Summer days

Gosh, it's been awhile (again) since I have posted and before you know it, summer has come and almost gone.

We have had a wonderful summer with some hot days mixed in with our typical WA weather.

We've had some celebrations this summer as well.  Like celebrating in June, 1 year home with Michael!

Seriously, it's been a year already!?  Where did the time go?  It just seems like yesterday that Miss Magoo and I were in China.

Michael has really come along since he first came home and continues to strive with his language.  Yay!  It's a far cry from when he was first home saying, "I'm not going to learn English" to trying more and more using his English words.

Michael also played soccer this summer as well and he loves it!  He just seems so comfortable playing and it gets him to interact with other kids his age.  We'll be signing him up this fall as well.

 

We had another celebration this summer with Miss Magoo graduating Kindergarten!  We can't believe she's old enough to be going to school, let alone finishing up Kindergarten and starting 1st grade in September.  

Her class held a little graduation ceremony and she received a certificate and ate cupcakes to celebrate her accomplishment!

The graduate!

With her teacher Mrs. H.

We took a day trip to Fort Casey State Park and looked around the old fort that was built for the war in case it ever came to the shores of WA.  

This is the same place they filmed parts of the movie, An Officer and a Gentleman.  After exploring, the kids flew the kite and plane.  We had lunch and just had a wonderful family day, even though it was a gray drizzly day!

The ferry ride over

Admiralty Lighthouse

Standing on the fort wall

The big guns!

Plane flying

Kite flying

In July we celebrated one more Gotcha Day!  This time it was for Mister.  He's been home 3 years now!  He picked Spiderman as his theme for this year and we all enjoyed celebrating our little man!  

One other thing we got for him was one of those Magic Slushy's you see advertised on tv.  Nope, I didn't pay what they want on tv and instead found them in the store and on sale!  I will say they have been a big hit with all 3 of the kids!  Also, you get a nice little arm workout as well when shaking them.  Lol :D

Both littles got to go to VBS at church this year, it was their first time.  I also volunteered and was part of the snack team for the kids.  What a blast they had and I know I had fun too!  

We have over 500 kids over 4 days!  I just love seeing God working in the all the little ones lives.  This years theme was Pure Gold!  The Mr J Band was there all decked out in their western wear and singing songs and getting the kids excited about Jesus!  Our two loved him so much, they are still talking about it and listening to The Mr J Band music whenever they can.

The Sunday during VBS, our church had our summer celebration and he kids got to pan for gold and turn it in for some gold (chocolate) coins.  Gosh they had fun!

Well that's pretty much what we have been doing this summer oh except for one more thing that has been a life saver when the weather has been hot.  

To say we spend hours in the backyard is an understatement and they just have so much darn fun!

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Banzai!

Cowabunga!

Chillin' and stayin' cool!

Oh and we did have a pretty big birthday as well this year (for me) I turned 50!  

Honestly, I don't didn't feel old until I was sick and laid up in bed with pneumonia.  So no pics of the big day.  It truly was low keyed, but my family showered me with gifts and cards and the most scrumdiddlyumptious cupcakes ever!

So hard to believe that school will be starting in a week, time to get Miss Magoo and Michael ready for school.

Hope you've all enjoyed your summer!

God Bless!

5 years ago...

Today is a very special day in our house. 

Five years ago today, in Kunming, China, we were handed the most precious 16 month old baby girl!

She wasn't too sure, as she was crying, about what was going on, being handed over to perfect strangers, but we held her and hugged her and loved her without stopping and we were in love!

In the Civil Affairs Office, while we were getting to know our girl, our daughter, we were asked over and over and over, "Do you want her?"  "Yes!"  "Do you want her?" "Yes!"  "Do you want her?"  "YES, we want her!!"  How could we not? 

It has been amazing to watch how she has changed over the last five years.  From scootin' around on her bottom to walking.  From saying only a few words, to talking up a storm.  From crying every time we turned into the church parking lot to accepting Jesus, being baptized, and fiercely loving God like nobody's business!  And yet she will let you know about Jesus if you give her a minute.

We are still amazed by our beautiful little girl and we truly thank God every day for her!  We have been blessed beyond words! 

So not only will we will be celebrating her day today with cupcakes and a little gift as we do each year.  She will get to share with her friends in class at school as well.  She is very excited to say the least.  :D

Happy Gotcha Day Miss Magoo!!!!

We love you to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, more and more each day!!

Don't forget to scroll to the bottom and pause the music player.

Easter and more...

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Don't forget to scroll down and pause the music player before watching the video.

Well I've really fallen behind on updating our blog and it seems like so much has happened since January.

March was the highlight as you can see by the video above.

Miss Magoo was baptized!  We have been talking to her about being baptized and what it meant and she was all for it!  She did say that she wanted me there with her and so that's why I'm in the background, yet in the water with her.  

Our girl is really something! (even if I do so say myself.  :D)  You see she accepted Jesus into her heart a week after her 5th birthday back in January 2011.  Miss Magoo has such a heart for the Lord!  She talks about Him throughout her day and even makes up songs to sing to Him.  It's so darn sweet!  She will talk about Him to anyone and everyone, she has no concern or worry if she should or shouldn't be doing it.  She is happiest when she is sharing about Jesus.

I have to share what she said to me after she was baptized.  "Momma, I could feel the sin just wash away."  She truly was excited to be baptized and promised to follow Jesus for the rest of her life.

I cannot wait to see what He has in store for her life!   

Oh I have one more story to share about what Miss Magoo shared with me the other day and it just gave me the goosebumps!

She said that when Elijah was trying to wake her up, he was talking to her, but God was talking to her and it was really loud, so she couldn't hear Elijah.
 

I asked her, " what did God say?"  "He said to me, love for all and never stop."  

So awesome!

Michael celebrated his first Easter with us!  I think he had a fun time dying Easter eggs and looking for them as well.  I think he was surprised by the Easter basket that he and the kids received.  Honestly, he seemed a little confused by it all.  He didn't really have much to say.

My favorite thing about their baskets this year were the solid chocolate candy with Jesus inside the fish.  I just love that we are making Easter about Jesus and what He did for us other than about the Easter bunny and toys.

I even purchased a set of Resurrection Eggs that explains what happened to Jesus and why.  Each day the kids got to open an egg (after reading from a Bible verse and part of the story in the booklet provided) to see a symbol of His crucifixion and resurrection.  They really enjoyed learning about the meaning of Easter and what Jesus did for each of us!

Tomorrow we celebrate Papa's birthday and the kids are excited!  Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!  We love you with all our hearts!  xoxoxoxoxo

January

Well here we are with another month's worth of what's happening with our family.

January started off of course with a new year and it was just that, another new year.  It's not a very exciting day in our household, either we are getting too old and don't stay up or... okay that's it, I admit it, there's nothing else that would keep us from ringing in the new year.  :D

Now the following week, we did celebrate Miss Magoo's birthday.  She turned 6 this year.  It's so hard to believe she's 6 sometimes.  I can remember the day she was handed to us in China and it seems like yesterday when that happened.

So we celebrated with a family party with cake and a couple of gifts.

We also had a little birthday party (her first one) for her at McDonald's the following week with a couple of friends from school and with daughter's of dear friends of ours that have also adopted from China.

It was an exciting day, not only for Miss Magoo, but it started snowing which ended up snowing every day for a week after that.  We ended up with a total of about 14 or 15 inches!

This was Michael's first snow since being home and he loved it!  Not sure if it was because of the snow or all the snow days and getting to stay home from school.

Miss Magoo and Mister loved it too.  They all went out an played in it for a couple of hours ever day.

Snow Angels

Catching snowflakes

Happy kids with their snowman

Too cute for words

The snow finally melted and the kids went back to school and they were so sad to see it go.

January 23rd marked the first day of the Chinese New Year and this we got excited about!  Our church celebrates with a huge celebration, with food, crafts and even performances and a Lion Dance!

This is the year of the dragon and the kids made dragon puppets and got all dressed up in their best Chinese clothes and we all had a wonderful time at church!

We had a milestone this past month as well.  Miss Magoo lost her very first tooth!  It took 2 full months from when it started to become loose before it finally came out and with a little help from Mister, he accidentally kicked her and that did the trick, her tooth came out the next day.

To say she was excited is an understatement!  Okay Momma was excited too!  I ended up finding the cutest little Tooth Fairy pillow to put her tooth in so the Tooth Fairy could leave her some money.

The Tooth Fairy wanted to do just a little more than leave a dollar bill so the TF got a $1 coin with Sacajawea on it.  When she woke up the next morning and saw the coin, she thought that was the neatest thing ever!

When I explained who was on the coin she said, "that's the Princess on the movie, Night at the Museum"  Who knew she was paying attention.  Lol :D

So happy!!

Front

Back

Well Michael continues to do well and continues to fit right in with our family.  We went and had his gait evaluated and he will have to wear a brace on his left leg (only) to help him with his walking and hopefully it will also help to keep him from falling.

We will be going back to have it properly fitted and then he has to wear it during waking hours.  It will fit up underneath his pant leg so it won't be seen.

We have also had a kink in our journey called life and God continues to take care of us!  We are so blessed and THANKFUL for our blessings that He has given us!

If you should think of it, say a little prayer for us to do God's will for our family.

Thanks so much!

Blessings and hugs!

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Merry Christmas!!

I've posted a couple of videos and if you are viewing this post on the blog, don't forget to scroll to the bottom and pause the music player.

Well to start, I need to back up just a little bit.  

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, One Happy Momma (not so much on this day, lol) slipped and fell on the porch as I was stepping out to go to church.  Sprained my entire left foot.  I know, crazy, huh?  Didn't go to the ER until Thanksgiving night to make sure it wasn't broken or fractured.  Thanks goodness it wasn't, but a sprain is just as painful, believe me.  The doc put me in a walking boot and used that for just over a week and now back in shoes, but if I'm on my feet for too long, it starts to hurt beyond belief.  But it's healing and even though it may be slowly, I can walk.  :D

And before we knew it, December was upon us and it has been one busy month here at our house!

We started the month off with going to cut down our Christmas Tree.  We got a GREAT deal and a beautiful tree.  Mind you, we usually put up an artificial tree, but this is Michael's first Christmas home and we wanted to share getting a tree with him.  Honestly, I don't think he realized the tree was coming into the house, until he saw Papa and Jacob bringing it in.  His face lit up and all's he could say was, "wow!"  Okay he also said, "cool!"  :D

Mind you it took another 2 weeks to get it decorated.  But it's done and the kids helped and we're all enjoying having the tree in the house and when it's lit at night, it's just so beautiful!

Then...

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On Sunday, the 11th, we had our first Family church service and both Miss Magoo and Mister performed.  They looked so cute all dressed up to the nines.  :D  We just love to watch the littles do things like this, they just love church so much!

Next...

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Miss Magoo has been learning all about the Christmas Story this year and she tells us the story on a regular basis.  I videoed her telling it the other night.  She really does have it down and understands exactly what it's about, Jesus' birth!  She has such a LOVE for Jesus.  She is happiest when she talks about Him throughout her day or talking to someone, to anyone else about Him.    I know He is smiling at our precious girl, ever time she mentions His name.  :D

Oh and she is so excited that she has not one, but two loose teeth!  They're right next to each other and one of them will be coming out any day now.  She is doing everything she can to loosen it up so it will come out and the tooth fairy will come and visit.  Maybe by the end of the year it will come out.  So she hopes.  :D

So these are some of the things that have kept us busy this month and Christmas is fast approaching.  Looking forward to spending time with our family and watching Michael having his first Christmas home with us.

Thanking God for sending Jesus to us!  We are blessed beyond words and oh so grateful!

Wishing all of you a wonderfully blessed Christmas!!