"Candeler"

Julia enjoys doing calendar at her preschool, so she plays pretend teacher at home almost every day.  But she has a tough time saying calendar - or so we thought.  Yesterday, when Julia announced "It's time to do candeler!" , Joe said, "You mean calendar? Can you say that?" She tried several times, "Candeler. Candeler. Candeler."  

Finally, she said, "Daddy, I can't say Calendar!"

She played Candeler again tonight.  Check out the cute shirt her Godmother Jenny gave her for her birthday.  Fitting!

 

Julia's birthday fell on a national holiday - Super Bowl Sunday.  So, in lieu of a big party, we invited the only person she wanted to have celebrate with her and watch the big game - Cooper. They just love each other so much.  Notice how Cooper is keeping one eye on the game, however.

 

Cooper's sister, Isabel, and his mom and dad came too.  My sister and nephew also celebrated with us, it was fun to spend time with all of them.

This year's theme?  Hello Kitty! (Kelly - the matriuska doll you sent made it in the official birthday cake shot. Thank you for her and all the other presents!)

Check out that tea set! We've had many tea parties this past month! (And some lunches, too!)

 

The big present was this jewelry box that plays "A Whole New*World" over and over and over... She loves it, even though Jas*mine had a bit of a deca*pitation accident this past week. Is there anything super glue can't fix?

We have so many more pictures (a million) but that's all for tonight. 

 

PS - a special hi to John, Kristen, and Julie in AZ - hi you guys! We had no idea you were checking in on us. We hope you are doing well, it's so great to hear from you. You guys always come to mind when we talk about our first few days in China - that freezing Summer Palace tour, the best Mongolian Beef we've ever tasted, and those huge Beijing Beers. It's so good to be able to keep better in touch with you,  and keep checking in on us... is there a blog in your future???

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to our sweet girl! We love you more than words can describe. You are our "special sweetie" today, tomorrow, and always.

In honor of Lia's fourth birthday, here are four special things about our girl:

1. She asks us all the time who our "special sweetie" is - every time it's her. Sometimes Mom gets included in as she asks Daddy who his special sweeties are.

2. Sometimes she speaks in code. For example, this was a tough week of us being gone two nights in a row (plus all day) for conferences. She had a mini-meltdown one morning, crying for Mom as I was on my way out the door to school:

Tears flowing, she told Dad "I want to snuggle!"
Dad: Great! You can snuggle with me.
Lia: I want to snuggle with a girl!
Dad: You can snuggle with Laura when you get to daycare.
Lia: (now angry and sobbing) I WANT TO SNUGGLE WITH A GIRL NAMED MOMMY!

The next day as Dad was dropping her off at daycare:
Lia, tearing up again: I want to snuggle with a boy who is this big (patting Daddy on the head)

3. She loves going to open houses. I think it's because of her desire to snoop through the kitchen cupboards and other people's closets, but she can't get enough of them. In fact, she wants to go to some today - on her birthday. She always reminds us that, when we move, she wants a dark pink bedroom. Not light pink. She's very clear about that.

4. Lia is the perfect child for us. She has a wildly funny sense of humor, loves to have fun, loves the Packers, and can't get enough of being outdoors. Lia is sweet, kind, caring, but is also a bit stubborn at times which keeps us on our toes. But of all the children that could have become ours, she is exactly the person who was meant to be ours.

We love you, special sweetie!

Wishing you a fun birthday and sending hugs to you! We love you!

Another Christmas has come and gone and we have just tucked Julia into bed on our last night of winter break.  Our time was joyous, relaxing and, of course, flew by in the blink of an eye.  Here's a look back at what we've been up to for the past few weeks.

We started the holidays with my family's Christmas.  Julia had a great time playing with her cousins - and with her cousins' toys!

She got some sparkly ruby-red shoes and this adorable puppy scarf and mitten set.  "It tickles!!!" she giggles every time she wears it.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her Sleeping Beauty - a new favorite movie!

And, of course, a Christmas with my family would not be complete without a wrapping paper fight!

Here's a pretty girl all dressed up on Christmas Eve. She got lots of compliments at church about her pretty dress, and she enjoyed the music, the Christmas pagent, and singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus.

Lia and I had fun goofing around before dinner... I was trying to get a nice picture of the two of us. Her daddy planted other ideas in her cute little head...

Good enough!

Our girl got to open a few presents on Christmas Eve - she got a Hello Kitty popcorn popper, jammies, and movie.  She's holding the present she and Daddy made for me. Isn't it beautiful?  And everytime I would ask her what she was giving me for Christmas, she would reply, "Mommy, it's a secret!!!" This is the best present I could have ever received. Julia was very proud, and a little confused why her present made mommy tear up!

She LOVED popping popcorn! I know I cut her head off in this picture, but it really is an acurate account of how excited she was to watch the popcorn pop.

After the movie, it was time to get ready for Santa.  Lia picked out a few cookies and told me what to write to him. Her first sentence?  "I like you".  Too cute!

We couldn't forget about the reindeer!

Dreaming of Christmas morning...

Christmas morning we were up at 7 AM to check if Santa had made it to our house. All Julia has wanted from the man in red was a Cinderella dress. And guess what she got? A Cinderella dress and a trampoline to get out all of her wintertime energy.  I love the huge giggly smile on her face!

She wore her Cinderella dress all day long.  Thanks for the beach towel, Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jack! I can't wait to use it in Mexico!

The rest of break was mostly spent relaxing and being outdoors as much as we could be.  Even though Julia was born in a very tropical location, the winter weather seems to be rubbing off on her.  She and Dad built a huge snowman in the front yard, and when they were finished she declared that she did not want to go in.  Dad asked her what else they should build and she suggested "A dinosaur". So here is SnowT-Rex! Isn't it amazing?

 

A local county park has kicksled rentals, so we headed out there a few times.  Julia loved it! We went one time a few years back and she had a good time, but it was nothing like this time.

While she enjoyed riding and going fast down the hills, she LOVED skiing on the back of the sled. 

We stayed home on New Year's Eve, plus who could resist counting down with this little sweetie? Here she's toasting to 2009 with her orange juice a little bit early.

As you can tell in this picture, she was SO excited to count down, and she joyously exclaimed "Happy New Year!!!" As she kissed both of us, she said to each of us in the sweetest little voice, "Happy New Year, Daddy!" "Happy New Year, Mommy!"

And so as I look at the clock and know that I need to head to bed soon so I can be ready for my class tomorrow morning, we, too, wish you a happy and healthy 2009! All the best!