T-Ball

Pink Glove - $12.00


Pint Sized Cleats - $20.00


Baseball Theme Ponytail Holder for my baby girl - Priceless!

I just thought baseball season was ending tonight ...

Ryan's team made it to the championship and a double header was on for tonight starting at 6. Little M's last t-ball game was scheduled for tonight at 6:45 (in a different town of course).

Amy most graciously volunteered to take M's to her game while Brian & I went to Ryan's.

Top of the 5th inning, we're ahead 2 to 0 (with Ryan being the proud owner of one of those runs) and the sirens went off. We waited the requisite 30 minutes but the weather didn't cooperate. So, we're on hold until Monday for Ryan.

Emma's game on the other hand was called off, I doubt seriously if it will be rescheduled. Amy says M missed her turn to bat because she had to make a potty run ... but, the most important thing - she did get a medal and a signed ball and a snack. Life is good.

More baseball next week. And I just THOUGHT we were going to slow down for a while.

Journey To Jenna

Well, our friends left early yesterday a.m. on the first leg of their trip to adopt Jenna so they should be in China by now! You can follow along on their journey if you like:

http://www.myadoptionwebsite.com/littlebutterfly/index.htm

Jenna turned 3 years old a few weeks ago and I met up with Kristie for lunch and to celebrate her birthday.

Trying to come up with a unique birthday present, I googled 'traveling with toddler' and found some of the neatest ideas to keep little hands busy on long, long flights! So, I spent several of my noon hours going to various places and found some items to go along with those ideas. Here are some of the ideas I found:

• Paint Brush & Construction Paper - The idea was to let the child just use water to "paint" on the construction paper.


• Lift-A-Flap book to keep those little hands busy.


• Small containers of playdoh


• Painters Tape - I know, this one sounded odd, but knowing how much fun Emma can have with tape, I thought it would be worth trying.


• Squishy balls


• Little toy balls that have the suction cup things on them. Those should stick very well on the airline tray table!


• Stickers!


• Craft Sticks - The ones that look like pipe cleaners. Scott has been tasked with creating little animals for miss Jenna out of those.


• Ocean Themed Finger Puppets


• A soft/cuddly little baby doll.


• "Watch Them Grow" animals, the ones that come in a little capsule and you place it in a cup of water and watch them grow.


• Stacking cups

There were some more things, but now I can't remember them all. Hopefully they will come in handy on that 'never-ending-flight' home. I've mentioned our flight(s) before, Emma was good for the most part but my goodness I felt like we were never going to get home!

Please pray for safe travels for our friends and for a smooth transition for Miss Jenna!

Go Yankees!

The playoff games for Ryan's league started the week Ryan was at church camp but thankfully he was back for the subsequent games. They played this past Monday night and lost by one run in a highly emotional game that included the coach from the other team being ejected from the game! One doesn't typically see that kind of drama in the league we play in so it was quite surprising for me! Emma had a game the same night and we were just arriving as the action started. We got there just in time to see Ryan's team looking defeated and then 2.3 seconds later they were jumping up and down in excitement with that being followed by some pretty loud fussing from the other team. Something about it made me think of the wave thing they do at the big games.

Anyway, all the action was over by the time M and I got up to the stands. Then all of our team's excitement went down the drain when they lost by the 1 run. This dropped them down into the losers bracket and they played again last night and won 12 - 3! So now they are playing on Thursday night and will be facing the team they lost the 1 run to. Emma's last game is the same night, what's a mama to do?!

Little Ryan is going to be one tired little guy this week as he goes to an all day basketball camp during the day and then with all these games at night, we're not getting in bed at a decent hour. If they win the first game on Thursday then they will play again at 7:30 that night. Surely to goodness July will be a slower month for us!

Emma's Friends

Okay, I know you guys want to see the picure I mentioned earlier.

This past weekend we had the pleasure of meeting up with several families from our travel group and while we had this many together, we had a group picture taken.

There were 14 families in our travel group and all of our daughters resided in the same SWI (Social Welfare Institute/Orphanage) and we were united with our daughters all on the same big day. It was quite emotional to say the least!

Eight of the families were able to make it to the photo-op on Saturday. Aren't the girls just beautiful? I'll have to admit that I can't quit looking at these photos and thinking about the blessing the girls are to their respective families. Occasionally people will make the comment about how lucky/blessed our daughters are - but I tell you, we're the ones who are blessed beyond measure.

It's amazing how much the little stinkers have changed from a mere 3 years ago. They are all spunky and delightful little girls and they had an absolute ball playing with one another.

What Do You Think!

Well, woohoo and happy Tuesday to me! It started off with getting blog flogged by two different friends this a.m. for not having updates from our trip this past weekend to the AHH Reunion picnic - the annual picnic that our adoption agency has. The day started looking up though when I had the nicest offer to have my blog made over! Not sure what I did to deserve such kindness but boy do I appreciate it!

Hop on over to Leslie's blog and check out this kind woman! I think she did an amazing job with ours!

http://leslie-world.blogspot.com/

We first met Leslie at Wal-Mart within days of returning home from China with Emma and then ours paths crossed a few more times and now three years later I'm the recipient of this most kind gift.

Now, anyone want to take on say the house, the car, the closets or my oh' my - the dining room table?! They all could use some extreme make overs themselves!

Back to my blog-flogging ... I have his weird thing about wanting to post things in chronological order. Is that goofy or what? This idiosyncrasy started with scrapbooking and has carried over to blogging. For instance, I still have pictures and comments to make about our trip to Nashville back in April but can't bring myself to put 'em up since I've posted newer things since then. Anyway, I'm dying to post some pictures from our AHH reunion from this past weekend but the pictures are still residing on my camera and the download fairy hasn't been so kind to move them over to my laptop yet. I do however possess the cutest group picture of some of the girls from our travel group that I'm just dying to post ... but again, we have that whole chronological order hangup. So ... instead of therapy, I'll just jump right in and post it later today. I have to either get over my hangup or as the nike thing says "just do it" ...

Leslie - Again, thank you so much for the beautiful blog makeover. You did an excellent job!

More T-Ball Pix

Emma is having all kinds of fun playing t-ball this summer ... and I'm having fun taking pictures! I think the little stinker likes having brother out there helping out too. Here we have him coaching 3rd base.

This is the last week of her season though - it seems like it was over in the blink of an eye.

Baby Girl Learns to Swim

There she is!

There she isn't!

Sportin' Some New Hot Pink Goggles!

Swim Baby Girl Swim!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, little Miss M's has been learning to swim! She had a lesson almost every night last week and then through the weekend too. She's doing an excellent job in regards to the motions & mechanics needed for swimming and she doesn't seem to be afraid of going under the water, but bless her short little bones - she's having a hard time getting her head out of water high enough to get a breath. She's trying though and giving it her all and that's as much as I can ask for. On her last day she was able to go about 3/4 the way across the pool and she was able to come up for air 4 times, so we were pleased with that. We're going to leave it alone for now and just let her enjoy the water for the rest of the summer and then maybe go back next year for some additional lessons.

She's also too short to be able to grab on to the side of the pool deck too, at least at the pool she learned in so we'll just take it slow. Like I said though, at least she is enjoying it!

T-Ball

Little Miss Emma is now about half way through her first ever t-ball season! I would be remiss to not mention that she's the cutest one out there :-) She seems to be enjoying herself and seems to be paying attention pretty well too. She still has a ways to go on her hitting - of course it would help if we practiced with her, but so far she is really enjoying it. Of course, it could be due to the "snacks" at the end too. It's cute though because some of those kids are a lot bigger than her but it doesn't seem to bother her one bit!

Brent's Green Beans

Emma & Angie Planting Beans

Speaking of the friends that I talked about in my previous post ... as I mentioned, they can cook like nobody's 'bidness. When we adopted Emma, we returned from China on a Saturday evening of Memorial Day weekend. We were bushed! That flight, or more appropriately "flights" take forever. We flew from Guangzhou, China to Hong Kong, to Chicago and then on in to Louisville. I don't remember the exact times but I'm thinking we spent 26 hours traveling. Needless to say, we were TIRED when we landed. We were met at the airport by all kinds of friends and we arrived home to a freshly stocked fridge and several days worth of meals. What a blessing!

Anyway, our friends (mentioned in the previous post) invited us out on Memorial Day for dinner and swimming. We were still exhausted but you just can't pass on dinner at their house. Not only are they good cooks but they are just awesome company too. Dinner consisted of Brent's Green Beans - beans grown in their garden, canned and then seasoned southern' style. And man on man they are awesome!

The funny thing though, was that little Emma could not eat enough of them. That poor child ate like she hadn't eaten in months (and believe me, she had been eating well for us). But she LOVES those beans. It's so cute too because every time we've been out there since then she is scoping out the dishes and you can just tell she is looking for the beans. Anytime we have them somewhere else, even the canned variety at home - she always tells us they are NOT Brent's Beans!

She also likes to spend time in their garden helping Angie pick things. So, the last time we were out there, Angie had saved some seeds just for Emma to plant. Now that baby girl can have her own little section of green beans.

Again, as Emma said the other day "Thank you Jesus for Friends!"

In Honor Of Missing Ryan

Ryan spent last week at 4H camp and this week at church camp ... and I'm ready for the little guy to make it home! It's been pretty quiet around the house and even though it seems like we've had something going on every night, I still miss him. Two weeks is too long!

So, while I am thinking about him, and missing him, and wishing he was sitting in my lap - even though he's too big to sit in my lap - the next best thing to do is to look at pictures of him. It cracks me up to see him enjoying the water so much because he used to be very scared of learning to swim and especially to go under water. But he learned several years ago through an instructor that says she can teach you to swim in 7 days. Let me say this, she earned her money with him. Speaking of her, Emma is currently taking lessons - pictures of her coming up in a day or two.

These were taken a few weeks ago out at some friends. They had a big party to celebrate their daughter graduating from high school. This is the couple who first invited us to the church where we are now and we've been friends with them ever since. They are lots of fun to hang out with and visit with ... and man they can cook too!



I decided to crop this one & repost ... have I ever mentioned I LOVE my new camera?!



And then while I was at it, I thought I'd crop it again.

Our Friend's New Blessing

Almost two years ago I received an email from a lady in Washington that I had met online during the process of adopting Emma. She had setup a yahoo group for people with June 2006 LID's and she knew we were in the process of adopting again and wanted me to join (even though I had sworn off joining any new groups until we had our login date). The reason she asked me to join was because there was family who had joined and they were from Louisville and this was their first adoption and Tassie wanted me to touch base with them. Well, I did because Tassie asked. Who would have known from that one email that a wonderful friendship would have been born!

Here we are two years later and we're still friends with their family. Both of their boys absolutely adore Emma and the feelings are mutual.

Anyway, to get to the point of my story ... they decided to adopt a special needs child and were matched with this precious, precious little girl! They will be traveling soon to adopt her and we are SOOO excited for them! She will be 3 years old on Friday and obviously is such a little cutie pie! You can follow their story at:
http://www.myadoptionwebsite.com/littlebutterfly/about.htm


That page shows one of the first pictures they received of her. It's amazing how much they bundle up the little ones in China!!!

Their main page is:

http://www.myadoptionwebsite.com/littlebutterfly/index.htm


CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT & KRISTIE!!!!

Kristie and I are going to get to have lunch together on Friday & celebrate Miss Jenna's birthday!

As Emma said the other day "Thank you Jesus for Friend"!

Beijing Olympic Gardening

Check this out! Too cool!

http://ericteh.blogspot.com/2008/05/beijing-olympics-gardening.html

Sunglass.Bracelet.Purse.Necklace Monster!

This is what happens with Ryan & Emma play together while I'm out mowing! She always ends up dressed one odd way or another. Once time he had her dressed in his cap and baseball shirt, which was really cute ... but this time they utilized all the accessories they could find!

It's a Camper's Life

Ryan spent last week at 4H camp & had a blast! We really enjoyed hearing all about his big week - swimming, shooting a real gun (now that scares a mama), compound dows, zip lines and high ropes, canoes, you name it - they had all kinds of fun.

He left for his week all bright eyed:



And returned one tired little camper!


He leaves today for church camp ... I miss the little guy already!

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

I know I posted this picture the other day (along w/ the other Fancy Nancy Pix) - but there is something about this picture that just makes me smile. She's the poster child for everything that is funny, cute, ornery and obstinate then topped with a big ol' heap of the Love of Life.

Lord I thank Thee daily for our children and the blessings they are and the fun and life they have added to our family!

School Year Comes to An End

The end of the school year finally arrived for Ryan and with that came several activities at school. It's hard to believe my little munchkin just finished the 4th grade - it seems like only yesterday that I was rocking him and measuring his tiny little foot in the palm of my hand. It won't be much longer than he will be taller than me! Back to "end of school year" ... there was a class party to celebrate finishing up their writing portfolios so I was able to go out and have lunch with him.



Then there was a fund raiser at a local bar-b-que restaurant for the kids going to church camp:



We also had the privilege of attending their school play "Go West" - that was a lot of fun! He's on the back row, toward the left with the red bandana.





Now the summer fun begins! He left early this a.m. for 4H camp and then next week he is off to church camp.

I miss him already :-(

Fancy Nancy to the Max

What a blessing to have people in our lives who care so much for our children! This week we received a big ol' box of some super duper "Fancy Nancy" doo-dads for Miss Emma from our friend Katrina. We met Katrina several years ago when we started the adoption process for our next child and she was then our family advocate. The very first time we met her in person, she was quite smitten with Emma and to my delight, she had the honor of giving Emma her very first sucker. We've been friends ever since!

Back to the box ... Emma was absolutely delighted! It's funny because she is all about surprises and suspense and when I told her she had a present she wanted to wait and open it after breakfast. Before she tore into the package she went down a list of what she thought was in it and boy, her expectations were more than met. Emma is now the proud owner of a "Fancy Nancy" skirt, hat, purse, red feather boa, jewelry that lights up, TWO new pair of fancy shoes, sunglasses ... and I'm sure I'm leaving something out - but all kinds of fun stuff. Katrina said this was to help her in her "pink and glitter education"!

Needless to say, we've had a delightful couple of days with all the glittery things. Our friend Amy had added to Emma's "Fancy Nancy" library a week or so ago which we have now read countless times - now Emma can dress up and read them too!