Little Shop of Horrors

Alex was recently the lead in the high school production of Little Shop of Horrors. We were so proud of him!! As a freshman, we think he did an amazing job.

One Year Since Gotcha Day! November 17th, 2008

I can't believe our Qian Yu has been home one year already. It's funny saying her Chinese name, since she goes by Quinn, or Quinny or Yu Yu or Quinny Bird at home. It's like Qian Yu is her secret name; a name that stayed in China and is part of one of our wonderful memories from that beautiful country. I thank God every day that Quinn was the little girl for us. I can't imagine a better fit. I do believe in that Chinese proverb about the invisible red thread that connects us with those we are destined to meet. She is just like us!! She has a wicked humor about her; a prankster. She loves to laugh, and play and cuddle. We are blessed. Her speech is coming along beautifully. She can say lots of words, but leaves off the front. She has speech therapy once a week, and it is really improving. I think by this time next year, she'll have a huge vocabulary. I can tell she is very bright and loves any kind of book...and singing....wow! ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Happy Birthday.....and songs from Little Shop of Horrors! Yes, we are one twisted family. Here are some pictures from her year with us. God Bless you all....

County Band Concert

On Thursday of this week, Alex participated in a county wide band concert. What that means is that the four surrounding county high schools all came together to perform under the direction of Dr. Pare' of DPU. It was amazing. I was only able to capture a small portion of the music, since all I had was my camera and it ate up all the memory pretty quickly. So, the small part I was able to record was an arrangement from Pirates of the Carribbean. Here it is!

Our Painting

Our friend and artist Teresa McGuire just finished this picture of our house. I was really pleased with it! I figure someday when we are retired in our beach condo (ha ha - Phillip will be 60 when Quinn graduates high school) we'll get a kick out of looking at it. Here it is:

Homecoming Prince

Alex was crowned Homecoming Prince at the football game Saturday night. His beautiful girlfriend was crowned princess. Alex's cousin Matt was crowned prince for the sophomore class. Phillip says the genetically good looks come from his side of the family. :)

It was drizzling rain the whole time, but it was a lot of fun to see the kids getting so excited about football! I've included a couple pictures of the evening. The evening made me think back to my high school days and the fun we had around homecoming time. Maybe I'll get back to one of those in the future. Go Pioneers!! :) Class of '84 ROCKS! Hee.Hee.

Family Weekend

My family spent the weekend at a beautiful lake outside our county. We arrived on Saturday and spent the day. I don't want to disclose the location for fear everybody will want to go! It was an amazing place, and just a short drive from our home. The kids had a great day; fishing, swimming, hiking, canoeing, etc. We even roasted chestnuts! It was especially nice because my grandparents were there; fishing as well. The food was really yummy! My mom spent the day making sure we were well fed; and it was amazing! Donovan and MK ended up staying the night there with Uncle Todd and his family and they saw a snake this morning on their hike around the lake. They said it had a triangular head.....sounds poisonous to me.

Here are pictures from our day. I also am including pictures of our grape stomp! Donovan and MK stomped on the grapes and we canned juice. The first part was great until the acids from the grapes started burning their legs! We had to keep putting them in the tub, rubbing their legs with Aloe, and putting them back in the tub. My grandpa said to use butter and that would take the burn out. We'll try that next year.

Where Has The Time Gone?

It's been such a long time since I've posted! Our children are just growing before our eyes! Alex has to be at least 1 1/2 inches taller than Phillip now. MK just turned 7 at the beginning of the month, Donovan's feet look like ski-boats all of the sudden and Quinn has started pre-school! It has been sooo very busy, and I guess that's good in a way, because they're not sitting around saying, "I'm bored!!!"

Last weekend Quinn finally started sleeping in her own bed! I am so thankful for that. She really enjoys having her big girl room that she shares with her sister. I'm sure they will have lots of stories to share with each other at bedtime in the years to come. I wanted to share some photos that my friend Vicki took of our family. Her website is http://www.wallenvy.com/. She has some fantastic art and photos.

Life is good and I'm so thankful for every day I have with my children. We are blessed.

Surgery #1 is OVER!

Our little Quinn was a trooper on Wednesday. She had her surgery to repair her palate. The surgery took approximately 2 1/2 hours; she had 41 stitches when it was over, her tongue sewn down, and soft casts put on her arms. The tongue thing looked bad, but luckily they took that out the next morning. I guess they do that as an emergency precaution if the throat swells. They can pull on the string that is attached to the tongue to open the airway. The worst thing now is that she is stuck eating either pudding, yogurt, applesauce and the stage one baby foods. (She can't stand them.) Phillip says if she gets hungry enough though, she'll eat them! She's drinking really well though. Lots of chocolate milk, ensure, white milk and water. I made a pot of vegetable soup today, and gave her just the broth from it. She seemed to like it. She is an amazing little girl. She is also very, very tough. There was a little girl from Kenya in the room next to Quinn's. Her name was Joyce and she was one. She was having her palate and lip repaired because they had to get back to Kenya. She is being adopted by an American doctor and his wife who are living in Kenya. We walked by and Quinn was upset that Joyce was crying, so she gave her a little, pink stuffed poodle. Joyce smiled at Quinn. It was all really touching. There was also a little girl in our unit who went into a Code Blue emergency and died. Whithin 20 seconds there must have been 25 staff members there working on her. The miracle is that she came back. It was truly a miracle. She lived!! I will never forget that moment..The staff was truly amazing!

So now, we will have a lip repair next summer, and then she's all done!! WooHoo!! I am so thankful this beautiful little girl is in our lives. She has been so good for her siblings and her siblings have been so very good for her! My family is so blessed and thankful!

It's a WICKED Night!

Last night we took Alex to see WICKED at the Murat! It was awesome!! We had second row seats. We were so close you could see them spitting when they sang!

It was the best musical I've ever seen! We had such a good time, and we had Reubens at Shapiro's before the show. I saw that Crosby, Stills and Nash will be at the Murat August 4th. Phillip and Alex might go back for that one. I was thinking about my prom last night. 1984. I went with my very good friend David. It was held at the Murat Egyptian Room. Back then, it wasn't as nice as it is now. I think they did a big remodel in the early 90's. Anyway.....it was gorgeous, we had a blast, and I want to see WICKED again!

Summertime! Woo Hoo!

Finally! It's here. The day we've been waiting for all year long....Summer Vacation!

There's nothing better than sleeping in, going without a shower, playing outside, and reading a good book! So far, we've been very, very busy with community theatre, swim team, tennis camp, baseball and softball. Baseball finally ended last night. Donovan's coach was THE BEST. I really like him because he made every single kid feel important to the team; like they were really needed in order to win the game. I really liked him. Thanks Coach R!

The last week of school was the honors award convocation. Alex is the 8th grade student council president, and was awarded the Nathan Graves award for outstanding student council member and the Rotary Club award presented to a student who shows leadership, scholarship, and community service. It was an amazing day for him. Phillip and I both got to see him receive his awards. We are so proud of him!!

The little ones are in tennis camp two days a week, which is a lot of fun. They are learning the basics and doing lots and lots of drills. For 50.00 they get a brand new tennis racket, balls, sweatband, uniform, tattoos, and seven weeks of instruction. It was sponsored by the USTA Midwest. Their link is usta.com

The little ones spent the night at Victory Field in Indianapolis last weekend for cub scouts....put their tents out right on the field! They each got a really nice ball cap.

We are winding down with everything by June 27th, except for tennis, because Quinn's palate surgery is July 1st. We are excited and very, very nervous at the same time. Excited because she will start speaking more after her repair, and nervous, because....well...it's surgery. If any families have gone through a palate repair, please email me! I've included a few pictures of the kids from summer.....so far!

Grandma and Granpa

MK and Sis

Quinn and baby

Alex and Dr. Green after receiving his award.

Precious little smile!