Zoey Jane

The time is drawing closer that we will be welcoming a new member to our family.  Today we got to shower Samantha with gifts for Zoey Jane.

 The sisters, along with Samantha's friend Leigh Ann hosted the shower.

 The girls of the family. 

 There was lots of fun baby stuff to see!

 The handmade (by Gram) lovies, which we call binkies in our family.

 Brynn was so excited about today.  She couldn't wait to see all the fun baby gifts that Aunt Mantha was going to get.  She is thrilled about her new baby cousin!  She has big plans in the making for she and Zoey.

Can't wait to meet our Zoey Jane!

Celebrating Daddy

Last week we got to celebrate our Daddy!  The kids were so excited that it was Daddy's turn for a birthday.

We went to one of our favorite small town pizza places for dinner and came back home for cake.

Happy Birthday to Daddy and Uncle Robin (yes, daddy is a twin!)

Please excuse the droopy eyes.  The lights were off for singing and blowing out the candle when I snapped a quick, bright picture.

Phone Pics

I tried to take a break from a lot of picture taking this week.  All I have are some random pictures snapped with my phone.

Mommy and Daddy had an early evening date night... much needed!  We were still home in time to bathe and put the kids to bed ourselves... which is exactly what our two littles need.

 The weather has been beautiful this week!

 We have been taking full advantage of it!

 Brynn had her second Mandarin lesson.  Her tutor is very confident that she will pick back up on it quickly.  She sees signs that she still understands it a little.

 Her tutor lives in a nice neighborhood with sidewalks and a little park... perfect for the boys and I while we wait.  I park our car in front of the big window of her house where they tutor, so that Brynn can see that it is there and we haven't left her... and off we go for a walk and fun at the park.

 Blake loves to read!  We can't keep up with him.  He reads any and everything!  He reads a chapter book or two a week, his nightly devotional, magazines, and other fun picture books.

I have a couple of pictures on my camera from our weekend that I will post soon!

Caught up!

Multi-Cultural Celebration

Blake's Birthday

Daddy/Daughter Banquet

Heart Party

Last Game

Welcome Back

Celebrate

Jump Rope for Heart

Valentine's Day

Hip, Hip, Hooray

Mandarin Class

Whew... all caught up!

Click on the links to go back.

Mandarin Class

Robert and I have felt that it was important for Brynn to maintain her Mandarin, but we weren't sure how easy that would be to accomplish.  We have looked casually for someone to tutor her, but haven't had much luck.  Recently I found someone who lives in a neighboring city who was also interested in finding someone to tutor her adopted children.  She found a lady who is from Hong Kong and tutors in her home.  She emailed me the information and wondered if we were interested.  I immediately said yes.  I would do anything I could to make sure we could get Brynn to the lessons.  Today was Brynns's first lesson.  She requested that we bring a family picture so that she could start with family names.  We already call each other the Mandarin names for daddy, mommy, big brother, and little sister at the house, so Bynn was already familiar with that.  It was good to be reminded of the correct pronunciation of them.  My Texan accent sometimes gets in the way of my Mandarin pronunciations, they start getting slower and drawn out:)  The teacher told me that when they started counting, Brynn counted along with them.  This is something we don't do at home!  She was impressed and thinks Brynn still remembers some of her Mandarin.  She told me that it won't take her long to pick back up on it.  Yay!

In China, the meaning of names is very important to them.  They choose a baby's name based on the meaning of the name, not whether the name is pretty our sounds good like most of us do here in America.  Brynn's tutor today focused on the meaning of Brynn's Chinese name, AiXin.  AiXin means "love heart".  As I sat and listened to Mrs. Li teach Brynn that her name means "love heart" my own heart was full thinking about how much we love this little girl, who now has a perfect heart and has forever changed our hearts!  She wears a heart necklace around her neck... such a special reminder of how special she is and God's perfect plan for her life.  AiXin - Love Heart... a very special name indeed! 

Hip, Hip, Hooray

This mama is cheering because this week was shift change... which means that Daddy has Sundays off for the first time in many years.

We now have one day that we will all be home together... all day!  It has been so many years since I have waken up and had my husband home.  Working opposite days finds us either waking up to an empty bed or a sleeping partner.  Now we actually get to wake up together!  We had to figure out how to share the bathroom to get ready.  We never have to get ready at the same time, so found ourselves getting in each other's way.  It was such a relief to have an extra set of hands to feed and dress these 3 guys for church, and to drop and pick them up from their classes, and to change their clothes after church, feed them, and get them down to nap... wow what a difference an extra set of hands makes!  I am usually exhausted by the time I conquer all of this... not today!  The most important part of our new schedule is that we can now attend church as a family... it is the first time since Barrett was a little baby that we have been able to attend church together.  Oh happy day!

Home and Rainy

Today we are home and it is rainy.   Our agenda includes: cleaning the house, laundry, and catching up the blog.  Basketball season is over, and we have no place we have to be!  Which is a really good feeling after such a busy two weeks!  I have a lot of catching up to do around the house now...

Oh sweet Brynn... our little girl who still struggles with sleeping at night.  She is so afraid she will wake up and find us gone.  To fall asleep at night she wants anything that is of mommy to help comfort her.  Her pillow is on the bottom.  Then you see a green throw pillow that I like to lay on and snuggle with when I am lounging on the couch or prop my head on in bed at night while I read.  Next up you see the white throw pillow that Brynn claimed shortly after coming home.  It was a throw pillow we had on our bed, made of two hankies made by my grandma, pieced together into a pillow by my mom.  Anything that Brynn has seen me using, she wants at night.  So her bed is quickly filling up!  She is still making it half way through the night in her own bed, and then finding her way to our bed, where she needs to be very close and constantly touching me to help assure her that I am still here. Every once in a while she makes it the whole night in her own bed... and we all cheer for her and she is so proud of herself!  Whatever we need to do to help give our girl the security she needs, we will do.

I will be backdating all of the blog posts that I am catching up on.  I will post links to them once they are posted!  Happy Saturday!

Catching Up

One of these days I will get around to catching the blog up.  We've had a lot going on... a lot of pictures sitting on the camera waiting to be uploaded.  But this mama has been tired.  Just plum tired.  So until I find the energy to sit down and update the blog... you can enjoy this not so good picture of Blake, Barrett, Brynn, and cousin Cade.



Valentine's Day

The boys and I enjoyed decorating their Valentine boxes together this year.  I definitely needed their extra hands as we wrapped them up.  We used duct tape to wrap them in so that we can use them again next year.

 We only had to make 6 Valentine cards for Barrett's little speech class.  He was so excited to make a box to collect them in!  Barrett's class didn't have a formal party, just a card exchange during their regular snack time.

 Blake's class had a full blown party, complete with cupcakes and candy!

We, along with Nana ordered take out for dinner and all enjoyed our relaxful evening at home!

Happy {Heart} Day!

Jump Rope for Heart

Blake participated in our school's Jump Rope for Heart.  He partnered with the American Heart Association to raise money to help kids who have sick hearts.  And what better day to jump than on Valentine's {Heart} Day!

 He jumped in honor of his sister who was born with a VSD and his cousin who was born with a Right Hypoplastic heart and 4 other heart defects.

 He wanted his sister's picture pinned to his shirt as he jumped for kids who have sick hearts like her.

 He wanted to wear his Jaden's Day shirt as he jumped for kids with multiple heart defects like Jaden.

 Thank you to those who donated!  Blake had fun raising money and jumping for something so meaningful to our family!

Celebrate

There has been a lot of celebrating going on here lately... and the Basketball End of Season Celebration was one of them!

 We got to go celebrate the end of Blake's first basketball season.

 After all the players entered the room to the tune of "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" with lights flashing and people cheering, he then sat with his team, while we sat in the audience to watch a really neat illusionist.

 Blake was given a new ball bag, a new bball, and a medal. 

 And it is now officially wrapped up!

We are so proud of our boy!

Welcome Back

After 6 weeks at home, we got to take Brynn back to church!

 Her sternum is now healed, which was the last step in her recovery.  Since her sternum is healed, we can pick her up under the arms again.

 It is that time of year again... the time when Brynn and Barrett are the same age.

 These guys are both 3 right now... but no worries, Barrett is counting down the days until he turns 4!

Welcome back to normal life Brynn!  So glad you are all healed up!

Last Game

Basketball season officially ended with Blake's last game.

He made so much progress this season!  We enjoyed getting to go cheer him on each week... and are thankful for the friends and family members who joined us in cheering him on!  Go Bulls!

Heart Party

February 7-14 is CHD (Congenital Heart Defect) Week.

1 in every 100 children is born with a CHD. What if that one was yours?

 That one is ours, so we headed to Brynn's hospital to celebrate life, along with other CHD families.

 The kids and I enjoyed eating yummy popcorn,

 getting faces painted,

playing,

 climbing,

 making crafts, 

 all things hearts,

 as we celebrated our CHD SURVIVOR!!!

Our surgeon, cardiologist, and nurses, along with other heart families were there to celebrate these survivors.  We are already looking forward to next year's Heart Party!

Daddy/Daughter Banquet

Our church held a Daddy/Daughter Banquet the weekend before Valentine's Day. 

Brynn was very excited about dressing up and going on a date with Daddy! 

 They enjoyed the night with one of Robert's friends and his daughter, who is just months apart in age from Brynn.

It was a very special night for these daddies and their daughters!

Blake's Birthday

In our family, we don't have birthday parties after 5 years old.  There are many reasons for this, which I won't bore you with.  Instead of an organized birthday party, we just do special things to celebrate our birthday boy.  This year it ended up turning into almost a two week celebration.  We first started by surprising Blake with a trip to one of his favorite places, with one of his favorite cousins!  The daddies and the kids went and had the best time.  I am so glad they were able to come and make this evening so special for our birthday boy!

 On the morning of his birthday, he got to be announced as a birthday boy on our school's morning news program.  I loved getting to see him and take a picture from my classroom.

 The afternoon of his birthday, a friend came home from school with him to play for a while.

 When daddy got home from work, we celebrated our boy as a family.  We sang "Happy Birthday",

 and gave him his gift.

 Nana was there to join in the celebration too!

That evening, Nana, Blake, Barrett, and I went out for ice cream, while Daddy and Brynn attended our church's Daddy/Daughter Banquet.

A week later, we had dinner with our fam of 15 to celebrate both cousin Cade and Blake's February birthdays.  Sorry, no pics of that one, but you can click HERE to read about it on my sister's blog.

A full week of celebrating our big 7 year old!!