Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year!

Last night we celebrated Chinese New Year with M performing her Chinese dance at the University of Pittsburgh. M has been taking Chinese dance at the Oriental Star Dance School for the past 2 1/2 years. She just loves her teacher and the opportunity to perform at different events throughout our area. She has another performance next Saturday at the Three Rivers FCC Chinese New Year Celebration. M's class did a great job performing their dance for the first time in public last night.


Saturday, January 24, 2009

UFO's

My little quilt group is having a challenge this year or fun competition. We are suppose to list (up to 10 but I have way more) UFO's or in the quilting world Unfinished Objects. When you complete a quilt on your list, your name goes into a drawing for a prize. The more you complete the more your name gets entered. I've decided to join in on the challenge to see if I can actually finish a quilt this year and that includes the quilting and binding. Usually I consider a quilt completed when I have the top done and that has gotten me in big trouble. I probably have about 50 tops waiting to be quilted sitting in my sewing room (I'm not listing these because it would just take me way too long). I've made a list of my UFO's that I want to complete for the year. When I have totally completed the quilt (including the quilting and binding) I will mark on my list that I've completed it. I will mark also if I actually get the top completed but not quilted so you can see that I'm making a little progress! Wish Me Luck!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What a Celebration!


Last Saturday, M had an Adoption Day Celebration. 7 Families met up at another families house, and then all the girls waited for the big pink limo to arrive. Having 10 girls (3 other siblings) yelling Limo got pretty loud! Lots of excited little girls wanted to ride in that limo!
They were driven to a place called Sweet and Sassy in style. Once at Sweet and Sassy, all the girls got to pick out the outfit they wanted to wear and then started to get their hair done.....

their nails and then their makeup on.

After that they had some fun dancing and then did a fashion show for the crowd.


A group photo was taken at the end. All I can say is that every one of those beautiful girls had a great time and made some memories that would last a lifetime!


The party didn't end at Sweet and Sassy. The girls all climbed back into the Limo and we went to some one's house for more partying. 2 more families joined us later so 9 out of the 11 girls were together again. The girls had so much fun playing together for the rest of the evening. We took another group photo of all the girls and their sisters.

These three special girls were all from the same Institute in China (Qingxin County SW in Guangdong). We try to get take their photo whenever we all get together. Boy have they changed since our first Gotcha Day Celebration back in January 2004. They were all 2 or almost 2 in this picture. Today they are either 7 or in the case of M only a couple weeks away of turning 7.

Monday, January 12, 2009

6 years Ago Today....

a beautiful little girl was placed in my arms in Guangzhou, China. It's hard to believe that she has been with us for 6 years already. She has been such a blessing to us and still continues to bring us joy everyday. Today she is a happy 6 year old. She's in 1st grade this year and doing well in School. She is also a little social butterfly and has lots of friends. She is very active in dance and gymnastics. She is very fit for being only 6 and that is due to all the time she spends at the gymnastics gym in preparation for competing next year.

To celebrate her special day, our travel group is having a little special outing for all of the girls in the Chicago area (most of our travel mates live in near Chicago) this Saturday. They will be riding a pink limo to a place called Sweet and Sassy for some pampering (including makeup, nails polished, hairdos and more) ! M is so excited to do this and can't wait until this weekend. She just loves anything to do with makeup and such so this activity is just up her alley!

Below are some photos of her 6 years ago and some of her today. I'm also adding a little slide show that I made last year of all of her early years. It's amazing how much she has changed over the years and how she is becoming quite the beautiful little lady today! Happy Family Day Dear M! We Love You!!

Just after M was placed in my arms.

About a week later in Guangzhou.

M's 1st grade photo.