorry my phone was a little fuzzy, she is in her second dress which was an elaborate prom dress.
The Toast
The
Cutting the cake, which is not normal but was included since she is american


I am sitting my Sister Belle Nef the Rs Pres in our ward.

Christmas Season

I went to the grocery store last night and Christmas Carols were playing, Oh there is nothing like hearing Christmas songs for the first time, it just sounds so much like home, so familiar so wonderful. This year is the first time our own little family will celebrate Christmas, we will miss our families alot hopefully we will enjoy being together and can make it special. This Gingerbread man tree and sleigh are being sported at the mall across the street.

Visiting Daddy at Work

The kids and I went on the train downtown (45 min) to ggo meet Deivn for dinner since he was going to be out late.The tall building in the center is called the Ruplic Plaza and is the building that Devin works in. I am always impressed when I walk in it is beautiful. He is on the 22nd floor.
Here is Devin's office- everyone loves to see them even though they run a muck the whole time we are there.
Devin has his diplomas framed on his wall, Law from BYU and MBA from Notre Dame, next to it is a painting that Devin's Brother made and on the floor you can just see the side of it a beautiful globe that Devin's parents gave him for graduation.

I

Christmas Stockings

I have been wanting to make Christmas stockings for our family for a while and finally decided to do it since we will have our own Christmas this year. I decided to make each one unique so that when we have another little one (someday) I can make one for them and not have to worry about them matching. Although I got a little ambitious and made an extra one.

I was pleased with how they turned out. I cut strips, each one with different Christmas fabric that came in a basket that my mom gave me. Then I added the cuff and embodied our names.

Halloween Night Trick or Treat

So us along with 6,000 other kids went up to the Woodlands to Trick or Treat. It was awesome, here are the kids counting their loot at the end of the night. Marianne just says "Andy, more andy" she is such a sugar tooth
Here is a spooky family picture
Look at these Houses, huge! they are like 3000-6000 square feet plus and most cost about $12,000-$20,000 per MONTH. Hard to believe what companies will pay, and then they pay the $22,000 per year per kid for the Singapore American school. crazy, guess my kids arn't going there.
Here is the strawberry eating up her candy as she gets it.
The people loved our kids, these ladies are in our ward and let Spencer and Jett help pass out the Candy.
Have you ever tried making Jack-o-Lanterns out of Oranges, it is way fun and super edible.
our Friend has a birthday on Halloween, so we went to celebrate and guess who's chocolate fingers just had to grab my white skirt? I know why do I even own a white skirt? I thought it was cute and airy and hey I can always bleach it right?

Chinese Garden's and Diwali

My Little Cute Girl trying on Jewlery, it kept her entertained for quite a while.


Since it was a Public Holiday of Deepavali last Wednesday Devin was home and we took him to see the Chinese Garden's which are beautiful here.


Tuesday night my dear friend Jane and I decided to head down to see Little India. At midnight they set off the Fireworks, and had a concert - all to celebrate Deepvali which is light over darkness, good conquers evil and that kind of stuff.

There were lots of good deals and it was way fun. Thanks Jane!

This is what happens when Devin puts spencer to sleep for nap time. :)