Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the rat, and I hope it brings good fortune to all our family and friends. We already feel like we've won the lottery having Alyssa. She's been doing great and is the best baby ever.


Here's a couple of pictures we took while out to dinner one night.








I've started a new blog, where I plan on posting a new picture every day for a full year. I've had a few friends who did this and thought it would be good motivation to get out the camera more often. Also, Alyssa makes a great subject for these photos and I should probably take more pictures of her. This next picture is one I took as the first picture in this effort.





My last new picture is one we took at a Chinese New Year celebration hosted by the Chinese American Association of Tulsa. Alyssa is wearing one of the dresses we bought her in china.

Big Weekend

On Saturday we went to see Donkey Basketball in Wagoner, OK. How often do you get a chance to see Donkey Basketball??? We arrived early, since Shawn was helping them raise money by selling T-shirts. Alyssa got to walk all over the basketball court in her squeeky shoes before the crowd arrived. Here's a few pics of the Donkey Basketball.








Before the night was over, Alyssa went to sleep on us.








On Sunday, we decided to take Alyssa to the zoo because the weather was unseasonably nice for January. The Tulsa Zoo was voted "America's Favorite Zoo", and we have a zoo membership for free admission. Here's a picture of Alyssa and me just monkeying around.





We also stopped for a few minutes in the playground to let Alyssa out of the stroller and see how she liked some of the playground equipment. Here she is, standing up, on the giant teeter totter.





Here's a couple of pictures I snapped of the animals.








Before we got through the rain forrest exhibit, Alyssa went to sleep on us. We're not sure if it was the warm, humid climate inside, or that it was naptime.

An Overdue Update

It's been a while since my last post. We've been keeping pretty busy lately. My recliner, that Shawn bought before I even met her, is old and has a sharp wood corner that seemed to always poke me in the leg when I sat down. I finally got tired of it, and we went shopping for a new one.



While we were shopping, we also were looking for a rocking chair of glider to put in the nursery for rocking Alyssa to sleep when she wakes in the middle of the night. Up untill now we never found any that we both liked. When we decided on the recliner, we asked the salesman if he had any rocking chairs and he showed us a few that they had, but again we didn't really like any of them. When we went to pay for the recliner, there was a wooden rocking chair directly in front of the cashier and we looked it over and decided that we wanted it too.



I also have a couple of pictures of Alyssa to post. This first picture is one we took at home with Shawn's new digital camera of Alyssa playing with one of her books.



The last picture is one we took on the way home from Edmond. Our van has a DVD player with wireless headphones and Shawn sometimes sits in the back next to Alyssa and watches a DVD while I chauffeur them around. In this picture, Alyssa is sitting in her car seat with a set of the headphones on. The first time Shawn tried them on Alyssa, we both said we've got to get a picture of her like this.

Christmas Pics From Edmond

All of the following pictures were taken the weekend before Christmas at my parent's home in Edmond. Here's a pic of me and Alyssa playing.





Here's a picture of Alyssa getting a bath in the sink. Shawn likes to give her a mohawk when she washes her hair.





Here's a picture of Alyssa being her happy self. (probably because we're in the middle of opening Christmas gifts)





Alyssa had about as much fun playing with the bows and the gift bags as she did with all of her new toys. Here's a picture of her with a bow.





And, here's a picture of her playing with a gift bag.





And, one more picture playing with a bow.





My last picture is Alyssa in her Christmas dress with her grandma.

Ice Storm

For that last several days, we've been without electricity due to an ice storm. I've been trying to update the blog with several pictures that I've accumulated over the past week or two. Despite the power outage, staying in a hotel and all, this post should have me up-to-date.

I took a number of pictures in our neighborhood and thought I'd include a link to them here.

Ice Storm Pics

Vickie's Pictures

The Following pictures were all taken by Shawn's sister Vickie. The first pic was snapped before we went to a Christmas Dinner for Shawn's work. This was her first time to wear her Christmas dress.





The next two pictures were taken at a Christmas parade held in Wagoner, OK. It was pretty cold that night, but we had Alyssa bundled in a pink snow suit that she got for her first birthday. Here's a picture of all three of us.





And here's a picture of just Alyssa.

More Pictures

Here's a picture we took during our Thanksgiving visit to my parents house. My dad gave her a bottle and she fell asleep. My dad fell asleep too, and we snapped this pic.





In this picture, Alyssa is waering a santa hat at a party with some of Shawn's co-workers.





This picture is Alyssa wearing the Christmas dress we bought her before going to a Christmas party.