CNY and Arson!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR FRIENDS!!!!

Now that I have your attention!  Let me fill you in on our FIRST Chinese New Year celebration.  I will explain a few of the customs that we celebrated.  Many of the customs, we weren't able to take part in, since we have no asian population large enough to have celebrations in this area of the country!  So, no parade or dragon or festival etc.  Maybe some day????


First, it is tradition to wear your traditional silk outfit.  Just like "dressing up" in nice clothes for our holiday's here.  Some pics of the cuteness!

The Littlest Partier's!

The "Men"

The Princess's

Some of the other traditions we celebrated were, each child received a red envelop with money in it.  Red signifies "good luck" in China.  The money in the envelop ensures prosperity and luck in the new year.

Tim and Wes thrilled they are getting even more candy this week!

Beau, NOT so thrilled the gold coins are actually chocolate and not real!

Everyone getting their chocolate fix!

Another tradition is to fill bowls of oranges.  This stands for "money" and good luck.  Or you could just juggle them instead!  This signifies.....

You juggle poorly and really should practice before you decide to ruin good fruit!

We ended our celebration with sky lanterns.  They are miniature hot air balloons.  They signify your worries and bad experiences from the previous year are carried away forever.  If you make a wish of good fortune and release it with your lantern, it will be carried as high as the God's and might be granted.

No idea why Tim is standing at attention?  Maybe part of his wish for the new year??

Lift off!

ARSON!  

This is when bryce realizes these things fly off a decent distance and is now freaked out that they will cause a forrest fire!  So the fun was over.  Bryce drove around, for an hour, near our neighborhood area searching for any unattended fire.  We could still see the lantern's when the fuel cell ran out and the fire was extinguished, but he wasn't convinced we wouldn't be responsible for a raging fire.  So on that odd ending we wish you....

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Some how my Mother's DNA got in Kate!  Hand on hip and yelling at everyone in the shot!  They BOTH crack me up!

Been Awhile Update

Its been a long stretch since I stopped in to update on what's going on with this bunch.  Despite it having been a month and a half, I'm not sure we are any closer to any BIG news than I would like to be.  Let's start with the "LITTLE'S" in the house.

Tim started all day pre school!!!!

And had his "First" haircut!

Tim had his first Cardiology appointment at Arkansas Children's Hospital.  A few things to update. He has gained 1 pound in 2 months and had a1.5 hour long echocardiogram, that he some how put up with, without sedation!  Normally this test takes about 20 minutes.  Tim has decent oxygen saturation number's (84-88%) but his lips, finger's and lower extremities don't appear as "pink" (getting enough oxygen) as the doctor's would like.  This explains the LOOONNNGGG echocardiogram.  Somehow in his two open heart surgeries, his anatomy was moved around or he simply is missing some of the cardio-vascular things us weirdo normal people have?  So a heart catheterization will be performed sometime in late March or early April.  It will determine a time frame that the heart surgeons will "unzip" his chest zipper again, for a third time, to perform the second half of his surgery that China would not do.  This 3rd surgery (the Fontan) will extend his heart transplant time frame to mid 20's hopefully!  He's NOT in any immediate danger and the removal of some rotten teeth needed to be done first.  This will ensure no BAD bacteria will be present in his mouth for the heart cath.   Tim saw the dentist a week ago to pave the way to off loading the bad teeth. 

Yes indeed!  That dark area is a HUGE hole in the molar!  As it turned out, Tim had one tooth pulled, one filled and one put on the "watch" list as a cavity is starting to grow.  So for all you kids out there.....no tooth brush, paste or flossing for 5 years is really a bad thing.  

A break my heart little story here...................

Tim looks very ticked off in the pic, and he should be!  He had never had any dental care what so ever.  In China the first night I handed him his tooth brush, all ready to go, and he looked at me blankly.  So during a charades exchange, I taught him how to brush.  Fast forward to this tooth pulling event.  They gave him an oral sedation, nasal gas and shots to numb in his mouth, so he was NOT asleep.  with him being an unknown to us, we were a little nervous putting him under in a dental office!  Needless to say, he was crazy scared.  Although being very "cool" about all of it, I was only able to hold onto his ankle during the procedure because I had a toddler crawling all over me in the exam room.

What I didn't know until after the procedure was he was silently crying the entire time, so much so... he filled his ear canals to overflowing volumes.  I'm not a cryer, but when I was wiping his eye tears and realized his ears were wet and why.....UGH!  I began to tear up for my little brave warrior.  He was mad at everyone for the entire afternoon.  But gave me a hug and "I love you mommy" as he ate his ice cream snack later that day.  So stinkin blown away at him some times!

Then there is our family CABOOSE!

Kate NEVER cries at the doctor's, even if it takes 4 attempts to draw blood!  She was more fed up with the waiting on the doctor at her Arkansas Children's Hospital experience.  Her appointment was the shortest to the two....3 hours long.  Now here's where you ask me, "what does she have?"  That's a great question!  No Earthly Idea! Is the answer!  We went back downtown for a second round of lab test that had to be sent out of the state for further review.  They are not entirely sure if she is Alpha or Beta Thalessemia.  But they seem certain she is minor.  Which is the part of the puzzle that we all really care about.  This means she will not need monthly blood transfusions for her anemia. We wait for the final confirmation, but things look promising other wise!

I'm not really sure what happened with this guy here???? I blinked and he was some how turning 

16!!!!!

And this young man went to the Winter Formal with a very nice young lady.  She of course asked him!

And no blog would be complete without my Megan, the day would be very long indeed, without her!