6.29.2013

pre-birthday celebration



We had a fun pre-birthday cook-out at the Wrights house tonight. They just moved in our neighborhood--yay!!--and live on the first floor, so they have a little backyard with a grill! The kids all loved playing and Rylie and Lexie finished the celebration with a sleep over at our house.


Beautiful, sleepy princesses!

and then wanted to be twins for church in the morning :)

6.26.2013

Ding Dong

Reid and Daddy fixing it up

So the people who are here for a year on STINT are finishing up their year and heading home soon. We are sad to see them leave and have loved having them here for this year! 
As they leave, they can only take two (at the most) suitcases back with them. That means leaving behind lots of things, because electric bikes don't really fit in suitcases. So us longtermers inherit some goodies to make the sorrows of saying good-bye easier :) We bought this electric bike--its called a dian dong che in chinese. Rylie calls it the ding dong--for getting to class and around town. It is really fun. 
We also got some floss that someones mom sent him and he never opened--I won't tell who :)

first bike ride for Reid

and Rylie

and Everett

Grandparents will be glad to know that this is what Knox did while the rides were being taken :)
He hasn't had his first ride yet!


6.20.2013

Fun with Friends

The girls playing in the "clubhouse"

watching a little show---not sure what Lexie saw behind me :)

boys and their legos!

6.18.2013

6 Months

I can't believe we are half way through your first year sweet thing!!
I just can't get enough of that smile. My word, you can melt a heart and brighten a day!

You are still sleeping in your pack n play, but a crib is in your near future!!
You are sitting up pretty well now
you can roll to get about anywhere/anything that you want
You play really well by yourself on the floor
you love your play mat and any toy that makes noise
We travel in the stroller or car seat most places--we haven't used the ergo very much since the LONG trip back to America where you lived in it :)


those eyes--just about every Chinese person who talks to me about you, which is just about every Chinese person who sees you, talks about how big your eyes are......and they LOVE them!


you are back on your pre-trip around the world sleeping schedule--praise Jesus! 
You still eat every three hours, but if you sleep 13 hours at night it is totally worth it :)

getting ready to roll away...... 

and i love playing in this!!!

6.17.2013

Perks


A super fun part of our job is meeting new people. Whether it is new people moving here, ones that already live here but are new to us, or people who are visiting.
This week the director of Lifeline adoption agency in Birmingham and his family came to visit for a week. We are in the process of starting a partnership with them, being their hands and feet on the ground over here for orphan care. 
We loved getting to know Herbie and Ashley and their sweet little ones!

quick friends

perler bead craft time!

the boys

the kiddos

Dads and kids


6.16.2013

Happy Fathers Day!

We loved celebrating this wonderful guy today!
What a blessing he is to all those around him and we are so blessed we get to call him Daddy! 
 
We had a great lunch at Peters with some new friends in town from the States.
We then came back to the house and opened some cards and presents!

Reid made a coupon book.....
 
he got a new shirt.....

and lots of candy! They know their Daddy well!!

Knox loves his daddy too, he just also likes to sleep :)


6.15.2013

There's a first time for everything!


So my friend Sonya and I attempted to make a cake for a friends wedding.
We planned a three layer, white cake with ribbon and flowers. 
The bride had hot pink bridesmaids dresses and loves hydrangeas, so we tried our best to match it.

i learned about the wet towel trick......makes a flat cake for stacking!

This was our mock stacking the night before to see how it looked put together.....
The top two layers were yellow cake and the bottom was chocolate. 
The layers were 6, 10, and 14 inches. That's a lot of cake.

The final product!
I think it turned out pretty well for our first cake and the fact that it was made in China with limited resources :)

The Cake Bosses

My handsome date, who was a patient man during all the cake prep!
 Love him!
 




6.11.2013

New Ride

Ry hanging out our window.....

We inherited a car from a family who headed back to the states for a year. What a blessing! As a family of 6 we no longer fit in one taxi, which makes it hard to get around town! We also will use it for carpool to school next year.

applying the G....

representing on the other side of the world!

this man loves his cars!!

 a good family vehicle

6.08.2013

Summer fun!


This is our summer fun list! Let's see how much we can do!!

6.07.2013

Last Day of School


These guys are finished with First and Fourth grade!
They both did awesome and we are so proud of them! 
Summer here we come!!

6.03.2013

What a privilege!

The day after we got home this girl and her sweet family (minus two littles) arrived in our city. Andrea was over here with us 12 years ago on STINT. She and her husband brought their oldest two children with them to pick up their sweet son Zeke from an orphanage in our city!! How fun is that??
So they all stayed in an apartment in our complex and we got to hang out with them a bunch. 
And Matt and I got to go with them to pick up sweet Zeke!
 Oh. my. word. Y'all, what an amazing thing. I am so thankful that they let us be a part of their amazing day. We videoed and took pictures, but we mostly just watched the amazing process of the lost being found, in awe of how our awesome God works.

these kiddos had a LOT of fun playing together for a week! 

They are counting down the days until next summer when they can be silly together again!  

 enjoying some yummy pizza and a movie

Lainey was so sweet to Ry and made her feel like such a big girl :)

These boys played HOURS of soccer in our complex that week.....