Fancy Nancy

Mary Joyce's school is having "Favorite Book Character" day. Today, Mary Joyce is dressed as "Fancy Nancy." It honestly was more of a "What-book-character-costume-can-we-make-with-what-we-have" day for us, but she does like the Fancy Nancy books.

Kindergarten Picture

Just thought you might like a preview of Mary Joyce's kindergarten school picture. I will mail grandparents and aunts copies soon!

A Few Random Pictures

Mary Joyce and her Flamingo Glasses from the School Treasure Box

3 Cuties!

Halloween Preview

The Kids and Me on my Birthday

Bunk Beds!

We finally caved in and set up the girls' beds as bunk beds. They love it so far! (As you can tell, we need another storage piece to finish out the room because I was relying a lot on underbed storage boxes, and that space just got cut in half.)

Better Hair Pictures

117b Goes to Kindergarten!

Here is the newest collage with pictures of the girls from our China travel group. All of them started kindergarten this fall. (You can click on the picture to see it larger.)

Our Little Carpenter

Guess Who Else Wanted Shorter Hair?

5 Years Ago

Five years ago today, our family grew in the Civil Affairs office in Nanchang, China, when Mary Joyce became our daughter. Here are a few memories from that day...

We usually celebrate in a fairly low-key way, but this year was extremely low-key, even for us. We moved up our Chinese meal to the night before, just because it was too crazy of a night to even think about cooking. The girls started dance, and we had Open House at Mary Joyce's school. Because the kids were absolutely out of sorts by the time we left the school, our meal at the Chinese restaurant became take-out eaten at home.

And here is our big girl on her 5th Adoption Day!

We love you, Mary Joyce, and cannot imagine our family without you!

Let's Dance!

The girls had their first dance lesson yesterday. They really did seem to enjoy it, both in their own manner. Mary Joyce was very meticulous, wanting to do everything just right. Katherine was not nearly so coordinated, but she enjoyed every minute with a big smile on her face. I think it was a success!

Mary Joyce's First Day of Kindergarten!

Mary Joyce is off for her first full day of school! Today she started kindergarten. Her school does staggered start, so some started on Monday, some on Tuesday, and some today (Wednesday). Tomorrow, all of her classmates will come. So far, my mama nerves are fine, but they will be amped up as we wait for her to come home on the bus this afternoon. Hope her first day is amazing!

Well, That's a New Nap Position...

I put Malcom down asleep, lying down on the couch. I was at the computer, and when I turned around, I saw him like this and immediately grabbed the camera. :-)

Katherine Goes to Pre-K!

Katherine's 4th Birthday Party!

4 Years Old!

It is so hard to believe that our little Katherine is a big 4 year old girl today! She has grown into such a loving, cuddling little girl who is really looking forward to starting pre-K in a couple of weeks.

Happy Birthday, Katherine!

Louisiana Vacation

July 4, 2011!

VBS 2011

Here are a few pictures from VBS week...

We had worship, and on Friday, Katherine got to be our tiniest Bible bearer...


All of the kids loved the music...


The teachers did an amazing jobs in their classrooms...


They had fun crafts...




And yummy snacks...




And Malcom got to hang out and have fun in the nursery...


It's hard to believe he will be old enough to be in a big-kid class next summer...