Adventures with two...

So late...Eli's Family Day, June 24th!

Summer has gotten in the way of posting, it seems. So backing up a bit, we celebrated the fact that Eli has been part of our family now for TWO years! He has grown SO much over the past two years!

June 24th, 2008

June 24th, 2009

June 24th, 2010

 

(Ha! Guess the truck shirt still fits...that wasn't even planned!)

He's as spirited as ever and yet to know him is to LOVE him!
Everywhere we go he tends to draw people to him. Probably due to the cowboy boots he wears with his shorts, or maybe his favorite, crazy tie dye shirts, but I think it's really because he is charming and still as cute as can be!

Two goofy peas in a pod

Four years ago...

we met a very scared little girl. She cried the first 30 minutes we saw her. She didn't want us to take her away from the nanny that had brought her. 

The next few days she was quiet and unsure, but easy-going nonetheless. Little by little she felt more comfortable.

(Taken from video, sorry they are so pixelated and grainy.)

Four years have passed since that day and that same girl is now confident, happy, hilarious and loved beyond measure. We are so blessed to be able to have such an amazing daughter!

 

 

  

Family Day 2010!

Can it really be true that four years have passed since we met our beautiful daughter?
We celebrated today with a low-key day of playing outside and relaxing together, followed by soccer practice (where Em scored 3 goals!) and our traditional Family Day meal of Cheeseburgers, just like we ate in China our first day together!

Of course we took our traditional Family Day couch photos, too!

2006 - Such a goofy picture of me, but I love Em hanging on to my leg! That hotel couch is divine. haha

2007-With Bella the cat and those ADORABLE pig tails!

2008-So close to leaving to meet Eli. No Ditka shirt?! Good thing we dug that one out again in the next photo!

2009-Ah! There's that boy and that rag of a shirt! And Frida!

2010- This year Eli is showing us his muscles, the shirt is nearly in pieces and Gus, the cat has escaped!

Gus makes an appearance...much to his dismay, I might add!

And of course the traditional goofy face photo! We almost didn't need an extra photo for this shot, as each photo we took is a bit goofy in one way or another.

I love these three so much my heart might burst.

So happy we get to celebrate this lovely little family!

Love these moments

While we got dinner ready tonight I looked out the window and saw this.... 

the kids snuggled up on a chair outside waiting for us to bring them their food.

Trust me, they're not always this sweet and agreeable, but I love it when they are!

Five!

Our beautiful daughter turned 5 today! So grown up and yet so sweet and naive. We love this girl to the ends of the earth and back again and know that she was thought of and loved today on two different continents!

(Click on photos to enlarge!)

 

Five years old

(Four)

(Three)

(Two)

(A bit over one, in her foster family's home)

(Newborn)

Love that girl!

Eli-3.5!!

Mr. Elijah, E, Eli, Yang Yang, The Yanger.

Our boy is chatting it up a lot more lately, and recently started getting speech help from a teacher who comes to our house once a week. His vocabulary may be a little behind, but really the hard part is getting all those words organized into sentences! Little by little, he's figuring it out.

We struggled long and hard this winter with Eli's asthma. Last week we started him on Singu*lair and I kid you not, he seems like a new kid! His spirits have been much higher all week, I wonder if he is sleeping more soundly since he can breathe a bit easier? I don't know, but I hope it continues. We hope to start some allergy testing soon also, though the doctors has been eager to do it until now, telling us it's not always reliable in children.

This boy can make me melt in an instant and pull my hair out all at the same time. But, as time goes by little boys get easier and easier it seems and their fierce Mama love makes you soon forget the stubbornness and tantrums. phew!

Em-4 3/4!

This photo sums up Emily these days. She is so good natured and loves to be a goof ball. She is constantly humming, singing, dancing. Whatever moves her will prompt spontaneous glee, singing, or dancing. She turns five in less than a month and I am loving this age! 

Em is going to have a birthday party with her friends this year and she has been so excited making plans. It will be hard for her to pick just five friends, since she has made so many friends at her school this year. Her teachers tell us often that she is such a good friend. Open to everyone, excited to play anything. We're so proud of her!

Em is all about dresses and "big kids" these days. She wants to know who can do what and at what age. She has sprouted up this past year and lost all of her baby chubbiness. Often when I look at her lately I realize that SHE is a "big kid" and can't believe that she will be gone all day next year in Kindergarten.

Where did my baby go?

Making Maple Syrup

When we were visiting G&G R. a few weeks back, Grandpa Chuck showed the kids how he was collecting sap to make maple syrup. A crisp, sunny spring day in Minnesota.

 

Then we took the sap over to the neighbor's to cook it. Em helped Grandpa pour it into the buckets to strain and then put on the fire.
 

We got to take a bottle home...yum!!

 

We forgot to pack a warmer jacket for Eli so he wore his sister's.

Pretty in pink and thinking he's pretty handsome!