Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sledding

After church today, we went to my mom n dad's for lunch and to celebrate my dad's birthday.
My brother brought his artic cat out for a bit of sledding afterwards!

Ummm... I think you're supposed to be on the sled Jacen.  Not trying to catch up to it!


Ever the rebel, Jacen decided to sled on the shovel!


He actually did pretty darn good considering Jory was driving!


Jory and Jia had fun riding in the back of the CAT.


Jory's turn!  Hang on!


Doing good down the driveway.


Look Mom... NO HANDS!


Grandpa and Grandma were pushing Jia down the short hill on her sled.


But she'd rather pull the sled herself.


This stance really shows 'some' of her attitude!


Jia wanted to ride behind the CAT too, so Jacen put her on his lap.


She decided she could do better without him!


She LOVES the snow and sledding!


So much so that she was pretty ticked when it was time for her to get off the sled!


But alas, she was all smiles at the end of the day!


Thanks for bringing the CAT out to play Rob!  We sure had a lot of fun and came home pooped!
Happy Birthday Dad!

Jia's Photo's Take 4

Jia in her Mei Mei shirt she got for Christmas!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

REMINDER TO SELF...

GOD IS...


MITTENS


AND GLOVES....


KITTENS


AND DOVES...


SMITTEN AND IN LOVE...


WITH ME!!!!

His thoughts towards me are more than can be counted.
Psalm 139:17-19
 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
     How vast is the sum of them!
 Were I to count them,
      they would outnumber the grains of sand.
     When I awake,
     I am still with you.
 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
     Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

     He is enthralled with my beauty.
Psalm 45:11
The king is enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.

I am a WISE WOMAN of God.
Proverbs 14:1
The wise woman builds her house,
but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

I am His Princess.

Ephesians 1:5
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will—
 
 
He is my Shield and Comfort.
Genesis 15:1
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Do not be afraid. I am your shield, your very great reward.
 
Psalm 3:3
But you are a shield around me, O LORD;
 you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

Psalm 5:12
For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

Psalm 7:10
My shield is God Most High,
who saves the upright in heart.

Psalm 18:2
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:30
As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 18:35
You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
 you stoop down to make me great.

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy and
I will give thanks to him in song.

Psalm 33:20
We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Psalm 144:2
He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.

Proverbs 2:7
He holds victory in store for the upright,
 he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

Proverbs 30:5
"Every word of God is flawless;
 he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Isaiah 51:12
"I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mortal men,
the sons of men, who are but grass,

2 Corinthians 1:7
And our hope for you is firm,
because we know that just as you share in our sufferings,
so also you share in our comfort.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Jia's Photo's Take 3

We sent this book to Jia while we were waiting to travel. 
The orphanage staff gave it back to us on Gotcha Day. 

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Summer's Just Around the Corner...

Summer's almost here...
We can see the deer movin' around.

Yep.  Won't be long now.







I think we all need a little spring today! 
Click HERE. You will get a black page.
Click your mouse anywhere (& everywhere) on the page & see what happens!
Better yet, click (hold down) & drag your mouse over the black page...
Enjoy!!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Don't Throw Away Those Old T Shirts!!!!

Saturday the boys went to MONSTER JAM so Jia and I had the day to ourselves to do girly things! 
My friend Renea moved in for the day... (if you had see all the stuff she brought over, you'd have thought she was moving in).  Renea and her daughter Taylor come over for a day of sewing!  We made these adorable little dresses out of old T shirts.  I had a Texas T and a T from our visit to the Bridges of Madison County that I wanted to make Jia dresses from and they turned out oh so adorable.

Now a few things about the pictures...
1. They were taken with my phone, so excuse the quality!
2.  Look at the model and the dresses, not the mess in the background!
3. Don't dwell on the models bed hair - she just got up from her nap.

Here is lil' Miss Jia sportin' a halter tank top made from one of Jacen's T shirts!
And the Bridges of Madison County T shirt recycled into a little halter dress.  It says "This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime"  How appropriate!


The Stars at Night are Big and Bright, Deep in the Heart of Texas!
I love this one!  And look at that cute little back!  This is the first one I made and it took me a couple of trys to get it right.  Hopefully Jack won't notice a couple of his blue T's missing!  It was for a good cause!


These are sew easy to make and sew much fun! 
If you have any Tshirts you're no longer wearing, send them my way.

Thanks Renea for sharing your toys!  I had a great day and can't wait to do it again!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Jia's Photo's Take 2

Here's another pose from Jia's photo session!

Happy Chinese New Year! (and Valentines day)


Thanks to my fabulous friend/ministry partner - Renea, at LookAtMePics for taking the pictures of the kids!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hope for Haiti

I know a lot of you out there have already done what you can to help earthquake victims in Haiti.... but are you able to dig a little deeper? And what if you got a cool T like this one in return?




Those gals over at Wild Olive Tee's have designed this new shirt and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of HOPE will go to benefit the people of Haiti, through the help of Eyes Wide Open International. Visit here to learn more about this organization and the ways they are changing lives and making a difference for the people of Haiti.
Now go get your Verse On and buy a Hope for Haiti Tee!


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Can you say... DRAMA QUEEN??

So you know where this is going, right?  Let me start off with an adorable picture of Jia drinking her coffee this morning on the way to school.  She loves coffee with Creme Brulee creamer in it.  We are so glad Uncle Rob got us a coffee pot for Christmas.
She also loves the song "Undignified" by David Crowder Band and we were jammin' to it this morning .  She totally gets into it and rocks her head and everything.  It's really adorable!


Now, the Drama Queen part!
Where do I begin?  The last few weeks, she has been terrible!  Crying.  Saying No. Jia Do It!!! Crying.  Huffing.  Stomping. Crying.  Stop it.  Jory no no. Whining.  Did I mention the crying?
Big 'ole tears running down her face, hands stuffed in her mouth, break your heart crying. 
She has started to whine so much that she repeats me now and says "Jia no whining, no crying."
She starts out a sentence like this... "I need....WHINE whine whine...."
I'm just amazed by her.  We are yet to mark our 8 months home and she totally runs this house.  She has us all eating out of the palm of her hand.  At first it was because she's so darn cute, now it's because we don't want to make her cry!
I must admit, I was falling for it at first, and still do at times.  But now I've realize we're creating a small monster!  So I've begun to ignore it and she's actually spent some time.... get ready for it... here it comes.... in the CHAIR!  AGH!  I told the boys not to feel bad, or take it personally, she's just a (gasp) girl! And girls do that! 
Jack, on the other hand, is totally loving it.  He will cater to her and get her what she wants and it's totally turned her into a daddy's girl.  Now when someone makes her mad, she's running to daddy!
I had to laugh when I read Christy's blog this week.  I have been following Christy's blog since they travelled to China almost 3 years ago for Mia and she's having the same issues!  Like me, she had boys and just isn't used to this girl stuff!   It's nice to know I'm not alone in this world!
Don't get me wrong, Jia is still adorable and we are completely in love with her.  It's just funny how she's so completely comfortable to act like this and how much she's changed!  It is different, to say the least, having a girl in the house.  But I wouldn't have it any other way!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

PotatoesauGratin and GarlicRubbedRibRoast

So I seen on another blog a challenge to try 20 new recipes in 2010.  I thought that will be easy because I'm forever trying something new.  However, a lot of them are things I would never serve again!  So I'm challenging myself, and you if you want, to find 20 new SUCCESSFULL recipes in 2010 that I will fix again!
I started out pretty darn good tonight!  I tried 2 and with a little tweaking, they will be ones I fix again and again!

Garlic-Rubbed Rib Roast

ALL YOU NEED:
1 6lb beef standing rib roast
6 Garlic cloves
1 Tbsp kosher salt (Love this stuff!)
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp dried thyme (I left this out)
2 Tbsp olive oil

ALL YOU DO:
1. Place roast in a roasting pan, fat side up.  In a small bowl combine garlic, salt, pepper, thyme and oil to form a paste.  Spread paste over fat layer of roast; let roast stand at room temperature up to 1 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 500.  Roast meat 20 minutes; reduce heat to 325 and roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 145 F for medium rare.
3. Remove roast from oven.  Cover with foil and let stand 15 minutes before carving.



Pioneer Womans Perfect Potatoes auGratin

ALL YOU NEED:
4 Russet potatoes; scrubbed clean
2 Tbsp butter; softened
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp flour
4 cloves garlic; minced
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese; freshly grated

ALL YOU DO:
Preheat oven to 400
Smear softened butter all over the bottom of a baking dish
Slice potatoes then cut into 1/4ths
In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, flour, garlic, salt and pepper.
Place 1/3 of potatoes in the bottom of baking dish.  Top with 1/3 of the cream mixture
Repeat 2 more times ending with cream mixture
Cover with foil and bake 3o minutes
Remove foil and bake 20 minutes more
Add grated cheese to the top of potatoes and bake 3-5 minutes more until cheese is bubbly and melted.





Monday, February 8, 2010

Jia Photo's

We recently had Jia's pictures taken at JCrowe Photography and they were all sooooo good! 
This one is my favorite!  Check back next week for another pose!

Haiti Fundraiser Update....

Visit Renea's blog to see an upate on our fundraising efforts for The Orphanage called Cannaan! 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Soles4Souls

(photosource:soles4souls)

There’s a spirit in giving and helping the human race that brings a sense of peace and serenity found no other place. When we reach out to our brothers and sisters who find themselves in unfortunate situations, our souls bond and together we experience the love this life was meant to create. Setting all nonsense aside, we reach beyond race, political preferences, gender or religious differences, across geographical barriers, to change lives and individuals, and most of all, to change ourselves. For a moment, we all find that joy we spend each day seeking.

For the next 50 days, Recessionista.com will mark down all of their shoes to incredible prices and, reduce every item in their shop. For every shoe purchased, they will donate a shoe directly to Project Haiti up to 10,000 shoes. In addition, 20% of all their non-shoe sales will be donated as well. They have some awesome scarves and jewelry!  I encourage you all to help in any way you can.