New hair do

Well in an effort to make my girls look different (so we might not get the twins question) I decided that maybe they need to have different hair styles. I decided to get Sophia's hair cut since she is the youngest and hasn't been verbal about her hair unlike Olivia. It was pointed out that Olivia would look better with a shorter 'do since her face is thinner than Sophia's but another friend said I at least needed to ask Olivia if she wanted hers cut. Well I asked and she said no -- well that is until it got time for me to leave with Sophia and she decided she wanted hers cut. I wanted to cut bangs into Sophia's hair but when we got to the shop and were talking with Amber (their beautician) she said she would have to go way back to give the bangs because of Sophia's forehead and the little hairs growing there. So we went with a short cut and no bangs. Here is a few photos of the new 'do:

Happy Father's Day.....

Happy Father's day to my wonderful husband. We spent the day at my in-laws for lunch and then we came home and went swimming. The girls were up very late last night as Derek and Adam came over. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the swimming. I normally don't dress the girls alike but today Olivia actually wanted to be dressed like twins. Sigh.......

Final T-ball game...

Well, Olivia had her last t-ball game and I think she was very excited about that. She liked playing in the beginning but had decided about 3 or 4 games in that it was more fun to play in the dirt than to play ball. She actually played very well Thursday night and even said she "might" want to play again next year.

Prayers needed

I can't give any details but some good friends need prayers for a decision they are having to make. If you pray, could you lift them up?

Thanks.....

Are they twins??? (ETA: They are 21 months apart)

I have been wanting to blog about this for some time but today I read another blogger's post about an exchange she had today and it reminded me I wanted to blog about this. To say I get this question a lot is an understatement. It happens every time we are out and usually more than once. I realize I get this because Sophia is almost the same size as Olivia BUT other than them being Chinese they look nothing alike. Olivia is truly beginning to hate hearing this question so I needed to find a good response to the question. Last night here is our exchange with a restaurant hostess:

RH: Are they twins?

Me: No. (As I am getting the "look" from Olivia)

RH: They look a lot alike so they could be twins.

Me: Actually, other than being Chinese they look nothing alike. (In my nicest voice of course!)

That actually caught her off guard and shut her up. So on the way home I thought of something for Olivia to say the next time we get the question. I would really like for her to say "No Ma'am (or Sir). Why do you ask? We look nothing alike." She likes the response but wants me to deliver it. Does anyone have another good response to this question?

Our graduate

Well, Olivia had the first of her graduations earlier this month -- her Pre-K graduation. While I am VERY proud of her, I had mixed emotions about this graduation. I tried not to make a huge deal out of it but other things/people did. I know others may disagree with me I just feel like kids today have too many graduations (here they have Pre-K, Kindergarten, 5th and 8th grades) and by the time they hit high school it becomes "just another graduation" to them and I want my kids to value their education and know that high school and college graduations are the most important. Anyway, they had a graduation (complete with cap and gown) and a program showcasing some things they learned in school this year -- they did song of the days of the week to the tune of the Adam's Family, Months of the year to the Makarena, the Pledge of Allegiance and a few other things that are escaping me at the moment.

7 points....

This is what your face looks like when you realize you lost by just 7 points! David drives trucks for a living and this past Saturday our state had their State Truck Driving Championship. Unfortunately this is the only photo I got from that day. I did have a few pics of him driving but they called another persons name so I didn't think it was really him and I erased the photos. Turned out it was him and he did great -- probably because I wasn't watching! At the banquet, they announced that there were only 7 points separating the top 2 finishers in his class. He came in second! I was so proud of him. If he had won, he'd have gone to the National Championship and this year it is in Houston, Texas. I was a little leery of him winning because the Nationals are usually around the first week of school in August meaning I'd either miss his competition or Olivia's first day of Kindergarten. But one great thing about the Nationals being in Houston I could have tried hard to meet my awesome e-friend Marla for the very first time! Also, I would have been able to meet up with a travel mate from Olivia's adoption. Oh well, I am still very proud of my hubby!

Tagged.....

My dear friend Julie of http://emmaandtheboys.blogspot.com tagged me a few days ago so here it is:

So here are the rules...post three things about yourself...link to the person who tagged you and tag 5 other bloggers (let them know by posting a comment on their blog).

1.) I absolutely hate to put clothes away and I have no idea why. I manage through though....

2.) I have every Danielle Steel book in hardback.

3.) I am working on scrapbooks for both girls and I am in the year 2006.

I know they aren't very interesting.

I am tagging:

Marla at http://lifewith4js.blogspot.com

Natalie at http://planetandersons.blogspot.com

Michelle at http://hannaclan.blogspot.com

Colleen at http://ccyoung.wordpress.com

Laura at http://thegrowingwarehouse.blogspot.com

Has it really been that long....

...since I've blogged? We have been mega busy! Olivia graduated from Pre-K, the girls had their preschool program, then there was Mother's Day and the last day of school. I have lots of stuff to share and will soon but I did want to take an opportunity to answer a question someone asked in the comments of my last post about the Leapster. The Leaster is a handheld game sytem where the games are educational. Some of the games the girls love are:

• Get Puzzled
• Clifford's Reading
• Dora's Wildlife Rescue
• Ratatouille
• Leap Frog's Kindergarten
• Pet Pals

Happy Monday to all!

A girl and a Leapster

Olivia got a Leapster for Christmas and this has been a huge hit. Sophia loves it too and begs to play Olivia's. Olivia is not to keen on sharing it (which I really don't blame her) so Sophia resorted to playing it while Olivia was in school. This is how I found her Thursday....

I wanted to wait until Sophia's birthday to get her a Leapster of her own but she doesn't understand that concept so I gave in a bought her one yesterday -- especially since they have $10.00 price cut on them. Who knows what they would be in December!

It's official......

.......I give up! First we had the flood in the basement. Then today our dishwasher started leaking and tonight I get pulled over for "driving erratically" and I was literally less than 1 mile from our house and was about to turn on to our street. He said I was swerving and wanted to know if I'd had anything to drink. Of course that is a big negative as anyone that knows me knows I don't drink and if I did I would never, ever drink and drive. Period. Just wouldn't happen. I told him I was talking to the girls in the back but as I started thinking once I got home I was actually keeping an eye on him as he was right on my bumper and I thought he was going to run into me. Of course I never knew it was a cop behind me until he turned on his lights. Thankfully he just told me to be more careful and let me go. Now it is 11:30 pm and I just realized that we left the camera Olivia got for her birthday at the restaurant where we ate tonight. Normally that would have been in the car but she spent the night with some friends Monday and left it at their house so they returned the camera tonight. Hopefully the restaurant has the camera. Ugh.......

Flood update

Thanks for all your kind comments! They mean so much to us. As for the water, well it was gone about 2:00 that afternoon. Once the sump pump finally stopped my awesome father in law (yes he reads the blog but he is awesome so I'm not just saying that because he's reading ;-)) and brother in law came over to shop vac the rest of it out. Everything dried out quite nicely although it does smell musty in the basement. I'm sure it will smell like that for quite some time. My husband is so funny when it comes to cleaning up. He spent most of Saturday doing things with the basement stuff while I spent the entire weekend doing laundry. I had clothes stored in the basement for our yardsale this spring and a lot of it was water logged. I had to spin them before I could wash them. Now I think I am just going to donate them because most of it has been in 2 yardsales and hasn't sold yet. I did find a pair of Olivia's capris that I loved. They are 12 months. I tried them on the skinny little peanut and they fit her perfectly in the waist and are the perfect length for Bermuda shorts that have made a comeback this year. Thankfully our new exercise machine survived the flood and works great. Whew! We are expecting rain for the next several days but nothing like last week. Hopefully I can post a few pics tomorrow of my hubby's ummm how shall I say this.... drying of the stuff in the driveway...... It is quite original......

Water, water everywhere

To say we have water in our basement is an understatement! We had 6" of rain last night and our sump pump decided not to kick on and flooded our basement. Unfortunately when I called the insurance agent we found out that this is not covered on our policy and so most of the girls toys are lost as well as a few other things.

T-ball

Well, I signed Olivia up to play t-ball this spring. She has had 3 practices so far and likes it. I was able to take some photos at Sunday's practice. She looks so cute out there! I love t-ball all the kids look so cute out there!

To hide or not to hide that is the question....

First of all I want say I hope everyone had a very happy Easter today. We had a good day even though we had to wear our winter coats to church today. We went to Grandma and Grandpa for lunch and no Easter lunch is complete unless you have the bunny cake that Grandma makes. After lunch, we took the girls to David's aunts house for an egg hunt. They had a ball! Liv got one of the "golden eggs" with $5.00 -- other eggs had money in them too but the "golden eggs" had the most.

Now to my question, but let me preface by saying that we never really talked about the Easter Bunny to the girls and up until 2 days ago I didn't even know Olivia thought the EB brings the baskets. Tonight though she knows Mommy and Daddy gives them the baskets and no there wasn't anyone that told her she just figured it out. It really took me by surprise because she thanked me for something in the basket and our conversation just took its course. Anyway back to the question. Growing up our baskets were always just placed on the table waiting for us when we woke up. I was talking to my friend yesterday and she commented that she was going to leave an egg with 1 piece of chocolate with a note from the EB that they would be able to "hunt" for their baskets when they got home from church. I asked what do you mean "hunt for their basket, isn't it on the table when they come downstairs?" Well you would have thought I asked if her hair was pink. LOL She thought that everyone hunted for their basket and just couldn't believe that I had no idea what she was talking about. I did hide the girls baskets today but Olivia is such a nosey girl that she found hers before they were even allowed to look. So my question is -- do you hide the baskets or not? Leave me a comment as I truly want to know what others are doing and/or what you grew up doing and why.

Come on Spring....

We are getting tons of rain today but I am so glad it's rain and not SNOW!! We had an unseasonably warm day the day before it started snowing so after school the girls played on the swingset. Here are a few pics of the girls....

My baby and Kindergarten registration

How is it that it is time to register Olivia for Kindergarten? I mean school doesn't start until August and it is only March. She is so looking forward to going and she has lots of friends from her current Pre-K class that will be going to her school but this mommy is just not ready for Kindergarten even though it is only one more day than she currently goes. This just feel different for some reason. Tonight, we saw many of her current classmates, she took a "test" to see if she was ready for this (of course she passed;-)) and took a tour of the school. I think the highlight of her night was getting a cookie at the end.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW.......**More Pics Added**

To say we've had lots of snow over the last few days is an understatement. It started snowing about 7:00 am Friday and did not stop until after noon on Saturday. We stayed in on Friday and Saturday but today was another story. We went sledding -- well they went sledding while mommy took pictures! Olivia had a ball and Sophia not so much but then again she's not crazy about the slides at the waterpark so it makes sense. Daddy and the girls also made a snowman.

***Blogger is being mean right now so I will leave with a picture of each girl and a promise to post more soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!!

I can't believe that my baby is 5 today. She is such a joy. She is however getting a little attitude on her. Ugh! I thought I had a few more years before that happened. Some things about Olivia:

• She's smart
• She's sassy
• She loves her parents (and we love her too!) and is becoming a great big sister (of course they still have their moments as all siblings do
• She fiercely loves her friends and extended family
• She loves school, gymnastics and Chinese class
• She's ready to start Kindergarten (although Mommy's not to sure about sending her LOL)
• She still takes a nap
• She is still a tiny peanut -- 30 pounds and 39.25 inches tall

We had her party last weekend which turned out to be a good thing as we are getting covered with snow today and tomorrow -- about 8 - 10 inches. We had a birthday cupcake before Daddy had to go to work this morning.

The party....

While Olivia's birthday is not until this Friday, we had her birthday party this past Saturday. We have always had a low key party for just close friends. This year we decided to have a bowling party and invite her classmates. We had a great turnout and all the kids had a great time! Olivia had so much fun bowling that she wanted to keep bowling. Here are a few pics from the day. I wish I could post more pics but they had others in them and since I don't have their parents permission to post them I can't. Bummer.

Another snow day.....

I know this is going to surprise you but we have yet another snow day today. Why does this have to happen on Tuesday night to where school is out on Wednesday when I am supposed to scrapbook with my friend T? Ugh! Seriously though it seems like every Tuesday night since January 29th there has been a storm of some sort making last night no exception! I am getting tired of driving home from Chinese class in either rain or snow! I am still working on Olivia's 2005 book and was hoping to be at a point where I can work on both girls together. One day I will be caught up but I think I am going to do 2008 digi style!

My First Meme....

My friend Marla at lifewith4js (I can not figure out the linky link thing to save my soul) tagged me with my first meme! First the rules:

(1) Link to the person that tagged you.
(2) Post the rules on your blog.
(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Now on to my quirks/habits/non-important things....

1.) When putting on shoes, I MUST put the right one on first before putting on the left. If I put the left on first, I will not walk right all day long. LOL

2.) When I have cash(which is not often), I have to have all the money facing the same way and it must go small to large in order. Must be my years working as a manager in fast food and banking at the root of this quirk.

3.) When getting out of the tub/shower I have to keep repeating the things I do once getting out so I don't forget something and I have to do it in the same order -- always!

4.) I started bowling in leagues at a young age and bowled for years as an adult with my brothers. As a matter of fact, DH and I met at a bowling alley and married 1 day shy of 6 months later and will be married 15 years this September.

5.) I saved every math work/homework I did from 6th grade until I graduated. I loved math and had wanted to teach HS math but I would never have made it with the way some kids are today.

6.) I used to have 2 freckles on the top portion of my ear and one childhood friend called me snake bite as a result.

Since most of the blogs I read have already done this in one way or another I am only going to say if you are reading and want to participate just leave me a comment so I can check it out!