Let It Snow

It started snowing on Christmas Day evening in Georgia. It was so fun! We went to my parents house to celebrate Christmas the next day and the kids had so much fun with their cousin. Joy wasn't all about being cold outside but enjoyed it for a little while. This picture of her was taken within seconds of getting her all bundled up, then she came back to the door saying she was cold and wanted hot chocolate. She did play longer outside at my parents house though.

Merry Christmas!

Very exciting pictures from Christmas Eve! The kids saved their money for a few months and went shopping for each other. We let them open each other's gifts Christmas Eve afternoon. 

My friend Yi and I went on a long 4 wheeler ride, laughing our way through the woods.

We read a book I have about God's greatest gift, Jesus. It was really cool because Yi translated for Joy. Yi asked questions about Jesus and Christmas. Then each of the kids had one gift to open of something we had gotten them in Disney.

Before the 4 wheeler came along we had bought a Wii as the kids' gift for Christmas. We sent them on a scavenger hunt to find it. Here is the excitement when they finally found it downstairs...

Christmas morning....

Merry Christmas everyone. I'm off to beat Grace at some Wii bowling!

Merry Christmas Eve

This is Grace's face when she saw her daddy pulling into the driveway with one of their Christmas gifts.

He is doing some work for a friend and our friend has been offering to sell us this certain thing. So... instead Clayton is doing the work for a trade. Clayton was trying to hide it last night until this morning but Grace saw him pull up. Then after everyone went to bed Clayton and Grace rode it and Faith heard them so.... it was a secret to 3 out of 5 kids this morning. Here are the pictures....

Even mommy got a turn... after seeing mommy pull away on it Joy asked me when I got back if she can ride with me next time. I have a confession, I have a wild streak and a need for speed! Shhh, don't tell anybody!

Here is our 7 month old puppy, Mei Li. A sweet golden retriever that is her momma's baby, can you tell?

We are also so excited today that our friend who teaches Chinese at a local school is coming with one of her friends that doesn't have anywhere to go for Christmas! She said she was excited to see a normal American family Christmas... that's probably the first time we've been considered a normal American family but it'll be the way we do Christmas anyway, maybe not normal but us nonetheless.

Merry Christmas! Praying that Christ would be the center of all our families this year and that we would see MANY children get forever families in 2011!

We are home!

Here is what 10 days of camping looks like....

This picture really didn't do it justice either. I felt like there was laundry in the kitchen cabinets. It actually was in our bathroom, laundry room and corner of the kitchen. UGH... so glad that is done!

Since we didn't do school for 2 weeks now we get to do school during Christmas break. The nice thing is everyone seems ready for some structure. Here is one of the many funny things I see from the boys when I round a corner of our house while the girls and I are doing school. I was told this was a their boat and they were traveling to islands hunting.

This weekend Joy and Faith had a ballet recital. They did great and had a good time, though neither one wants to continue. Faith wants to go back to gymnastics and Joy just wants to try other new things.

Joy has enjoyed many things about this season. She loves the Christmas tree and she also enjoyed a birthday party for Jesus! She even told her Nai Nai about Jesus' birthday when she talked with her yesterday. I try to stay out of the room when they talk because if I'm in the room Joy tries to translate everything. As I walked by her she said something in Chinese and told me she was telling Nai Nai about Jesus. Later I asked what she had told her about Him and she was telling her about Jesus' birthday being Christmas. AWESOME!

This is especially encouraging because after being in Disney she seemed to have stuffitis even more than before. She struggles with being content with what she has and not constantly wanting more. She can pick out a gift for herself and see what one of her sisters has and want theirs too. Par for the course I know but it's nice to see that in spite of all this she is seeing the real reason for Christmas and is learning what is truly important.

Animal Kingdom and Kennedy Space Center

 We all thought it was so cool to see a baby giraffe AND a baby elephant on the Animal Safari. We also discovered Joy has an interest in elephants. It's nice when she establishes her own likes and dislikes. So much of the past 6 months has been spent only liking what everyone else has or likes.

 We went to Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. It was very cool. Our oldest loves studying about space so she and Clayton liked it the most. We are spending Thursday at Fort Wilderness and we are all looking forward to a laid back day after being on the go for 7 straight fun filled days.

 This is what Isaac was doing during the above picture. Nice pouting huh?! Can't remember why he was pouting but it was par for the course for all the kids with all the fun we've had!

 A Meet An Astronaut Time was a favorite.

The kids got to ask him questions after learning a little about his mission to space.

We come back to the real world tomorrow!

Day at Magic Kingdom

 Entering Magic Kingdom

We rode EVERYTHING. It was fun riding all the coasters with the kids. One roller coaster we got on we realized we put Joshua and Isaac together with no adult... oops. I snapped the picture of them and then saw what we had done. They were obviously fine, but we didn't do that again!

 There is nothing quite like the castle at night. Then we watched fireworks over it. They were very beautiful!

 The carousel at night... we stayed at the Magic Kingdom until 11:30. Isaac fell asleep on some strangers shoulder on the bus on the way back to the campground. Falling asleep on the bus seems to be a theme for him this week!

 Minnie's House