A Lot of Catch Up!

Okay, here's an upate! I received an email from Marianne, one of the wonderful ladies we met at the Victory on Sha Mian island, and I figured she was ready to see new photo's!
Hello Marianne!
You wouldn't even recognize Jia now! I wish you could see her again 5 weeks home... you wouldn't believe it!
She has learned so much and is doing so well. We have finally got a schedule going and she does fabulous at taking her naps and going to bed. She LOVES to be outside. She plays in my water buckets and just pours water from one to another and on my feet, etc....
She's also a very good eater and eats pretty much what ever we offer her. She especially loves applesauce.
She is also quite vocal now that she's comfortable with us and is very loud! And she can hold her own with her 3 brothers... very well I might add!


This is just a cute picture I took of Jia at Jory's bible school program last night. She loves to have her picture taken and always wants to see the picture.
So now it's hard to get a picture of her at all because she's always coming at me to 'see'!
She is such a ham and makes the craziest faces! I just can't believe her sometimes! It's so hard to imagine her being shy and introverted in the orphanage, she just needed a family so she can be herself!











I thought Jia standing by my butterfly bush would be a cute picture, but she really didn't like the flowers getting on her.
She is really picky about that sort of thing... she hates flies. She hates having her hands dirty. She's very clean and is always wiping up her place at the table and putting things back where they belong! I LOVE IT!!











Jory attended Mega Sports Camp at our church every night this week. We'd take Jia to pick him up and go in early to catch the closing songs. She really loved it!
She does really well at church so far. She sits very quietly with us through the sermon and is just such a big girl.
It's a good thing our Pastor is very good at keeping your attention, because I think Jia could quite easily steal the show... sorry!

Jia was sitting up next to Jory at his VBS program and I tried to get their picture, they were so cute! But she's started this thing where she wants to see her picture as soon as you take it and now she's coming at me to see the camera before I even have the picture taken!
So, like this one, all of the recent pictures of Jia have her very close up!








Waiting for Aunt Sherri to come swing with me!
You can see Jia's foot is blurred... that's because the girl is always on the move!















Enjoying her chicken nuggets! Oh, the other day I took Jia, Jory, Jacen and his friend Clay to McDonalds for lunch and guess what Jia ate...
2 tubs of ketchup. Yes, one french fry... and 2 tubs of ketchup.
It took a while before Irealized what she was doing, but she was dipping the same fry in the ketchup over and over and licking it off!







Here's big brother Jory at his VBS program. He has been such a help to Jia in adjusting.
Jory will be going into 1st grade soon and is growing up so fast! It's been tough getting kicked out of the 'baby' spot of the family and also getting yelled at for being a pest to his big brother. He and Jacen started fighting over everything about 6 months ago and haven't stopped yet. Sigh.
















Jory swinging at Grandma and Grandpa's place this summer!







As soon as we got back from China, Jadeth left for Nashville. I've asked him a few times to write a post about his trip, but he's yet to do it, so I'll attempt it!
Jadeth was FCCLA president his Sr.year and they took about 30 kids to Nationals this year! I think last year they took less than 10!
Anyway, his team pictured here (Bailey and Christian) received Gold, along with most of the other kids. They received a lot of recognition and I know if I try to tell it, I'll screw it all up, so leave comments for Jadeth to explain it all!















Okay, I'm going to fill you in on Jacen quickly... he skates. Daily. That's about it.
I have no new picture of him to share, but soon I'll take Jia to the skate park and get some!

Now... on to Jack! Racing.
(Matthew - I hope you see these!)
These pics were taken July11th, the weekend after we got home. He rolled it in the heat race... but don't worry, he made it to the feature! I don't remember how he did, but fairly well considering how the evening started!

As you can see, it landed on the drivers side, so he had to climb up through and exit the passengers door. It's all boxed in on the inside, so it's a pretty tight fit.

Then when he jumped off the top, he slid in the mud and fell.

He come home about 2 AM this night and I was still up waiting for him. He told me that part and I just couldn't help but laugh. That's sick I know. It was after I thanked God for him being okay. Just picturing him rolling the car and exiting... looking all tough after that, then landing on his butt. He laughed with me, so it's okay!