Life...as normal as it gets in MY house

The girls continue to grow like weeds. Well, Mary is. Ella is still a little peanut despite how much food that girl can put away! Mary has gotten SO tall in the last couple of months that all her pants and dresses are too short! She's also starting to get that "older" look to her. No more "baby" face. She is becoming one of the most stunning young girls I've ever seen (okay, so I'm a little partial). I'm in BIG trouble when the boys discover her!

Ella's speech is still progressing with leaps and bounds. She finished up the school year a few weeks ago. She misses school already! Ella had her dental surgery a few weeks ago. They fixed seven of her teeth and pulled one. (Now she whistles when she talks!!) The next step is getting her fitted for her obturator which will be done in Chicago. Then I think she's set for a couple years before they attempt to close her palate again.

The girls are adjusting slowly but surely to Mama and Baba having our own places. It's a little weird, but anytime parents split up it gets weird. Mary has had a couple night terrors, which is probably her brain's way of dealing with the stress of the changes. Mary stopped sleeping in her own room and is now sleeping on the top bunk in Ella's room. She won't say why, she just says that's where she wants to be. Perhaps it's because she is downstairs with me. Maybe.

Both girls LOVE summertime. They like swinging on their swingset. They love playing with water guns in the yard. They love riding their bikes in the park. We are going to try camping in a few weeks, but I have a feeling they are going to love it!

Here are some recent pictures!

Water Gun Fights!


Ready for church

Boxes! The world's best toys!

Whatzzzup!?!?

The "Gangsta Princess"

Pretty in Pink (LOTS of pink)

Horsey rides with Mama's friend from JUNIOR HIGH! (Wow Mama's getting old!)

Happy Birthday Mary!!

I can't believe my little girl is FIVE today! Oh my. Where did the time go? Of course, to Mary, this is a pivitil age. She wasn't allowed to chew gum until she was five, so I guess that made her birthday present easy, lol. She couldn't go to school until she was five (at least not until the fall now). Well, Mary seemed to think that turning five meant opening ALL kinds of doors. She thought she got to drive when she turned five AND she thought she was allowed to get a tattoo at five. Oops. Guess I shouldn't have put so much emphasis on the age of 5!

We are planning to take her to Chuck E Cheeses (man I hate that place) tomorrow night once Rob gets home to celebrate her birthday. She's wired about it. She also wants a 'Tini Puppini' for her birthday (a dress-up "diva" dog stuffed animal, Ella got one for her birthday in January), but she wants to pick it out herself.

I'll post pictures after the celebration!

Mary's Referral Day Anniversary

It was four years ago today that we received that amazing call that would change our lives forever. Four years ago today we saw the first picture of the little girl who was destined to be OUR daughter. It's hard to believe its been four years because where does the time go? Then again, its also hard to believe its ONLY been four years. We can seem to remember life without Mary in it. Was there life before Mary? Hard to say. Mary was a dream come true for me. A dream that had started when I myself was a little girl. I dreamt about her for so long that I wondered if she would ever be anything but a dream. Now she's here and growing up into this vibrant (and sassy) little girl. She hardly resembles the little baby we brought home from China in May of 2005. She's become so tall (all legs!) and no longer has that "baby face". She's growing into a beautiful young lady and I am always proud to call her MY daughter.

Here is the first picture we ever saw of Mary.



And here is Mary now...

Picture Perfect

I did a photo shoot with the kids this weekend. All of them cooperated, for the most part. I DID get a couple really cute pictures of the girls! They were really playing it up! I did their hair a little different this time. Ella's hair turned out really cute with it curled under. Mary's hair ended up looking like a 50's or 60's flip on the bottom and it looked so great on her! Don't take my word for it. Judge for yourself!













Ah, boys will be boys!


Sisters!

My girls are so weird

Yes, they are completely weird. Some of the goofy things they do just make my crack up. Ella simply MUST play dress up every single day or I think she might burst! Most days, she never even puts on normal clothes! She LOVES to wear this Sleeping Beauty dress (it's actually Mary's and is a little big for her) with a small hoop skirt in the lining. It's so funny to watch her sit on the couch next to me, scootch her butt backwards and watch that hoop come flying up into her face, revealing her Hello Kitty panties! It embarrasses the heck out of the boys if one of their friends is over. (Priceless!) Mary loves to wear this Barbie wedding dress that is almost falling apart. I don't know what it is about that dress, but both girls love to fight over it! (Ella's not supposed to wear it though because it is WAY too big and shows off "her boobies" to everyone! Ha!)

This week I had to help Ella fill out her Valentines for her party at school. Canaan had to help Mary (she's a lefty and I have SUCH a hard time helping her write!). They both put so much thought into who was getting which Valentine and making sure to put those stickers on was critical! Amusing. They were Princess Valentines (of course) but they didn't think the boys would mind. When Ella and I were picking them out, I made the mistake of saying "Princess" ones first so she NEVER heard the other choices. I should have known. EVERYTHING in princess. Everything!

They have been getting along so much better lately that it's almost scary. I'm waiting for the bottom to fall out! I think it's because they both have their own rooms and their own space. Plus Ella's speech is so much clearer so Mary doesn't have to try and guess what she's saying, avoiding a lot of frustration. They still have their squabbles, don't get me wrong! They ARE sisters and I imagine it's going to get worse when they get older fighting over clothing, curling irons and BOYS!

I just have to wonder what they will do when we throw another sister into the mix. Hmmm. Should be interesting.

I haven't had much time to take pictures lately, but here is one pic of Ella and her Chinese dumplings! She LOVES dumplings!

Hot Tubbie Girls!

The girls have been asking for a long time so I finally caved in and let them play in the hot tub on the back porch. It was a cold night so the whole porch was covered in steam. We realized that Ella had never been in the hot tub before. She was excited and nervous. We got them in their swim suits (Ella is still wearing a 12 month size!) and wrapped them in towels. Mary is quite a veteran in the hot tub and loves it. Ella at first was going to change her mind, but we convinced her to try it. She was really nervous. She made Canaan put her on his lap for quite a while. At first, she wouldn't stick her hands in the water! Eventually she relaxed and enjoyed playing with the bubbles. Here are some pictures!









Of course Canaan had to join in on the fun!

Playing Catch Up and COWS!!!!

The holidays were so busy that they just slipped right past us and now we are almost through January! Ella was so different this year. We all were I think. No jetlag and culture shock like the last Christmas. Ella was thoroughly amused by everything that Christmas had to offer. She loved the lights and the presents. She LOVED the food and the family. Mary wasn't quite as jealous of her little sister this year. Adam made it home on leave for Christmas so together it added up to a very wonderful holiday. Yes, it was a "cheaper" holiday than in years past, but that didn't stop everyone from having a good time. Here are some pictures from Christmas.






I got what I wanted for Christmas! ALL of my kids home!















Adam left to head back to the base on January 2nd. I don't know when we will see him next. He (again) left a mess when he left. We are going to start calling it the Adam Quake! You can turn a boy into a Marine but you can't take the boy out of him!! It WAS really good to see him and spend some time with him. It made me realize how much I miss him being there, even though he is a SLOB and keeps leaving a mess!

Everything is getting back to normal in our house now. As "normal" as it normally is anyways. I guess you would have to live here to understand "our" normal. It's still chaos, but without all the commotion, we simply wouldn't know what to do with ourselves! The kids are back in school (yeah!) and I have time to focus on Winter Guard, which I really, really AM enjoying. I love working with the kids and with the other guard coach. I don't know why I didn't start doing this a long time ago! Ella gets to go to some of the practices (since she goes to work with me on Mondays and practices are on Monday nights). Mary gets a little bummed that she doesn't get to go. She wants Baba to take her to a couple of the competitions so they can watch. Ha! Maybe Mary is going to end up being in color guard after all and NOT a cheerleader like I feared.

We fixed up the playroom into Mary's room. (I will post some pictures soon!) We got some Pooh stickers and a Pooh border to put on the walls to accent Winnie the Pooh's tree that is painted on the wall and ceiling and I made some curtains out of Pooh material that my sister had laying around. We ordered a Pooh bedding set on Ebay which should be here this week, so for now Mary just has a flowered set. She loves having her own room again. What a difference! No more fighting to go to bed! No more bickering as to who gets to turn off the light or turn on the night lights! They both really love having their "own" space, especially Mary. I think she likes the whole "big sister room" and is eating up all the Pooh stuff we are finding! We took the television out of that room so they can't watch movies in there all the time, but we HAVE let them take the little movie player in there once or twice if they don't like the movie we are watching. It's weird, but they are actually getting ALONG better since the move. We were a little worried about how Ella would do in a room by herself (since it is probably the FIRST time she has ever had a room to herself), but she seems to be okay with it. She likes still being downstairs with us so if she needs something, we can still hear her. I was a little nervous about Mary being upstairs (well, the boys are there too), but I put the baby monitor next to her bed and the receiver next to mine and it seems to make both of us feel better!

Ella celebrated her 4th birthday decked out in pure pink! She was wearing a pink princess outfit and had to have a PINK cake. Mary didn't like the idea that Ella was "the same age" as her and continues to remind us that she is still the "big sister". It's funny actually. I remember having the same kind of arguments between my brother and I when we were the "same age" for three months out of the year! Here are some pictures and a video of Ella, the pink princess and her birthday present "Tutu the dog".







Here is a video we took on Ella's birthday. In it, she is saying "Today is my birthday. I am four years old. I'm a big girl!". It's funny.



Ella's speech is still progressing with leaps and bounds. It's interesting to compare it to what it was a year ago. When she first came home and went to the office with me, we played the same "Good morning Cows!" and "Good night Cows!" that Mary use to play, but it was more like "Mo'in Now" and "Ni Nite Now". Her speech was difficult to understand and there was virtually NO hard sounds. This morning I noticed the amazing difference. I yelled "COWS" and Ella said "gooD MorNiN coWZZZ"! (The upper case letters represent the accent she put on the sounds.) Absolutely incredible the difference! I'm so excited to see where it will be a year from NOW!

Here are some pictures from recent.




Here are the girls with their Chinese buns in their hair (thanks to Auntie who made them special for them)!





...and here is what it looks like when you take the Chinese buns out!!