I can't believe that it is finally almost time for us to head north to Colorado for our family vacation. It has been 100 degrees or more EVERY day in Dallas and I can't wait to arrive in Colorado and cool off. The hardest part of getting ready for vacation was saying "goodbye" to our new friend from China, Liv. She headed to another family's house since we'll be gone for a couple of weeks. By the end of her stay, we had all become accustom to her presence in the house. I even caught Evan headed into her room today to look for her. It is amazing how quickly people can connect with each other even with a pretty serious language barrier. What a wonderful experience to have Liv join our family this summer and I look forward to connecting again with her someday. She asked us if her mom comes to visit from China, if we could get together. So sweet. I pray that God will open a door for us to see Liv again and know that if He sends someone else our way, I hope that we'd be open to sharing our lives again.

Maybe this should be entitled "loud on his feet" because Evan is the fastest and loudest walker ever. He comes dashing around corners and can manage to get into anything before you turn around. When I tell people that my 10 month old is walking, they assume I mean cruising. No, I mean running! So, he has me on the go all day long. No more leisurely play times. He wants to go, go go.

Haley loves to dress up. She's already been pondering what kind of Birthday Party should should have in FEBRUARY. In the meantime, she's been thinking a princess party is probably the best option and has been trying on her dresses to practice for the big day. Today, she's Tinkerbell. She couldn't be any happier dressed up as someone or something else. You may often find her completely in character only responding as Tinkerbell for the day. So, if you come by expecting to find Haley toady, don't count on it. You'll probably find some other princess in her place.

It is hard to sneak a minute to blog these days because my 10 month old is a crazy walker! He has been walking and not crawling at all for the past two weeks and our little busy bee is giving me a serious run for my money. He can move really fast on two feet and falls down, hitting something hard at least 10-15 times during the day. His sweet little head is covered in bruises and scrapes. If only he believed me when I said "no danger" or "come Evan". He is still super friendly and waves hello and bye bye and turns on the charm when we're out on the town. He's trying to either blow kisses or say thank you in sign language...we're not sure. When he's not screaming for the sake of screaming, he's a hoot and real joy. If only I could catch him! It doesn't help that he thinks its a game when I am chasing after him so he runs the other way. How did he get this big?

This summer we are blessed to have a nineteen year old girl from China stay with us for a couple of weeks. Liv arrived yesterday and despite the language barrier, we are having a wonderful time together. She is here in Texas this summer living with her uncle and trying to practice her English (she attends an English school in Oregon during the rest of the year.) She has brought joy and laughter into our somewhat crazy home. The kids love her and Haley even asked me to please leave her room so she could play with Liv. Today we made a trip to the Asian market and Liv is going to teach me how to make some of her favorite stir-fry dishes. We also went swimming and it is her first time swimming in America...which has been almost 4 years. So, we are both sharing a little of our cultures and learning about life in a new place.

We didn't lose a lot of things when we made the move from North Dallas to Plano to Frisco this past year, but one thing Haley asks about often is her princess phone. Her Nom Nom gave her the phone and the reason she always remembers it is missing is that we still have the princess phone carrier around to remind us of its absence. Yesterday at Walmart we say the replacement phone with Cinderella on the outside and decided to just replace the missing phone.

Haley spent the remainder of the afternoon calling everyone she could think to call. My favorite conversation of the evening was one she had with Aunt Shana. Shana's dog died that day and I had mentioned it to Haley and just told her simply that "Oscar died". We said a prayer at lunchtime and included a prayer for Shana and that was that.

When she pretended to call Shana on the phone I overheard something about Oscar. After she said "goodbye" I asked her what she said to Aunt Shana. She replied, "I wanted to tell Aunt Shana not to worry that Oscar said he was having fun in heaven with Jesus."

Whether you believe pets go to heaven or not, the sweetest connection in Haley's mind and heart had occurred. Since VBS she had been pondering death...I think they talked about Jesus dying and raising from the dead. She's asked lots of questions and can't get it out of her head. It is a pretty abstract idea. Who can blame her?

But, we can only hold onto the hope our sweet little 3 year old proclaimed to Shana and look forward to the day we'll have fun with Jesus in heaven too!

No, it isn't video editing, what you are about to see is really happening! You just think it is hard to rub your tummy with one hand and pat your head with the opposite hand at the same time. Well, you should see our 10 month old son play the recorder and walk at the same time. He's so funny. He walks around the house these days with things in his hands, as if he doesn't need his hands to catch himself when he falls. Yesterday he walked around with a plastic golf club, which thrills his day who is hoping for a future partner, but today's toy is a plastic recorder. Tricky moves, huh? (Sorry I don't have video editing equipment to flip the video. You'll have to do some tricky moves of your own to watch.)

Nothing like a super fun weekend to absolutely wear everyone out! My sister was here for a few days and we had the best time watching our sweet kids play. I couldn't have ever imagined this day. When you are growing up with your sister you never think about what your future holds and what it will be like to watch our kids play together.

Who could have ever guessed that we'd end up having boys only 2 days a part. Our little guys have many of the same skills, but their personalities and physical features are totally different. I'm sure no one would guess they are related. Max has gorgeous olive skin, dark hair and a mostly quiet, gentle spirit (unless you dare try to put him to bed in which he'll try to outlast you every time). Evan on the other hand is glow in the dark fair, loud and kinda crazy. Who would guessed? It was a sweet time to watch our boys play, laugh, push and fall all over each other....ok so it was mostly my son pushing, hitting and tripping over Max but he didn't care at all:) Haley mostly just tried to play mom to the boys and was happy to giggle and play with them most of the time.

I'm so thankful that we had a moment to take a break from the busyness of the summer to enjoy our kids and grow as mothers together on this crazy but wonderful roller-coaster ride of parenting together.