Our Weekend Away

We decided to take the kids away for a few days and headed down to Cincy.    The weather was beautiful for the drive and the kids got a lot of energy out at a great playground  near the hotel.    Bill got his wish to eat at Uncle Yip's.  Saturday we had a great time at the Natural History Museum as well as the Children's Museum.    Truthfully, the kids probably loved the pool the most.  We visited the giant pool a total of 4 times and the kids would have gone 4 more.   Lily can swim so well now and Andrew's confidence has grown greatly in the water. He walked the edge of the pool the whole time say "Look!  I'm on my tippy-toes!"   Sunday was completed with a fabulous dim sum lunch (why don't we have good dim sum here?) and a trip to IKEA.   It was so much fun!

Dragon Dances

Today we are gearing up to go to our local FCC CNY celebration.   We enjoy the event, seeing all our friends and participating in the culture.  I will guiltily admit that I've been known to say "Once you've seen one dragon dance, you've seen them all."   It's not that I don't like the dragon dance/lion dances.  It's just that they do seem to stay the same year after year.    Well, I may have to eat my words.   On Friday, Bill came home with a surprise Valentine's day gift.   He bought tickets to see the Cirque De Soliel show Dralion.  Dralion is show based on Chinese acrobatics.   Dralion is a creature that is a combination of a dragon and lion and sure enough they do a dragon/lion dance.   However, this dance was unlike any I had scene.   Below I linked a youtube video of the Dralion dance.  That's the first video.   The second one is the ariel act that I thought was breath taking.  Enjoy!

Shame on My Mommy

for not posting more.........................

She says that the laptop is back and software is being installed.

Good-bye Super Beasts....Hello Giggle Worms!

Andrew finished up his gymnastics class where the kids are called Super Beasts.   Starting next week, he'll move on to the Giggle Worms group.    Here are some pictures of Andrew showing off his gymnastic skills

Andrew jumping on the low balance beam

Walking the high beam by himself

Doing a forward roll

Climbing the parallel bars

Going across the uneven bars

Getting his medal with Olympic music playing

Taking his picture with some of his classmates

Hanging out in the cold weather

I'm happy to report that we are doing well.   Life has been a bit on the quiet side with eveyone going to school, working and keeping up with our extra curriculur activities.   While there's nothing to complain about, I do think we are all a bit tired of the cold weather and only indoor activities.    Fortunately, we have many good friends and family we can visit.  

On another note, I'm back into my digital scrapbooking and I'm happily finishing up my 2010 album.    I've had a few questions about the 2011 pages I've posted here.   This year I'm keeping things a bit simple with a frame template I created and a neutral background that I also created.   Then it's a few photos, an element or two and journaling.   I'm enjoying the ease of this format and getting things done.  Here are a few more pages I've completed this week.  Enjoy!

More scrapbook pages....

Happy New Year

Well, I know this post is a little late.  We had a great holiday and a good first week back to school.  I don't like to make New Year's resolutions.  However, I have decided to get back into scrapbooking and I've post my layouts here.  Here is the dedication page for my 2011 album.

This past weekend we took down all our Christmas decorations and while I was ready to put the Christmas things away, I was also a little sad.  I have to say that I so love having Chinese New Year decorations, esp. lots of lanterns, to put up in January.

Andrew turned three on Monday.  Can you believe it?   We're going to have his birthday celebration a little later this month.  However, we wanted to do something special for him right now.  So, we decided to take him to the Monster Truck show.   We didn't know what to expect, but we had a good time.  The show wast totally geared to little ones and Andrew loved it!

Our Christmas.........

What a wonderful Christmas we had! . We started our celebration by spending Christmas Eve with Bill's parents. We had a great dinner, thoughtfull gifts and a good time visiting .

Then we had Christmas morning at home. Lily made it untill 5:55 am and then came in our room saying "I just can't sleep anymore." So, an early morning it was. Lily loved all her gifts and Santa really brought just what she wanted.

Christmas afternoon was with my parents where we enjoyed another round of gifts, more food and more visiting. Christmas dinner was at my parents with the whole family and it was so nice to just sit around, talk, eat some more and watch the kids play. What more could you want for Christmas?

If you asked Andrew what his favorite part of Christmas was, he'd answer his new Toy Story Train. He has been so devoted to it since Saturday.

Lily would be torn. She has loved playing with her Nintendo DSI and her new Walking Go-Go (or something like that) puppy.

I must admit that at this time I find Christmas a fair amount of work. Yet, when I look at these two faces, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

All in all, Christmas 2010 was awesome. We saw all our family, had a great time and really celebrated
and then we slowed down and just hung out :)

Soooooooo excited

Lily and Andrew are so excited about Christmas. They are practically humming with energy and joy. It's rather precious and endearing......though we've had a few rough spots. Those are to expected. Today we head over to my parents to do some holiday baking. Tomorrow we have some family time at home and then up to Nana and DanDan's for Christmas Eve celebrations. Then it's Christmas morning at home and finally, Christmas dinner with the whole family at my parents. Should be awesome. Here are few pictures of the holiday fesitivities.

Mr. Kringles was found haning upside down this morning. If you are seven years old, this is hilarious.



If you are two, putting on a Santa hat and yelling "Merry Christmas" is hysterical



If you have been playing around the house most of the day, getting out to see the lights is a blast

All I want for Christmas is....................You!

After a more stressfull work week than usual, I have to say it's time to count my blessings. I'm so very, very lucky to have my family. It amazes me that Bill and I built our family through international adoption and we given the extreme priveledge of raising these two healthy, vibrant, engaging, energetic, sweet and funny children.

Getting cozy during the storm...........

So here we are waiting for our first major round of winter weather. Fortunately for us, we don't have to go anywhere today. Dinner is in the crockpot, kids are playing and Bill and I are relaxing.

We stopped at the dollar store yesterday and the kids wanted these Santa hats. Then they happily posed this morning Who knew this would result in such cute pictures? Forget the fancy clothes and a professional photography appointment. Next year it's cheap Santa hats, pjs and pictures with our own tree.



Well, I hope this message finds you home all cozy just like our Miss Allie.

Elf of a Shelf

The day we put up or Christmas tree, our Elf on the Shelf showed up. Mr. Kringles and his new pal, a dog named Jingle Kringles have brought so much joy to Lily. She loves looking for them every morning, is totally convinced they travel to the North Pole each night and often tells us she hears them moving about the house. A few days ago, Lily swore that some tracks in the snow were not from a rabbit or a cat. They were from Mr. Kringles and Jingle Kringles. Andrew isn't really into all of this yet, but I imagine he will be next year. It's such a sweet tradition and I am so happy we started it. It really is a bit of holiday magic.

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!!!