Happy Chinese New Year

The consensus was that we all hated their non Chinese outfits for the Chinese Dance!

The quietest Lion dance, no drums or firecrackers

Ali and Jade cheesing it up. Their Gotcha day was Thursday...7 years ago

Can you see Asia singing 2nd from left

The ducks run amuck!



It was a normal Chinese school performance. Total bedlum and chaos. The bonus was that are girls performed 1st and 5th so we left! How rude! That gave us all a couple of hours of down time. Then onto the party.

Remember Gunne Sax?

Asia still loves her big eye guy "Mr Boinkers"

Asia is bathing her baby in the tub(ottoman upside down) Jade is ironing.

We were very glad to get a huge box of hand me downs from Quinn. I know some of them originate from Lynnette M, in which she had gotten some from Tava...Somehow a dress like I used to wear showed up! But, it works better in the dress up clothes as a pioneer outfit.

Happy New Year

It was All about the crab!

Tami also made razorback clam chowder

Special Wash state white cheddar, smoked salmon and white raspberries

The girls with their big eye guys


Have to have a little drama for the evening. This was presented by Drew...again-remember how he got pinched at christmas eve. This time we couldn't find missy Z, it was because Drew had scared her and she was found crying under her bed. Then, the sympathizer Asia burst into tears to add to the drama.


Couldn't stay up until the stoke of midnight!

We feasted on crab flown in from the Pike street market in Seattle. The girls are love seafood, it must be in their genes! Drew had to settle with the Williams and sonoma tenderloin. A great way to end the year!

Keystone skating and chocolate

The gang of kids, Big daddy's sister Sharon's girls Melynda, Jessica and Annette.

Henc with Asia and Drew

Jessica, Melynda, Tisha, Dianne(another big daddy sister) and Annette

The Keystone chocolate made me look for these pictures from 2 years ago. Our usual tradition for Christmas is to go iceskating in Keystone and then back down to my parents for dinner. Last year it was a blizzard and this year we wanted to take the Veldkamps to the mountains on Friday.

Our special adopting buddies come for a visit

Our best picture of the gang at our last stop. Beau Jo's for lunch.

Just try and get a good picture of the gang!

Jade's first night in her bed that her dad made her

Asia and Keisha sleep on the floor. Asia is 3 days older. They got her in Russia in Feb and we got Asia in April of 2004.

Way back when we were supposed to adopt from Latvia, we met these folks. They ended up going to Russia and you know our story! I made their flight plans to San Antonia and made sure they came and visited us as a layover. So, Christmas night the girls and I picked them up at the airport. The next day I subjected poor Denise to go to Crate and Barrell with me to stand in line for some really cute bowls that match my kitchen! We then loaded the vehicle with all 10 (boys rode in the trunk) and went for a mountain drive. The kids were maxing out at about Georgetown, so that is where we stopped! I really wanted to take them to Keystone lodge and show them the chocolate display...but hey you can only fit so much in a day! We then went to Beau Jos and waited for an extremely long time (6 hungry cranky kids amplified this!) for our Pizza. Then had them at the airport by 5pm for their flight. It was great to see them again after 6 years!

A pose at xmas just like her brother's

Here is my aunt and uncle's great picture of their 40th anniversary in Cabo. My mom's brother.

OK, here is the Denver version...we were cracking up to actually get a picture of my dad hugging my mom! What an accomplishment!

On my parent's holiday card it said it was an old man and his wife of 45 years, so here is my picture of that! And hey he is hugging her!

Christmas dinner was brined Turkey, riced potatoes, corn, whiskey glazed carrots, stuffing, salad and gravy.

xmas eve

A Deedee(what Jade named her blanket) ride

Part of the gang, look at Shannon with Cole!

Asia grabs Wyatt to get him in the picture. Drew is still mad at me for pinching him! He was being a beast and rudely mimicking everything I was saying so he got it!

Miles and Shelby with Alexa

A bunch of kids for the smorgasborg. Mom's meatballs were yummy.