Haircut

It's been almost a month now, but Miss Lainey got her first real haircut at the end of January. She's had it trimmed with clippers before we met her, but this was the first time for her to have a real style.

In our house we aren't usually fancy with haircuts. I get mine cut maybe once a year, BJ shaves his head, and I take care of the boys. But for our girl, and for her FIRST haircut, so we did this thing all proper and took her to a salon. :)

I have to admit, I was nervous about this. The girl does not like strangers (this is a good thing). Or, more importantly, she doesn't like being touched by strangers. (seriously, who does??) We learned this to be an absolute fact over Christmas.

But sweet Miss Reagan was so awesome that Lainey was relaxed, happy, and did SO good! I could not have been more proud of her!

I don't have many pics of the actual haircut, since Lainey was on my lap, but here's after!

Mom, are you STILL taking pictures of me?

Lainey and Her Books

Chinese New Year!

Tonight we celebrated Chinese New Year! It's the year of the goat (or sheep / ram)!

This is all new to us, and it's been so fun to learn together and create some new family traditions. I am not all that skilled in Chinese cuisine, so we ordered from the experts! We also made some Chinese cookies (aka red sugar cookies... I tried), made paper dragons, lit firecrackers (Daddy did while we watched from the warm indoors!), listened to Chinese tunes, gave the kids money in little red envelopes, tried our best at chopsticks, and dressed in the traditional Chinese outfits we bought at the market in Guangzhou.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Gongxi! (恭喜)

Just for fun... our Chinese animals by birth year...
BJ - the Rooster
Jessie - the Monkey
Canaan - the Ox
Ezra - the Rabbit (our ox and rabbit should totally be reversed)
Lainey (the coolest of all) - the Dragon

We are a diverse bunch! :)

Our Normal

At this moment Canaan (age 5) is running around with little man pretending to fly to China. He arrived (flying to the playroom) in China and announced to Ezra, "Ezra! It's my China Mom!" :)

I love how much of their play involves China, speaking Chinese, and all things adoption (last night the boys were to pretending to fly to China and meet Lainey 'for the first time'. They had her wait in her pop-up princess castle until they arrived. At which point they just kept saying how cute she was, handing her toys, telling her not to cry, and welcoming her to our family. :)

My sweet boys!  :)

Happy Birthday Baby!

Last year when Lainey turned 1 she was still in the CWI (orphanage), and we were still waiting to be matched with her.  How amazing the difference a year can make!

It is truly a miracle that our lives should cross with hers, and now here she is - as naturally a part of our family as the boys before her.

Because of her size (90th percentile in height) and spunk, it feels like she's been two for a while! But now she can officially own the title of a 2-year old!

The Season of...

The Christmas season this year was for us full of so much joy, blessings, hugs, laughter, and sweet moments. And yes, a little chaos mixed in, and a few too-late nights which led to tired little bodies. But we wouldn't change any bit. Our blessings have been multiplied this year, and we're so thankful for the gifts God gives. 

His peace. His hope. His joy. His grace. 

And the family he has created for us, including three precious babies (two who would declare adamantly that they are big boys, but it is not. so.).

Christmas kolaches :)

Notice - Ezra with Lainey's dollhouse and Lainey with Ezra's Woody toy. :)

Merry Merry

This was that fastest photoshoot I've ever done (about 4 steps from our garage door)! These littles are so tollerant of the cold I had to bribe them to come back inside. About 30 minutes, after more hot chocolate inside, they were all bundled up and back out in the snow having a blast. Love my little cuties!

Merry Christmas from the Murphy's!!