Where have we been?

Well I can't believe that its been so long- I guess maybe I should give up on blogging. But my friend does a great job of posting so much about her kids so that it becomes an awesome online scrapbook for her kids. So for you Will and Addie I am going to try and post so you can look back at these days.. I hope fondly. :)

So since April we did a crazy, busy, emotional move from China to Chapel Hill. We landed on June 14 and Dennis began his graduate program 14 hours later. And here we are living in a cute little condo close to family (so nice!) doing this grad school year.

Rather than catch up everything- a quick review from the past 9 months- eek!

Goodbye Shun Yi Rd- it was a great 5 years.

Goodbye so many wonderful friends.

Trip to the beach- Addie's first time seeing the ocean.

First day of school in the US.

Apple picking

UNC Football!!

Jumping in the leaves...actually this was a first for the kids.

Happy Second Birthday Addie!!

Merry Christmas (waiting on the stairs to go see their presents).

The Christmas card photo that never went out. :)

Happy 5th Birthday Will. (more to come later on his awesome bash :)

Happy Chinese New Year- dumpling making.

Happy 33rd Birthday Dennis. Showing off his cookie cake.

Happy Valentine's Day (kids modeling Will's valentines)

First Basketball game- he loved it.

Whew! Ok kiddos I hope I can keep this up.

Update

This is a long overdue update. I can blame it on having 2 kids now, work schedules, getting ready to move to the US- (in June) but really it might be because I joined facebook. It took me forever but I decided I might be the last person under 40 not on it. Anyway- how do you balance facebook and a blog? hmmm .

Here's some photos of our last couple months.

At the park

Spring flowers in our apartment complex
Will and his good friend Ryan
Daddy and his kids!

Will and his good friend Vera
Will got some fish! (2 of which died in 24 hours- good bye Jelly and Whale... what can I say we hardly knew you)

But our dear fish Shark has been holding on. In fact many mornings Will tells me "hey mommy, Shark not die" Yes, my boy that is quite amazing. :)

Rapper Will

Ok I have to share these photos. This fall we were out at a park in SuZhou China and Will told us he wanted to take some solo silly pictures- and this is what came out. (we did not tell him to lift his shirt- though he does have great abs)

He looks like he is taking photos for his future music CD. Its funny because people have told us that he looks like a famous Taiwanese rapper/singer Zhou Jay Lun. They call him Xiao Jay (means little Jay).

Pictures from Dennis phone- back in time

I am taking advantage of the fast internet connection (amazing-- I could totally live like this)- and wanted to post some pictures from Dennis' phone. Its kind of a quick look back over the last year for us.

Here we are at one of our favorite places in Shanghai :) though I think the donuts aren't quite as good as the US establishment . Don't you think they would make a cute ad campaign :)
Love this pic of Addie in She Shan- over Chinese new year. What a beauty we got :)
chilling on the bed in the hotel- we went to a hotel outside the city to escape a night of crazy fireworks.
on the subway... Addelyn on an important call
Why did we get the kids a doctor's kit for Christmas??? ha ha

Will's soccer team this year.
I kind of forget what this is- I think this is will testing out a massage chair in the mall. Obviously he needs the kids version.
One of the last family pictures of 3 we took before Addie came..

I don't know what is happening here- but it makes me laugh :) What a silly boy
A daddy and Will construction company creation.

A quick hello- Will school birthday

Hi friends- yikes yikes yikes! It has been so so long since I have posted! Ah- it just feels like I never have time to wait for my ridiculously slow internet to load my photos. So much to update- Christmas, Will's birthday, Dennis's mom visit- so I will update more later. But for now- I had these on my computer so I thought I would share.

Will attends a Chinese pre school half day- and on his birthday they did the "typical" birthday celebration that they do for each kid. His teacher took pictures and video and gave them to me. I just have to share. It just cracks me up to watch this. I love love my Will but this has to be the most unenthusiastic birthday song rendition I have heard. I mean the kids in his class are really just mailing this one in (see video). Is that girl next to Will yawning??? And why is Will not smiling? Did they tell him this was a serious affair? Funny thing is Will loves to watch this video over and over.

Some Christmas season pictures

Well I haven't gotten around to uploading the Christmas morning pictures- (will have to do that soon ) but this whole Christmas season has been a little busier lately with our latest addition. :) So here are a few pictures from our Christmas season.

Our good friend Gabe Ting took these first 3 photos of our family- we are so grateful- cause we NEVER would have gotten around to going to a studio to take such professional looking pictures- but he just took these on the fly at a Christmas party. (the theme was Christmas morning- hence us in our pajamas) Thanks Gabe!

And here is where the photo quality goes down- I am behind the camera now. Here is our quickie Christmas cookie making session (we did this while Addie was napping). Will still got to do his favorite thing- eating the cookie decorations.




and lastly me and my two precious kiddos- I am so thankful!

Christmas is coming...

Been pretty busy here not necessarily with Christmas stuff - but we did manage to squeeze in putting up the tree. Will is so excited about Christmas and asks every day how many night nights is Christmas. We have managed to snap a few pictures of our new family of 4 getting ready for Christmas.