Our Generous Big Sister

I had to post these pictures of my sweet big sister with her boys. I know that I keep reiterating how much Laney loves her brothers and how wonderfully sweet she is to them, but I am just so grateful for it that I can't stop! She loves to read books to them, lay on their playmat with them, bring them toys and passies, sit in the Bumbo next to them, hold their hands in their carseats, the list goes on and on.
Laney is a very sweet very generous big sister. Unfortunately this translated into something sad and a little scary for our family this week. Last week Laney had a pretty nasty cold. She got a fever and had disgusting drainage like crazy. We tried hard to keep her away from her brothers. She wasn't allowed to touch them or get too close to them, but this was crazy hard for her and she still snuck in some kisses and snuggles. She literally can not go to sleep for her nap or bedtime without giving them kisses. We compromised with kisses on their feet until she was all better.
Turns out Laney's generosity got the best of us.....she gave the boys her nasty cold. They both got low grade fevers and started coughing. They didn't get really congested and still had their appetites in full, so the doctor said not to bring them in. But on Thursday night, they were both wheezing so much, we decided we had to bring them in! They checked them out, ran some tests, and our poor baby boys have RSV! So Sad!!! I was pretty scared when they told us that as we have heard nothing but horror stories since they were born about the dangers of RSV to preemies. Then the nurse practitioner said that Miles's breathing was too fast and we might need to go to the hospital! YIKES! She did a second breathing treatment on him and then monitored him again and decided that he was okay. Praise the Lord. So we were sent home with steroids and a nebulizer. We have to give them breathing treatments, which they LOVE, every four hours. Breathing treatments which, might I add, cost $270 for just the medication!!!!! Wowie Kazowie!!
They still seem to feel pretty good. They are eating great, not fussy, sleeping well, and still don't have a lot of drainage. I don't know if we still have all that to look forward to or if maybe, just maybe, we got a mild case of the dreaded RSV.
Here are some cutie pie pictures of our little contaminator with her victims. Hard to believe she could have caused all this!!! Look at all that love!

Saying something sweet to Miles and making him smile!
Can you tell where I was standing. Laney knows to look at Daddy with the camera, but they boys couldn't take their eyes off of me!!! Love them!

Boy Babies!!!!

We went over to our friend, Kristin's, house for playgroup last week. She has a little boy named Cole who is just eight days older than Miles and Sam. Little Cooper was there too! He is just one month older than them. So fun to have all our little boys together. And great to get some time with other mommies who are right there with me!
The boys were wearing coordinating little outfits that Cole had one of too. So, Kristin changed him into it for some matchy matchy pictures! We gotta get one for Cooper!

Jedi Knights!

I think that they boys look like jedi knights whenever they wear little hoodies. Jessica was overwhelmed by their cuteness when she and Tessa came over the other day. She had to break out my camera and start snapping some pictures. See, Sam is even practicing some of his Jedi moves!Miles too. I don't actually know what these little fists are about. Silly boys!

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo!!! Miles is sticking that tongue out at us!

He's just kidding. There's that sweet face!Little brother Sam was looking pretty sweet too!

All that posing made Miles and Sam so sleepy!

Room For Everyone!

Melissa and her cute boys came over last week for dinner and some playing. As always we had tons of fun. I can't believe how big Baby Gabey is now. It feels like yesterday that we were welcoming that sweet boy to the world, and now he is one year old!!! Such a reminder of how quickly this time is going to fly by with our boys. I don't want to wish away one single moment. Even if there are middle of the night feedings and demands to be held all day every day. These are the only moments with Miles and Sam as tiny babies that I will ever have. I want to treasure every single one of them. In no time, I am going to have boys as grown up and as precious as Melissa does. I can hardly wrap my mind around that!

Laney and Josh took turns giving each other rides on her plasma car. They both definitely liked being in the driver's seat the best, but Joshua was sweet to let Laney tote him around.

Look! Room for all three kiddos at once. Plasma Car.....Clown Car....whichever!

Happy Chinese New Year and Gotcha Day Party!!

We had a party this weekend with our families celebrating Chinese New Year and Laney's Gotcha Day. The two days fell only a week apart this year, so it made perfect sense to combine them! We had so much fun carrying on traditions from the last two years and starting some new ones.

Pops and Nae Nae drove all the way in for our party and started loving on the boys as soon as they arrived!Aunt Jenn traveled the farthest to see us, and we were so happy to get to see her!

Kisses for Aunt Hailey!

One of the biggest parts of the Chinese New Year Celebration is the "Reunion Dinner" in which you are supposed to get together with close family and enjoy a huge feast together. Getting together with our family is one of my absolute favorite things in the whole wide world, so I love that we get to have this party each year and our sweet families are happy to accomodate us. Here are some of our party goers!

And the kids' table!

I have tried to learning some authentic dishes for this meal in the past several years. I still have a ways to go!!!

This was my third attempt to make Chinese Tea Eggs. I can not get this recipe right. They smell exactly like they did in Taiwan, which made me feel like my kitchen was a Taiwanese 7-11 (can't go in a 7 -11 in Taiwan without being exposed to some tea eggs) But, mine don't absorb the taste. I am going to try to simmer them for an insanely long time next time.
I made sweet and sour chicken this year too. I am not actually sure how authentic this dish is, since I have never actually had it on any of my trips to Taiwan. But, my "authentic" dumplings from scratch were not well received last year, so I thought I should offer something a little less intimidating!
Gotta have some vegetable fried rice.
And Lez made us this yummy orzo Asian salad. It was my favorite, and I am not just saying that because I love her! We also had dumplings (not from scratch this year) but they fell apart and looked so gross, so they don't get to be pictured!

We had Laney's little table set up with everything that the kids needed to make lucky dragon masks. They were so sweet and excited to do it.
Grant led the way on a dragon parade around the house.

Laney was wielding her dragon less like a mask and more like a weapon.....watch out!

After the dragon parade, it was time to pass out red envelopes. I totally forgot to get brand new dollar bills which is what I was supposed to do. I didn't even have the right number of one dollar bills, but Pops and Nae Nae came to my rescue and even helped me fill up Grant, Claire and Tessie's envelopes. They're so great!

Two dollars!!!! According to Chinese custom, happiness comes in twos, so you should give money in multiples of twos. Laney was definitely happy with her two.

Our next New Year's custom and tradition involves a bowl of oranges or tangerines. The oranges are supposed to represent long life and good health.

Jessica brought our oranges this year and rather than eating them, we used them to fulfill another custom. You are suppposed to write a wish for the coming year on a strip of paper, pin it onto an orange, and throw the orange in a tree. We did this same thing last year, and I am pretty sure that the majority of the people at our party wrote down the same thing that I did.....that we would be blessed with a child in 2008! So, obviously these orange wishes are nothing to scoff at! Ours were answered times two!!!!

Caitlin and her wish!

Laney grabbed her orange and started playing with Nae Nae.

She was throwing it as high above her head as she could and laughing hysterically. At this point, the orange fell right down on top of her head. She just laughed harder.

Kevin and Laney started playing catch with her orange. It really turned into the ultimate toy!
Shooting off fireworks is a traditional Chinese New Year activity. We modified with a slightly more legal approach and the kids shot poppers full of confetti in the living room. Grant loved it and wrote on his "orange wish" that he wished his popper would work again. After hearing that wish, I couldn't help but give him one of the remaining poppers to shoot again

We watched the video that Todd made of the time that we were in Taiwan. Our sweet family has seen this video lots and lots, but they were all still excited and even tearful to watch it yet again.

We got Laney a charm for the bracelet that we got her last year on Gotcha Day. Last year's charm was the same double heart charm that we gave her birth mom two years ago. This year's charm is a heart that says "Big Sister!"

Hailey made Laney this cute Gotcha Day Cake, so we got to finish off our celebrsting with yummy pink cake! Perfect!!