Chinese New Year!

This year we celebrated Chinese New Year with George's family up in Ashburn. We usually get together at his Uncle's house, but this year they decided to celebrate at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. It was lots of fun to be with so many family members and the best part? We got to enjoy tasty food and no one had to cook or clean! Score!

 "Bean paste...Yum!"

Chicken on a stick--you just can't beat it. (Bryce)

Yeah, I'm not really sure what Lance is eating, but at least he likes it.

Dueling chopsticks

Most of the gang

Jude discovered that not only is Jell-O great for eating, it's great for making as big a mess as possible.

The rest of the group. Don't you love kids? (I love Eric's face in the background as he checks on Callie.)

The kids filling the time while the adults talked. Those iPod Touches come in handy!

Dinner Conversation--an interesting perspective

Me: "Lance, I like it when you eat your dinner... it makes me feel good to know you're going to grow and not shrink." 

[blank stare from Lance]

Me: "Do you think people can shrink?"

Lance: "Yeah, if they're really old."

Me: "That's true--when you're really old you do shrink some."

Lance: "I think Grandmom is, like, 100."

Me: "Wait... Grandma or Grandmom?"

Lance: "GrandMOM".

Me: "No she isn't. Why do you think that?"

Lance:  [matter-of-factly] "Well, she's really small..."

About a week ago, George and I were talking while the boys got ready for bed and George mentioned that someone at work said that when he smiled, his eyes lit up. We both made a few more comments on the subject when Lance walked up, looked at George's face and told him to smile. Then I hear Lance's voice from across the room:

"It doesn't look like your eyes are glowing to me."

Walking boy, "Ba-na-na", and old pictures

A couple quick family updates!

First, Jude is officially walking! Yay! A couple weeks ago he was walking a step or two between things, but one day he got up in the middle of the floor and started "practicing" taking steps. By the end of the day he was pretty much walking all by himself! Good job, Jude!

Jude has learned a new word: banana. It's super cute to hear him say it: "ba-na-Na". He knows exactly what it means and has subsequently received several bananas for a snack this week. I can't believe how fast kids learn.

George was able to rescue the hard drive from my old computer and I now have access to all my old pictures of when Lance was little. Here are a few treasures I found:

Lance's Blessing Day

9 months old at New Smyrna Beach, FL

9 months old--4 generations!

First Mother's Day!

9 months old at the beach

12 months old.

13 months old (he's loving on Mr. Knightley)

About 18 months old

18 months old

Helping make Grandma's Birthday cake. 18 months old.

The rest are when he's about 2 years old:

Puppies!

Needless to say, I'm so excited to have these pictures back! I even have pictures of George when he was a kid:

And me:

And us together!

 2001

 2001

 2000

 2000

 2001

 2000

2000

Fun memories!

Winter Doldrums...

It's definitely that time of year. 

You know, the hard part of winter... the part where the fun of the snow and cold has worn off and you're just waiting for Spring. It's the time of year when you have to drag yourself out of bed each day and you're tempted to spend the rest of the day in front of the TV because you simply can't get up enough energy to actually DO something. I have to admit, the boys and I have fallen prey to this lethargy multiple times in the past week.  Disney Channel...thanks for filling in.

Luckily I have two very active boys that keep me going and we did manage to have some fun. One day Lance wanted to do some "science". What is this science, pray tell? Well, it usually consists of Lance dumping everything he can get his hands on into a bucket of some sort to see what it will make.

I've tried to convince him in the past that following a recipe is a better way to go, because then you know what it will be, but he didn't think that was as fun. I had to put some limits on what he could add to his project (like the last bit of whole milk I was saving because I had put off going to the grocery store), but after adding flour to his soapy, chocolatey, sugary wet mix he called it good. The mixture then sat on our counter for more than 24 hours before George and I could convince him that it was getting gross and had to go. Maybe I should look into doing a real science project with him. Baking soda volcano anyone?

I guess I should break out the bed tent again. Lance had me pin some blankets to his bunk bed and the boys spent a long time playing inside and around it. Jude especially thought it was neat.

I've been trying to take pictures of the boys to use as Valentines for my family, but it just isn't working as well as I had hoped. It's probably the lack of energy again--it's been hard to get the boys to cooperate and try to figure out my camera to take some decent pictures. Oh well. Here are a couple random pictures taken this week that I thought were cute.

Wednesday was a great day! It was almost warm outside--almost--and we could tell a huge difference. Instead of vegging in front of the TV that afternoon, we spend an hour playing outside on the playground. George came home a little early and got to play some, too!

Jude tried to jump on the trampoline. It was super cute!

I think he's trying to wink. Crazy monkey!

Jude loves going down the slide and if I don't catch him, he'll go down all by himself!

At the bottom with Killian.

Lance and Killian having a race. Killian is fast!

Run, Lance. Run!

Jude being a monkey.

Sneaky boy...

Thanks, Big Brother!

My boys. :)

Oh yeah! Jude is walking! He's been doing it now for about 2 weeks and is getting better and better. It's weird having two kids that walk. I feel like my little baby is a toddler now.

And to end: Here is a video of Jude trying to jump on the trampoline.