Baby's First Easter

My mom and I were out shopping this weekend and every time I saw a shirt that said, "Baby's first Easter," I pointed it out to her that none of them came in Lynleigh's size! I guess there isn't a big market for two year olds celebrating their first Easter.

Well, the one at our house did celebrate hers and though I'm sure she really didn't get the whole idea...she loved getting gifts! My mom comes to town about every three or four months and my boys have been trained to know that Gamma brings gifts! So, as soon as she walked in the door, Kaden was already digging in her suitcase! Needless to say, Ren has learned that the suitcase has surprises for her and she was right there with Kaden digging away!

This weekend we celebrated Kaden's birthday. I'm not posting all the pics right now because I pretty much posted them all on Facebook during the party. We also went to church this weekend and had an egg hunt at my aunt's house. Those pics are already on FB too so I thought I'd post the ones from the kids' Easter shoot.


Brady and Kaden loved these with the black background. I wasn't a fan but I thought I'd post them to make the boys happy.







There were about 100 pictures to choose from and it took me forever to figure out the ones I wanted. I was pretty impressed at how well Ren did. We tried to have pictures taken at Christmas and she didn't want anything to do with it.

How Time Flies

Yesterday, I got a text from my best friend asking if it was the one year anniversary of our referral. I actually had to look back at the calender because I couldn't remember. And guess what...it was actually the day before! I'm either a terrible parent or I have three kids! I'm going to pick the second one and say that I can't believe that a year ago we were waiting to see our baby girl for the first time!

I will never forget that day! I was at school with my phone in my hand literally all day! My friends at work were peaking in my room every few minutes asking if we had gotten the call. You see, we didn't get one the month before and I promised myself that I wouldn't be disappointed if we didn't get one again. Then, around 1:30 my phone rang! I looked at the kids in my class and they knew! All of a sudden they start hushing each other and I ran into the room next to mine because that teacher didn't have a class. I don't remember much of the conversation but I think she told me her name was Wei, Ren Yue, she was 18 months old and she had a cleft lip and palate. She told me some other things like how much she weighed and how big her head was but I can't remember at this moment. I still have them written down so I can tell her one day.

Then, I went back into my classroom and called Tony. We both waited for the email to arrive and when I opened it up....this precious face is what I saw!


The ladies at Tony's work were in the back ground ohhing and ahhing...but I was just sitting there crying! Several of my students started to cry as well. It was so cool to have them be a part of our referral day! Some of the things I learned about Wei, Ren Yue that day were that she liked to eat and she could "feed cookies to self." I had no idea how much that would apply to her a year later!

While it doesn't seem like it was a year ago that we first saw her, it seems like she's been with us forever! Today, she weighs 33lbs and is 36 inches tall! She's a "sassy pants" as the doctor said today when we went in for an ear infection and I couldn't agree more! She's the boss of her brothers and a tattle tale of all!

She's starting to talk more and more each day! She can sign more than 30 words but she can say just a few. Some of those include: mama, dada, milk, bath, monkey, bad, Lee Lee (she calls herself)and she can make the sounds of several animals.


She's the greatest thing ever happened to our little family and I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful little person to bless our lives!

Where The Heck Have I Been?

Yes! That's what I have been hearing at church! I haven't blogged in forever it seems. Well, that will change (yeah right) because we got a new computer today!

This week was spring break so I made sure the kids were busy every day, and that included our planned "clean your room" day! Since I haven't blogged in a few weeks, I had tons of pictures to go through and narrow down. So, hang on, this may take a while.

We didn't have any snow this January so the kids and I were able to enjoy all of the planned holidays. On President's Day, I braved the zoo along with three little monkeys.


It was a moderately warm day and we had a blast!

Brady was chosen to compete with our AWANA olymipcs team this year so one Saturday, we enjoyed some "nerd games" as I named them! Lynleigh and I didn't last very long but before she was whiny, tired, and ready for a nap, I was able to get a few good pictures of her.

Though she would never let you know it, she loves her big brother, Kaden! They have junk food in common so that's about the only time they get along. Well, let me rephrase that...he wants to get along with her all the time. She, on the other hand, tolerates him at best! She's so mean to him and I know it hurts his feelings but he still thinks she hung the moon!

This guy...

Also thinks she hung the moon! She also tolerates him too! Well, let me rephrase that...she likes him in waves. Some days, she's the biggest Daddy's girl and others she gives him the hand and says Uh-huh!

Today, my step dad said, "It's amazing what a little hair has done for that girl!" And he's right! Her hair has gotten long enough that I can get it into little pig tails! It's so cute and she just loved having her hair like this. Well, she loved the attention this hair do got her!

As I mentioned, this week was Spring Break. The weather was great! Nearly 80 every day so we took advantage of that and headed back to the zoo. We have a pass so we go there a lot!

One of the cool new attractions this year is feeding the giraffes. On Sunday's and Wednesday's you can feed them. We got there early and were honored with this view!

We were so close! I couldn't believe how cool this was. I thought for sure Miss Thang would freak out! You never can tell with her and today must have been her good day! She loved it and was really mad when we ran out of food!

Since it was Spring Break, everyone had the same idea and we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes before we got our turn. While we waited, we were entertained with the monkeys.

Oh, sorry, I meant we were entertained with my children!

And Lynleigh played with her best friend Belle. By the way, Belle's parents are currently in the process of adopting a little girl from China! They just started and I'm so excited for them!

Sorry, ADD moment. Back to the zoo. Lynleigh LOVED feeding the giraffes!
And as always, I tried to get a picture of her with the pandas. I have one of each of the boys but for some reason (probably that she's tired by the time we get there) I can't seem to get her to pose in front of the panda room. So, I compromised and got in the picture with her!

All in all, we had a great Spring Break and I'm kinda sad to see it come to an end. On the plus side, we only have nine weeks until school is out and we head to Disney! I can't wait to see her reaction there!

There's A First Time For Everything!

This weekend, Lynleigh got her first experience with roller skating! We were invited to my cousin's son's birthday party so I thought this would be a great time to introduce Lyn to something the boys love to do!



We borrowed some little skates from a friend and I just thought for sure she would freak out! But as you can see...she loved it!


The boys of course love skating so Brady had to take some time out to help his little sister!

Kaden was determined to be a big boy and not use the skate helper! He only had a few crashes and shared Lynleigh's but for the most part, he skated all by him self!

And speaking of being big...Miss Thang thought she was big enough to skate on the rink with all the big kids!

I took a million pictures...well maybe not that many but she's such a ham now! This is her "cheese" face she is now making when I tell her to say "cheese!"

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Toms with the skates on them! Because Toms are awesome and she's so cute in them!


And as our day was coming to a close, Lynleigh decided to just sit on the side line and watch her big brothers show her how it was done!

After a fun time skating we all came home to veg out! Sunday morning, I decided to let Lynleigh wear her silk dress for Chinese New Year. We are a week behind but she's two so she didn't know! She wasn't too thrilled about wearing the dress, but once the boys and I told her how pretty she was she was all about it!

What A Difference Time Makes!

Wow! Four months ago we got the most precious gift and boy will our lives never be the same! I seriously can't believe that Lynleigh has only been with us for four months! How can that be possible? It seems like she's been here forever!

Tonight, I was looking through pictures because I'm actually scrapbooking tomorrow and I was just stunned at how much Lynleigh has changed in just four short months! Have I said that enough yet?


Look at how thin she is! I can't believe she seemed so big while we were in China! Next to most of the other kids she was a giant!

Now I look at this skinny face and think about how little she looks!

Showing Tony this picture, he said, "That skinny kid doesn't live here anymore!" And not just her size...that little girl who wanted to be held like a baby and drink from a bottle doesn't live here either! To think of it...there are so many things that have changed during the past few months! Let's see...she is sleeping most of the night and will put herself back to sleep without help. She doesn't think she needs to be eating ALL the time now...just most of the time! She's braver than she's ever been with us and will walk into church or the grocery store without crying! she hugs everyone and pats your back when he hugs you!
She's starting to try to talk and loves bossing the boys around! She's a tattle tale (but what little girl isn't) and she's all about being pretty!

She loves...I mean LOVES playing outside with her brothers and is serious about riding her trike!

She's super sweet and in a breath very vindictive! She's all girl and full of drama! She's got all of the men in the house wrapped around her little finger while I see right through her routine! She loves to take a bath and will hit anyone that makes her mad! She's bossy and prissy and sometimes stinky!
We couldn't have ask for a more precious little girl to bless our lives and rock our world!


I could kiss those cheeks a million times and never get tired of that sweet face! Happy 4 months home Lynleigh Ren, we love you more that you'll ever know!!!!

Hello 2012!

To say our Christmas break was eventful is a huge understatement! So much has happened and I was just way too busy or tired to blog about it. Here goes a summary!

The first weekend of break, Tony's mom, sister, her husband, and kids came to meet Lynleigh for the first time! I love getting the kids together! Brady an Josh act as if they have never spent any time a part. Jordan was just happy to have another girl in the family...well...until she realized that Lynleigh isn't fond of playing with others! So, she (Jordan) and Kaden hung out and played like they always do!


We decided to try and get the kids to all pose for a picture. I can't believe we actually got one where they all looked decent!

And of course they had to have one with silly faces! Look at Lyneigh! She's even sticking her tongue out!

Grandma likes to get a picture with the kids every once in a while! This was another large feat to get them all looking the same way and no crying (from you know who)!

The Wednesday after they left, Brady started having ear pain. So we went to the doctor and since we were there I decided to get Lyn's second flu shot. Well, the shot wasn't the only thing she got that day at the doctor's office! By Friday, she was running a fever and super sick. So, back to the doctor we went. This time at the doctor's office, they decided to give her a flu test and it came back positive. While we were waiting for the results, her fever dropped really fast causing her to have a febrile seizure. I am so grateful we were sitting in the exam room and the doctor was in his office across the hall. I am happy to report that she is doing just fine and there seems to be no damage from the seizure. I'm not going to lie though, I haven't slept well since and was completely freaked out!

That was Friday, Saturday, we went back to the doctor because Kaden wasn't feeling well and the doctor wanted to see Lyn again. Are you counting? That's 3 times! By Saturday evening, both Kaden and Lyn had rashes all over their bodies! So, I called the call back nurse. Sunday morning was Christmas and I was determined not to go back to the doctor. Well, I ended up talking to the call back nurse again about Kaden.

So, here we are to Christmas day! Oh, sometime Saturday, Brady found all of the Santa presents that were in my closet (thanks Tony for leaving the door open)! So, on top of all of the sickness, now we have to deal with telling him the truth about Santa! I was so heart broken! He did cry but then asked if he could help put out Kaden's toys.

Each year, Santa leaves three gifts. They also get things from my mom and dad and we let them exchange gifts. I would say they were pretty happy with how the day turned out!



Lynleigh didn't really understand what was going on but she likes tearing the paper off of the presents. She didn't feel good and you can tell by the look on her face!

We always go to my aunt's house for Christmas day dinner and I tried really hard to get a good picture of Lynleigh for her first Christmas. You can see her cheeks are red because she still had a fever Christmas day!

My dad gave her a gift card to Build A Bear since she loves stuffed animals. I think she would have had a good time had she felt better!

Now on to New Year's Eve. Finally, everyone is feeling better! We invited some friends over. Since we are in love with Just Dance 3 on the Kinect, we thought that would make for some good times!

Lynleigh gets out there and dances and it's so cute!

We live in the city limits so one friend brought sparklers. I had seen some really cool pics on Pinterest so we had to try!

Holly made a heart...

"B" is for Brady. We made more attempts at things like 2012 and more shapes and letters but these two were the best!

Our friends started leaving around 8 (cause we all have small kids) but I managed to get a picture of Lynleigh and her sweet friend Sophie. Sophie is a month younger but has been home with her family a year next week! They are so cute together! I love that they are so close in age and hopefully it will help Lynleigh when she is older and feels like she's the only one in our world that looks like she does!

So, despite the sickness, the seizure, and the many trips to the doctor...I vowed to make sure we enjoyed our break and I will say that we did just that! I will be glad to get back into a rountine later this week!

I hope you have a wonderful new year and I can't imagine ours being better than adding our sweet, spoiled, and stubborn Lynleigh Ren to our family! But I know that God has great plans for us and I can't wait to see what that means for this year!