Our Day on the Farm

Today we were able to visit M's favorite place, the Child*ren's Farm*. Look at that happy face as she holds one of her old pals, Fer*gie, now known officially as Mr. Ferg*uson since the staff discovered "she" is actually a "he".

M was not near as impressed with Afro the duck, (not even kidding) as I was. He we super cool looking and nice too. He just sat on a bench and let all the children pet him.
The Chicken Whisperer

The new calves, only a few months old. They were so soft.

A fluffy sheep

I don't know what joke M told Bella the donkey, but it sure must've been a funny one.

During October the farm has some extra special activities including a huge bin of corn for kids to play in. Ever make a snow angel in corn? M gave it her best shot.

We also had some serious business to take care of, picking the perfect pumpkin.

And last, but certainly not least M reunited with her favorite buddy on the farm, Muffin the Goat. This sweet goat has the patience of a saint. M hugged, snuggled, laid on(serious), brushed THROUGHLY and generally smothered her old friend. Muffin just took it all in stride and let M have her way.

Mei Mei's Tulips

We anticipate bringing Mei Mei(little sister) home in the Spring around April. M is having a hard time with the wait, as we all are, but her 4 year old sense of time just has a hard time grasping when we can go to China and why we can't just go now. On Saturday the neighbor gave her 2 tulip bulbs as she was planting in her yard. M was so excited and couldn't wait to plant them. On Sunday we talked about how even though we would plant them now, the flowers would not grow until the Spring time. "Like when we go get Mei Mei?" yes, M exactly! So today we planted Mei Mei's tulips as we look forward to the day when we can share of picture of 2 sisters standing in front of our home holding these very flowers in their hands.

Today was a very special day for another reason also, we packed up all our dossier documents for China and sent them to our agency. So now we pray that we are DTC(dossier to China) very soon!!!!
Who knew I would ever anticipate the growth tulips so much?

Growing by two feet

These 2 feet to be exact!

We are adopting again. Our daughter is presently 3 years old and in Hunan province, just south of where M is from. Because we are still working on our dossier we are unable to share a full photo at this time. We are super excited! In fact, it is about the only thing M talks about these days. We hope to have our dossier in China sometime in Oct. and travel in April or May of 2011. Please pray that God will have his hand over all of our paperwork and that things will move along as quickly as possible. We are so anxious to bring our daughter home!

Snapshot of Summer

Wow, hard to believe the summer has come and gone. Time really does fly when you are having fun. Here are afew of our summer shots in somewhat random order.

On the shores of Lake Mich*igan

A visit to the Longaber*ger Home*stead

Watching 4th of July fireworks in Michigan.



Chillin' at the Splash* Pad

Happy 4th of July

Chinese New Year

Still attempting to catch up. In February, we did some painting and pulled out our carpet. Our dining and living room are now Crisp Celery. The floors are hard wood. You can see we are still in process in this pic, as the carpet tacking is half pulled up in the background. Luckily the floors looked pretty good under the carpet, so for now we'll leave them as is.

We celebrated Chine*se New Year* for the better part of 2 weeks in February. Here is our China playgroup party.

Here is M in her Chinese school performance.

Chinese school

We also attended our FCC* CNY party. M loved them all!

Walt* Disn*ey Wor*ld

Well, this was the end of January. I guess we've been a little busy. We spent a week in Florida with my mom and dad. During the week we took a 3 day trip to the "happiest* place on Ear*th". To say M loved it would be an understatement. She relished in every moment. Loved the rides, loved being called "Princess*" for 3 days straight by every crew member we encountered, loved the parades, loved the shows, loved the fireworks, loved the characters and ESPECIALLY loved meeting the PRINCESSES*. The only movies she had seen before our trip were "Peter* Pan", the Tinker*belle movies and Snow* White*, so she really wasn't familiar with many characters, but she loved them all regardless.
The joy of riding Aladdin's* Magic Carpets* and getting to control the up and down switch.

Meeting the mice.

The face of pure happiness upon meeting her first princess.

Meeting her favorite princess. M was just in awe.

Spending time with Mul*an. Mu*lan was so sweet. She spent about 10-15 minutes with M, talking to her and walking with her. In this photo, Mula*n is showing M her favorite bird in the pond.

M got her own camera for the trip and has become quite the little photographer. She snapped this one in front of the Temple* of Heaven* at Ep*cot.

A great time was had by all!

A couple of beach shots.

Musher Mania and other Winter Fun

We have a little catching up to do. These events happened in January.

Our first snowman of the year. M was so excited and begged and begged to go build him from the moment it started snowing on. I told her we had to wait until the snow stopped before we started, which happened to be 2 days later.
Even though we didn't have the traditional embellishments, we think he turned out quite fine. He has cranberries for his hair and smile, grapes for eyes and a sesame candy for his nose.

Then with the hard work behind us, it was time to make a few snow angels.

Here's M at our annual trip to Musher *Mania. This event is put on by a husky/mushing club. They have dog visits, demonstrations, stories, and ice carving. It is a great event.

M really enjoyed visiting with the huskies this year.

I got to try pulling M on the sled. She thought it was great, me not so much.

Those dogs do some hard work.

After finishing up our fun with the dogs, M and Baba had snowball fight. M is about to get plastered by the one you can see in mid-air.

M getting her revenge up close.

And Baba goes down.