We Love Food

 I really like food.  I like to buy it, cook it, smell it, eat it, and even take pictures of it.  Thank goodness, my family shares that love and we have many great family meals together laughing and talking and enjoying each others company.  One of our favorite meals of the year is on Cinco de Mayo.  This year I made chicken enchiladas, black bean and corn dip, and some yummy guacamole.

 We also love to have Chinese for dinner.  Okay, that's a bad joke.  We do enjoy eating Chinese food, but we also enjoy having people over for dinner and recently we've had the opportunity to invite some of Chris' colleagues from China.  This time there were 6 of them and we had to get really creative to fit 12 people in our small dining room, but we did it!  They wanted traditional American food so I made meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, rolls, jello with fruit cocktail and marshmallows in it, green beans with bacon and peach cobbler for dessert.

 I'm not the only one in the family that likes to cook and for Mother's Day morning I woke up to this yummy breakfast of heart-shaped, pink pancakes with sausage and eggs made by Jared.  The kids also decided that since we had spent all day on Saturday working in the garden that they would give me a garden of sweets for Mother's Day.

 For my Mother's Day dinner, I wanted to cook it, but Clarissa helped.  We made Tilapia, rice, artichokes, stuffed mushrooms (a little bit of heaven) and a salad with lettuce and spinach from the garden.  Everyone kept joking that this was definitely a Mom's meal, but everyone ate at least part of it.  I got to eat most of the artichokes and stuffed mushrooms myself which I sure didn't mind.  Now I'm wondering what the next excuse for a feast will be.

I Feel Like...a Small Planet

So, the other day as I was trying to roll off the couch, I said, "I feel..." and Jared finished my sentence by saying, "...a blimp, a small planet, an overstuffed sofa."  I could have taken offense, but I just laughed because he was so right, that's exactly how I feel.  At 36 weeks, I am definitely getting into the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy: pelvic pain, rib pain, heartburn, lack of sleep and just an overall feeling of being too big and too stretched.  However, as I consider the pain and discomfort compared with the opportunity to create a life, I am happy and know that it is so worth it.  I think I have also started nesting.  Last weekend, I helped the girls to rearrange and clean up their bedroom.  This weekend I reorganized and cleaned up the schoolroom, thanks to a new shelving unit built by my talented hubby.  We also finally bought some diapers, some onsies, some receiving blankets, and some pacifiers; all we need to have a baby until we find out whether it's a boy or girl.  We are starting to get really excited to meet this new member of our family. 

Photo Book

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Look-a-Like

For the past several weeks as Jared has been growing his hair out for The Jungle Book, we have felt like we've had a Justin Bieber look-a-like wandering around the house. What do you think?  He has even perfected the head flick to get his hair to fall perfectly to the side.

The Jungle Book!

After 6 long weeks of rehearsals, the show is finally here!  The kids were so excited to perform in Disney's "The Jungle Book" this year at the High School.  We are so proud of them and all their hard work. 

 Jared was so happy after 3 days of auditioning to get one of the lead roles as Mowgli the mancub.  Here he is with the two cutest bees in the show.

 Clarissa also got the part she wanted as one of the coils of Kaa the snake.

 Jared with Baloo the bear and Bagheera the Panther.

 Jared, singing and dancing in the scene with King Louie and the monkeys.

On the nights that Jared and Clarissa were not Mowgli and Kaa, they were elephants.  Everyone did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Who Needs the Easter Bunny...

...when you can spend Easter with 4 China-men instead.  We celebrated this Easter with 4 of Chris' colleagues from Tianjin, China.  This was their first time eating a home-cooked American meal.  We had ham (which they didn't recognize until we explained that it was pork), scalloped potatoes, homemade rolls, sauteed veggies, fruit and a yummy orange, pineapple, coconut cake for dessert. 

 Before dinner we had an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard.  Joe, Matthew, James, and Jao (some of them like to pick American names for fun) joined in the fun of the hunt, but then gave their eggs to the kids.

 After dinner we played some games outside, like soccer, a hula hoop contest, and spin-around-the-bat-until-you-get-so-dizzy-you-can't-run-straight-and-fall-down.

 Then we went for a walk and roasted Peeps around the campfire.  The guys thought the Peeps were too sweet.  They also said that their favorite part of America is the clear skies, the green grass and the large families.  They really seemed to enjoy playing with the kids and we enjoyed getting to know them and sharing our Easter with them.

A family picture wearing the dresses that Mom and Dad brought back from their recent trip to Mexico.

Happy Easter!

32 Weeks and HUGE!

Okay, I know I've done this four times before and it has happened every time, but I am still totally shocked at how large my belly is.  I still have 2 more months left and it doesn't seem humanly possible to get any larger without something busting through.  Speaking of busting through, the baby is very active now and there are times when I really feel that he or she will just burst right through my skin.  I have lovingly taken to calling the baby "my little alien" as I feel like my body is harboring an alien life form that never stops trying to get out, which can be very distracting when I'm lying on my back trying to read and the book is jumping all over the place from the movements.  I have been feeling the baby with hiccups, which is fun for the girls to feel as well.  Of course, with the later stages of pregnancy also comes all those annoying symptoms that make it hard to sleep, like heartburn and swollen feet.  I was just telling my friend though, that I would do it all over again for the blessing of the child that will be joining our family in two more months.