GYMNASTICS

With the boys doing sports in the Fall and Spring, we just didn't want to add more practices and games for the girls during the same seasons.

John saw an ad for a local gym and thought it'd be great to put the girls in gymnastics for the summer ~think...exercise/sports but in a giant air conditioned gym!!!

The girls LOVE it.

They look so forward to going every Thursday.

And they are improving every week.

Elizabeth, true to form, is fearless and willing to do/try anything ~a great trait for gymnastics. But, her lack of impulse control means she doesn't really pay attention to the details and doesn't try to "perfect" what she is doing.

Rebecca, on the other hand, DOES pay attention to every minute detail and DOES try to make every move perfect ~a very good trait for gymnastics. But, she is hesitant to do anything a little bit scary. :)

Thankfully they have a wonderful teacher who is helping each girl overcome their obstacles. :)

the bars are what are scary for Becca. She's afraid she'll fall. :)

Elizabeth is freakishly strong. She scales this rope like it's nothing. She goes 1/2 way up (all arms) and then sits there and watches the goings on in the gym...or she'll find us and wave. :) Crazy arm strength!

Becca is surprisingly good at the beam. She has great balance and is learning to do turns and little jumps on the beam.

their favorite part of their class....jumping down the trampoline run-way into the pit of foam blocks!

Elizabeth is a natural on the bars.

4 YEAR REFERRAL ANNIVERSARY

June 8th marked our 4 year anniversary of receiving Elizabeth's referral.

I remember being in the San Diego airport waiting for our flight home when my friend Keely called me to say that our agency had just posted a new list of waiting children.

At the time, our agency was assigned children to find homes for....families would apply for the child they wanted to be matched with, and then we waited for a committee to convene, pray over, and decide which families to match with which children.

As soon as we arrived home, John and I both looked at the list separately ~so as not to influence each other.

Then we sat down to talk and we both were drawn to the same 3 or 4 kids on the list. We prayed ALOT, took these files the our pediatrician, and were able to narrow down who we wanted to apply for. :)

I remember just looking at Elizabeth's pictures that entire month (yes -we had to wait an entire month to know if we were matched or not!) and thinking "wow, this baby girl just looks so familiar". I couldn't place it....it just seemed like I knew her.

On June 8th, I had both kids at the local pool for swim lessons. I was just about to get in the pool for the mommy & me class when my phone rang.

Normally I would have just let it go to voicemail considering I was standing there in a bathing suit in public :) but I noticed the area code and HAD to answer the call.

I remember the agency rep on the other line saying "Jeanette......congratulations, you have another daughter. You have been matched with Ellie."

I cried.

A Lot.

Now I knew why that little girl on the other side of the world looked so familiar.

She was our daughter.

I remember trying to collect myself and get in the water for swim lessons. :)

As a fun side note, our agency gave each child an English name to make it easier when talking about the kids. The name assigned to Elizabeth was "Ellie". It didn't dawn us until we were matched with her how ironic and what a God-coincidence it was.....we had known we wanted to use the name Elizabeth for our daughter from China...and we had even discussed using the nickname "Ellie" for her.....and here our agency had already assigned her the nickname we had intended to use. I'm still baffled that we never realized it until after she was ours. :)

I can't believe it's been 4 years since that call...and almost 4 years that Elizabeth has been home.

JUNE 4TH BASEBALL GAME

June 4th was John's birthday....I had had some plans swirling in my head on what to do for his b-day, but our 4 yr old nephew had been sick the week prior and ended up being admitted to the hospital the day before John's b-day (after a 3 1/2 day stay he was released and is fine now!).

So.....John woke up to a house full of extra kiddos on his birthday as we helped my sister and BIL out. :)

As it turns out, my sis and BIL had been given tickets to the baseball game on the 4th and couldn't use all of them (since they were taking turns in the hospital) ~so they invited us to use their extras!

Biruk taking a swing in the batting cages.

we had about 13 seats between the 2 rows we were in. :)

Becca was so funny! She really got into cheering for the home team!

MORE FUN WITH WAX LIPS

Cousin Joanna came over not long after John's sisters left (read post below to see the first wax lips photos), so of course she had to get in on the fun!

Becca-boo is laughing so hard she could barely keep the lips in!

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2011

We were so blessed to have 2 of John's sisters come visit us for Memorial Day Weekend!

We all just LOVE Auntie Paula and Auntie Teresa. :)

We spent Saturday afternoon relaxing by the pool.

the kids love it when John throws them.

b'cuz Elizabeth is SO light and naturally good at this sort of thing ~it's really fun to watch her fly thru the air!

Sunday we all went to church, played at our community park...and then took the auntie's to one of our favorite BBQ restaurants.

a few games of soccer and football/keep away were played. :)

Lucy came with us so she could get some exercise in. :)

love my boys!

classic Becca -Look at me!

Auntie Teresa found wax lips at our restaurant. :)

MOTHER'S DAY 2011

after church we headed over to my parents' house for lunch and playing in their irrigation. :)

this is the only "approved for public" shot of JJ during the playing in the yard! notice he's working on getting those shorts off ~he succeeded a few seconds later. :) If you click on the pic, it might get bigger and you can see Joanna's face ~her expression is so cute!

and after playing in the back yard got boring -the kids filled up water balloons and had a war in the front yard. :)