Odds and Ends

Joshua absolutely LOVED the jeep Matt bought to fix up and sell. He helped clean on it for hours on Saturday.
I thought they looked cute today all dressed for Church

Like the hair.....????!!!!

She came out of her room dressed this way and told us she was going to work!

I promise you this is not "child labor".....I came home from work on Saturday and they were cleaning. We took them out for supper as a reward!

Well, hopefully the kids will get to go back to school tomorrow. We have had so many snow days so far!! And this morning it was snowing again! It's been a very long time since I can remember a winter this bad with this much snow and Ice. Of course Joshua loves it, that is until I reminded him that school would go longer in the Spring due to all the days of school they are missing! We are all ready for Spring! Matt and I have been given a great opportunity as we will get to work the Steven Curtis Chapman concert on Sunday March 2nd to help raise money for the organization Shaohannah's Hope which raises money for familes who want to adopt but cannot afford the entire amount. We are really excited!! I hope to have some pictures after the concert.

Happy Valentines Day

Our basketball star and his personal cheerleader!

Joshua and Sarah at his class party today.

Well at least we'll have plenty of pictures to show at their wedding....Oh I forgot, they are 'just friends"....

Well, we FINALLY got rid of our 3" of ice today. The temps got warm enough to melt most of it. The kids were sent home early on Monday and just went back today. The roads have been very slick and dangerous, pure ice to drive on and walking was an even bigger challenge, ha! We are all still battling whatever this sickness is that's going around! Maddie ended up with antibiotics this week as well as Matt and they are still coughing! Joshua and I are healthy, we are thinking about sneaking Ranger out with us and living in the camper for a week or so :)

Joshua continues to play basketball each Thursday night and tonight Maddie decided to wear her cheerleader uniform and root him on. It was too cute! He does so well, he plays awesome defense and took the ball all the way down the court tonight without someone stealing it, he was so proud! Now, if they would just let him shoot it :) The kids love to steal the ball from each other - of course half the fun!

First day of Pre-school and our "Guitar Hero"

One excited little girl who was ready in this postion for an hour before it was time to leave for school. She LOVED it and was sad that she has to wait until next week to go back. She picked out her outfit the night before - purple of course- had her ladybug bag and was ready for her first day of pre-school. When we asked her what she did her reply was "had a snack"..haha.
Big brother was excited to send little sis off to school too.

Joshua got his first "you Rock" on Guitar Hero -which means he got through an entire song!! He was so pumped and had to call Uncle Ryan right away and tell him because he and Aunt Jeni got Joshua Guitar Hero for Christmas!

Looks quite comfy doesn't he?? Maybe he will play for real one day!

In other news, it looks like our little guy (who is almost 7) is getting to the next stage in life....what do I mean you ask.....well, the "guys" at school and Sarah (of course) are calling him "Josh"....he kind of likes it. I told him that was just fine if he wanted to be called Josh and he told me I could still call him Joshua. Isn't he sweet?! It's true when they say if you blink they are grown up.......they really are!

Thanks to all of you who have been telling me you read the blog, I hope it keeps us all a little closer even if it's just through words and pictures - they say so much. Thanks Erica and Mysty for the words of encourgement and the prayer for Maddie, made me cry but appreciated very much.

Madelyn's Doctors Appointment

In April of 2007 when God first introduced us to Dang XiaoDuo (wow, almost a year ago!) we asked Him to show us directly whether this was the little girl for us. Even though she had a heart condition we felt that God led us to adopt this precious little handful. Today Maddie had her 2nd Cardiologist appointment at Childrens in St. Louis. When Madelyn had her heart surgery in 2006 in Hong Kong they reversed her two greater arteries to her heart which were switched when she was born. Last July they informed us at St. Louis that while the surgery was done well, she had a small hole in her heart that they would continually watch - thus why we are making semi-annual visits to Childrens. Unfortunately today they told us the hole is getting bigger and heart surgery is looking more and more evident. The hole is at the "mild size" right now but borderline. When she goes back in August, if the hole has widened, even slightly, they are going to do surgery on her to tighten the artery (kind of like putting a rubberband around it so it cannot spread anymore, that is how they explained it to us). We always knew that the possibility of Maddie having heart surgery was there, guess I just tried to put it out of my mind :) She is so energetic, happy and full of life, you would never know this condition was there. The Doctors feel safe and certain that IF the hole does widen, the surgery will take care of her leak, possibly forever. IT is better to do it while she is little and her strength is so great, because recovery is 2 weeks compared to 6 months as an adult. The Doctors say she is very healthy and they have no questions as to whether they can fix it. But it's still heart surgery and as with any, has it's risks.
We are certain God will take over in this situation. He has given us one strong willed and physically strong little girl. She has been through so much already we know she can handle this too. Would you please say a prayer for this liittle angel God has given us.
I will keep you updated as we find out more, hopefully it will not be until August because as long as she stays healthy - which she will - we wait until then.

Let's Go Blues!!

Joshua got an official practice puck at the St. Louis Blues Hockey Game on Saturday night! He and Daddy where down by the ice watching them practic before the game started and they hit one over the net. A guy standing next to Joshua and Daddy caught it then gave it to Joshua, he was so excited and has been showing everyone!
I'm not sure Maddie knew there was a Hockey game going on but she enjoyed the Nachos anyway:)

Our crew!

My ONE picture from our weekend with the McDaniels, would you believe my camera went dead! Anyway, here is Madelyn, Kaitlyn, Joshua, Brenden and Logan. Maddie and Kaitlyn both have this low deep voice, they are too cute together!

We also had our first big snow this week, about 8" I think and of course, no camera working, aagghhh! Hopefully my mom got some good pictures! The kids loved it, of course, school was called of for Friday so that made it even better!

We got a new car! We found a great deal on a 2007 Toyota Sienna van complete with DVD player, automatic doors and lots of room. Matt is still having issues with the fact that we own a minivan now(haha) but he admits too the ride is nice and the room is fantastic. They gave us tickets to the Blues game as well so that was a cool treat!

All four of us have been really under the weather. Joshua started it and we have all shared since then. Matt is feeling awful today and I have a wisdom tooth that is killing me (I know, I need them out) AND can't breathe and coughing. Maddie is still coughing and GROUCHY, (whew!) but Joshua seems to be better now. We can't seem to get rid of it :( We are looking forward to a day home in our sweats just lounging around....maybe watching the superbowl...and hopefully getting better!