Rossie, Welcome to Our Room!

Hi! This post is for my Rossie. My mom tells me that Rossie loves to see where her grand babies sleep. "If I can just see where you lay your head at night, I rest much easier!" So my mom and I had this idea that we should give Rossie (and my other grandparents) a tour of our new room!

The idea of the room is that it will be a fun place for both Jack and I to sleep, play, read, and enjoy life! Jack isn't actually sleeping in here yet, but maybe one day! Between him waking up sometimes and me yelling out in my sleep, my parents decided to wait a while before we share a room. But I can't wait until we share this room. I think primary colors were a great choice-don't you? Not too girly and not too boyish!!! Check it out!!! Mom got the red curtains made and the white valance was a long curtain that she got made into a valance! All the decor is from Ikea and is a primary color animal theme! What a cute rug! Dad hung these shelves. Mom painted the letters and she plans to get some frames made to put on the shelves with pictures of all our grandparents and our Aunts and Uncles! This is a view from the window. We still have our changing table, even though I don't wear diapers and Jack would for sure roll right off that thing! Mom uses it to store all our clothes and she plans to put some pictures on it!

Here's another view from the window. The door across the hallway is to the bathroom. The little orange board in my room has pictures of people we are praying for and some memory verses and other things we are learning about!!!

We covered the bean bag with matching fabric. I love to sit with Mom and Dad in the bean bag and read before bed!

I like to brush my teeth...everywhere I go!!!

Dad hung these shelves. He worked very hard and he taught us all a very important lesson. He said that doing a good job around the house includes cleaning up your messes after you work. He did a great job hanging them and we all pitched in to vacuum, wipe up and throw away the trash. He said he learned that from Poopaw.

He also hung these super cute pictures.

And especially for my Rossie-here is where I sleep! I'm on the bottom bunk right now and I'm not allowed to go on the top bunk. But when Jack moves into my room, I'll get to move to the top!!! Isn't it cozy. Mom and I love to get in the bed and read and "talk about things" before I take my nap.

Thanks for visiting. Rossie, want to have a sleep over? I really think you would like sharing a room with me!!! I was thinking you could come over soon and spend the night and you can sleep on the top bunk!!! Miss you!!!!

So Happy Together

Our dear friends, David and Marianne, along with their precious baby girl, Sarah, came out for the day last week. You might remember that Jack and Sarah have an arranged marriage. From the looks of things, they are getting off to quite a good start!!!

Hi Sarah!! I'm so glad you came over to play!!! Being with you makes me Happy!!!!

If they do get married, these pictures will be perfect for their rehearsal dinner video!!!
So thankful for good friends!!! As you can tell from the pictures, Jack is not a small dude. He is consuming MASSIVE amounts of food. Since he eats so much, I am trying to get him on table food as quickly as possible. Making enough baby food to keep up with his appetite is no small feat. He had his first bite of french fry tonight at KFC! Ok, so that's not a very healthy intro to big people food but liking fast food is important if you're a Huffman. We like fast food, it's true. But more than that, it's one of the only western, quick, convenient and kid friendly options for us here in China. We love to grab McDonald's for lunch on Sundays on our way home and there's a KFC not to far from where we live. It took EG quite a while to start liking fast food (though she has now been thoroughly converted to a fast food lover) and I hope it won't take Jack quite as long to realize the goodness of some McDonald's french fries.

Besides Jack eating his first french fry, there was one other highlight from our time at KFC tonight. It came when Emma Grace had an accident in her pants while playing in the playland. She immediately felt the need to take off her wet clothes and started running through KFC with no shoes and bottoms...just a shirt and a hairbow. She also told me today while using the bathroom, "I need some privacy!" Oh, my sweet Emma Grace, I just love you.

From this post, you might think all we eat is fast food. But rest assured, health conscious grandparents, EG was munching on pears and broccoli at lunch and Jack scarfed down sweet potatoes and zucchini before he had his first fry. Actually, I am pretty sure it's my mom who passed on the love of McDonald's fries to me! Thanks mom!!!! Wish you were here to enjoy some with us!

Eclipse!!!

Our world is just amazing. July is usually the rainy season here but as you can tell from my weather report, we haven't had very much rain. I am actually pretty happy about that since I have two little ones who love to get outside, even though it means I am losing the bet with Andy! Oh well. Along with really sunny weather, we've also had an earthquake and a solar eclipse! The earthquake happened a couple weeks ago and was a couple hundred miles from here. We were eating dinner and felt it and went outside just to be safe. It was scary for us after the big earthquake that happened here last year.

And yesterday we got to experience a solar eclipse! We took EG outside to see it, though I am pretty sure she didn't understand. It was a little cloudy, which made it great for looking directly at the sun. It never got totally eclipsed here but here are a couple photos of what we saw!

Mostly eclipsed:Later on: July has been an interesting month nature-wise!

Push Ups

Jack is working on his crawling skills. This is his newest move! He gets up on his hands and toes like he's ready to do a push up! It's hilarious-he lunges forward to try and reach whatever is in front of him. So fun.

Here are a couple funny conversations I had with EG today!

We were walking outside and EG was carrying one of her baby dolls.

Me: Emma Grace, is that baby heavy?

EG: No

Me: Well, if something is not heavy, then you say it's light. Your baby is light. Is mommy heavy or light?

EG: light

Me: Thank you. Is Jack heavy or light?

EG: Heavy.

Me: Is Daddy heavy or light?

EG: He is BIG!!

Later on the same walk:

Me: You know North Carolina is in America.

EG: I remember that place. I remember Momma Nette. She is special. Is Poppa Dan special?

Me: Yes!!!

EG: Is Katie special?

Me: Yes!

Mr. Seven Months

We're getting to that stage where getting Jack to sit still for a picture is quite a feat! He is super active and really close to crawling. He grabs everything in sight, inserts promptly into his mouth and usually mananges to spit up carrot or pumpkin onto everything he touches! My carpet will never be the same! He is a joy to be around, wears 9-12 month clothes and he can now crawl backwards! Andy thinks he'll be crawling for real by August!

"If You Give a Pig A Pancake"

is one of EG's favorite books. You probably know the series. I think it started with "If You give a Mouse a Cookie." We have several of them and read them quite often. EG has memorized the words and even memorized the little note Kacki wrote to her in the front of the book. "Emma Grace, I love making cakes for you when you spend the night! Merry Christmas! Love, Kacki and Poopaw" We read that every time we read the book. I have this idea one day that when EG is about 8, I'm going to have an "If you give a Pig a Pancake Party" for her. The whole day will revolve around trying to recreate the events in the book! From getting really sticky eating pancakes and having to take a bubble bath to dressing up and tap dancing and taking lots of pictures and sending them to our friends.

EG got a preview of my party idea when Xiao Li invited her and Julianna and Lydia over to make pancakes last week! They apparently had a blast. Xiao Li is brave! Check out the cute apron EG is wearing. Xiao Li got it made for EG for her bday!

Visitors!

We had a blast hanging out with our friends Graham and Ashlei and their little boy Grady. EG thought his name was "Graven." We listen to a song that says, "My name is graven on his hands." So she thinks that someone's name is Graven. So you can imagine how excited she was to meet Graven in person! HEHE!! Funny how easily things gets confused. She also thinks Andy is going camping every time I tell her that he went to campus to teach English. Anyway...back to Graven.

Graven was super fun and both Jack and EG enjoyed spending time with him! He and Jack snatched EG's dolls when she wasn't looking! Graham gave the kiddos tails.

At one point Ashlei and I went out to get our nails painted and left Graham with three sleeping kids. EG woke up early and was a tad distressed to find Graham rather than her mom. But he handled like a pro and I came home to find her happily munching on pringles. Nothing like a snack to calm a kid down!

We had so much fun with them and the highlight was a triple date to this really neat Thai restaurant and some friendly competition playing "Dance Dance Revolution" at a nearby arcade! Guess who made us all look like amateurs? None other than Andy! His little secret is that he used to own a DDR for his PlayStation so he and his former roommate are really good at this game!

Thanks Ash and Graham for coming! We were so blessed!

That's Our Emma Grace

While playing outside, she usually manages to get the dirtiest of all her friends. She's still expanding the "cheers" tradition with new items like umbrellas, pumpkin bread, and matching clothes, and feet. She says things like, "It stinks up here" while playing in her room alone. (It took a minute to sink in that she was referring to the accident she'd just had in her pants.) She likes for me to ask a list of silly questions, like "do you like to ride cokes? Do you like to ride beans?" In response to each she giggles and says "Noooooooo!" as if I was the silliest momma on the planet. She loves to have a little post-lunch dancing in the living room with her mom, broom stick guitars in hand. She's a sorter-She's likes to sort things by color, by size, by type. She's scared of firecrackers, "under" (thunder) and old women who make a fuss over her. That's our Emma Grace.

Jaccheus was a wee little man

Jack got his first tooth this week! He is rolling all over the place and sitting up and spinning around like his Uncle Al! This little guy is growing up way too fast for me! We sing "Jaccheus was a wee little man" to him all the time but he's not really little now and I imagine he's gonna be quite a big dude when he's all grown up! I'm trying to savor every moment with this little roly poly!

Rain Rain Go Away???

It was super sunny here today. Normally I'm thrilled when I wake up and the sun is shining! But since my blog's facelift is on the line here, I am bummed that it hasn't rained more in July. Besides the fact that I'm losing the "July Weather" bet with Andy, I'm actually very thankful for the fairly nice weather we've had so far this month. We spent lots of time outside today. What do you do outside in an apartment complex? Well, we made green bean bundles and apples out of grass, fed the fish with bread I burnt this weekend, and visited with friends. There's a lack of nature in our lives, living in an apartment complex. We've already managed to find most of the rocks in our complex and throw them in the pond. If you ever wanted to mail us a box of rocks and dirt and sticks, I know a couple kids who'd be thrilled! HEHE. Just kidding. If you're gonna go to the trouble and expense of sending a package, could you please send some starbursts and Miniature Reese's cups. I promise to share them with my kids. Here are a couple recent pics of our kiddos playing at home!

Come Rain or Shine

Happy Fourth of July! Hope you guys had a great day. This picture was taken after 3 of the 4 of us had changed out of our July 4th gear. We had plans to take a family photo but due to lots of spit up (thanks Jack) and a run in with some brownie mix and watermelon juice...only EG remained in her patriotic duds when this picture was taken. We had a fun day. We spent the afternoon with some friends. I didn't have it in me to do the big 4th spread so we opted for KFC and watermelon. In true American fashion, we ate so much that we weren't even hungry for dinner so skipped dinner and had a wonderful low key hanging out and putting hairbows in Daddy's hair!

The weather was less than 4th of July-ish. We are in our rainy season now so it's been kinda cool. The rainy season has been a little disappointing for me though! I am convinced that it rained EVERY DAY in July last year but Andy says that's just the way I remember it. He says it actually only rained sporadically with periods of nicer weather mixed in. So I decided I would write down the weather each day to see which one of us is actually correct. I've never been more disappointed about the lack of rain in my life! So far it seems Andy is right. If you look on the side of my blog, you'll see the weather for each day of July. In the end, we'll see who is right. If I'm right, Andy will give me an hour of kiddo watching for me to give my blog a face lift. If he's right, he wants me to give him an extra hour to study Greek. I love that nerd.

Have a great Fourth Weekend and enjoy your sunshine!

I'm five. I'm old

To say EG is verbal is an understatement. This girl talks all day and sometimes says the funniest things!!!

When doing something that's difficult...It's a little bit tricky maybe or It's a little bit tricky sometimes

Amazing!

CHEERS!!! ( she doesn't quite understand that "Cheers" is usually limited to using glasses. Anytime she sees someone using something she also has, she thinks it's the perfect moment for a "Cheers!" We "Cheers" with everyone and with everything! forks, umbrellas, rain boots, and cups just to name a few!

When asked how old she is "I am five...I am ooooooooold"

That was so nice of her!!

I looooove pink.

I want to do something else, Mama

I want a Huffim. (which either means I want a "Huffman Hug" or a muffin)

And her favorite....what's that mama? what's that mama?


Jackie boy likes to talk too! He says "Da Da Da" a lot but he can't get a word in with EG most of the time. He's usually too busy laughing at her "performances" and silly antics. He is starting to push up when on his belly so crawling is coming soon! AHHHH!!!

We've been driving some. Andy has done most the driving and is doing GREAT!! I am still pretty nervous, though I have gone out for two test drives. The best part about my first test drive was that Milky G came with me. Even though she's never driven a car, she gave me lots of coaching. She and I had a great time and laughed a lot. I only made it into third gear once while test driving with her. Our town is pretty much a third-gear tops kind of a town and she made me drive really slowly!! I did go out of our town the next day and made it up to 5th a few times. I rule of thumb in China is to just pull out in front of people and assume that they will stop for you...and they usually do. But I'm still way to "American" in my driving to do that! At one point I needed to enter a roundabout and just didn't have the courage to dash out in front of several cars and a cement truck so I whimped out and just went the long, safe route! As she said in Chinese, and I agree....my confidence must, "man man lai"....slowly slowly come!!!