Huffmania

We are having a really great time with the Huffmans! There's been a lot of laughter, a lot of food, and a lot of NCAA basketball! They're really enjoying spending time with Jack and Grapes! So thankful they are here!

WVU has a good chance of making it all the way in the NCAA tournament. Tim and Kathi made sure our kiddos are dressed for the occasion.

Here are Tim and Kathi trying out some of the " Chinese old people"exercise equipment!

YAY for fun visitors! We love you guys!

The Bathtime Challenge

Tim, Kathi, and Mary, I have a challenge for you.

We are counting down the days til you get here and Emma Grace is getting more excited to see you guys with each passing day. Earlier this week she said something like, "Kacki is going to so very happy to see me." She has big plans for you. And so do I.

We have a little problem that I would like to challenge you to solve for us. It's not a major problem but just one that we hope to solve as soon as possible. EG loves the bath, loves it, all except for the few seconds in which we have to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. She HATES for the water to get in her eyes. It's doesn't burn, but she just hates it. For those few seconds she screams and yells and cries as if something earth shattering had just occurred. We have tried everything. Reason-lean your head back like this and we will pour it slowly and not get it in your eyes. Not interested. Brute Force-just dumping it over her head as quickly as possible in hopes of limiting the scream time. Works ok. Distraction-hey look up at those shampoo bottles and tell me what colors you see. It works, but we've named every color on them so this option won't last for long. Bribery-I will give you a lollipop if you don't scream. That worked but that's not long-term sustainable. We've tried the Hold-the-washcloth-over-the-eyes method, still screams. We've even tried goggles-yep, goggles. Not a big success either.

So, I would like to challenge the three of you to solve this problem for us while you are here. Every night at bath time I will lock you in there with my two children and you can work your magic. (HA! This is starting to sound like a ploy just to get you to bathe my children every night while you are here) If at the end of your time here, you three have successfully trained EG to not scream while getting her hair rinsed, I will treat each of you to a steak dinner and throw in the rights to bathe my children any time you wish.

The only ground rule-you may not make promises of anything containing sugar as reward for cooperation. Good Luck!

Moving to America

I am finally getting around to putting this on our blog! Most of you reading this already know but it seems appropriate to "officially" say on our blog that we are moving to America this summer. One of our main reasons is for Andy to go back to school. We are excited and overwhelmed and really sad to leave. I have a mix of emotions depending on the day and I assume I will for some time to come. Seems normal considering the huge transition we are about to make. One thing I have been thinking about lately is how much God has done in my own heart over these last seven years in China. Reflecting on how different I am and how much better I know him, and realize my need for him and love him, makes me excited to think about what he has for us in America. He is the one who has worked "all things for my good" in China and I know he will do the same for our family on American soil.

Non Stop

This picture captures Jack doing something he RARELY ever does-STAY STILL! The other day he and Emma Grace stood on these stools by the windows and looked out/played with stuff from EG's backpack/laughed at each other. They stood there for maybe 20 minutes. I was amazed at how nicely EG shared with Jack but I was EVEN MORE AMAZED at the fact that Jack actually stood there. Jack is NON STOP. I mean NON STOP. So it was a miracle and maybe the first time since starting to walk that the boy has stood still.

If I could sum up Jack's vacation in Thailand with one word it would be WALKATHON. I bet the boy walked 10 miles in our back yard. Except for meals, sleeping and when we forced him to get in the pool he walked non stop. It looked like this: pace the yard, down the stairs, shake the gate, up the stairs, grab a bucket, throw it in the pool, fall on the slippery tile floor, get up, circle the pool, go on the secret path, down the stairs, shake the gate....

That is what he does outside and what is does inside is pretty similar. Thankfully I don't have to worry about him falling in the pool (which he only did once) but it's pretty intense these days at my house. I have been polling my friends for what to do with active little boys. If you have any ideas, please comment!

Who am I?

Emma Grace is a little unsure of where she is from. Sometimes she tells me that she is Chinese. Sometimes she tells me she is American. Sometimes she tells me she is a foreigner-we get called that all the time. And just yesterday while out in our town, a Chinese lady asked her where she was from (they meant what country is she from) she looked straight at her and without a doubt in her mind said, I'm from this town! Yes EG that is true. It must be hard to be an almost 3 year old and try to make sense of the complicated life our family lives!

Chinese New Year-the day in pictures

We decided to live it up on the final day of Chinese New Year! Milk Gmaw invited us over to her house for lunch. We started the time with lots of fruit!

Then on to lunch...You might remember this picture...

After a few months of tender love and care, Gmaw gave them back to us...

Yep, that's our rabbit. Actually pretty tasty. EG and Andy both really liked it. We also sampled a Spring Festival traditional food, called Tang Yuan.

These little glutenous balls are filled with some sort of sesame seed paste, boiled and served in their broth. Not my fave, but at least I can say I tried it. For some reason Milk Gmaw decided we needed to eat six each. There seemed to a be a significance to the number six but I didn't exactly understand. In the end, I decided Andy needed to eat 8 and me, just 4...shhh...Don't tell! Note: I never actually saw any Chinese people eating them while we were there...hmmm....

EG had a great time playing with Xiang Xiang, who is just 2 weeks older than her. They were allowed to have A LOT of juice. (We just went with it since it was a special treat and we were guests.) At one point EG stopped and said she was going to throw up!

There were a lot of toasts from the adults and the kids! (This is before EG almost lost her cookies from drinking too much juice!)

Afterwards, we came home and Jack slept for three hours! Perfect that our kids got to recover because we had lots more fun ahead of us!

The fireworks started at 6 am, got really loud again about 6 pm and then continued to increase in size and volume til about 12 am. We went out and had a walking picnic and enjoyed losing some of our hearing. Remains from some firecrackers near our house...

We walked around our town and enjoyed the sights and sounds (sort of) and bought some fun Chinese New Year toys. It just happened to be Matt's birthday so we bought him some fireworks to celebrate!

First we serenaded him with Happy Birthday-

And then on the fireworks-

They were huge and really fun! Since Jack slept til 6 we decided to venture to another part of town (the far away part-just 1/4 mile down the road) for the light show with Milk Gmaw and A Xin and Xiao Li.

The electronics department of the factory in our town put on the light show. They built all these crazy light displays themselves! We had fun looking at them.

It's the year of the tiger on the Lunar Calendar, so tigers were everywhere.

The kids had a fun time looking...and touching...

We commented that you would never be allowed to touch these in America.

This one was my fave!

Milky G was proud to tote Jack around.

What's a Huffman Holiday without a meltdown? After 12+ hours of fireworks and lots of attention and lots of juice, EG had had enough. Time to call it a night!

Emma Grace expressed what we were all feeling...overload. After we left the light show, things calmed down attention wise but the fireworks were just getting started. We enjoyed seeing some HUGE fireworks on the way home and then we finally got in bed. Cranked up the sound machine and our kids had no problem sleeping!

Happy New Year!