Prepping for Santa!

On Christmas Eve Mia & Daddy prepped for Santa's arrival. We baked fresh M&M cookies for Santa, and left them by the fireplace with a note. Mia then set carrots on the front patio so that Santa's reindeer would have a snack while they waited on Jolly Saint Nick to shimmy down the chimney... She was very excited to find that all that remained on Christmas morning were scraps!

Christmas Morning!

Can you tell someone really liked their gift?! Mia got a lot of great gifts from all of her loving family, not to mention partaking in multiple holidays! Still, Christmas morning was something special... She got a guitar that she had been wanting, and she now formed a band with each member of the family playing a different role. I must say, Aubrey takes her back up dancer routine very seriously, generally spinning until she falls down... Christmas with kids is the best!

Sharing Gifts!

For all the fighting and craziness, Brandon & Aubrey have really learned to share & love each other. Christmas morning was definitely a time of learning to share... The excitement in their eyes was truly amazing!

First Night of Hanukkah!

Mia has learned so much this year about Judeism that she couldn't wait for the first night of Hanukkah! She's actually reciting prayers and singing Hewbrew songs that Mommy & Daddy have never heard... She was adamant about taking lead on lighting the Menorah. As much as she understands the logic & beliefs behind it all, make no mistake that she rushed through everything to get to her favorit part, the receiving of gifts! She's very big into Transformers this year... Go figure!

Hannukah Program!

Mia's class staged a program for the parents last week. Each student got to read a section on the history of the holidays, and then they all sang together. Our little angel was quite the performer!

Twin's Hanukkah Party!

The twins had a Hanukkah party at school with tons of sweet snacks! As you can tell, our little eaters weren't shy about shoveling down the traditional latke, followed by some frosted cookies & chocolate doughnuts... These kids sure do love their food!

Happy Puppy!

Mia's school has a big Hanukkah Festival every year that the kids love to attend. This year Doug & Heather were visiting, so their daughter's Zoe & Lilly got to attend with us. Mia had her face completely painted like a great big puppy dog! She was so proud, and had so much fun with her friends...

Mia's Prince!

Mia still spends a great deal of time playing with our neighbor's son, Easton. They've had a crush on eachother for the past few years, even picking out the home in our neighborhood that they plan to purchase and raise their family in... However, it wasn't until this picture that we realized how much he really means to her. You see, Mia hates the color pink, and is always the King, never the Queen. Yet on this particular day she dressed in pink and allowed him to be the King! What progress... :)

The Hanukkah Bush!

Being the greedy family that we are, we celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas and just about any other holiday that invovles excessive eating and the receiving of gifts! I mean giving... Mia absolutely loves picking out a tree, setting it up and loading it with decorations. With Hanukkah falling over Christmas this year, she's certain that the festivities will never end! She's certainly our little angel...

Growing So Fast!

The kids are growing so fast it's scary... When Mia falls asleep in our bed and I pick her up to take her back to her room, it amazes me that she's slung over my shoulder and her feet are hitting my legs! Our Meezers is quickly become an opinionated little girl who learns and knows things that continually amaze us. It's such a great experience! The twins are growing like weeds as well... They're starting to talk quite a bit more, and definitely know exactly what they like, and more importantly, what they dislike! Big Boy could set records for his ability to sleep anywhere, anytime, and for excessively long periods of time. In fact, you might notice he's asleep at the dinner table in this picture. Aubrey continues to be the sweetest little thing, with a ridiculous attachment to Momma! Well, that pretty much goes for all three of them. They sure don't lack for Momma love... The level of effort involved in raising these little weazels borders on absurd, but we wouldn't change it for the world!

Holiday Cards!

Mommy decided that this year we were going to take out one of Daddy's old cars, pile the family in, and take our holiday card photos! Well, the plan didn't go exactly as Mommy had hoped... Almost immediately we decided to remove the adults and see if that might help to get the kids focused. Nope, that didn't work either! We snapped several hundred photos, literally, and came away with some great pics of Mia. Any great pics of the twins you ask? Not so much... Oh well, maybe next year!

Rudolph!

Mommy bought cute little antlers for all the kids, that actually light up & blink! As usual, Aubs is the ham who wears them around smiling and posing... She is such a ham! But darn cute...

Holiday Lists!

This is the first year that Mia can fully appreciate the benefit of being a kid during the holidays! She has been busy making her Christmas & Hannukah lists for months... In fact, we can't get through a TV program without her rewinding to make sure Mommy & Daddy know that she absolutely must have the toy on the commercial she just saw! She's also taking her catalog shopping quite seriously... Here she is perusing catalogs with the support of her twin siblings!

LA Adventure!

This past weekend Momma & Mia had a girls weekend. They went to see Chrissy & Sascha in LA, while Daddy stayed home with the twins. Sascha is two years older then Mia, but they have a very tight bond. In fact, Sascha was the first little girl we met when we were exploring adopting from China. Unfortunately, Russell & Christine moved back to LA earlier this year... So now it takes a little more effort to see them, but you can tell by the smiles in the pictures that it's worth the effort!

Sleepy Sisters!

The girls never stopped all weekend long... Between cupcake decorating, petting zoos, trips to see Santa, and of course the random performances coreographed by Sascha, the girls were exhausted. Well, at least Mia was... It's so cute that even at almost 5 years old, Mia still sucks her middle three fingers when she gets absolutely exhausted. She sure slept well the night she returned from LA!

Santa Visit!

The girls even got to visit with Santa during their big LA weekend... Mia was sure to let him know that she wanted a puppy, which is never going to happen if Daddy has anything do do with it! So she settled on a Transformer toy... It's always cute to see a couple of Jewish Chinese girls sitting on Santa's lap!!