Cookies

A few weeks ago the littles and I decided to make cookies....

It was so much fun! They did a GREAT job! They (with little help from me) rolled them out, cut them, baked them and cooled them in the morning. Then later that afternoon we iced them.
Ty ate more than his weight in cookies (with and without icing).

Lily compared him to Max from the show Max & Ruby. She was so right...

Lily LOVES using the big red mixer.... at one point she was covered in flour... wish I would have taken a picture......

Marshall looking at me as though he isn't sure of the cookie baking with the littles

Lily informing Ty that he needs more flour because the roller is sticking to the dough and making a HUGE mess (her words).... her next words were OH I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TY... This is not the way we do it...

Lily and I were cutting out cookies when she looked over at the cooling rack and said, "MOM, where are all of the cookies?" You guessed it... TY ate more than 1/2 of them on this rack... He would sneak over to get them when I was helping Lily...

In action... eating the cookies

Lily wanted to use the pink icing because it matched her shirt and because she really loves pink...
(her words again)

Ty is very happy to use the blue icing and also to eat about every other cookie that he iced
The finished product... they were yummy!

2.5 years later

Yangdong SWI (Social Welfare Institute... orphanage) director and nannies

Lily is from Yangdong SWI..... through a Yahoo group for her orphanage I met another Yangdong mom that just happens to be in China right now to bring her daughter home.
I sent a small picture book with her to give the director when she visited the orphanage.
Today when I checked her blog I saw this picture and it instantly brought me to tears. The orphanage director is holding the pink book that I sent (the woman to the right is holding a photo book from another Yangdong mom). It seems a million things about this picture brought tears to my eyes.
I thought of......
How it seems like yesterday we were sitting in a room with this very man...... meeting our
Lily Feifei for the first time.
He talked on and on about how she liked her bottle.
I thought of the many days we waited not knowing how many more days our wait would last.
I thought about the job of that director.... he has to take care of so many children with so little.
I thought of all the ways Lily has changed from that first day.
Mostly I thought of how thankful I am that she is our daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you to Jill for taking that picture and your friendship....both are wonderful blessings!!!!

Lily then

Lily now

Visit with Santa

I know I haven't posted in a few weeks.... we are busy as usual...
In addition Lily and I have had colds. Lily is feeling better but my cold is hanging on as long as it can.

Before the cold virus hit we made a visit to Santa.......
The littles were so excited to see Santa, to dress up, and to have their picture with Santa.
We went to a different mall this year (less crowded) and that was the first mistake. Lily noticed the difference right away and pointed out that she liked the place we went last year (her words to be exact.... you know the other mall from my picture last year...I like that one better mom).
The minute we stepped into the mall Ty was in a bad mood and that quickly rubbed off on Lily.
Lily pointed out that she would rather mom take the picture than Santa's helper... who by the way was more interested in where Lily and Ty were from than taking their picture. The usual... are they twins... and then so on.
I had my camera just to snap some pictures of them by a fountain in the mall.... well.... the mall security guard followed me like I was the paparazzi.
Needless to say the actual picture with Santa did not turn out well....

Lily and Ty LOVED the fact that Santa gave them each 2 candy canes... They ended the Santa visit on a happy note and enjoying every bit of their candy canes.

Mall Christmas tree

Sitting by the fountain.... Lily is looking at the ribbon directly below her and Ty was looking at the skylight above...

Finishing her sentence of.... I don't like Santa at this mall....
Lily also noticed that Grandma Glenda was not here... Grandma Glenda meets us here once in a while for lunch... Miss Lily remembered that and wondered where she was....

Eating Candy Canes

Lily looks like she is running from the paparazzi.... (mommarazzi)

Back home by our tree....

Gotta love these Ty cheeks.....

Mom with her littles

As always I am so proud to say that Robin at
Red Thread Stitches made this beautiful outfit that Lily is wearing.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a VERY Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!
We are so thankful for the many blessings we have in life....
God, family, friends, a roof over our head, food, and our health.

Lily is super excited about Thanksgiving and to eat turkey (even though she never eats turkey). Her preschool has been doing all sorts of fun things to teach the kids about Thanksgiving.
She had a Harvest Party at school (mom, dad, and Ty were invited and Lily was so proud).
They made mini pumpkin pies today and each student got one to take home.
They made all sorts of Thanksgiving crafts and artwork.
Today they were using turkey basters to put water on little foam turkeys.
They go over all the things they are thankful for and even made
I am Thankful For books...
Lily's book says...
I am Thankful For
Mom
Dad
Ham and Cheese (she RARELY eats Ham)
Jesus



Needless to say she is REALLY excited for Thanksgiving....

Ty just repeats what Lily says (in regards to Thanksgiving).... he has been saying eat turkey over and over...

Today Lily and I were teaching him how to say Happy Thanksgiving... I quickly noticed it seemed to be a good time for a video.....

FYI.........Ty is still about one inch shorter than Lily but he has passed her in weight....... what he hasn't passed her in YET is strength.... I have no doubt that will change someday but for now she can hold her own with Ty and he knows it....

This video has them both saying Happy Thanksgiving (that was Ty's second attempt at it) and then Lily saying she is thankful for Ty

Pine needles are serious business

*** A few of you asked where Lily's owl shirt came from..... I bought it at the Gap several months ago.***
Boden (for kids... online) has a cute owl shirt also.


A few weeks ago when it was still warm the littles were playing outside....

The hurricane winds that whipped through here a few months ago left our yard full of pine needles (not complaining because we are just thankful it wasn't roof shingles or trees).
Well, they thought it was so much fun collecting piles of the needles and relocating them to their swing set... I just happened to have my camera outside (big surprise I know).
Lily said, "Mom, you can take our picture but we are too busy to say cheese."
OH MY!!!!!!

Lily says... these are awesome mom... they are sharp but really awesome

Ty studying his needles (he says neen-uls)

Ty will stop anything he is doing to look up at an airplane.....

Misc.

LOVE her smile!!!!!

Such a little sweetheart!

Looks like Lily is taking a little rest in this picture.... she was swinging like this for several minutes with her eyes closed. I wonder what she was thinking about?!

Wearing beautiful hats that Aunt Katie made them......

Pumpkin Farm

About 3 weeks ago (as you can tell I am behind on getting pictures posted) we made the trip to a local pumpkin farm and it was SOOOO much fun.

Lily showing Ty how to operate a tractor... because she knows how... hee hee

Lily zipping along on the zip line.... and loving every minute

Ty also loving the zip line and looking like a natural with his legs in zip line position

Ty is saying, "LOOK... QUACK... QUACK".

The quack quacks hoping he had some food for them

Beautiful fall colors

Dad and Ty

Taking a hayride

They look so tiny compared to this big sign.... it would appear that Ty is taller in this picture (he seems to be standing up closer to the sign) but Lily is in fact about 1 inch taller than him....
He now weighs more than she does....

Bless their hearts they think they are really driving (Lily is in the first seat with the flamingos and Ty is behind her)

When it came time to pick out pumpkins they picked these little ones and thought they were so cool to carry them by themselves.....

Another look at the Princess and Pirate Pumpkins.....
These were some larger pumpkins that we had and they worked perfect for the Princess and the Pirate...