Easter

I've heard people say that hosting events is a lot of work, but for the record...

Here are my confessions.

I invited the best cooks over for a potluck Easter Dinner. I'm rotten selfish, I know.

Both families had cute plastic eggs with imported candy inside. Us? Let's just say I got a good chuckle out of Tim. Really, who boils eggs and lays out stickers for the kids to decorate 10 minutes before the hunt.

And here are other people's kids helping my kids find eggs. And my kids using other kid's Easter baskets.

Here's a cute gang of boys hunting together- built-in entertainment for all.

See, Tanner, see how well you made off by having Heidi's help?!

Here's what I did most of the day.

besides search the garage to find this Easter basket for Hunter.

Hunter eating the candy before I get my hands on it. Tell me you don't take the cadbury mini's out when they're not looking.

Me still doing what I was doing the whole day. Tracey taking care of the kids.

BTW, Hunter found an egg about a month later... luckily it wasn't one of ours... it had starburst (imported) jelly beans in it, that's how I knew. I won't tell you how tempted I was to eat them.

All the sweet kids.

Thanks guys for coming! You made our Easter the best! One day I'll catch up with the rest of you; let's just hope your perfectionism doesn't feed into my lazy holiday planning- lol.

What Sisters Are For

There are few pictures caught of me falling over laughing. But the two that I do have are ones where my sister Holly has said something that has had me laughing to tears. TEARS I tell ya.

Here we are on Thanksgiving 2003, I'm pregnant with Hunter, and my sister is in the background mixing the mashed potatoes. For those of you that know Holly, she can crack a straight-faced joke and hold her straight face while everyone rolls in laughter. In this picture, she's trying to get someone to fess up to "Dropping bomb in the kitchen".

Oh my gosh, I'm wheezing right now. She's got me laughing again just looking at her face in the picture. I don't know who caught this on film, but thank you. I love knowing there are few people on earth that can get me falling over in a deep gut laugh like my sister.

Ever Gotten Up At Midnight To Wii?

This 5 year old has.

Tim and I went to the adult session of a District Conference here in Shanghai. Tim promised Hunter that he'd be home in time to play Wii with him (he earns Wii points when he reads and follows rules).

Though we got home at 11:00 PM, Tim decided he was going to keep his word to Hunter.
To say the least, Hunter was WAY excited to think he got to sneak out of bed to play with his Dad.

Though it took a minute to get coordinated...

And for hid Dad to rip off his tie.

Then they were off and running.

Here's a picture of the guys Wii-ing at midnight.

Haiti Adoption Anyone?

Okay, so y'all know I'm a HUGE adoption advocate. Many of you are victims to my tireless efforts of convincing you to join me in the adoption process. Here I go again!

We still have 17 months to go 'till our China adoption goes through... I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE how exciting it's getting! I can't wait for our little Chinese girl/girls to join us. We've been talking about it to the boys, and I think they are barely starting to grasp that they'll have a Chinese little sister.

So, my favorite adoption agency, http://www.chinesechildren.org/ (CCAI), just announced they are now including Haiti in addition to Chinese adoption. Read the letter: HERE

Anyway, if you thought Chinese baby girls were the only cuties, check these angels out:
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A group of girls from Haiti.

And, unlike most adoption countries, as soon as you get approved, you pick the child, and then wait for the 22 months of paperwork to go through.

Also, with Haiti adoption, you can adopt more than one at under the same paperwork! This is amazing! Look at these little twins, adorable! Wouldn't it be amazing if someone reading this post ends up adopting these very boys? What a story that would be...

The bonus? If I read correctly, you can visit your child up to three times a year while you wait. How soul-gratifying is that? And not to make light of a serious subject, but Haiti is next to the Caribbean.

A brother and sister team. How precious is this? To be able to save not just one, but two at the same time. And how neat it will be for them to have each other as they grow up.

Look at this huge smile! Even when Tim and I just were dating we both had interest in adoption. We both had friends that had an 'international' family picture. For me, that family was Gabe Hampton's from my mission in Taiwan.

His mom, who had foster-to-adopted 12 children, casually wrote to him from the US "Maybe while we are in Taiwan to pick you up, we could bring home a child?" I used to pick his brain over and over on how his mom did it. I still think of the vast amount of love in this woman's heart, of whom I've never met.

And I loved the logistics on how she made them all feel unique, no matter their background. One neat thing he said she did-- each of the kids rotated nights where they got to stay up late with mom and dad and have personal time with them, doing whatever the child wanted to do. He also described things like having two washer/dryer sets. And the conquering-all-odds stories. They still burn in my heart.

Many of the children had been kicked out of prior foster homes b/c they were too much of a challenge. One with deteriorating knees, that would never be able to walk again, one fiery red-headed girl, all of diverse circumstance and cultural backgrounds. The best part was the the change she instilled in what could have been hopelessness. He talked about how the older children set the example for the younger ones. And if I remember correctly, many of the older children ended up going on missions. Overall, through pure love, consistent love, each of the children made dramatic changes, she had never turned a single one of them away. And the social worker kept calling her when they'd come across one that wouldn't otherwise find a home.

I believe she got the Mother of the Year award on year.

Anyway...

This little buddy's name is Livenson. Cute name, no?

And sweet little Francia.

For more pictures of these angels waiting for your family (watch out for my sly persuasion), click HERE.

Or for overall info, visit their site: http://www.haitiadoption.org/

I'm dying for your comments on this post... type away!

Tanner's 1st Day in Nursery

Many of you know we had a foreign exchange student living with us from China right before we left for the US. We loved her!

She sent me these pictures through facebook.

They were of Tanner's first day in Nursery.

Whatta sweet little guy. These were taken almost one and a half years ago. Tanner has almost spent half of his little life in China, can you believe it?!

First Timers to ShangHai

Here are some pictures from Todd's new camera... they are stunning. And most of them are taken from a car window! Enjoy!



































































*Okay, what, so this wasn't his 'first' time to ShangHai, so to say. But... it was his first time with a nice camera! Todd has been here twice, and will be back in July. I'm the luckiest sister in the world.