The Christmas Photo

Like a lot of families, we try to take a family photo every Christmas. And like a lot of families, it takes a million shots to finally get a good one. And when you're trying to get 6 smiles simulateously, the chance for error goes up significantly. Here's a few of our "failures". We had a great time in the process, though...

Hangin' with the siblings

Friday night it definitely felt like we had 4 kids. Mary Grace hurt her ankle at school, and it was quite swollen, so Shannon took her to the hospital to get an x-ray. Our good friends Mo and Tona were spending their last night in HK and we wanted them to see the church office. So I, Brett, took them to the office on a double-decker bus, along with Zane, It was youth group night, so I dropped off Abby and Abby's best friend, Erica, at the church as well. Meanwhile, Hudson was at his school fair to working the booktable.

Gracie has a very bad sprain, and the doctor offered Shannon two metal crutches for 3 days. The crutches were bigger than Gracie. Shannon declined, saying, "I have a 10 year old hyper-active boy, a 4 year old with a bleeding disorder, and I don't think we really want large, metal, sword-like objects in our home". He smiled, and Shannon carried Gracie out of the hospital, with a really good ace bandage. She is on 3 days of piggy-back rides and loving it.

The upshot (among many) of having 4 kids is that they help each other. Gracie has her two older siblings trained quite well in how and when to carry her, and thus maintain her "princess status".

Batman goes to Disney

Our friends, the Ottingers, had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go to Disney Hong Kong, so how could we say "no"? We took Zane on a Thursday, while the other 3 kids were in school. The best thing about the day was when we got home, and Abby, Hudson, and MaryGrace were all
so excited to hear about Zane's day. No jealousy, no bitterness, just genuine pleasure over seeing their new brother so happy. We're blessed with 4 really great kiddos.











He kept asking, "Can I go on another ride?" He was amazed that there was more and more and more. Favorite ride of the day was the "tea cups", though he thoroughly enjoyed every morsel of the day.

Long time, no blog

Here is a great friend of ours from Memphis, Tona Ottinger, who just adopted a chinese girl from Hong Kong TODAY. We just met them for ice cream and to meet their little 3 year old girl, Mallie. Congrats Mo and Tona!




Zane was given this Batman costume by a good friend. He takes it off for baths, but that's about it.





Here are our friends, Mark (Mo) and Tona Ottinger at a coffee shop on the Peak. We really just wanted a pic of them, but Zane has become quite used to being in all photos, and insisted on snuggling in with them.




Dad (or BaBa, as he calls me) and Zane at the Peak.