Hints of Summer...

The little girlies have loved playing outside in our garage/side yard/flat part of our driveway lately! Most days, when I get home from track, I sit in a lawn chair and watch them until dinner. They have gotten so creative and have so much fun riding their cars/bikes, making choo choos, playing with the sled (who said sleds are only for snow? they are just as fun in the grass!), playing soccer, chalk, house, princesses, etc. I'm sure you can tell from the pictures that the girls love this time of day! AnnaClaire and Kate's ayis both told us when we got the each girl that they loved being outside... that's still true, as you can see! :)

Three and a Half~

Sweet Booie,

You are officially three and a half today! Where has time gone? When did my adorably pudgy baby turn into a beautiful toddler? Slow down, big girl! Your sissy isn't ready for you to grow up! :) Love you so much, precious girl!

Love,
Sissy

6 Months Together!

My goodness, how our little girl has grown in these six months that she's been a part of our family. It's incredibly hard to believe that just six months ago, we held our precious Katherine MeiLing for the first time. The little girl we had longed for and prayed for for years. Why is it that these months have flown by, yet I can barely remember life without sweet Kate? She has come so far in the six months she has been in our family. She has taken such big strides and has really grown in these six months. She's still tiny, but definitely not the baby we received on October 25, 2008. She is incredibly go-with-the-flow, her vocabulary is truly flourishing (she was said to be behind her her speech at PHF, but she is really talking... even in sentences!) She has only gained two pounds and now weighs a whopping 19 pounds! She's got to have grown atleast two inches, too. Yet it's really not those physical ways that she has changed that I notice. It's that she is finally happy. She and AnnaClaire are the sweetest friends. She's caring, loving, adorable... she does anything you ask her to do (other than eat!), she gives the sweetest kisses and hugs... She loves life, she loves doing anything, she loves her FAMILY. Those first few days with her... even the first few months, I sometimes wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Kate was NOT easy. She whined all the time. I remembed how me and Mom would talk about how difficult she was going to be as a teenager... we're not thinking that anymore! She is about the easiest child EVER. It saddened me so much to see her mourn for all she had lost. I remember looking at pictures we received of her at PHF and seeing how happy she was there... yet she just didn't have that light. But now, she has that sweet sparkly smile, that infectious joy that we saw in pictures. Those whines have been turned into sweet giggles and her somber face has turned into a face full of joy. I have come to love this little girl more as each day goes on and I can not imagine my life without her! She is a perfect fit for our family and we are all madly in love with her! Praise God for the ways he has allowed her to trust and love her mommy, daddy, and siblings. Praise Him for bringing her into our family six months ago!

I love you, my sweet Katie Cakes! Happy 6 months together!

Gotcha Day: October 25, 2008 1 month: November 25, 2008
2 months: December 25, 2008

3 months: January 25, 2009
4 months: February 25, 2009
5 months: March 25, 2009

Botanical Gardens with Mia!

Yesterday, the little girls and Mom went to the botanical gardens with Mia and her mommy. They had a gorgeous day for it, once again, and had a very fun time. No one brought a camera, but Mom said there were people everywhere taking pictures of the girls. One lady jotten down Mia's mom's email and sent them to us :) So... enjoy!

Kate's six month post coming soon:)

AC's solo, playing outside, and making dinner...

Well the exciting news in our house is that AnnaClaire sang a SOLO at Bible Study today! She sang by herself (with her teacher next to her) into the microphone for over 200 ladies! AnnaClaire and Kate as well as all the other littles ones at Bible Study then put on a whole "performance" for all the women. AnnaClaire was so excited to tell me and Daddy when we got home! Wish I could've gotten some pictures and video... but I can only imagine how cute she was singing her solo! She sang one of the memory verse songs that the 2s and 3s learned- 1 John 4:11.

Oh and just because... the dress Kate is wearing is the first dress we bought for her! It has her little monogram in the front. It's one of my favorite dresses and it finally fits her!!!

We had another BEAUTIFUL afternoon today, so after track practice, I brought the little girls outside and we played for awhile. They both love to play outside... ride their bikes/cars, do chalk, blow bubbles, play with balls, run around, etc. Once we went back in, AnnaClaire, Kate, and I cooked pancakes for dinner!

And the day is ending in the little girls' favorite way- Dora and Diego and then bathtime!

I don't know about you, but I'd call that a pretty good day.

{Lastly, PLEASE scroll down a post and read about our *need* for quilt squares. Would love one from any of you reading this!!}

"Pity Peas!"

I've been going through Kate's quilt squares recently and realized that we are only about halfway there. We need 100 squares for her quilt and have like 48. I know that many people reading this blog have followed and loved our girls and thought it would be so awesome if you all could send a square for Miss Kate's quilt. AnnaClaire's quilt is used as her bedspread and I love that she is sleeping under the love of 100 special people. We really want to do the same for Kate and would love if you could contribute to her quilt! So... if you haven't sent a square yet and would like to, here's all you have to do...

Cute a 8x8 inch square of a piece of fabric that you like

write out a "wish", prayer, or Bible verse for sweet Kate (and sign your name!)

attach a small piece of the fabric you sent to the wish so that Kate can match up the squares with the wishes

Easy enough, right?

So just email me (my email adress is emilyh331@gmail.com) and I can give you the address to send it to! Thank you in advance for you help! It means SO much to us and I know it will mean so much to Kate!

If you want to see some examples, check Kate's quilt blog. I haven't posted all of them (I'm so bad about that!) but there are quite a few on there that you can see.

Azaleas :)

I just love spring! We have had some absolutely gorgeous weather this week and the azaleas around here are in full bloom. We have a big bush of them in our front yard and I just had to get my two beauties by them :) Honestly- could my sweet little sisters be any cuter?

Sweet Kate in China

As you know, God put our sweet Kate in an amazing place, where her needs were met, she was loved, she was taught about Jesus, and she was prepared for a FAMILY! That amazing place where she lived was the Philip Hayden Foundation and she lived there for much of her life in China. We were blessed beyond belief to discover that fact about two months after reciving our sweet girl's referral. During our wait for her, we were able to get a ton of info, many pictures, etc. on our beautiful girl. By the time we were united with sweet Kate, we had over 100 pictures of her. That is absolutely amazing for any internationally adopted child. That just doesn't happen. But that's not all... Over the weekend, we received another special gift... a CD of over 200 pictures of our precious Kate. There were some we had seen, but there were a bunch that we had never seen. I remember how finding pictures of Kate affected me while we waited for her. I loved seeing them, yet they made me want to get her right THEN! And even though our sweet girl is with us now, I didn't enjoy these pictures any less. I am so glad we have these to show her at some point... to show her how loved she was even when she was considered an orphan. And although looking at some of the pictures make me sad (like one we have of her with chicken pox) I am so glad to see how HAPPY she looks in most of them! Oh what a smile these pictures bring to my face. I'm sad that we didn't get to experience these stages of her life, but so happy that we have been blessed with ways to see her grow even when we couldn't be there! So enjoy these handful of some of my favorite pictures of our sweet Kate that I haven't already posted!

Pretty Girls and their Easter Bubbles

Mommy and Daddy brought some special Easter treats for Easter! (AnnaClaire was scared of the idea of an Easter bunny, so we're not doing that. I always thought the Easter Bunny was a bit too much, anyway.) The girls baskets were filled with a DVD (Kate got Veggie*Tales and AC got a Cedar*mont Kids video), some candy eggs, and a Dora bubble bucket. We had the most gorgeous Easter day, so after Church, we got the bubbles out. The girls had so much fun with them! They love bubbles and they thought having their own little bucket of Dora bubbles was extra fun! It was so fun to watch them. I'm not sure I have ever seen Kate as happy as she was blowing her bubbles. She cried when it was time to go inside!

Enjoy the pictures of my two pretty girls and their bubbles!