Interesting Article

Interesting article about Chinese adopted girls returning to China for homeland tours and how China has changed...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cc97dd18-a719-11de-bd14-00144feabdc0.html

Happy 60th Anniversary China!

Today is National Day in China and it also happens to be China's 60th Anniversary.
I found a link to this comparison of China then and now. Pretty interesting stuff...

Concert in the Park

Last year the Shell in Overton Park was renovated and they started having concerts there on the weekends. At 5 on Saturday they have a children's concert and we'd been saying for a long time that we wanted to take the kids. Well, we finally did... of course it had to be the hottest day for it! The Funzzies performed and the kids loved it. We hope to go back again when the concerts start up in the fall... hopefully it will be cooler!

Father's Day

For Father's Day we got together with some friends and took the Dads to our favorite restaurant for brunch. They have live music and the kids got to go up and participate. Owen thought it was just the greatest to be able to help bow the violin! Cackie just loved the whole experience and wants to go back every week to see her friend Joyce Cobb who sings.

Yard Work

Just pictures of some of the work we've had to do in our yard. Michael put on his waders one day and started to cut back the stuff growing in the pond. It stunk soo bad! But the fish have liked it much better since he did that.

Then, one day he came home to find a huge limb had broken off one of the trees. He and Zack spent a Saturday morning cutting it up and hauling it to the street.

Cackie's Graduation

The Thursday before Memorial Day Cackie officially graduated from Pre-School. snif, snif... we can't believe how grown up she is getting. Next stop Kindergarten!

May 2009

In May the weather started getting really nice and we began spending more time outside. We have a lot of yard in this house, so we're never lacking for something to work on.

I was glad to finally be finished with my class and able to spend time working on anything but school!

On May 5th we celebrated the one year anniversary of Owen's Gotcha Day. We couldn't believe that it had only been a year... it really feels like he has always been with us. We took him out that night for Chinese food...

He likes soup now!!!

Cackie likes fortune cookies!

Cackie found a friend while we were out shopping

My little goof balls!

Four Years!

On April 19 we celebrated the 4 year anniversary of Cackie's referral. While we were waiting between referral and travel we received updated pictures that were taken on her referral day. So, each year we take a picture on April 19th. I can't believe how much she has grown!!!

Easter 2009

My parents & sister came to visit for Easter. It was threatening to rain, but we did get in a couple pictures in front of the house.

March 2009

February wasn't terribly exciting around our house, I was working on school and Michael and the kids were keeping themselves busy.

But, February sure went out with a BANG! It started snowing on Feb 28 in the afternoon and didn't stop until sometime overnight. We ended up with about 6 inches of snow! The kids loved it, I loved it, the dogs loved it!

To make it even more special, March 1 was Owen's 4th birthday and his first celebrating with us! We had to keep reminding him that he shouldn't expect snow every year on his birthday. We took him out for a family lunch and he got to open his presents after nap. I think it was a pretty awesome day for him.

We had his birthday party at Chick-fil-A a few weeks later. He really enjoyed that!

Playing Catch Up

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, so now I'm playing catch up.


The last time I included any pictures was from Chinese New Year. At that event we had a family photo taken since we were all dressed up. It's one of the few pictures I have with all of us in it!





Then in February the kids had these photos taken by Lil' Angels. I just love these!

Long Time No Blog....

I know it's been a loooonnggg time. School has just kicked my butt this semester, I really haven't done much of anything else. But I'm going to try to do better about updating, even if it's just little things here and there.

So, here's something little.... I love the conversations that Cackie & I have in the car on the way from school to gymnastics. Sometimes the things that she comes out with just amaze me! Tonight she wanted to make sure that I knew that the salt in saltwater comes from the sand. Two seconds before that she was telling me how one of her friends had pulled her hair earlier in the day... random stuff, but I just love it.

One thing that she loves to talk about is how much she wants to go on an airplane again. I tell her that we don't have any airplane trips planned right now, but that Ill let her know when we do. Then she likes to talk about "when she goes on an airplane to get her baby".... She seems to think that all babies come from China and they all come home on airplanes. Gotta love the logic of a four year old!

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!
This is the year of the Ox,.

According to Wikipedia... The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.

To celebrate the year of the Ox we had our Families with Children from China celebration two weeks ago. The kids had a great time and we got to officially introduce Owen to our FCC community.

The kids will wear their Chinese silks to school tomorrow and they are having a celebration at St. Jude that I'll be able to attend, but that's about all the celebrating that we'll do this year. We did make Chinese soup and spring rolls for dinner Saturday night, so I guess that counts, too.

Besides Chinese New Year we've been quite busy around here. My classes have started back and the marketing class that I'm taking this semester is quite intense and time consuming.

We had some unfortunate news a week or so ago when we found out that Michael would no longer be working for the engineering firm that he had been contracting with. He still has his firm, but with no new projects on the horizon the future is starting to look bleak. He's been working hard pursuing new projects and we're hopeful that everything will be all right.

The kids have been trying our nerves quite a bit. They are both going through phases of arguing and making bad choices. There have been a lot of bad choices around here and I'm starting to feel like a warden in my own home. Just today we caught them playing with water from the bathroom (again) and their activities have been severely limited all day. We're starting to see that this is a "downside" to having virtual twins. But, in the end we love them dearly and just try to explain to them h0w we want them to make good choices and love us. We just keep telling ourselves... this too shall pass.

Enjoy the pictures! I'll update as I can, but this is a VERY busy semester for me and my blogging time may be limited!