I'm back

Well, I didn't actually go anywhere, I just seemed to stay really busy and really tired last week:) I have been trying to get our house unpacked and organized, but I think our boxes are actually reproducing in the garage and the basement. We had our patriotic program at church Sunday, so there was a lot of practice for that.

I leave you with this

because I know you only really come for the cuteness:)

T-Rex Cafe

Saturday, we had to pick hubby up at the airport, so afterwards we decided to head over to the T-Rex Cafe in KC, Kansas.

We have been meaning to go, since S really likes dinosaurs. The kids had a blast. We have been to Rainforest Cafe before and this restaurant is by the same folks who created that, but E and I agreed that the food is better at T-Rex. Attached to the restaurant, they have a little dino dig area the kids can go in for an extra $2.50. M set to work brushing the dirt off dino bones and herself.

Another child came in and started digging with his hands and M promptly went to the bucket and got him a brush and brought it to him. She's such a stickler for the "rules":)

Camp Rock

Tonight was a night that K has been looking forward to for several months. It was the big premiere of the movie Camp Rock on the Disney Channel.

http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/originalmovies/camprock/index.html


Yes, I will admit it, K has been swept into the High School Musical, Camp Rock phenom. I did screen the first High School Musical before I let her watch it. In general, these movies seem to boil down to the message of being true to yourself rather than trying to be something you are not just to be liked. That is something I want K to learn. Camp Rock was pretty much in the same vein. We watched it together and it did provide us the opportunity to talk about being yourself and not pretending to be someone else just so you'll be popular.

In some ways, I like the Disney channel. Most of their stuff is pretty good for preteens like K to watch. They don't fill their shows with tons of toy commercials like Nickolodeon does. But, there are some shows we don't let K watch. These are the ones where the girls are very materialistic or everything revolves around the "romantic" lives of the kids. What about you? What guidelines do you have for shows you let your kids watch?

A Big Congratulations to Stefanie, Chris and family

Check out http://www.wheneastmeetssouth.blogspot.com

They are in China and just met their eighth child, sweet little Shepherd. You guys are a huge inspiration to me!

Check out this site - They really need our prayers

I've been following http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com for a while now. It is the blog of a husband and father whose wife is living with Cystic Fibrosis and they have just brought home their baby daughter from the hospital after she was born several months premature. His wife just got a double lung transplant and had recovered enough to come home, but they got some bad news this week and really need prayers.

New Haircuts

The last week has been full of big change in the hair department. Our oldest daughter, K, has been growing out her hair for quite a while because she wanted to donate it to Locks of Love.

Finally, it got long enough to cut off the requisite 10 inches.

The result is her uber-stylish stacked bob.

She really likes it and has been receiving lots of compliments. My only thought was how much older it makes her look:)

Yesterday, we got haircuts for S and M as well. S went from shaggy haired preschooler to clean cut young man.

M on the other hand...she has to have the SLOWEST growing hair I have ever seen. We are trying to grow it out to the same length, so she just got a trim. Not as dramatic of a difference. At this rate, she may have long hair by the time she graduates from high school:)

I just love this picture

Where did he get this from? He's like some heavy metal singer from the 80s:)

A Cause to Believe In

A good friend of mine over at www.alegacyofhope.blogspot.com lost her mom last year to pancreatic cancer and I too have lost a family member to the same kind of cancer. The cancer of years gone by, when just the very word was a death sentence, is not the cancer of today. Luckily, many times a diagnosis of cancer today is not a death sentence as evidenced by my own mom who has twice been diagnosed with uterine cancer and twice come out a survivor. Her odds of long-term survival are greater than 90%. But even as I heard those odds with my own mom, I wondered about the other 10%. Worse yet, there are still cancers that are a certain death sentence. Pancreatic cancer is one of those. By the time people have symptoms, it is too late and they are lucky to live another year.

Please visit www.pancan.org to read more.

Fridays are for fun - sometimes

Today was hubby's day off. We took the kids and my mom to McDonalds and then this evening we went to our town's little downtown festival. Everyone had a great time. Once again, M proved she is pretty much fearless as she insisted on going on the big slide at the carnival ride section. That child will go on any ride she is tall enough to go on:)

Who are we?

Hubby, E, works for our US government. He doesn't like pictures of himself, but he looks roughly like this:)

I am a former real estate attorney who is now semi-retired (at least temporarily) to stay home with the kiddos. I am not particularly fond of pictures of myself either, so lets just say I used to look a little like this:)(at least in my dreams:))

And currently I look more like this:)

DD#1, K, is an 8 year old going into the 3rd grade. She loves all things pink and frilly, anything High School Musical or Hannah Montana and fashion. In other words, she is the direct opposite of her mother:) Fortunately, she doesn't mind pictures of herself, so here she is:)

DS, S, is a 5 year old ball of energy. He has never met a stranger and loves all things cars and action figures. He can be the sweetest, most considerate person you have ever met:) Here he is:)

Last but not least is M. She is 2 and a half and totally a mama's girl. She is from Jiangsu province in China and has been home with us for 14 wonderful months. She was adopted through the Waiting Child program and we can't imagine our family without our sassy little ladybug:) Here's a pic:)

This is our little family:) My mom also lives with us:)

Introduction

Well, I am finally joining the 21st century and starting a blog. Hopefully we can update all our faraway family and friends on the goings on out here in Missouri.