Happy 2013!

Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone, as has New Year's Day.  Isaac is growing so much – smiling and cooing at us now.  Lily has officially been with us for over three years - we celebrated her third Gotcha Day on January 10th.  Where does time go?  Mei Li, well, she’s a sweetheart – and showing us more and more of that side of herself.  “Ugga so much” just melts my heart.  (It’s Mei Li’s way of saying, “I love you so much.”  Aww…)

So, 2013 has begun...and yet this blog is mostly a catch-up of photos and events from the end of 2012.  Here are some of the highlights.

First family-of-five photo

 Lookin' a lot like Daddy

 1 month

 

 2 months

 All the kids

 

 

 3 months

 

And some words from Andrew...

 

I write this to remind myself of a time which I know will soon be gone.  The days of my son’s first months will find me turning back to remember his eyes bright with the unknown thoughts that lay behind them.  The smell of his infant hair and skin, his breath, after eating, crying or after waking up-- perfect.

Perfect.

I want to remember the look of baby horror in his face as I held him to stop the crying, or the wonder in tracing the lights as I moved him around the room.  The smile that came easily as we showed him how, or naturally when I played my games to amuse him—and ended up more amused myself, startling him with my unbidden laughter that took that same smile right off his face. How sometimes I so eager to hold him up to me; to see what he would teach me to feel.

They baby son I never expected—and more so the joy.

 Happy 2013 everyone!

 

Mostly October

I’m sleep deprived, so I am going to load pictures and type captions and let you enjoy.

 Lily & Mei Li have enjoyed riding their bikes and trikes when the weather is good.

Mei Li is ready to go!

 Sadly, I didn't get all the hostesses in a photo, but some very sweet friends and family gave a very nice shower for little Isaac.

 Lily and Nana enjoying the food - yummy!

 And the best part - the really, really great punch (which involved chocolate ice cream and coffee somehow)

 Isaac made his world debut on October 4 at 3:22 pm.  He didn't make his decision to come out lightly and we went from a planned home birth to a C-section since he was being quite stubborn about the whole entering-the-world thing.

 Isaac James Pace

 Isaac and Daddy

 Mei Li and her little brother

Nana, Mei Li and Isaac

 

 Grandpa and the Pace grandkids

 Lily and Isaac

 Grandma and Isaac

 Just relaxing

 It's been a good day!

This would be a great family photo if Lily had been in it.  Just imagine one more smiling face and here's our newly expanded family!

August - the End of Summer

Summer is over.  Andrew is back to work.  Our new house is getting more and more finished.  Time is flying by.

Mei Li turned three on August 3^rd.  She had fun opening her gifts and being the center of attention for a little while.  Her birthday food request was peaches and apples.  So we had peach shortcake for dessert.  It was pretty yummy!  The girls both got Build-a-Bear gift cards for their birthdays.  They had fun picking out outfits for Pinkie Tolee and Brown Bear.

My mother, sister, and sister-in-law gave a shower for Baby Boy Pace.  It was a book shower and was lots of fun.  Good food and good friends.

 

My birthday was August 20.   Technically, we celebrated in September (just a tad late), but I’ve included the pics in August’s blog. 

Six Months Worth

Good gracious!  I haven’t posted a new blog update in about six months.  Well, here’s a recap of the past half year.

February:

I don’t quite remember what we did for Valentine’s Day, but here’s a cute picture of the girls.

 

Dorothy turned 70, so we had a fancy tea party birthday celebration for her.  Rebecca did quite a nice job with the decorations and delicacies. 

March:

Mei Li got the flu over Spring Break.  That canceled our plans for a trip to Waco to meet new baby Lanie and visit with the rest of the Balches.  Thankfully, though, no one else in the family got sick.  That was a HUGE blessing!  Mei Li and Lily got to lie around for several days watching DVDs.  Well, what else are you going to do with a sick toddler?  Lily just reaped the DVD benefits without actually being sick.

We went strawberry picking at Frobergs with some friends and family.  Mmmm…freshly picked strawberries. 

April:

Mei Li dyed and hunted her first Easter eggs this year.  (Well, I’m just assuming she didn’t do those things in China.  I think it’s a safe assumption…)

David and Emily came to town for an Easter visit.  We got to meet Lanie and see Joshua and Ellie again.

May:

Allison came over one morning and the girls all played in the pool.  It was a bit chilly, but they had fun.

June:

We bought a new house!  It needed a LOT of work.  Not as much as our first house (not by a LONG shot); but, well, you can see what color the living room started as.  That’s just a sample…

The Waco Balches came for another visit.  It’s always a lot of fun to visit with them when we are in the same city!

July:

Lily turned four!  I can’t believe she’s so big!  Here she is at the family birthday dinner we had.  Homemade pizza and strawberry shortcake.  Mmm…

And here is the reason we needed a new house with an extra room.  He should arrive in October, hopefully not looking so much like a Halloween skeleton.