February, 2011

SOOOOOO enjoying having George home and teaching/working from home. He's love being out of the rat race and spending more time with Maddie. Maddie is growing like a weed...and we love her more with each passing minute.

We celebrated Chinese New Year with decorating Chinese fortune cookies with Rylan and Kael. Maddie is a pretty big fan of cooking.

Bohti continues to be a good member of the household. He is a climber...but it's good to see he's relaxing in his environment and not so skiddish.

We enjoyed going to the Chinese Cultural Center for their Chinese New Year celebration. Some of our pictures didn't turn out...but Maddie was enthralled (as were we) with the Dragon Dance. We also loved the arts and crafts there. Dad enjoyed coming with us too :)

Maddie continues to do so very well in Tae Kwon Do and loves it. She is very studious...pays close attention and practices daily on her own.

And...just goofed around. Hope the new year is treating all well.

January, 2011...Oh am I behind :)

Maddie with her Secret Agent Spy buddy Daddy :)

Maddie in her Transformer Gear. Princesses? Nope.
Bill and Sue.

Maddie with the wonderful Easy Bake Oven. It's come a long way since I was a kid.


Bohti fits in so very well in our home.

Lauran and Chase.

Ms. Lenny.

Family Photo with my Dad.

For her 5th Birtday...Maddie got a long-asked for Pillow Pet.Ryan and DeeAnn.

Cody.

Kyra and DeeAnn.

Maddie with her China Doll...a beautiful gift from Lenny and Ryan.

But...catching up on so much. So...here some quick January, 2011 updates. Let's see:

* It's been one year since George's quadruple bypass. He's doing GREAT! He is officially teaching college to online students and LOVING it. He's thrilled to be out of the crazy mental health field in Arizona. It EATS you alive and we can both understand why so many leave the field entirely. So - he's house Dad and loving it. I spent my vacation time helping with social security and medicare. Awful trying to figure it all out...but we did it.

*I'm still at my job - but not happily. Politics are rampant, we have young supervisors with control issues and those that I think may need medication badly. But - for some reason I really don't care. I go home to happiness and relaxation. George and I have so much fun with Maddie, it keeps things in perspective.

*George's sister and brother-in-law stayed with us - moving from Florida to California. Maddie's Aunt Sue always sends the most incredible pop-up books I've ever seen. Maddie has a wonderful collection because of her - and reading is so fun with these imaginative books.

*Maddie is incredible. Her long little legs make us smile...but also sadden us with how very quickly she is growing. She is so sweet...a very kind-hearted little one. She is still loving Tae Kwon Do and doing very well with it. Her vocabulary stuns us.

*I'm just excited about 2011. I sense change and good things.

New Family Addition

Well...I've been missing Angus terribly. He was my favorite dog of all time. So...a few months have passed, our other dog has been lonely...so off to the shelters Maddie and I went. No dog really spoke to us until this little guy. He's a Cairn Terrier Mix...and extremely thin. Such a nice little guy with Maddie and he and Max are in love. Today was his first day alone (always scary) - no accidents and no chewing. He's a pro with the dog door already thank goodness. After much deliberation and names that couldn't be remembered...we settled on Bohti.

Chinese Take Out Christmas Tree

Make your own free digital ecard Every year we chose a different theme to pull our tree together. This year is Chinese Take Out. Maddie did a great job dressing the tree!!!

More Fun with Fondant

Okay...I need to practice more...but it sure is fun. I was asked to make a Baby Shower Cake for a friend at work. The bottom layer is Red Velvet and the top later is White Cake with Lemon Cream between. Since the gender of the baby is unknown the colors covered both. The vegetables and fruit on top are a joke - each week on Facebook, it tells how far along the baby is and compares it to the size of a fruit or vegetable.

30 days of Giveaways

My goodness...and the timing couldn't be better. Head on over to see Stefanie's blog at Ni Hao, Y'all :) Here's the link!