There's A Lot to Love

about the little town we live in...and we're really just starting to discover all the fun and unique treasures our town offers!


Emma Grace slowly and carefully inspected each berry to make sure it was perfectly ripe. Her berries were as beautiful, deep red, and sugary sweet. What Jack's berries lacked in quality, he made up for in quantity. I am pretty sure he could win a record for fastest strawberry picker. He loaded up about 8 lbs in the time EG picked her perfect pound. She could have picked for hours, but unfortunately, Jack filled up our ten lb box in less than an hour! Emma Grace will be wonderful at any job that requires precision and accuracy. Jack, on the other hand, will be good at anything that requires speed. I think he takes after his mom in his lack of attention to detail. Oh well. We can't be good at everything, right Jack?!

We've been enjoying gobs of Angel Food Cake covered in fresh berries!

The Sunshine State

The gray-hairs are on to something. Florida really is a glorious place to be this time of year. We did our annual migration south this week and we are LOVING the weather. We've eaten almost all our meals outside and our kiddos have loved playing outdoors. We are missing these faces, and we always feel that more acutely right after we've been with them. Our time in West Virginia was cold but also refreshing and God really blessed Andy's work. There were lots of bubble baths, and pancakes, and way too much staying up late! It was a wonderful trip.

Since we've been back, we've been enjoying Jack's closest-turned-basketball goal and spending lots of time outside. Welcome back to the Sunshine State, Huffmans!

Birthday Money Well Spent

Jack treated himself and some friends to ice cream from the Ice Cream Van today!

BUS STOP DUTY

One of the highlights of being in West Virginia is getting to hang out with Andy's family. I've been thankful we've had extended time here so we don't have to cram seeing everyone into a few days or a few big get-togethers. Instead, we're getting to do things like this....BUS DUTY WITH GRANNY!

Everyday, Granny gets Cousin Luke off the bus. And today, we joined her! The kids loved waiting for the bus and playing with Luke. A big thanks to Luke-He's the one who gave EG the nickname Emma Grapes a few years back. (He actually thought her name was Emma Grapes!) It stuck and now we call her Grapes or Grapers more than her real name! Along with loving Luke, they equally loved the endless supply of snacks and cartoons that Granny offers. Andy has such happy memories of hanging out with Granny as a child and I'm sad my kids don't get to experience that as often. She's a wonderful grandmother and our kids have taken right to her! Thankful for moments to "do life" with those we love in West Virginia!

Snow Days

When we put our swimsuits away and headed north, our children had HIGH expectations for a winter wonderland. Last year at Christmas, it starting snowing the hour we arrived in North Carolina. I felt like I was in a movie. It was perfect. Emma Grace built her first snowman within hours of arriving and the snowy fun continued into the next few weeks. While in West Virginia, the kids did lots of sledding and their snow suits really got good use.

I really like Florida weather for the most part. The summer is HOT, for sure, but to me it's a fair trade for all the glorious days between October and May. I love being able to spend so much time outside from fall through spring. We even ate our Christmas meals on our patio, which was strange for sure, but nice. But a little dose of winter weather seems to do us all good. So this year, as we headed to West Virginia, we all had hopes of a repeat of last year! It hasn't been nearly as snowy this time around, but thankfully, we've had a few days of snow. Yes Emma Grace is wearing a skirt and tights in the snow. I made her wear a snowsuit earlier in the morning when they were sledding but didn't have it in me to fight her on it in the afternoon. Come rain or shine, or snow for that matter, that girl loves to be fancy. Thankful for a little dose of winter though I'm pretty sure we'll be glad to get back to 70 degrees soon!

Feeling Chinese in DC

Over the New Year, Andy and I took a trip to Washington DC with some really fun Chinese friends. We enjoyed touring the capitol and learning more about the history of our nation. Ironically, it was our Chinese friends who arranged the tour! In some ways, they are better at living in America than we are!! One HIGH HIGH HIGH light of the trip actually had nothing to do with the US. In fact it had to do with a country on the other side of the world...For those who live in southwestern China, our former home, these dishes will be familiar sights. For those of you living in the rest of the world, these are some of the best dishes China has to offer...in my opinion. We ate at a restaurant called "CHONG QING LUO" (a major city in Southwest China) and everything about it from the decor to the food had authentic Southwest China flavor. We had 水煮鱼片, 麻婆豆腐, 干煸四季豆 and a host of other yummy dishes.
Andy and I talked about that meal for days and my mouth is watering just looking at those green beans! Our Chinese friends enjoyed it as much as we did! Being far away from China, they too were happy to have a taste of home. They enjoyed it so much that they went back the next day! We were sad to miss out on round two! Oh Yu Xiang Qie Zi, how we love thee and miss thee so. My mouth waters just thinking of you.

In some ways this trip was "worlds colliding" for me. There we were in our nations Capitol, speaking Chinese with our friends and learning about the history of America. We ate burgers and salads for most of the trip, along with our Chinese friends. But for them, and strangely for us as well, we felt most at home enjoying this authentic Chinese meal together. Though we were physically standing at the heart and soul of America, it seems our hearts (and our palates for that matter) still linger in China...