Friday, December 26, 2014

Sugar & Spice & Smiles

 Staying out of trouble...
 while everyone else decorated the tree!
 I let the kids decorate the whole thing this year. Most of our ornaments were homemade :).
 Baby @ 4 months!
 Congratulations to Rebecca & Tongwei! Their picture did not upload, but their wedding was beautiful!
 sweet smiling faces waiting in anticipation
 After the ceremony there was a large buffet of food and also a yummy dessert table the emcee encouraged all to eat at first!
 Enjoying the music!
 Lily turned 10, and lost a tooth! Her birthday began with a scavenger hunt for a coupon at the end to celebrate the loss of a tooth :).
 One present from each sibling. Lily got socks, stickers & some fun little stationary things.
 We all enjoyed some strawberry short cake for Lily's birthday.
 That's a lot of candles! We had such a fun day celebrating our fist child entering into the 2 digits :).
 And a few days later the star finally gets placed on top of the tree. 
 The best birthday gift ever!
Abby & Tammy flew in from another city in China to spend the weekend with us! 
Abby also turned 10 a week after Lil.
 We enjoyed such a wonderful reunion.
 Josh & I got the girls matching jammies for their 2 day sleepover. They were all smiles!
 After attending our town's annual Christmas fair, Lily & Abby had a birthday party and invited two more friends Lydia & Corrie for dinner & cake.
 I love this age... the girls were so much fun.
 They played "Pass the Present" (somewhat like hot potato) and all got a little gift.
 The girls had lots of giggles as they made their own Christmas tree ornaments. They were very creative.
 The last day of our visit we went to Green Lake.
 I love the architecture.
 The weather felt really cold though!
We warmed up with hot noodles for lunch.

 I don't think I've been to this park without hearing a couple bands of older Chinese guys on their instruments. We said, "Wow, look at that" to his instrument and music and he said, "Wow, look at that" to the foreigners.
 There were lots of seagulls this time of year.
 I would like to wear this kind of hat when I'm this lady's age. 
 catching up
 These treats on a stick tasted amazing. Sugar coated fruit. Yum.

 Time to feed the birds!
 We are so thankful and blessed by such a great visit with such good friends.
 Did I mention we finally found the coconut we were looking for?? Only a couple dollars at Green Lake, who knew? 
 I love it when the three little girls decide to get dressed themselves (and match each other!).
 Dass & I had a fun girls night painting pics (for family). We have such a nice time one-on-one.
 We finally finished our bodies! This was our last meeting for Classical Conversations (week 12) before our Christmas break. We are half way done already!
 Xiao Li made some really yummy (heart shaped) pumpkin bread for our family. It was devoured in less than 5 minutes.
 Our friends' new resturaunt!
 They had their grand opening on Christmas Eve.
 So on Tuesday, Josh stayed home with the kids while I helped Susan prepare some yummy treats.
 We made Apple Strudel Muffins, Lemon Bars, Brownies & Beer Bread. Susan is a fast learner!
 Check out that amazing 3 door oven. Imagine how many 9x13 pans one could fit inside!
We had a nice day together.
 Did someone say it's Christmas?!
 For the sake of saving room in our luggage (in 4 months) we all printed pictures of what we wanted for Christmas and then opened the pictures along with a box of cereal!
 I wasn't sure what the reactions would be- but all were thrilled!
 (We RARELY eat cereal here because it is all imported and pretty expensive).
 We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve service at our friends' house and then had a memorable time Christmas Day at another friends' house eating lots of soup & bread. Most importantly, it was a joy to remember our Savior who was born as a baby and grew to redeem his people! 
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Turkey Day!

 We are so thankful for family & friends... & turkeys! 
 (Pilgrims too)
 We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving Day celebration on our good friends' roof. The weather was amazing!
 Austin & Caedmon being goofy
Ian & August are busy
 We played a little bingo, enjoyed writing on our place mats what we are thankful for and even celebrated with a Thanksgiving Day Mad Libs!
 Smile if you like to eat turkey!
 Jenny & Austin celebrating in style
Our giggly almost 10 year old!
 Sweet Olivet drawing a turkey
 Cute family!
 Didi with his disguise
 Sisters!
 "This is interesting" were the pre photo remarks.
 Lil serving up some Cider "Wassail" and some Hot Cocoa!
 We enjoyed quite a feast! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, salad,
 gravy, rolls, spicy cold noodles, and pumpkin pie... yum!

 Intense Viv getting every last drop of hot cocoa!

Happy to eat yummy food!
 good friends
 Augie wants a turn!
 Who is this behind the mask??
 family fun times
Brodes the day before Thanksgiving :( He was pretty sick for about 24 hours then felt fine! 
(Though it's hard for a mama to see her baby sick, I loved having a day of cuddle time with August!)
 Yummy meal: a curry soup with rice and a few sides. I was a little surprised all enjoyed it :)
 smiles for supper time
 Our "perspectives" art project
 building a city
 I love how creative kids are. They all had the same directions and all had very different cities.
 Dass's little town
 yummy pizza
 This was a cute surprise. Lil and Cade took a couple hours to turn the girls room into a "Lazer Field." The littles were so excited to try to call through without getting zapped. 
 We have been so busy, girls night hasn't been happenin'. So finally Olivet and I got a couple hours to ourselves. Of course she chose to paint...
 always glad for washable paint
 Olivet didn't mind that August joined us for a little bit.

 Tada!
 Halloween ballerinas,
 Batman,
 2 Gymnastics Instructors,
 And a Chinese Man
Made for fun trick-or-treating!
 L & C's ROBOT from scratch. He had amazing skills like storing things inside his brain.
 Lots of flowers for our "anniversary"!

 It's been 12 years this month since our first date!
 Lil holding baby Magnolia- her favorite thing to do in the whole world!
 Sweet Maggie
 Viv turned 5!
 Lil made her quite the card
 so did everyone else!
 Lil also did the wrapping
 yeay for markers & legos!
Viv's birthday was on a Sunday so we enjoyed her cake at our House Church!
 All were glad to have a fun night with Charlotte, Rachel, Oswald & their folks!
 Was hanging out in a basement on our 3 wheel bike eating spicy peanuts waiting for Krista to come down. The guards approached and began asking about how we can have 6 kids and what the American government is like. So I asked them what it was like to have one or two kids after coming from larger families and how they view their government. We had a few chuckles and I had Krista take our pic. This encounter didn't feel weird or strange in any way.
 I asked Krista to drive so I could take some pics of interesting things along the way. It was a challenge because nothing seemed interesting or out of the ordinary. It all was normal.



 We made it to our destination! Lunch with the ladies. I have enjoyed our once a month outing so much in the last few years. It's always a special and unique time to look forward to!