SNOW DAY!!!

Yesterday we had enough snow to go out and play, so we did. Brady wasn't so sure of it at first as you can tell by the first picture!! However, once we got outside he really did seem to like it, but I couldn't get him to go in his new sled until later in the evening. We enjoyed the snow and made some snow balls and watched Chelsea run around it...she LOVED it!!! I'm really hoping that we get some more snow over the weekend!!

my not so happy camper!!!

MUCH happier now!!

Having fun playing in the snow

OOOO, this sled IS fun!!!

"Helping" daddy with the shoveling

SLEDDING IN THE HOUSE

LAST OF THE BIRTHDAY FUN!

Who knew you didn't need snow to have fun on a sled??? Thank goodness this sled was the last gift that Brady opened becuase once it was opened the kids were on it going for rides around the living room, dining room, kitchen, entry way "circle"....and boy did they LOVE it!!!! Ben, my cousin's son who is 11 (I think) was nice enough to pull the kids around!!

Brady, Ewan and Nyah

Brady, Ewan, Nyah
Brady, Ewan and Nyah

Look at that grin on Brady's face

The little kids finally giving Ben a ride!!!

EVEN MORE BIRTHDAY FUN!

Brady LOVED the Diego Doodle Pro that the Speichers gave him!

Playing the bongos that Uncle Michael gave him (we actually requested these, so it's okay!! Brady loves drums and he only has the plastic ones, so our thinking was that if he's going to play them it would sound nicer to listen to the real thing as opposed to the plastic ones!!)

Opening gifts! ( I now FULLY understand why some people choose to wait and open gifts once everyone has left!!)
mmm, this cake and ice cream is good!! I should mention that he proceded to eat the ice cream with his hand after announcing that it was "cold"!!! And he had 3 helpings of ice cream too... I know I'm a bad mother!!!!

Mommy and Brady blowing out his candle!

MORE BIRTHDAY FUN!

Some pictures of the "action" at the party!!

Nyah having a good time!

Brady and Peyton playing the piano together (shortly after this photo there were tears involved!!)

The balls from the ball pit were one of the hits of the party (notice you see just as many adults participating as you do kids!!!)

Kayla...the second youngest at the party!

Meg, the youngest of the party goers!

BRADY'S 2nd BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

It's hard to believe, but Brady will be 2 years old on February 5th and we had his birthday party yesterday!!! It was a Chinese New Year themed party with a Kung Fu Panda cake!!! There were about 25 adults and 10 kids here, so there was a lot going on!!! I really think that everyone had a great time and Brady certainly had fun and everyone was so generous with the gifts they gave!! THANK YOU very much!!!

decorations in the kitchen/family room

more decorations in the kitchen

the dining room

the cake

Brady and all of his gifts

CHINESE NEW YEAR DINNER!!

Today is Chinese New Year!! Gung Xi Fa Choi!!!! This past Saturday we had dinner at Peking Gourmet with Alan's parents, his brother, sister in law and their two kids, plus Eric's new business partner and wife and my brother. As always, we had a wonderful time and some really good food. Everyone was AMAZED at how much Brady ate!!! The restaurant always brings peas in a wonton soup for him and tonight he LOVED the wontons!! He also had tons of rice, a spring roll, duck, another type of seafood soup, singapore noodles, broccoli and about 3 quarters of an orange, plus some fortune cookie and then they brought him a piece of cheesecake for his Birthday so he had a few bites of that!!!! Not sure where he puts it all, but he does seem to love food!!!

While I was getting Brady dressed to go out for dinner I did what I usually do, I told him what the plan for the evening was. I also told him who all was going to be there. So, while we were in the car on the way to dinner Brady starts saying, "Pam, Eric, Po Po, Gung Gung, Ashley, Preston, Michael"!!! It was so cute and cool at the same time because it was totally unprompted and he said Pam a few times before we realized what he was talking about!! He's really quite smart and I think we're going to be in trouble later!!!

Preston, Aunt Pam and Brady

Brady giving Po Po a kiss

Eating a duck leg
Po Po and Gung Gung

Eating a spring roll

COLORING!!!

Brady's new favorite thing to do is color!! He is always saying, "color" these days, it's really pretty cute!!! You've got to love the triangular crayons that don't roll off the table!!!!

BABY #2 UPDATE!!!

It's been quite awhile since I've posted anything on our progress for Baby #2, so I thought I'd take a moment to let everyone know what's going on. First and foremost, our  agency received 2 referrals this week, both little girls!!! This is VERY good news as it means that things are FINALLY moving along and with any hope they will continue to move. 

The second bit of good news is that we finally got our Homestudy, our Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition and the other required documents sent off to USCIS!!! Now we are waiting to hear back from them with an appointment to be fingerprinted. Then once we get fingerprinted we wait to get our coveted I-171H. Once we have this we will be "paper ready" which means we can officially receive a referral!!!!! Okay, I know you're asking how long all of this will take, so I'll give you a ball park based on our timeline with Brady. 

The last time it took approximately 4 weeks from the time USCIS received our documents to the time we received word of our fingerprint appointment and the actual appointment was about 3 weeks later. Then once we were fingerprinted it took about another 4 weeks to get our I-171H. If things move along this timeline, then HOPEFULLY we'll have our I-171H sometime at the very end of March or beginning of April, which coincidentally would put us on a similar timeline that we had with Brady. Of course, things are subject to change and we're dealing with a completely different office this time too, so I don't know how much that will change the outcome. Also, another difference is that last time we sent our application to USCIS before we had completed our Homestudy and they do require that before they will give you the I-171H, so I don't know if we'd get an appointment sooner this time because they already have all the necessary paperwork to complete the entire process. WHO KNOWS??? At any rate, we've still got a bit of waiting, but that's okay because Brady will keep me busy in the meantime!!!!

With any luck I'll be posting more and more often about Baby #2 now!!!

HANGIN' AT HOME!

Just a few pictures of us hanging around at home, which we've been doing a lot of lately because it's been cold outside!!!

One of my favorite recent pictures of Brady!!!

This boy LOVES the drums, well music in general, but especially drums!!! Notice that he's sitting on one drum while actually using the other drum! He also uses the drum he's sitting on to help him get up on the couch...pretty clever, I think!!

Just looking cute before bedtime.

Playing with Daddy.
Sitting on Daddy is SO much fun!!!

BOWLING FUN!!!

Last weekend we went to a Birthday Party for our friend Andy who turned 4!!! When I learned that it was going to be a bowling party I was a bit worried about how much fun Brady would actually have, but my worries were quickly put to rest!!! Of course there were bumpers, which are no longer the padded things, now they are metal things that come right up from the sides of the alley, and they also gave us ramps so the kids could just push the ball down and let it roll. Oh, and yes, they do have bowling shoes small enough to fit an almost 2 year old!! Brady really seemed to have a good time and I KNOW that Andy did too!!!! Thanks for including us!!!

Brady giving the "thumbs up" which I had never seen him do until today!!!!

Clapping for one the kids!

Daddy helping Brady bowl!!

Checking out all the balls when we first got there!

The Birthday Boy Andy, and his mom, my friend Katherine! FYI, this picture was supposed to be first, but I forgot to change the order so they'd upload in the right order....sorry!!! Thanks again, we had a great time!

DINNER WITH FRIENDS!

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of going out to dinner with our friends Norman and Shelly and their two kids Nyah and Ewan! It was so nice to be able to go to dinner and catch up since we haven't been able to spend a ton of time together since we got back. I see Shelly regularly at soccer and at our monthly "Girls Night Out', but the 4 (well, 7) of us haven't all been together as much as we'd like. We went to a fun pizza place called Generous George's, and I've decided the name comes from the portion sizes!!!  We all had a great time and the kids enjoyed the clown we came by to make balloon animals for them best!!!! 

Ewan and his dinosaur

Nyah and her dog (poodle)

Brady and his tiger

Brady giving his tiger a drink!

Daddy and Brady!

NEW YEAR'S EVE!

We had a nice New Year's Eve at home with our friends Mark and Margi and their two boys, Ty and Blake, as well as my brother. We missed our friends Ken and Kristi and their two kids as they were home with sick kiddos!! We just hung out and ordered pizza and let the kids play Wii before putting them bed so that the adults could enjoy some fun times!!! It was a really fun way to spend New Year's Eve since we didn't have to worry about anyone driving home and I think it may become an annual event!!!

Alan's Avatar on Wii!(it's a pretty close likeness, don't ya think?)

Ty celebrating a strike!

Blake lookin' cute!

Brady cheering for a good shot by one of the boys! We were pretty amazed at how well both boys bowled, since they're only 6 and 3...they both got scores well over 100!!!!