It's done!!!

A huge feeling of relief has come over me. I am FINALLY done Samara's Bai Jia Bei (100 Good Wishes Quilt). We've been home from China for over a year and a half now and it's taken me that long and longer to complete this project. It sat and sat for many months and the only thing I had left to do was the binding. But to be honest, this is the very first quilt I have ever made and I really had no idea what I was doing. So don't look too close - there are a lot of mistakes. But overall, I am happy with how it turned out and sooooo glad it's done! Here it is all finished:

And the craziest part is that I'm going to do another one. That's right, as much work as this one was and as long as it took me to make, it was so worth it. Samara loves it and as she gets older, she'll understand the meaning behind it and she'll know how many people anticipated her arrival and loved her before she was even here. It's been a really neat project and I'm actually excited to do another one.

So stay tuned for details of how you can contribute to the next quilt!

The mom quiz

I got the idea of this quiz from Janet's blog. I thought it was really cute and wondered what my kids would say about me. So here it is:

Austin's Answers:

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

"I love you"

2. What makes mom happy?

"when I listen to her”

3. What makes mom sad?

"when I don’t listen"

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

"when she does funny things to me like making funny faces"

5. What was your mom like as a child?

"she had long hair and stuff"

6. How old is your mom?

"I don’t know . . . 15?"

7. How tall is your mom?

"very tall"

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

"typing"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

"I can’t do that one cause I don’t know . . . I’m not there"

10. What is your mom really good at?

"10 pin bowling"

11. What is your mom not very good at?

"she can’t set up the Wii"

12. What does your mom do for her job?

"typing"

13. What is your mom's favorite food?

"her soup"

14. What makes you proud of your mom?

"that she’s my mom "

15. What do you and your mom do together?

"play"

16. How are you and your mom different?

"I have a green shirt and you have a blue shirt"

17. How do you know your mom loves you?

"cause she tells me all the time"


Victoria's Answers:

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

"I love you"

2. What makes mom happy?

"when I draw a picture”

3. What makes mom sad?

"when someone she knows dies"

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

"when she tickles me"

5. What was your mom like as a child?

"smaller"

6. How old is your mom?

"33?"

7. How tall is your mom?

"6 feet tall?"

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

"make her soup"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

"type"

10. What is your mom really good at?

"tucking me into bed"

11. What is your mom not very good at?

"drawing"

12. What does your mom do for her job?

"type"

13. What is your mom's favorite food?

"her soup"

14. What makes you proud of your mom?

"when she gets me juice"

15. What do you and your mom do together?

"play"

16. How are you and your mom different?

"I have blonde hair and she has brown"

17. How do you know your mom loves you?

"because she’s lovalish" (that's a word she made up a long time ago and we use it more often now)

Some of these answers made me laugh. They were both alone when they did the quiz so it's funny that some of their answers are the same. Like the soup one. That is not my favourite food . . . I think it may be Victoria's favourite and we were just talking about it this morning so I think that's where that answer came from. And for those of you who don't know me, I'm not "really tall". I'm fairly average at about 5' 6" tall . . . not 6 feet. Oh and in case you were wondering, I'm not 15 years old either. :)

Thanks for the idea Janet.

Thank you secret pal!

This is the gift I received from my secret pal this month. What a great idea. It will be neat to have an imprint of our little boy's footprint to save forever so in years to come we can show him how little he really was.

Thank you secret pal for another thoughtful gift!

Introducing . . .

. . . the newest member of our family - Teagan!

(No, we didn't get our referral in case that's what you thought!)

We picked up our new puppy Teagan on Monday and he's doing very well.

He's a cockapoo which makes him very loving, great with children, low-shedding, extremely smart, easy to train, obedient, good natured, healthy, very playful, etc. . . . a good match for our family. We picked him up on Monday morning and he's been fitting in nicely. He's a little sad at night when he has to go in his crate - that's when he misses his mama and siblings the most. But during the day, the kids have been keeping him busy with lots of playing. He's been really good with doing his "business" outside and hasn't even had one accident in the house. We've been taking him in the van whenever we go out for a minute (even to Tim Hortons) so that he gets used to riding in a vehicle and so far he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Victoria, Austin and especially Samara are still getting used to him when he's in a playful puppy mood but it's getting better and they are learning what to do when he jumps and gets a little too hyper. Here are Victoria and Austin on the first day home - Teagan just wanted to sleep all day and still does quite a bit of that . . . can you blame him?

This next picture is hilarious. Austin is just colouring away and Teagan decides to curl up on his legs. Looks like a nice cozy spot. Any time the kids sit on the floor too, he'll come and snuggle right up with them. So cute!

Welcome Home and Happy Birthday

My mom has been away for three weeks visiting my brother and family out west. She was flying into Toronto airport on Wednesday and we went to pick her up. Our kids LOVE the airport. They think it's so fun to go to wait for someone and then welcome them home. We used to go more often when Mike travelled a lot for work. My niece also joined us as she was staying at our place for the day. Plus my sister met us at the airport with her three kids. So there were 7 kids and 3 adults waiting welcome my mom home. The best part was that it was also her birthday. So we had brought some ballooons and my sister's kids had flowers for Grandma. Here are some shots of waiting for Grandma to come through the gates.

When my mom did finally come through the gates we broke into a nice, loud rendition of "Happy Birthday" and I think she was a little bit embarassed . . . which was the point. :) Everyone was looking at us (her) and a few stewardesses also stopped and clapped for my mom. Here she is trying to walk right past us and pretend she didn't know us.

Nice to see you again Mom. Love ya!

Bowling

We took the kids bowling this weekend. We have tried to do this a few times in the past but Victoria has always refused. She decided a long time ago that she didn’t want to ever go bowling. We actually found out why this time. As it turns out, she thought that at the bowling alley, there would be one person (a stranger) that would call out her name and then she would go up and bowl while everyone else in the place (lots and lots of strangers) watched her. Trust me Victoria, if that was the way bowling worked, Mommy wouldn’t be to eager to go either! :)

I wasn’t sure if they would have shoes to fit Samara but they did. Well, actually they were a size too big but once she had them on, there was no way she was taking them off to bowl in her socks, which was the other option. She has to be just like her big brother and sister!


Here are a few pictures of Victoria bowling:




And here’s Austin taking his turn. Good form eh?



And then there’s Samara. She was right in there just like the “big” kids and of course she had to do it by herself. After all, she is two years old! The guy working at the bowling alley had to come about three or four times to rescue her bowling ball that made it about halfway down the alley and then stopped dead. Whenever we could, Mike and I would give her ball a little extra push just so it would actually make it to the pins. By the end she was trying to set the ball down on the ground and kick it. See the last picture.




It was a lot of fun and even Victoria loved it and didn’t want to leave when it was time to go. She’s definitely changed her mind about the whole bowling thing!