Happy New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Her Children Rise Up and Bless Her

Yesterday was Gigi's (Kris's mom) birthday. She's been known as "Gigi" ever since Micaiah gave her the name when he was learning to talk and couldn't pronounce the name "Grammy". Now she's fondly called Gigi by all four of our children AND all the kids at Pathway Bible Church too :). The night our family celebrated Gigi's birthday, Mike asked everyone to share something they appreciated about Gigi and this is a bit of what was shared:

• Kari - Gigi changes my diaper and will do anything to make me smile.
  

• Lydia - Gigi plays fairy with me.
  

• Mimi - Gigi plays Gecko on my belly (Mimi's likes being tickled!)
  

• Micaiah - Gigi spoils us.

• Cheryl - Mom always thinks of others first.

• Michael Moore - She's easy to talk to and has so much to share.

• Kris - Mom has a servant's heart. She has set an example for us in serving others. She's always caring for others.

• Mike Chau - She's always thinking about us and what we go through.

• Dad - She completes me. She's everything I am not.

"Her children rise up and bless her;

Her husband also, and he praises her saying:
Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all."
Proverbs 31:28-29

Happy Birthday Gigi!

Time for Tea

There must be an unwritten rule that every American girl must have a tea party at some point in her life - though I guess I never was "girly" enough to have one in my childhood :). Mimi received a tea set for Christmas and held her first official tea party for a few of her close friends - complete with Evite invitations, making her own grocery list, hand decorated cookies, and meatballs (for all the meat-loving Chau/Chou girls). To her delight, everyone came dressed in their best tea party attire and they had such a lovely time.

She Came To Serve

One of the highlights of our holiday break was a one week visit with Mike's Mom (affectionately known by our kids as "A-ma"). We were so blessed by her visit. Together with Pathway Bible Church we've been learning and studying through 1 Timothy 5 and have been reminded about our need to care for widows, esp. Mike's mom. With that teaching in mind, we looked forward to our time together as an opportunity to minister to her. Rather than us minister to her though, she used the entire week to minister to our family. We have seen so much growth in her over the past few years and were blessed this past week by her servant heart. She arrived from Seattle at Burbank airport with a suitcase full for supplies for cooking that week (I gladly handed over the duties!). She cooked, she washed dishes, she sewed (and finished the basket of unfinished hemming), and spent quality time with each of the kids. We were also very encouraged to hear of her heart for the local church and her desire to minister to her neighbors and friends. God is so Good.

New Year and a New Look

I just had to post this picture. Both Lydia and I got a new look :) for the New Year. Her glasses are so hip, I just had to get a pair to keep up. And we decided to go w/ "fringe" for Lydia. She was totally fine w/ the bangs as long as we agreed to keep the rest of her hair LONG. What a little cutie God has given us!

Christmas Highlights

It's hard to believe that New Year's Day is already here. Here are just a few pictures of some of the highlights of Christmas 2008 for our family.


On Christmas Sunday, Pathway Bible Church kids acted out Luke Chapters 1 and 2. Micaiah, Mimi, and Lydia were angels. Micaiah and Mimi also had the opportunity to use their piano skills to play a few Christmas carols for us to sing.

This year I got smart. We bought a pre-made gingerbread house and just enjoyed decorating it. That was PERFECT for our kids as their attention span couldn't have lasted much longer.

Christmas morning was nice and quiet (well as quiet as life with 4 kids can be). My parents and sister Cheryl joined us. Later Uncle Michael joined us for dinner. It was raining the entire day, so we spent a lot of time playing new Wii games (we didn't hear any complaints about that!). I just was thankful to have such a day to hang and spend time w/ family. God is good.