Our Baby Turned 3…

…so now he is old enough for Guitar Hero. 

Enjoying some cake on his special day

Opening presents while his Princess entourage looks on

And having fun with one of his favorite friends

It is hard to believe that our baby boy is now three years old.  He is the child that makes us belly laugh, even when he is in getting in trouble, he has such a huge personality.  He is such a special boy, we are so fortunate to be able to call him our son.  We love you little man, happy birthday!!!

Snow + Kids = FUN

Until it is time to go inside

364 more days

Happy kiddos on Christmas Eve in their new jammies.

This is what they saw Christmas morning.

Big brother opening presents.

Big sissy opening presents.

Di Di opening presents.

The Princess opening presents.

 

And then it was over, Merry Christmas until next year.

Happy Holidays

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

~Norman Vincent Peale

From our family to yours Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year…

Brag Alert!

It is really hard these days to round up the whole crew for a photo shoot, so here are three of the four kiddos. 

I think they turned out awesome. 

Mr. Serious

Pure sweetness 

 

Big and Little Sissies

Orneriness at its best

 

The Little Princess

Our Big Girl

The Little Princess’ Kindergarten photos.  Our baby is growing up way too fast!

 

Big Sisters are Super Cool!

“The Little Princess”, loves and I mean loves, loves, loves Fancy Nancy books. We have been reading Fancy Nancy’s Tea Party and she is just enamored with the story. Knowing how much “The Little Princess” loves tea parties J#1 made this tent in “The Little Princess’ ” room, so they could have their own tea party. She set it up with cookies, marshmallows, candy and lemonade oh yea and Laughing Cow cheese with crackers. The little ones are hooked on that stuff. They played games, read books and just had an awesome time. Big sis and little sis even spent the night in the tent. You can see the look on her face when she first saw the tent, completely priceless! Loves to an awesome big sister.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours, enjoy your day, love your family, hug those that are close to you and please eat way too much. 

The biggest thanks goes to our Soldiers past and present that risk their lives to protect our country!

Future Olympian, possibly

 

The Mermaid, The Rhino And Oh Yeah A Furby

I know, scary right?

P Is For Pumpkin

We went to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday, it was so much fun.  The kiddos had a blast.  Needless to say they were both exhausted and passed out on the drive home. 

Gotta Luv These Faces

How can you not just fall in love with these faces, I love these little stinkers so much!!

  

Our Little Ballerina

I have  been a slacker about updating our blog.  Life has kept us very busy lately.  The Princess is now taking Ballet classes and loves them!  Between Ballet, Gymnastics, Chinese Classes and regular school she is one busy Princess. 

Stickka Boy and Noo Nalls

A wee little picture gallery of  “Mister Man”.

1st Day of Kindergarten

Today was “The Princesses” first day of Kindergarten.  She was so excited and I was so sad.  My baby is growing up way too fast!

Ready to go

New backpack

Looking entirely too beautiful

Standing in front of her class room

Writing on the first day

The Princess and her Teacher

A Fun Visit To Our Local Cider Mill

My mom and I took the little ones to the local Cider Mill the other day.  Here are photos of them enjoying the nice weather and some super yummy apple doughnuts.  We walked away with fresh tomatoes, cantaloupe, peaches and Apple Butter.

Grandma P with the two little squirts

Boston and Niagara Falls

Celebrating Four Years "2009 Hot Hunan Honey's 4th Annual Reunion"

Our last days together! 

We miss you all already and cannot wait to see you next year!

Part II, 2009 Hot Hunan Honey's 4th Annual Reunion

 

A day at the spa.

To be continued...

2009 Hot Hunan Honey's 4th Annual Reunion

This was our 4th annual "Hot Hunan Honey's Reunion". It was in Rhode Island this year. We had such a wonderful time, it was great seeing all of the girls and their families!!

On the road to RI a quick stop in St. Louis

St. Louis Arch

We spent the day in Manhattan on the way to RI.

The kids loved riding in the subway!

We met a friend of ours for Sushi in Manhattan.

Narragansett RI

Children's Museum, Providence RI

Brenton Point State Park, Newport RI

To be continued....

The Princess Had A Very Special Guest At Her Party

As you can see the dress is just a tad too big on her, but it was beautiful none the less.

Happy 5th Birthday to our Little Princess!

From this:

 

To This is just 4 short years:

A little girl that is confident, intelligent, sweet, funny, energetic, artistic, inquisitive, verbose, determined, moody, talented, loving, cuddly and five! 

A little girl that owns her Daddy and Mommy's heart, we love you always and Happy Birthday big girl!

I Just Love These Faces!

  Thats cookie in her teeth, just in case you are wondering!

Happy 18th Birthday, J#2!!!

You have grown into such a wonderful young man, I love you will all my heart. Mom

J#1 and J#2

J#1, J#2 and J#2's Girlfriend Shorty!

Tiny Bubbles

   Okay, so now that you have the song in your head, enjoy the photos.

Who's Your Daddy!!

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father to my children!  Here's to you honey, Happy Father's Day!!

Front Porch Fun

 

99 Things

99 things...

Here are the rules:
Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog, it looks like I need to get out more!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain-Or was it a really big hill? =)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child -two in fact
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon I am working on this one!
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke!
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Given birth to a baby -Two in Fact
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

7 Years Ago Today!!

How lucky am I? Well just let me tell you. Seven years ago today I married the man of my dreams. I am truly the luckiest person in the world. I have a husband that loves his family and is such a wonderful father to his children and most of all he puts up with me! He says I am his Angel, I love him so much!

Happy Anniversary Honey, you are my world and own my heart!!!

The Oldest Baby Boy

J#2 and his Girlfriend M

Face it, they are just cute!

What else do you do after a day of swimming and an evening in the backyard grilling?  

Take photos of your kiddos, of course.

   

 

Wild Olive Tee's Giveaway

Head on over to Wild Olive Tees and check out their cool give away!!

Lots of awesome spiritual tees!

4 Years Ago Today and 100th Post

Four years ago I received the best call ever it was our adoption agency saying that we have a baby girl. As they were telling me all of her information I was crying and frantically trying to get it written down on a piece of paper. See below.


My husband was on an airplane to New York so everyone in the office knew before he did. It was an amazing day.


Thank you Hou QingLian for becoming a part of our family we are so very blessed and lucky to have you. You own my heart, my life is so much better because of you.

You are our Princess Fartootie who is smart, funny, beautiful, girly, sassy, bendy, confident, silly and most of all our precious little girl.

On a side note, 100th post, wow!!

That's My Boy

If a photo is worth a thousand words, what do ya think he is trying to say in this one?

A Graduation Weekend In The Woods

The reason for our visit, my beautiful Niece graduated from High School!

Gorgeous Niece#5

My beautiful sister, her lovely daughter and wonderful hubby! Below are photos of their gorgeous family, how does one get such a good looking family?

Gorgeous Niece #4 with The Princess and The Little Emperor

I am so lucky, look at these gorgeous Nieces

Gorgeous Niece #1, #3 and #2

Gorgeous Niece #2 with The Little Emperor and The Princess

What a beauty!

Gorgeous Niece #3's beautiful baby!

A Beautiful Angel

Gorgeous Niece #1's amazingly gorgeous baby!

Gorgeous Niece #1 with The Princess and The Little Emperor

Oh look, here she is again, how cute is she?


Two Goofballs, I think they got bored!

Oh yea and my Dad, he is a goof ball too!

Happy Mother-ing Day

As many of you may already know today is Mother's Day and in keeping with my Friday's rambling mode style of a blog update, I've decided to reflect on this "holiday"with no special point or purpose other than to post this so that I can then reflect on my reflecting.

So if you are so inclined, please read at your own risk. You may waste 2-10 minutes of your life you will never get back. I guess it all depends on how fast you read (sorry all of you slow readers).

I guess I should start by saying it's nap time. Meaning that, it is that wonderful time of the day I passionately long for when I can sit down with some assurance,that for at least 15 minutes, I will not be constantly hounded by my children to get off the sofa and do something motherly, to which I always have to reply, "Give me a break here, can't you see I'm on the computer!?!?".

Do you remember when your mom used the say the same thing to you but she always said, "phone"."Can't you see I'm on the phone here?" Who were they always talking to anyway? Which brings me to my point --or lack of one-- as it were.

I am SOOOOOO much a better mother than my mother. How do I know? Because I'm almost NEVER on the phone! That's right I said it. I'm almost never on the phone! Who has time, What with all the texting and tweeting and blogging, and the photo-chronically of my two youngest children's every move.

OK that's not my point at all. Look! I warned you about this rambling thing I've got going on here.

Anyway as I was saying about this "holiday", everyone I know, thinks it's about the fact they are a mom but I disagree entirely. It should be about the "mothering", not the mother.

See it's almost exactly 1 year to the day that I gave up a medium-to-high-powered job in upper-middle-to-low-middle-low-low management at a super-huge ginormous company where everyone is rated on their merits provided that their bosses, bosses like them and in turn allow them to rate you on their assessment of things you did, that they never had time to ask you about but always seemed to say "I think you're doing a great job here", followed by "I'm sorry you don't get a raise again this year.

" How could I have ever given that up? Ahhhh, I'll never really know.

So back to what I was saying, which was the holiday is about the mothering and not the mother and as we all go through the various versions of celebration bestowed upon us by our children, husbands or boyfriends --not every mom is married, I know that--, (or girlfriends --didn't want to leave that 10% out-- sorry Ladies I almost forgot you) or whomever picked out a card or helped make a card that by the way GOT WAY TOO MUCH glitter AND GLUE ON EVERYTHING AND I NOW HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP!THANKS MILLIONS!, I say don't give us cards and gifts because we're a mother, give us gifts (not coffee mugs that say "Best Mom Ever" either -- you get me!) for what we're really doing here. We are raising the best generation of kids ever!

See when all is said and done, after all the gymnastics, swimming, dance, Sunday Chinese Language classes,bio-medical pre-k starter classes, periodic table of element flash cards for two year old's repetition training, and Mom-Kid Yoga boding classes, these kids ultimately learn the most from us, THE MOMS!

Case in point, just after breakfast this morning, my dear-sweet-so-incredibly-wonderful husband decided to snap a little picture of our two youngest (finally) playing quietly by themselves. When he showed me the picture, I said "Oh that's cute, look.... they're sitting together without fighting.

" To which he replied, "I don't think you get it honey." and he added "I asked them what they were doing and they said, ............ we're playing "Mommy."
It brought a tear to my eye. How can a mother be any more proud?

Anyway I have to end this post now, I hear the phone ringing and the caller ID says it's my mom. Jeesh! When will she figure out there's more to do than just sit around and talk on the phone.

So to all of you great "mothering" mom's out there.... rejoice today is your day.

My Girl Finally Sent Me A Photo

My girl is graduating this year. Unfortunatley, it appears that she won't be coming back here for University she will be staying in China.

Boo Hoo, I miss her!!

Love you Li XinYin!!!

Friday Ramblings

Friday Ramblings or as I like to call them, "the random thoughts that pop in my head with no concern of cohesion", meaning these are seriously random. Come to think of it, it's what my twitter updates would look like if my head could write them as I think them.

I am looking forward to this evening so I can have several glasses of wine, after all it is the weekend. Come on, empty calories.
I will run it off tomorrow, see that makes it OK.

I chase my kids around constantly with a camera shoved in their faces, trying to get them to pose for the most awesomest of photos so I can accumulate mounds of great comments when I post them to cool sites like I Heart Faces, I Should Be Folding Laundry and We Picture This.
I know that is a run on sentence, get over it.

I still have piles and piles of laundry that still aren't washing themselves. Hey clothes companies now there's something you should invent, clothes that wash themselves. I buy loads of them, pun intended. My idea is not that weird, I still believe in Santa so anything is possible.
Come on laundry, I am still rooting for you! Get up and wash yourselves bad boys!

My dog stinks, so any takers on giving him a bath need not submit resume the job is yours. And who are those people that brush their dogs teeth? Sorry for those of you who are the dog-tooth-brusher's, you know who you are. No offense intended, it's just that dog-tooth-brushing is not on my agenda, well unless the hubby ticks me off. he he

First off, my husband is the love of my life, I adore him and he is a great hubby and dad.
OK, now that, that is out of the way.

My husband lives in a world of his own, I am just not sure if there are any other human life forms in that world. I always have said there is a fine line between intelligence and insanity. For those of you that know him, ya know what I am sayin' here.

The Little Emperor has given me some more material for some totally great "In the Buff" stories in the near future, so stay tuned.

That about sums it up for this week, I will leave you with some of the most awesomest photos of the two most awesomest kids.

P.S. I know awesomest is not a word.

"Best Mom Ever"

I'm not really sure if knowledge (or should I say information) exists in the air that surrounds us but I'm beginning to think it does. If not, then I have no other explanation for my two year old's behavior recently. You see, after I wrote a post about his neck-ed-ness the other day he seems to be doing things to get back at me; or at least to test my ability to keep a straight face.

So this morning, while I was doing my impersonation of the "Best Mom Ever" -- an award I received some years ago from my husband on mothers day when he WOWed me with my only gift that year; a coffee mug that says so -- I was sitting on the sofa, surfing the net, and basically ignoring my kids, when I realized that my two-year-old son (The Little Emperor) was being quiet, way too quiet.

He had already eaten breakfast -- yes I feed him before becoming a helpless victim of the Internet -- and he wasn't following his normal pattern of climbing on me and incessantly touching my computer screen with his spit moisten fingers, touching every picture and saying in his two-year-old-that-no-one-understands-but-but-me dialect, "maaaaaa-maaaaa, maaaaaa-maaaaa, maaaaaa-maaaaa, maaaaaa-maaaaa". Which by the way means, "Hey lady, put the computer down and walk-a-way, this is bordering on addiction, you know?"

So just as my brain had flashed through all of the other activities I had come to see during his previous quiet times, such as wielding a butcher knife or making entire toilet paper roll sized wet TP wads and throwing them against the bathroom wall, I was quickly motivated to drag myself off of the sofa.

It's not but maybe 5-10 steps (maybe more if your really short or you have stubby little legs) that separates me from each of the other rooms in the house. So while I made my way quickly to the usual locations, I came across the little man engaged --not in some dangerous behavior-- but something entirely different.

There he was, in the kitchen in all of his nudiness with no sign of clothes in sight. And right there smack-dab in the middle of the kitchen, he was trying to put on his sisters stretchy headband. You know, the ones that hold your hair back. This one is the equivalent of a pencil thin piece of fabric sewn around a piece of elastic. So in essence, it's a big rubber band just large enough to be tight on a four-year-old's head.

Now this would not be worth making note of had he been trying to hold his hair back in any manner that the head band was intended for, but he was not. He evidently had an entirely different objective for which I still have no idea of what that might have been. I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

Let's see, how do I describe this? Well, he had configured it between his legs and pulled it up on his bum and stretched it up over a shoulder, so that from my vantage point it looked as if he might be wearing a thong. That's right! My boy had a 'Gerber's Secret' baby-boy T-back on! A little bum-bum floss and nothing more. Let me remind you, we DO NOT live on a beach in Brazil! Had we though, he would have gone un-noticed, well except that he's a two-year-old boy with pasty-white bum cheeks.

So as I start laughing and and snorting so hard that I could have rattled a contact lens out (if I wore contacts, that is) and being the "Best Mom Ever", I knew just what to do! That's right! I ran and grabbed the camera and popped off as many pictures as humanly possible before he realized that if he were to try and walk with that bad-boy-T-back on he would be less than delighted with the comments "lil-Mr. Peabody" would have sent to his brain upon his first move.

So with 75-100 incriminating pictures on my 8 gig CF card (yes I put the trusty 7 picture burst setting on the old Cannon EOS before getting back to kitchen), I put the camera down and helped him out of his new swim suit choice or "man-o-thong" or whatever you want to call it. Needless to say, sadly I can't share any of these photos in this blog.

However as any experienced "Best Mom Ever" with older teenagers knows, kids are cute, and beautiful, full of joy and keep us young and all of that but as teenagers they can lead you to an early grave, that is of course.................................... unless you have some solid pictographic black-mail material that will keep you safely in charge until about the time go to college.

Sincerely,

"Best Mom Ever"

P.S. I have to go now, I think my son is being quiet again and come to think of it, I haven't seen my waxing kit recently.

The N*ked Truth

So as a mother of four with two "olders" --one girl and one boy-- I am well versed on the concept that "boys are just different". My husband, contrary to his own suggestions otherwise, is in fact on some level a "boy" himself. This fact however did not seem to help him the other night when a "situation" with our youngest arose.

To preface the following story, our youngest is a full-fledged two year old full of energy who believes he is in complete control of parents, his older brother, his sisters and most of all himself.
We adhere to very strict bedtimes however on this night after he was put to bed he seemingly decided that he would not quickly fall asleep and began to make all of the associated noises one might hear when a child is awake and playing in their crib. This went on for nearly two hours but finally subsided and all was right with the world. Several hours later the remainder of the family went to bed, except of course for my husband (he likes to take, as he calls it, 'the night shift').

My husband is well aware of our son's sleep pattern which occasionally involves a late night or early morning cry which is easily rectified by going into his room and reapplying a sleeping toy and blanket to their proper positions.

On this night though, the little emperor put out a very strange cry, one my husband claims he had never heard before. It was not the, I'm hurt, I'm hungry, I'm angry, or any other previously identified cry.

Rushing upstairs, my husband found something he was not expecting to find. His son was not hurt, not hungry and was not angry. He was upset very upset. He was also asleep, very asleep.

Now mind you this is my husband's description of what he encountered.

There our son was, in his crib, completely buck-neeeeecked, face down, bum high in the air and he was either peeing on himself or had just finished peeing on himself. The diaper was clutched in our sons hand where the sleep toy would normally be found and the one piece zip-up sleeper was a good 5 feet outside the crib on the floor.

As my hubby said, "that explains all the playing for two hours".

So in all of the years of experience, knowledge, and brilliance the two-year thinks he has he failed to -- at the time of his disrobing -- take into account that that when slumber finally does come so would the evil pee. And for that matter his little "mr. peabody" was aiming right back at him.

So more humorous to me, my husband had to deal with a pee-wet-2-year old with a soaked pillow and bed linens.

My husband simply said, "I can't believe he did that, what kid would do that, why would he do that?"

To which I replied, "He's a boy, I guess he just felt like letting it hang free."