Friday, February 18, 2011

Kitchen Time

One thing about Emma is that she has never really been a 'toy' child. Sure she's enjoyed some things here and there and does have a few favorite stuffed animals that she sleeps with. But all in all she prefers playing with "someone" instead of "something". Now Rebecca on the other hand LOVES all the toys and does a good job of playing with many different items.

Needless to say, that makes holiday & birthday time a little challenging for us. Lately she has shown an interest in helping me cook and I've found that one on one time in the kitchen with her so much fun and enjoy seeing her take it so seriously.

Knowing all of this, Santa brought Emma several kitchen things this year and her favorite by far has been this little smoothie maker. Girlfriend has been in smoothie heaven! We even took it out to a friends house one night & let the girls make smoothies to their hearts delight.



To make things even better, I ran into these cute little glasses in an antique store one day & knew they were the PERFECT thing for the girls and their smoothies. They're even using them for their orange juice too. I just loved the frilly/old timey look of them!

Fun times in the kitchen :-)

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Chinese New Year













Since Chinese New Year ended, I suppose it's time I posted our pictures. I'm doing a terrible, terrible, no good, very bad job with my blog.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day


Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours!


We started our day as normal with a little Valentine surprise at each person's place at the table. What a fun way to start the day.


Then tonight we had this from Emma ... and it made my day. My sweet, sweet baby girl


Dear Family -


Happy valentine's Day!! I love you all. Thank you for getting me candy. Thank you for letting me be a car rider even though you needed to go to work. I thank you for picking me as your baby in China. I thank you to be my mom and dad. I thank you to bring my chips and masmellow (marshmellows) and all of the candy.

Friday, February 11, 2011

For My Photography Buddies

For anyone interested in photography, here's some information on some upcoming classes for photography. The lady who is offering the classes is sooo talented, fun and just all around awesome. Check out her blog for an awesome giveaway too.

the long road

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Celebrating Ryan's 13th Birthday






















I'm not doing so well on this blogging thing. I am very late in posting these!

We celebrated Ryan's birthday this year with a party at the local ice skating rink. The boys had so much fun, even the ones who thought they couldn't skate. It didn't take them long to pick it up at all. Just as a bunch of boys would, they spent the evening chasing each other around and generally just messing with each other. There were some kids they knew from church there too and Ryan kept stealing one of the girl's Hello Kitty hats. In my day that was called flirting but of course he vehemently denied it. But I saw it.

Can't believe my BABY is 13. Doesn't seem that long ago that I was carrying him around in his little pouch or pushing him around the park in his stroller. 13 years have passed by in the blink of an eye ...

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Faux-Tee Fiiiive & Facebook

Okay, I’ll go ahead and admit it … I turned 45 earlier this week.

Yeah, I know – that’s old.

I think I thought I would forever be in my 20’s.

In my 20’s I still felt like I was in my 20’s.

In my 30’s I had my first child and still felt like I was in my 20’s.

Now here I am in my mid 40’s and I feel like I’m 70.

Something is off with the math. Is that what they call ‘new math’?

Now on to the second part of the subject - FACEBOOK.



I love FB, I really do but my dear sweet husband doesn’t understand why. He thinks it’s silly. Lame. A waste of time. And probably a few other things that he hasn’t shared with me because he loves me. Even if I do love facebook. And him of course.

But the tie in to FB & my birthday is this – I really, really, really enjoyed all the facebook notes I received that day. So many times I have posted a ‘Happy Birthday’ note on someone’s wall and really didn’t think of it as being that big of a deal. But being on the receiving end of all those notes I know it is a big deal & I appreciated each and every one because it gave me reason to take a little trip down memory lane. For each little note that popped up there was a corresponding memory that came to mind. You know the whole “equal and opposite reaction” thing. And to be honest, I did a lot of laughing that day.

Here’s a few little snippets that come to mind.

From a dear friend in middle school – Us skipping one of our 7th grade classes. Our teacher, who just so happened to be the principal, never ever took roll. Which translated to a hand full of pre-teen girls that said teacher didn’t know who was and who wasn’t in class. So we skipped. And yes, he did know. Smart eh’?

From another middle school friend who also happened to be my boyfriend in 6th grade –I remember bopping him over the head with his cap which also happened to contain the lock from his locker. Let’s just say that the interaction of the cap/lock/skull wasn’t pretty. I remember blood. Being horrified. His mom coming to get him to take him to the doctor. We had a basket ball game that day which of course he didn’t make. So I did what every decent skull bashing girlfriend should do – I broke up with him.

A friend who sent me roses when Ryan was born. Except I never expected a friend to send roses and thanked my dear husband profusely when they were delivered. Awkward at best.

My 5th grade boyfriend who asked my best friend out after I broke up with him. I returned a necklace he gave me, he gave it to her. Later when they broke up she kept it. Obviously she was smarter than me  Oh yeah, and I had a b-day note from her too. She’s still smarter than me.

The daughter of my best friend (who is now deceased) - we used to go to South Padre Island together every year. On one trip - or maybe two :-)we went south of the border and danced all night. Fun! Now I hope my son isn’t reading this as I’d have his hind end if he did anything so foolish.

You get the point, it was like that all day long. Old friends, new friends. Friends I’ve laughed with and cried with and a few I’ve even exchanged hurtful words or feelings with at one time or another. But friends nonetheless and friends I am very thankful to have. And so this is my little plug for Facebook – I love ya’ man. A place where all those friendships collide and a place I can always go to get a good laugh.