Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Marissa just rolled over twice!  I think she still has a bit to truly figure it out. I think her heavy head tipped and caused a bit of luck.  We are still excited and proud of her!

Marissa is 3 months...

Kay is officially 3 months.  At three months old Marissa weighed 10 lbs, 14.5 oz.  She is continuing to stay at around the 15% mark in weight.  Marissa no longer needs to be swaddled and she is beginning to roll on her side.  She is getting much better at tummy time and is enjoying that she can look around easier.  She is giving lots of smiles and watches everything.  She will sleep for about 5-6 hour stretches at night (on good nights).  We are working on the bottle.  She has a major case of refusal going on.  She will hysterically scream and NOT take the bottle.  It seems like we have tried everything.  I am hopeful she will give in and eat it soon.  It is making me stressed/worried because I cannot leave her.  

Marissa and her sister are really starting to be buds.  Kay will lay on the floor with Marissa to talk and giggle with her.  The other day I walked in to Kay laying across from Marissa and facing her.  She was saying "sister you are my best friend."  I stood back and just watched because it was so sweet.

My assistant...

SNOW!

Kay (and I) were very excited when the forecast predicted snow on a Saturday.  We had been telling Kay it would be cold when we moved him.  We were trying to build it up because Kay did not like wearing a coat in Hong Kong.  We had a blast as a family in our first snow!

Let the Chaos begin...

You know it is crazy around the house when your three year old says "look mommy, I can walk anywhere in the house now".  Yes, we had stuff everywhere!  Gail and Bill were so helpful and drove in a few days before we got home to help get things ready for us.  They painted Kay's new room.  We did not want Kay to feel like Marissa was taking her room so we created a new special one for her.  I think it turned out ok especially since I picked out everything (including paint colors) from Hong Kong.  I will post pictures of the room soon.  Here are some pictures of when she saw it the first time...

I hope Bill and Gail will come back to our house someday!  We put them to work and hope we did not scare them away.  I am not sure how we could have managed the move without Nana and Pops.  Pops helped Craig test drive cars and do projects around the house.  Nana helped me watch Kay and clean/organize the house.

GG had the best job.  She was in charge of keeping Marissa while we all ran around the house getting stuff done.

Kay is such a big girl now.  Here she is on her first day of school in the USA.  Her teachers sent home a note reminding us to make Valentines for the kids in her class.  Gail was a huge help and took Kay to the store to pick them out.  I laughed when I read the note.  I thought to myself "just what I need, something else to do!"  

We needed to pick out new furniture because we sold ours when we moved.  Gail was a great help and shared all her tips about buying furniture.  Kay took this picture of Nana while we were shopping.

Just hanging out...

Wearing a jacket my mom made me when I was little.

I had to post a picture of my favorite addition to our house.  Craig and Bill put in a drying system in my laundry room.  We got this idea from living in Hong Kong.  Our apartment had poles up high that we could hang our clothes on.  In Hong Kong, you have to run a dehumidifier constantly or your clothes will mold.  Our clothes would dry in a few hours with the dehumidifier running.  I am in love with my new room!  I am unable to dry any of my clothes because they will shrink and be too short (one of the challenges of being tall).  Now, I don't have to plan days in advance on laundry.  

Look who is not napping...

In the USA...

...and so very, very, very tired...

We made it!!  Our friends and family were so sweet and put up banners and bows to welcome us home and our newest addition.  We had banners on the walls, doors, and mailbox!

The downside to traveling so far is the time change.  There is no way to sugar coat it...the time change is ROUGH.  The only good thing is the amazing snuggles we all got from two tired little girls.  Kay has not "snuggled" with us in so long.  I was playing with her hair one day and I felt her neck go limp.  She had fallen asleep in my lap.  I had so much I needed to do, but everything waited because I wanted to soak up every minute of my sweet snuggle.

Kay jumped up and down in excitement when the moving van pulled up to our house.  She was so excited to see her stuff from Hong Kong.  No tears this time!

The Journey...

All things considered..the girls did great.  Our journey home started off with the movers coming.  We did not have that much so we were utilizing only the airplane bag allotments and air shipment.  The men packed everything up and said there was no more room for the remaining items  and they would need to go in our sea shipment.  I was about in tears as I explained we did not have a sea shipment and it HAD to fit.  After talking with their manager, we convinced them to let us take out the carseat we had planned on shipping to take on the airplane and let us SHOVE in the remaining items.  As you can imagine, they were not thrilled because most people do not SHOVE items in.  We did not care and HAD to make it fit.  We were allowed one crate and 1300 pounds total.  We were exactly one crate worth if you put the boxes in just a certain order and 1272 pounds.... CLOSE!  The only tears Kay shed were when the movers were taking the boxes away.  She had a hard time understanding we would get all our stuff again.

Next, we checked into our hotel because we did not have anything to sleep on.  This was a fun (sense my sarcasm??) night as we all shared a room.  Marissa was still waking up every three hours at this point and Craig was suffering from a either food poisoning or a stomach bug. YAY!  I took the girls on my own for one last dinner at Kay's favorite restaurant (Dan Ryan's).  We went to bed praying that Craig had yet another case of food poisoning and not a stomach bug.  I was so afraid the girls and I would get it mid-air on our really long flight.

I think we were dreading the challenge of getting all the bags to/from and through the airport the most.  We knew in Canada we would somehow have to get all our bags and then re-check them after immigration.  Miserable!  We were pleasantly surprised that three weeks earlier they changed the system and our bags were checked all the way for us.  We told the attendant that she had MADE our day about 10 times.  I think she thought we were crazy...

So...What does it look like for this family to move across the world?

6 Checked bags, 6 carry-on bags, one stroller and 1272 pounds of air shipped boxes.

Kay in the airport watching for our plane

I think we need one more thing to carry.  I wish I had taken a picture of our family pack-mule Craig.

26 hours later we made it home!  The girls were big time troopers.  The man who sat next to Marissa and I said he did not even wake up to the baby.  Kay slept for about 4 hours and once again we confirmed why the iPad is the best invention EVER for people who live overseas!  The girls and I did not get sick and we decided Craig's going away present was one more round of food poisoning (he has had it about four times since moving)

Goodbye Hong Kong...

When we came to Hong Kong, Kay was just a toddler.  When we are leaving...she is a little girl.  Hard to believe.  We are so thankful for the adventure we had.  We visited two continents and six countries together, explored Hong Kong, met many great new friends, and added a new family member in the past 15 months.  This is a self portrait of Kay we found early on in HK.

We spent our last few weeks in Hong Kong frantically trying to get ready.  I used FaceBook to try to sell as many of the items we were not taking home as possible.  We had to buy all new small appliances because the currencies were different.  We also sold all of our kitchen stuff because we did not bring ours from the USA.  We knew we would have a lot smaller kitchen and it would not make sense to try to fit our US stuff in.

We also did a lot of shopping to bring home some of our favorite HK stuff...

Kay had one last field trip to the Peak.  Craig took her so I could stay home with Marissa.  They had a blast.  After awhile we no longer noticed being a minority but this picture shows that we were.  Can you find Kay?

Oh the crowds...I will not miss you MTR traffic control man...

Look what I found!  Omaha beef in HK!  This was in a hole in the wall store in the wet market.

Kay picked out a scarf in the market because it will be cold in the USA!

Our last Sunday morning breakfast at our favorite place, Wagu Lounge.  My back will be happy to not have to wear Marissa everywhere! 

I will miss the beautiful flowers when new businesses open!

The Chinese New Year decorations were out just in time for us to see them...