Tonight's Dinner...

Tonight I made a roasted pork tenderloin with root veggies (carrots, potatoes, and parsnips) along with butternut squash drizzled with butter and brown sugar. After I cleaned everything and put it away, Mackenzie comes to me and says, "Mama, your pork rocks! Can I have more?". She cracks me up. Love it when they love what I make for them......

Year of the Tiger

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!!

Or Happy New Year in Chinese! We celebrate every year and always look forward to it. On Saturday, we began celebrating at the 1st Oriental Supermarket where they have a lion dance, a martial arts demo, and its finished with some Japanese drumming, our favorite. Then we go into the grocery store and buy a bunch of stuff, some we need, some we don't. We stock up on Asian cooking supplies and always let the kids pick out some candy and look at the live fish waiting to meet their fate.

Kenzie has the best seat!

The lions used to scare the kids. Funny story about lion statues....there is a strip club not far from our house (I know, lovely). Outside it has these two lion-like statues by the doors. The girls just alwasy associate these with all things Chinese. They will frequently ask, "Why can't we go to that Chinese restaurant? We never go there." We just tell them we don't like that one..lol.

Martial Arts Demo

Japanese drumming

Then we met up with our friends, Jeff and Tina and their kids, Eli and Naomi for dinner. Naomi is also from China and they go to our church. The kids had fun and the owner there is always very nice to us and loves the kids.

General Tso's is the kids' favorite, mild of course.

We finished the weekend with some home cooking and a little lantern lighting. The girls enjoyed setting the table with our Chinese decor.

Chow time....peanut chicken, egg rolls, Chinese cabbage, and peanut lo mein.

Madalyn loves egg rolls...

The highlight is using chopsticks. Even Mason got in on it!

So may this year bring you prosperity, good luck, and love but more importantly, God's blessings.....

KitchenAid Lovin'......

About 10 days ago, Matt came home and surprised me with a red, 5-QT, KitchenAid Stand Mixer!! I about died. I was so excited and he was just as excited to give it to me. He has been chomping at the bit to give me whatever he had hidden in the trunk. I had been forbidden to go into it for a couple of weeks at this point. Oh, and I just LOVE that it is RED! I feel very fancy with my new mixer. So the first thing I made was a homemade bread recipe from the KitchenAid book.....

I made a simple white bread recipe to start off with.

There it is, working hard!

The dough is beginning to come together...

After letting it rise for a hour, punching and separating it into two loaves, and letting it rise another hour, it was ready for the oven...

And there you have it! Two really yummy loaves of good ole fashioned white bread. I didn't have appropriate loaf pans but maybe next time.

Slap a little, or a lot, of butter on it and ENJOY!

Thanks Honey, I love it and I love you!

A Whole Year....

Hard to believe, but its true. A year ago today, we met Mason in the Holt Care Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A year of waiting, paperwork, anticipation, planning, and family adjustments all culminated in the joy of adding a son to our mix. We were jet lagged after about 20 hours of travel but you wouldn't have known it. We walked in with six other families and couldn't wait to get our hands on him. My favorite moment of the entire trip will always be how they brought him down the stairs and set him down. We caught his eye and he put up his sweet hand and waved to us. It took my breath away. We would spend the next couple of days getting to know him and his routine. I can't say enough about the nannies that cared for him. They loved him as their own and were broken hearted to him go. I tear up thinking about their sadness.

It has been a great year and he has blended in without any concern on our part. We tell all our kids that being adopted means they were picked special by God to be in our family and he is no exception. He just fits.

Here are some highlights from that first day.....

We love you Mason and couldn't picture our lives without you!