Gute Cuties: May 2008

Friday, May 23, 2008

A Day in the Life

Everyone always says, "Oh, two 3-year-olds? They must keep you busy!" They certainly do. Here's just a sampling of pictures from a day at our household. I left out the mundane daily chores like unloading/loading the dishwasher, mopping, laundry, picking up after the two little tornados roll through the house (which is why we play outside as much as possible), meals, bath, bedtime. These are just the "filler" pictures from the rest of the day:

Getting ready for the day

Playing before we get loaded in the car to take AnLi to preschool

(yes, Carli already has her headband off!)

After school we found this in the backyard:

Two sleeping bags and two pillows, but no tent!

It was time for an "adventure," as AnLi likes to say

There it is!!!

After lunch it's naptime for all

After nap we head up the hill to the park

After supper, Daddy sprayed us with the hose!

After we changed our clothes, had some blue yogurt for a snack, it was time to shake, rattle and roll for our nightly wagon ride!

After the wagon ride, it's time for the bedtime routine and then everyone heads off to bed and mommy starts work. Yes, they keep us busy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

One of my favorite songs is "When Love Takes You In" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Kolene added it to our blog while we were in China and didn't even know how much Brian and I liked the song. He has many, many very poignant songs relating to adoption and his three daughters. The Chapman family are huge adoption advocates and do so much for people trying to adopt and also for the children of China.

We were all saddened when we heard the news that his 5-year-old daughter Maria was struck and killed by a car yesterday while playing in their driveway. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers as they deal with such a tragic loss of a beautiful little girl.
The link to the full story is at http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/TUNEIN/80521174/1005/ENTERTAINMENT.

Update: They've added a YouTube video and a page to add comments for the family.
http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/2008/05/maria-and-siste.html

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Wagon

Just about every single night AnLi tells Carli to "hop in" and she pulls Carli around the yard in the wagon. This is a heavy metal wagon with wooden sides. Add a 32-pound little girl. It's heavy! I can't believe she can pull that thing around so long. Carli giggles and loves her nightly rides.

THEN...she tells her to hop in the little scooter toy. And about 30 seconds into the ride, OOPS, and Carli's on the ground. They do this little routine over and over again. Carli never seems to get tired of being dumped!

At the end of their games, it's daddy's turn to bump and bounce them around. They giggle nonstop throughout all of his shaking them up and down and all around. That's the highlight of their wagon rides each day.

Peeping Carli

Spying on the neighbor's dalmation Daisy.

Swinging

Monday, May 19, 2008

Backyard Fun!

Carli with her face pressed up against the tent. :)

I think I'll take my nap in here.

AnLi filling up her bird feeder.
She gets such a kick out of watching all of the birds come and eat "her" food. She whispers, " You're welcome". I guess they must be telling her "thank you"?

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Random Pictures

AnLi got a scrape on her chin and thought Carli needed a Band-Aid also.

AnLi before swimming lessons in her new suit from Grandma,
which she loves because she thinks it's like a ballerina skirt.

(And she's riding my trike from when I was her age, even though they both have new ones.)

Carli still trying to figure out how to lick those darn beaters!
She sure has fun trying, tho.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Friends Forever

Our very good friends, whom we met in China in October '05, came to visit!! Lily and AnLi are just 10 days apart in age, both from Hubei. Joleen and I have become very good friends over the last two years and wish we lived closer to one another. It's kind of scary how similar we are! We consider the girls to be "sisters" and hopefully they'll remain friends throughout life. Thanks for coming!!

** My camera is broken and so I only got pics from the first day!! Plus, I've been missing out on some great shots of Carli and AnLi over the last couple of weeks.