One year reunion

It's hard to believe it's been a year since we returned home from China. To mark the occassion we gathered in Tennessee with several of the other families to have a reunion. 7 families made it and there were 26 of us total. We rented an8 bedroom cabin and spent 3 days in the mountains.

We tried to get a group shot but we had exactly 2 seconds before the tears began to flow and they began bolting from the couch. Pictured above are: Christa, Rebekah, Mia, Juliana, Mia C, Grace, Tenley



One of our outings for the reunion was to an exotic petting zoo. The kids had fun holding and feeding the goats and animals. There were deer, camels, zebras, Zonkies, and peacocks .
We had a great time and even spent a few extra days in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. David and Zane rode the "Wild Wooly" It was a 3 story go cart track with Go-carts that go 40 mph. We also played a little Hillbilly Golf and went to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg. We even saw a shark fight in one of the tanks. It was the highlight of the aquarium for the kids.

Bliss in the Bluebonnets

For some reason the sign of a good Texan parent is getting wonderful pictures of your children in the Bluebonnets that only bloom once a year in the spring. They will usually last a couple of weeks and then they are gone. Many times people travel miles to find the "perfect" spot. Luckily we found this patch in an empty field on the drive to church. You can see that I was only 50% successful in my picture quest. The sun was really bright so Zane and Kaylee's pictures have squinty eyes in them. The bummer about Bluebonnets is that it's against the law to pick the bluebonnets. A new fact that David informed us about only AFTER Kaylee had picked a huge bouquet for the kitchen table. Needless to say we dropped the flowers and left them to seed more of the field for next year's photo op.

Cruise

Ever since our 10th anniversary David had been "dying" to go on another cruise. The first time we had no idea a cruise would be so relaxing. I think this cruise may possibly have been even more relaxing than the last. We flew to Miami and cruised from there to the Bahamas. The food was great and the weather even better. Our 3 day cruise made 2 stops. The first was a private island owned by Royal Caribbean called Coco Cay. We were a little skeptical about the whole "private island" but it was wonderful. The only people on the island were from our cruise ship. They ferried lunch over to the island so you didn't have to leave to eat.
The objective of the day was to "relax" As you can see David mastered that quite quickly. We also walked in the water and found Conch shells, sea cucumbers, and sand dollars. The water was so clear you could see the bottom several feet deep. (Just like Galveston and Holly Beach, yeah right)

The second stop was in Nassau, Bahamas. We took an excursion to snorkel with the Manta Rays. There were 26 rays in the water. We were also able to feed them. What a neat experience.
That's not me in the bikini. (news flash!) I couldn't figure out how to photoshop my head on her body. Oh well, I had fun any way.
A street in Nassau Bahamas. There were lots of shops and places to spend money. The ship docked on Monday morning and our flight back did not leave until late that evening. Royal carribean offered an excursion to the Florida everglades. We thought it would be fun to ride an airboat and see the Everglades.


Our airboat guide. (Kind of a Salty lookin fella) But he was a great guide and had several of the animals trained to come up to the boat, even the alligators
Other than a few akwardly placed sunburn patches (you know you can't get the sunscreen everywhere) it was a wonderful and relaxing vacation . The kids had a great time at Nana and Paw Paw's. We may owe them a cruise now after watching the kids.

It's a Boy!!!

Saturday we welcomed in the newest member of the Walling Family. As an early Valentine's day gift to everyone I brought home a yellow lab as a surprise. No one knew he was coming except me. I can't believe I kept it a secret. Well I told lots of my friends, but none of the kids or David knew. David has been wanting a dog for quite some time. The plan for the last year or so was that when we returned from our China trip last summer we would get a dog. Well, life happened and we are just now feeling settled in again enough to take on this endeavor.

To say the kids were excited is an understatement. Zane keeps saying he just can't believe we really have a dog. He was pinching himself yesterday just to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Kaylee thinks he's a baby and carries him most places. But he doesn't seem to mind and it probably won't be long until he will be heavier than her anyway. Trent and Mia are adjusting and are content to pet him when he's sleeping.

Zane named him Rocket and everyone likes the name and it just seems to fit him. Mia has even learned the phrase "No, Rocket" when he was trying to see what she was eating. He's a really cutie!

Picking Flowers

Mia is growing and changing so quickly. Her vocabulary is amazing. We were trying to count all the words she know and we couldn't keep track and she is only 19 months old. Kaylee took her doll from her and Mia said "NO!, My Baby" Maybe being the 4th child and smallest she has learned quickly to defend herself. But she is so sweet when she says "Thank You Mommy." Our friends the Salazars are in China right now adopting a little girl. Her name is Lan and she is one day younger than Mia. We can't wait to see her, they live very close to us as well. They set up a blog also www.lansadoption.blogspot.com In case you want to check it out.

Merry Christmas 2005

I usually do some type of newsletter for Christmas but this year I just couldn't get it together. So some people who despise those types of generic letters may be feeling relieved. I on the other hand LOVE those letters. It lets me feel connected with people I don't get to see as often as I would like. In fact, last night we returned home from a visit with the grandparents and after we opened presents and got the kids to bed I sat down to go through a week's worth of mail. I was so excited there were cards and letters to read, I sat for an hour looking at photos and catching up on friends around the country. (so if you write one of those letters, send it over, it will be appreciated here)
The kids had a great Christmas. Santa came through for everyone even for Kaylee at the 11th hour with her order of FLOAM. Then after opening the purple container she took one pinch out and said "uuhhh" and hasn't touched it since. Maybe she will feel differently in a few days.
Zane had a great run with new SPY toys. I guess he is beginning his career early in the CIA. He cannot have one of those jobs where he says," Mom I can't tell you exactly what I do, it's all classified. " I would go absolutley nuts. Trent had fun opening presents as well but kept saying, "Mom, can we keep it?" I'm wondering do I normally make him take things back? Mia loved all the presents and kept saying "open" any time she saw one. She loaded up on Dora toys that she calls "backpack" She can also say "Oh, MAN!" any time she swiper the fox.
OK my .02 about toys this year..... Is it just me or have toy makers gone over the top on trying to keep things in boxes. I cannot believe the amount of wire twist ties I've undone in the last 2 days. Plus Trent had a little $2 Dollar General car and it had to have 2 screws removed from the bottom of the cardboard. If they had left the screws off they could have marked the toy $1.50. So maybe they're not trying to keep all the parts together just keep things from getting stolen. I don't know?
Seriously though, our greatest present this year has been the opportunity to adopt. We have truly seen God work in our lives and in the lives of our children. He has blessed us beyond measure. Steven Curtis Chapman said in a concert we heard that "adoption is the heartbeat of God" I can testify that is Truth. Mia has melded into our family so perfectly that we know she was intended to be our child. Won't it be great one day to see God's full plan first hand? I can't wait!
We look forward to 2006 with great anticipation.
(Well, look at that I just wrote my letter anyway)

Here is Trent with A broken leg. Zane has bounced
him to high on the trampoline last last Friday.He came down funky and the minuete he landed and he screamed.

Posted by ZANE

Shark Tails

Pretty Pink Poodle

Ninja Power

Tricks and Treats

The Halloween that almost wasn't.... We couldn't decide what to do. The sky got pitch black and it began to rain and lighntning. But we have had these costumes for far to long to let them go unused. So we had dinner and then it finally quit raining enough to make a break for the car and try to get to the church around the corner where we heard they were having their carnival inside. Mia was so cute in her little lady bug costume. She was a big hit everywhere we went. But Trent's costume drew the most attention. He was the cutest little shark. His costume had it's own little fan and motor to keep him inflated. The kids had a great time at the carnival and scored lots of candy. The funniest moment all night happened early in the evening. Kaylee and Zane had finished eating dinner and began getting their costumes on. Trent was still in his clothes from pre-school so I said, "Trent, go ahead and take your clothes off." He stood there so serious and asked,"Are we going trick or treating NAKED?"

Check back soon and I will try to get pics of everyone else up soon.

Happy Halloween




This is my favorite picture ever (well, so far anyway)

Back Home

We returned home safely to find everything in tact except all our food from the deep freeze and refrigerator. Thankfully, I had not done my once a month cooking last month. Loosing that many meals could have sent me over the edge. Even though we are all alright I think a lot of people suffered from some strange Hurricane syndrome, including me. It seemed like it took forever to get back into the swing of things. Our parents fared about the same with only minor damage to their roofs. Everyone I have talked to in the Lake Charles area says it looks like a war zone there. Trees down everywhere. We think it was no coincidence though that not one tree fell on my parent's street. Right before we all evacuated one mom's neighbors told us that they were not evaucating and that she and her mom had walked their street and prayed over all the houses and people living in them. The power of prayer.

Here go the Wallings AGAIN

Well we've been here less than12 hours and now we're about to hit the road again. The officials have called for a mandatory evacuation for Calcasieu parish. We are going to some relatives house in North Louisiana. It looks like the storm has turned more to the East. It's a minute by minute decision. But with the direction of the storm Westlake will likely get a beating.
I'll post more later. Please keep in touch. I can check my regular email until the storm or my yahoo is sew4me1973@yahoo.com

Here comes Rita and here go the Wallings

We debated and contemplated and thought and tried to decide whether or not to evacuate. We don't live in a mandatory evacuation zone but where Rita is projected to hit, Kingwood would get a majority of the eastern wall. My neighborhood shouldn't get a lot of severe damage but the thought of no air conditioner for 5 days or longer isn't exactly appealing. So after a lot of thought we headed to Westlake, LA to be with family. Not exactly north but unless the storm makes a severe shift we should be safe here. If there would be a shift we would want to be here with our family to make sure everyone got out safely anyway.
The trip over went much smoother than we expected. There were a lot of people on the road but the traffic was really moving. I had been watching the news in Houston all day and the helicopter kept showing the North bound interstates. They were bumper to bumper and going no where fast. I heard someone say a trip from Houston to Dallas which normally takes about 5 hours was taking 18 hours. But it is such a good thing that so many people are actually listening and evacuating. There weren't a lot of die hards on the news saying "we're just going to ride it out"
When we got to Lake Charles there was a huge sign on the interstate that was directing evacuees north. The sign said NO lodging in Lafayette or Baton Rouge.
So here we are with our precious belongings, All 4 of them.(and the scrapbooks)

Pig Tails

It's a proud day when a Mom can get her baby's hair into 2 individual pig tails. Well maybe I shouldn't be so proud but she sure looked cute with her "antennaes up." I have a feeling if her hair had not been cut so short in June we would be looking at shoulder length pig tails. I had thought Kaylee's hair grew fast but Mia has her beat.

Feeding the Dolphins

Sea World Vacation

Whales and dolphins and sea lions.... Oh My! We had a great vacation at Sea World San Antonio. We spent 2 full days at Sea World. The first day we stayed from 10 - 5 and the second day we spent from 10 - 9. I really recommend the 2 day pass. With show schedules it's hard to do it all on one day. Mia napped in her stroller for a few hours each day and was ready to go the rest of the day. This was our first family vacation as a family of 6. It was a lot of fun and the only growing pain we felt was buying lunch and dinner in the park. They don't allow any food or drinks to be brought in the park. We just tried to think "we're on vacation, things cost more."
We really recommend Sea World. It gets an A+ in our book even with the food prices. They have a waterpark built into the park so there was something for everyone and when you get hot you can go cool off in the lazy river or try a tube shoot. At one point, I went to ride a body slide with Zane and he and I could see the lazy river from our line up high. We looked down and saw David riding a tube with Mia, Trent and Kaylee all in with him. He was quite easy to spot with all the orange lifejackets they were wearing.
One of our favorite events was feeding the dolphins. We purchased trays of little fish and they showed us how to hold the fish out and the dolphin would come up and you can pet them first then release the fish into his mouth. It was really neat for the kids (and me) to get to touch the dolphins.
We couldn't get that close to the San Marcos outlet mall without stopping in for a visit. We picked up a few new school clothes for Zane and some matching outfits for Kaylee and Mia at Children's Place. My favorite store there is the House of Hatten outlet. They have smocked dresses and boys outfits. I was so sad to find out the store(only one in the country) is closing. Mr. Hatten is retiring and they are closing shop. I have really gotten good deals there in the past. We were there on the week before Texas's tax free weekend. With the amount of people there on a Wednesday I cannot imagine what the weekend was like. Some of the stores were staying open 24 hours all weekend. WOW!

Aren't I cute? 

He's a real little boy now.... 

Mmmmmm! good cake 

Mia's 1st Birthday 

Settling In

I think we may be through our adjustment period. We all seem to be on a normal sleep schedule. Everyone loves their new sister and enjoy playing with her. We went to Westlake and had a small 1st birthday party for Mia.
Our church family and friends threw us a welcome home party. It was such a special evening for us. Everyone got to meet Mia and many of the gentlemen got to hold her. (still favors men over women) We were so happy to show her off. I put the pictures Shannon Richards took for us in an Ofoto folder.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=673869656203&page=1&sort_order=0

Walling Crew in Red, White and Blue 

Future MSU Cowboy 

pictures by Blair Blanks www.blairblanks.com 

Mia - one year old 

July 1, 2005 

Pool, Pictures, and unPacking

Everything is getting a little easier around the house. David is back from Philadelphia and I really miss him when he's gone. Not that I miss his wise cracks and constant jabs but I miss his HELP. I don't know how single mothers function. Mia is doing much better with her sleep. She only woke up once last night around 3:30. I am over my jet lag and have almost finished unpacking. I had to unpack all of us plus all the kids' suitcases as well. Plus do our laundry for 2 weeks. Finishing that today was a huge relief.
We took Mia to the pool tonight. Since she came to us she has been deathly afraid of water. In China we could not even take her into the bathroom without her crying. At first we thought it was because she didn't feel well and the fever. But, after time we realized she Hated the water. Bath time was becoming very dangerous. She would not sit in the tub or sink, she would arch her back out straight and scream as loud as possible. I was so afraid she would hit her head on the marble or faucet. Plus being all soaped up it was hard to keep both hands on her.
One of the other mothers on the trip told me yesterday that her daughter was afraid as well. But they took her to the pool and she had a great time playing and now bath time is much better.
So, I waited until the favored parent came home and we took her this evening. She fussed a little at first but very quickly warmed up. In fact she was not just tolerating the water she was loving it. We took the baby boat/innertube and she just beamed when she started floating in it. (I ran out to get the camera but had forgotten my purse at home, I'll try to get one later) She splashed and played for about 2 hours without any more whimpering. Only being upset when we took her out for the night.
This was another huge relief today. Because 80% of our summer entertainment revolves around the pool and boat. I had been worried about how I was going to work this out.
We also had our 1 year old photo shoot this morning with Blair. She didn't like the sitting alone very much but I think the pictures came out wonderfully.
Blair's other work is on her web-site www.blairblanks.com. I am so fortunate to have a great friend and neighbor with such amazing talent.