Storms

Our weather has been variable lately. About one month ago, we had a very strong wind go through during the middle of the night. I heard all the noise and was up watching out the wind as things flew by our house at a very quick pace! That night we were one of the lucky ones here in our little neighborhood, the only damage at our house was our slippery slide blew off the playset. However, several of our neighbors were not as lucky. One neighbor's playset fell over, just inches from their house. Their storage shed was flipped upside down, the contents thrown all over and damaged. Another family had quite a bit of their pool deck torn off and scattered about. But the biggest damage of all....a house in the process of being built was literally blow away! Bits and pieces were scattered even across highway 75 and beyond. We were the only house here that did not lose any shingles!


This week we had a hail storm move through. Again, we were spared any major damage. Folks near to us had baseball sized hail. The biggest we saw was about quarter size. Here are photos of the hail piled up on our deck. Again tonight storms are marching across our state. We have heard reports of tornado activity.

Kids and Puppies

We had a wonderful surprise phone call the other day. A former neighbor was coming through town with her dogs and puppies! The girls have enjoyed being a part of three litters of puppies from these dogs, so of course, they want to be a part of the fourth and final litter of pups!! Some of the next door kids also came over to join in the fun. The puppies are adorable and I heard all kinds of pleas, "Mommy, can we have one?" "I like this one the best!" "Awww, come on, just one?!"

All the puppies and dogs were soon back on the road to home. However, I am still hearing that we need another dog!! And I am still saying "NO!"

Oh No!! What have I done? HELP!

A couple of summers ago I decided that I wanted to honor my children and have their names in a tattoo. We happened to be in California near the beach and my husband spotted a Tattoo shop. Since he mentioned it to me, I decided to visit with them and see what they could do for me. When I was 21 I had a butterfly tattooed on my left ankle. (No, I wasn't drunk, in fact my Dad and Mom were with me!) I have always liked the colors in my butterfly and so I wanted to add the kids names in the same area. The tattoo artist incorporated the butterfly into the ring of the girls' names around my ankle. My stepson was with us and I asked him if he wanted me to put his name there too. He thought about it, but decided to decline.

As it was, if we made the names big enough to wrap clear around my ankle, they would be pretty large! So he shrunk them down and what we ended up with was a gap on the inside of the ankle. I told my husband that it was a sign that we were meant to add another child to our family to fill in the gap. Who would have thought that five months later we opened a waiting child's file and knew we were looking into the eyes of our daughter!! She came home forever in October 2007. As she is five years old, she has noticed that her name is not on my ankle. She gets in my face and says, "Mommy where is my name?"

Today her name was added. Now here is where the dilemna begins. The circle on my ankle is full! My husband says that officially ties my adoption tubes! OH NO!! I think that I can start another circle on the bottom of this ring. I know I have many hits to our blog, but no one ever leaves any comments. Please leave me some ideas of how to open his heart to at least one more! How do I get into the man's heart?!!



Our fourth daughter is now in the circle


The third daughter, at the back of my leg pushing me on!


Our second daughter, her area is busy just like she is!


My first baby, she set the fire in my heart.

Smile? Say Cheese? What?!!!

It is amazing how our girls LOVE their camera time! Well, that is, except for Jordis Li and times that you are actually required to smile. I thought we used to have it rough when there was one child to take in for photos. Multiply that times four and photograph sessions are somewhat a nightmare for this Mommy.

How do parents of multiples do it? I mean, how do they get all the children sitting still at one time, looking at the camera and actually smiling? I never know from one time to the next which child will actually enjoy the photo shoot and smile like they are truly having a good time. We have tried different times of the day, different studios, different props and different locations. It always seems like one or two are gritting their teeth or simply will not smile at all. RaeAnne actually has a pained smile that she does from time to time. Usually those times are when she is also getting tired of the photographer waiting for the exact right time to snap the picture!!

I am beging to think that there is really something to candid shots. Of course, then that is when they all want to smile....but of course, not at the same time! Here are some posed photos.

Happy Birthday ZoraLin!!

First birthday!!




Third birthday!!




Sixth birthday!!

This has been a very busy week at our house. Mother's Day on Sunday, our 11th anniversary on Friday and Saturday we celebrated ZoraLin MeiHe's SIXTH birthday! Zora has been preparing for her birthday for at least a month now. Saturday morning first thing out of her mouth was, "Can we open my presents now?" We heard that question many, many times over! It is unbelievable looking at the photos...our girl is growing up!! We love you ZoraLin!

She really had to concentrate on making a wish. We were surprised it was such hard work for her!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

My gorgeous girls with pretty roses for Mommy!

My beautiful daughters gave me an early Mother's Day present. Friday while I was working a big, bouquet of roses arrived on the floor for me! It was a dozen multicolored roses arranged with baby's breath and another pretty little red flower. What a surprise and a treat!! Then this morning very early, RaeAnne and Jordis Li came sneaking into our bedroom. RaeAnne had made a Mother's Day card for me at school and she surprised me with it this morning!! Daddy took us all out for Mom's choice at lunch time! What a wonderful day! I am one very lucky Mommy!!

Spring fun

The girls did not have school on Monday. As it was a beautiful spring day, Daddy and I decided that we would explore some of the new area we live in. Our first stop was the Shawnee County Lake. Wow! I predict that we will be spending some time there in our near future. The girls have fishing poles that need to be put to use! Since we were not prepared to fish this day, we drove around the lake and checked out important things like play areas and bridges.



We then headed out to Tecumseh. When we were looking at houses for sale this town had several that we were interested in. We also drove past a small lake with a housing development that was beautiful. That was near Shawnee Heights school. We started doing the "let's see where this road goes" and eventually we came out on
53rd street. Not bad for starting out on 45th! Here are some pictures of the girls enjoying the day!