Thanksgiving

Happy 4th Birthday Kylee!!!!

Finally the day has arrived for Kylee. She has been waiting for this day for a few weeks now. Her birthday was actually the 23rd but we didn't celebrate until the 25th. For months she has been wanting a sponge bob cake for her birthday so I made her my version of the spongy character. She was pleased with the results so that is all that matters...and now he is all gone.

I can't believe that my baby is 4 years old, boy does time seem to go fast. Happy Birthday!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Trudging through the woods looking for our tree.

Here's a good one. Everyone stand back so we can get it cut down.

Good it fit on our jeep and now it is all tied up....but maybe we should turn it around so the branches are the other way while we are driving home...dang.

The kids had fun. Although they say their favorite part is playing in the snow.

Halloween 2009

This year again Kylee wanted to be a princess so we bought her the crown and wand that she wanted so terribly bad. But after I took the tags and things off the wand she informed me that she didn't want to use the wand because princesses don't have wands ( 3 year olds). She wanted dress up shoes too, but I couldn't find any at the time so she wore some purple shoes instead.

Brittany wanted to be a butterfly. At first we tried to talk her out of it so she could find something warmer, but she insisted and so that is what she was. It acutally turned out cute and she absolutely loved the costume.

The girls both scored in the candy area. Parties at school, trick-or-treating at Jon's work, and then again in our neighborhood. They got the most at Jon's work. The nice part of the going to his work is it is warm and the candy is fairly centralized.

All in all it was a successful, fun day.

China

This is the terracotta warriors in Xi'an. Amazingly there are over 8,000 lifesize soldiers that were created as pottery to protect the emperor after he died. Pretty impressive. They were all painted as well, but being buried and then exposed to oxygen has made the colors fade.

Here is James giving me a rickshaw ride. He is a very good driver ;O)

Yep, me on the Great Wall of China. It was absolutely amazing and extended as far as the eye can see. Definitely recommend it to everyone!!! We didn't have a picture here together. so sad

This was at the summer palace. It was the place that the emperor built in Beijing because he was jealous that anyone else in China would have a prettier summer place than him. So he built a huge lake and beautiful palaces everywhere. I think he accomplished his task. This was one of our favorite places.

This was in the backyard of our friend's house. I thought it was interesting that they had all their gourds growing off overhead vines, and this one made a perfect nose for James!

We decided to go on a bike ride whilst there. But this is also a picture of our friend's backyard.

This picture was taken from the north side of the Forbidden City in a park that allowed us to look inside the gates.

So, I guess I should finally post some pictures about China. I know most people saw this already, but in case you wanted some highlights again.

We loved our trip and probably could have stayed longer. Next time we'll go south!

-Shelley and James