Back at it.....

- juddy (right) and his new brother george with

riley

-Kieran in snow

-our new cabin by Kimball!

kellan's first haircut from aunt heidi!

all the DuBois boys wearing the Petersen Jerseys we brought back from China

The DuBois grandkids Hutton, Junior, Aliana, Baby Ben, Johnny, Kieran, Kellan

The Plahn Grandkids: Jaren, Hunter, Maddie, Kaylee, Damon, Kiana, Treyson, Kellan, Kieran

Kieran and Kellan were all smiles as we got ready to head home to Minnesota for the holidays!

After two wonderful weeks at home in Minnesota with friends and family, we are back at it here in China. We struggled through jetlag and sickness all week and have made it to the weekend. Two more weeks and we get another holiday break, Chinese New Year, which we get a week off for! Yeah we can't wait!

Christmas was great-it was too quick (and cold) and we didn't get to see as many people as we would have liked, but we got to spend some quality time with many friends and family. You forget how cold Minnesota can be until you are away and go back to it! i am not going to complain about our high 30 days that we think are cold!

The kids were incredible on the planeride to the states and home to China. We are so fortunate to have been allowed to have an extra seat for Kellan on both 12 hour flights to/from chicago to/from Beijing. Kellan doesn;t have to pay for a seat until he turns two (in march) so he is supposed to sit on our lap....luckily both almost completely full flights we were on there were people nice enough to move to allow us to have an extra seat. Boy did that save us! I honestly don't know how the boys keep entertained-but they were incredibly good for not sleeping much. All the moving and entertaining doesn't allow for much sleep for Riley and me, but that is the way it goes. I have been sleeping like a rock since being home but Riley is still up and ready to go about 3 or 4 every morning.

It was nice to come home and see that Santa had visited us in China. Lots to do unpacking 7 suitcases and 3 carryons. The new presents kept the kids occupied as Riley and i unpacked all our goods. Yes i did manage to calculate how many diapers Kellan would need until we go home for the summer so we brought nearly 700 diapers with us back here. That along with vitamins, baby bath and lotion, socks, soap, and lots of other hygiene products. But we are pretty well stocked ---AND we have a friend coming to visit over Spring Break and she said she would gladly bring over things we needed. I wonder how many mountain dews she can fit and stay under the 50 pound limit? i did stock up with mountain dews in my carry-on's once we had cleared security in the minneapolis airport! i stuffed 7 into our very full carry-ons. thought i would maybe try to ration them to make them last, but i was back to my one pop a day so i have one left i think! i wonder how long that will last?

Anyway-we had our car getting a tune-up this week so riley and i were back to biking to work for a day. Very cold but still enjoyable. i hadn't been through the village in quite some time so it was fun (if that is what you call it) to ride through there again on the way to school. Glad to have our car back now with the cold weather. Pretty spoiled!

Kids have been great all week. Many kids traveled far away for the holidays and some were still gone all week. Everyone was dealing with jetlag so it was a pretty long week. we had another grade 8 fieldtrip which allowed me to dodge doing lesson plans for at least a day. We went to the Beijing Planetarium. It is right by this place called the Zoo Market where you can go to get wholesale prices on EVERYTHING! It is so unbelievably crazy on the streets around there. EVERYONE has dollies with them and garbage bags stacked and tied together on their dollies...i guess this is where some of the markets we go to get their items. it may be worth a trip sometime just to see everything!

We had a doctor's appointment on wednesday....the 21 week ultrasound where you can find out the sex of your baby if you want. It was a pretty big deal, but riley and i literally decided on the way to the doctor that we would ask them to write down boy or girl and then put it in an envelope and have kieran open the envelope when we got home and video tape it....well in China i "guess" it is illegal to find out the sex of the baby (for abortion/one child policy reasons) so when we tried to tell the ultrasound tech what we wanted, she said she could not write it down. If we wanted to know all she could do was tell us. Didn't understand why, but on the spot we decided NOT to find out. The two boys were a surprise so this one will be as well! All is well and once again my doctor told me to watch what i eat b/c the babies i have delivered have been so big and the third is ALWAYS the biggest! Bla Bla Bla.....i went home and had a milky way candybar and a 20 ounce mountain dew in honor of my doctor! Cheers!

Ok enough babbling....i will try to find a few pictures to attach since i always find those easier to glance at when there is time rather than read the blog.

We haven't updated much lately, but will try to do a better job of sharing our experiences with you all!

We hope you are all having a wonderful new year!

LOVE

The Dubois Family