Easter and Longji's Birthday party

March 31st was a wonderful day! We celebrated Easter morning attending a very early church service, but well worth getting up so early. We then ate a birthday breakfast at my mom's house to celebrate Longji's 9th birthday. After resting for a couple of hours, we headed over to John's parents house for Easter lunch and a scavenger egg hunt. It was a wonderfully busy day and I loved it! As we settled down that evening, I sat for a minute and thought about Longji's birth mother and I wondered how or what she was feeling that day. My heart aches for her as I am sure she lives a life wondering about the baby she gave birth to nine years ago. He is such a blessing to our family and I can only hope that he truly realizes how many people love and cherish him.

We did celebrate his big birthday party the following week at the bowling alley. Longji chose bowling this time around and it was quite the experience with so many mini bowlers. He had such a good time opening his gifts and the kids were great guests.

Meanwhile, Jordyn had her district golf tournament this week and she ended up in the top ten! She now moves on to a regional tournament and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Brielle's Hip Hop Performance

I wanted to check in and post some pictures of our latest family event - Brielle's first hip hop performance. This is definitely a first for us so we spent the last two days planning on how to bedazzle and "bling" up some hats to show our support for Brielle's team. I can't stop thinking about the words of the director, "a little girl can never have too much sparkle." This girl is definitely taking John's perspective on having daughters to a whole new level. Despite coming home from school yesterday feverish and hitting a 104.5 temp last night, the girl did pretty good. She hasn't been sick once since she has stepped foot into America, but last night was a rough one. Today, however, she decides to wake up with a normal temperature, appetite returned (it wasn't gone but for one meal anyway) and she was back to her morning grumpy, but loving, self. I made her stay at home and in bed pretty much up until the performance. And she never had a temperature above 98 all day. Still in shock of the whole thing.

John and Longji attended a morning family exercise session at his kung fu facility and then the two of them headed out to the kids' school carnival. I didn't allow Brielle to go because of last night's scary fever. She was not happy with me at all this morning. She got over it though once I sparkled her up with body glitter and a cute bedazzled/blingy hat.

Coming up...Easter and Longji's birthday. Both are actually on the same day this year which Longji was totally okay with. We did have to schedule his birthday party for April 6th though. We are already planning summer events and a possible move into a new house. We will see what God has in store for us...it's always good stuff.

Happy Gotcha Day Yiqun Brielle!

This last Wednesday we celebrated our one year anniversary of Brielle joining our family. It was actually my birthday also. We went out to eat at our favorite Chinese food restaurant and enjoyed a simple dinner together. We tried to explain to Brielle the occasion, but she really hasn't grasped it yet so maybe next year it will have a little more meaning to her. Longji understands fully and he is already looking forward to his Gotcha day celebration in May. Our life with these two little ones is a crazy one(we've got witnesses), but we wouldn't change it for anything that's for sure. God is good!

Asian Festival and Father/Daughter Dance

John and Brielle attended a father-daughter dance at our church a couple of weeks ago. Brielle had so much fun. We curled her hair and let her wear a little makeup for the occasion. She was so excited. We also went to the Asian Festival last weekend. Brielle's choir class was performing at the festival. We had a good time, especially eating the good food. We are keeping ourselves busy with kung fu, hip hop, Chinese school and tutoring. The kids are excited about spring break coming up. We are planning a camping trip over the break so we will see how that goes. Longji's plan so far is to bring his DS games and portable DVD player. Not quite sure how much "camping" he intends on doing.

More Christmas pictures and Chinese school performance

Below are some additional Christmas pictures we just got downloaded on the computer. That is how far behind we are. This crazy life keeps us pretty busy. This past weekend was the Chinese school performance. We spent three hours at rehearsals on Saturday and then another three at the performance. It was a long six hours, but worth it. The kids did great! Our family Chinese New Year party is scheduled and we are ready to celebrate the New Year. We are already planning birthday parties and summer camps. Where does the time go?

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