Visiting with Santa

We've had two visits with Santa already. The first one came as a bit of a surprise as the kids and I were out running an errand and both kids said "I want to see Santa." Now at the last minute, Andrew had second thoughts. When he was offered to sit infront of Santa on a reindeer, he took it. Then yesterday we had our FCC holiday party. Andrew was in a grumpy mood and I didn't really think we'd get a photo with Santa. Surprisingly, we actually did get a few good shots.

Saturday Night

A movie, popcorn and someone putting their arm around a loved one used to mean date night around here. Now it means something completely different :)




I'll admit that as an adoptive parent you often marvel that everything fell into place and you were matched with your child. You realize the littlest, seemingly insignifant things, like how long it took for your documents to mail, could have changed everything. One thing both Bill and I have recently talked about how amazing it is that Lily and Andrew have eachother in their lives. Sure they have typical sibling conflicts and I answer the "Are they real brother and sister?" question with a resounding "Yes!" Still, I am often moved at how close they are, how well they play together and how amazing it is that everything fell into place so they could be brother and sister.

The Kids are Ready for the Holidays!

Let the Holidays Begin!

Life is going well around our home and we are looking forward to this week. Lily and I have a short school week and we are both looking forward to 5 days off. We're hoping to catch the new Disney movie, do some baking, celebrate Thanksgiving with the whole family and decorate the house. It should be fun. Last night we had a great time eating at our favorite Chinese restuarant and then stopping at Build-a-Bear. About 3 years ago, Lily wanted to make Rudolph, but he sold out by Thanksgiving! My mom heard they had him again this year and both kids made one. Looks like Rudolph and Rudy (as we named them) will be well loved this holiday season!

Lily being silly

Our familiversary........

6 years ago today, our Lilianna was placed in Bill's arm and we realized the dream of becoming a family. She was a tiny, 13.5 month old, weighing in at 14 pounds. She had traveled several hours with Dr. Ma and two ayi's. Meeting Bill and his father brought many tears for the first hour or so when they met at the Lottery hotel in Nanning, Guangxi. A bottle, some cheerios and Daddy's lap, found Lily playing in the hallway with the other families. Lilianna was a shy, sweet little baby who easily won the hearts of the entire family. 6 years later, she's still sweet and a little on the shy side. She's also funny, charming, caring and a very smart 1rst grader. I felt like we won the lottery 6 years ago as became the luckiest parents on earth. I still feel like I won the lottery...twice :) We are so lucky and blessed to both our beautiful children in our lives. Happy Familiversary!!!

Happy Halloween!

For the past four days we've been celebrating Halloween. Wednessday we carved our pumpkin. Thursday we had Beggar's Night. Friday Lily's class had their parade and class party and yesterday we went to a friend's party. It's been fun!

October 24, 2010

Pumpkin Patch Time!

We had a fabulous visit to our local pumpkin farm today. Even though it was late in the season, the crowd was really small, the weather was perfect and there were plenty of pumpkins waiting for us. It was a very nice, low-key, family day. Lily and Andrew just had the best time on the hay ride, picking out the pumpkins and eating some delicious icecream.

The leaves were gorgeous today.

The kids spent a good amount of time searching for the perfect pumpkin. Andrew still would prefer to not have his picture taken right now.

I couldn't get him to look at the camera and smile :(

Lily found her favorite pumpkin and hauled it over to us. That's a 39 pound girl carrying a 16 pound pumpkin!

Andrew played a little peek-a-boo




while Lily became our own little kitty.

October 16, 2010

Amish country weekend..........

On Bill's birthday, we decided to book a trip to Amish country during the peak fall season. This past Friday we took that trip. It was fabulous. The drive was beautiful, the hotel was nice and the kids enjoyed all the attractions. We did a lot and I took many pictures!
Here's one of Andrew's favorite things to do. We took a mini-train ride through a farm and the country.


Next we stopped at Heini's Cheese Chalet. Delicious cheese. Regretable name.
We enjoyed our hotel. Lily and Andrew are at the age that any pool is a great pool and any hotel with a pool makes them happy. I think to them, it's a giant slumber party with a pool. We enjoyed the pool to ourselves for almost 2 hours on Friday night and for an hour and a half on Saturday.

Here we are outside the Wendell Forge Company. I don't always enjoy having my picture taken, but I must admit, I like how this one turned out.

Probably the highlight of the trip for everyone was taking an hour long horse drawn wagon through an animal preserve. The weather was just perfect and the scenery was beautiful. I think the kids each loved having a bucket of food to feed the animals.

I personally didn't realize how close the animals got. Here the zebra came up to the back of our wagon and my camera lens was not wide enough to get a great shot!

They had lots of baby animals including this pot bellied pigs. Isn't the polka dot one cute?

The closest animal we got to was a Scottish Yak. Here he is begging for food from Lily. I don't know much about Scottish Yaks, but I did learn that they are a bit intimidating when they get this close and they don't have the best smelling breath.
Bill got to feed an ostridge. They eat with gusto and you can watch the long, slow path the food takes when they swallow.
My personal favorite was the giraffes. They were so beautiful, strange and sweet. This particular one is named "Big George." I happen to love how this photo came out.
Finally, the country side was just gorgeous. Many of the leaves were blown down by recent high winds. Still, what foliage remained was quite beautiful. It was a very fun family get away!

October 11, 2010

Perfect weather weekend

We had a fabulous weekend with perfect weather. I've been particularily thankfull as Lily received an electric motor scooter for her birthday. She's had the best time zippg along at great speeds. We had a lot of great outside time this weekend including a playdate and fall festival at a local park.

Well, blog followers, we have a problem. Well, really I have a problem. Andrew, in all his 2 year old glory, has decided that I can't make him comply for pictures. That's right. This photo-taking mommy, has been stopped in her tracks. We had this gorgeous fall/pond opportunity and Andrew did everything possible to ruin the picture. I have about 10 shots in which he covered his face at the last second!

I did catch this shot of the kids. It wasn't the shot I was going for, but at least it's scenic.

Andrew's dreams came true when he got to explore a fire engine. Really, what is more awesome to a little boy? He was able to climb all over it, sit in the front and walk through the inside. I was only slightly nervous when he couldn't help but touch something, push a button here and pull a lever there. The fire fighters were very understanding :)

Again, my little guy has decided to look away from the camera for every picture. Sigh. Somehow, even with him facing away, I think this photo is adorable. Thanks for looking.

October 6, 2010

Birthday Bash!

Sorry for the delay in getting this post out. Last week we had a wonderful time celebrating our little girl's 7th birthday. We started the week with what we called her "Buddy Birthday" and I covered that in our previous post. On Tuesday, we sent in treats and she had her classroom celebration. Then on Saturday we had her family birthday. I'm so happy that all events went really well and Lily had a ball. Saturday, we went to Lily's restaurant of choice, Panda Inn and then came home for more celebrating. Between parents, grandparents and uncles, that girl was seriously showered with gifts. Andrew even got some some "un-birthday" gifts. Apparently some things are just too hard to avoid. Then we capped the evening off with a make your own sundae treat. Lily just isn't a cake eater. It was low-key, no stress and really a great time. Here are some pictures.

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