"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!!!