Wednesday, April 30, 2014

National Honor Society

Julia was inducted into the National Honor Society today along with 10 other sophomores and juniors at her school. It was a lovely and classy ceremony. So very proud of this oldest child of mine!





 The new inductees


The entire National Honor Society


 These girls also play soccer together



Just the girls from the sophomore class

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Easter

We celebrated Easter at my parents' house and my brother and one of his boys joined us as well. As always my Mom had beautiful decorations, yummy food and the kids had eggs to find out in the beautiful spring weather courtesy of Poppy! A great time celebrating family and our Savior's resurrection!


Easter morning after the baskets were found


Sissy helping Lulu find eggs








Figuring out which Easter bag was there's. There was a game to it!


We also celebrated Miss Lulu's birthday with everybody









It was funny, this year she was a little shy and "embarrassed" with all the attention on her, even at home. Last year was sheer uninhibited joy! I hate that she is growing up :(

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Happy 4th Birthday Lulu!

My baby turned 4. It happened on Saturday April 19th. How could it be? 4 seems so....old? Not baby? What is it? She is still my baby. She is still a tiny tyke. And really 4 is NOT old especially when you have teens and pre-teens. But for some reason to me it just doesn't sound like a "baby". It is bittersweet to me. It seems, well no I guess it is reality, I have been in the baby/toddler stage forever.... 15 years to be exact. It is time to move on. There are days when I REALLY want to move on out of this stage and onto the next. It has been a long time. But oh the JOY, pure JOY this child brings to our family and it is that joy that keeps this old mama going. You see most women my age have teens, college age, and even marrying age children, but I am running after a tiny little naked fanny at night trying to put a pull-up on her before bed....hard work :) and then she squeals with delight when I catch her and my heart melts. So I am embracing this stage for the last time and soaking in her cute little 4 year old self!

Lulu at 4, loves to play pretend anything...Barbies, babies, house, school,zoo, fairies, etc. She adores Jaida and follows everything she does. She likes all things sweet. She loves Sofia and Doc McStuffins and the Princesses. She is funny, sassy, stubborn, beautiful, smart but wants nothing to do with counting, letters, or colors, has a huge vocabulary, loves fiercely, and pouts fiercely. She keeps us on our toes and I have been told by my older ones that I am in trouble when she is a teen...great! She is the spark in our our family.

I become quite melancholy on their birthdays as I think of their birth mothers. How blessed I am to get to experience life with this little jewel. My heart hurts for her as she does not get to witness this beautiful gift. I will be forever grateful to her for giving her life and me the blessing of being her forever  mama!

Happy 4th Birthday my sweet Lulu! We love you so very very much!




Yes, I BOUGHT the cake this year!!!


Birthday pancakes with sprinkles and whip cream. A new tradition thanks to Pinterest...so yummy!!!





Her very own sleeping bag..Princess of course!



Enjoying her gifts with her siblings.




A girl has to have her Ninja spy gear to play with her brother!!!!




We went to see Nut Job that afternoon to celebrate! Gotta love the $2.50 movies for a big family!
It was a special day honoring our special littlest one! 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

4 years...Forever Family




4 years with us now...... and he has still lived longer in China than with us! Hard to comprehend. We celebrated at the beach with dumplings, cookies, and Dairy Queen. Happy 4 years Xin! We love you!!!!