A picnic at the Dairy Barn

Ansley catching a ride on Grandpa's shoulders

Elisabeth playing in the dirt

Crossing the stream

Crossing the swinging bridge (not my favorite thing to do)

We took a rest and watched horse after horse cross the stream. Ansley was ready to saddle up and go riding!

Draft horse pulling a cart. This horse was huge!

Ansley riding on Grandma's back

Action shot! Stephanie throwing the frisbee to Ansley

An old cabin close to where we had our blankets spread out for our picnic

The weather was so nice this past weekend that we decided to head home from church on Sunday and pack a picnic lunch. We went to the Dairy Barn (our favorite place for a picnic). They happened to be having a Bridal Expo in the Dairy Barn itself and there was a band set up outside so we even had free music to accompany our picnic! An added bonus! We tried some kite flying but the kites weren't very good and wouldn't fly very well so we decided to take a walk and go see the horses. It was such a nice day that people were riding horses all over the place. We loved watching them ride. The kids played in the stream and overall it was a great day!

Thankful Thursday

I haven't done one of these in a while and to be honest I'm kind of blah today and don't feel like doing it. But that is probably the best reason to do it. To realize that I have alot to be thankful for even when I am having a not so good day.

So here it goes (not sure if I can come up with 10 today but I'll try)......

1. My husband is home from DC and had a safe trip.
2. For the rain this weekend because it gives me a good reason to stay inside and get my house back in order.
3. New carpet that replaces our previous disgustingly nasty carpet
4. Getting new carpet that made me clean out junk and get rid of some stuff (it's just one of those projects that gets put off until made to do it). Still have a long way to go though.
5. That so far we don't have the flu or stomach virus....even though everyone around us seems to have it. We are using lots of hand santizer these days.
6. Ansley is now eating apple slices (she doesn't love it and still complains but at least I can get her to eat them). It's one more food to add to her "I will eat" list. If you know her you know that her list is short.....very very short.
7. All the photos I have of my children and how much fun it is to look at them from time to time. Brings back so many memories. You can never have too many pictures.
8. Technology and how it is so much easier to keep in touch with people now.
9. Watching Ansley develop into her own person.
10. Listening to Elisabeth repeat her memory verses and bible songs that she learns at Mother's Morning Out. She has such a sweet little voice.

Wow....I did it......10 things. See, there is always stuff to be thankful for (even if it's just small stuff) even when you're having a bad day. God is good......all the time.

A few random pictures

Portrait of Ansley - by Aunt Pat
Portrait of Elisabeth - by Aunt Pat

Ansley, Stephanie and my Dad - February 2009

I'm posting some random pictures that aren't related at all but thought you might like to see.

Two of the pictures are photos taken of paintings that my Aunt, Pat, did of both of the kids. Pat they both turned out great and we want to thank you for painting them! What a nice heirloom they will be. The kids think they are so cool!

I don't have much to write today because our life hasn't been too eventful lately. Just work and school. We are getting new floors put in upstairs so our life lately has been moving all our stuff around so the guys can put the floors in. And in the process we are trying to clean out stuff along the way. I wish I could be a minimalist but I know it will never happen. It's the thought that counts right?

Gotta run -- we have to finish moving stuff downstairs for the carpet guys that come bright and early Monday morning. I can't wait!

Chinese New Year

Elisabeth and her best friend Caroline
Katherine (she was in our travel group)

Kimli (she was in our travel group - from the same orphange as Elisabeth)

Elisabeth and John

Ansley making a goofy face (as usual!)

Ansley, Elisabeth and Caroline playing on the gate outside of the restaurant.

Emma and Ansley (Emma is Kimli's sister and traveled with us to China)

Elisabeth

We packed out the restaurant. It's the best turnout yet!

Ansley the photographer

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I've been sick ever since then and just haven't felt like doing much on the blog. I thought I just had a bad cold but realized last Sunday when I felt so bad at church that I was close to tears that maybe I have a sinus infection. I have bad plumbing in my head so I get sinus infections way too often. They are nasty and evil. I am on antibiotics now and feel better but not as good as I should. I have a feeling that I might be back at the doctor soon. At least I can function for now though.

On February 7th we attended our annual Chinese New Year Luncheon at our local Red Bowl Asian Bistro. There were about 100 others there (all families with children from China or families waiting to go to China to pick up their daughters). It is great to get all the children together from time to time. Two of the families from our travel group were there and it is always nice to see them and see how the girls have changed. Enjoy the pictures of all the beautiful girls!

Our crazy dog and other stuff

Elisabeth and Ansley at the Georgia Aquarium

Elisabeth and the alligators at the Aquarium


Elisabeth and the Sea Nettles

Ansley and the piranhas (not sure that is spelled correctly)

Elisabeth thought the starfish was neat

Winston and Belle. No I didn't place his paw around Belle. They just love each other!

Belle (our new puppy -- now 5 months old) is a lab through and through. She loves the water. Tonight Ansley was taking a shower and the dog was going nuts trying to get to the water. She finally just jumped in with Ansley (Jan I know you are cringing right now and thinking we are all very strange - and we probably are!). We got her out and took her into another room and before you knew it she was running down the hall like a crazy dog and back in the shower. She thought it was great. Ansley couldn't stop laughing and neither could I. I couldn't talk I was laughing so hard. Elisabeth was screaming to get the dog out of the shower and John was just annoyed at the whole thing and left us all in the bathroom laughing and screaming and getting very wet trying to get the dog out of the shower! What a sight! It's never a dull moment with Belle around.

We woke up this morning with more snow. Or should I say a slight dusting of snow. I can't believe the school district actually canceled school. It could only happen in the South. And they want us to make up this day on our Memorial Day weekend? I can't help it that they made a very bad judgement call. So instead we did crafts and then ran some errands and had Ansley's friend, Sarah, over to play. It barely got above freezing today and that is WAY too cold for me to be outside so we stayed in all day today. I love my children dearly but I am glad that tomorrow will be a regular school day.

Chinese Dumplings

In the previous post I talked about making Chinese dumplings. Well, I made them tonight and they turned out pretty well. We ate alot of them (when I say we I mean everyone except Ansley of course). Elisabeth liked them and that was my main goal. She loves eating them at Red Bowl Asian Bistro so I am trying to be more adventurous and make more homemade Chinese food so it becomes our tradition on Chinese New Year. My neighbor even came over and tried them and said they were good. Hopefully she was telling the truth! :-) Next I'm going to try fried rice. I saw a good recipe on a cooking show a while back and wrote it down but haven't tried it yet. I'll let you know how that turns out as well.

Happy Chinese New Year 2009!

It's the year of the Ox and here's wishing your family a Happy New Year! Last week we went on a search for a good Asian market to buy ingredients to make Chinese dumplings. We went to 2 places that are close by. One I liked and one I didn't. At the one I liked we bought some Asian popsicles, chocolate and strawberry wafer cookies, dumpling wrappers and Chinese cabbage. I think I am going to attempt to make the dumplings tomorrow. I'll let you know how they turn out! Elisabeth loves the ones that we get at the local Asian bistro so I'm going to try to re-create them at home. I hope to go back to the Asian market and even find some new ones to start buying some new items here and there and trying them. It's so much fun!

Ansley's class is reading a story in their reading book this week titled "China Town". Her teacher saved it until this week so it would coincide with Chinese New Year. Ansley is bringing stuff each day this week to share with the class. Today she took a Chinese lantern to hang up in the class and a story book that explains Chinese New Year customs and traditions. We have 2 copies of the book so Elisabeth took it to Mother's Morning Out today and they read it to the class. She was so excited! Later this week Ansley will take some of the coffee table books we have so the kids can see a picture of what China Town looks like in New York and see pictures of the dragon dance. She is also going to take a little goody bag with chopsticks and a lucky money envelope filled with gold plastic coins and Chinese candy.

We hope your 2009 is prosperous! Happy Chinese New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:
1. snow that came so we could play and sled but then melted so the kids could go back to school the next day!
2. Red Bowl's Sha Cha stirfry
3. new babies
4. God's timing is perfect even though we have a hard time believing it sometimes
5.visiting family recently
6. my tire could be fixed without having to buy a new one
7. my 3 yr old who repeatedly lets us know that God made her and that we should be kind and compassionate to one another.
8. the Lost premiere finally came on last night. That show makes me nuts (in a good way). It's addictive.
9.pony tail holders to put my hair up with when having a bad hair day
10. friends that love my kids for who they are......good & bad

Have no fear

Have no fear.....we'll protect you! (Elisabeth and her friend Bryce)

Snow Day

After a long morning of playing in the snow
Snowball fight

Breland's first snow (our neighbor)

Oops! How do you control this thing?

Sledding in the cul-de-sac

Pouring snow on Belle

Elisabeth

Look how happy I am that I don't have to go to school today!!!

Ansley's snow angel

Ansley making a snow angel

Elisabeth making a snow angel

It finally snowed! It wasn't much but enough to have school canceled for the day. Ansley was up at 3 am this morning looking out the window to see if it snowed and wanting to know if she had to go to school today. She never really went back to sleep very well and at 5:15 am I finally got up and went downstairs with her to watch the news and see if school was cancelled. Thank goodness it was. I think she would have cried if she had to go to school and miss playing in the snow! We stayed outside for a few hours and had snow ball fights, made snow angels and went sledding. It was fun! Finally Elisabeth had had enough and said she was freezing and that all the sledding had worn her out. She was ready to go in and get warm! Ansley has been out in it since and as I speak she is on the way to the park with a neighbor to see if there is any snow left on the ground for sledding. Most of it has melted by now.......it's the perfect snow for me. Here today and gone tomorrow!

Puppy Tales

There's nothing like a new puppy. I love their puppy kisses, curling up in your lap and just being so cute in general. But then they start to grow and start doing bad puppy things. For instance, eating all my potted plants in my backyard, eating the nozzle off the hose, pulling the dog bed out of the doghouse so it sits for 3 days in the rain, etc, etc. We tried taking both Winston and Belle on a walk to our neighborhood park yesterday. It was definitely a sight to see! Winston does well but he is strong and can sometimes pull Ansley in directions that she doesn't want to go. Ansley pulls forward and he pulls backwards and off comes his collar with the leash attached. In the meantime I'm trying to walk Belle who has no leash manners at all! She's pulling and twisting and cutting the circulation off from my hand because I have the leash wrapped around my hand so tight in an attempt to gain some kind of control. At one point she pulled forward and up so fast that she literally did a back flip but I caught her before she landed on her back and head on the pavement. She is one crazy dog. The walk didn't last long because I couldn't take it anymore. We brought them home and tried getting them in the fence from the side gate. We would get one in and the other would run out. We tried for 5 minutes to get them in --- funny to watch I'm sure. Wasn't funny to me though. I won't be taking Belle on another walk for a while :-) As I type this the dog just jumped on the patio table and is standing on it looking at me and mocking me. Why I ask? Why?

Facebook

Ok Ok I know I am behind the times and after soooo many people asked me if I was on Facebook I finally decided to go in and create a page. I did it mainly to connect with high school friends that I couldn't find otherwise. I'm so glad I did it! I have found 3 friends that I haven't spoken to in 20 years (yes, 2009 will mark 20 years since graduating from high school. It hurts....it really hurts). It's pretty cool! But I have to be careful because it can be a little addictive and like I really have time to be sitting in front of the computer for hours on end. :-)

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. We stayed home (as usual) and watched all the fireworks in our neighborhood. It's like having our own personal show. Both kids stayed up until midnight (after feeding them lots of chocolate cupcakes). Elisabeth was very tired by the end and barely made it to her bed before starting to fade away. We've been catching up on sleep ever since. School starts back on Monday so tonight and tomorrow we've been trying to get back on a "normal" bedtime schedule. Hard to do after two weeks off from school! The girls decided to sleep together in Ansley's bed tonight and I can still hear them in there (it's 9:00 pm....so much for getting them to bed early). Ansley is reading a book to Elisabeth. Ansley gets 3 extra credit points if she reads a certain amount over her Christmas break so we are trying to get the last of that in before Monday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. We work better under pressure in this household!

More Christmas pictures

I'm so excited!

On the last day of school before the Christmas break Ansley's class had pajama day

Kayla, Ansley, Kelise & Heidi

Ansley's class

Ear Piercing

Marking her ears
A little nervous

Getting ready......1, 2, 3

Ouch!

Aren't they pretty? I'm so proud of myself!

Over the Christmas break Ansley decided to have her ears pierced. She's been wanting to do it for months but couldn't get up the nerve. She thought it was going to hurt too much. But one night she decided she wanted to do it so we drove her to the Southpark mall and went to Libby Lu's. They were able to pierce both ears at the same time and the girls there were great. They were so nice. Ansley was so proud of herself to say the least. We even had to go to Claire's afterwards to shop for new earrings even though she can't take these out of her ears until February!