Belated Chinese New Year

As an afterthought, I decided to include this picture of the kids from Chinese New Year. I know it's a little belated, but we don't often get pictures of them all standing (sort of still) together.

Catching up...

First of all - here's the "Gotcha Day" pic I promised back on Mali's Gotcha Day post -- it is the first moment Tony held her. Words don't do it justice -- it speaks for itself.

My laptop is back from HP and seems to be working well again (knock on wood), so I'm getting caught up on all the stuff I haven't been keeping up on. (Blogs, for example!)

All is well in our little part of the world. Maja got her stitches out (I did it myself!) and her scar will be slight. Mali is excited to be turning four soon. She is insistent that she be allowed to dress up as a princess for her birthday. I think we can arrange that! Daniel continues to do well. He's been telling me lately that he misses his Ayi (Auntie in China). In his orphanage, one Ayi was assigned to 6 or so children, so they became close to one person. He told me he does not miss China, just his Ayi. So we need to work on coloring some pictures for her and sending her a letter.

I know this blog is mostly about the kids, but I have to throw in some dog news, too. Libby, our newest addition, went to her first two shows recently. She went to Texas with her breeder at the end of March. Poor Libby didn't know how to function without me and didn't have a good time at all. Then we had a big show in Wichita the first weekend of April. I ended up showing her because Libby was more comfortable with me (even though I'm not at home in the conformation ring) and she did well. She won her class at the specialty on Thursday and earned herself a blue rossette and embroidered towel. On Friday her class was large and she wasn't in the ribbons, but she did well. Saturday she didn 't show because I couldn't be there. Sunday she had a decent class again and earned a 4th place ribbon. But the important thing is that she learned that judges really don't eat cute Aussies for lunch and if she's good, she gets treats... from lots of people. She also learned the fine art of shopping all the doggie vendor booths with me!

Howie will be shown in ASCA altered conformation this summer as well as Rally Advanced and Novice B Obedience. Wylie is on to Open Obedience (if he ever learns to love the dumbbell!) and Agility.

The kids all got to go to the dog show and seem to have "the bug"! Needless to say, I'm excited about that. Mali and Maja always want to help brush and walk the dogs. Daniel is pretty much always along for the ride and game for anything.

Well, not more much news around here. It's starting to look like spring which we are very grateful for -- it's been a long winter around here!

Love,

Alyssa