Lauren's New Room

The carpet was installed Tuesday and we got Lauren's new butterfly room put together, she has 7 butterflies hanging from the ceiling and a pink butterfly bedspread, rug, curtain and lamp. I also have some butterfly prints coming to hang on the walls but for now her big walls are a little bare. she loves her new room, and it's very girly. It's also very peaceful in there with the hanging butterflies, she actually slept all night in her own room last night which is huge for her.

Callaway Gardens

Steve, Sarah and Jocelyn all played hooky yesterday from work and school so we took a day trip to Callaway Gardens. The kids had a blast, we went to the free flight raptor show and an owl grazed my head as it flew over, that was wild, now I know what a mouse feels like when an owl comes after it. :) then we went to the butterfly conservatory and saw the 1000's of butterlies there. It was a great half day getaway even if nothing was blooming yet but hey, admission is free in February so you can't beat it. :)

Snake or Lizard

Lauren has been begging Steve almost daily for a "real" snake and he keeps saying, wait until your 7 and you can have one so you can take care of it. so today we had the usual beg for a snake and he said at 7 you can have a snake so she replied well, when can I get a lizard then. HA

She almost has him talked into a Chinese Water Dragon, he agreed to go to petsmart with her to look at it which is where she found it at to begin with. Lord help me, I have a little Ellie May on my hands :) keep in mind she's only 4 and she knows how to work Steve already.

Bubbles, Dragons and Snakes

Steve was off yesterday so we went to Fernbank. They have a new dinosaur exhibit that we haven't seen yet and we have a membership there so it was the perfect day to go. On special occasions they have animal encounters and yesterday they had a boa constrictor and a bearded dragon that you could pet. Well, many people don't know this about my girl but she LOVES snakes. she wants a pet snake and her favorite animal in the whole wide world she says is snakes so when she saw the big snake she was over the moon to be able to touch it, she waited in a huge line and then went back in the line to pet the dragon. They also have a huge sensory area and the bubble section was a huge hit with her.

Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Lauren picked daddy out a few gifts from the store and then she wrapped them and fixed him a card. He also brought her some balloons and a bag of goodies home (Tinkerbell stickers, puzzle and chocolate) and 2 bouquet's of flowers for me from him and Lauren so we had a nice day. The wall art in the background on picture 5 is Lauren's proud artwork that she has displayed on the living room wall, I would take it down but she is so proud I just leave it up unless company comes. HA


Daddy's Card

Gifts for Daddy that she chose

Yippee, Yippee, Yahoo

Finally some good news, just got word that the new carpet for Lauren's room is being installed on February 24th and State Farm is giving us a check by the end of the week to replace all of her damaged furniture. I am so excited to finally be getting her room and my house back in order again. YAY....

Here's a picture of Lauren doing her "job" she wanted money for her piggy bank so I gave her a job of cleaning the sliding glass door and she did it and had fun doing it so it was a win win for us both :) ( Jake is supervising her)

What's Been Happening

Haven't posted in a while, we headed to Florida on Friday to see an old friend who is battling colon cancer and came home on Sunday night so it was a very quick trip. Lauren had fun playing with grandparents and cousins while we were there and one evening we went to the Florida State Fair so she had a good trip down even though it was a surreal trip for daddy, his friend has asked him to preach his funeral so that really was a last goodbye type of trip. Our house has still not been repaired from the flood, the insurance company is trying to say that we need to just replace the pad in the rooms, then steam clean the floors and leave the old carpet there. so we are still dealing with that. We set up our breakfast nook into a homeschool classroom and went and got a weather chart and posters yesterday so it's coming together, lauren loves " school home" so it's fun to be able to work with her on it. She starts gymnastics in March and is really excited about that.

As far as our second adoption, the Philippines ICAB board has said that we can apply with them but because Steve had open heart surgery years ago that they have deemed us unhealthy so that means we will be at the very bottom of a referral list, the Philippines do referrals to Filipino families first, healthy families second and un healthy families last so we are looking at a 6-8 year wait on a referral, which means if we stay with it Lauren will be 12 when we get a second child. So we are looking at other programs and domestic to try and figure out what to do and make the best decision. So that's what's been happening :)



" school home"

Cutting and Cookies

Focused on her "job"







Lauren has become fascinated with cutting pictures out of sales flyers lately, she spent 1 1/2 hours yesterday just cutting pictures out of various sales papers. she has also become interested in baking, she wanted to bake valentines cookies today, the funny part is watching her ice them, she would ice a cookie then lick the extra icing off of her fingers and then she let Jake eat some icing also so we'll let Lauren have these cookies for herself :)

Chinese New Year 2009

Today was the CNY celebration at the Chinese Cultural Center, to say it was crowded is a huge understatement. Lauren's favorite part was catching fish that she got to keep, she named them Pokey and Rain.

I put a 2008 and 2009 comparison picture up so you can see how she has changed, she is wearing the same outfit this year as last year because this year it actually fit, last year it was falling off of her :)



Lauren CNY 2009

Lauren CNY 2008

Pokey and Rain

Lauren Reading to Steve

Lauren checked this book out of the library this week and stunned us when she sat with Steve to read it. I have to remind myself that she just turned 4. she truely amazes us sometimes.

There's Two Of You

So here's Lauren's new thing, she will cross her eyes and say " there's 2 of you ", it totally cracks us and the people around us up when she does it. We were at a restaurant with some people from church today and she started doing it and people around us were howling with laughter. Such a comedian :)

A Nashville Weekend

We headed to Nashville for the China travel group reunion this weekend, it was a great trip and the girls are all as gorgeous and funny as ever. We also surprised our old church with a drop in visit on Sunday and we were the ones surprised that not many were there :( but the afternoon was better as we got to have lunch with my best friend Vicki and her hubby and son so it turned out to be a great weekend. We miss our friends in Nashville and are always glad to go back and see them all.



Annslee & Lauren the Hubei Chicks

The Girls

Coby, Annslee, Lauren, Steve

Stacie,Lauren,Ryan, Vicki



Crazy from all of the partying :)

That's Not Steak !!!!

Here's a little story about dinner time tonight, Lauren's all time favorite food is steak, well we had meatloaf for dinner tonight but we tried to fool her by cutting it into little bites and told her it was steak, she took one bite, spit it out and said " That's not steak, that's hamburger" " I don't eat hamburger" It was hilarious.....

So much for fooling her :) Here's a picture of her showing off her new boots.