handsful

A few notes on the wee one of the house…

Favorite toy:  Playdoh

Favorite thing to watch on mommy’s computer:  Youtube “Wheels on the Bus”

Favorite chore:  helping to unload the dishwasher

Favorite sign:  help

Favorite trick to play:  Stealing your chair when you get up. 

Favorite annoying habit:  Turning the lights off.  (she’s now tall enough to reach them…lucky us)

Favorite drink:  juice (which she gets sparingly!)

Favorite food:  hard to narrow down, but we’ll go with cheese

Favorite means of transportation:  the boys.  Okay, this one is a joke. 

Favorite outfit:  jeans, tee, barefeet

Favorite treat to eat at a ballgame:  dum dum lollipop

Favorite thing to do:  GO…anywhere.  She’s not a homebody!  Here we are eating out when daddy was in San Fran. 

Favorite color:  green (the first and only color she can ID so far)

Favorite outside activity:  swing (either her swing or the hammock swing with a brother or sister)

Favorite game to play:  pretending to be you (and telling you that you’re HER).  She thinks this is a HOOT! 

There you have it, a few of L’s favs.  She’s definitely our favorite 2 1/2 year old! 

** Sidenote!  I’ll be the mother of a teenager in less than a week.  Stay tuned…

 

 

I wanted you to know about this publication I’m a part of called Serious.Life Magazine.  They just published the February issue today, and I am in their Featured Blog Directory. It’s a very high quality magazine… you’ll really like it.

The magazine includes a lot of great content from bloggers you’ll appreciate, as well as great features, photos and other content.  The magazine is owned and published by a family who have seven kids, three adopted and one who has Leukemia (www.riggsfamilyblog.com). The magazine gives away a bunch of ads to charities and ministries.  Besides great articles on interesting people, there is a lot about family, adoption, personal finance, spiritual life, humor… all sorts of “life” topics.

Again, the subscription is free, and I know you’ll enjoy the magazine, so take a minute to check it out and sign up to get future issues.  www.seriouslifemagazine.com

We had a blast hosting the Jr. High kids tonight!  And, we couldn’t be happier about the end of the game :) 

 

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…