We're ready!

In case you've missed it, the trailer for the new Star Wars movie came out.
The Yuen household is a Star Wars household, so we are eagerly awaiting the movie when it comes out next year.  (Emily's edit: ELVIN is a Star Wars household, no one else knows anything about it.) But for now, Darth Vader jammies will have to suffice...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a good Thanksgiving and hope that you had one too.

Earlier in the week, we visited a jumping playhouse called Dizzy Castle filled with slides and climbing toys.  The kids love it and we went with cousin Jace (2 years old) who flew in from Colorado with his mom, Emily's sister, Jen.

To get up to a slide, you have to climb a set of stairs...

 And then sliiiiide your way down!

 Eliana likes this place, as you might be able to tell...

Karina enjoys it too...

Jace went down the slide with Uncle Charles.  At first, he was a little hesitant about this place, but later on he warmed up to the idea.

On Thursday, we all gathered at Emily's parent's house, which is a short drive away.  Almost all of Emily's siblings and their families were there as well, along with some extended family.  So in total, there were 29 people there!

We had turkey, a huge roast, green beans and other fixings.  Even though they nibbled on appetizers the whole afternoon, the kids were hungry by the time that dinner rolled around.

Then it was finally time to dive in!  Emily's parents have a HUGE dining table that can be expanded to seat almost 20 people.  And then there was another table full of people in another room as well.

The girls sat next to cousin Abby, who dutifully helped out when needed.

Gabey sat next to Mommy.  His favorite food for that night was flaky biscuits followed by the green beans.  The boy loves his green beans and will choose it over steak or other things.

After dinner, the little boy cousins spent time with cousin Millie.  Gabe and his cousin Jace are about 6 weeks apart in age.  They are two very active boys and this is the only picture showing them together, even though they spent about 5 days playing with each other!

Then came time for dessert!

Eliana got ice cream, cookies and pumpkin pie.  Karina doesn't like all those sweets and settled only for the vanilla ice cream.

Towards the end of the evening, most had left and it came time to put on jammies.

Jace was going to bed, and so Karina got a good night hug from him.  You can see Gabriel in the background giving Eliana a hug.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A new addition to our family!

We use this blog to chronicle the events in our family, and especially to note our kid's milestones, big and small.  And, we have a HUGE event coming up in our family...we are adding another kid!  Back in February, we made the decision to start the process of adopting a child from China.  In May, we got a call...and...found out about our new son!  Here is the first picture we ever got of him...

Xiao Yu (晓雨) was born on January 28, 2013, making him just 7.5 months younger than Gabriel.  We were immediately drawn to his chubby, red little cheeks, and got comment after comment about how cute he is, and how much he looks like Gabriel!  He was 11 months old in the first picture, and all bundled up as it was winter then.

After agreeing to be matched with him, and starting all the necessary processes to bring him home, we were able to get some updates about his health, and size, and some new pictures!  In the photo above, he is about 16 months old, and apparently had gotten a buzz cut.  =)  He lives in a foster home, and seems to be growing and doing very well.  We have finally gotten our official approval to bring him home, and it looks like we will be traveling in January (brrr....).  He will most likely turn 2 while we are there! We are taking Eliana, Karina, and Gabriel with us, and it will be quite the adventure!  Here is the most recent picture we have of our little boy (at 18 months) -- who we are naming Christopher Xiao-Yu.  Xiao-Yu is his Chinese name that was given at the orphanage, and what he has been called for the first two years of his life.  We are naming him Christopher, but will most likely continue calling him Xiao-Yu (and will keep Xiao-Yu as his middle name), as that is what our kids "know" him as, and what he knows his name to be.

Now that we have our official Letter of Approval, we are getting ready to travel in about 10 weeks.  There are lots of forms and documents to prepare before we get final clearance to go and bring him home.  We are really hoping this will all happen smoothly, so that we can go before Chinese New Year, which is in mid-February this year.  As I said, we are ALL going.   We are even bringing an "extra" -- our niece, Erica.  She is in her late twenties, and is going to serve as our extra hands and feet!  We aren't sure how we are going to keep track of 4 children 6 and under, plus who knows how many suitcases and backpacks, in bitter cold weather!!

 It is a 2.5 - 3 week trip, which will have us in 3 different cities.  After the 14 hour flight (ugh!) we will start in Beijing for a few days of sightseeing, and trying to get everyone over jet lag.  We have plans to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and maybe some Olympic stuff.  It all may depend on the weather, though.  From there, we will head to Zhengzhou, which is the city where Christopher lives.  This city is in north central China, in the province of Henan.  We will be given custody of him the first day, and then have 24 hours to "decide" if will adopt him.  We return the next day to sign his paperwork, and he will be ours!  (This is very exciting for us...but will be very very scary for a 24 month old, who doesn't know us, and won't understand why his foster family has given him away.)  We need to stay in Zhengzhou for 5 days, to process his passport application, and pick it up.  We then travel to Guangzhou, which is in southern China, quite close to Hong Kong, to do the US Consulate part of his paperwork.  We will need to spend about 5 days there, getting Xiao Yu's medical exam done at the Consulate, applying for his visa to enter the US, and waiting for that to be issued.  After that, we finally return home...via another 14 hour airplane trip, with 4 tired and overwhelmed littles along!

While we are very excited to have Xiao Yu home, and really looking forward to getting the process going of having him adjust to our family, and helping him and Gabriel navigate the new water of virtual pseudo-twinness, there is a lot to do to get ready to go!  Last week, our kids all got their typhoid shots, which was an amazing experience to see just how loud they can scream in panic and terror.  Karina kept saying, through her hysterical tears, "I don' t want to go to China, I don't want to go to China".  As soon as it was over (within 10 seconds) she was fully recovered.  Phew!

We will keep posting updates as we receive them about how Christopher is doing, and also how the trip planning is coming, and for sure as we travel through China!

Delicious recipe...

As you know, Gabey likes to take whatever is available at the dinner table and mix everything together.  We now kind of let him do that, because, eventually, after he is done mixing everything together, he will eat it, no matter what.

So here's a recipe that he created tonight...feel free to try it yourself:
-Take some apple juice in a cup
-Mix in some milk
-Add corn
-Add a bunch of parmesan cheese
-Add pasta
-Throw in some meatballs

Mix thoroughly enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

We started our Halloween festivities with our annual visit to Bi-Zi Farms.  This a local farm that sets up a huge number of activities every fall.  We always go with Emily's sister and brother, and their kids.  This means that the girls have their cousins along, which makes for a VERY fun trip!  This is a local farm that puts on a HUGE pumpkin patch each year.  They have a corn maze, tractor pulled wagons to go out to the fields and lots of kid activities.  Here is Karina climbing the hay bale pyramid.  It even has tunnels and passageways through the middle!

They have this huge pit, filled with corn kernels, a bit like a sand box.  This is a big draw with the kids, and we returned to it many times during the afternoon.   Gabriel is a bit wary of new textures and feels, and doesn't like to walk on sand and such.  Initially he wanted nothing to do with this corn pit, but by the end, he was in there with the rest of the kids!

The farm also has a barnyard animal display.  They have quite a variety of animals out: pigs, turkeys, calves, a donkey, chickens, rabbits and the list goes on!  Here Karina and Gabriel are checking out a few pigs.

And now a turkey...  He didn't look very happy.  Maybe he realizes that Thanksgiving was just a few weeks away.

They also have ride on tractor tricycles in the barnyard.  There is a lot of competition to get on one, so they watched each other carefully to get a vacant tractor.

There is an apple cider press, which Gabriel was fascinated by.   They would take bucketfuls of  these green apples, crush them, and put them through a press.  Gabriel wanted to eat one.

Gabriel liked watching the machine.

And he got seconds, and thirds...

There is also a pumpkin launch area, where you get two little pumpkins, and you can launch them with these huge bungee cord things, and try to get one in a barrel at the far end of the field.

It takes a LOT of strength to pull back the cords.  Here Eliana is getting a hand from Millie.

And...Go!

Karina got some help from Mommy...

Gabriel got put in the bin with the little pumpkins, but was not a fan of that...

After all that playing, we headed out to the pumpkin fields.  You can traipse around looking for just the right pumpkin, then you pick it, and haul it back to the wagon.  Here Eliana is trying to decide which one to take.

Look at all those pumpkins!

Gabriel tried very hard to find the smallest pumpkin in the field.  He was quite pleased with his tiny selected pumpkin.  He wanted to carry it himself.

A week later, it was time for the school carnival.  Karina decided to wear our cat costume - very fancy cat!

Soon it was time to think about carving our jack-o-lanterns.  Karina really liked posing with our pumpkin collection on the front porch.  

The first night, we just got the pumpkins prepared, cutting off the tops, and scooping out the insides.  

Even Gabriel got a knife/saw!  Not sure how safe this is...

He did like picking the insides out, and dropping them into the bag.  

Karina tried using the scoop, but for the most part, left this to Elvin to handle.  She refused to touch the gooey insides and had Elvin clean out both of her pumpkins.  (She had one from our trip to the farm, and she got another one because her preschool class also goes to the pumpkin patch.)

Eliana is able to do more and more things herself this year!  It was quite hard to pull up the lid for the first time because of all the stringy seeds.

She even pulled out the insides!

That's a lot of pumpkins to process!

The next day we chose our designs, and marked them on the pumpkins.  Our kids have learned about picking designs on the internet, and have no interest in drawing their own jack-o-lantern faces.  Here Eliana is making the holes to show where the design should be cut.

Gabriel was very interested in all the knives and saws, an needed a bit of help staying occupied.

Karina first pumpkin.  She chose a Hello Kitty witch.

Gabriel had a little tiny cat face.

Eliana was even able to do part of the cutting out of her pumpkin design this year!  She did a Hello Kitty as well.

Gabriel just enjoyed stabbing the little saws into the pumpkins.

Here is Karina's other Hello Kitty pumpkin, with Elvin hard at work carving it.

The finished products!

Halloween night we trick or treated at just a few neighbors houses before heading to a friend's house to trick or treat altogether.  Eliana was a Greek goddess, Karina was a purple ballerina, and Gabriel refused to wear a costume, just as we expected.  He was just himself.

Off they go to get some candy!!

Our next door neighbors are like surrogate grandparents to our kids, and oohed and ahhed over their costumes as they gave them some candy.

All our pumpkins guarding our house as we left for the evening!

The night turned cold and very rainy. It was actually pretty miserable trick or treating, but the kids were troopers.  It was the wetting trick-or-treating experience for us since moving here.  Gabriel insisted upon being held every single second of the night.

Out in the pouring rain!  You can't really see anyone's costumes, as all the kids were bundled up agains the cold and rain.

Back "home" after an hour or so.  Those are some very wet kids!  You can see how Gabriel felt about being put down for the picture.

Back in the house, the kids settled down to play for awhile.  Karina discovered some Lego toys, and was fascinated with them for a long time.  Perhaps an idea for Christmas?

Happy Halloween!!