Our Beach Vacation in Collages

Our beautiful days together the first week of January 2013.  I relax and smile when I look at these pictures. The birds posed  for us on the Huntington Beach Pier.  Miah, thoughts and hopes of you. We named our sandcastle The Great Wall.  We peddled our hearts out. A mommy/daughter moment. We watched the surf from the Pier.  Caught the girls in perfect pose.  Morning sunshine. Afternoons bathed in sunshine. Last night at the beach

Playing in the sand . . .wish we could dig our way to China!

Holidays with Family

Holidays are for . . . spending time crafting . . .

So proud of their 8 point stars.  They look pretty hanging in our winter windows.

Nana has a passion for golf.  She loves to play, compete in her women's league, and pass on the game to her grand children!

My parents graciously let us use their RV for the first week of January.  We pulled into Huntington Beach, CA on New Year's Eve.

 

Taylor (left) and Katherine (right) joined us. We played games and then they got busy making their tents for the evening.

They lasted through the New Year!

Beautiful Katherine

New Year's Day, we spent the morning at the beach. 

I sat for awhile and admired this view!  Not a bad way to spend the first day of the year, on the beach!!!

This is Liliah's chance to spend time with her cousins.  She loves them and they sure dote on her.  They had fun running from the water.

The Pier a Huntington Beach, CA. Ruby's the burger joint sits at the end of the pier.  We ate there a couple of times.

 Doing cartwheels . . .

Dancing . . .

and leaping for joy!  Happy, New Year.

Christmas at Papa & Nana's

Christmas at Papa & Nana's was lots of fun . . .

Happy Forever Family Day

Liliah, Happy 4th Forever Family Day!   
You danced in your first recital today.  This is a first for both of us, but we did it.  You are part of the twinkle toes team.  You were dance warriors encouraging those with cancer that they are strong! This is your first time on stage and you loved it.  You weren't nervous one bit.  I loved sharing this day with you backstage.  Daddy got to sit in the audience and cheer you on.  

I couldn't help but reflect that we were in Nanning, China on this day.  I became a Mother and you certainly danced yourself right in to our life and heart that day.  We love you so much and thank God for the gift that you are to us.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! We are back from the holidays and vacation.  We had a great one and I need to document them soon!

Our Christmas

A lovely mermaid appeared at our Christmas tree.  We celebrated on the 23rd after church service.  We head home to California every Christmas Eve morning.

Liliah asked for simple gifts.  A special night light, silly slippers, a ballerina dress and a scooter.

We threw in a few extra things!  She got Mouse Trap and Trouble.  Those were games I loved.

 

Her scooter

How she was excited to open a BIG present! She spotted it when we were shopping one day. She asked if I would remember to write it down for us and Santa so we wouldn't foget :)

 

This is the night light that she has been asking for since summertime!  It was at the top of her list.  She showed the most excitement when she opened this one.

  

Discovering the game, Mouse Trap

Having fun putting it together

We had a blast playing

 

You love helping daddy figure things out.  You later rode your scooter (in the house - the wheels don't scratch the floor).  You then stopped in mid stride and came over to say, I love you and thank you for all my gifts, I love all of them!!!

 

Helping me open all of my gifts.

We hung a new ornament while we wait for Miss M.  We are at 16 months milestone of her adoption.  We are 9 months paper-pregnant (with a Log In Date with China.  That means the next step is matching us with our daughter!) Oh how we pray that you are with us next year at this time.  We can't imagine it any other way.

A Jolly Good Time

My sister Diana and my niece Taylor came to see us!!! It is always a treat to have family come and see us.  We've never had visitors at Christmas, so this was a treat! From the time they arrived, we hit the ground running with Christmas fun!  We slept in and then enjoyed some Swedish pancakes.  The girls made gingerbread houses and we relaxed and visited.  In the evening, we headed to a local light show that has over 1 million lights.  The landscape and scenes are amazing!  It was rainy and cold, but we braved the weather anyways.

Taylor is very creative, organized and thoughtful.  She's gonna run "the show" when she grows up!

Time for a break . . .

Time for a kiss . . .

We attended a night-time performance of "The Nutcracker Suite" in downtown Seattle.

Taylor is a competitive dancer and I think she enjoyed the show.  Liliah has been watching the performance at home and knows the story.  Her favorite is the peacock and the dance of the ballerinas in the snow.  She was enamored and sat on the edge or her seat, laid on her stomach like she was watching a movie or sat in my lap and snuggled. 

She danced away during the intermission.  It was really sweet how much she enjoyed herself. I even have a video of her dancing on a mini stage.  She received applause :)

Girl's night out!

Cousin love . . .Taylor is so sweet and just loves on Liliah!  She is such a blessing to her.  Taylor also loved ALOT on our doggie, Maddy.  She kept her well exercised.

Viewing the beautiful Christmas lighted scenes.  (I can't figure out how to turn this photo around that I took from my phone)

 

We made sugar cookies and chocolate crinkles.  Liliah helped with the ingredients and Taylor did the mixing!

We helped the girls with their technique (like not too much floor or too thin)

They decorated their cookies in the morning just before they had to fly home.

We even went roller skating!  This was the girls first time and I hadn't been in 30 years.  I am happy to report that I can still roller skate (it was a little shaky at first).  My sister line skates so she was up pretty quickly.  It was a lot of fun and the girls had a blast.

 

 

This is Taylor's pretty house.  It is the only one that survived.  Our lab Maddy is a foodie and she got to Liliah's and ate it all except for the roof.  Luckily, she has a iron clad stomach and it didn't seem to bother her.  She's on the naughty list with Santa though, I told her :)

DIANA & TAYLOR, THANK, YOU, THANK YOU FOR COMING.  IT WAS VERY SPECIAL TO HAVE YOU VISIT!