PJ Time

Goofy/snarly/sweet/scrunchy/toothy/up-to-something face! Wanted to show off the teeth!

Daddy time... big smiles :)
Mom, please give me the camera... I'm so cute...
Oh, you said something...??
I'm so mesmerized by Veggie Tales, I might just stand here a few minutes ...

Thankful...

After my previous rant on my frustration with workers around here... I wanted to express my thanks (although she can't read English.. or speak it for that matter!) to Yang! She is one of the hardest workers we know, and thankfully my Ayi! Ayi in China literally means Auntie.. and is the common term for housekeeper/nanny. Yang Ayi works hard to help keep our house clean and in order and most importantly she's WONDERFUL when I need a helping hand with Olivia! For anyone reading this thinking that I'm totally spoiled - I am :) BUT - I'd invite you to come on over to China and take a peek at the TINEST washing machine in the WORLD, and also enjoy what I like to call the Daily Dust/soot/pollution that blows in through the poorly sealed windows and doors in our house :) I do have to admit though - I might try and smuggle Yang with us when we move back stateside - oh how I dream!!

Today, Olivia and Violet (her purple puppy) took a few minutes to say Hi to Yang..

Olivia wanted to help 'carry' some laundry!

After such hard work, Olivia enjoyed some afternoon tea...
And, last but not least, here is Little Miss wearing the blue sweater that Yang Ayi knit for her while we were in the US for Christmas! A tiny bit big, but such a sweet gift :)

Playdate!

Olivia invited a few new friends, Toby and Kailin, over this week for a play date! Both of these little angels have been adopted by two different families we've met here.. so blessed to know them! They enjoyed coming over and munchin' on some of Olivia's toys!

I love how crazy Olivia's hair is :) This was just after I 'asked' her to share Violet (her puppy) with Kailin! She was thinking about how to grab Violet back!

This was about the best pic I was able to capture of the three of them together!

Always Excitement ...

It's never easy to decide when to tell your wife that she might be going back to no hot water (I repeat - NO HOT WATER) at her house in a foreign country in the middle of WINTER! I have no idea if that is even a proper sentence ... but ... I do know that my wonderful husband found out this bit of good news around 10pm the night before we flew to China (when we had to wake Olivia up at 4am, after she was awake til 2am with a cold)... the day we traveled 23 hours.. the day our AA flight was delayed to Chicago and we had to fly UNITED - disclaimer - I DO NOT LIKE UNITED AIRLINES!!!! I should stop there!!..

It was a VERY LONG 24 hours... about 6 hours before we landed in Shanghai (9 hours after we boarded that lovely plane), Justin leans over and says, "Our hot water might be out again (yes we had this issue last year too).. just wanted you to know to be prepared.." "WHAT?!?!" Ok, he's just the messenger.. "WHAT!?!?!"

I did get a lukewarm shower that night.. and THANKFULLY, our wonderful landlord provided the money for a new hot water boiler to be installed the next day.. and f...i..n..a...l...l...y to the point of this blog post!

The workers here in China spend half their time working, and the other half just making a huge mess! Had I been half awake, I would've taken a "BEFORE Emily and Olivia cleaned the backyard photo" when the workers finished.. But, here is an AFTER photo! The new boiler is attached in that closet area, and the old one, yeah - it's right there in the yard. It's heavy .. sure just leave it there for us! Thanks! Oh - and that box of 'stuff' - that's what I picked up all over the yard!

Olivia thinks Mom is super funny!!!

She wanted me to take this picture so she could take credit for the clean up!! :)
I asked Olivia if she could help translate the instructions printed on the new boiler...

She laughed and started eating her shoe!