Happy Gotcha Day sweet Elisabeth!

Hard to believe that it's been 5 years since we went to China to bring Elisabeth home! On May 8th (which is also Mother's Day -  double celebration!) we celebrate meeting Elisabeth for the first time and bringing her into our family forever.   We have watched her grow into a funny, sweet, caring, spunky little girl.  Happy Adoption/Gotcha day sweet girl!

Ecuador mission trip

Here's a video from the group that went to Ecuador last year.   This is just some of what we will be doing when we go in July to minister to the children in some of Ecuador's orphanages.  The children's faces will bring a tear to your eye.

http://vimeo.com/user6897725/videos

Easter

Happy Easter!  He has risen, He has risen indeed!

We arrived home from vacation on Saturday night and drove straight through from Port Canaveral to South Carolina  so we could be at our church for Easter Sunday.   Since we were gone the week before Easter we didn't dye eggs, didn't decorate the house and we didn't even do an Easter egg hunt on Sunday!  This is unheard of.  But I was just too tired to fool with any of it.  And you know what?  It was kind of nice.  We all got up on Sunday morning and did our resurrection eggs and had a nice day at church celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The Easter bunny did pay a little visit and left the kids some candy though.  Like we need more sugar after being on the cruise and having soft serve ice cream available 24/7.  Not good people......not good.  Anyway,  I hope each of you had a wonderful Easter! 

I'll post soon I promise!

We just got back from vacation so I've got lots of new pictures to share!  I'll post soon I promise!

John's cool trip

 The inside of the plane

 Refueling

John recently went on a trip that enabled him to fly on a plane (don't ask me what kind-- I have no idea) with the Air National Guard from Charlotte to Alabama, participate in team building activities, eat at the Officer's Club for dinner and then take a 5 hour flight back home and refuel a plane in mid-air.  He loved it to say the least!  Glad he liked it because that is definitely not my cup of tea!

Springing Forward

I really dislike the time change.  1 little hour just messes us all up!  This is what it does to Elisabeth........she fell sound asleep on the way home from school the first day after the time changed. 

Determined to wear flip flops

It was a little chilly the other morning but Ansley was determined to wear her flip flops to school.  So she put on her crazy toe socks and off she went.    :-)   Gotta love a girl who loves her flip flops!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 I fixed Elisabeth green eggs for breakfast this morning.  They looked so gross while they were cooking but looked a little better when they were done.  Elisabeth ate them but as you can see Ansley wasn't as thrilled at first sight.

 I finally talked Ansley into trying them.  They taste the same I swear....they are just very green.

 See.......not bad after all.

 Elisabeth brought home a leprechaun trap from school yesterday.  The gold is glued down so first he tries for the gold and can't get it up.  Then he climbs the flower and is interested in the cup that is covered on top with tissue paper.  He jumps from the flower to the cup and in he falls.  Then you turn the cup over quickly to capture him.

 Did we catch one?

Nope.  Just a tricky cat.  We'll try again later.  :-)

Back in the saddle again

Ansley has been begging and begging to take horseback riding lessons again so after much discussion we have decided to let her begin lessons again.  She is thrilled!  She had her first lesson last week and loved it!  The horse she is riding is named Fred.  He was very sweet and Ansley did well riding him.  She can't wait to go again this week!

 Emily helping Ansley with the saddle

 It was raining a bit outside and VERY muddy so they are heading to the indoor riding ring

 Fred

The lesson is over and it's time to put Fred back in the pasture

Ear Piercing

Elisabeth was bound and determined last week to get her ears pierced so we called John and he agreed and off we went after school to get them pierced.  She was very brave and didn't cry at all.  She is very proud of her earrings!  She should be able to change them right before we go on our Spring Break trip so she's excited to be able to switch them out and wear some cute earrings on vacation. 

 Waiting patiently in the chair while they load up the earring gun

 Spraying Solarcaine on her ears to numb them just a bit

 They told her to count to 3 and when she got to 3 they would to it.  They really did it on 2!

 Yay!  Look at my beautiful earrings!

I'm so happy!  And the nice ladies at the salon gave me glitter tattoos on my cheeks.  I love this place :-)

I'm back!

 During the winter this has been Belle's favorite spot.  You turn on the fireplace and she lays down in front of it and enjoys the warmth.  She is a spoiled dog!

 Enjoying the massage chair at Brookstone

 At the Checker's hockey game.  They each recived a pink puck for Girl Scout night.  

 Elisabeth at her Girl Scout meeting painting with colored Cool Whip.  Yum.....edible art.

 Elisabeth in her classroom at school playing Valentine bingo.

 Passing out Valentine cards

Yay!  I finally got the storage issue taken care of so I can post pictures again.  As usual I am writing in the spare few minutes I have before taking the girls to gymnastics so I can't put much detail right now as to what has been going on in our lives.  I will update again soon.  I'm glad to be back!  :-)

I told you I take too many pictures!

I've finally run out of storage space on the blog for my pictures!  It won't let me upload anymore!  We haven't figured out exactly what we are going to do so make sure you keep checking back.  I will post again! Hopefully we'll take a look at our options this weekend and will get it resolved!  :-)

100th Day of School

The Kindergartners are celebrating the 100th day of school today.  They had to wear something with 100 "things" on it.  We decorated Elisabeth's Citadel hat with 100 safety pins with beads on them.  She was so proud to wear it this morning........but John was horrified that we ruined a perfectly good Citadel hat.  Although in his eyes the hat is already compromised because it's pink and not Citadel blue.   :)

Snow.....again!

We had our second snow storm in a matter of a few weeks.  This one produced more snow (and ice) than the last one.  Everything shut down in Charlotte so we have been at home today and will be home tomorrow too.  After the snow and sleet freezes on the streets tonight we should have some good sledding hills tomorrow!  Today's snow was so fluffy that we couldn't even make a snowman.  I think we'll be able to do better tomorrow.  If I can stay out in the cold long enough to make a snowman!  Baby it's COLD outside! 

I'm obsessed with the cardinals in our backyard.  There are 4 or 5 bright red males.  They are beautiful.  Especially against the white snow background.  I stalked them all day today and took probably 25 pictures of them.  I'll spare showing all of them to you and will pick some of my favorites. I wasn't thrilled that it snowed again but I can't do anything about it so I might as well enjoy it!

 Such an appropriate flag  :-)

 Cardinal at our window eating out of my new bird feeder.  I wish the blinds had been up.

 The birds love my new feeder

 Close up at our window sill.  He's so cool. 

 Looking in our window

 We finally abandoned the sled because it was SOOOO COLD!

 Old man Winston

 Belle wouldn't pose.  She just likes to eat the snow.

 I stalked this bird all day to get this shot.  He kept landing on the edge of the deck and as soon as I could get the camera he flew away.  But this time I got him!

3 cardinals in 1 picture.  There were 4 but 1 flew away.  There's one on a branch in the left of the picture, one on the deck and one in a branch in the right side of the picture.  Love it!