Chinese New Year

A late post on a fun celebration. Our local group of Chinese adoptive families joined with the Chinese Americans local chapter to participate in a public event to celebrate Chinese New Year. Van wasn't too sure about the parade at first but once he got to feed the lion with the red envelope, he was hooked. He still tells the story in his own unique way and it always end with a big "ROAR"!
We are hoping he will actually be part of the parade next year.

Superbowl Sunday

Van finally got to host our annual Superbowl Party this year. We've been so looking foward to having him home for this yearly event. As a result of his hostness, we upped the number of kids running wild to somewhere in the range of 15...plus all the adults that accompany them so needless to say it was a packed loud house and tons of fun! Lots of yummy food, a great game and THE BOSS...what more could this Jersey girl ask for!!

Van helping with the party prep

Watching the half-time show

Austin and Logan have one fun daddy!

Maybe I should go home with them...and flip all the time!

Loud Mommy

Diego Day

Friday was our big Diego Meet and Greet with our best twin buddies of http://twoheartsinguatemala.blogspot.com/
Check us out on their site too!
Mommy decided to take the new camera for the big event and ended up with some useless blurry photos...luckily twin mommy Donna saved the day for us...
The three musketeers had an awesome day as you can see.
Stay tuned for Superbowl fun later this week.

Pre-meet and greet fun in the dressing room...luckily no one was dressing...

The big moment...a bit tentative at first

Loving Diego's backpack

Who Loves Ya Diego!

What mommy does for fun...

'Tatos with his cuteness...what else!

The Little Gym Graduation

Friday was our BIG Little Gym Graduation and next Friday we start a new semester. Daddy came along to capture the festivities. Van LOVES the Little Gym as you can imagine...a padded place to run and jump and fall down. He accepted his medal with pride.
In other weekend news, Van made his debut appearance at Sunday mass...everyone survived including Howard-yes he also behaved well in church. Both were quiet and somewhat attentive, clapped for the choir and happily joined hands to pray the Our Father...no photos to post on that tho but here's some some gym fun...

The Beach and the baptism

We are so fortunate to have as one of our dear friends, the priest who officiated at our wedding. Scott and I both greatly admire his passion and dedication to his calling as well as his wonderful warm spirit and being. When we married, he made the mistake of offering to baptize our children so we took that to heart. Considering he was shipped off to sea the day after our wedding almost 4 years ago and spent 2 years in Afghanistan, we were afraid we'd lose touch. But the magic of the internet kept us connected and brought us to the happy occasion that was this weekend-Van's baptism.
Our immediate family-grandparents, aunts and uncle all made time in their busy lives to travel a good distance to Virginia Beach so we could all be together and celebrate this special day. Van was of course the life of the party and enjoyed every moment.
He had his first run in the sand on a breezy winter day at the ocean, was blessed at a moving private celebration, behaved for a 2 hour restaurant dinner and then ran us all around the aquarium before he napped his way back home on Sunday afternoon. Life doesn't get much better than this...

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 to all! We look back on 2008 as an amazing year...bringing Van home was certainly the highlight and every day since has brought more joy than could ever be imagined.
As much as Van likes to stay up too late, he didn't make it to the ball drop of 09...plenty of time for that to come. He was a bit sad to see the Christmas decorations come down this weekend...he hugged and kissed the Santa and Christmas tree good-bye.
We started out the new year with an awesome play date with our twin buddies at the Children's Museum of Richmond. What a blast! We finally managed to get a couple decent photos of our virtual triplets. What great buddies they are already...Donna (twoheartsinguatemala.blogspot.com/) and I are so delighted by their joy at hanging out together.

Pre-Christmas baking day...fun fun!

So many choices...

Favorite Party Hat

Future Motorheads work under the hood

Just like Diego

The almost got it triplet shot...

Got it...thanks for Austin for the buddy hug pose!