Sunday, December 30, 2007

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!







Well, Christmas has come and gone. The kiddos had an absolute blast. Maja thinks her new Dora doll is pretty great!


Daniel got a Thomas the Train set and some add-on parts to go with it. Mali got a Dora doll, too. The girls each also got a new dress and a "My Pretty Pony." (Let's hope they only want plastic horses!)
We hope you all had a great Christmas.
Happy New Year!!!




Monday, December 17, 2007

Cold and snowy - but we have power!

It's been quite a week here in Kansas (and most of the Midwest). We had a terrible ice storm on Monday/Tuesday that left thousands of Saline County residents w/o power. We were lucky - ours was only off for about 24 hours and just intermittently after that. I think just about everyone has power back now, almost 7 days later. There are still some waiting for new power poles to be installed.

Our Christmas cards are (finally) in the mail, but I imagine that some of you won't get them until after Christmas -- it is only a week away, after all! Can you believe it? Where has this year gone?

Tonight I heard the funniest thing from Mali - we were saying our prayers and she said, "No, mom, no boys. Boys ucky." I said, "You don't want boys?" (A mom's relief --she's only three! But I figured she meant she didn't want to pray for boys.) So she says, "No, I don't want boys. I want a rock." Good choice baby, rocks are easier to feed. :-) She is constantly hilarious (sometimes without even trying)!

My Grampa is visiting 'til sometime after Christmas. The kids don't get to see him much, but they warmed up to him pretty quickly Sunday night. Daniel was pretty excited that he has "two Grandpas!" (He actually has three, but he can't count that high yet.) Daniel likes two of anything right now -- we joke that we should have named him Noah. :-)

Maja is happy that her kitty "Alice" has moved in the house since the ice storm. She LOVES her Alice and follows her all over the house, trying to hold her and brush her hair. This was supposed to be a temporary indoor relocation for Alice, but I have a feeling she has won herself a spot in the house. :-)

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Here we go!

Well, this is my first attempt at a blog, so we'll see what happens! But we decided this was a great way to share our family happenings with our friends and relatives quickly and easily. I will try to post weekly or so to keep you all updated!

This year has been such an amazing year! Daniel came home from China on August 9 and is doing just great. We have been learning firsthand just how different boys are from girls! Daniel is constantly active -- running, jumping, building things, etc. The kids are all getting along great (minus the regular sibling rivalry issues). Mali liked having someone to wrestle with from the start. Maja has recently decided she is pretty tough, too and she jumps right in the mix.

Mali and Maja can both recognize a few written words and *mostly* know their alphabet. Mali can write D, O and M and kind of writes her name (not very recognizable). Maja's speech is progressing by leaps and bounds. She has recently started using some short, complete sentences and her pronunciation is greatly improved. Daniel's English is coming along quickly. He picked up receptive language very quickly and "parroted" everything we said from the beginning. He is now using English without being prompted. The nice thing about him learning English after being fluent in Chinese is that he has gone right into using sentences and already understands the purpose of language.

We are just about ready for Christmas! Our family photo is taken, our cards are ordered and nearly all the gifts are purchased. We are excited to watch the kids enjoy the festivities this year. Daniel will think that it's a pretty fun holiday -- all the food you can eat and gifts, too!

Well, this is it for my introduction. Please subscribe to our blog and it will automatically send you notices when we update the site. We will be adding tales of our happenings and new photos.

November 2007
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

~~ Helen Keller


Fun at the beach!

Fun at the beach!

Beautiful sunset with our friends at the lake

Beautiful sunset with our friends at the lake