The Photo Shoot

I needed to get a current picture of Megan for the 2nd annual Chinese New Year card exchange, so it was photo shoot time! I got her into her next silk outfit and once again fought tooth and nail with the Chinese knot buttons...they're cute, but seriously, what were they thinking? Anyway, here are some of the pictures...

Megan Loves to Sing

Megan loves music. Her current favorite songs are Jesus Loves Me, Deep and Wide,Itsy Bitsy Spider, many of the Wiggles tunes, Jana Alayra songs (http://www.janaalayra.com/), and especially the ABC song. Here she is with her daddy at the piano...enjoy!

California between storms

This rain we've been getting has been so good for us. The hills have been brown too long! Now, after a week of on-again, off-again rain showers, things are greening up and it's quite spectacular. The picture of the tree was taken in Santiago Canyon--one of the sites of the major fires late last year. You can see that the bottom of it got scorched by the fires. I love the contrast the burned part makes with the in-coming green of the grass...yet another testament to God's healing power.OK, so I'm on my way home and round a corner only to be struck by the majesty of the snow-covered mountains in the distance. Wow! I didn't get a picture of it, but a little further down the road, looking in the other direction, you could see Catalina Island in the distance. What a beautiful day!

Cont...

Here are the two birthday boys...
Megan and her friend Ya Qin are becoming bosom buddies. It's fun to see their friendship develop from just inhabiting the same space to actually playing together. They do duke it out on occasion, but that's just part of life, right? I love hearing "Hi, Mei Mei" from across the playground and listening to Megan talk about going to "Ya Ya's house." So sweet...
Megan LOVES hanging out with her Grandma and Papa. On this particular pizza night, she and her Grandma happened to have matching outfits, so out came the camera! Not that we really need a reason to get out the camera!
Today, Megan and I spent a few hours at Disneyland...oh, the joys of an annual pass! It's great not feeling like you have to see everything in one day. Anyway, while waiting for "Maymi Poppis" (Mary Poppins) to make an appearance, we spotted Mickey, so we headed over. I was impressed that she stood there solo considering how much of a barnacle she was being just prior to the picture! You can tell by the look on her face that she's not thrilled, though!

So, David has been in Orlando on business all week and I must say that I am thrilled that he's coming home tonight! I'm pooped! These weeks that he's gone make me appreciate single moms! I don't know how they do it!

Catching up...

Since last we posted...we had a fun belated Christmas celebration with Auntie Sharon. Megan was thrilled to see that there were more presents for her and that she could help all these people that obviously don't know how to open them! She loves her new stroller and is a good little mommie to her babies.



We also had a combined birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese for our two youngest nephews who were turning 7 and 6. Megan loved the freedom to run from one game to another, but her all time favorite part of the evening was feeding all her tickets into the counting machine and claiming her prizes! I had never been there before, but had heard stories of the infamous Chuck E. ...I must say that I was pleasantly surprised!

Welcome Ugly Monkey...

Does anyone think this thing is cute? Megan has been under the weather this week and has consequently been cooped up. So, since she's doing better, we took a spin to Target. She spotted this thing and insisted that I "buy it," all the while giving me the teacher's eye. (I don't know where she learned to do the eye thing, but she's really good at it! Actually, that sounds like something I'd hear at a parent teacher conference...hmmm)

Anyway, there was no way I was spending money on this thing, but had pity on her since she's been sick...actually I compromised and let her spend some of her Christmas money on it. So, Ugly Monkey is now an official fixture in our little home...oh joy!

(The last picture doesn't feature Ugly Monkey...I just thought it was cute and the banana seemed appropriate!)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everyone! David and I have started this blog in an attempt to do better at keeping everyone updated on what's going on in our lives! We failed miserably at doing a monthly update to our website, so hopefully we'll do better here! I guess you can call this a New Years Resolution...

The highlight of our day today was a visit from Megan's Uncle Andrew. Unfortunately, Auntie Jenny couldn't be here as well, but we'll take what we can get! Andrew and Jenny are stationed in Minot, ND, so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. Andrew came out for his sister's wedding and stopped in for the evening. As you can see, Megan thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with her Uncle and loves her new fatigue sweatshirt!