Today

They both had a GREAT day! (Thank you, Lord)
My Kindergartner!
Piper was a bit lost today. Kept asking me "where is everybody???". She likes for all her people to be "ALTOGETHER!" as she puts it.
Every fall, I am an Alabama football widow. So this year we all are joining in the fun!
Roll Tide!

Me? I had a good day too. Back to school...it's a good thing. More later.

Lake time!

Ella let Ms. Wanda pull out her first tooth! If you come within 20 feet of Ella, she will tell you all about it, she's a bit excited!
Piper and her cousin, Reed, digging a hole to China.
Yep, that's my mom on the ZIP Line!
Ella had a lot of firsts yesterday...1st time on a Zip Line, lost her first tooth, first time on a jet ski, first time on a go-cart...can you see how proud she is of her little self???
Ready for the parade

We had a great time at the lake yesterday, an annual 4th of July tradition. The kids played all day long, and I got to visit with friends I grew up with and be with my family. The only thing I would've changed about the day was the amount of time I spent sweating. Hunter got to ride behind the boat on a giant inner tube and a knee board. I love to watch him try new things and love them. He had a blast. All the kids did. They really loved sliding down the Zip Line off of the tree house platform. Ella thinks we should buy a lake house so we can have a Zip Line too. Why didn't I think of that?

I appreciated our time there more than ever, because we didn't get go last year. Part 2 of our Year story coming soon.

The Goop that keeps on giving...

Piper and Grandma at Piper's "Messy Party", in the goop. The "goop" is just cornstarch, water, and blue food coloring. It has a really cool feel to it - sort of soft and gooey, but dry feeling, you know, like goop.
My nephew couldn't get enough of the goop.
Piper and Grandma

This afternoon, Piper in her new swimsuit, socks, Ella's tap shoes, and a whole lot of sand and leftover cornstarch goop.
She was real concerned about that one white spot on her arm, kept showing it to me saying "messy, messy!!".
She takes her sand mixing very seriously.
Beautiful, even covered in Grandma's famous cornstarch goop.

We had Piper's 2nd birthday party in our backyard on Saturday. The theme was all things messy, since that's Piper's specialty right now. I'm working on a slide show of the party pictures from the messy party. Well, to be honest, it's really just in the planning stage at this point. I keep going to the sites that help you make a slide show and there are just too many choices. It's stressing me out!

So for now, this is it.

Maybe tomorrow I will wake up with an enhanced ability to make a decision.

Or maybe I'll just go play in the goop.

24

Piper Grace, you are 2! For your birthday I thought I'd list 24 reasons I love you - one for each month of your life, because 2 is just not enough. Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Your resilience - I personally don't know anyone who has this down better than you, adults or children. You are simply amazing.

2. Your openness to love - once you feel safe with someone, you LOVE THEM real good - with your whole heart, I love that.

3. Your perceptiveness, this one is between you and me girl, but I love it!

4. The way you love other children - your siblings, their friends, their classmates, your cousins and friends. I love how you know the names of several of Ella's favorite friends from pre-K, and shout them out when we get to her school. "MACY!!! GWACE!!! EMMA!!! ABBY!!!"

5. I love because we've seen Ms. Linda at Hobby Lobby twice, every time we go there you get excited and shout "Ms. Linda! Ms. Linda!" and start looking for her. When we don't see her, you tell me to "call Ms. Linda!".

6. I love your beautiful face.

7. I love how much you love being outside. It is your favorite thing to do, and you are the happiest running free in the yard or playing in the sand or "widing bikes" with your brother and sister.

8. Your love of shoes - it has endured since we met you at 10.5 months old. To see the joy you get from shoes - it makes me smile.

9. Your voice - I love your sweet little voice.

10. Your language abilities - At 24 months you can communicate just about anything you want to. You have hundreds of words, can sing the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, name most parts of your body - your favorite being elbows, can name orange, blue, purple and green, & count to 13, way beyond that with a few numbers missing. For someone who did not hear English until 10.5 months of age - wow!

11. I love the way you tell me to sing You Are My Sunshine, "SUNSINE, SUNSINE!".

12. I love watching you mother your baby dolls, holding them, and gently patting their backs. Then you shout "Nigh Nigh!!!" and put them to bed.

13. I love that you get excited to see me each morning.

14. I love that you have stolen Hunter and Ella's hearts as well as your daddy's and mine. You join right in with their pretend games, wrestling, and chase.

16. I love watching you pray along with Ella at dinner time, and smile when she thanks God for you every single night.

17. I love that when we go to pick Hunter(7) up from school you get excited and shout "Hunter's school! Hunter's school!" each day.

18. I love the way you complete our family and make each one us of better than we were before.

19. I love that you are Chinese. You make our family so much more interesting! Because of you, we have a connection to a country so rich in history and culture.

20. I love the way you are the answer to so many prayers.

21. I love the way you love to turn round and round in circles until you are completely dizzy.

22. I love that when we get in the car you shout "Allelula, allelula!!! Hear it!" because you want to hear David Crowder's "All Creatures #2".

23. You make me smile from the inside out every single day.

24. I love that the other day, you rubbed your heart and said, "luv Papa", talking about my dad.

25. One to grow on! I love that when I sat down to write this list, I thought it might take me all day to finish, but here I am at the end, still with an endless list of reasons why I love you. Like how I love the way you pay attention to the tiny details of a person and mimic the smallest of gestures, the way you get so excited to see a bird or hear an airplane, the way you "help" me with chores around the house...
See? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Happy Birthday, sweet girl! I love you!

To all 5 year olds on the verge of losing your first tooth:

The gauntlet has been thrown.

Ella(5) is aiming to have the cleanest, shiniest tooth the tooth fairy has EVER seen. She is brushing her teeth with a new vigor, the likes of which have never been seen before in this house.

Ella *heard* that the tooth fairy is giving an extra quarter for clean, shiny, sparkly teeth. Why didn't I think of this, I mean hear about this 3 years ago??? It is providing great motivation around here - teeth brushing - with no whining or complaining - a MIRACLE, I tell you!

March Madness....let's review

Tuesday morning
Tuesday afternoon, snow all gone, beautiful warm weather
Thursday afternoon

Snowy March Surprise!

Yesterday evening, little white flakes began to fall.

Little did we know that we'd wake up to several inches on the ground.
We live next door to a big hill and the kids had a blast sledding down.
Ella was the first try it, and had great technique from the very beginning.

This is the first time it has snowed here this year, and it was a good one - soft and fluffy, perfect for playing. Piper was such a trooper and hung with the big kids for the entire time, only complaining when it was time to go in. It's already starting to melt, but it was fun while it lasted. My hats off to you Northern moms who deal with all of paraphernalia that goes with snowy weather on a daily basis. I just kept thinking that I had to be burning extra calories!

A few of our favorite things...

For Valentines Day, I thought it would be fun to interview the loves of my life. So, this morning, over these donuts, we did just that.

Explain what you think "love" is.
Piper(22 months): "Mine!"
Ella(5): "Love is Jesus coming from our hearts."
Hunter(7): "Love is triple times 'like'."
Scott(40): "An enduring bond b/t two people." (who is this guy?)

What are some of your favorite treats?
P(we helped her a little): "orange juice, mommy's make up, chocolate"
E: "donuts, icecream, spending time praying with God"
H: "family parties, going to cousins house, Wisconsin, donuts, cake"
S: "lemon icebox pie, diet coke"

What is your favorite thing about our family?
P: "Mine!"
E: "That we love each other and we all have Jesus in our hearts."
H: "That we love each other."
S: "That my wife looks like a supermodel as she runs our family with grace and love." (Ok, so he wasn't present for this question, but I'm sure that's what he would have said)

What is your favorite, everyday thing, our family does together?
P: "Mine!"
E: "I like when we take walks together."
H: "I like sitting at the dinner table together."
S: "playing and laughing together"

Pretend you are Oprah and list your Favorite Things.
P: (Ella and I helped her a bit) "laughing, jumping, climbing, singing, copying, dogs, cats, playing under the covers, SHOES!, dresses, looking pretty"
E: "horses, dogs, ponies, hearts, friends, God, mommy, daddy, brother, sister, Mama Linda, Papa Roman, Mandy, Grandma, Papa, all my cousins, earth, that God loves every single one of us, loving, sharing, when Grandma Linda and Papa Roman send us stuff in the mail
H: "Heard Museum, Dinotopia books, Half Priced Books, God, singing, music, African drums, history, writing, sauropods, drawing sauropods, praying, science, my whole family"
S: "my family, reading to the kids, hugging wife, dinner with family, Alabama football, and God" (but not in that order he wanted to clarify, but in some way, Alabama football and God go together in his mind)

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Our baby girl

With all that's been going on lately, I realized that I haven't posted much about Piper Grace lately. To put it simply, she's doing great. At 19 months, she's changing everyday, copying everything she sees us doing and saying. She just started putting 2 words together, saying things like "Mommy shoes" or "Ella shoes" (of course it's about shoes). Scott and I are no longer mama and dada, but now, MOMMEEEE! and DADDEEE!. I would describe her at this stage as funny, sweet, cuddly, snugly, curious, and way too smart.
She is loving the Christmas tree and Christmas music, and we are loving the fact that we get to have her home this Christmas. It's so tough on those still waiting, wanting so badly to have their babies home for Christmas. I remember last Christmas, waiting on news of Piper, thinking it might come before Christmas. We didn't get the call until January 3rd, and we missed her so much. I remember thinking, how do you miss someone you've never met? Now that we know her, it makes perfect sense.

Piper gets to know the rest of her family...

Cousin Adalee and Piper - Piper immediately LOVED Adalee, invading her personal space within minutes of meeting her!
Aunt Mica and Piper
Mama Linda giving Piper her Christmas ornament
Piper and cousin Ryleigh
Uncle Ray and Piper

Thanksgiving 2007

Ryleigh, Sydney, Hunter, Ella, and Piper