Happy Chinese New Year!

Today was Chinese New Year and also my brother, Will's, 30th birthday.  Will drove a race car around Talladega with my dad and brother, Gaines.  They had a great time.  From what I hear, Will was very close to beating Dad, but Dad outraced him just a bit.  Happy Birthday, Will!

Amelia and I celebrated Chinese New Year with Sue and Ella.  David and I brought the girls matching Chinese dresses back from China for this special day.  It was the first time both of the girls would celebrate Chinese New Year.  David picked out the sweet pink qipao dresses for them to wear.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures of them at my house before we headed out.  We began our celebration by taking the girls to lunch at Kobe.  This was Ella's first time at a Japanese steak house, and she did great.  The girls really enjoyed watching the show, and Amelia enjoyed eating the fried rice.  They gave her a HUGE plate full of rice, and she did her best to finish the entire thing.  After lunch, we went to the Chinese New Year Festival downtown.  We arrived toward the end, but we were still able to see some of the Asian dance performers.  Amelia was mesmerized and really enjoyed the performances.  It was VERY hard to get two little girls to look at the camera at the same time, but we were able to get a few shots.   For dinner, we met the dads and Poppy and PawPaw at Hunan Cuisine.  The owners are so friendly and love that we celebrate Chinese New Year with them each year.  The food was fabulous, and we managed to bring home some leftovers.  Amelia LOVES to eat and the dumplings, chicken fried rice, and Moo Shoo Pork were favorites.

Enjoy our pictures from our fun day and Gong Xi Fa Cai (Happy New Year in Mandarin).  We hope you have a prosperous year of the snake (my birth year)!

Showing off my new qipao dress from China.

Amelia likes to sit in the sink when she gets ready.  I think it gives her a better view into the mirror.

Brushing our teeth is very important before we go out.

Ella looks so cute in her qipao, too!

Showing off their dresses

Waiting for the show to begin at Kobe

Can you see this HUGE plate of fried rice?

Tired of sitting in the strollers.  Amelia is trying to escape.

Amelia is mesmerized by the dancers.

It is the year of the snake, so I celebrated the my Chinese year.

Amelia was finally able to walk around the auditorium and thought it was great!

Feeding Daddy some fried rice.

Poppy gave Amelia a fortune cookie right before this photo.  Her mouth is still full.

Thanks for the Mardi Gras beads, Holly!  I LOVE THEM!

The Huang Family

Poppy and PawPaw enjoyed the celebration.  Poppy even wore red!

*Phone update:  Unfortunately, Amelia and I ended up having to go to the Apple store for a new phone.  The rice trick may work for some, but it didn't work for me.  They were very nice, but I am out a chunk of change that I really didn't need to spend.  If you need me, you can call me now. :)

Amelia's Big Day

This past Sunday, Amelia joined the church through the sacrament of Holy Baptism at St. John's Anglican.  The service began with a sweet adoption ceremony.  Our little family was called to the front, and David and I were pretty much pronounced married to Amelia. :)  We accepted her as our child to love and raise in the Faith and were pronounced a family at the end.  It was very special.

After the adoption service and the sermon, Amelia was Baptized.  She looked beautiful in her Christening gown and really did a great job.  It was much better than I expected.  She didn't cry at all but was a BIG wiggle worm and waved to everyone who was watching.  She was super cute.  After the service, we had a nice church luncheon.  This was Amelia's first church lunch (we a big pot luck lunch the first Sunday of every month), and she LOVED being able to do her favorite thing - EAT.  She enjoyed trying lots of new things.  She does NOT like green beans.  We tried them Sunday and each time, she would spit them out.  I also tried them at dinner last night with no luck.  Amelia had her first piece of cake - Edgar's strawberry- and was in Heaven.  She really is too precious for words.  Here are a few pictures that we took after the service.  I hope to be able to get more soon from a church member who took pictures with their camera.

Amelia is wearing her first smocked dress for the adoption service.

Amelia and Father Houser

I love this family picture.  It is now an 8x10 hanging on my wall.

Isn't she beautiful!  She wouldn't look at the camera, but church members were taking pictures next to us, so I am hoping that she was looking at them.

Playing pick-a-boo

On another note, if anyone tries (or has tried) to call or text and I don't answer, please don't take it personally.  My cell phone fell out of my pocket and into the toilet yesterday.  It is currently drying out in rice.  I have waited 24 hours already, but plan to wait until tomorrow before trying it.  Please pray that it works or Amelia and I will be headed to the Apple store...

I have also added airport pictures to"We're Home!".  Thanks to all who sent them!

Amelia's First Party

Tonight, Amelia attended her first party.  Aunt Toni and Uncle Will had a Housewarming Party at their new home.  We also celebrated Uncle Will's 30th birthday.  Amelia had a great time and really enjoyed watching all of the guests.  She actually let Paw Paw and Aunt Toni hold her for extended amounts of time.  Amelia has been very standoffish with Paw Paw and would pretty much only allow high fives and take M&Ms from him.  Tonight, she let him get her out of the car and carry her around a bit.  He held her for a while before she held out her hands for me.  I handed her back to Paw Paw a little later, and she let him hold her for another long amount of time.  Aunt Toni also got to hold Amelia for a while, and we were so excited.  Poppy was able to walk her outside to visit with people, and she did great.  She fell asleep on the way home and of course, did not want to go to bed when we got up to her room.  She is now sleeping soundly and hopefully will remain that way all night.

Happy 30th birthday, Uncle Will!

Amelia is good with Aunt Toni but not so sure about Uncle Will.

Uncle Gaines is having a snack.

I Love a Necklace!

Amelia has become all about a sparkly necklace!  She LOVES them.  She has been very into a couple of Mardi Gras necklaces that I had around the house, but they were very long on her and her foot kept getting caught when she tried to crawl around while wearing them.  Amelia and I found a sale on a few necklaces that were her size.  She asks to put one on each morning and will wear them ALL day (of course, I take them off for naps).  Yesterday, she decided she wanted to wear 2 of her new necklaces AND the purple Mardi Gras beads (at least they match her outfit).  She is showing off in these pictures.

I had to take the batteries out of the remote.

I love this picture of Amelia.  It captures her personality exactly. 

Can you tell that she is on the move in some of these photos?  She barely sits still!

Amelia has started to feed herself when I walk away from the table, or I'm not going fast enough for her.  She thinks Chobani yogurt is GREAT and refuses any other kind.  I think I'll send these photos to them and see what they think. :)

This morning, Daddy decided to get Amelia up and dress her before coming down for breakfast.  I'm not sure if you can tell from these pictures, but Amelia is wearing a cute shirt that fits, pants that are 2 sizes too big (and don't match the shirt), and socks that are too small that have frogs on them.  Daddy did remember to put a necklace on the girl, so he gets points for that.  He also gets points for putting her in pink.  We changed her outfit before running some errands today.  :)

Amelia can't scoot herself forward, but she's a pro at scooting backwards.

David even rolled up the pants legs :)