Tobogganing

It was a perfect morning for tobogganing today. The snow was falling and the weather was crisp but not too cold. We all had a great time. Even Denver enjoyed himself - giggling the whole way down the hill. Samara also had fun - last year she wasn't too thrilled with tobogganing - too fast and not enough control for her liking. She even went down on her own a few times today.

You can tell the kids have been watching the Olympics - there were some competitions and even some Gold medals won!

Finally!

Let it snow . . . let it snow . . . let it snow!!!

We finally have our first big snowfall of the year. Just in time for spring! This has been the strangest year weather wise for us. We have had pretty much NO snow. The grass was only covered one time before this and it lasted maybe a few hours. Seriously . . . we are in Canada right??? Usually by this time of the year I've had enough of the snow and am ready for it to be gone. But today I was so excited watching the beauty of the snow falling and landing on the sleeping plants and tree branches. Anyway, it's supposed to snow a little bit every day this week so hopefully it will stick around for a while and maybe the kids will even have a bit of the white stuff to play in during March Break. Here are some of the pictures I took today.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year! Welcome to the year of the Tiger. I was born in the Year of the Tiger so that must mean something about this being a good year for me right???

We had a great time celebrating last night with really good friends. Thank you K, MC, Y and S for your hospitality. The food was great. The company was awesome . . . who could ask for more!

Hats and Mirrors . . .

. . . are two of Denver's favourite things lately. He LOVES to put anything (sometimes even a hat) on his head and exclaim "hat!" He thinks it's particularly fun when he's eating to empty the bowl or plate and put it on his head. I took some pictures at lunchtime yesterday with his bowl on his head and then it lead to some more cute pictures.

And then there's mirrors. We have mirrors on our closet doors in our hallway and I'm constantly cleaning fingerprints off them . . . at all levels (shows up nicely in the pictures below)! But it sure is fun to look at and talk to that cute little boy in the mirrow. And he even gives kisses back! (Excuse the drool on the front of the shirt - four molars coming in strong and hard!)

Go Canada Go!

We're just sitting here watching the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. So exciting! We have our Canadian flag out - ready to hang in our front window. Victoria made a sign at school and has hung it in our front window.

We of course, first and foremost, cheer on our home country of Canada. It's always exciting to watch our fellow Canadians compete and especially this year being the host country. Here is our Canadian team at the opening ceremony.

And we also can't help cheering on two other countries that have stolen a piece of our heart over the past few years. First of all there's China - the birth country of our daughter. With a team of 90 athletes, it will be fun to also watch them compete. We loved it how so many of the Chinese atheletes were carrying little Canadian flags along with their Chinese flags when they walked in during the ceremony.

And then of course there's Ethiopia - the birth country of our son. We are so proud that a country with a climate such as Ethiopia's actually has one athelete competing in the 2010 Winter Games. We're looking forward to watching Robel and cheering him and Ethiopia on. Here's Robel at the opening ceremony.

Let the games begin!

Gotcha Day Party

Last Saturday we got together with China Travel Group #244 - the families we traveled with to China three years ago! We've made a tradition of getting together every year in February to celebrate our Gotcha Day anniversary. Out of 12 families in the group, 11 were able to make it. One family was even able to make it all the way from Newfoundland! (Nice to see you again Debbie and Olivia). Unfortunately there was one family that couldn't make it - we missed you Darcy, Donna, Katie and Sarah. Hope to see you in the summer.

We are so blessed to be part of such an amazing group of people that have supported each other along an incredible journey. We started to meet and get to know each other even before we traveled - while we were still waiting to receive our referrals. Then we spent almost three weeks together in China. We are so thankful that we are still in touch with them and have such a connection. We feel it's really important for the kids. It's also so neat to see how much the kids grow from month to month.

Here's the picture from this year's get together. We try to take one of all of our kids together on the same stairs every year. It's somewhat of a challenge to get them all to sit still and look in the same direction. Here's the best one I got:

Three years ago . . .

. . . Samara was officially ours! February 1st was Gotcha Day and February 2 it was all official.

Happy Gotcha Day to all of Samara's Chinese brothers and sisters: Maya, Emma, Madeline, Hailey, Renee, Zoe, Joshua, Justin, Sarah, Olivia and Sophie.