Favorite Photo Friday

That's My Girl!!

(To all of our Pingjiang Families - Chloe is attached to her visor this summer!!)

Camp Survivors!!

Last week we sent two boys to our church camp - PAINTBALL CHURCH CAMP - mind you, and now this week we have one more boy at camp. They seemed to have a great time and enjoyed the paintballing, meeting new friends, and their chapel speaker!! Of course now you know what we are hearing - they are all saving their money for paintball guns! They came home covered head to toe with mosquito bites and this lovely "war wound" - just had to share with all of you - yes, he's proud of this wound - he'd do it all again!!! Ahhhh,boys!

The 4 Year Old Princess

Today was the day - our little lady turned 4!!! She woke up and did something she NEVER does - crawled in bed beside me. I had a half hour just to lay there and watch my sweet girl sleep - a rare and touching treat! I couldn't help but think that on the other side of the world another momma lay remembering 4 short years ago when she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I can not say enough how brave I think that mom was - and how grateful I am for her bravery. We are blessed because of that mom's goodness.

We had quite the day - Chloe had her hair curled and toenails and fingernails painted by daddy. We ate at her restaurant of choice - Chinese!! We opened gifts - she had a blast! AND yes, she got her coveted "spinny chair" - purple even! (Is this the only 4 year old that wanted a spinny computer chair for her birthday??) She LOVED, LOVED, LOVED her cake - a princess cake - and did NOT want candles on her OR to cut her! (But yes, we won that one!!) Then we ended our fun day with a bike ride. I am sure Chloe wishes everyday were her birthday!! We had a fun one!

Shopping Alert!!!!

Yes - I have to share some fun reasons to shop!!!

I ran across this wonderful lady when out hunting down some ladybug backgrounds for blog designs - but look at this great store!! The Monogrammed Ladybug ALL of her stuff is cute, but make sure and go HERE and see her Asian themed designs. Wish I would have known about this BEFORE Chloe's birthday!!

Then, visit Kari's Blog to see these adorable purses - Chloe's getting one for her birthday (see the pink cupcake fabric!?!?!?) and they are THE PERFECT size for those little bodies!!! Plus, you are helping support an adoptive family!

So there you go - always a good reason to shop!!!

WE MADE IT!!!!

WOW!! That is about all we can say at this moment - after a year plus some (1 yr., 4 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days to be exact) we are NOW OUT OF REVIEW!!!! In adoption lingo that means we have been checked over by China, we weren't asked any questions, so we made it through!!! This is a BIG step - one that took only MONTHS last time around. SO sad, but yes, SO true! But we found our yesterday that we are through. Now, China is only a year behind in referrals - how depressing is that - if they keep us the same pace they are doing now AND DON'T SLOW DOWN A BIT, we are scheduled to get our referral exactly a year from now. I pray things speed up - but I do know Who is ultimately in control and I hang onto that!

But praise God - another big hurdle reached!!!

The first picture is the CCAA building where our papers are right now.

The second is where they match up our paperwork/Dossier with our next little one. So this is where our papers are sitting IN A VERY BIG PILE right now!

Camping Out

If you asked Chloe what we did tonight - she'd say we camped out!!! But here's what we REALLY did:

Take - 1 bonfire, 24 hot dogs, 1 bottle of ketchup, 1 bottle of mustard, 1 jar of relish, 1 jar of Mayonnaise (I know, one of our neighbor boys requested it!), 1 pan of baked beans, 1 bag of potato chips, 10 kids in the neighborhood, 2 adults, 1 Bella running around begging for handouts or to be petted, 1 bag of marshmallows, 1 box of graham crackers, 1 package of chocolate bars, and LOTS of wood - and there you have it - what we did tonight!!! And all of our neighborhood parents went out on dates - I love it!!!

At the Park

Look who we found at the park!!!!!
It wasn't planned, but Caeleigh and Chloe loved playing together at the park - we need to do that more often!!

Bella and I

I was thinking today - Bella is almost 3 months old - it's about time to work on short walks on the leash. I needed to deliver a book 4 blocks to a friend and decided this was a job for Bella and I!! So off we went, book in hand and leash in the other. We had not even hardly gone a block when she decided to start bucking a bit. She did not want to go on, and she was making that very clear. We went another block, against her insistence, and that was it. She plunked down in the road and refused to budge. But I am quite the dog owner - I figure we are almost half way there - we can't give up now - so what do I do!?!?!? I pick Bella up and carry her!! Yep, carried her half the way there and half the way home - it didn't get any better on the way back either!

Oh well, maybe next month!!

Chloe-isms

Just so that you can live in the mind of a 3-yr. old for a few minutes:

When Chloe woke up yesterday morning she told me, "Mom, I need to tell you about my dream - I had curly hair and Caleb was eating noodles." Hmmmmm......

No meal is complete without playing "The Animal Game" - Chloe made this up. Each person has to make an animal sound and the others have to guess which animal they are. Oh yes, just in case you ever join us for a meal, Chloe always offers to go first and it's ALWAYS a horse!!

Chloe prays at night before bed and asks Jesus each time, "And be with my second Grandpa - he might be lonely without me." She talks often, remembering her great grandpa that passed away earlier this year. She calls him her "second Grandpa". She is sure he misses her - even though he's in Heaven!

She told Aaron the other day that God died on the cross. Aaron, of course, told her, "No, Jesus died on the cross." Pretty soon, I have Chloe come to me and she asks, "Mom, are God and Jesus the same?" (I must say I was impressed - her theology is astounding!!) So I told her, that yes, they were. Ok, here's my favorite part, she goes back to Aaron and says, "Aaron, God died on the cross." I think he gave up arguing at this point - but I was smiling in the other room!!

She refers to our boys collectively - to Chloe, they will always be "MY Boys". As in "Mom, let's go see MY Boys." I love it!!

Favorite Photo Friday

While in San Francisco - we got to see Joe's aunt Lois - she was our "tour guide" in downtown - we had such a fun time seeing her - it had been WAY TOO long!!!

5th Grade Band Concert

I am telling you - our city is quite proud of it's band. SO - when our son was one of SIX fifth graders that was chosen to play Sax - we were thrilled for him! However, he was given a Tenor Sax - that is almost taller than he is!!! It is just a hoot to see him carry the case! But after almost a full semester playing - we are quite proud - he is quite the sax player!! Go Caleb! How fun to see his first band concert - I could hear that Tenor Sax out of all those other instruments - I am sure it was his! (Does that sound like a proud Mom, or what!?!?)

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE???

Yes - Joe and I took off and left our kiddies! We hardly ever go off together so this was quite a treat! We asked ourselves - where would we like to go?? And we chose San Francisco. We had such a great time, and are back home now - I must say - there was a lot of me that just wanted to stay there - what a wonderful trip! But I'm not sure our kids were ready for us to come home yet either, to be honest, they had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma!!

Don't worry though, we did miss our annual Tulip Festival - but we felt right at home in San Fran. - look at what we saw on our first day there!!

I will have to post more pics of our trip this week - I am ready to go back!

Tulip Time

Yep, it's that time again - so we took our "Lil Dutch Girl" out for some pics!

My Special Mother

My Special Mother

My mother is the most wonderful mom in the whole world.
She's as pretty as a mommy.
She weighs gigantic pounds and she's 10 feet tall.
Her favorite food is broccoli.

In the good old days when mom was little, she used to be a baby.
I think mom looks funny when she laughs.
I wish mom would play a game with me everyday.

I wouldn't trade my mom for broccoli.

(a friend sent this to us and we thought we'd try it on Chloe - she had to fill in all the italic words - kind of like a Mad Lib. Can you tell what her favorite thing is??!!)

Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Doggy Ambulance Needed

I wasn't even going to admit this story, but a friend said - "Oh, that is blog material." So here goes. We are getting ready to go to bed last night - about 10:30 and we thought we'd take Bella out one more time before tucking her into her kennel for the night. She wasn't outside long before she started jumping around - she just wouldn't leave whatever it was alone and pretty soon we heard loud cries coming from her. Joe went over to check it out and by this time Bella could hardly walk - Joe went and got the flashlight and we saw a very large bumblebee laying on the ground. Yep, Bella got stung. We had to carry her inside and proceeded to check her over. She just kept crying and crying - and that's when the raspy breathing started. So yes, we hit Google to figure out what to do (exactly what we do with sick kids!!!) Her breathing was getting worse so we decided to call our vet - in the off chance that there would be a number to call for questions - and what did we get?? Our poor vet up out of bed!!! But he was so helpful though and told us to give her Benadryl and stay up about an hour with her to watch her. (Ok, if you would have told us that we would be giving our pet Benadryl, we would have said you were lying - but if you would have told us we'd be staying up until midnight to sit with a dog with a bee sting - we'd have laughed at you!!) But that is exactly what we did - administered the Benadryl AND stayed up to monitor the breathing! Pathetic, isn't it!?!? We are happy to report that all is well today - she is walking normally and breathing fine - BUT WE are tired!!!!

Blogoversary

It's "And Chloe Makes 6's" Second Anniversary today!!! I know, I don't expect presents or cards, but I did think it would be fun to point it out! I started blogging two years ago - I hadn't really planned to do it, but after we got back from China, so many people would email and tell us that they would miss our "daily updates" so it got me thinking that a blog might be a fun way to chronicle our daily happenings. The posts aren't always exciting - and lately, I haven't done a great job of updating regularly, but I do enjoy reading your comments when you leave them. So I'm glad I entered the blog world - I have met some great people and I enjoy keeping in touch with family and friends.

Newest Bilby

Call it a weak moment - I don't know what else to call it - but darn it - we said we'll never get a dog - Joe wanted a cocker spaniel - I wanted a poodle - and we figured, never the twain shall meet. But alas, we found a Cockapoo. Who would've thought!?!?!?

We brought her home - and Chloe looked out of the window and said, "Am I dreaming or is there a puppy in our yard??" Too funny - the boys ran outside and asked whose it was - we just started laughing and they said to each other, "Don't get too attached - we probably have to give her back to someone."

So we introduce our just over six - week old puppy, Bella. Now - just encourage us that we WILL get her trained!!! She is wonderful about going potty outside - you just take her out and she immediately does her business, but she also thinks it's ok to do her business inside too - ugh!!! But already we are enjoying our pup - she is a lover and she is usually in someone's lap!

We Have a Teenager!!

I know you are thinking how in the world can those young pups have a teenager??? :) But we do! It doesn't seem possible to us either, but 13 short years ago today God gave us our first wonderful gift! A bouncing baby boy that has been a blessing ever since! Micah was the fussiest baby - some days we weren't sure we should have any more children!!! But he has grown into a young man that is wonderful to his siblings and even better to his parents! We love you dearly Micah, you are a special young man that is growing into a man with a passion for God ~ And the best part is that for as much as we love you as your parents - you have a Heavenly Father that loves you EVEN MORE!! You are truly a blessing and a special gift from God.

(You can double click on the collage to see it larger!)

Tidbits

It's time for a tidbits post again! I have two bits to share with you:

First of all - Remember Tracy - the Junk Posse lady!?!? She is just a sweet woman with a heart for adoption. She took our family on as her "China Family" a month ago and has said that all of the China jewelry she sells - she will give a portion to our family. What a wonderful gift from her!! Well - I must put another plug in - It is almost Mother's Day and what a wonderful gift this would be for Moms!!! SO - if you haven't visited her - now is a great time to do it AND she's giving a free pair of earrings with each purchase - you can't beat that!!!!


Secondly, my dear friend, Kari is raising money for their upcoming adoption - and she has come up with THE CUTEST dresses - Chloe tried on the "Olivia Dress" the other day, and it was SO sweet!! It will be great for play or for church - I just LOVE it! So go visit her blog, she has some beautiful asian fabrics and other fun fabrics as well. Kari's Kafe

Favorite Photo Friday

See why my kids make me laugh!?! This is the attire Aaron had on while leading Chloe on a scavenger hunt through the house. He wasn't thrilled, but I HAD to get the camera - this was FOR SURE a Kodak moment!!!