handsful

Yep, we’re ALL ready. 

One of L’s favorite toys is her camera…wonder where she gets THAT from?

Marley makes a great subject for Lainey’s photography :)

I know I look like “Cousin It” in this shot, but wanted to show Lainey’s latest regular request…”baby”.  She signs “baby”, which means she wants me to hold her like this.  She loves it, and just stares up at me, sometimes playing with my hair.  I’ve heard this is quite common with adopted children, who feel like they missed out on the babying stage.  I always comply with her baby requests, I know it’s healthy for her and helps her to catch up on her development. 

So, Abbey rushes in the door today, yelling “Mom!! Get the camera!!”.  Seagulls decided to hang out by the pond behind our house…could have something to do with the bread the girls were feeding them.  This is one part of living in Florida I LOVE.  We get beautiful white and gray egrets in our pond daily…I love watching them make their slow, steady steps through the water, looking for their next meal.  Today’s seagull visitors were a fun surprise :)

Today is Chinese New Year!  In China, they call it the Spring Festival and it is celebrated many ways: families come together, red lanterns and decorations are put up everywhere, red envelopes with money inside are given, houses are freshly cleaned, new clothes are bought, old debts are paid off, and many fireworks are shot off! 

We were in China during the last Chinese New Year, and it was beautiful…the picture above shows one of the many fruit trees adorned with red decorations and envelopes in one of our hotel lobbys.  And, there were fireworks shot off almost every night, especially the last night of CNY – we were fortunate to watch them from our windows (and, fortunate that Lainey slept through them!)  Oh, how I would love to be there now! 

Xin Nian Kuai Le!  (literal translation from Mandarin – Happy New Year!)

This is our kids 5th year participating in the Upward sports program.  Literally days after moving here, I met our neighbor who turned out to be the cheerleader coordinator for her church’s Upward program…and, I had promised the kids I’d find Upward as soon as I could.  I sure did that! 

Randy giving his last minute pep talk. 

Randy coaches Abbey’s and the boy’s b-ball team, and he loves it.  Randy has coached kids basketball teams pretty much since I’ve known him…I used to tag along and watch his games when we were dating.  It’s definitely one of his loves.  After me…way after me, of course. 

Abbey throws the ball in.

Abbey and Marley both used to cheer in Upward, so that meant 3 games to watch per weekend.  The girls decided this year that they were done with that, so we’re down to 2 games ;)

Randy’s favorite thing about basketball – defense!

This picture is a hoot…see how Randy is calmly sitting on the sidelines?  Not. 

Ethan is either listening intently or practicing his zombie look…

I’m OPEN!!!!

Do you SEE the size of this kid that EJ was guarding?  He actually did a great job! 

Lainey enjoys some raisins…the key to keeping her happy during a game involves food and one tiny lollipop.

Go after that ball, boy!

Foul shots…

 

With Monday being a holiday, and feeling exactly like a Saturday, I’ve been messed up all week.  Is it Thursday?  Friday?  Not enough time to get a full weeks worth of anything done!  The price you pay for a day off. 

Speaking of Monday, one of our “get it done” goals was to clean up the backyard.  Randy decided the big tree that lovingly deposits all it’s leaves into our pool had to be trimmed up.  He worked feverishly, trying to revive his mostly-dead (catch the reference to Princess Bride?) chain saw.  Come to find out, it was all dead.  So, he resorted to using the pole trimmer. 

Nice shot, the limb in mid-air!  With all the trimming done, we were amazed at how open the pool area looks now.  Once we get the pool looking more like a pool and less like a swamp (hey, it’s winter), we’ll take a picture. 

A glimpse into my future…staring UP at my son.  Abbey says she’s as tall (don’t laugh) as I am, but I haven’t conceded that one yet.  I’m still waiting on the official measurement. 

Lainey is still dealing with her wheezing and coughing.  I ended up taking her back to the doctor yesterday, and now her OTHER ear is infected and in addition to the continued nebs, she can have puffs on the inhaler and she’s on a steroid.  She’s becoming quite the expert on all of this now and runs to the machine when I tell her she needs a “treatment”. 

Even her baby doll needs treatments…

Not to be left out, Ethan felt bad early this week, ranging from a below-grade fever to a fever.  Lainey decided to keep him company for a while.  Thankfully, whatever he had is gone. 

I’m so glad I was able to get this picture…Lainey is SMART and we’re not just being biased.  She figures things out, on a 2 year old level, all the time.  She was trying to get the knot out of her shoe yesterday.  Yes, I’m THAT mom who just willy-nilly pulls her child’s shoe off rather than untying it.  Call me impatient.  Or, just busy.  Anyhow, Lainey decided that a plastic knive would be just the trick to get that knot out.  lol…

I must now go and see what exactly did get done this week, what still needs to be done, and what can be put off till whenever.  :)

Our blog has won a Blog award!  And, we weren’t given this by just one reader, but by TWO!  Teresa at http://www.continuingthejourney.blogspot.com/ and Kristin at http://busytimesfour.blogspot.com/ decided that our blog was worthy of the “One Lovely Blog” award!  According to Teresa’s blog, “This award is given to those whose blog is entertaining and fun to read…one you get excited about when you notice a new entry!” 

Teresa has two children…an adorable bio teenager and a totally cute little guy from China.  AND, they’re waiting to travel to China again for little Molly!  Kristin also has bio and adopted children; two of each in fact!  I love reading both of their blogs! 

Now, I get to give this award to 3 of my favorite blogs…which, will be hard since I’m addicted to so many :)  I’m sticking to the rules…these are blogs that I go to a lot, and love it when I see a new entry!

1.  Rebecca at “La Dolce Vita – The Sweet Life” http://www.radicchis.blogspot.com/ is such a sweet, dear friend that I hope to meet one day!  Rebecca and her husband Mark have an adorable little girl, Sophia, and are “in line” to adopt from China.  Rebecca’s posts are thought-provoking, funny, faith-filled, and cute! 

2.  Patricia at “Little Cabin in the Woods” http://www.littlecabininthewoods.typepad.com/ and I received the referrals for our girls on the same day!  Her Willow is breathtaking, as are her other 2 China Empresses.  She also has 3 older sons, and she’s a homeschooling mama like me :)  Her blog is beautiful, her photography is beyond amazing, and her faith shows in every word she types. 

3.  Janet at Tuininga Treasures http://www.tuiningatreasures.blogspot.com/ is the twin I never had.  We’re both Christian women, each had 4 children (I’ll explain that one…), and we both homeschool.  Plus, we both live to tease the daylights out of each other :)  We, of course, now have 5 children and Janet one-upped me by adopting TWO at one time from Uganda last year!  Cheater…  You’ll love her blog! 

 

11 months today…

with your…

Forever…

Family!!  We love you, Lainey Q!