It is Family Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On August 31, 2009 we met this amazing little girl named Yan Hai Fu.


Yep in many ways we were in a different world one year ago. We have such special memories of China.

Fast forward to one year later.....Miss Clarissa Yanhai Lauzon has taken over!!!! She even drives!!!!




Ok...she doesn't drive, but she does just about everything else. We are so blessed, and we love this wonderful person so much. It has been a fantastic year watching Clarissa grow, learn, and change.



Last week my beautiful wife and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary and took a quick trip to Toronto with Clarissa for a couple of days. She was great during the flights. We stopped by the CNE:



Clarissa had her first swim in a pool and looooooooooooved it hugely!!!!!!!!!!!!



She was very happy to find out that Mommy brought Dolly and Mr. Bunny for her to sleep with in the hotel room.




The hotel had some super long spaghetti that she had lots of fun eating with Mommy.



We went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Terracotta Army exhibit which was very cool. I have a follow up on this....but I will save it.



We also took Clarissa's first subway ride. Other than the big loud noise, the smell, and the strange looking people....she loved it!!! Ok...didn't smell too bad. That was just me throwing it in for comedic value......




Much more has gone on also, such as having a special group of people over for dinner....I'll post more about that later...maybe tomorrow.

More to come....



Hmmm maybe I have given you too many images of cuteness for one post.....perhaps I should be spreading them out more......should I maybe take a few out and save them????? What?????? I better not????? Or else?????? Oh....ok.......

Wait....who said that???? Is someone there???? Is someone really there?????

Garlic, words, driving, vacation, almost a whole year as a family...and......a pony ride!!!!!!

Ahhhh yes....it has been a busy couple of weeks.....but I am (therefore "we are") on vacation!!!! We have a busy couple of weeks ahead. On Thursday I will celebrate 7 years of being married to the most wonderful, incredible, beautiful person in the world. She....well she will celebrate something....probably something more like celebrating enduring 7 years of marriage to a bozo like me ;-)

Then on the 31st we will celebrate one full year of being a family of three. A FULL FREAKIN' YEAR ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!! It is beyond words to try to explain how blessed and fortunate we feel to be able to share our life with this amazing, incredible little girl. To watch her change and grow with the passing of eacha and every day. To watch her personality develop and show itself. It is lots and lots of fun. It is actually quite remarkable that when we first received our referral it included a document that was written when she was 4 1/2 months old which had information about her including some of her "character traits"...and many of them are bang on. One thing is for sure....she knows very much what she wants...and what she doesn't want....and how to very clearly express it (most of the time). We are so thankful that this wonderful, special person is part of our family.

August would not be August without a visit to the Perth Garlic Festival. We headed out with Uncle Don and I loaded up on a great supply of fresh garlic.




I also want to throw a huge congrats and way to go to ARB on their "not such a secret secret". We have flirted with the idea. You guys are awesome and inspiring.

Clarissa had her first pony ride today!!!! She wasn't sure what to make of it all at first, but once it started moving she loved it.

Just some pictures....

Ok.....too tired to write, but have some pictures that I must share. But wait....you will be competely shattered if I don't add some of my brilliant observational quips. Won't you????? What???? You won't??????? "Shut up Rob and just show us the pictures!!!!!"....??????......wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Errrrrr.....ok.......here you go........





Huh?????? That wasn't Clarissa????? Ohhhh.....wait....let me check....hmmmmmm.....you're right....that's not Clarissa.....but that's Rush. Yep...that is Rush.....Rush is freakin' awesome baby!!!!!

Ok.....back to Clarissa.....she made her first trip to Cosmic Adventures. Daddy can't wait to get his turn at climbing through the tunnels and stuff....



She visited Grandma and Grandpa's place...


Clarissa and Daddy made a visit to the park.....



Uncle Joey came to visit and Clarissa had a lot of fun....



This is just how much fun....


Actually both of them seemed to have fun.....



That's it for now......more soon....ummmm....define soon......we'll see....

Oh....did I ever mention that if you click on the pictures they get bigger???? Hmmmmm now do you have to go back to day one and check them all out?????

Time flies when you are having fun....

Clarissa turned 20 months old recently. Now, that means that in less than four months she will turn two years old....but more than that it means that she has now been with us longer than she wasn't!!! That is awesome to Mommy and Daddy. It may not seem like much, but it means very much to us. It means that nobody has loved and cared for her as long as we have. We feel so blessed to have this priceless little girl part of our family. We had four years of waiting for her to think about what it would be like and imagine the whole experience, and as wonderful as I thought it would be....it is a million times better. Probably a million times more exhausting than I figured on also...but so worth it. Watching her change and grow each day, doing new things, coming up with new ways to trick Daddy, new dances, new words (well sort of words...), louder crying, bigger fits.....errrrrr where was I going with this again????? Anyhow, when I think back to the tiny little girl that we first saw across the room sitting on her Nanny's lap, just looking around wondering what was going on when pretty much all the other babies were crying away. She had no idea how much her world was about to change. However, she is doing so well. She is such a happy little girl (well...most of the time...except when mean ole Daddy is trying to get her to do something that she doesn't particularly want to do at that moment), and so smart....and so ours!!!!! Life is grand!


My girls on day one:


My girls now:



Yep.....I am blessed. Life is grand.

A couple days late, but here are some pictures.....

Ok...where to begin????

Well last night (exactly 10 months since we got home from China...) was our first "date"!!!!! We left Clarissa with Grandma and Grandpa while we went to see the Rush concert at Bluesfest! It was a fantastic show...and we even managed to resist call home to check on how things were going.















What's that???? You don't care about my stupid Rush pictures????? You want pictures of Clarissa????? Oh! Does this link back to the whole "it's not about me" thing???? Oh....ok. Let's see what I can do about that....

Soooo what has been going on with Clarissa? Oh I know...we had a great dinner with some friends that we travelled to China with. It was so wonderful to see all of them and the girls.















We went to the Papanack Zoo and Clarissa loved the animals















Grandma and Grandpa came for dinner on Father's Day, and Clarissa loooooooved it.













She has grown so much that we could finally turn her car seat around to face the front. She was very, very happy about it.

















It has been so hot that we have been having lots of freezies.














I am growing some herbs...well sort of....















No need to say anything about this

Arrgghhhhhh more than a month since my last post!!!!

Wow, I realized today that it has been more than a month since I have posted. Then I told myself "Self, you have some good reasons for not posting for so long. Let's see, there's C, and L, and A, oh and don't forget R, and I, then there's S, of course there is S, ummmmmm....uhhhhh.....errrrr.....what else???? Ya!!! How could I almost forget A.

But wait, there are some other reasons also....most of which I won't bother to share because let's face it....you don't really care why....you are just devastated that I haven't posted. But wait again.....who ARE you anyways????? Maybe there is no "You". Maybe there is only me. Heck I don't even think Carolyn reads my ramblings. Then I told myself "Self, you don't really care about that do you???? I mean it IS really all just about me isn't it????? Hmmmmmm good question. Is it really just all about me???? Could it be???? Do I care???? Am I just all about enteraining myself????? If it is just all about me then why do I correct tpyos$$?%? Aspacially wheen I an tiping on this liittlee keybard??? (more about that later). Well then if it is not all about me then who could it be about?????? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?????? (he wonders as he looks at his beautiful little girl). HEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY WAIT A SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!! Could it be??????? Could it really be???????? Maybe.....just maybe.....I think that there is a possibility that it ISN'T allllll about me. Maybe in some small way it might also be about Clarissa!!!!! Could it be that I see this as something that she can look back at and see her story??? I suppose it could. It could also be partly about you. Errrrrrr......if there actually is a you.

I have a bunch of pictures to post, and lots of stories to tell about them....my first Father's Day, visits with Grandma and Grandpa, the Family Outreach picnic at the Valleyview farm....and lots of other stuff that I can't remember at the moment...but I can't post them now because I am too lazy to go upstairs to post them on the computer. My laptop died....so I am using Carolyn's little pink notebook computer to type this, and it's a pain to do pictures. So I will hopefully get to pictures for you tomorrow or the next day. If there is a you......

The pool, the sandbox, Daddy and Grandpa, apple blossoms, getting the mail....and more....

Ok, I just downloaded so many pictures I can't even remember which ones. Sooooooo, I hope that you enjoy whatever they are. No doubt there will be some cuteness in there because Clarissa is just pure cuteness. As you will see she has been having tons of fun. Visits from Grandma and Grandpa always go over big with Clarissa. What doesn't go over so well is visits to CHEO. We had a (planned) appointment at CHEO to get a hearing test. Well a certain little girl seemed to remember all to well her recent stay at CHEO, and as nice as they were...she did not like the ladies who were doing the testing at all. She was a very unhappy camper....until we walked out the door...and she immediately started singing away.....go figure.

Anyhow, lots of other things have been going on, but as usual these days I'm too tired to think about it.....hey, be happy that I had the energy to download all these pictures as I dealt with my internet connection going in and out.

Ok I have since added some comments to the pictures.

More to come soon....I hope.....


Clarissa is great at helping Daddy get the mail. Just like she insists on helping bring the groceries in to the kitchen, she has to have a piece of mail to carry home.












Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........yogurt!!!!!!














Clarissa hopes that these turn into apples so that Daddy can make her some applesauce!!!!!
















Woo hoo!!!! A picnic with Grandpa and Daddy!!! .....errrrrrr.....and Grandma and Mommy of course......















I have got some great new summertime toys to play with!!!!!















Check out my new sandbox....but do it quietly...can't you see that I am concentrating?!?!?!
















Aaaaaannnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddd THIS is my very own (errrrr except when Daddy tries to climb in....and the water all flies out.....) swimming pool!!!!!