Sledding Fun & burning the Annie-I-Over building

Brittney, Chelsey & Courtney

Courtney & Jace

Brandon & Chelsey on the 4-wheeler

Chelsey & Jace

Us and our snowman

Courtney & Chelsey

Brandon & Jace
Courtney, Dylan, & Brandon

All the kids on the tube

Burning the building

It was a sad day on the Niehs farm when dad burned down the Annie-I-Over building. We have played that game every summer for a long time but the building was about to fall over so it needed to go. The kids spent a lot of time outside despite the bitterly cold temperatures. They spent a lot of time on the tube behind the 4-wheeler. Brandon pulled mostly but Uncle Don & Dad pulled some and it was pretty scary when they did.

Christmas 2010

Brittney reading the christmas story


Courtney reading the christmas story

mom telling the kids a story

Chelsey & Kailee matching

Chelsey opening her stocking

Chelsey modeling her new present

Matching girls

The girls

All the grandkids

We spent Christmas in North Dakota this year with my parents and brother and his family. We spent the first part with sick kids and Chelsey woke up Christmas morning sick. We had a fun time after they started feeling better. Grandma usually has a story for the kids which is always neat. It is fun to be able to spend the holidays with family.

MS/HS Christmas Concert

The older kids had their Christmas concert. Courtney sings in the 7th-8th grade choir and plays the Saxophone. Brandon & Dylan are in the high school band and Brandon plays the Saxophone and Dylan plays the Trumpet.

Elementary Christmas Concert

The 2 girls had their elementary Christmas concert. Chelsey sings her heart out every time that she sings. The girls also had their pictures taken with their teachers.

Guangzhou-Day 1

Changsha-Day 5

Bowling in the hotel

Our favorite doorman which we called "Mr. Happy Man"

Hannah's first flight

We didn't do anything in the morning again, but watch more movies. We bowled in the afternoon. We left the hotel at 4:00PM and went to eat at KFC. Amy took us to the airport and we flew to Guangzhou and met some of or travel group and took a bus back to the hotel. Everyone was tired and so went to bed. The bellman in the picture was just hilarious, everytime we saw him he would greet us with a "HI HELLO", apparently he is know all over the area.

Changsha-Day 4

Hannah at her desk

Her teacher

The kids in her class
Jadyn was a celebrity at school

Hannah in front of her orphanage

Hannah on her old bed

Some of the kids

Supper was Yummy!!!!

We were able to sleep in a bit today as we did not have anything planned for the morning. Amy picked us up after lunch and we went to Hannah's school and her orphanage. You could tell that the kids are well cared for there and so that was neat to see. I loved seeing all the kids and we were there when some came home from school. It was hard to leave them all behind. We were able to see Hannah's classroom and her teacher. She was a good student and was well liked by everybody. We also were able to see an award that she was given on the wall in the orphanage. When we got back to the hotel we ordered pizza. We really enjoyed that!!! We fly to Guangzhou tomorrow!!!

Changsha-Day 3

Entrance to the park These kids were here with their school and they were all eating their lunch, so cute! The bungee ride Hannah & Jadyn went on

I went in this bathroom and you couldn't have paid me money to use it!!!! There were squattys lined up in a row with no doors, at least it was "free of charge"!!

Boat ride

The plants behind them are lotus and they have a beautiful flower

Embroidery factory

Bowling

Today we went to a park. It was very beautiful with lots of trees and flowers. There were people all over doing Tai chi, singing, dancing, and one man was even painting calligraphy on the cement with a giant brush and water. The park also was considered an amusement park and had quite a few rides. Jadyn & Hannah went on several including a roller coaster and a bungee type ride as in the picture above. The bungee ride shot them in the air and they just kept spinning and then stopped up high for quite a while before they were let down to the ground. Hannah was not such a fan of the ride afterwards but Jadyn sure loved it. We all went on a boat ride around the lake. After that we went to an embroidery museum & factory. It was so beautiful to see the women working. They use no knots on their pictures and there is so much detail. They are able to have 2 sided pictures with different pictures on both sides, it is so amazing to see. We stopped at McDonalds on the way home from the embroidery museum and that was wonderful. It was our first time at McDonalds and it tasted so good. We then went back to our hotel and watched a movie (with lunch) and then in the afternoon we went bowling. Our hotel had a bowling alley inside of it. Andrea was not able to bowl as her back was hurting her but Hannah, Jadyn and I bowled and had a lot of fun.