Happy Memorial Day

Today we are thinking about Paw Paw and Pop Pop who fought in WWII. We miss both of them so much!

We had a great weekend with our friends who came down from Asheville for the weekend.

The dads and big boys went to the Braves game while the moms and little ones shivered at the pool!

Only two weeks left until school's out for summer!!

We are all three ready to be out. Andrew has been counting the days but after we decided to have his birthday party the last day of school, waiting until the 22nd to arrive is almost more than he can take!! Luckily he has some fun days coming up.
I love teaching school, but by this time of the year the children are finished learning and it is really hard to keep them focused. I'm not sure what grade I'm teaching next year. Right now it looks like third.
When we tuck Anslee in bed at night she asks if tomorrow is a school day. Most of the time she loves school, but now she's done too. Her teacher has started writing the children's names on the board if they misbehave. Today when I picked her up, there were 5 boys names and hers written down. I talked to her about it and she said "Oh mom. Let's talk about this when school's over." I found out that during rest time is when she usually has a hard time. She stopped napping years ago!

My sister's farm

Some friendly faces welcome us to the farm!

Moonie and Bean going on a ride.

Anslee wearing the beautiful crown Bean made.

Bean and her favorite pet.

Uncle Mecho and Andrew picking dandilions to make wine.

Keith gives a thumbs up to pork.

Andrew enjoys holding the baby goat.

Moonie had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb... This is the lamb Moonie saved.
Anslee loves Moonie's lamb.

Follow us! We'll lead the way to the barn.

Showing Anslee that goats aren't scary.

Gathering eggs...and chickens.

Heading back for lunch.

April 12th Easter and Birthdays!

We celebrated Easter in Asheville at my parents house. The last two years we had the children hunt for a certain color egg. We can hide the eggs harder for the older children and easier for the younger ones. It makes the egg hunt so much more fun!!

Happy Birthday Brandi, Dad, Andrew and Wood!! I can't believe my baby is 10 years old.

Weekend Fun!

Keith and Andrew went camping to celebrate my nephew's birthday. They had a blast and came home exhausted.

Keith brought Andrew's four wheeler. Andrew was so excited to have so much room to ride it.

Uncle Ben helping Andrew shoot.

Andrew loves fishing and almost always catches a fish.

Riding four wheelers, shooting guns, fishing and building a fire. Is it possible for a boy to have more fun than that??

I took Anslee to the Chattahoochee Nature Center on Saturday.

We hiked through the woods and on the boardwalk through the marshes.

Anslee loved learning about all the birds. The guide was so informative and had many hands on opportunities for the children.

Anslee loved the turtles and wanted me to take tons of pictures to show her brother.

Newest family member

Meet our newest family member, Molly. She is 2 1/2 years old.
Keith decided she should be in our family after seeing her and hearing her story. The rescue people said she was taken out of a puppy mill. She's adjusting really well, we all adore her, and Buster actually seems to like her. The one downside is that I think she is going to live up to the reputation that dachshunds have as being the hardest breed of dog to potty train. Andrew and Anslee still love the old man.

Baseball!!!

Andrew decided last fall that he wanted to play catcher. We signed him up for several clinics from December until the start of spring ball.

Learning the catching position with a runner on 1st base. Notice his hand behind the glove to more quickly get the ball out in case he has to throw to 2nd on the steal.

This is a drill to get up and into the throwing position.

Learning to block.

Watch it to the glove!
Here is Andrew in his first game. Looks good! The black catchers gear above was borrowed. Below he looks good in the gear Santa brought him for Christmas.

China Trip - Tueday Afternoon 11/25

After our trip to the zoo, we went to the adoption registration office. While we waited for our appointment time, we walked around a large open area that had shopping and restaurants.

We were all posing for a group picture. As you might imagine we draw quite a crowd. Here is our view of the crowd gathering to watch us get our group photo taken.

As I mentioned, the Chinese LOVE Caucasian boys. Here a crowd gathers to look at Andrew. You can see me letting him know not to be worried by the growing mass. They just stare at him smiling and giving him a thumbs up. Occasionally they will touch his hair. Terri and Anslee are in the store behind us.

Another view. Eventually a policewoman came and made everyone move away.

Here we are on a side street. Lots of vendors selling merchandise to the locals. The cart to the right is assorted candies.
Time for some Starbucks!
Watching a video at the Adoption Registration office.
They gave us 10 minutes to look at Anslee's adoption paperwork and we were not allowed to make any copies or write anything down. They had everyone's paperwork spread out on this counter. It was all in Chinese, so we grabbed one of the guides to help us translate.

We were told that that Anslee was found at about 8:00 in the morning by a lady on her way to sell produce. She saw a small bundle wriggling and thought that is was a animal of some kind but as she got closer, she realized that it was a baby. The baby was wrapped in a very tattered red blanket. This is significant, as red is a color for good luck. Also, when babies are abandoned, they are usually left in the nicest clothing/blankets that the family owns. The fact that the clothing Anslee was found in was in such bad shape would leave you to believe that her family was extremely poor. As you can see below. This was a very emotional moment.

Here is where we had dinner. A pirate ship in China!