What is so Good in Denny's

This is what I saw when I was driving in front of a Denny's in our town. What in the world can be so good in Denny's to make anyone in their right mind stand outside in the cold just to get in the front door. Even if they were giving away free food, I don't think I would stand in line at a Denny's for it.

photo 4

Chili Peppers

My oldest daughter had another public performance last Saturday for her Chinese Dance School. Here is the group of beautiful Chili Peppers! They did a another great job on their dance!

photo 3

Photo a day For the Month Of February

I visit another blog where she is posting a photo a day. I've decided to try that myself but only for the month of Feb. I may continue after Feb if I'm successful. This will force me to keep my blog up to date!! I'm already a few days behind mainly because I just decided to do this this morning. So in my first attempt I will post photos for Feb 1 and Feb 2. Both of these photos were taken at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. Having the birds so close gives you great opportunities to get some beautiful shots of birds and even this squirrel (who was just outside the front door).

photos 1 and 2

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.

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!!

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.

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.

http://slideroll.com/?s=fs4g91ym

Christmas Photo 2008

Since the girls were little, I've taken a photo of them in front of our tree to include in our Christmas card. This is the photo that I've chosen to inlude for this year. They took many great pictures this year so it was hard to choose, but I just love their smiles in this picture.

This was my first photo attempt in 2004. E had only been home about a couple of weeks when this photo was taken. Try getting a 2 year old and a 9 month old to sit, be still, look at the camera and maybe smile all at the same time. As you can see, I wasn't too successful!

How Many Bags Can You Make in a Week?

A friend of mine talked me in to sharing a craft table with her at our daughters' Gymnastics Parent Organization craft show today. This all happend 1 week ago! Did I have anything made when she talked me in to sharing this table with her? NO!!! Guess what I've been doing all week? Yes, sewing my butt off. I made a total of 23 purses, bags and totes in just 6 days! Below is a photo of all my work. Now I just hope I sell a few items but if I don't, I have all my Christmas presents done for this year.

Santa

This past weekend we went to the mall and the girls sat on Santas lap. E asked for the diamond castle carriage, horse and dolls, pretty normal for a little 4 yr old girl. M on the other hand asked for a BB gun. She only asked for this because the day before she saw one at the sporting goods store while looking around with her Dad. Since Dad used to shoot rifle competitively when he was young, he was excited to see a pink BB gun that his daughter would be able to shoot (or more likely himself shoot). When M told me what she was going to ask Santa for Christmas, the movie "The Christmas Story" popped right into my mind. I did try to change her mind, but it didn't work. Not sure if Santa is bringing that BB gun this year or not. M isn't quite old enough or more exactly mature enough to have a BB gun. She would probably "shoot her eye out"!

I'm Still Here

People have commented that I haven't posted since July. Sorry! It's been kind of busy around here since the girls started school. I think I spend more of my time in the car driving them to all of their activities and then sitting and waiting for them to be finished. I'm not home that much! I'm still sewing a little, not as much as I would like. I haven't really completed a whole quilt yet but I'm steadily working on several different ones at the same time. I get bored with one and then I work on the other. I've also done a few more house swaps with my Yahoo group. Here a two of my latest houses.

The first one is for a Calendar House swap and my month was April. I've titled it "Raining Cats and Dogs" because I found this great fabric with dogs and cats falling out of the sky with rain. I used that for the main part of the house. The roof is rainbow type fabric. The doors and windows is money fabric in honor of Tax filing day. The chimney is fabric that looks like trees for Arbor day. The sky fabric looks like rain.

The second house is another Calendar House, this time for February. I just had to use heart fabric for the main house, roof and chimney for Valentines Day. The door and window is party fabric in honor of both of my girls's birthdays, which happen to be in February. The sky fabric looks like fireworks for Chinese New Year (even though Chinese New Year could be in Jan or Feb I wanted to portray it in my Feb Houses).

Once all the houses are swapped I will receive 12 houses portraying each month for each group that I joined (in total I will be getting 24 different houses). My goal is to make each of my girls a calendar house quilt. I say my goal because who knows how long it would take me to actually finish the quilts :)

Happy 4 Year Family Day, E!!!

I'm a few days late in posting this but I wanted to wish E a HAPPY FAMILY DAY!! 4 years ago we were in China bonding with this beautiful little girl. Today she is now 4 1/2 years old and a bundle of energy. She keeps us on our toes and we wouldn't have it any other way. We love you E!!!!

Enjoy some of her early photos and some of her today.

E just minutes after being placed in my arms

At our hotel room right after placement.

At the beach. This is the area from China where E is from.

Just smiling in the crib in China.
Meeting her big sister for the first time. Notice how she is holding M's hand and just staring at her.
4 years later!


A group photo of all the little girls from Yangxi at our 4 year Gotcha Day party on Nov 8, 2008. E is the tiniest one 3rd from the right.

Recent Quilting Stuff

Here is another House Block that I've made for my Block Exchange. This one I've titled the Dog House. Just couldn't resisit making a block from some of my dog fabric!

The next quilt is from a pattern designed by the Buggy Barn called Buggy Barn Crazies. I'm normally a very bright kind of quilt girl, and this one is definately not bright. From some of my online swaps, I had collected a little stash of pastel fat quarters and I thought this quilt would be a great way to use up some of those fat quarters (28 to be exact).

The next quilt is from the book 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy called Cheerio. One of my Yahoo groups is making this quilt as a group project. Basically many of us loved the pattern and to help motivate everyone to actually complete the quilt, we will post about our progress and will help each other out if there are any problems. This one is made entirely from Batiks. I'm still debating about adding an another border to it, but I have to find that perfect batik and I haven't had any luck yet. I just may end up leaving it like it is if I can't find something that will work.

A day at the Aviary

Today I took the girls to the Aviary for something to do. They enjoyed it but not as much as I would have liked. I could have just sat in the exhibits and watched the birds all day. They had many free flight exhibits and I'm sure I didn't get to see all the birds that were there hidden among the foilage. It is kind of relaxing just listening to all the birds sing (or make lots of noise) and watching them just fly around. Of course the girls just couldn't sit there all day so I had to move on. I did take some wonderful photos and thought I would share some with you. Birds really are very beautiful!

Last but not least, the girls. It was actually harder to get them to sit and pose nicely for a photo than it was for me to take pictures of the birds.