A Visit Down the Dock & On a Walk

I took Ian and the girls down to the dock this afternoon- Ian fished and the girls smiled pretty for pictures! Poor Ian didn't catch anything because we went earlier than the fish are usually out. The best time to go is usually around 7 pm when the water calms down, and the fish are everywhere! He usually catches fish right and left but you have to go at the right time! I'm sure we'll try again this weekend. After dinner, the four of us went for a little walk accompanied by our faithful watch dogs Gizmo and Ivy. As we were making our way down the street, we ran into Dad who had just gotten home, so he joined us on our little walk. Our neighborhood has just built a nice little boardwalk near our house, so we decided to check it out. It's long, but beautiful to walk down and the kids loved running around. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside lately since the weather has been so beautiful.

BUBBLES!!

I've finally been able to participate in another one of Donna's FFFF challenges! The girls love playing with bubbles, and they had a great time during this photo challenge. Half of the bubbles ended up in the grass and all over the three of us, but we had fun none-the-less. Emma had a harder time blowing bubbles, so she decided to just have fun and pop them all! I took close to 30 pictures, and these were the keepers! I love taking Black & White's.. in my opinion they make everything look better.

An "Emster" Video

Here's some cute video I took of the girls a few days ago. You'll hear quite a selection of songs, including a rendition of "Our God is an Awesome God", "Jesus Loves Me" and a song that Emma made up. Plus, you'll hear the girls *attempting* to say their pledge's- of Allegiance and to the Bible. They've been learning their pledges in school and they CAN say them.. but it appears they forgot during my video taping!

Where Did March Go?

It feels like just yesterday I was writing my February Re-Cap.. and now here I am again writing a March re-cap! Wow.. time is just flying by!
March was a fun month for our family... we had lot's of activities going on, so that didn't leave much blogging time!! We did manage to squeeze in a few boat rides, like the picture beloww of Emma, Esther & Kayla:

This is just a random photo I took of Emma while out on the boat. I just love her eyes.. but she looks a bit like an alien!

Oh.. and then there was that small little accident.. someone (ahem) had. This person feels pretty dumb for backing into their mother's car.. in their own driveway. In this person's defense, it was dark and raining outside so they couldn't see too well. They pretty much crushed the bumper of their mother's car, but there was hardly any damage to their own car. (Let this be said.. Nissan's have crappy bumpers!) Anyways, this person's mother had run into a friend's pick-up truck the year before and messed up the one side of the bumper.. so really this person just sped up the process of having the bumper replaced! =)

During spring break, I went to West Virginia with my church's youth group. The weather was beautiful and I had a ton of fun skiing. I hadn't been skiing in over 4 years, but I was pretty proud thet I only fell twice the entire two days, and even managed to go down a black diamond! However, I didn't get any pictures because I never took my camera out to the slopes, #1 because it wouldn't fit in my jacket and #2 because I was afraid I'd break it.

I came home from West Virginia on Thursday night, and Friday morning we packed up the car and went camping for the weekend! We went with five families that are close friends of ours and had a grand total of close to 50 people. It was such a wonderful weekend, despite the FREEZING 30 degree temperatures at night. (I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life!) We played games during the day, went canoing in the beautiful spring (and got close & personal with several alligators!), had great put-luck dinners and my favorite, sitting around the campfire singing old songs.. and getting into trouble because the curfew at the park was 10 pm and we sang and played past that time!! And the ticks we found once we got home were just an added surprise. (I won this contest since I had 3 and Ian & Elena each had 1.) Click here to see some of the pitures from that weekend.

Then, we came home from camping and Elena went to Tallahassee for a week at a camp called TeenPact. She had an awesome time and didn't want to come home! I tried to get on her computer and steal a picture from her of that week, but she doesn't have any downloaded yet. (Once she does, I'll be sure to add one!)

Ian turned 9 on March 25th!

He celebrated with a bunch of his close friends and had an awesome birthday party at his Karate school! (I'm going to upload some video later)

Here's Ess playing on the slide at our friends house.

We celebrated Ian's birthday again with our bible study group from church on Sunday.

Afterwards, we put together about 10 Easter baskets for children at the local homeless shelter. The kids had a great time making cards, and putting candy and small gifts into the baskets. It's a great way to involve the kids by letting them have fun, but also giving to others at the same time. =)

Emma & Esther contributed their artistic abilities. =)

Introducing: Frida

Here our beautiful new cousin!

Isn't she beautiful? We finally got a picture of her today, and we think she is just gorgeous! She reminds me a lot of Emma when she was younger.

Frida's doing well. She's bonded well to both my aunt and uncle and they say she is very smart and sweet! They visited the orphanage the other day, but she had a hard time leaving..she was loved very much by the ayi's. Poor thing! She is so confused about what's going on. I just keep praying that God will comfort her heart and allow her to accept her new mommy & daddy. I know she'll be fine, but it's hard during those first few days! We can't wait for her to be home soon. =) They're in Guangzhou now.

End of February Re-Cap

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately.. things have just been busy with school and it's been hard to find time to blog. So, I thought I'd just post an entry to recap some of the exciting events in later February!

First off, February is a big month for birthdays! Mom turned *$39.99 + tax* on February 4th.. (she'd kill me if I let out her real age...). Then Emma turned 4 on the 14th, and I turned 17 on February 26th! So we've had lots of birthday cake this month! In January we celebrated Esther's birthday, and later this month we will celebrate Ian's! (Then we'll have a break for awhile until Dad's birthday in July!)


Both Kayla and Ian moved up in Karate and are official Orange belts!


While I was gone over the weekend, sweet *tiny* little Emma managed to knock the lid off of our toilet and it fell to the ground, taking a huge chunk of the toilet with it! We have no idea how she got the lid off since she weighs as much as the lid does! Of course, it was while I was gone so no one got a picture of the broken toilet. After $300, here's Emma with her new toilet.


The next day, Esther somehow managed to snap one of the cabinet doors in half! I have no idea how she did it.. but here's how our cabinet currently looks!



During the last week of February, the girls attened their friend Davie Anne's 4th Birthday party! They had a great time..
Here are a few cute pictures from the party:

Singing Happy Birthday to Davie

The following shots are Davie opening her gifts and Emma "helping" her... Their facial expressions are too cute!

Davie: "Hmm.. I wonder what's inside here.."
Emma: "Another present.. "

Davie: "Wow, It's a Disney Princess Matching Game!"
Emma: "Wow! I have one of those!"

Emma: "There's something else in here... "
Davie: "Wow! A Disney Princess Cell Phone!"

Davie: "This princess cell phone is too cool! I can take it with me to China when I go pick up my Mei Mei!"
Emma: "Hmm.. I have to figure out how I can get one of those!"