Brandy Band Spring Concert 2010

We have a video on the camcorder that we have not yet transfered over to the computer, so I will upload that soon. Here is Brandy and her friend Audrey. They look so grown up!! I love hearing them play. It's amazing that these wonderful band directors can teach these kids how to put pieces together perfectly!

10 Yards of Dirt!

Due to unforeseen problems with a building project in our back yard, we had to have a company come and remove some work done by a scam artist. They had to use tractors to remove concrete so our back yard was ruined and we pretty much lost our grass that year. Finally, years later, we had some dirt brought in, so we could save money on having the yard leveled professionally and do it ourselves. It actually is MUCH better, but could probably stand another few yards of dirt.

Kien was EXCITED when the dump truck came and dropped off 10 yards of dirt for our leveling project. He always loves it when the garbage/recycling trucks come twice a week, but this was an unusual event. Here is the final drop.
We are so glad the kids were willing to help. I shoveled dirt into a wheel barrel, and Jeremy moved it to the back yard. We did this for 3 days in a row and hardly made a dent in the pile!!
Still looks like a huge pile, but it sure felt like we moved the entire thing!! Whew.. this is one of those times that one would wish they had a small backhoe!
This area between our home and our neighbor's home we needed to fill in as well. There is a drainage pipe under the grass next to the sprinkler line, but it is so much nicer for it to level and still be able to drain properly.
Project has been completed, pictures soon.

Mother's Day Goodies!

A couple days prior to Mother's Day, I was happily minding my own business working on some diaper wreaths and I get a phone call from my husband. He asks me if there had been any kind of delivery yet. Of course I said no, as I didn't hear the dogs bark from seeing the Fed Ex or UPS truck pull up, and there most certainly wasn't a knock on the door or the door bell ringing. He asked me if I would go check, and sure enough, there was a box on the outside of our door.

I picked up the box and it was plain, so I opened it while he was on the phone and to my amazement, there were FLOWERS in the box!!! Mother's Day flowers!! How thoughtful! I was NOT expecting this gift at all. I like flowers yes, but am not the kind of wife that declare them because of their short lived enjoyment. I'd rather have the Rose of Sharon bush he let me buy or the honeysuckles so that I can enjoy them for much more than a few days. :)

Anyway, the card reads as this: Happy Mother's Day. We love you! From: Greg, Brandy, Jeremy, Kien, Gabe, Duke and Daisy. How very sweet!!!

After peeling the outside layer of petals, cutting the stems and arranging them, here is what my flowers looked like!
Another "goodie" for Mother's Day is the dedication of Kien and Gabe.

We had mentioned to a lady at church that we would like to have a dedication ceremony for Kien and Gabe shortly after Gabe was born. Because of the size of our church, things like this are scheduled a couple times a year. There were about 15 other families who were signed up as well. That morning before church, which is a frequented visit, we went to have bagels. Here are Kien and Gabe all dressed up. They are both wearing the same outfits for Kien's adoption hearing. Note that Gabe's clothes fit a bit more snug than when he wore it several months prior. There was NO room for any more Gabe in that suit!! I almost couldn't button his shirt! Kien, on the other hand, fit in his quite the same.
Our campus Pastor praying over us.

We want to model our lives after God's Word (aka The Bible). We find that children are truly a gift from God.

Psalm 127:3 proclaims that "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him." As believers we are called to recognize that children belong first and foremost to God. God in his goodness gives children as gifts to parents. They not only have the awesome responsibility of caring for this gift, but also the wonderful privilege of enjoying the gift. Because children belong to God and are given by grace as gifts to parents, it is only proper and appropriate that children be dedicated back to God.

We are told in 1 Samuel 1 that Hannah presented her son Samuel to the Lord. In Luke 2:22 we read that Mary and Joseph brought their baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem in order to present him before the Lord.

Family photo right afterwards!! We are so blessed!

Kien's School Program

I discovered there was a great Mother's Day Out program not too far from our house that I wanted to enroll Kien into so he could make some friends and have an "extra curricular" event during the week. I set it up for two days a week and found Kien to really enjoy it!

I was excited when the teachers told us about the program and it was non-stop from Kien, "You want to come see my program? I want you to see my program. I can't wait until my parents can come see my program." Program, program, program. As if the child even KNOWS what program means. Yes, he was PROGRAMMED to tell us about his program!!!

When all the kids came out on stage from Kien's class, We at first didn't see him until they were all lined up. As you can see why in the following photo's, his head level comes to the shoulders of his classmates!!! I even heard people comment on how cute the littlest one was. He is the 6th child from the right.

Here you could almost see him!
Kien has made friends with the girl on the left. Her name is Charlotte. She even came over for a play date! She and Kien both were the most active with the signs, dances and claps of all the songs among the other children.
Every Wednesday and Friday going to and leaving from school, people just smiled and made wonderful comments about Kien. Of course, mommy did notice a slight -ok, not slight but a SIGNIFICANT- change in how Kien acted after being in "school" -tantrums, pinching, etc- toward his sister and brothers (and even ME!). Of course I realize learned behaviors from other kiddos are unavoidable, and is surely my teaching opportunity to shape his little heart!

Brandy's Swim Banquet

Brandy has been participating in JV Swimming this year at school. Yes, on top of Marching Band and keeping up with 3 Pre-AP and 1 AP classes. Yes, her schedule has been quite the doozy. Every year there is a banquet held. Brandy even received an award! YAY my baby girl! She also made Varsity Swimming this next year! I love her swim coach. She is a very no nonsense and caring person. We are blessed to have her working with Brandy.

Here is the swim team! Brandy is on the far right. She is so beautiful.

I have some catching up to do!!!

I have to apologize, I am not very good at staying on top of blogging with all we have going on. So you will have to bare with me. I hope to start a "schedule" in the near future to where I can blog (let's just assume this is the plan) before I go to bed at night!!

Kien does NOT like to hold still for photos! Or, is it that I don't capture the right moment?! Either way, I find it very difficult to get awesome shots. I will keep trying!!

Kien is enjoying some Baker's Brothers pizza!

Gabe happens to be camera happy. At least Daddy caught this great shot!
Kien is a truck fanatic. It doesn't matter what type of truck it is, he LOVES them! So, how exciting was it that he got to see a dump truck right in our driveway!!! Kien was SO excited he began to run to the passenger door until I had a "super mom" grab of his shirt before he had a chance. We watched the dirt being dumped on our drive way for a leveling project in our back yard.
Of course he did get to play on the top. :)
Gabe likes to play with Kien, and sometimes Kien will want to play back. It is not very often Kien will just let Gabe lead, but I was very pleased to see this and capture the moment before it turned into a non-toy sharing event!
Gabe likes balls. Maybe he will be a linebacker!
Gabe also likes the motorcycle. I have one of Kien and I that I will post soon.
Bath time can be interesting with Daddy.
Gabe thought it was neat to see a cat from a distance. Once the cat strolled over to him for a friendly pet, Gabe freaked out!!
Shopping is so much fun. Kien likes it more than Gabe!

TMS

Texas Motor Speedway is approximately 16.4 miles from our home. During race season we don't venture far other than church and Walmart. Every hotel, restaurant, and thoroughfares are jam packed. However, there are other events that take place through out the year.

Greg had a customer bring his car in for work and mentioned that he was a speaker at a race happening that weekend at TMS. Greg thought it was be a treat to take us all out to watch the race as it was free. Kien LOVES cars, and he showed great interest in the racing. Jeremy found it interesting, Brandy not so much, and Gabe didn't like it so much because it was loud.

Greg, being the car fanatic and loves exotic cars had to pose by this one. Funny how he didn't want to get a shot from the side or the front. Note the license plate....

The loudest car was this green one and WOW they went fast!
I brought a blanket for Gabe's ears because I knew it was going to be loud -not as loud as a Nascar race of course. He didn't like it at all.
"Wow" -Kien says as he runs down the long tunnel listening to it echo!!
This entrance to the middle of the track is interesting.

Silliness while shopping

While we were waiting for Brandy to complete her check out at Ross, Jeremy came up with a very creative way to keep the boys happy.

They thought this was so funny!
Jeremy being silly!
Gabe was telling me something, but I just couldn't figure it out.
Kien couldn't help but giggle so hard watching Jeremy through the window, which in turn made it very difficult to get a photo!!

Bluebonnets

Greg had been invited with the FC Riders group -a motorcycle group who gets together a few times a month to ride together. It consists of meeting at one of the church locations and ride for almost a whole day. The last ride Greg attended was to meet at the FC Downtown Dallas campus and then ride south to view the bluebonnets.

Bluebonnet is the state flower for Texas. Here is some more information on this type of wild flower. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebonnet

Greg took a few pictures with his IPhone and sent them to me while he was on his trip. Beautiful country, but I never thought we would be traveling an hour away from home to also see the fields of Bluebonnets the very next day.

Greg had planned a great day after church on Sunday to drive an hour away from home, but of course I had many things to do, which was now out of my control. (I don't initially like being out of control on what I need to accomplish, but how could I stay frustrated when my husband was taking his family out for a nice day!?!??)

We drove to Ennis, Texas. Here are some photo's from our lovely day.

The boys were amazed that there was "Grass" as tall as they were!
Cute!
That's not blue, but it's a Bluebonnet!
Pretty!
Jeremy was introducing the flowers to Kien. We did have to be watchful for the fire ant mounds. They are horrible in the fields because they are not controlled.
Jeremy brought Gabe a flower and he didn't know what to think at first.
Greg set Gabe down and he really was not interested in this new world!
There were many people all over these fields for various reasons. We saw many photographers just shooting the wild, families having professional family photo's created, and even a woman with a huge harp posing for professional pictures. It also happened to be the last weekend for the blooms, so all those stragglers were catching the tail end of the bluebonnet season.
Gabe was not thrilled at all. He did not want these huge things touching him, he then began to kick his feet discovering that he could dig a hole. It didn't last long, he screamed for someone to rescue him.
Gabe only liked the view from one flower in his hand compared to multiples engulfing him. Must be the "sense of control" that mommy has. :)

Kien loved them. He likes to "sniff" the flowers, however, his understanding of "sniffing" is blowing OUT of his nose instead of IN. LOL!
My beautiful girl. She is so grown up.
Here is our angels. Yes, I said angels. It was not a stressful trip, no one threw fits or had any meltdowns. After we were done driving around, we decided to stop at Dairy Queen for a blizzard. It was a very unexpected, but very very nice day to spend with family. I am so blessed to have each and every one of them.