February Stuff

Here are a few more photos from February! 

We went to the Chinese New Year celebration at our adoption agency, AAC.  As usual, Caylie had her face painted.  This time she was a dog.  (2018 is the Year of the Dog.)  I don't think she was happy about the tongue hanging out, though.  She washed it off pretty quickly!

One Saturday we tried a new barbeque place for lunch.  We didn't know the sandwiches would be quite this big!  

Justin ate 3/4 of his.  😁

Samuel made this awesome Chinese umbrella at school.  Don't you love the cute panda?  

 Another (and cuter) picture of Caylie.  

 I don't know how this girl got to be NINE!

Justin was in the basketball pep band.  This is the hugest pep band I've ever seen, and they are LOUD!  

It's awesome. 
Justin is at the top right, with the trombone.

I took this pep band video after one of the games, where the team had won at the last second!  You can tell the game is over, because the goals are going up!

 Tessa and Elias, my cuties! 

 Tessa is 3 1/2 now, and Elias 6 1/2 months.

Just because I love it . . . Jim took this photo from the sound booth at church.  On Wednesday nights we have 10 minutes of corporate prayer.  It's awesome.  We love our church!
 (I need to do a blog post about how God brought us to Calvary Aurora.)

And because it's Valentines month . . . here is a photo of me and my valentine in the fall of 1985.  He was a senior at Anderson College, and I was a sophomore.
 He's still my valentine!  

February Birthdays!

 Taylor turned 25 on February 3.  We went to  Sakura Hibachi in Aurora for his birthday dinner. 
Jim with all the boys:  Keelan, Justin, Taylor, and Samuel.

The birthday boy.

Back at the house for presents and cake.

Happy Birthday, Taylor!  We love you!

Caylie turned 9 on February 14.

Presents before school.  We also took donuts for her to share with her morning class, as her afternoon class would be taken up with Valentines Day activities.

Yummy supper at East Cafe Chinese Restaurant, her favorite place!

New outfit.

Hello Kitty birthday cake, as usual!

 A day or two later, with birthday cards from grandparents.

Happy Birthday, Valentine Girl!

January

The kids still had another week of school break after Christmas, so we took a trip to the zoo.
(Everyone was happier than they look, haha.)

We saw Caylie's endocrinologist for a three-month check-up.  She'd grown 3/4 of an inch since she started her growth hormone injections in October.  

We bought some chicken feet at the Asian grocery store.  I had to google how to cook them.  Taylor, Keelan, and Keelan's girlfriend Shanica said they tasted OK (Shanica's parents are Haitian, and she's eaten a lot of chicken feet), but Sam didn't like them much.  Oh well, it was a new adventure.  😉

 Caylie and Justin with some new animal friends at TJ Maxx.

Samuel went on his first Winter Camp with Calvary Aurora.  He was very nervous about it, but ended up having a great time.  We are so grateful for our church friends (especially Stephen in this photo) who have come alongside Sam.

While he was gone the rest of us ate supper at Five Guys.

 5:00 pm after the return from Winter Camp.  😀

Sound Guy Jim at Calvary Aurora.

Justin is first trombone chair in the Eaglecrest High School concert band!  So proud of him.

AND he got all A's in his first semester classes!

Caylie and Tessa had fun in the snow.

Keelan and Justin, not so much.

Our worship pastor, Ian, is great with Caylie.  They are having a "hair growing contest", and even wear hair clips together.  😁

Uncle Justin with Elias.

And Auntie Caylie with him, too!

 Caylie with her dance class.  She loves learning ballet and tap.  They'll have a recital in June.

Samuel and his friend Emmy at their school's Chinese New Year celebration.

Caylie dancing with her class at the CNY celebration.

Samuel with Piper, Emmy's sister.  They were at the House of Grace foster home together in Yangchun, Guangdong.  Piper and Emmy's sister LiLi is from the same orphanage as Caylie, as well.  We are doubly family with the Ainsworths!

Sam and Justin at yummy MOD Pizza!

December

In early December, Justin's high school football team went to the state finals at the Broncos stadium.  The team had gone undefeated during the season and playoffs.

The Eaglecrest Raptors heading out to the field.

Eaglecrest fans in red, band members in black.

My favorite trombone player.

Jim took Sam down on the field with his CHSAA credentials.  

The band was not allowed to play a halftime show on the field (boo!), but they did put on a great pep band performance!

Eaglecrest lost, but put up a good fight.  It was their only loss of the season.

As we've done for several years, we went to serve at the Operation Christmas Child Processing Center.  Samuel was excited about his first time.

Our church Life Group started meeting at our house last fall.  Here are some cuties who attend with their parents.  :)

Every day I sit in this line to pick Sam and Caylie up from school.  It's actually not nearly as bad as our last school!

And we often see these deer in the field beside the school.  They're not very shy!

Mark and Sandy came to visit, and meet sweet Elias.

Of course we went out for ice cream.
Caylie, Mark, and our little friend Genesis.

A whole bunch of us at Dairy Queen. 

Justin had a Jazz Band concert and even had a solo!

Videos:

And a Concert Band concert, as well.

Videos:

Hanging out with my Tessa on the night of Brad's work party.

And my sweet little Elias, too.

After being FB and bloggy friends for a few years, we finally met the Mulvahill family.  They have 16 children from China!

We had a busy and fun December! 

 (Christmas in a separate post!)