Nerf Heaven

If you've ever been to my house, you know that my upstairs is kind-of known for its nerf wars. The boys own a whole arsenal of Nerf weapons and they love nothing more than to turn all the lights off and go for it! One of the activities at Kamp was a huge nerf war...so fun! The big boys got to stay after this war for an older (more serious) war :)

Bryce takes these things very seriously :)

 I've never seen so many nerf guns and bullets in one place...they were everywhere! In fact, Bryce said they only let the big kids have some extra fights so they could get them to help clean up :) lol...

Summer Fun

We're Back!!

I didn't share before we left, but we just got back from Kanakuk's family camp!  Last Saturday was the girls' revue and Braden was playing in his baseball State tournament.  As soon as his team lost Sunday, we hit the road for Missouri!  We were 2 days late getting there, but that's as good as we could do.

What a great vacation!  We went because we wanted to spend time with a family that we became friends with in China on our first trip, and also got to meet Lori and her precious family!!  I have been following Lori's blog since she traveled to pick up sweet Rachel (who waits now for a heart transplant).  Lori has made me sob more than any other blogger.  Her heart is as big as they come and getting to know her was a special treat!

I am still going through all the vacation pics, but here are a few:

Lori, Stacy, and I. These Hope shirts are available here to help support sweet Rachel! You can also read Rachel's story there.


Our expanded families. Since the original trip to bring home Isabella and Wesleigh, 3 more children have come home from China between the two of us!

Stacy, Isabella, Wesleigh and I in China, 2009
  


 Isabella and Wesleigh today! What a difference 2 years and lots of love makes!!!
 


 Add the McCary crew:
 


 That's alot of sweet Chinese children! 7 girls and 1 boy!!


 Sweet Rachel:
 


 The McCary's brought Rachel home not knowing if she would be operable or not. She has had major heart surgery, but the doctors say she needs a brand new heart. This family is waiting for the call that tells them their daughter will get a second chance at life. Rachel was so sweet. She is very matter-of-fact about the fact that she's waiting for a new heart. I am so humbled by her spirit and zest for life!

Revue 2012

What a night!  It feels like we've been preparing for this revue forever!  Being a rookie dance mom, I was pretty much a nervous wreck.  I was so scared I was going to forget something important.  Thankfully, I had the most amazing babysitter to keep the girls in the dressing room.  She danced for years and years, so she knew what was going on much more than I did...and I was able to sit in the audience and enjoy the show...twice!  This is a serious studio the girls go to.  I need to go back and count how many practices Richard and my dad attended, there was a technical rehearsal Friday morning, a dress rehearsal Friday night and the Revue on Saturday night.  I'm exhausted!!

I did video the dances but the studio made everyone sign papers saying we wouldn't upload video anywhere :(  It has something to do with copyright stuff.  I hate that because I know you would love it!  Gracie pretty much stole the show (which was expected).  There were roars of laughter with each new move she did.  Half of the daddy dance, she was doing Richard's moves instead of her own.  Super cute and she has no idea everyone is looking at her.  She's just out there having fun.  Wesleigh was having her own kind of fun.  Smiling as big as she could and trying so hard to do each move the right way :)  She would look over at Gracie every once in a while and get totally screwed up because Gracie was rarely doing what she was supposed to be doing :)  Gracie knows the moves, she's just always about 3 steps ahead of the music...or anyone else for that matter.

Here are some pics!  There are lots...how can I not post them all??  lol...

Their first dance was tap. They danced to the song "On How To Be Lovely". I think these were my favorite costumes of the night :)
 


Then the daddy dance...The dads were Indiana Jones and the girls were Egyptian princesses. These costumes were alot of fun because they got to dress up like Jasmine. I think you might be seeing these costumes reappear in October :)

 The girls had a solo dance in the middle to the song "Walk Like an Egyptian". SO funny!!

Do you see the other little girls?  Do you see Gracie?  Which one of these is not like the others?  lol...Gracie thought the dad's part was much more exciting than hers!

Eventually, the Egyptian princesses are carried off by their princes :)


There was a video montage at the end. The girls were brought in to do an interview and they made the video! There were clips of them dancing, blowing kisses to the crowd. SO cute!!! I know I'm biased but I'm pretty sure they were crowd favorites :) They were beyond excited to get lots of flowers after the show.






My amazing sitters! Kristen is the blonde. Amanda is Richard's sister. She was able to stay in the back to help Sat. night too!



For this baseball mom, I had alot more fun with dance this year than I expected.  It truly is a whole new world for me...and I love it!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the two best daddies I know!!!

Revue 2012 (just a tease)

 Just a little tease :) I will have a full post on the revue very soon! It was a great night and the girls had a blast. Gracie was full-on in both numbers and seems to be well known thoughout the studio. Wesleigh was as sweet as she could be and had a smile ear to ear the whole night (as did I!).

Swamped

I have literally been thinking about a blog post I wanted to write about feeling like I was coming out of a fog that has been in my head since China.  However...I can't even find enough time to write the dang post!  I am swamped!  I don't know if I've been this busy since I was packing for China.  The good news is the girls are enjoying VBS this week!  This is giving me a little time each morning to take care of some things without the two of them under my feet.  I don't even have a picture to share that's not still in my camera!!!

Just a few more days until the dance revue!!!
I'll be back with everything we've been up to soon!!

Practice, Practice, Practice

Are you sick of hearing me talk about the dance recital yet??  Hang in there...just a couple more weeks and it will be a thing of the past :(  I have to say that I have surprised myself.  I didn't really know if I would enjoy the "girl sports" because I enjoy the boys so much...but I do!!

I sat in on rehearsal this morning to take some pics and I am so glad I did.  I can't look at them without cracking up.  Let me explain...Our teacher, Ms. Becca, emailed us videos of both the tap and ballet numbers to practice during the week.  You might (or might not) know that I'm pretty competive, and I took her seriously.  The girls have loved practicing their numbers all week long and have gotten very good at them!  One side effect of seeing the dances so many times is that Gracie has learned not only the dance, but the song.  She has always sung the song while they dance, but today she belted out most of it...it was hysterical!  Honestly, she is the life of that party and doesn't even know it.  Thankfully, they put her on the back row because she's such a wild card, she might have everyone running circles up there before it's over :)

You can see her teacher getting a good laugh at her. (For the record...my two knew that dance better than anyone in there :) lol...  (btw...Gracie tore that hole in her tights on the way to dance!  argh!!!)
 

 This is their solo during the daddy dance. The song is a mixture of Indiana Jones and Walk Like an Egyptian. She is supposed to be "walking like an Egyptian" here, but Gracie "gallops like an Egyptian"! She completely passes up the little girl in front of her, but gets right back to the right place as she gallops back the other way. Notice all the older girls behind her...every one of them is cracking up at her as she gallops back to her spot!
 

 I have to give a shout out to my awesome hubby and my sweet daddy. They have been practicing twice a week for a couple of months and I have never heard them complain once! What sweet memories they are making with my precious girls. I am truly blessed.








As you might have guessed, Wesleigh is my total "rule follower".  She stands on her spot and does her dance, exactly like Ms. Becca has told her to.  She doesn't let Gracie phase her one bit :)

One Project Done

This project has been in the works for years...literally!  We moved into this house 4 1/2 years ago and hardly have hung a picture on the wall.  It's my indecisiveness.  I have a hard time making decisions on dumb stuff like this.  Going to China again...no problem.  Picture frames...freak out!!  Geez!!  Finally, I took the plunge and ordered a collection of frames (these are from Organic Bloom).  Even though I was so excited about them and knew what I wanted to do, I still stared at the box for a week or two...scared to pull the trigger.  There's something about a hole in the wall that is so permanent.  It's crazy, I know!

Richard was out of town last week and I finally got the courage to start hanging.  First I used paper the size of each frame so I could place them where I wanted them.



 Then I replaced the paper with the real thing :) There are a couple I would like spaced a little differently, but for the most part, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

 Then the hard part...pictures. I have hours and hours represented in hundreds of GB on my computer, but when it comes to chosing which ones to use...I'm useless. I finally just made myself decide knowing that I can change them out at any time. I am thrilled with the way it turned out and find myself staring at the wall numerous times a day :)

   

The girls have gotten the biggest kick out of them. They love to look at the pictures of their family. Wesleigh is on a big "family" kick. She talks about how much she loves her family and names everyone in it all the time. I love that. Now my problem is that I would love to do this to every wall in my house! I know that would be a little strange, so I'm going to refrain, but I do want to do another wall like this in my bedroom or bathroom. Give me another 4 years and I'll get that one done too! :)