Playdate

Mia had a playdate with her friend Willow. Zane is good friends with Willow's brother, Taylor. So when Taylor came over Willow stayed to play with Mia. They had fun playing babies and school. One time it got very quiet and I went to check on them. Mia had spread construction paper out on the floor and had 2 bottles of clear fingernail polish and long paintbrushes. Yes, the polish was already open but luckily none had gotten on the wood floor yet.

Another "Miaism" - Mia was digging through the Easter candy the other day and found something she wanted. She had it in her hand and was walking off I said, "Mia, what are those?" She said "They're called -Their all mine and I'm eating them all by myself"

Woo! I think David and I have our work cut out for us!!!

Already a Decade

It's so hard to believe he's already 10. The years went so fast. Zane had an awesome birthday. He spent the night with Nikolas&Grandma, got new baby ducks, had an Easter Egg Hunt at Aunt Darla's AND found the Golden Egg (which contained 10 BUCKS!) All topped off with Cookie Cake and Presents. What more can a guy ask for?

Duck Tales

As you can see, we've had a great time with our little ducks. They all look so much alike it's hard to tell them apart. So we got a sharpie and made dots on their feet so each person would know which duck was "theirs" We've had a hard time coming up with names. There's always Huey, Dewey, and Louie but what would the 4th one be? Mia is the only one who decided. She settled on "Quackey"

Kaylee discovered that if she puts them all on the floor together they will follow her around the house. (Much like a mother duck) I've yet to get a good photo of this but I will persist.

Quack, Quack, Waddle, Waddle

Easter Bunny

Trent and Mia got to visit the Easter Bunny at the mall. As you can tell someone is M.I.A that's right MIA wouldn't go near the bunny. She screamed and wrapped her legs so tight around me, I knew there was no chance of "talking" her into it. Maybe next year..... I didn't realize how big the trauma was to her until Sunday morning when I was getting her out of bed, I said "Let's go see what the Easter Bunny brought you" Then the screaming began again. She calmed down quickly when she saw the candy and no sign of a big furry rabbit.

Easter Party

Trent's class had a fun Easter Party on Monday. They did their hunting on the church Playground and then went to the room for a true 4 year old feast: McDonalds chicken nuggets, potato chips and grapes, followed by a bunny cupcake. What else can a guy ask for?

Trent and his best friend Joshua. They're never far apart.

4 WHEELIN

During our trip to Gilbert we went to Uncle Sonny's house. He has a four wheeler and go cart. The kids had a blast riding around. I wasn't sure that Trent would be able to control the go cart(actually I was afraid he wouldn't stop, and drive straight into the river behind the house) but he did a great job. Well, right until the very end when he was trying to look back over his shoulder and out drive Kaylee, he didn't see the tree ahead of him and the go cart went straight up the tree. Thankfully, the seat belt worked and he didn't fall out.

Trent, Kaylee and Cousin Gabe cruisin the place.

Gabe and Mia cheer everyone on.

Blogging outage

Yes, it's been a while since the last post but a lot as transpired in the last month. Good news is - a lot of it is "blogable" But it will take me actually having time to sit down and do it. I was very inspired this weekend and then a bad storm rolled through on Saturday. Lightning struck our modem and we were without phone and internet for 2 days. Thankfully, we had a busy weekend and my computer withdrawls were shortlived.

China Adoption Slow Down

I received a very interesting article about the possible causes for the slow down of China adoptions. If you would like to read it, email me and I'll forward it on to you. dszkwalling@kingwoodcable.com

Would You?

I discovered this cute idea of Polling the Audience. So, I picked something easy and maybe we'll get a little deeper on the next Poll. Take a second to click on your answer.

NASA

We spent a fun day at NASA during our Spring Break. The parking lot was full and Johnson Space Center was even fuller. I was shocked at how many people were there. But we braved the crowds and had a fun day exploring.

Trent trying on a Space Helmet.

There was a special "Bones" exhibit this month. Mia gets a peek with assistance from Zane.

We took a tour of the NBL (Neutral Boyance Lab). It is a swimming pool as large as a football field and 40 feet deep. This is where astronauts train how to move around in space. There is a mock space station underwater. The kids of course wanted to go swimming.

Mia couldn't take it any longer ......and neither could David's arm. Mia slept on the counter for a few minutes until the line started moving again.

Gentlemen Start your Engines

Zane & Kaylee participated in the annual AWANA Grand Prix. They each had to design their car, cut it out, assemble the wheels and decorate it. Kaylee chose an Orange Suburban with pink windows. At the last minute she decided to add a little Polly Pocket Motif. It was known as the Polly Mobile.Zane chose a fast look for his car and added a yellow lightning bolt on the top.
Below are some of the other cars in the race. Kaylee's friend Shelby designed the Tow Mater below. She won the best design trophy. Or should I say her Dad,Jim, won the best design trophy. I was impressed with the attention to all the details. (to see another of Jim's creations see the Davis blog)
These are the 4th & 5th grade boy's cars. Zane's is in the far right corner.

This is the new track that was purchased this year. The finish line was linked to a computer so the child's name and score was instantly on the big screen for everyone to view.

It was a fun project and the kids really enjoy having their Dad's time and attention to complete the project. Neither Zane nor Kaylee placed but they did cross the finish line each race and never jumped the track. More importantly they had a lot of FUN!

Runners Take your mark....

Zane, Kaylee and David ran in our local Bridgefest. It's a 5K(that's 3 miles) race that started a few years back when a new bridge was made that connected our city to the adjoining city. It is sponsored by our YMCA and they use the event to raise money to give free memberships to underprivlidged families. The race takes place across the bridge and back. I'm so proud of all of them, they not only finished; they ran in 30 degree weather.

Old Hat.....New Hat

Mrs. Hardey goes to visit our Granny a few times a month. She helped us crochet a lot of baby hats to send to the feed the children project. Then the other day she and I were talking on the phone and she told me about her knitting machine. How cool a machine that does a lot of the work for you. Then a few weeks later she surprised all the kids with new winter caps. Hopefully we will get some more cold weather to wear them.

Baby X THREE!!

I got to visit with my friend Jessica and her beautiful new BABIES!!!! What a blessing she and her husband Frank have received. In her right arm is Matthew and in her left arm is Jordyn and Nathan. 2 boys and one girl....She made it all the way to 36 weeks. The boys were 5 lbs and the girl was a little over 4lbs. And I thought Zane was big at 10lbs.

Adoption Weekend

We took a road trip North last weekend. Friday night we stayed in Rockwall, TX. Saturday morning we attended and spoke at an America World Adoption Seminar. (They are the agency we used) We have been considering doing volunteer work for our agency and we went to see how the seminars are done. It was an neat experience. We were one of 4 families there that got to speak to prospective adoptive parents. Of the 4 familes that spoke all but one of them had 4 children. It was fun to share stories and compare experiences with them. The seminar was held at Lake Pointe church. Lake Pointe is an awesome church. The kids especially love it because there was an indoor playground similar to the one at the mall. There was also a tunnel room like at McDonald's and in between the escalators in the main building there is a huge slide. So the parents can ride down the escalators and the kids get to slide down. I can see me standing there on Sunday mornings having to let everyone go down 4 - 5 times.
After the seminar we drove to our Friends Rachel and David Rose's house to spend the night. Rachel and I grew up in church together and graduated together. Her husband David has just accepted his first Senior Pastor position in Winnsboro, TX. We had never heard him preach so we got to attend church with them Sunday morning. We knew the weekend was God-ordained because David preached on family. That we as Christians must raise godly children and be fruitful and multiply. If that means bearing children or ADOPTING. Before the sermon he even sang the song by Steven Curtis Chapman, "When Love takes you in" We didn't know David could sing.... Apparently he is a man of many talents. I even saw him sweeping after lunch.....I'm not sure which impressed me more the sweeping or the singing.....We had a great weekend and the kids played really well together. Kaylee and their daughter Hallie who are both six were inseprable.

Out with the old... In with the New

Several weeks ago Paw Paw got in a little mishap... OK a big mishap. He's really not sure what happened except that 2 cars made a sandwich out of him as he attempted to turn left. We are grateful that the airbags deployed and he wasn't banged up to bad. But even though he wasn't personally injured to much, we can't say the same for the old 1994 Dodge Ram.

But this week a new era begins for the New 2007 GMC pickup. We're happy that he chose a RED truck again. So, hopefully people can see him coming. Let's just hope he can see THEM coming.....

Family Pictures

Pictures from our family photo shoot before Christmas. The prints weren't back in time for the Christmas card but I thought they came out nicely so I will share them here.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

We couldn't let Elmo come to town without trying to get a glimpse of the lovable red monster. The kids have been excited for weeks about "seeing Elmo on the stage." However, as we were going down the list of all the characters that would also be on the stage Mia froze up at the thought of Cookie Monster. For some reason she thinks Monsters are bad? Hmmm? We did our best to explain that he only eats cookies. You could see a look of relief on her face when she saw him on the stage only concerned with his cookies.

We had very good seats and plenty of room for singing and dancing...

There was a very sick little girl in a bed /wheelchair near the front of the stage. I was very touched that EVERY character that went by stopped and shook her hand. Some lingered longer than others. Ernie is a good man

"La la la la la, sing, sing a song, Sing it loud, the whole day long....." apparently Mia wasn't the only one singing and enjoying herself.

During the intermission this man walked into the arena with about 200 Elmo balloons. Of course he came in from the far back and stood front and center. Zane, David and I debated on the price of the balloons. After a long discussion we sent Zane to find out the real amount. TEN BUCKS for an Elmo balloon....The Sesame Street people are no dummies!!! Needless to say, We left without any balloons.

Let it be known....At Zane's request no photos were taken of him at this event.

Happy Birthday Paw Paw

Yesterday was Paw Paw's Birthday. After the morning service at church we decided to make a SURPRISE run to wish Paw Paw Happy Birthday in person. We think he has had a rough few weeks with the wreck of his Big RED truck, and we wanted to try to cheer him up. The kids were so excited about getting to surprise him. Zane even mapped out the best place to park and which door to go through without being detected. The funny thing is that we were almost detected at Wal-Mart when we stopped to buy a cake. After we went in we found out that Paw Paw had just arrived back home from the same Wal-Mart. Everyone was very surprised and we spent a relaxing afternoon together before making the drive back home last night.