Let the Summer Begin!!!

Saturday was a wonderful day at Indiana Wesleyan University as 555 

students, our largest class, graduated!!  It was a graduation that was filled 

with God's presence and lots of excitement! Along with the excitement of the 

students, also comes excitement from the professors as many of us are now 

beginning our summer break!!  It's not realistic to think we don't work at all 

because we are always learning and looking for new ways to enhance learning 

for our students, finding the latest evidence based teaching or practice 

models etc, however it does mean that we spend a lot more days at home 

with the ones we love!!!  

Rebel, our beloved kitty, was the first to notice something was different this 

morning!  He had his soft cat food he gets in the morning, took a bath then 

settled into "his spot" on the couch on the sun porch and then realized...he 

wasn't alone!  

The look on his face told the story as if to say..."she really shouldn't be here 

right now, did you forget something mom, like going to work and taking 

Gabbie to the babysitter; it's really time for my nap and it's not happening"!

By 8:30 this morning I had gone on a 40 minute exercise walk with a dear 

friend and my new walking buddy, then came home and began reading in my 

women's Bible!  A perfect way to begin our summer break!!

 This month is filled with lots of excitement as Jordan will be graduating from 

high school in June!  I've been sorting through pictures to make books for his 

open house, working on planning the menu and all the details for his big day!  

Another thing my family is looking forward to is with mom being home more, 

that equates to many more home cooked meals!  I've already been over here 

looking for some new recipes and and oh have I found some yummy ones!!!  

As you can see Gabriella loves cooking as much as I do so I don't have a 

doubt I will have a little helper in the kitchen every step of the way!! 

Gabriella and I celebrated our first preschool Mothers Day!  It is a little early 

but that's ok because we had a wonderful time!!  I truly don't know who was 

more excited about this day...her or I!!

Gabriella walking with one of her friends on our way down to the chapel to 

sing songs with Pastor Stan!

Gabriella and "C" hugging each other!  I think Gabriella found someone who 

likes to hug each other as much as she does!

Gabriella and "M" outside!  These two are just precious together!!!  

She may have a dress on but it's not going to stop her going down the slides 

and having fun!  That's my girl!

The girls in the playhouse eating their pretend lunch:)

Gabbie taking the order of a customer .....

Boys...just tell me what you would like LOL!!

This was my place-mat when I sat down for our "Muffins with Mom brunch!  

Look at those precious little hand prints!!!

This card was also on the place-mat.... 

We had a WONDERFUL time during our mother's day brunch and morning 

activities.  I absolutely LOVE Gabriella's preschool!  The teachers are amazing 

and she is learning so much about God and Jesus!  During circle time at the 

end of our day the kids were each asked to say one special thing about their 

mom.  You never know what a child may say so I was prepared for anything!  

Gabriella said "I love my mommy because she makes my favorite food"...now 

keep in mind I'm thinking chicken as she loves it, or maybe "Gabbie's dip" 

which I will post the recipe for very soon...nope she said "macaroni and 

cheese"!  Yep, my baby girl has become Americanized!  She still LOVES her 

Chinese food so her response sort of surprised me!  Needless to say on our 

next trip to the store I stocked up on plenty of mac and cheese!

Guess Who's Home...

I will give you one guess who is HOME for a few days???  It's Daniel! 

 He is here from North Carolina!  To say Gabriella was squealing with 

excitement the day before, day of and even the day after he arrived is an 

understatement!  She is soooo excited to have her oldest brother home!!!

She is enjoys hanging out with her brothers and considering these two are the 

ones who spoil her the most she is truly at the height of her glory!!

The great news is that you will be seeing many more pictures like this as 

Daniel will be relocating much closer to us in six weeks!  We are ALL very 

excited to have our family closer together again and look forward to spending 

a lot more time together!!!

Favorite Photo Friday, Jordan in Haiti!!

Jordan has several amazing pictures of his trip to Haiti and I will be doing a

blog post very soon about his  amazing trip!!

As our family as a heart for orphans and children I chose some pictures where

is playing with some pretty awesome little ones!

Zach and Jordan hanging with some of the older guys!

Hanging with more of the kiddo's!

Jordan's heart was forever changed with his trip to Haiti.  People are so willing

to love and give freely of themselves.  They live for the day...not where they

are going to eat after church, what they are going to wear,  what activity they

are going to attend next.  And when they worship God, it's an amazing

experience!  I will share what he told us in the Haiti post!

Easter Day

Mr. Easter Bunny did a fabulous job putting baskets together as Mrs. Easter

Bunny had a precious little bunny to take care of the night before Easter who

really wanted her mommy:) 

Gabriella delivered each of the boys baskets to them on Easter morning.

The bunny even left Nicholas a golf net and she carried it as well as his

basket to him!

Gabriella was very happy with what the bunny left her too!

Without a doubt her favorite was a CD of the Fresh Beat Band!  She LOVES

and I mean LOVES this group!!!

Daddy was reading her each of the songs on her new CD.

Gabriella insisted on the high heels to go with her Easter dress this year.  I

wanted to put tights on her with little white shoes but our little four year old

who is going on 14 insisted on high heels!  Oh what we have to look forward

to during the teenage years:)

Nicholas and Gabriella...Jordan had already taken off for the early church

service.

Later in the afternoon all the kids did an egg hunt.



It's amazing that teenagers will even hunt for eggs if they know there are

things they may like in them:)

It was awesome seeing the "kid" side come out in all of them:)

 They were very happy with their treasures:)

Several years ago we began to type coupons the kids could cash in at different

times.  They can be for a day of not doing chores, gas money, planning a

family fun day etc.  The most popular is that we give them a certificate for a

certain dollar amount they can cash in for spending money when we go on

vacation in the summer.  This one works out great as they know they have a

budgeted amount of spending money to use while they are gone and it makes

them think before they spend it!

Gabriella loved one of hers...as it's a trip to the zoo!!  While the eggs are fun

we all know the true reason we celebrate Easter and it is Christ, who showed

unconditional love for us by dying on the cross for our sins and rising on

Easter day!

Grandma's to the Rescue!!!

It's amazing what happens when I did a post stating our little princess was a

little on the sad side and missing her brothers...that definitely received

attention from some grandmas!! 

The first grandma called and wanted to spend some time talking with

Gabriella.  She and I also discussed that retail therapy works wonders for

girls...and as swim suits are one of my weaknesses for Gabriella we did stop

by Target as they were having a sale...so she has her first official new swim

suit for the 2012 season!

We also spent time dying Easter eggs which was a huge hit with our baby

girl!  She liked the purple ones the best!

The following day Gabriella received an Easter surprise from Grammie!

Grammie chose some of her absolute favorites!!  She LOVES Dora and painting

so when you combine the two you have a definite winner!  This came in VERY

handy the day the boys returned and they spent a lot of time sleeping!!

As Gabriella can't have a lot of chewy sticky candy due to her "bling" in her

mouth Reece's pieces have become one of her favorites..and sure enough they

were in the package!!!  She also loved the cupcake mallows that remind you of

peeps and were oh so yummy and the purple Easter bunny has traveled with

us a lot the past few days!!! 

At this point she was ready to dig in the box and was more than ready for me

to put the camera down!  Thank you so much Grandma and Grammie for

helping me cheer our little princess up!!!



Our Little Rapper...

When we received Gabriella's referral from China one thing her paper work

stated was that she LOVES music and LOVES to dance!!  Oh were they right!! 

Our baby girl absolutely loves music and dancing!!

The night before Nicholas left for Florida and Jordan was already in Haiti, and

we were all a little nervous as we had not heard from the Haiti group, some of

our dear friends came over for the evening and we had a cookout!  They have

a a Nicholas as well...so the boys came up with a variety of names to

differentiate when we said Nicholas.  "Nick at night" is the older Nick and

"Nick Jr" is the younger Nicholas:)

Nick Jr got out the IPad and turned on an edited version of a song that his

sister heard at several weddings last year and likes to dance to.

They all enjoyed dancing to the song and had a good time!  Nick at Night also

filled in for Nick Jr's big brother and helped him through a major Ipod crisis

prior to leaving for Florida...thank you Nick!!!

She loves the camera!!

They all had a great evening and we eventually heard that the Haiti group was

safe a sound...a perfect ending to a wonderful night!!!