Happy Chinese New Year

We had a great weekend celebrating Chinese New Year, the year of the Ox.  Olivia and Lucy both performed at the JCCC performance.  Lucy sang this year and Olivia danced.  The girls did a great job.  Grammy was here to join us, Aunt Diane came too.  Jeff's cousins, Brian and Gary were here from Missouri for a weekend of skiing.  After, the performance we had Chinese take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant and then we played Wii with Brian and Gary.  The kids had so much fun with Jeff's cousins, they keep asking, " when  are they coming back?"

Grammy and Lucy

Having a good time with Brian and Gary, drinking margaritas and playing the Wii.  This is Gary bowling.  :)

Brian, wearing Lucy's hat.  :)

We continued the celebration into Sunday morning.  We met up with the Hayes and Grant families for an awesome and super cheap Dim Sum brunch.  :)

Lucy and Meg...posing for the camera.

Dinner with Ms Wang

As many of you know, I have been teaching ESL (English as a second language) to my friend, Ms Wang Ying.  She is the dance teacher at Olivia and Lucy's Chinese school.  Wang Ying is a famous dancer from Beijing and has danced all over the world, she even helped in choreographing the Olympic opening ceremonies.  We hosted her for dinner and games last week and had a great time, the kids absolutely adore her.  Her English skills are really improving and even Jeff was impressed, she is also an excellent bowler on the Wii.   She brought us the most delicious home-made dumplings.  :)  Xie Xie Ms Wang!

A Very Merry Christmas

                                   Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here are photos taken from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  On Christmas Eve we had appetizers for dinner and played some board games.  We also video chatted with the rest of the Schaefer's in St. Louis.  On Christmas Day, the kids actually slept until 7:00 and then it was Wii all day.  We stayed in our P.J.'s most of the day and played Wii sports, Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution.  It was a great family day! 

Lucy, Olivia and Jack in front of the stockings.  They were really excited for Christmas Day to finally be here.

Olivia playing her violin for the Schaefers in St. Louis via video chat.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas via video chat, you gotta love modern technology.  :) 

Playing SORRY

Olivia and Lucy writing their letters to Santa

Christmas morning photos

This is how Jack looked most of Christmas Day

Lucy's Kindergarten Christmas Performance - 2008

I thought I would add some more photos.  The photos of the kids were taken the night of Lucy's performance and the one of Jeff and I was taken before Jeff's company Christmas party. 

Lucy loves wearing her Christmas dress and "clapping shoes"

Here is a video clip from Lucy's school Christmas program.  Our little Lucy, who is usually so shy really surprised us at the performance.  This is just one of the songs she sang, it shows her singing talent and great animation.   :)

Hint...before playing the video, scroll down and pause the playlist so the music doesn't interfere.  Enjoy!

Christmas Tree Day!

Last Saturday we went on our annual trip to Pike National Forest to get our Christmas tree.

This was our 8th year of Christmas tree-cutting.  It has become a great tradition and is honestly my favorite day of the year, I always look forward to it.  We enjoy spending the day with friends and looking for just the right tree. This year the Ingrams, O'Briens and the Gregory's joined us.  After, we had found our trees we had some yummy muffins, donuts, hot chocolate and spiced cider. The weather was great,  so warm in fact, we had to take our coats off.   I love this family tradition and hope we can continue it for years to come. 

Family photo

Looking for the perfect Christmas tree

Olivia, Emma and Sami

Group photo of the kids

The Ingrams

The O'Brien's

The Gregory's

Spice