Family Visit Day #4- Paddle Boats!

About a month before Hayley and Charlie arrived I started to talk to Kayleigh about things that we could do while they were here. Her pick was to ride the paddle boats at Green Lake Park. We had a blast! It was a lot of fun and a lot of work trying to figure out the steering. Ellie went with us that day to show us where to go. We ate at another one of our favorite Chinese restaurants and then headed back to the house for some rest. That afternoon I took Hayley and Charlie to the market where I buy all my fresh vegetables, meat and fruit. They were quite amazed.

Family Visit Day # 3- Zeb's Party

Monday morning we decided to rest since our weekend had been so busy. We took Hayley and Charlie to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. That afternoon we had Zeb's birthday party. Danielle volunteered to make the cake. It was amazing!! She even made a miniature train for Zeb to eat on his own. He absolutely loved the cake and had no problems digging in right away. Most kids cry during their first birthday party but this little man had a great time. He only cried when we had to give him a bath to wash off all the cake. It was a great party and I am so glad that Hayley and Charlie could be there to celebrate.

Here he is getting ready to dig in. We decided it would be best to let him eat in his diaper. In hindsight I am very thankful for this decision!

Cheers everyone! I've downed this cake no problem!

Zeb opening his presents. Marianne and David gave him this really fun truck that actually backs up and goes a different way when it runs into something. However, it plays this really annoying song that can drive you completely insane.

Family Visit Day # 2

The second day in Beijing we headed to Tienanmen Square and then to the Forbidden City. Once again there were huge crowds. We finished our time off with another trip to the Pearl Market before heading to the airport to fly back to the Spring City. We had a great time in Beijing but I missed Zeb so much!

Check out all the people!!

Family Visit Day #1

Hayley and Charlie arrived on Friday night so we started our site seeing of China on Saturday. Hayley and Charlie happened to arrive on May 1st which is labor day in China. We were not prepared for ALL the people that would be out and about for the weekend. We left for the Great Wall at 8:30 and didn't get there till 11:30! There were people everywhere. We had a great time at the Great Wall and Kayleigh loved riding the bob sled down the mountain. After we left the Great Wall we headed to the Pearl Market for some shopping and then dinner at TGI Fridays. To finish off the evening we visited the Olympic Village. We had a great first day with our family.

Here we are at the water cube.

Happy Birthday Zeb!!!

Zeb is one today! I can't believe it! We took him to McDonalds to have some ice cream for his birthday. We plan to have a birthday party for him after my sister Hayley and her husband Charlie get here. He loved the ice cream and cried when it was finished. He also had a great time playing on the slide with Kayleigh. I am so glad that God has blessed us with this little boy. He brings so much joy to our lives.

Zoo Trip

While our friends were in town we decided to take a trip to the zoo. I have lived in our city for 5 years and have never visited the zoo. I have to admit I had very low expectations however, I was very pleasantly surprised. We found out that the zoo has a bear and tiger show everyday around 10:30. Kayleigh loved the zoo and was so excited to see the elephants especially the little baby one. My one complaint would be that there is no rhyme or reason to how they have laid out the zoo. So if you were like me and meeting your friends after they had already been at the zoo for an hour it would be very hard to find them. It took me about 30 minutes to find them at the elephants. You would be surprised of how many people had no clue where the elephants were when I asked them!

Potty Talk!

Last week we had some friends of ours over that live about 3 hours from our city. We don't get to see them that often but when we do it is a treat. They have a little girl that is 3 years old named Kate. Kayleigh and Kate played so well together. So well in fact that we found them in the bathroom both using the potty at the same time, giggling and making faces at each other. They were so funny.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter! On Saturday Kayleigh, John, Zeb and I dyed Easter eggs. It was Kayleigh and Zeb's first time. We mainly just kept Zeb away from the cups so that he wouldn't drink the die. On Sunday after Church we had a picnic brunch outside and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. It was beautiful day.

Kayleigh loved the Easter Egg Hunt especially when she found out that there was candy inside the eggs.

Birthday Party!

Last Saturday Kayleigh went to her friend Bright's 4th birthday party. They started out with a trip to the ball pit and then back to his house for some pizza and cup cakes. She had a blast!

Zeb mostly just tried to crawl around and eat the balls that had come out of the ball pit.

Below are some of the party attenders. The birthday day boy had his head turned. He wasn't in the mood for his picture to be taken.

Baby Bash!

Recently we had a Baby Bash to welcome back all the families that had new little ones. There were four new babies to add to our community here. Jack Huffman, Sarah Dean, Zane Smith and Issac Kvernen are the new additions. We had a great time of fellowship with our friends with a cookout and lots of fun activities for the kids. We decided to take a picture of all the kids. It is amazing that not one of them was crying at the time. There are 12 kids total, all 4 years old and under and another one planning to arrive in June! It is so great for John and I to have such a great community of young families here to fellowship with.

Back from left to right: Julianna, Lydia, Callie, Kayleigh, Zeb, Emma Grace, Zion and Bright.
Front from left to right: Issac, Zane, Sarah, Jack

It was really warm that day so the Huffmans brought out their pool full of warm water for the kids to play.

Zeb loved the pool!