Xin Nian Kuai Le!!

For part of our Chinese New Year Celebration this year, we went to the Library where they had this awesome Year of the Ox Celebration! They had lots of performances, crafts for the kids, and the ever popular Sarah's all time favorite LION DANCE! We had a blast, as usual!

Here is Sarah with the Dragon that she made!

These dancers were really great. They were dancing a peacock dance of some kind and were very bird like in their moves!

They had a Tai Chi performance with their swords!

And these dancers were so good! Sarah now wants to take lessons!

The Chinese Orchestra played and they were wonderful. They played the most interesting Chinese instruments!

And, here is Sarah watching (intently) the Lion Dance...

And, Sarah had just "fed" the Lion a dollar! Here is was chewing on it!

January's Play Date

In January, my friend, Christy, invited us to her house for the play date! In December, she brought home Gigi from Vietnam (isn't she a doll??) and we got to meet her. She's a sweetie, and made me so baby hungry! :)

Here is Christy with her newly adopted Gigi!

We had a wonderful turnout this month, too! Let's see if I can name everyone! From left to right there is Preston, Lia, Donna, Sam, Lindsey, and Emilie...on the bottom is Sarah and Sunny!

QT Pie

Now, who can argue with that???

More Christmas photos

Here are some photos from our Christmas, some on Christmas eve, and some Christmas day. We had a blast and Sarah was so much fun. It was truly a special time.

This was my table before it was set for Christmas dinner. I just love that table runner, I think it's gorgeous!

Here is my new sewing machine tote I got from my Dad! Love it! Quilting Classes will be so much easier to attend!

Me and my girl

Sarah's Poppa with his stocking!

Sarah with her stocking

At Nati's house, Sarah and Tati being extremely silly!

Decorating our Christmas tree

For the longest time, when asked to smile on cue, Sarah truly looks like she's hurting herself! It's still cute, though. Here she is helping us decorate the tree and putting on the star!

Happy Birthday Lili!

Well, since I'm SOOO behind on blogging, I decided to still post what I had planned and just let it be late! My "niece" Lili, had her 15th birthday last December! She's my best friend's oldest daughter and I've known her since she was 3 months old. I'm so proud of the beautiful (both inside and out) young woman that she's become. I just love this girl! Since her Mom is from Colombia, they had a wonderful birthday celebration with a Quincinera (sp?) that was a blast!

Here is Lili the next morning opening her presents. This is the bible that we bought her.

Here we are with the birthday girl. Isn't she gorgeous?

Here I am with Lili's little sister, Tati...I've known her since before she was born! LOL! She's such a little beauty, herself!


Here is my best friend, Nati, putting Lili's heels on her! Now she's become a young woman!

...and the tiara!

Lili surrounded by her friends.

December's Play Date

For our December playdate, we went to the Zoo to see the special display of Christmas lights after hanging out at Emilie's house. We had a little birthday celebration for her birthday while there, too. It was a lot of fun. Sarah had a blast!

She just HAD to wear the birthday hat she got at Emilie's house the whole night. It was cute!

She rode the carousel, too. It was very COLD that night! So, we didn't stay long...

I know you can't see the front of her face, but she looks so happy!

We got these cool glasses, that were holographic. When you looked through them, you could see little snowmen around every light, even the moon! They were really neat!

Here are the girls over at Emilie's house before the zoo. Left to right is Emilie, Lia, a guest, Donna and Sarah.

Riding her BIG GIRL BIKE!

The first week of December, we had awesome weather! Troy took Sarah over to the park with her Big Girl Bike that her Poppa bought her for her birthday back in October. She did awesome riding it and had a lot of fun!

You can tell who did her hair this morning, and it wasn't Mama! I did choose an outfit for them though! :)

QBOM 2008

Well, since my deadline for the drawing at the local quilt store was today, I was happy to stay up way too late last night to finish quilting this quilt and adding the binding. This is my 2008 Quilt Block of the Month project that I did with the class at the quilt store. It was a lot of fun. I learned some new piecing techniques each month as I worked on these blocks. Then there was always that fact that the first block was only $5 and provided I brought the finished block to class the next month the following month's block was free! You gotta LOVE that!! I was able to pick up the sashing, border, and backing fabric after Christmas for 60% off, too! I love the colors and thought I did pretty well with this one. This was also the very first quilt that I actually designed myself (I'm talking the layout here, obviously I followed the block patterns from the store each month). Anywhere, the colors are right up my alley and it was a lot of fun. This was also my first attempt with free motion quilting. Basically, that means that I made up the design of the stitching in the quilting. I had no pattern to follow or a stencil. I just kind of moved it around and had fun with it. I did do a table runner for a Christmas gift this year so in a quilt size, this was my first. Anyway, I liked it and was pretty proud!

Here is a close up of my favorite block. It was the most fun to make and there's something about it that I really like!