{love}

a new year!

So here's the color version of the black and white from my Wed. post.

I shared in my previous post how I had wanted to get some portraits of these two in their traditional Chinese clothes. I sometimes think getting 2 or more children to sit for a portrait (as my husband says) is like 'herding cats.'

I kept the picture taking short and sweet and was very pleased with these images.

As people in China prepare for the new year that is arriving soon, I thought I'd share a little of what we do as a family to celebrate. Every year it's a little bit different. It's starts with me decorating with a lot of red, hanging red knots from our front door, paper lanterns hanging from the mantel, and a red silk table runner on the dining room with some of the things we bought in China decorating the table. I also put out a big bowl of mandarin oranges which symbolize good luck, they don't last long around here as both kids love them.


On the eve of the new year (Saturday night) we'll go out to dinner at our very favorite local Chinese restaurant. We live in a small town of about 10,000 people, that's just outside of a much larger city. Shortly after getting back from China with William, we went into that favorite place and to our surprise found out that the owners were originally from Will's birth city and province! Who would have thought that we could meet in a small town in Wisconsin. The 'Grandma' adores William and dotes on him. In fact every time we go there, he's swept away into the kitchen for a while and given some treats and spoiled a little. ;)

On Sunday we'll celebrate Chinese New Year with giving Grace and Will a few small gifts and red paper envelopes with a little money(even numbers) in them. We also give the 'hong bao' to some of our friend's children too. In 2 weeks we'll get together with a local group of friends all with children adopted from China, at another dinner.
In year's past I've spoken to Grace's classroom about Chinese New Year, we've had travel group get togethers, attended a festival put on by our adoption agency and gone to downtown Chicago's Chinatown and watched their parade which was amazing (though really cold!) I will say we always do something to celebrate the holiday and bring a little of China and it's rich, vibrant culture into our home.
You can say Xin Nian Kuai Le (Happy New Year!)

or Gong Xi Fa Cai (Congratulations and be prosperous!)

However you say it...Happy New Year!

black and white Wednesday

It's already Wednesday again.

I had a completely different idea and picture that I was going to post this week.

It was a Valentine theme but instead felt inspired to go a different way.

The Lunar New Year or Spring Festival in China (which is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays) starts on Sunday, Feb. 14 which also happens to be Valentine's Day.

I think that they both happen to land on the same day is quite charming.

Probably because the 2 little loves of my life were born in China

and we now celebrate Chinese New Year as a family.

I've always wanted a portrait of my two in traditional Chinese dress

and was able to capture it last weekend. Grace's dress is a vibrant red, which is the color of Chinese New Year and symbolizes joy, virtue, truth and sincerity. Will's shirt is a rich sapphire blue. Will was playing with a toy drum that has a rooster painted on the front

(he was born in the year of the rooster).

The picture probably does looks better in color but I really DO love the black and white conversion.

I'll be posting some of the color versions maybe next week.

Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year!)

oh and I almost forgot, Happy Valentine's Day too!

If you'd like to link your black and white picture to Lisa's blog at The Long Road to China, please do and also see what she and others have posted. :)

And how I shot this...I originally was going to play around with my off camera flash but was too lazy. Instead I had them sit on a large piece of black foam core board ( you can buy at any craft store). They faced a window so the light was good. I stood on a stepstool and shot down as they looked up at me. Will was pretty compliant so I even got a few of him by himself. Grace too. Easy, I promise.

recipe Monday ~ something yummy

Though I like to cook, I LOVE to bake so I guess I consider myself more of a baker.Last year at this time I did a post about these yummy cookies that are some of our favorites. We made them this weekend so I thought I'd do a repeat of the recipe. I figure it's timely with the chocolate kisses, since Valentine's Day is arriving soon. There's just something that's so delish with the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.

Enjoy!

For more recipes and if you'd like to post one and link to her blog, see what Colleen at The Crazy Eight has for her Recipe Monday.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup creamy Peanut Butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Sunday Snapshot ~ Will

For Sunday snapshot, I wanted to talk about our youngest son William aka Will.

If you don't know Will already, he just turned 4 about a month ago.

Will LOVES the Leapster he got for Christmas and plays with it frequently. His current favorite games are Ni Hao Kai Lan and Nemo. Besides playing with his Leapster, he adores Buzz Lightyear and pretends he's Buzz quite a bit of the time. You can hear him frequently exclaim, 'To infinity and beyond!' His other favorite character is Woody from Toy Story. I believe that Toy Story 3 is coming out this Spring, and I can pretty much guarantee we'll be there.

Will is a silly guy and

is quite the joke teller...they're usually his own creations or knock knock jokes.
Will loves preschool and has many friends, he's the kind of child that you never forget when you meet him in person. Engaging, outgoing, personable and funny are words I'd use to describe him. He laughs easily and often.

Last weekend we had a China travel group get together in Illinois and Will swam in the pool and played with our friends. Will has a 'girl friend' named Emily who was also adopted from China. He tells me he's going to marry Emily...it's pretty darn cute.




Will has a beautiful smile, contagious laugh and is a sweet little brother to his sister Grace. They play together well ( um...well, most of the time as siblings do).

Will has been with us now 18 months. He is growing up very fast (sigh...I can't believe how fast and that makes me a little bit sad). He's a wonderful little boy and we are extremely blessed that he's our son. We love this guy so much!

Friday's Finds ~ more etsy favs

Well if you read my Friday's Finds from last week, you would know I'm a huge fan of etsy.

So this week I thought I'd speak about 2 more of my favorite sellers. The above and below items pictured are from the snicklefritz & pj shop. This might sound a little odd but I LOVE paper. I have as long as I can remember, and I love to make things out of paper. The problem is that I don't always have the time right now. I make hand stamped cards when I can, but found this seller that makes adorable cards, gift tags, notebooks and other assorted items. Those little heart gift tags will go on Valentine teacher gifts next week. And the birthday cards pictured below are nice to have on hand when you need a card to send and don't want to run out to the store. Her items are reasonably priced.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/snicklefritzandpj

Grace is showing the cute cards.
And the second etsy seller I'm featuring is bekah jennings.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bekahjennings?page=1

Bekah makes beautiful banners out of chipboard, paints them and connects the letters with ribbon and also adds a few embellishments...

So far I've bought a Halloween, Rejoice and my newest, the Spring banner pictured above and below. I hung it on our mantel to show how it looks...

makes me feel a little like Spring is coming soon.

Check out both shops, I've bought from them several times and the items are made beautifully, look exactly as pictured and shipped quickly.

Hop on over to Colleen's blog, and see what she's posted for her finds.

And have a great weekend! {go Colts!}

black and white Wednesday

It's the 4th week of black and white Wednesday.


A few days ago I managed to capture these of my 4 year old son Will. If you don't know Will already he can sometimes be compliant and let me take his picture and sometimes not. I really can't blame him, it's much more fun when you're a little boy to play with your toys or pretend you're a super hero than have your momma follow you around with a camera.



I took advantage of the natural light and reflection off the snow
coming through the windows of our master bedroom to take these pictures.

These were processed in Lightroom first where I converted them to black and white, then brought into PS to sharpen his eyes a teeny bit. Will has very 'sparkly' dark eyes that definitely show his personality. I love these images because they have a classic, timeless look to me. I'm delighted to have some new pictures of my sweet little man!






Check out Lisa's blog with her black and white Wednesday post and more beautiful pictures through her link.

finally February

And what does one do with oneself living in this place called Wisconsin in Winter? I often refer to the state as 'the frozen tundra.' We cannot stay inside all the time, there is just so much game playing, trampoline jumping, reading, doing crafts and puzzles, baking and playing Wii that a child can do.

Recently after a perfectly beautiful snowfall, the kind where the snow sticks to every single twig and branch on the trees and sparkles, we went outside to look at the snow, walk on the train tracks, and take some pictures.


Writing this post it occurred to me that today is Feb. 1. We made it through January, and February is a short month but has Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year smack dab in the middle of the month. Some fun times to look forward to and prepare for.




Now if Mr. Ground hog (tomorrow )would just NOT see his shadow...we could be in for an early Spring! Well... we can dream can't we.
And Spring always does arrive.... (hoping for sooner than later!)