LONG OVERDUE UPDATES

Wow! Life has been so busy around here, I just noticed I haven't updated this since May of 2010. Well, here I am to catch everyone up on the last eight months with a short post and some pictures. I know everyone loves the pictures.

We had a good summer. The big highlight of the summer was the kids going on their first fishing trip. Eddie and my dad took them. They had a good time but it wasn't long before my nephew was ready for Isaac to leave. He talked the entire time, with is not a surprise because he talks almost non-stop no matter where he is.

We are still homeschooling. Olivia is in the 1st grade this year. This year is going a little smoother than last year. Last year was not only our first year to homeschool, but we were still in our first year of adjusting with Issac joining our family. I had also chosen a very structured program for school last year, and it just was not working for us. I was constantly stressing over everything and Olivia was frustrated. We are a lot more relaxed this year. I have also figured out what teaching style works best for Olivia and she is learning and enjoying it rather than crying everyday. I want her to learn but I want her to enjoy learning. I am not comparing her to the public school children anymore. I am letting her learn at her own pace and she is obsorbing information now like a little sponge.

Isaac played soccer at the city park this year. He played on a 4-6 year old team. This is a very funny age group to watch play. Isaac had a really good time and he says he wants to play again next year.

Fall Celebration at church was a lot of fun this year. The children were allowed to dress up in their favorite costume and they got to play games to get candy. Isaac dressed up as Spiderman and Olivia was Tigress from Kungfu Panda.

Christmas was a joyful yet stressful time this year. We had a white Christmas for the first time in my entire life, but Isaac and Olivia both had the flu and Eddie had an upper respiratory infection. I was fighting a bad sinus infection too. We missed a few parties and Christmas, but we still made sure that the kids had a great Christmas and that they understood what Christmas is really about, remembering everything that Jesus Christ has done for us.

We got a shock the second week of January, 10 INCHES OF SNOW. The kids had a wonderful time building snow people, having snowball fights, and sledding at my parent's house.

Well, I think I have updated to this point. Hopefully, it won't be another 8 months before I update again. Below are some picture taken since I last updated. Click on any of them to see a larger image.

OUR HOOLA HOOP AND HOPSCOTCH CHAMPS

The kids love to play hotscotch and hoola hoop. They haven't quite figured out how to keep the hoola hoop around their waist, but they never give up. That is something that we are trying to instill in our children, to never give up on their dreams. Even if others may say that it is too hard or that they can't do it, we want them to still believe in themselves and keep trying.

OLIVIA AND ISAAC'S BIRTHDAY

The kids both had a birthday this week. Isaac turned 4 on April 5 and Olivia was 6 on April 12. We had a great time celebrating their birthday. We had a small gathering with family after lunch on Sunday and then we took the kids to the zoo on Monday. They had a great time!

SPRING AT LAST

We are all so happy that Spring is finally here. We still have some cold days where it is too cold to play outside, but we are able to get out some. We are seeing the proof that Spring is here by seeing the flowers bloom on our yellow bell bush and on our bradford pear tree. It was so pretty one day, we had school outside. The kids also got some exercise, so we considered that recess. We even went for a walk.

FINALLY WARM ENOUGH TO PLAY OUTSIDE

It was a beautiful day Monday, so I let the kids play outside for most of the day. They had so much fun. Olivia loves to rake the leaves, but Isaac loves to jump in them. It drives her crazy because he messes up her clean pile. They also tried to play hide and seek as you can probably tell by the pictures of them counting by the tree. The problem was that Isaac would always hide in the same place and he couldn't be quiet enough. She always knew where he was before she got through counting.

CHINESE NEW YEAR

The Chinese New Year celebration started on February 14 this year. We had a celebration in Tupelo with other adoptive families. Here are a few pictures from our event. You can see that Isaac thought the music was too loud and was not very excited about doing the dragon dance with the other children.

PLAYING IN THE SNOW

We had a snow day, which is rare in Mississippi. The kids had so much fun.

CHRISTMAS 2009

This Christmas truely held many things to be thankful for. On Christmas day one year ago, we received a phone call about a precious little 2 1/2 year old boy in Taiwan who needed a home and they wanted to know if we would like to adopt him. God has really blessed our family because now one year later, that precious little boy, who is now 3 1/2 year old, is now a part of our family. He has been home with us for 8 months now. Olivia loves having a little brother and although they argue and fight sometimes like typical brothers and sisters, I can see that they have truely grown to love each other. Isaac really enjoyed Christmas. He loved getting all the presents but I am so proud that when anyone asks him what Christmas is about he will say, "Jesus loves me." Olivia is the same way. She will tell people in a heartbeat that Christmas is not about Santa Claus or getting presents, it is about Jesus. Here are some pictures of our happy family.