Celebrating Chinese New Year

We celebrated our first Chinese New Year with Lia Kate a couple of weeks ago! I suppose this isn't the first Chinese New Year to come around since she was born, but I doubt the kiddos were partying much in the orphanage. This Chinese New Year is the Year of the Tiger and it fell on February 14, which worked out quite well because red is the color for both Valentines and Chinese New Year. We celebrated on the 14th with two families in our church who recently adopted little boys from China.


Lia Kate in her Chinese New Year outfit. They were about a dime a dozen in China (well, something like that), so I stocked up.


Yep, Britton has one too. ;o)

Here is Lia Kate in action, squeaky shoes and all:



Here are the three new Chinese kiddos at our church ... Lia Kate, Fisher and Hamilton, in their traditional dress.


Hamilton showing us some Kung Fu moves.




Hamilton and Fisher. These two were fostered in the same city in Inner Mongolia, and may have even known each other in China before being adopted by families here.


Lia Kate with Fisher's sister Channing. They became best buds because Channing kept stuffing Lia Kate's mouth with fried rice. What can I say, the girl likes to eat?


Danny & Britton.


We also went to the big Chinese New Year celebration downtown, where Lia Kate ate lots of dumplings (yum) and where we tried to keep Britton as far away from the food as possible (thanks to the soy allergy).

We had a great time celebrating Chinese New Year with our Chinese friends, and look forward to being able to talk to Lia Kate about her homeland and its many unique traditions in years to come.

Our Little Democrat?

Britton was rather enthralled with President Obama's State of the Union address back in January. I heard him cheering and clapping and came into the living room to find this ...





Oh, and, yes, we still had our Christmas stockings up then. And our house was a wreck. January was a bit of a stressful month for us!

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

This is Lia Kate coming in from the snow the other day. She was as bundled up as the day we got her and she couldn't quite stand up from the floor. It was pretty cute!

More Sweet Brother-Sister Moments

Love this video, but it is in no way indicative of what our life is like 24-7 around here! It is sweet to see these two learning to be brother and sister ... and with that comes good and bad. Here is some of the good:

Love this video, but it is in no way indicative of what our life is like 24-7 around here! It is sweet to see these two learning to be brother and sister ... and with that comes good and bad. Here is some of the good:

Snow Day Videos

Here are a couple of videos of our kiddos playing in the snow the other day. Britton was loving it and Lia Kate didn't know quite what to think about it.



Snowball tutorial:

My Snow Bunnies

I love a good snow day! And even as I sit here and type it is coming down like crazy outside. This doesn't happen too often in the South so we are loving it. Lia Kate and I are watching it fall while Britton naps. Lia Kate is from a tropical area in China, so I'm certain this is her first real snow. Yippee for her. We're enjoying our snow day ... already played outside, tossed a few snowballs, and eaten snow ice cream. Just look at these adorable little snow bunnies...

























The back of our house when the snow first started falling.

The Not-So-Sweet Moments

Yes, we have a lot of them! With two toddlers, I think it is unavoidable. When I took these pictures, I didn't intend to capture such moments, but I did, and they are too funny not to share.






You see, it starts out innocently. Like this ...

They smile.


They look at each other sweetly.


Then it dawns on Britton ... "wait a minute, she's in my car."


He jockeys for position.


And gives a big shove.

Yep, that's how it happens. This whole sequence can happen in about 60 seconds.

Or, here's another one:

They're enjoying a good brother-sister spin in Daddy's chair at the office.


All is good. They're playing nicely.


Then, Britton leans in a little too close ... and it's all over.

Fun times around here! Always.

Changes

Lots of changes around here and one of the newest ones is that I have officially entered my minivan phase of life! Never thought I'd say that, but ... there is no denying ... it has happened. We weren't planning to get another car so fast, but with two toddlers and two smallish cars between us, a new-to-us minivan seemed like a logical decision. Have you seen the punch-button-sliding doors on these things?! It makes life a lot easier and we certainly have plenty of room now. Hoping this minivan will see us through many years of child-toting, road trips, carpool, soccer games, gymnastics ... and the list goes on.

Too Hard

You know you're pushing your kid too hard ...

... when he falls asleep in the car, sucker and all.

Sweet Moments

I have a post coming soon on the not-so-sweet moments, but here is one of the sweet ones...