Category Archives: Family

Blessed

We’ve planted dill and parsley in our garden for a long time, to attract Swallowtail butterflies.  We kept Swallowtail caterpillars inside in an aquarium when Becca, Spencer, and I were little; and we did again this summer with Michael and Lucy.

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Jane the butterfly came out of her chrysalis today and was released today!

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She came just in time for Lucy’s Dedication Day!

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Lu was dedicated at our new church building this morning.  Our building was a bowling alley before we bought it, so it. . . needed some help.

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We’ve held meetings there three Sundays now.  Back in February we had a worship night there, in the midst of the construction.  There are all kinds of things I could say about that, but let’s stay focused (for now).

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To tell the truth, I wasn’t really planning on worshiping.  I mean, really worshiping.  To give you some context, I’m usually an “all-out worshiper”.  A hand-lifter.

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But I wasn’t really planning on it that night.  It just hadn’t been one of “those days”.  And the feeling deepened when we got there, and I found that there was dust everywhere that made your nose feel weird, and I was burdened down with a winter coat and purse, since I had nowhere to set them because of aforementioned dust.

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We were there to worship Jesus, and I was letting a ‘mood’ and some dust get in my way.  Anyways, to make a long story short: I got there not expecting to be passionate, and the music started, and Lucy started singing–and dancing.  If she can worship tonight, shouldn’t I be able to?

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Yes!  Of course!  I should anyway!

Lucy has an incredible interest in Jesus, but of course she doesn’t understand everything yet.  But she reminded me to worship that night.

Adoption isn’t easy, but I can’t imagine life without it.  It is such a blessing!  And I’m not trying to say that we should adopt children because they will bless us–far from it.  I’m just saying that they will.

I was helping Michael with something at the grocery store once (I think I was pushing him in the stroller or something while Mom shopped), and a lady stopped and said to me, “He’s lucky to have you, you know that?”  I’m probably the worst in the world at thinking on my feet, and I just smiled and said something pathetic and uninspiring, like “Yeah.”  It was hours, or maybe days later that I realized that the only real answer to that question was:

“I’m just lucky to have him.”

More Randomness

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We made a bonfire a few days ago, and cooked hot dogs on it.

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It was sooo fun

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I think it is the first fire we’ve made after Lu came home.  She’s kind-of afraid of fire and she was definitely cautious around it, but she did good–and I think she had fun. 🙂

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My family. . .

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Minus Michael, who was too busy to stay at the table.

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Turns out fires are fun to take pictures of!

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Happy Monday!

What the littles have been up to

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M and L couldn’t wait for our home-school group’s Talent Exhibition…

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So we had our own in the living room.

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Setting up the tripod so L could film it.

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Announcing the performers!

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We’ve been having a lot of rain!

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I LOVE how those pictures turned out!

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M discovered that he liked bowties. . .

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. . . and got a pet horse! 🙂

Pretending to be cats:

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I think this was inspired by the movie Aristo Cats.

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But Lucy is still ‘into’ Cinderella.  Like crazy.

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Thanks for the dresses, Grandma.  She loves them.

Never a dull moment with those two around! 🙂

Swimming

We got to take Lucy swimming for the first while we were in Guangzhou, and she loved it!  We wanted to take her again (plus the rest of us love swimming too, including little brother), so we started going swimming on Sunday afternoons.  I thought I would post some pictures.  (Just F.Y.I. these pictures are from three different days; hence the people pictured in more than one swimsuit! 🙂  None of them are from today, but some of them are pretty recent.)

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The lighting is really bad in there from where I was sitting because there is a window right behind the pool, but this one turned out pretty bright.

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I love these silhouettes!

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These pictures turned out sooo well. . . because I got up and walked around the pool to be closer to the swimmers.  Good pictures are hard work sometimes. 🙂

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^Isn’t this sweet?^

Happy Sunday!

 

 

Never a Dull Moment!!!

Okay, some of these are going to be kinda’ old, but I thought I’d post about what we’ve been doing lately.  First of all…

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Dad and Spencer installed a slide in our basement by laying cardboard on the stairs.  It’s really incredibly fun! 🙂

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In motion. *sigh*  But those two are always in motion, even without a slide! 🙂

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Yes, even us “bigs” did it…

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Including me. 🙂

Little brother enjoyed putting cardboard scraps down the slide during construction
Little brother enjoyed putting cardboard scraps down the slide during construction
Tools are SO much more fun than toys!
Tools are SO much more fun than toys! 🙂

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I never thought I’d be the one to post about crafts, but this was just so cool, I HAD to post about it!  It’s really simple: you just write/draw something on a piece of paper with a white crayon, and then water-color over the top.  The white shows through!

Voice of Experience: make sure your crayon-lines are thick.  Otherwise they don’t show very well.  Oh! and if you don’t think it’s working at first; try painting a little more before giving up, because if takes a minute sometimes.

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Guess who made this one?  Mama made one that said ‘Joy’ and I went with the fruit-of-the-spirit-theme.  And seriously what other one could I do???

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I also made an “H” [for Hanna], but the crayon didn’t show up real well… I’m blaming it on my brush–and whoever stole my first brush (by mistake) and gave it to Lucy.  Mama got me a different one that worked better, but it still only worked so well.

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What’s that?  Oh! no, there’s no point.  Just me being artsie again, that’s all.

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Lu saw people playing dominoes at grandma’s house, and was very interested.  We got ours out and she played it with Becca and I one evening while the big boys were gone and Mom was putting Michael to bed.

I found dominoes quite picturesque:

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We had these left over, and I figured out that they all went together…

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Except this one:

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Poor, lonely, little domino!

 

More costumes…

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Butterflies this time.  I have NO idea where that came from!  We’re still crazy about Cinderella… though at the moment Kipper the Dog is playing in the background–Michael’s choice. 🙂

This is from a while ago, but I thought I’d post it anyway ’cause it was just way too cute!

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Over and over and over and over…

 

There’s never a dull moment at MY house!!! 🙂

Happiest of Friday’s to you! 🙂 🙂 🙂

It’s Never Too Late, Right?

It’s still February.  Which is my excuse for still posting about Valentine’s Day; but the truth is I’d still be posting it if it was April.

Really the only reason I feel weird about is probably the fact that we’ve already celebrated a different holiday.  But I’m posting anyway.

I wanted to make sure I acknowledged the existence of Valentine’s Day, so I posted this, but I thought I’d share a little more about our day.  Are you guys sure you don’t mind it when I bury you in pictures I took on my little silver camera?

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Cinnamon rolls are a pretty typical holiday-breakfast at our house.  I ask for them every year on my birthday! 🙂

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It took me foreeeever to get a clear picture of those roses!

We hung bags on the back of everybody's chair for people to put Valentines in.  We opened them after dinner.
We hung bags on the back of everybody’s chair for people to put Valentines in. We opened them after dinner.

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This was taken through the red heart on the bag pictured below.
This was taken through the red heart on the bag pictured below.

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Little brother packaged up a (used) crayon and a scrap of paper with his initial on it.
Little brother packaged up a (used) crayon and a scrap of paper with his initial on it for me.  Way too cute! 🙂
Photo-bombed... by a candy heart.  It had a little help from someone :)
Photo-bombed… by a candy heart. It had a little help from someone 🙂
Happy Valentine's Day, folks!
Happy Valentine’s Day, folks!

 

P.S. I now know why someone came up with the abbreviation V-Day: typing out the whole V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E-‘S D-A-Y is monotonous!

P.P.S.  This post about Valentine’s Day is sooo good!  I’m not laughing.  Seriously.

Note: I read the above blog with my mother, so we can discuss some of the more mature topics.  This post shouldn’t be a problem, but kids should talk to their parents before browsing around.

 

Happy Monday!!! 🙂

 

 

Our Chinese New Year Celebration!

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Michael and Lucy helped make red, paper lanterns with Mom.  The ones on either side are store-bought, but they made the middle one.  (They made more than that; I’m not sure what happened to the other ones.)

 

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Mama decorated our table the night before.

We had Asian food for dinner, and then lit off fireworks:

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Preparations!

Michael stomping "snaps" with his little lawn-chair.  Sooo cute! :)
Michael stomping “snaps” with his little lawn-chair. Sooo cute! 🙂

The noise was a little too much for some of us, so Mom and Becca went inside with the littles to watch out the window, while I stayed outside and took pictures.

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I cannot believe I got such a good picture!  I was just randomly snapping!

Sparkling juice:

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Xin Nian Kuai Le, folks!

Tigger and Pooh

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When every time you watch “My Friends: Tigger and Pooh” you’re three-year-old says in an it’s-a-good-day-all-of-a-sudden voice: “They’re singing in ENGLISH!” you know you must truly have a Chinese sister! 🙂

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Yes, we found it in English.  Two episodes on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARc0zBrj6cc

I feel inclined to apologize about the low quality because we just bought the crazy, super clear, expensive, version. 🙂

A very creative mama set out to meet some requests for costumes the other day:

Michael's Tigger-tail
Michael’s Tigger-tail

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Lu was a bird
Lu was a bird

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And, of course, we had to make a bouncing machine.

"Tigger, meet Springs: you're replacement."
“Tigger, meet Springs: your replacement.”
M still thinks his name is Rabbit!
M still thinks his name is Rabbit!

I finally know what’s it’s like to have your little siblings go crazy about a movie! 🙂

Though, actually right now it’s “Cinderella.”  Yes, both of them.  Little brother cried when it was over because he wanted to keep watching.  I love ya, Michael!

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We went outside to play in the snow again yesterday and made a dozen little snowmen because a big one wouldn’t hold together with the “kind” of snow we got this time! 🙂  Mom made hot cocoa again!  She’s wonderful!

It’s a wonderful, wonderful life!

I’ve got a double-helping of sweetness in my life (literallydouble) and I thought I’d let it overflow a little here!

It was really warm today, and Mom and the littles went outside.  I posted this on here and then joined them.  As soon as I came outside Lucy grabbed my hand and took me around back to swing with her.  While we were walking L asked me to sing a song I’d played on the piano that morning with her.

Walking calmly in the sun hand ‘n hand, singing together–the sisteriest thing in the WORLD!!!  Sweet.  Beautiful.

“Lucy is a sister.   She belongs; as much as I do. And someday I’ll probably forget sometimes that we had to do without her for eight years. Someday she’ll just there. The seven of us. And it will be the most natural thing in the world.” -Yours Truly, “Broken”

(always “Broken”)

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And after Mom and Lu went in, Michael and I stayed outside and played Hide ‘n Seek–little brother’s new Thing.

M would cover his eyes, move his hands just enough to see me hide, then count to ten, and wander around saying, “Hmm, where’s Hanna?” while he went right to me.  Okay, okay, fine: I’ll allow it. 🙂

And when I was It he would make me wait to count until he hid… I think you’re missin’ the point, Michael-boy.  Maybe he didn’t like the pressure of being timed.  🙂

My favorite was when he hid  in (pretty plain sight) and I looked up from “searching” and made eye-contact to say, “Have you seen Michael?”  He laughed pretty hard about that one. 🙂

P.S.  Do you feel out-smiley-faced?

Me neither! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Little Brother

I spent some time in the basement today, playing with Michael while Mom and Dad went for a drive with Lucy… and after they got home as well, ’cause we were both having fun. 🙂

We have an old pew down there–you know,  like the ones they have in churches–cute, old-fashioned churches; not like ours, much as I like our church.

Michael made a little bed for himself on it and told me to turn off the lights.  He then got up and pretended to yawn.  He got in and out like a million times and his bed fall apart more then once and I had to “build” it again.

Michael: (trying to get his pillow arranged right) Let’s build my bed!

Me: It’s already built.

Michael: (promptly throwing the pillow on the floor) no, it’s not!

Me: Okay… let’s build it.

I’ll let you get away with it!

After that we got under the pew, and then he got back in “bed” and I stuck my hand up behind it–for which I think I get some credit, as it was almost pushed against the wall!

Of course he wanted me to put both hands up there, which I couldn’t for lack of space to move around… and then he came down there too, and I smashed against the wall to make room for him, wondering how many cobwebs I had in my hair.

Sometimes it’s good to just play with lil’ brother and do what he wants, even if it offends my dignity or my idea of “grown-up and sensible.”

I want to be a good big sister.  A fun one.

Not the best.  Not perfect.  Not the pious one that is flawless in every way, and is never in trouble, and makes the littles green with envy.

I don’t want to be the smart one… or the busy one… or the one that’s always right.

I just want to be fun.

I have this idea that M and I are going to play pirates or something someday, and Michael is going to have me be the bad-guy because everyone wants to be good…

…and I’m okay with that.