LINK TO OUR JOURNEY TO JILLIANA

LINK TO OUR JOURNEY TO JILLIANA
CLICK ON JILLIANA'S PHOTO TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY TO CHINA

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

At the Beach



A meal in the Motorhome

We are at the beach for 2 1/2 weeks.  The weather is beautiful and we are visiting all of the places that we grew used to when we lived in our motorhome  while our house was getting remodeled.  I look back at those days with happy memories even though at the time I was thinking how hard it was.  Two, three year olds in a motorhome!  How did we do it?

Lily was so proud.  She helped Daddy put this cabinet together.  She hammered the nails in. She is definitely a Daddy's girl and wants to be where he is at all times.  She is at the why stage and everything is a "Why?" Why are you making breakfast?  Why are you brushing your hair? Why are you going to the bathroom?  I don't know if she just enjoys being able to  asks things or if she enjoys talking. I am excited that she is so curious and is learning so fast, but by the end of the day I just don't always feel like explaining why I am doing things that I do everyday and that she has asked me about before.  Such as, "Why are you brushing your teeth?"  I really think that it is not so much why?  But that she just wants to talk and that is something she knows how to say.  I need to ask God to give me the patience to keep on answering.  I should be happy that she  is not shut down and wants so much to know about everything.  One of the questions that I also get really tired of is, for example,  I call Emma in to fix her hair and Lily comes in and says " Why do you always do Emma's hair first?"  This is not true, it just happened to be Emma walking by when I was ready.  Or, Why do you always sit by Meilynn? (When we go out to eat)  this also is not true.  In fact her chair is next to mine at our dinner table.  I feel like I have this little person checking constantly to make sure that she is getting what everybody else is getting before they do.  I have spent a lot of time explaining this and I am about ready to try the old "because I am the Mom and that is why.  I have read about this same type of thing with others that have adopted.  I constantly need to remind myself, it has still only been 5 months.  She has made remarkable progress.
Daddy's helper
We had our friends Marty and Debbie down for the weekend.  They guys went motorcycle riding while we went to the Quail Botanical Gardens.  They were having an insect fair with booths and activities.  The gardens were beautiful and there is a lot for kids to do there.  It is so important to take Lily and show her so much.  There is so much that she needs to learn to connect the dots for reading.  The other day in her school book there was a picture of a cow.  She pointed to the udders and asked me what they were?  I told her that they gave us milk.  She looked at me like I was joking and then I tried to explain to her.  It just reminded me about how much there is to get caught up on.  She did not know these things in her dialect either.  There are just so many things that she does not know.  She doesn't know animals or sounds that animals make.  I am pretty sure that she has not seen them in books let alone in person.  I know that there are orphanages where the kids see books and go to school, but Lily is just like having a baby in so many ways.

Pointing out her favorite butterfly.  She loves the color yellow.
Emma showing me her favorite.
Stink bugs!!!1
A big frog
I missed her face, but this hand pointing at the snake is our brave girl Lily touching it.  Emma and Meilynn wouldn't go anywhere near it.
In the gardens under the waterfall
Emma and Meilynn playing tic tac toe
Debbie and Lily playing tic tac toe
In the tree house.  After lunch we brought the girls back and left them with Daddy and Marty and then Debbie and I went to the spa for a facial.  I think it has been a year since I have had one.
When we got back the guys had our dinner ready and we put the girls to bed and played cards.




Sunday watching the World Cup with our friends.  We are big soccer fans and were rooting (is that how you spell it?) for Spain because Kami had lived there for three years.  Marty and Debbie were rooting for the the Netherlands since he has a little Netherland blood.  The girls love Marty and Debbie!

Fourth of July at the Beach


Happy Fourth of July!  I am late again!  We spent fourth of July at the beach.  The girls love decorating their bikes for a little mini parade that the community puts on.  We had my sister and her boyfriend down for the weekend.

It was Lily's first fourth of July and she had no problem getting in the spirit of things.

Emma, Meilynn, and Lily


Sharing a chair and having a snack

Lily getting help from Daddy decorating her bike.  It amazes me how she just goes along with the flow without even knowing what this is all about.  She has no trouble jumping in.


Emma helping Daddy
Fancy bikes and  happy girls
The little parade getting ready to go around the block
The girls ready to go.  Emma was sad because just before the parade started Lily ran into her bike and the balloon flew off.
Lily enjoying the parade
A girl in the neighborhood was painting faces and legs.  Here Meilynn is getting her leg painted while her sisters look on
Meilynn getting a cake painted on her leg
The finished product
Emma getting a Hello Kitty painted on hers.
I think they look pretty good!
They liked them!


Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Father's Day and Houseboat Trip

I  know, I know..... a little late for my Father's Day Post, but things are just so busy.

We started the morning with a few pictures of the girls.  I got these dresses at the Gymboree Outlet for a really good price.  They like to all have the same dress some of the time.

The girls all gave Daddy an airplane so that he could fly it with them in the afternoon.
Daddy wowed them with his flying skills.

Meilynn posing for the picture while she waits for her sisters.  She is usually the last one ready so I think she like that on this day she was first.
Meilynn and Emma in a hug.
Everyone is ready for Church now.  Oldest to youngest.  Lily, Meilynn, and Emma

We went to for a bagel at Panera where we love to order the Cinnamon Crunch Bagel.  After bagels we went to Church and then out to lunch with Grandpa and the whole family.

We are so fortunate to have both Grandpa's alive and well and to have such a wonderful Daddy.  I must say that my girls (and that is all five of them) have been fortunate to have such great men in their lives.  These men have modeled the love of God.  They have shown their love for their families. They are strong in their beliefs, are hard working, have great sense of humors and have been great role models for the kind of husbands that they should look for.  One of our daughter's has already found such a man.  My hope is that all of them are as lucky as I have been.

Mommy giving Lily a happy face for breakfast. (yogurt, with cheerio eyes and peach lips)
Lily giving Mommy a happy face in return.

Drying off after a fun swim day with our friend Zoe and her Mommy
Meilynn getting warm

Emma
Emma on the houseboat at the top of the slide.  Our family rents a houseboat every year on Lake Mead.  This year our houseboat had a slide.  Some of the family stays on the houseboat, some stay in the little motel, and we stayed in our motorhome.  My Mom and Dad go as well as my sister Debbie and her friend Tom, my sister Julie and her two boys, Frank and Nick, my Aunt Claudia and her family Kim, Damon and their two children, and our friends Marty and Debbie and then our family.  This year we had our whole family, Kami, Meghan, Nick, Lily, Meilynn, Emma and Mike and me.  That is 22 people on the houseboat during the day. We always have a great time.
Lily with Frank and Nick.  She loves her cousins.  It amazes us how she just goes along with everything like she has always done it.  She loves each new adventure and is not afraid to try anything.  She was first off the slide and she was doing the knee board and the easy ski like she had always been doing it.  It is over 100 degrees, but Lily has no body fat and she was always cold after getting out of the water.


Meilynn's favorite thing to do is dig in the sand.  She can spend hours doing it.















There was a lot of this going on as well.

Emma playing in the water and building with Nick
















Lily enjoyed the sand also
The best part of the trip?  Having ALL of my daughters together.
Emma, Meilynn, Lily, Kami, and Meghan

Emma on the knee board with her sister Kami
Watching their sisters
Emma on the knee board
Lily on the knee board.  It is hard to believe that just 5 short months ago she was living in an orphanage in China
Lily, no hands!
Blowing a kiss!
Her sisters got her to do this

Meilynn showing us how to do it
doing tricks
Emma having fun
A lot of hard work!
Daddy showing us that he still has it.
We always take the boat on a long trip to the next marina and have a popsicle and feed the carp and ducks.
The trick is to finish it before it melts.  This is almost impossible in the heat.
Meilynn was able to do it on this day!
One of the fun things that I did as a kid was to wash our hair in the Lake.  The girls got to do it on the this trip.
Meghan washing Lily's hair
Having a little fun with it!
Meilynn with Kami


Grandpa and Grandma and the girls

Do we really  have to wear these life jackets?

Lily enjoying a s'more
Yum!
Lily snuggling with Grandma
Emma likes a "vanilla s'more".  The girl cannot stand chocolate.
Lily giving Grandpa a hug
Meilynn fixing Nick's hair
We even saw some wildlife
It was a great trip.  I took so many video's of the girls doing all of their water tricks.  Lake Mead is beautiful.  It is sad that the water is getting lower every year and their are fewer places to launch your boat as the water continues to go down.  Going to the Lake and the Colorado river has been a part of my whole life.  I am glad that I have been able to share it with our daughters.