but not this much. lol We have been totally snowed in yesterday and today. The kids are so bored and I have been trying so hard to keep them entertained. We have played blocks, Airport, Bristle Blocks, Dress Up, Nintendo Mario Kart, and a movie....oh, and some art work. Evan even helped sweep and do laundry. Wendy chose to help with the dishes two days in a row. She is pretty good at it to. The dogs haven't been able to go out to do their jobs at all. We have a huge drift of snow right at our back door and if they even got up on it they would likely sink in. Imagine two Chihuahua's and one Dachshund sinking down in three feet of snow. The drift that was the tallest on the back porch was near and over the BBQ grill and that was 4 1/2 feet. Mike barely made it home after work yesterday. He was driving my Camry and had to be pushed some of the way. Once he got home he parked on the street curb. This morning he got a coworker to come by and pick him up in their in his four wheel drive truck.
I will post some of the snow photos tomorrow since I have two sleeping children to get off to bed.
Here is what you do. Click on the link and download a photo of your choice. The 8X10 is free!!! If you are like us though you will go for a larger one for a small cost due to the fact that you just can't beat it. I am having one of us in China done. I thought that many of you could benefit from this since many of you have small children like us. Here it is once more or click on the title above.... http://www.canvaspeople.com/freegift
My dad's 79th birthday. I know my mom is missing him today as she is everyday and especially on Sundays. She has told me it is so very hard for her on the weekends but especially on Sundays.
Happy Birthday Dad in Heaven. We sure miss you.
Today is my half a birthday and my dad and I always had a cake together. As I got older and married we celebrated my mom's birthday (Jan.5) and then Mike's (Jan. 22) and my dad's (Jan. 24). We miss doing this, but we have the wonderful memories of it.
Mike's 53 years young today! Man, where has the time gone??? He and I had a pact that we would never get old. lol Thus, we have adopted to stay young. hehe.... Poor thing woke up very sick today and has caught exactly what Wendy and Evan have had...a really bad viral cold with terrible cough. Thank you kids from school!! I'm sure that is one present Mike would rather not have. lol
Anyway.... I love you, Mike!!!! Happy, Happy Birthday to you.
While I write this Evan is watching "Cars" and dancing along with the starting music. He is so dang cute!!!!! Gotta love him, and we do.
Evan and Wendy on Christmas Morning...... Holly's new puppy Gertie or also know as Gertrude Eloise the little white terrier/King Charles spaniel mix.
Santa brought Evan a Lionel Super Chief!!!
Audrey Louise, Lacy's puppy, wasn't thrilled with the little red hat. LOL
These were the presents that my dad chose for Evan before he passed away; a set of cars and Tigger. He purchased them the day we talked to him on Skype while we were in China. You could just tell my dad was so excited to have a new Grandson! We missed him this holiday season. I do know my dad was looking down and enjoying Evan getting his presents.
I am so behind.... I really am trying. Let me first tell everyone that I'm changing the way you can leave a message. Don't be discouraged to comment on the posts. I have made it to where I can check them first and you have a word verification to add your message. You see I have had a spammer put some Viagra adds and now one about Online Poker!!! I managed to erase the Viagra adds, but the Poker add I can't trash cause somehow they breached the system and the trashcan isn't below the add to where I can get rid of it!! Any advice on how to get it off? The only way I know to keep them from doing this is to protect my blog the only way I can without making it private. If it comes down to me making it private I will let you know by putting a message on here. I need to change the address to it since the old one is still the Journey to Mylie Camille. Again that may take away some of my people since they are like family members and long distant friends who may not find out the new address. If any of you have had this problem in the past please let me know what you did to get it fixed.
We woke up to the wind howling and the snow blowing. It was pretty frigid outside. Now grant you the snow isn't that deep, but Mike still had to work with the shovel this morning. The windshield was heavy with snow.
Before he actually headed out Evan woke up and said "Momma it Kuh-nowed"!! We laughed so hard. Wendy came in and he told her the same thing, but Wendy told him the correct way to say it. Evan then said "Snu-owed". LOL God love him.... he sure is trying. The one thing he can say plain as day is Santa Claus.
This is what we have been gearing up for this month. The nineteenth was Holly's Graduation from Texas Tech. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, and top GPA in her college. I only got a few snippets of video. Holly was the star of graduation. Quite cool to be first to enter the arena as Banner Barer for her College and first named for your diploma and not only this she was listed first for her GPA and then her whole name was said correctly all the way through....."Holly Leigh Erica L" Pretty cool!! We are so very proud of her. I know that her Papaw was there watching over her. He said the day she was born that she was marked for GREAT Things!! He was so very right. We missed my mom being there cause she was home sick with a cold. Three family members were able to come....so happy that Lacy, Ganny and Uncle Lane could come.
Sorry the video clips are shaky. I had to hold Evan and he kept trying to take the camera from me. lol
Well our journeys have ended, and both children are home from China it is time to start a new chapter in our lives. I have been playing with the thought of changing the title of our blog. I know there are many titles for a family of 6. My favorite is "With Six You Get Egg Roll", but I'm pretty sure that is taken. This was a Doris Day and Brian Kieth movie and I really love it as well, but in our case it really fits being that the tail end of our family is from China. LOL So I have named it "The Six Of Us". I think it says it all. What do you guys think?
I will try to add new updated photos of the kiddos today. Evan is eating all the time.....you would think he would be gaining lots of weight with how he is going at it. He isn't a meat eater, but he loves Broccoli. Noodles are a true favorite....even for breakfast.LOL As far as what we love well.... we love Italian food a great deal, but the only thing Evan will eat is Pizza. I guess that is fine for now, but Mike makes a mean Spaghetti. lol Hamburgers are out cause he isn't a meat eater. I have found that he loves turkey sausage when grilled! His English is coming right along. He is picking up new phrases everyday. The concept of "What's your name" isn't there yet. Nor is "How old are you". I contacted ECI here, but they won't help since he is three years old now. I need to see if we have a private Speech Therapist here.
Evan is very strong willed and will fight you on what ever it is he wants or doesn't want to do. ha We have gone head to head on many things lately. The big one is not hitting Wendy. Luckily the biting issue is gone for now. One thing he does that drives me nuts is when I tell him "NO" he points at me and gives me this cute look and says "Nooo". I know we will be butting heads for some time.
On the bright side he is a very sweet boy actually. When not being obstinate he gives sweet kisses and wonderful hugs not to mention that wonderful smile. He loves the dogs! His favorite is Tallulah, and he also loves our ferret Bear. This is one thing that took a while for Wendy when she came home.
Things will smooth out one day I know. Luckily I have friends who have adopted toddlers and I have seen that it took them some time to adjust but they are now doing fine. Since Mr. Evan has many good qualities about him he will do great once things settle in and his English starts to come more and more.
Wendy on the other hand has gone back a few steps from 6 years old to about 3 herself. Ha You see when a Princess has felt like she has been dethroned it is a catastrophe. LOL!!! She loves him deep down, but fights for all the attention she can get these days. If she sees Evan hugging our leg she gets the other leg and holds tight. This is fine, but can have its problems when you try to move around. Sharing has been hard since she has never had to do it long term before. Sure when friends come over she does, but now that Evan is here full time it is another story. LOL The one thing he wants more than anything is a Barbie Magnadoodle like Wendy's. "Very Big LOL!!! They both love to draw, but Wendy has had that since her 4th birthday; so now we all need to be on a mission. ha
As you can see there are many adjustments going on including my own. I am finally trying to figure out how to keep him content while doing house work and so on. So any of our local friends who are wondering.....this is why we haven't had a play date yet. If I can get the big sum of things done I'm going to get a house keeper in every other week. I think I deserve that don't you?
As for me, I'm still having a rough time after losing my dad. I do fine for a long while and then there is something that reminds me of him like when we went Xmas shopping for example. I find my self crying. The week after the funeral I decided to go through the phone messages from while we were in China. My dads voice came on and I listened and cried. Needless to say I'm not ever erasing that message!!! The message after that was my mom saying they were at the hospital and it was bad; now that one I erased. This was very hard on me. My mother is handleing it really well. She will cry on occasion, but not just let loose. She wanted to hear my dad's message over Thanksgiving while she was here. She did well on that as well. Our Thanksgiving was one of remembering and holding tight to each other.
On a fantastic note: Holly is about finished with school and will graduate on December 19th!!!! She has been offered acceptance into the PHD Program (Doctoral Program) for Human Development and Family Studies without having her masters degree in it!!!! We are beyond ecstatic for her!!! So, she will be attending Texas Tech this spring semester!
I know this is a LONG post, but I have been so behind on updating this blog.
