Donuts with Grandpa

LOVES her Grandpa!!

Today was Donuts with Dads/Grandpas/Uncles at Emily's school, and Grandpa had a blast as usual with Miss Emily. She was very excited to see him! She had a huge maple bar with sprinkles, and then played with the toys set up in the gym while Grandpa watched and had his apple fritter and coffee.Grandpa loved seeing Emily interact with her friend Quinn. Grandpa also LOVED the special place mat Emily had made for him with the help of teachers. It was a fun day and Emily and Grandpa had a BLAST!

On another note, yesterday Emily had 4 teeth pulled at the dentist! Her dentist, Dr. Peter, is such a brilliant dentist that Emily never even realized that she had had a shot of Novocaine and 4 teeth pulled until he showed her afterwards. He was so GREAT! He told her that the Tooth Fairy told him a secret, and he had to help the Tooth Fairy with Emily's baby teeth that weren't falling out because she wanted to visit our house. Emily believed EVERY WORD he said!!! Actually the teeth had to be pulled due to her adult teeth already having come in, but the baby teeth hadn't fallen out! Emily was a ROCK STAR!!!! No crying, no tears, no screaming, and she wanted to go to school afterwards!!! Yes, you read that right. She went to school after having 4 teeth pulled and got a happy face behavior note from her teacher as well!
My baby is growing up!!
Love,
Kathy

Playing with Quinn

FUN, FUN, FUN

Dancing with Quinn

Emily's First Garden

Proud girl and her first garden

Over the past two days we have begun our first garden. For all of you gardeners out there, we are all novices in this household, so we are just crossing our fingers it all works! We did get lots of advice on our two blueberry bushes. How to plant them, how much water they need, how big they'll get, and yes, he says they will have berries this summer! Fingers crossed!

Emily helped build our raised bed that we purchased online

through www.minifarmbox.com. We put it together in about 10 minutes! Way cool! We did this on Saturday, and today after church, we all worked on digging the holes, filling the raised bed with soil, and planting the seeds and blueberry bushes! Emily was so helpful! She did a lot of digging, helped put the seeds in the holes, and did all of the watering! Way to go babe! We will be sure to keep you updated on our progress. We planted two kinds of lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and two kinds of blueberry bushes. We are also going to try tomatoes and possibly peppers in pots on the patio.

Emily is very excited and thinks we need a scarecrow to scare away the birds. Hee hee hee!

Love,

Kathy

Helping build...notice the bike helmet :-)

I'm strong mommy and JuJu

Emily helped with all parts

Let me see if JuJu's doing it right

Helping to hammer

Emily and JuJu

Helping with the blueberry bushes

Such a good helper

So MANY rocks in the dirt here

Yes...that rock was in the dirt

Helping at the nursery

Planting the seeds

Three Year Forever Family Day

Happy 3 Year  Forever Family Day baby!!!

Three years ago today in the city of Taiyuan, in the Shanxi Province of China, I was handed a screaming, crying, terrified, tiny 3 1/2 year old girl who didn't know me, and was scared beyond belief of what was happening in her little world. I too was scared, nervous, worried, and wondered how to soothe this small little girl who was scared of me. We took it one step at a time, and eventually found our way, and have been attached at the hip ever since.

Fast forward three years and you will see a vibrant, happy, joy filled, loving, very funny, caring, independent, spunky, sweet, and kind 6 1/2 year old girl.

We celebrated our three year special day all day. She awoke today to her favorite breakfast, gogurt, watermelon, and cinnamon toast waffles. She got to open a small gift from mommy, which was an ABC book with all of the Princesses, how to write each letter, and lots of lift the flaps.

Emily with her new baby Ariel

Emily got to take her x-ray from China today for sharing for letter X. She was excited and I hear the class loved seeing her bones when the teacher held it up to the light. She was the hit of Pre-K today!

When I picked her up today she was surprised with a huge balloon bouquet in the car. She LOVED it! Then when JuJu got home, Emily opened her other gift from mommy., an Ariel baby for sleeping that plays soothing lullabies and lights up while the music plays. She LOVES it and is asleep with it in bed as I type.

We went to yummy Chinese food for our celebration dinner and had a great time. Our evening ended with mommy and Emily snuggling on the couch watching Little Mermaid and Emily enjoying a strawberry Tootsie Pop!

I couldn't have asked for a better day, except maybe to not have had to go to work so we could have spent the entire day together. But we had a GREAT day overall, and I couldn't love this special girl any more than I do right now. She is the light of my life, and I CAN'T IMAGINE my life without her!
Enjoy the pictures!
Love,
Kathy

Happy, happy girl

Love you Love Bug

Oh so happy...

Snuggling her new doll

Enjoying her rice

Yummy spring roll and rice

Spring Break 2013

Heading to the beach

Beach time fun

Swinging on the beach

Smile fries

Happy Spring Break 2013

We headed out for Seaside, OR on Monday morning for a three day trip to the beach! Emily was very excited and couldn't wait to get there! She is a great car rider and does well each time we travel by car.
We arrived in Seaside around 11:30, and since check in wasn't until 4 p.m., we headed straight for the beach and the sand. Emily loves the sand and playing in it. We played for about two hours and then came back and put the toys in the car, went walking around Seaside, had a snack, played some games at the arcade, went on the carousel, and then it was time to check in. After checking in and getting settled, we went out for a nice dinner of some tasty seafood and great clam chowder. Emily had fun eating her chowder out of her bread bowl while mommy and JuJu enjoyed our seafood pasta. 
Tuesday we had more fun playing in the sand A LOT, more arcade games, more carousel rides, shopping, and JuJu and Emily going on the Tilt-a-Whirl. Emily is not afraid of rides at all! She loved it! 
Emily was such a very good girl the entire trip. This was our first trip of many since becoming a family three years ago, that Emily had NO MELTDOWNS...yes you heard me right...no tantrums, no tears, no screaming!!! Way to go baby! We all knew the day would come that going on trips wouldn't cause so much stress and worry and unsettled feelings in Emily. SO PROUD OF HER!!
Wednesday we woke up, had a nice breakfast, packed up, and then headed to Cannon Beach for some fun before coming home. Spring Break was a wonderful time, and I couldn't be more proud of my Love Bug!
Kathy

Beach lover

Sweet girl

Mermaid horse was her favorite

Fun, fun, fun

Peek-a-boo mommy

Such a FUNNY girl!

Darling

Mommy's angel girl

Kite fun with JuJu

Arcade fun on motion ride

Sand fun

Emily loves her JuJu

Such a happy girl

In the big hole she helped dig

FUN

Hi Mommy

Could the smile be any bigger

Easter 2013

Easter Beauty

Easter 2013 was a joyous day in Celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and we had a great day celebrating His life with family and friends, and of course the Easter Bunny!
The day began with Miss Emily waking before 6 a.m. and finding her note from the Easter Bunny, searching for the eggs, and opening her basket all before 6:30 a.m. She was very excited to get the Princess kite she had been wanting from the bunny, and was very happy to take it to the beach for spring break.
As you can see by the photos, she was stunning in her Easter dress. She picked it out all be herself and was the belle of the ball, so to speak, at church. Every person told her how pretty she looked or how beautiful her dress was! So grown up with her satin purse and all! My girl is growing up!
After church she got to open her basket from Mommy, and then we met Nana and Uncle Mike for lunch.
Later in the afternoon Titi and Belen came over, and Emily and Belen exchanged baskets and had a GREAT time playing. Those girls LOVE each other! After they left and we had dinner, we had to get ourselves all packed up to leave Monday morning for the beach!
Love,
Kathy

So pretty my little Love Bug

Easter Bunny's surprise

Looking for eggs

Hee, Hee, Hee

So happy with her new kite

All her treasures from the bunny

Mommy and Emily

What it's ALL about

Jaycee and Emily...dear friends

Darling girl with Mommy's basket

Basket from Mommy

New watch

Nothing like a pair of swimsuit bottoms on your head for a goofy picture

Happy girl

Belen, Mommy, and Emily

Looking so grown up in her new clothes and high heel flip flops

Enjoying their treasures