A whole lot of good stuff

Okay- the last few pictures are just random ones of the littles in my room. I was playing with the manual mode on my camera, and these were a couple that I ended up liking. Especially the ones of Kate. She has a sort of goofy fake smile in a lot of pictures, but I captured the real thing in these ones :) and I LOVE that sweet smile of hers!

And the first few pictures are from Saturday. We went out for doughnuts in the morning and had so much fun! Not only were the doughnuts delicious, but there was a tent out that had activities going on- hula hooping, bean bag toss, bubbles, and some other things. The kiddos were having a blast!!! Afterward, we decided to run to Wa*lmart and see about getting Gracie a bike. When we QQ'd with her before we met her, she told us that she liked to ride bikes, so we had told her we would bring her to get a bike once we were home. We figured it was a good day, and ended up finding a great one for a great price! She picked the periwinkle and white, which happened to be both mine and Dad's favorite. She tried it out all around the patio at Wa*lmart, and it is perfect for her! She also picked a helmet, and off we went. She was SO excited to get home and try it out! She had the biggest smile EVER and her face was just lit up as she tried it out on our street! She rides so well and went on a ride all around the neighborhood (and we live in an incredibly hilly neighborhood!) with Dad this afternoon!

I cannot believe it's August already. I'm not sure I'm ready for summer to be over!!! I just love these lazy summer days and do not want to start with all of the stress that the beginning of this year will bring! On a good note, Charlie and Grace are now fully covered on our insurance, which means we can finally bring Gracie to the eye doctor! Her appt. is on Friday and we are all excited for her to finally get some glasses. If you didn't follow us in China- we found out at the medical that she has horrible vision! Poor thing has to sit so close to everything to see it. She LOVES to try on Daddy's glasses and we cannot wait to get her some of her own! Then on Monday is Charlie's orthopedic appt. We are all anxious to get his feet looked at, as they are much worse than we were ever imagining. He had surgery in China, and there are tons of scars to prove it, but you would never even know. We just can't wait for them to be corrected so that he can walk normally!!! I just cannot imagine how painful it is for him right now.

We are all doing really well. It's extremely hard for me to believe that we've been home just 4 weeks. The whole adjustment has gone so smoothly. Charlie and Gracie fit in so well with our family and we are just loving (pretty much) every moment as a family of 9! It seems like they have both been in our family so much longer than they actually have been.

Learning English is still coming along slowly for Gracie. We all know it will come, that is for sure. We met with another MAA adoptive family in the area who adopted an older daughter in December, and they lent us Rosetta Stone, so that will definitely help. Dad also got her a ESL computer came that she likes to play. For now, she LOVES when Drew is home and just adores talking to him. (Drew knows Mandarin). He has been able to ask her a little about her past, and we've found out some little things. One being that she played volleyball in China! We actually just signed her up for volleyball this fall through our Church, and we signed AC up for soccer. They are both really excited!

So we're doing well! I am seriously amazed at all 4 of our littles. Charlie and Gracie for obvious reasons... they have gone through so many changes and they are doing SO WELL with it all! There is no doubt in my mind that they were really well prepared. And that this is what they wanted. I am so proud of our littlest girlies, too. Adding two siblings is hard! Especially for AC, who lost her spot as the "biggest of the littles." Gracie and AC have moments of competitiveness, and AC does sometimes have trouble with the fact that Gracie is a.) 10 and gets to do more than AC and b.) has never had a single thing from us and sometimes things are just for her. But overall, she is loving having another big sister and a little brother! Of course Kate still has her baby/princess position. And she loves that. :)

And just because... here's a couple more pictures!

Miss Kate Cakes who literally wears her Snow White dress whenever she possibly can :)

Gracie showing off some off some of the English words she knows!

AnnaClaire and KateLin riding bikes (KateLin's family is who lent us Rosetta Stone!)

And when Kate isn't in her Snow White outfit, she's in a tutu :) She is SUCH a princess. Here she is with Felicity!

AnnaClaire and Gracie watched the Kit movie the other day and wanted me to get my dolls out. The three girls (and Charlie so badly wanted to play, too!) had a blast playing with my dolls and all of the accessories!

The littles love to go in Gracie's room and take pictures and videos on her camera. Here's one Gracie took of Charlie and Kate

And here's some brotherly love :)