Good Bye 2011

This time last year, I thought I would share some of my favorite photos that highlighted 2010. Ha. That post never happened. Not this year, though. I wanted to take a moment to share some of our favorite memories. Now, these photos aren't necessarily my finest. However, they define the wonderful year we had. Here we go.


We take Caleb to Disney on his birthday every year. Why? We love this boy dearly....and NO LINES! It doesn't get any better than that with the Big Mouse or Buzz Lightyear.

Baseball. There was a lot of it. I mean A LOT. Two seasons and three different teams. Caleb moved up from tee ball to coach pitch, and Madeline gave tee ball a good go.

In March, our Bei Bei celebrated her first birthday with us and her third on this earth. She has grown so much since coming home in July 2010. She's no longer that scared little toddler. She's smart, fiesty, vocal, all-things-girlie, and a whole lotta fun.

In the spring, I helped Patrick out by taking some headshots for his business. And the kids, in turn, helped me out by posing at home while I figured out my settings for my studio lights (since it had been a long time since I used them.) I love this photo because Madeline finally started coming around with Caleb. Up until this time, she tolerated him (despite his big brother best efforts). Now, she started reciprocating that love and affection.

Our summer was super busy. Madeline had swim lessons 5 days a week for 7 weeks. The end result? A little fish who can swim-float-swim. Ms. Carmen was/is an awesome intructor and loads of fun.

We were also blessed by the birth of our precious nephew, Joshua. Gosh, how his cousins adore him! We have lots of eager hands that wait their turn to hold this precious boy.

At the end of the summer, we managed a little family vacation and China reunion. We had such a lovely time soaking in the natural hot springs in Virigina.

And it was so amazing to be reunited with our China travel group. Four out of five families made it. So so nice.

October proved to be a very busy month for us. We had the chance to travel north and celebrate our niece, Lydia's 5th birthday while also fitting in a day trip to NYC and the Statue of Liberty.

Madeline and I also had the chance to walk in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for my sister's friend, Gina. We were so privledged to be a part of Team Gina.

The kids and I had so much fun taking our Christmas card photos this year. This one is definitely my favorite.

Christmas time is always special, celebrating the birth of our Savior with family. Doesn't get much better.

This past year we experienced tremendous growth in our homeschooling philosophy, thanks to Susan Wise Bauer and Charlotte Mason. Choosing to homeschool our children has been one of the greatest decisions we have ever made.

The ever elusive Family of 4 photo was finally captured. Finally. I think we had been a family of 4 for 9 months when we finally snapped that photo. Now, hopefully it doesn't take that long to get our family of 5 photo when the time comes.

Now I don't have a photo to go along with this next highlight of 2011. However, I wanted to share that this year, on Sept. 11th, Caleb accepted Jesus into his heart. Patrick is his children's church teacher and led Caleb and a few friends to accept Jesus as their Savior. We are so proud of our boy for accepting the greatest gift ever from the greatest Gift Giver! The angels in heaven are rejoicing.

So, there you have it, 2011. Farewell. You've been a wonderful year. We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!