I Forgot the Eggs!

I love watching Hope's firsts!! She was so cute trying to figure out why on earth we were dying eggs. She loved doing it, even though she never really caught onto the fact that you needed to be gentle with the eggs. I think she only ended up with one egg which wasn't cracked. Noelle took the longest because she took decorating and dying them very seriously. Her artistic talents always amaze me! She is a girl after my own heart. After all the eggs were dry, we set out front for the Easter Egg Hunt. We explained to Hope in great detail what she needed to do. She was so excited. I was so proud of her for getting it! She had fun and did really well.

LeeLee on the other hand didn't have much luck in her hunting, so this is the pitiful face she was making.

Hunter finished first, but only because he cheated and grabbed a few that were supposed to be for the little girls. We later did a do over, and everyone was all smiles the second go round.

We ended the night by making resurrection rolls. It was so cute when I was asking them questions about Jesus death and resurrection. Hope would raise her hands and give the most interesting unbiblical details I have ever heard. I don't quite think she has been able to put it all together yet, because when her roll cooked and she broke it open she was greatly distressed the her "Jesus" was no longer there.

Now This is Who They Really Are!

I keep going back and forth on which one I like best. They are both by far my all time favorite pictures of my kids. So, when you come to my house, it isn't those pretty pictures below that you will see framed, it is these. These make me smile, these remind me of how truly blessed I am. These capture each one in such a perfect little moment of time, that somehow reflects every bit of who they really are. These are the children that I am proud to claim. Thank you Lord that you didn't give me picture perfect children, you gave me these precious, imperfect children, and I love them so.

Easter Pictures 2011

Easter is my favorite holiday. It is what makes me who I am. It is because my Lord rose again, that I know I am following the one true God. I love waking up and knowing that my Christ is alive....I wake up knowing that everyday, but after the three days where I focus on how my sin placed my savior on the cross, I love the overwhelming victory that Easter Sunday brings. This is the only time when I make sure the girls have new dresses, and I just love to take the time to make their dresses for Easter too. I knew Noelle and I would be doing sips n strokes on Sat, so I knew I needed to get the dresses done early. I was blessed by one of my best friends who came over and ironed all my seams, and bias tape, and in return I blessed her with a dress for her daugher. It was a great trade off, and I was so thankful to have her. So, here is how it all turned out. See, they can be serious.......however the next post will have my favorite pictures, because even though these are all beautiful children, they just don't reflect the children that I know.

Sips 'n Strokes

For Christmas two years ago, Noelle had asked for a gift card to Sips 'n Strokes. She however then couldn't find a painting she wanted to do. She didn't ever want to do the kids classes, she was waiting on something special. As soon as she saw this bunny on the calendar, she was ready to cash in the gift card and sign up. I decided to take the class with her since I had been wanting to try it out too. When we arrived, they looked a little nervous when they saw how young Noelle was. They said that really this is one of the hardest paintings because drawing all the eggs gets interesting. I was so proud of her. She really hung in there and worked hard on her painting. Here were our finished results!! It took us 2 hours longer than scheduled to finish them, but we were both excited with how they turned out. I loved having this special time with my special girl. Hopefully we can sneak off and do this again sometime.

My Baby Turns 6

It is really hard for me to believe that LeeLee is 6. As you all learned earlier, LeeLee is convinced that she is going to marry Justin Bieber. She has a ranking system, she says God is first, then me, then Justin Bieber. I guess I should be thankful that God and I are in the top two spots, but the fact that Justin Bieber is even in the top 10 is still somewhat disturbing to me. But when it comes to LeeLee and presents, I knew that Justin Bieber stuff would bring the biggest smile. I wrestled with whether or not to fule the fire, but in the end I figured she would appreciate JB stuff more than any toys. Noelle and I shopped for her and we lucked out at Walmart. Obviously he is on the way out, because all the shirts and things were marked down to $2 or less. We were able to find her three shirts, a jacket, a hat, wall stickers, and a new poster. Noelle was cautious about us getting the wall stickers and the new poster since they share a room. She doesn't want any of her friends to think they belong to her. I don't think she has anything to worry about, LeeLee will proudly claim them. Once she opened up her Justin Bieber goodies, she got dressed for dinner. This is what she looked like when he headed out. She was so proud, and walking with quite a bit of sass. She is such an amazing little girl. I am thankful for each of her 6 years. I pray that the Lord blesses her with many more years. I know that when God made LeeLee, he totally broke the mold, and I pray that she will always keep him at number one.

Lemon Aid

Yes, I know I spelled lemonade wrong. It was on purpose because it truly is Lemon Aid. I have a heart for China. One that I can't shake. In fact I often think I left my heart in China in 2006, and that it remains there. I have always had a dream of going back and running a camp for kids that are left behind. I have prayed that the Lord would just take me back there. I found that my vision for a camp in China is already being done by an amazing organization, www.bringmehope.org So, I prayed about it and decided that I had to go. Paul and I talked at length about the possibility of Noelle going with me, and we both agreed that if she felt like the Lord was leading her, then she could go too. What is interesting is that Noelle has always said she didn't want to go to China, but as soon as she learned the details of this trip all the fears left her immediately. We asked her to pray about it for a few days, then she came to us, and said that yes, she felt like she should go. She knew it would be no small task to come up with the $2300 it would take to go, but she tackled it head on. She wrote letters for support, gathered things to sell on ebay, and baked tons of sweet treats for her lemon aid stand. She recruited her friends to help, and they all had fun telling people about the trip. The Lord blessed us with plenty of friends who have a heart for the orphans of China, and plenty of strangers who opened up their pockets to her during her lemon aid stand. She raised $170. She plans to have one more lemon aid stand before we travel to pay for her visa. That is the only money she still lacks. I am proud of her willingness to work so hard for this. I know the heart that God has blessed her with, and I know the burden that she also carries for the children still in China. She is such an amazing big sister, and already has plans to adopt herself one day. A special thanks to the M family and Noelle's best friend, CC, for all you all did to help with the stand, what a blessing you all are!

Hamster Ball Derby 2011

If you have been following our blog for long, you may remember the Hamster Ball Derby of 2010. Since hamsters are not known for their longevity of life, we only had one repeat hamster in this race, and wouldn't you know it would be Jewel, last name Ya, LeeLee's hamster who wasn't really known for rolling. The word must have gotten out about this thing, because there were more hamsters this year. Hunter and LeeLee were against each other in the first round. Surprisingly, Jewel last name Ya, must have learned a thing or two, because she knocked Hunter out of the competition. Noelle went into the race knowing that her hamster probably wouldn't do well. All the kids train their hamsters for a few weeks before the race. The training just consists of them all putting them in the balls and yelling at them the reach the predetermined finish line first. After about 10 races and Noelle's hamster never rolling, I decided to take a closer look. Sure enough, her sweet little hamster, Chili, only has three feet. She was an adoptable hamster that had been placed for adoption because it had been abused in it's former home. We had not noticed that the hamster had a nub instead of a foot. So, as we expected, Chili never rolled at all, knocking Noelle out of the competition. She and Hope were sharing, since I don't feel Hope is ready for her own hamster yet. Once all the elimination rounds were finished, it was LeeLee and Jewel last name Ya, that took home the grand prize. I guess LeeLee's hamster decided to bump things up a bit this year. LeeLee won a great new cage. She was sweet and decided to let Hunter use the new cage since Jewel last name Ya is so old that she may not adjust to a new home well. We will all be looking forward to next year's derby.