Happy Belated Chinese New Year to YOU!

Happy Chinese New Year...it's the year of the OXEN....

ever so lovely Christy....

Chinese transplants....

these little guys really do resemble a couple of Asian boys, don't they? so cute!

Christy and Charlie

Christy and Duncan

rambunctious little Chinese boys...

I wanted to share these, in honor of the Chinese holiday that was celebrated yesterday...Thank you for letting me post these, Christy...you lovely Chinese/Asia/Malaysian chick, you! You make our family so much more interesting...not that the Swedish/Scottish/English etc stuff isn't nifty...we love you guys...hope your celebrations and red packet acquistions were loads of fun!!

Happy Birthday, Christy...

You don't look a day over 22!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to YOU, happy birthday, dear CHRISTY, happy BIRTHDAY to you...

Though it seems I'm a day late, I actually did think of you on your actual birthday. No phone calls from this mute girl though. so know that we were thinking of you and wishing you lived closer so we could throw a party or really just extend the New Year's Eve bash from the night before.

Hope your day was special and that you got to spend it with Andy and his 2 guys...Lots of love to you, Lovely!

Origami, Jeeps, and sad good-byes...

this pic is funny. look closely. Pipe was laying on her toy box, preparing to "give birth". I snapped just in time to see my "great niece" come forth...and Ethan is her Ob/Gyn, apparently? (this was totally decent and we were all in the same room) he just happened to be walking by and she asked him to help her...she is so accurate in this stuff...it crax us all up! Piper, you remind me so much of your mom and I. we did this crazy childbearing stuff ALL THE TIME! you'd think we'd have a few kids of our own by now.

oh, we do. never mind.

get back to your California Dreamin'. but Saturday, it was almost 70 degrees here in Indiana. go figure!

This is Christy, giving Levi a hug good-bye...he liked her but liked to play hard to get with her...she was mesmerizing to him!

this is Becky, getting sucked into the addictive world of Facebook.

Nora bean...this is her standard picture face...love it, kid. you are a cutie bug!

Piper willingly let Levi drive because, of course he's her "husband"...

Origami'n it...she is amazing at it...we were all impressed! is that like a standard thing to know, being Chinese? are you born with it? Christy, are you going to get a Facebook page? that has nothing to do with origami but thougth I'd throw that in here, since it's my blog and all.

It's always hard to say good bye...hate 'em. hellos are grand...maybe kinda awkward at times but always good. Good byes always stink.

We had a really nice time hanging with my kid brother, Andy, and his gal pal (Andy, what are you calling her...girlfriend, sweetie, is there a Chinese phrase we should learn here?), Christy. She is a sweet soul...very tender and affectionate. She was so great with all of our kids and for that, we are quite grateful. Thanks, Christy...just in case you see this! She taught Mel how to do some origami, told us a bit about upcoming Chinese New Year, Jan. 26, 2009...(I love how she says Red Packet...), loved to snuggle up with the middle aged kids (Pipes and Levi)..since Molly and Nora couldn't be bothered to sit that long. We watched one of our fave movies with them... The Village...and she knew right when to scream and scare the poo out of us! Good job, girl! she got Beck, Mom and I Coach hand bags. and the guys got wallets from Coach...whoa...

And the fact that she puts up with my punk brother is, in my book, a pretty cool thing. (love you, Dukey)...she's a tell it like it is kinda girl...It is rather neat to have a different culture introduced into our rather Scottish/Swedish/English (me)/German/Irish/Heinz 57 (David) family...

Ok, I just read thru this and it's all ma-ma foo-foo...but Christy, You are not! You are an awesome girl and we thank the Lord for getting to meet you!

That's that...Andy, you can move back here now. yeah, that's a good idea.