Don Strange Ranch

This past weekend John and I cashed in on a birthday present and we visited the Don Strange Ranch for some fun. We climbed the Alpine Tower, completed the zip line and then took a kayak down the Guadalupe River. We had a great time and it was beautiful weather. The kids stayed with grandparents and of course were spoiled for the day. These are some pictures from our day.

It's now or never...

Okay, so the title of this post simply refers to my crazy life right now. It is 10:30pm and I have about a thousand and one things to do. This week is already going to be crazy and it hasn't even started yet. I figured I better just sit down and get to the blogging now or it will never happen.

We celebrated Adam's 8th birthday last weekend at O.P. Schnabel Park and the kids had a great time. I know I probably go too far with his birthday parties and I will probably do the same for Brielle, but I figure I have a lot of birthdays to make up for so a big bash we will have.








Brielle started school on Monday, April 2nd. She is attending Adam's school and is actually in the same classroom. This should be an interesting two months...so far so good. She was so excited about her ginormous cookie she got for her first day. She also had an eye appointment and she has perfect eyesight which is great news. This week she does have a very important doctor's appointment so we are praying for a good prognosis.



Easter was a wonderful celebration with family and friends. The pictures tell all. The kids were spoiled, spoiled and spoiled again. Longji does clearly understand the reason for Easter and I just love his explanation for the celebration. Brielle just played with boiled and plastic eggs all weekend, but she will truly understand the significance before next year.















She did love her dress and it was very emotional to see her put it on for the first time. She just smiled and jumped up and down. She felt so pretty and she wanted to give Adam a kiss. He said, "no, that is disgusting." Thinking about our journey to China on both occasions, I don't remember seeing a picture of any of the girls in the orphanages wearing a dress. At least nothing as bright and colorful as the one Brielle was given.

I think this is it for now. It has been a crazy couple of weeks and it will continue over this next week so I hope I am updating everything I need to.

Bulldog Day

Saturday was Bulldog Day at Longji's school. Avry, my niece, came with us and we had a fun time with the kids. Yiqun was taking it all in. She got a heart painted on her face and she was so excited. Longji got a lightning bolt on his hand and Avry a bulldog.









This next week is our last week at home. At least for two months and then we are out for summer. We have four visits to various doctors and hopefully finishing the enrollment process for Yiqun to start school. Not sure how she is going to do, but we will find out.

Proud Mama!

So proud of Longji tonight. He tested for his yellow belt in front of the entire class and passed. He was nervous and so excited at the same time. I left early and John took over so I missed the test, but he had a huge smile on his face when he got home. He insisted on showing me all of his "moves" so I could completely understand what his test was like. Let's just hope he doesn't use any of these kung fu tactics on Yiqun...they do have their moments.

Spring Break

Over spring break we took Yiqun for her lab workup. Unfortunately, they needed so much blood that she had to make two trips. We did get a call regarding the first round of tests and everything looks good so far. All doctor visits are scheduled so we will hopefully have more of a medical history here in the next couple of months.

Last week we took the kids to a couple of parks. It takes Yiqun a little while to warm up and then when she is ready she is all over the place. She and Longji had a good time. We also took some bluebonnet pictures this year. We didn't have a chance last year and we couldn't resist with all of the pretty flowers that are blooming everywhere.















We took Yiqun for her first haircut here in America. We only cut maybe two inches to even out her layers. She didn't want to go, but she did fine once we were there.




This week we have our first post-adoption visit with our social worker and we will make a trip to Yiqun's school. She will start April 2nd. We did start working on basic letters and number activities. She is going to be a busy little bee the next two weeks between school work at home and doctor visits.

We did buy a rice cooker since typically half of our family is Asian. The kids picked out their own chopsticks in China so we started using these last week. We were pretty impressed with our first rice cooker meal.





These are pictures of the kids playing with the play-doh and Jordyn and Yiqun decorating the front driveway.