Spring time is here!

Wow, the last 3 months have flown by! Work and school have kept us very busy. There has been some turnover on my team at work and Chris has had some good feedback recently at JCP. He has also been very busy with school but only has a few more months left until he gets his life back!

Now that spring is here, we have been trying to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. We were able to enjoy St. Patrick's Day at our friend, Kelly's house. The boys played cornhole while the girls talked and watched the kiddos.

This is Matt & Brittany's son, Ryan. He is such a boy. Running and jumping and playing in the dirt. He will make such a great big brother this fall when his baby sister arrives!

This is Sofi, Kirk and Megan's Labradoodle. Megan and Kirk will also be welcoming a baby this fall as Megan is just one week behind Brittany.

This is the newest addition, Rebeca Arianna Orensten, Josh & Shereen's little girl. She is absolutely adorable in every way.  

The rest are from a couple Sundays ago when my mom, dad and I went to the Dallas Arboretum after church. There were so many beautiful sights, these are just a few of my favorites.

Back from China!

Happy New Year everyone! We had a very busy holiday season in 2009 and are excited about what 2010 will bring us. We have lots of photos to share from our trip to China over the holidays and hope that you have some time to view them. Our trip was amazing! We were not only able to visit some of the most intriguing world heritage sites, but also experience the culture of the Chinese people.

Our first stop was Hong Kong where Chris studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for a week as we explored the sights of Hong Kong.  We visited the Giant Buddha and Victoria Peak the weekend we arrived and then Chris started class on Monday. On Wednesday, we headed to Shenzen with the university where we visited a label printing company and then scoped out the local Wal-mart - that was a sight to see. The other days Chris was in school I explored the city with other the spouses on the trip, Meredith and Dee. We wandered through markets, went to the Chinese Heritage Museum, walked through the Chi Lin Nunnery, got foot reflexology massages (highly recommended), and had Afternoon Tea at the Peninsula Hotel. After class, the guys would meet us out for dinner at a place we had scoped out that day, always in different parts of the city. One of the nights, we had a very nice dinner with Steve & Meredith at Aqua Tokyo overlooking Hong Kong Island - great photos!

Once Chris was finished with class in Hong Kong, we hopped on a flight to Shanghai and met our friend, Cice for dinner at a great Sichuan restaurant, South Beauty. After dinner, we went down to The Bund for drinks at Glamour Bar and Bar Rouge where we had a lot of fun people watching. During out stay in Shanghai, we went to the Shanghai World Financial Center (a supertall skyscraper  housing the tallest observation deck - looks like a bottle opener), the Yuyuan Gardens - part of the old city, XinTianDi shopping and restaurant district, and Nanjing Rd - #1 Commercial pedestrian street. Shanghai has some crazy drivers and we are happy we got out alive!

The last stop on our China tour was Beijing, where we met up with Steve & Meredith at the end of their trip. We had a great dinner at Da Dong where we ate Peking Duck, a true Beijing fare that was traditionally prepared for the emperor. We hiked one of the 7 Wonders of the World, The Great Wall at Mutianyu. After our 4 hour hike, we visited the ancient sacrificial buildings at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Another day was filled walking many, many miles through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City where we saw some of the most beautiful Chinese architecture from the 1400s.

Christmas Day, literally the longest day ever lived, we left China to travel home leaving with some great memories and tons of photos! We hope you enjoy all the photos (accessible by the links below) and feel free to send any comments you have!

Hong Kong

Shanghai

Beijing

Turkey Day Wrap Up

We are just now coming out of the food induced coma we have been in for the past few days. Chris' mom, Donna, flew in on Wednesday and the cooking began! Even though there were only 9 attending the Thanksgiving dinner, Chris insisted that we make 3 batches of the Liles Chestnut & Cashew stuffing, which would feed 21! Wednesday night we made the cranberry sauce, chopped 3 lbs of chestnuts, 3 cups of roasted cashews, 2lbs of green beans and 1 lb of mushrooms. Lots of slicing and dicing between the 3 of us!

We woke up Thursday morning to continue cooking the green bean casserole, stuffing, corn souffle and pigs in a blanket. After everything was packed in the car, we headed to Jake & Jenni Kovatch's house to celebrate with their family. After saying grace, we all dug in and not many words were spoken except the occassional "Mmm, that ______ is so delicious." After we all ate, the men watched football and the women played dominos while we let our food settle. It wasn't long until Jenni was ordered to cut the cake. As you can see, the cake was no joke. 4 layers of pumpkin and cream cheese goodness! Jenni's cake decorating classes are really paying off!

The rest of our weekend was pretty relaxing as we didn't get off the couch on Friday until we set out to have dinner at Kobe Steaks, a habashi style restaurant. Saturday, Chris went to campus to study while Donna and Candice ran a few shopping errands, finding some steals at World Market. We wrapped up our weekend with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda and a movie back at the apartment. All in all, a great relaxing Thanksgiving weekend all though we missed those of you that weren't in TX.

As you all know, we will be heading to Asia in just 10 short days. Since we will be busy getting ready to leave, there most likely will not be another post until then. Hopefully all will work out where we can blog from China. We shall see!

Ready or not, here we are!

We have now officially started a blog so that all of our family and friends can keep up with our adventures. Yea, very exciting! Now if we can just keep it updated.

Last weekend, Cyndie (Candice's mom) came in town for a visit to celebrate her birthday and Halloween with us. We had a lot of fun getting dressed up for Halloween this year. You know the Liles have to go all out with the Halloween costumes...it has become a tradition! Here are a few photos from the Halloween party at our good friends, The Gorneys. Chris and I dressed up as the Grim Reaper and the Angel of Death, while my mom joined us as a pirate. Molly and George, both Lady Gaga, took the night as the most creative homeade costume. Gabe, Jake, Scotty and Jenni were the America's Best Dance Crew, the Jabbawockeez. Cice, Kelly's girlfriend, was a Shanghai Hooters Girl and Letty, Scotty's girlfriend, was a sexy sailor. Both girls won the prize for the bravest outfits...they really pulled off the short shorts well! There were many other party goers in costumes, but the camera only made it the first 30 minutes of the party. Great party with great friends!