The Wright Family of 4

Vacation Fun!!

2009-07-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is our campsite at Pirateland in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. The beach was about 1/4 mile away by golfcart.
Maddie trying out a hammock

Doesn't Joshua look comfy?

The beautiful Atlantic Ocean. The kids has so much fun!

Crabby Hats

Shark hats at Ripley's Aquarium

Stingrays. Notice Maddies tan?!?!?!

Just threw this one in because its so cute!

After the pageant, Joshua got Maddie a new stuffed animal, she loves animals!

Our beautiful pageant girl. she didn't win but she got a trophy and was excited about it!

Vacation was great, the beach was fabulous, the weather was wonderful and it went by entirely too quickly! We camped on the beach for a week and visited the aquarium, Dixie Stampede and a really cool place called Broadway at the beach which was just like downtown Disney. We ate at Planet Hollywood, Jimmy Buffets and a couple of other cool places. Maddie did build a bear, and Joshua and Matt did a fun MagiQuest thing where they got wands and went on a scavenger Hunt. We are thinking we want to go back again soon!

In other news..........Matt turned 40 this past week, Joshua turns 8 on the 19th and Maddie starts Kindergarten in 5 weeks. Time is flying by.

Spring is here!

2009-05-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

The pedicure party.....while getting her pedicure, Maddie said "Will someone hand me a piece of pizza"......thats my girl!
Rylee Jane is almost 8 weeks old!

SURPRISE! Mom loved her surprise party, thanks to all you who prayed for no rain!

Grandma Linda with her three angels...

Before the ceremony, she was so nervous!

Walking up to get her College Diploma

She did it!! We are so proud of you mom!!

Joshuas end of the year picnic at the park for school. I took the day off to be with he and Maddie and the day was beautiful!

Maddie chose a Dalmation dog for her face

Joshua chose a Panther Paw (of course)

Ok so we came home for lunch and this was what we saw. ALOT of rain this day!

Mothers Day

Happy 5th Birthday Maddie!

2009-04-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Madelyn's awesome Barbie/Princess Birthday Cake that Nana Linda made!
Joshua got Maddie a "baby alive", she asked for this for a long time!

Joshua and his bestest pal Kobe

Joshua and the most beautiful 3 week old baby in the world, my niece Rylee Jane

Yo-ho, Yo-ho, our pirate and his princess

Can you find Joshua among the 200(yes 200 pirates) at his school program. Their music teacher is phenominal she did a great job putting this together and the kids were fabulous!! Would you believe he is standing next to Sarah, that was not his choice but just where they were in the play!!

Sarah, Joshua, Madelyn and Sophia

Too cool of a picture. The RA's held their annual derby car race on Sunday and this picture is of Joshua winning a race.

Joshua tied Wil and Nathan for first place, he was pumped!!! I think there were about 17 kids all together.

Happy Easter and Welcome Rylee!

2009-04-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

Let's see Joshus got some Pokemon cards and a trading book, a star wars book, some bath foam and some Candy. Maddie got a Barbie Princess Movie a Mickey Mouse book, some bath foam and some candy.
Dressed up for Easter

They stood here for a really long time just watching Rylee. Both of them were amazed and so proud of their new baby cousin

Our little princess who is getting so very very tall!

Joshua and his "best buddy" Ranger

I'm and Aunt, yay!!! Rylee Jane was born on Friday April 3rd at 8:21pm after my poor sister in law endured 23 hours of labor :( Rylee greeted us after a C-Section weighing in at 7lbs 14oz, 20" long and lots of dark hair. She is so beautiful and such a good baby! My brother and sis are so blessed! And Joshua and Madelyn think their new cousin is more than perfect. Joshua is so gentle with her and likes to give her gentle kisses and hold her. Maddie wants to hold her for about 2 seconds then she wants Uncle Ryan to throw her around. Matt says we are going to spoil Rylee rotten!! :)

Easter was great, especially with the new addition, the kids had a great time hunting eggs and opening all their baskets from everyone.

Joshua reminded me tonight that only 5 more weeks of school until Summer vacation....can that be possible??!! Although since it was 50 degrees today it still feels like WINTER!

Until next time.....

The basketball Star and the "kindergartener"!!

2009-03-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

Cool shot huh?
Joshua's final game of the season.

Yes, this is our daughter in my shoes and bra and notice the "return of the jedi shirt".....stylish don't you think?!?!

First of all I cannot stress enough that this family is gald to see Spring is on its way. Jennifer battled strep throat this week, Joshua caught the fever part of it and has been down for two days and we are ready to be healthy! Ready to get outside, do some yard work and most of all go camping!! In our fifth wheel that is, sorry I like my own bathroom and such, I like to rough it but in my own camper :) Myrtle Beach is calling our names this year so in July we are heading there to camp right on the beach for a week. We did this a couple of years ago and it was great, you just jump in your golfcart and it takes about 2 minutes to get to the beach, can not wait!!!!

Maddie has some news she would like to share....ok, she's asleep so I will share. She is going to Kindergarten!!! And is very much excited. Her testing was today and she passed with flying colors, the testing teacher said it was a little hard to test her when Madelyn was telling HER what she should be doing, haha!! But the teacher knows Maddie very well and she was comfortable with her. I (Jennifer)was concerned about sending her too early but I was reassured today she is right on track and is above average to her peers, yay!! Madelyn will be 5 next month and two years ago April 9th, yes TWO YEARS AGO we received the call on Madelyn. Can you believe we have almost had her two years? After her testing we were talking with some teachers and I asked Maddie if she told them the Pledge of Allegance and she sighed and said "No, I guess I need to do that"....it was soooo funny. She likes to recite it for anyone who will listen!

Joshua is done with basketball and will start baseball practice soon. He is the opposite of Maddie and is ready for school to be over with for the year, he is very much and outdoors kid and is ready for warm weather, swimming and playing with the neighborhood kids every day. He's doing well in school and brings home mostly A's. A couple of B's this time but hey, thats ok. He would just rather be playing sports or with his friends. Oh and I can't forget he is telling his dad that when he turns 16 (yes he's 7 1/2) that he wants either a Jeep like daddys or maybe a hummer.........ok well high hopes and dreams are good I guess...right?!?!

Still no baby...sigh.....Ok, so I am not the one 9 months pregnant its my poor sister in law. We are patiently waiting for Miss Rylee Jane to greet us, my prediction was today and unless she decides to arrive like within the next two hours I think I lost! Maybe next week, we hope, although according to the Dr's (what do they know), Rylee still has a couple of weeks before she could actually be here...but really anytime they say!

Until next time....

Whats been happening....

2009-03-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

The injury......
Just being silly.

Monday night at Joshua's basketball game, he was "guarding his opponent" as he so well tells the story and well....they kind of bumped heads and his result was this nice black eye. He sat out for a minute but we are proud of him as he finished out the rest of the game! He was actually excited to show off this shiner the next day at school...BOYS!!!!! HA! He has one more basketball game left then in about a month they start practicing for baseball! NEVER STOPS!

Maddie has decided that she might like to take dance/gymnastics instead of playing softball so she we are checking into that for her right now. Maddie is going to be tested for Kindergarten in a couple of weeks. At first I thought no way is she ready but she continues to amaze us at how smart she is and how much she already knows! Maddie is on her 4th round of antibiotics, not sure what is going on but she continues to cough and be congested and now we've has some ear aches and some fever going on as well!

Things have been a bit hectic around our household. My brother Ryan and sister-in-law Jeni are preparing to have their baby girl in about 2-3 weeks and we are ALL really excited. Praise the Lord that all is well with her and baby Rylee so far! We continue to pray for a safe and healthy delivery for both momma and little one.
Our family lost my Aunt Kay on Friday night after a long battle with ovarian cancer. This is my dads sister. We are thankful she is free from pain and even more thankful that we know she is walking with her Lord right now (most likely bossing others around too :) But, she is going to be missed so so much. She was so full of energy and gave so much of her time volunteering at her local hospital and helping others. Some of my most favorite memories is when the whole family would come home to visit and we would spend the weekends at my Grandma Batsons playing cards, trivial pursuit and eating, I have to smile at that thought because those were some of the best times ever!! We miss you and Love you Aunt Kay...

Business is good, again Praise the Lord, and very busy. It takes up most of Matts time and some of mine in the evenings. You never leave work when you own your own business and sometimes it can be tough, but God sees us through it all and has provided for all our needs and most importantly gives us direction.

Until next time......

Some Holiday Pics

2009-01-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

Ranger....Joshua took this one.
Christmas at the Wrights, Joshua opening his Wii nerf game

Christmas at the Batsons, Maddie opening her Mickey pillow and blankie

Just as cute as can be!

Matt mad the Grandpas and uncle Ryan Corn hole games and the kids decorated them!

don't let the cuteness fool ya :)

Joshua is proud of his gingerbread house!

First results from the Easy Bake Oven....cookies!

Christmas Morning

Our little China doll

2008-12-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

We are not sure when these were taken, but they are from our friend in China that helped Madelyn get her heart surgery in 2006. Since she looks so healthy it would have been after her surgery so she would have been about 2. He sent these to us today. We also found out alot more about her history and her surgeries. We are so thankful to our new friend who was so generous in not only sending us these photos but for helping our little girl get the surgery she needed. Without his loving heart and generous support, Madelyn would most likely not be here today.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as we have. I just cannot stop looking at them. How amazing that God brought this man to us but so much more amazing that He brought Madelyn to our arms.

I will post some Christmas Pics soon, the kids had a great Christmas (as did the parents).

A little bit of everything

2008-12-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hard at work on those Christmas Cookies
Maddie likes to play in the flour!!

Joshua's Christmas Program for School

First day of Panther Basketball Camp. Yes, I am bragging when I say he does really well and loves to play. He made one shot where the whole gym clapped for him, it was neat and he liked that!

Our main course at the Melting Pot...Lobster tail, shrimp, chicken ,pork, salmon and filet mignon.

And the dessert that we DID NOT have room for....but we ate it anyway :)

Lets see, where to begin. Matt and I will be celebrating our 15th anniversary on December 18th. We spent the night in St. Louis and had dinner at the Melting Pot. For those of you wondering, you fondue everything, it comes raw and you cook it at your table. The food was fabulous and we were so stuffed! Then we headed to the Fox to see the Rocketts Christmas Special. Matt was able to land us third row seats and the show was great! I didn't want it to end. On Sunday Joshua had his school program, grades 1-6th are all involved so hundreds of proud parents and grandparents were there. He also began another season of Panther Basketball Camp. He really enjoys the sport and he understand the rules.

Now onto Madelyn's news. Back towards the end of October Maddie developed a cold and cough. Since that time, the cough has gotten worse off and on. We have talked to her Pediatrician at Childrens and they had us give her Delsym, an OTC medication. Last week, after two months of waking up EVERY night coughing, I decided to take her to a local Ped just to make sure her lungs were ok. She told us that the Lisinopril Maddie takes for her Blood Pressure can cause serious side affects, including chronic coughing. We then spoke to Childrens again and her Ped there said take her off of it for three weeks to see if the coughing subsides. In the mean time the local Ped (which is really great) decided on a chest x-ray, just to make sure there was no Broncitus or Pneumonia there. She didn't hear anything but was being overly cautious. Well......today they called us and Madelyn has Asthma....sigh...... At this point they think its mild but she began breathing treatments tonight with a tunnel and inhaler which she will continue for a while. She was actually excited to hook this crazy looking thing up to her mouth and when we squirted the spray in, she never even knew it. She's such a trooper, she never complains about taking any medication. So right now we are praying she will grow out of this and in the mean time the treatments will help her sleep at night (help all of us).

On the bright side, the kids are looking forward to Christmas next week and hoping for some snow....not the ice we got today!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

A few new pics for everyone to see! The kids are very excited and looking forward to Christmas. Maddie has gotten into the "I want everything I see stage"while Joshua seems to only want some Wii games from Santa.

We have ALL been battling the colds around here and can't seem to shake them. Maddie has been coughing for at least a month and has so generously shared with all of us along that time :) TIS THE SEASON!!

The rest of the family is doing well. Very proud to say my mom (Linda) wrote an essay about going back to college and WON a scholarship....so proud of her. Jeni (my sister in law) is doing much better with her pregnancy and she and my brother Ryan are expecting a little girl in April.

Matts business is doing fabulous, they keep very busy, PRAISE THE LORD!

Happy Holidays to you all!

A day at the movies

2008-11-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

While I was at home recouperating from my wisdom teeth surgery (yes that was so much fun) Matt took the kids to see Return of The Jedi and meet some Star Wars characters. The money raised goes to a local charity. As you know Joshua LOVES Star wars so he really enjoyed their day. Maddie fell asleep :)

Our Storm Trooper meets Mickey Mouse

2008-11-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

None other than MICKEY MOUSE and a STAR WARS STORM TROOPER!!!!
Ok, this is kinda ridiculous, who is going to eat all of this candy????

Maddie, Sarah, Joshua and Sophia

Ewwwww....... was Joshuas words!

It took a minute but once she got her hands in it, she was good to go!

Picnic and Trails

2008-10-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

This Sunday after church we piled into the jeep and headed down to Giant City Park to have a picnic. (Mysty, we stopped and ate at the exact place where we took you guys and the kids played on the playground). The weather was FABULOUS and we took a mile long hike then another shorter one. Joshua climbed EVERY rock in site and Maddie was wore out by the end and asking when it was time to go home, ha ha. We had such a good time.

Fun with Family

2008-10-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

We spent the day with Aunt Deb at her home BBQ-in' and just hanging out. The kids had a great time!
Just being cute!

Missing something....???!!!

This was SO COOL. We camped in Eureka, Missouri this weekend (about 30 minutes from St. Louis) and visted Lone Elk Park, hoping to see some ELK. They were everywhere and you could get so close. We also saw some huge Buffalo, one guy did not like the car in front of us and charged it. We laughed so hard...and was thankful it was not us, haha! The kids loved it!

We also taught the kids how to play UNO. Joshua became a pro right off the bat and kept winning. Probably was our last weekend camping since the weather will turn colder soon and we have run out of open weekends!

Some news for Madelyn

2008-10-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, I was approached last night about a rumor that Madelyn's parents are looking for her! WHAT???!!!!! Just goes to show you how something can get totally mixed up in translation from one person to another! To set the record straight this is totally untrue. We do not know who her parents are and neither does the CCAA in China. And even if we did, there is nothing they can do to get her back, she is ours legally! Matt and I received a letter this week from a gentleman in Hong Kong who assisted in getting Madelyn her heart surgery in 2006. He was letting us know who he was and inquiring about her to make sure she was ok. He also offered some medical information IF WE ASKED for it. Right now we are working with an agency to make sure he is legit. He does not even know her adopted name. Our agency says we have NO reason to be alarmed and that this is perfectly OK. We are currently in the process of finding out how he got our name and address, but just as you are reading this blog right now, he might be as well. Madelyn has been legally adopted into our family and has a US birth certificate. China has no record of her even being a citizen of China and no Chinese birth certificate. ONLY adoption paperwork! When children are found and placed in orphanges in China they have six months before they are available to be adopted so that the parents can come back and get them if necessary. If within that time they are not "claimed" so to speak then they are placed on a list for "adoptable children". International adoption is nothing like adopting domestically. Trust me, WE KNOW how this process works and it took us 3 years and 4 months to get the final paper saying, "Your adoption has been completed". We are taking extreme caution in writing this gentleman back and taking advice from our adoption agency". Depending on what we find out, it is possible I will have to discontinue the blog and facebook. We will just have to wait and see how this turns out. Its horrible that sometimes you cannot trust anyone isn't it? We will let God take over this situation and right now we are hoping this is going to be a blessing and that he has some photos or more information on Maddie before we adopted her :)

I just wanted you all to know that everything is perfectly fine, Madelyn is fine and forever OURS. Thanks for the concerns though :)

Love, Jennifer, Matt, Joshua and Madelyn

Fall Fun

2008-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it was more like summer weather today but it was beautiful and we had a great time at Eckerts! We headed out to the pumpkin patch where the kids (& grandparents) found the perfect pumpkins. We ate a great meal to celebrate Jennifers birthday(a few days early), drank apple cider, shopped in the wonderful store and just had a fun day. The kids loved getting to choose their own pumpkins right out of the patch.

Update on Madelyn

2008-09-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Back in August we visited Children's for Madelyn's semi-annual cardiologist appointment and testing. They had indicated they wanted her to begin blood pressure medication. Matt and I were skeptical so we asked for another opinion. They agreed to take Madelyn's case to the next Pediatric Cardiology Meeting held at Children's in September. The called us last Thursday to let us know they reviewed Maddies case at one of their meetings and all Doctors present agreed that due to her condition, they felt the medication was needed and that surgery was not. The Doctor explained that they felt Madelyn would still need surgery later on in her teenage years but were confident her heart is strong and should be able to hold off until then. So, this week she began taking Lisinopril. This medication will help control the blood to oxygen flow in her arteries, especially as her heart grows as she gets older. The crappy thing is that it is indefinite....she will be on it forever. They also informed me that Madelyn can no longer take over the counter cold or allergy medicines. If she gets a cold she has to tough it out or if its bad enough we can bring her up there. She is also going to be prone to dehydration.......once they told me this I began asking more questions about her always being thirsty and the Dr told me this was a very common condition with heart disease..?? WHO KNEW. With all this said, we have some minor obstacles to face, mostly remembering her medication each night and what she can and cannot take over the counter, but nothing we can't handle! Considering all she has been through already in her short 4 years of life, this is nothing!

Just wanted to give you all an update. Otherwise she is doing fine and doesn't complain at all about taking the medicine, its a liquid and she likes it!

Joshua is doing fine too, so far he has been healthy this school year, yay!

School Pictures

2008-09-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Joshua and Madelyn's school pictures for this year. Aren't they fantastic??!! Joshua is about to loose another tooth, right in the front and Maddie's lip looks better each day! We are so blessed by these two wonderful children. We are all looking forward to the Fall weather, the leaves changing and both kids are ready for Trick or Treating!! We enjoy tailgating at the Panther football games...well the kids like to eat then play on the playground with friends, not sure they know that there is actually a game going on. Hope to have some pictures soon from that in our Panther attire!

Matt and Jennifer are both doing well too!

New hair-do's

2008-09-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Joshua got a buzz and Maddie got her hair trimmed. Sarah the gal that does our hair likes to fix Maddies different each time. Today she gave her rolls with lots of silver glitter. She looked like a little princess!

We're still here!

2008-09-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, Mysty, I know two pictures is not alot but I cannot get them to download without locking up my computer!!! :( Something is wrong just have to find the time to figure out what it is!

Ok, so things have been a little busy around our house. Remember how I said Matt's shop has been busy..?? Well, they have been putting in 10-12 hour days and I have been out there after work doing paperwork so its been hard to find the time to post lately.

We did go camping this weekend and had to come home early today as "Ike" decided to throw some major wind and rain our way. Lots of trees down, power outages and wind damage around, we decided the camper was not the best place to be :)

Kids are good, Joshua is still adjusting to second grade. Its been a rough 4 weeks, he just could not seem to get in the swing of things but its better now. Maddie is loving pre-school and wishes she could go every day!

Let's see what else? Matt is good, just very tired from working so much but we are certainly blessed and thankful for the work. I am having all four of my wisdom teeth cut out on November 6th....yes I am sooo excited...NOT! I'm actually very nervous since my brother did this earlier this year and faced months of problems and tells me the pain was horrible........but it has to be done and I have waited too long already.

Our family is great! My mom is doing her clinicals at a hospital and finishing up her Transcription schooling. My pregnant sister in law is doing good, considering she is REALLY really tired and hungry all the time! I keep telling her to enjoy this part :) My brother has been blessed with an awesome job building a nearby power plant that will bring hundreds of jobs to our area.

And I have to add that this is my absolute favorite time of the year, FALL! Its supposed to be in the 60-70's tomorrow and I am looking very forward to that! I am ready to get the pumpkins and scarecrows out!

I'll try to get some more pictures posted soon!

A Week of Firsts!

2008-08-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Is she ready for school or what? Maddie started pre-school today. The first thing she told me after school was "guess what, I did not even get in trouble for talking once"...... She has already learned she has to raise her hand before she can talk!
Joshua's first day at his desk in Mrs. Malans class.

Getting ready to leave for second grade!!!

Both of our wonderful kids headed off to school.

NO training wheels!!!!

Maddie needed her helmet on too!

Well, so far Joshua thinks he likes second grade :) Homework started the first day and I thought he was going to have a fit, but he did good and is already reading about 40 pages per night! He said they are doing science and he likes that. He did not get in the same class with Sarah but we knew eventually that would happen, over 60 kids in one grade with three teachers....bound to happen at some point. We told him what a great chance to make new friends! He still sees Sarah on the playground at an lunch. He really is dealing with it well, so proud of him!

Now Maddie began private pre-school today. She wanted me to drop her off at the door!!!!! Sorry girlie, gotta sign you in and out each day, ha! She was nervous but that lasted about 2 minutes and she's ready to go back on Thursday! Our neighbor Addie is in her class too and that will be good since they see each other every day and are comfortable around each other! I think that really helped. She said they had snacks, played outside and thats all she remembers.....funny that is all Joshua ever remembered too!!

Very proud of our two kids, thought second grade would be no problem when we took him the first day...well, it was no problem for him.....now mommy on the other hand did not handle so well. And yes Mysty, I did WAIT until I got in the car to cry! Today when I dropped Maddie off, I was crying before I got out of the room...sigh.... they really do grow up right before our eyes. I can't even find the right words to say how much we love these kids and what wonderful, precious blessings they are to us!

Business is still fantastic, God is truely providing so much for us right now!

Until later,

The Wright's

Thankful

2008-08-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today was Madelyn's visit to the Cardiologist. The Doc says her EKG looked great and the hole in her heart has not grown any larger. Madelyn has grown a few inches so the Doc says this is good news, it means that while her heart is growing with her body it is not making the hole any worse....so far. She tells us that Madelyn being so active is a good sign that she is doing well and striving just as a 4 year old should. However, they feel that medication is probably needed to control her blood pressure as she grows. Our Doc will be meeting with a team of cardiologists next week and they will review Maddies charts and decide whether or not the medication is needed. Right now it looks as though it is, just to be on the safe side. They did tell us that Madelyn will have open heart surgery, just not right now. She will continue to have heart tests done every six months until they feel she needs the surgery. They tell us that if she can wait until her teenage years, it would be much better because most of her growing would be done.

Maddie is a very active and healthy little girl, we are thankful for the good news today and although we know now what her future holds we are sure that God will take this in His hands. The Doctor was very positive and continued to tell us how happy she was with Maddies tests today.

We also found out today that Madelyn is going to be able to attend a private Pre-School just as Joshua did a few years ago. Up until today we thought she could not get in due to them being full, but they have an opening and she starts August 19th. We are thankful for this news because the education Joshua got at this school was fabulous and he was more than prepared for Kindergarten!

Joshua is registered for 2nd grade and getting excited although he says he is not ready for the summer to be over with he is ready to meet his new teacher and see his friends again.

OH HOW COULD I FORGET, more good news to end with. I am going to be an AUNT!!! My brother Ryan and his wife Jeni are expecting a baby and found out today she is due April 1st.....and April fools baby,.....those of you that know my brother know how perfect that is :) We are all very excited for them and are praying for a safe and healthy next 8 months!

God has been overly blessing our family, our business is striving and has never been better. We now have 5 full time employees going strong and each day we are thankful for what He is providing us with. We never imagined that in four years we would have built such a business....let me rephrase that, GOD built our business and we just work there. He has provided every customer that walks through our door and every job we get, we are blessed beyond words.

Well, after a long day its off to bed for a tired, stuffy head and nose Jennifer for some much needed rest.

Love to all.
The Wrights

Weekend Fun

2008-08-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

Joshua & Madelyn at Chuckie Cheese
Is this not the coolest picture! Maddie is our water bug. She does so well in the water1

Joshua has been taking swimming lessons and all of the sudden loves the water! He is doing so great and we are very proud of him!

Joshuas birthday present was a trip to the Monster Truck Jam in Kentucky. It was at night so the 100 degree weather was not all that bad. Joshua and daddy enjoyed, Madelyn and Mommy....well, it was interesting :)

Joshua by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Truck

Daddy & Kids

Happy 7th Birthday Joshua!!

2008-07-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Joshua & Sarah taking a "snow cone" break after a grueling game of water guns!
Opening his Scooter

Joshua says his favorite toy was is Lego Star Wars kit. Which I might add I have worked about three hours on this thing so far and I'm not even close to being finished!!!

Opening Sarah, Sophia and Phoebe's cool Hot Wheel gift!

Basketball relay game

Maddie is patiently waiting her turn!

Grandma Linda make his Speedracer cake

"Happy Birthday to you...."

ALOHA!!!!

2008-07-13T19:14:00.001-07:00

No, we're not in Hawaii (but I would love to be) its Vacation Bible School!
Maddie doing the Hula. She is such a crowd pleaser, everyone gets a kick out of her!

One year ago today & Happy Birthday Matt

2008-07-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

Lets see at this time one year ago today Paula (my mother in law) and I were on a very long plane ride to China. We left on July 7, 2007, Matt's birthday about 4am and I had to call him from Chicago airport to wish him a Happy Birthday because I forgot to tell him before I left St. Louis. Can't imagine why, its not like we had anything else on our minds or anything!! Today is Matt's 39th Birthday by the way (heehee). It seems really hard to believe that Maddie has been with us a year already, wow, where has the time gone???!!!

More later.....

Holiday World Fun

2008-07-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Santa Hats in July.....??? Holiday World is in Santa Claus Indiana :)
Maddie had a long day!

The scrambler

Maddie on the horse

Joshua rode this one twice! Take you up high then drops you.

Maddie makes the put

Put-Put Golf

Daddy & Joshua in the Bumper cars

Holidog, the mascot of Holiday World

A contest to see who could stay under the longest!

1...2....3.... under....

Goggle Girl.......

Goggle Boy.....

LOVE THIS PICTURE!

The boats

Just threw this one in there cuz it was so cute!

Our Beautiful Blessings

2008-06-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

What can I say that these pictures don't already tell you. Our family has truely been blessed by the two most wonderful, beautiful, precious full of joy children we could have ever imagined. It will be one year on July 9th, next Wednesday, that we held Madelyn for the first time. It will be 7 years on July 19th at 9:03 pm that Joshua was put in our arms for the first time. What an amazing miracle children are, what an amazing God we have!

Joshua's Big Weekend

2008-06-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to take a ride on this thing!
The "fan belt toss"......

Dad, we reallyyyyyy need one of these!

Better yet, I'll take this instead!

Daddy, Joshua and Grandpa Wright took a trip to Springfield this weekend for a 4-wheel drive show. The girls went shopping :)

Joshua told me that he liked getting to ride in a monster truck and liked seeing the big jeeps the best, since his daddy has one.

This weekend we are heading to Holiday World to camp and enjoy the water/theme park for a few days. Yes, we are always on the go but with our camper, our home goes with us, and we enjoy this family time alot!

Hope to have lots of great pics next week.....Mysty is way ahead of me so I must do some catching up!!!!!!!

Summer Fun

2008-06-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

They were having so much fun swinging in Daddy's hammack.
Maddie & Joshua with friends Tyler and Megan. There is nothing more fun on a hot summer day than WATER GUN WARS!!!

The next phase of our backyard project. Matt is hard at it working on a food bar. It will have brick all around it and tall stools for the kids or adults to sit at.

Our backyard playground, Matt built this too and our kids and all the neighborhood kids like to congregate here, we love that :)

Yes, my handy man who can do anything husband built this patio too! We are going to screen it in this year....hopefully.

We love our backyard and just wanted to share with you some of our projects. Matt is a very hand on kinda guy who honestly can do just about anything he sets his mind to...he even did the concrete work and is now building the brick eating area and will begin the outdoor kitchen next. We are in the process of talking about putting in a pool, something we have talked about for a few years now. So we are building up the area in preparations for that. Maybe next year......:) Joshua says he wants to continue to go camping too so we have to figure out how we can do all of it, Maddie loves to swim and I think she could be our swimmer in the family!

Dress up Fun

2008-06-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

It was almost 100 degrees outside today. I think Spring accidentially passed us by without stopping :( We decided it was a good Sunday afternoon to play inside! So out came some dress up clothes and the play make-up and jewelry and even Joshua liked to play along!

New look??!!

2008-06-03T17:22:00.001-07:00

I should have taken this pic outside, I got scissor happy with Maddies hair and the end result a cute and cool "bob" for the summer, she looks so cute!
Joshua got a hair cut today to, but he won't let mommy touch his, he says he has to have his "barber" do his....sigh.....he is too big for his britches!

It's baseball time!

2008-06-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

"Be-lated" Mothers Day Picture. We had a bad storm the night before mothers day so we had no power on that Sunday, had to wait until we were all looking "good" for a picture and I think this one turned out great!
Hitting Home Plate!

I just thought this one was so cute! Like her hair bows and her shirt? Had to go all the way to China to get that!

Like Joshua's expression on this one :)

Birthday and other fun

2008-05-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Joshua scanning the "groceries" in the kids store at the Magic House
They loved this, the balls were being pushed by air making it look like they were floating!

Pushing her Mickey

Maddie got to blow out her very first birthday candles on her Mickey cake Nana Linda made her. She celebrated her 4th birthday, her first with us!

Didn't take long to get the hang of opening gifts.

Where has the time gone? It's been a month.....did I say that right? YES A MONTH since our vacation at Disney (I'm ready to go back!) and things have been crazy. Maddie celebrated her birthday once we got home with lots of family and friends and could not wait to get her hands on her Mickey Mouse cake Nana Linda made her. We had a beautiful cool day to celebrate our little China dolls first birthday celebration here with us since her adoption. Hard to believe that at this time last year we were waiting on our travel plans to come through to go and get her and now shes almost been here a year, Is that possible????!!!!
What an amazing little girl God has blessed us with! No matter where we go she gets attention and everyone falls in love with her voice and her laugh.

Joshua begins baseball tomorrow, IF it does not rain, he seems a little excited but hopefully after it gets going he will be more into it, I hope so because he has ALOT of games to play :) He is glad school is out but I think he already misses not seeing his friends each day. We live in a kid friendly neighborhood so he and Maddie both have lots of friends to spend time with. The summer will go by so fast, it always does.

Maddie is going to begin private schooling in a few weeks with a teenager from the National Honor Society at our high school. I'm hopeful she can help Maddie catch up with some basic skills so by this time next year we will be looking at her starting Kindergarten.....Ok, TIME IS PASSING ME BY! She catches on so quickly and remembers everything, she will do great! Joshua finished school this year with an almost PERFECT report card and got an award for 100% spelling accuracy, he did not miss one spelling word all year long! He also got awards for academic excellence and accelerated reading. Yes I am bragging big time! Hey its never to early to push for a scholarship....right???!!! :)

More pics to come later.

Vacation Fun

2008-05-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Water Park Fun

The moment she had been waiting for, she meets Mickey!!

Teacups

Stitch Backpacks

Daddy & Joshua having fun trying on hats

Pluto aka Plu-dog as Maddie calls him

Nasa's newest astronaut

This was so cool, outside the Lego store, these were all made of legos, can you find Maddie & Joshua? BTW, Joshua fell in love with the Lego store and came home with some cool ones. Speed Racer is his new thing and they had lots to choose from!

One of my favorite pics!

The family with Mickey

Daddy & Maddie

In front of Mt. Everest at Animal Kingdom. Joshua rode this one twice

Chip & Dale, do you know which one is which....we do :)

POWER RANGERS!!!!! YES, JOSHUA GOT TO MEET THEM!! This one is Blue from Jungle Fury

Here are just a few of our 300 + pictures we took from our Disneyworld vacation last week!! We had a blast, the weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun. Maddie got to celebrate her 4th birthday (and first with us) while having dinner with Mickey & friends and Joshua was tall enough to ride space mountain and Mt. Everest, he LOVED the roller coasters.

More to come later!

We're still here, I promise!

2008-04-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, so our camera broke, completely out of commission.... so Matt bought us a new one. Well, I have yet to have time to sit down and figure out how to download pics to the computer!! I promise to get some new pics soon.

As for whats going on with us, Joshua is playing baseball again this summer so practice has begun for that. He seems to like it ok but every night after school he is out playing basketball. Matt got his goal put up last week and he is constantly playing, no matter what the weather he says he needs to practice....and he is getting quite good I must say :) He really really likes his sports! Still doing fabulous in school and he competed in the church bible drills this past Sunday evening and qualified for the Associational drills which will be held this coming Sunday night. They have 20 bible verses to learn, along with all the books, old and new testament. He can rattle those off no problem and he has mastered 15 of the 20 verses (so have I with having to practice with him). They stand in front of the congregation while the coach drills them. WOW, I wish I would have had this when I was young, talk about learning alot!!! I could not find the book of Nahum if you paid me, haha!!

Maddie is doing great, and growing like crazy. She has slimmed down and grown about 4 inches since we brought her home last Summer. She can wear all her size 4 clothes once again! She finished this semesters pre-school and although it seems to me like she did not get much out of it, I have noticed some things just this week so I think it was a success. She can remember the words to songs from just hearing them once!! We will be celebrating her 4th birthday on April 30th with Mickey and Minnie at Epcot. We leave on April 26th for our Disney Vacation and we are SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

God has been blessing our family with a busy season for Matt, he has been working alot of hours to keep up so this vacation is much needed...although I am afraid he will be calling the shop alot, ha!

Pictures to come soon....I hope!

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

They really did look cute, just not in the picture taking mood this Easter Morning
Maddie gets her first Easter Basket ever, her favorite thing was her Mickey Mouse movie

Joshua loved his Illini shirt and put it on right after church, he also got some magic rocks - remember those, they are too cool!

The Easter egg hunt on Saturday - it was about 40 degrees, windy and freezing, today on Easter it snowed!!!!

Dying eggs

Palm Sunday, Joshua and Maddie got to wave the palm leaves as a ladies trio sang.

She actually smiled through it all, not sure how I got this shot without one, oh well :)

All is well here, we are STILLLLLL waiting for Spring to come around, last week we had record breaking rainfall, like 11" in 24 hours and it sure seemed like Spring was here - today it snowed....

We had a great Easter with family and wonderful food as always. I asked Joshua this morning what Easter was all about and he told me that Jesus was nailed to the cross but he came back to life three days later and that is why we have Easter.....that's my boy :)

Matt's business is doing well, praises to God for allowing us to be blessed so much. All of us seem to be healthy at this time, ha and we are looking forward to our Disney Trip the end of April and Maddies birthday on April 30th - which we will be having breakfast with Mickey and Minnie that day!! We have had some other prayers answered this week personally and we again thank God for that.

Sending our love to you all,

Matt, Jennifer, Joshua and Madelyn and Ranger (woof)

MORE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

Isn't this a great pic? You can't see it well but in the background the snow is coming down so heavy you can hardly see the neigbors!
View down our street

View from the other direction, yes that is ICE on that tree then covered with about 6" of snow, all TODAY!

This is the front of our house just a few minutes ago. Will Winter ever end :(

Skating!!!

2008-03-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

Joshua and Mommy
Maddie "I do it by myself" she kept telling us.

Joshua and Sarah

A little practicing before we hit the "big floor"

Joshua and Sarah (imagine that)

Maddie putting her skates on for the first time with Sophia.

Thank you Yolanda and Tim for getting these great shots! Both kids did extremely well and by themselves I might add! I had not been skating for.....well, alot of years! :o)

March already?

2008-03-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

Maddie got her "big girl" bed this week and she loves it!
She pulled this rocking chair up to the TV and got comfy to watch Dora.

SCC at the concert!

The show hope crew.

The concert was alot of fun, really tiring and made for a late Sunday night but we got to see over half of the concert and Steven Curtis Chapman was great. He is not only a great musician but just awe's the crowd with his speaking talent and telling stories about his 6 children, three are little girls adopted from China. We did not get to meet him, but the concert was very uplifting and definately made my spirit postive - oh and he really had the place going at the end with some more heavier Christian rock type songs!
Unfortunately I (Jennifer) have been under the weather since Saturday and came home early from work today with antibiotics.....this stuff will not seem to go away. I am feeling miserable right now so its off to the couch I go for the remainder of the evening. Oh before I forget it was 70 here yesterday and we all played outside for a few hours, it was wonderful....tonight we have an 80% change of snow and ice........don't ya just love Southern Illinois, haha! Oh well, I feel like staying at home inside tonight anyway.

I hope to post more pics of Joshua and Maddie skating soon too. Gotta get them transferred over.

Odds and Ends

2008-02-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

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"

2008-02-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-02-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

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!

Just hanging out

2008-01-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

Joshua playing Wii - Tiger Woods Golf
Ranger - our miniature schnauzer, our third child who happens to be the biggest baby of them all :)

Maddie playing "kitchen" in her "princess" P.J.'s

Maddie, Sophia, Sarah & Joshua hanging out on their day off from school.

She LOVES her Mickey Mouse

Just a few pics to show you what we have been up to. Last night Joshua and daddy are playing the Wii and I hear Joshua yell, " Dad, I got a birdie".....then he yells a few minutes later, " oh man a double bogey............. Do we have a future golfer or what?? He loves to play this game ( as does Matt :) ) and understands it so well. He says he can't wait to get his clubs out this Spring. Joshua is doing really well with his weekly basketball games and he looks forward to them each week. He is reading so well and no more spelling things around him because he picks on that too easily!

Maddie is starting to pick up more on her colors and can count to ten. She starts pre-school two weeks from today. She is excited and asks me every morning if this is the day...... I'm nervous because she is constantly moving and for her to sit still and listen is going to be a challenge for the teachers. She's smart though and I think around other people she might not be as open and "opinionated "....haha.

Matt and I are in the fun process of looking for another car. Our VW Passat is simply too small for a family of 4 so we have it for sale and are searching for something different in the mean time. I like mini-vans and Matt is not sure he can handle that. Ok, so I am the gal who swore she would NEVER drive a mini-van as long as I lived......things change when you family expands and we need the room :) LOL...

Off to visit some friends this weekend that moved away about a year ago. We miss them much and look forward to any opportunity to visit them. Logan is Joshuas "very bestest friend" in his words so he is excited, Kaitlyn and Maddie are the same age (within a few months even) so Maddie is excited, Kim is about to have their fourth child ( makes that 2 of each) and I am excited to see my skinny pregnant friend with a belly, haha. Will post some pics when we get back on Sunday.

Wildcats Everywhere - Raise your hands up in the air!

2008-01-13T19:08:00.000-08:00

Just hanging out.
Joshua and Daddy racing on our day out.

Joshua outside the Fox Theatre

The Big Surprise - LIVE ON STAGE- HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL

(we were really this close to the stage, no zoom on this photo)!

Getting his tickets - he was so excited.

Well the big surprise went over very well :) We decided to give Joshua his tickets on the way up to St. Louis since he was getting a bit concerned and worried about what to expect. Thank you to one of my favorite Aunts we were able to get tickets to High School Musical Live on Stage at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. We did not realize until we got there that we had VIP tickets and were 8 - yes EIGHT rows from the stage!!!! THANK YOU AUNT DEB!! The show was awesome ( I even think Matt enjoyed it) and Joshua wants to see it again and take Maddie next time since she goes around the house singing " Wildcats everywhere - together, together!!

After the show we went to the RV show for a bit then let Joshua choose where to eat - Golden Corral was his choice since he said all the other places take too long......haha, smart boy he is!

Maddie stayed with Nana and Papa and Nana says she asked for Joshua at least 25 times and he mentioned her alot too......funny thing is on the way home from picking Maddie up, about a 2 miles drive to our home, they were fighting already...go figure.

It's been six months and our Basketball star!

2008-01-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

Maddie's New haircut
Future Panthers Cheerleaders Addison and Madelyn....yes MADDIE and ADDIE

Future Panther Basketball Players Joshua and Logan

Six months ago yesterday ( January 9) we saw Madelyn for the first time in a small room in China. That was our gotcha day, the day our family became 4. It's hard to believe that after almost three years of waiting she has already been home with us for 6 months. She has changed so much, she talks non-stop, she is energetic, she is kind, lovable, compassionate, strong-willed, stubborn and her smile and hugs can win over anyone she meets. She is a not so typical three year old little girl whom seems as though she has been with us since the day she was born. When you ask her if she is from China she sayd " No, Maddie from Pinckneyville,Illinois! That's our girl.

In other news, Joshua Lane had his first official basketball game tonight. He was fouled and got to shoot two free-throws.....HE MADE ONE!!!! We all went nuts and of course he looked to make sure we were watching. He is pumped and ready to play his next game. He plays every Thursday night for a couple of months. He got to play against two of his friends and it was funny watching him guard them and laugh and talk at the same time.......don't they say major league baseball players swap recipes on base.....???? HAHA! I need to get a better camera because it is not good in bad lighting so my pics did not turn out very well.....the one of him and Logan above is from after the game. We celebrated his basket at Tequila's. our favorite Mexican restaurant afterwards...........along with half the gym I think!

All else is well, Maddie starts Pre-School in February, she is ready to go...at least she thinks she is. Joshua gets a day out with just mommy and daddy on Saturday - we have a BIG surprise for him and hope to post pictures after our day.....sorry can't spill the beans until after he knows. I have kept this a secret for 3 months.....it's killing me!!!!! He has felt a little left out since little sis came around so we thought a date with mommy and daddy might be cool, we're headed to St. Louis for...............ha, thought I was going to tell you huh??? NOPE, you have to wait and see.

Oh by the way friends of mine who live in Sunny CA, we are having some cold miserable weather here again, it has gotten into the teens lately.....time to visit you all I think :)

Love, Jennifer, Matt, Joshua and Madelyn.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-27T19:08:00.001-08:00

Joshua took this picture of the girls. My mom Linda (right), Aunt Deb (left) Mommy and Maddie.
Joshua is so excited about his army stuff and Power Rangers Robot

This is probably one of the best "oh my gosh" shots! Our family got a Wii from my parents - ok so we are all loving it!

Maddie is fixing Dora's hair on her new vanity

After all the excitement of the day.

It is after a day like this that I look back and realize just how many blessings G0d has given our family. Christmas was a wonderful day for all us of. We got to see the excitement on Maddie's face as she experienced her first Christmas, we saw our 6 year old son jump for joy at getting the gifts he wanted. We sat down to a wonderful meal both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And most of all we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's so hard with all the hustle and bustle to keep the real meaning of Christmas alive but we certainly try our best. Christmas Eve church service is my most favorite of the year. At the end of the service, all the lights are turned down, only the candles we hold are lit and we all sing Silent Night with no music in the background. What a wonderful way to keep the Spirit of Christ alive at Christmas time and to remember why we celebrate this holiday.

Hope you all had a joyous Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

2007-12-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

Joshua and Maddie aka Mickey and Minnie
Joshua and Sarah....they are the best of buddies but she is NOT his girlfriend.....or so he says.

The four of us

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Joshua's Tree in his room

Maddie's tree in her room

Power ranger/hippie/princess in her PJ.s????

It's been a while since I have posted, let's see since that time what has happened? Last Monday Maddie visited the plastic surgeon who told us he wants to see her in a year then he can tell IF, yes I said IF she needs any surgery at all on her lip!! She continues to heal well and you can hardly tell there is a "booboo" as she calls it! She is completely speaking English now, although sometimes hard to understand she NEVER....did I mention NEVER stops talking. Her new things is "but mommmmm". Funny and typical three year old! She is getting very...shall we say.....opinionated about her attire for the day. She tells me what she wants to wear and what "accessories" she will choose for the day. Of which she is totally like her mother since I am always wearing jewelry, so shall my daughter, haha! Oh and we do not go anywhere without our purse, which of course holds our cell phone, car keys, chapstick and her new thing, gum! We were coming home tonight and Joshua wanted gum, I went to search my purse and I hear from the backseat "here you go Joshua".....Maddie pulls some from her purse!

Joshua had his Christmas program yesterday which included 1st-8th grade, all children....I would say about 400 kids. They fill the gym and along with 400 sets of parents, siblings and grandparents, it made for interesting seating....hince, not enough by far! We got there an hour early just to get a seat! Joshua did fantastic. They sang about 12 songs and he belted them all out, knowing all the words and sign language to them. All the children were dressed in their best Holiday attire...so cute! My pictures are very dark so I need to work on those before I try to post them! Joshua decided tonight he might want to play in the winter league basketball which is from January - March, one night each week. We are trying to teach him responsibility by committment so we shall see how this turns out! He continues to excel in school and we are so proud of him! Both kids are very excited about Christmas, although Maddie has no idea that she will be getting gifts....too bad it won't stay that way, haha! We took them to see Christmas Lights the other evening and they both enjoyed that alot!! Along with their parents :)

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Our Family

2007-11-21T06:55:00.001-08:00

The Four of Us
Our kids.

We had our family pictures taken back in October and here are a couple of my favorites. I made the mistake of letting Madelyn take a nap first and of course the first 30 pictures or so she would not smile. They turned out well anyway, Joshua loves to have his picture taken!

Must tell you about our wonderful son, once again! Sunday night at Church was our fellowship Thanksgiving meal. After the feast, our Pastor opened the message to anyone who would like to give thanks for anything. After about 15 minutes of those giving thanks, he started to close when Joshua rose his hand. There were about 150 people in the fellowship hall and my heart starting beating hard....what was he going to say? Pastor Rick asked him what he was thankful for this year and he simply said "My sister"........ok so tears started running down my cheeks...and many others I might add, they even started clapping for him. What an amazing six year old son we have, can't begin to say how proud of him we are. And he is so right, we are very thankful for this past year and for God allowing our daughter to be home with us for her very first Thanksgiving and our first with her. We have been looking forward to this for almost three years now!

Madelyn's lip is healing more each day. It is more becoming more evident that at least one plastic surgery is going to be needed to rebuild the lip portion that is gone but really she looks just great! The pictures above were taken before the accident, by the way!

Joshua has been battling broncitus for about a week and last night Madelyn decided to wake us up numerous times coughing and crying.......seems the medicine works immediately so I am thankful for that. If it wasn't for her coughing you would never know anything is wrong with her, she is such a tough kid!

Thanksgiving is at our home tomorrow and we'll have about 14 for dinner. Looking forward to the Turkey and all the fixin's. Joshua's favorite is pumpkin pie with cool whip so he is excited to.

Wishing all of you a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Matt, Jennifer, Joshua and Madelyn

GOOD NEWS!

2007-11-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

Madelyn saw the plastic surgeon Monday morning at Childrens and he says in amazement that her lip IS Healing on it's own. THE POWER OF PRAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will go to see him again on December 3rd and he should be able to tell then just how well it is going to heal and cosmetically how it will look. We are still looking at the possibility of some plastic surgery but nothing to the extent we thought! Thank you for all the Prayers....as you can see she is walking proof that Prayers are answered! Now, to stop her and Joshua from fighting........hummm.........

Wonderful Weekend with Friends!

2007-11-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

Joshua and Olivia
Joshua's first day at Panther Basketball Camp

The whole gang.

Heather, Mysty and Olivia along with

Matt, Jennifer, Joshua and Madelyn

I know it's early but Santa was uptown at Hallmark. Maddie wanted nothing to do with him, this is as close as she got......you see Joshua had no issues though :)

Playing at Giant City Park, Joshua, Madelyn and "livee" as Maddie called her.

Yes, they can be sweet............... sometimes........

We had a wonderful weekend! Our friends from Mississippi came to stay with us. Mysty and her husband Anthony and their three boys, Zachery, Cameron and Chase adopted Olivia Denae-Li Langley from China on August 20th of 2007. Mysty and I met two years ago on our adoption chat-group. Our families were both in Group #237 from America World. Since Matt and I chose Madelyn who was special need we traveled just abit before our regular group but Mysty and I talk weekly either via phone or e-mail so it was so exciting to meet them in person ( well 1/3 of the family). Heather traveled along with the girls to keep them company and Joshua seemed to take a liking to her right away :0). We had a great weekend filled with lots of talking and eating and just hanging out. After they left today and drove off Joshua turned around to me with tears in his eyes and said "It's sad they have to go home already". He really enjoyed our new friends as did Matt, Madelyn and myself. They felt like family..........we can't wait to visit with them again, hopefully soon!

Joshua also started Panther Basketball camp on Saturday. He goes each Saturday throughout the month of November. He went this summer too and he really likes it. He just picks up the ball and knows what to do. He loved our guests getting to watch him as well!!!

Maddie sees the plastic surgeon tomorrow so hopefully I will post some good news tomorrow night. Her lip looks fabulous!!!

Trick or Treat!

2007-10-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

Look at all this loot!!!
You can see how well Maddie's lip looks!

Is this not the cutest scarecrow and Army guy you have ever seen?

Joshua's Big Day

2007-10-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post these pics of Joshua's baptism yesterday. Aren't they wonderful? We are still so excited about his decision to follow Christ.

2007-10-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ryan and Jeni are holding them up by their feet. This looks so funny, like Joshua and Madelyn have some really long legs....I love this picture!

Getting ready for the waters.

Is it 1969 again?????

Corn Dogs (yum, yum)

What a great weekend! Saturday was our city's 85th annual fall Mardi Gras Festival. After a week of rain the day turned out to be sunny and beautiful. We saw lots of old friends who come home for this event! The theme of Mardi Gras was "woodstock", thus explains the tye-died Wright Family above :0). We walk the mile long parade route filled with thousands of spectators and hand out candy. This is great advertisement for our business and is just plain fun! Joshua and Madelyn walked along with us too and they loved giving the candy out to the kids ( of all ages I might add).
Today (Sunday) Joshua was baptized. He has gotten to be so big just over the past few months. We had a family dinner for him afterwards and enjoyed some fellowship with loved ones.

Madelyn's lip tissue fell off today and we are amazed at how well the underneath looks. I will post a picture later, they are both sleeping now!

It has been a long but fun filled weekend and ol' mom is ready for bed at 9pm :0).

Until next time..............

Update and Some Great News!

2007-10-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Let me first start by telling you all that on Wednesday night Joshua accepted Christ. He had been questioning Matt and I for some time now and we did not feel he was ready before. He called us into his bedroom and told us what was on his heart and boy oh boy is he ready. He explained the plan of salvation better than I could have ever thought about it! He accepted Christ right then and there and told us he had "flurries" in his heart after he prayed. He will be baptized this Sunday. We are beyond words proud of our "not so little" guy!

Madelyn is doing extremely well with her "doggie boo-boo". Unfortunately the plastic surgeon did not have much good news for us on Friday. He said the lip did not reattach itself and is dying and will soon fall off. But......he did say the longer it holds on the more the underneath will heal! Madelyn will need some plastic surgery but at this point they are not sure of how many or how often. It could be as little as one or as many as 4-5 within the course of a year. The lip is a sensitive spot and is hard to reconstruct. The positive part of this is that Madelyn is physically healthy and is doing really good. She does not complain and acts as though nothing has happened! She is such a tough little gal!

We have a busy weekend coming up with Pinckneyville's annual Mardi Gras fall festival and then Joshua's big day on Sunday. I will post some pictures after this weekend.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for Madelyn to heal.

2007-10-17T13:34:00.002-07:00

2007-10-17T13:34:00.001-07:00

2007-10-14T20:01:00.000-07:00

Holiday Weekend Fun

2007-10-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

We went camping this weekend just about an hour North of us in Godfrey, Illinois. Ok, so this is OCTOBER, hello.....where is the FALL weather, the beautiful leaves changing and the brisk cool weather?? Well, we had fun anyway and braved "The Great Godfrey Corn Maze". The first section was a breeze and the second......ok so we got lost but after about 20 minutes we did find our way back and did not even have to ask for help! The kids got to make some sand art and both thought that was fun. We visited a pumpkin patch but honestly it was just too hot for a wagon ride so we enjoyed some ice cold apple cider and let the kids do some fun games while we watched.
Back to work and school tomorrow, three day weekends are so nice! Matt should find out tomorrow if or should I say WHEN he has foot surgery so I will keep you posted! He stepped on a nail back in May and they believe the infection has gotten into his bone and spread throughout his foot :( He has been in lots of pain and is getting tired of not being able to walk more than 10 feet without having to sit down. It's been really hard on him since he never sits down!
Joshua gets to take his McLimo ride to McDonalds on Wednesday, he was so excited to be chosen for that. One kid from each class gets to do this! Maddie is doing well as always and gets more shots tomorrow:( The fun never ends!

Starting off Fall with cookies!

2007-09-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

After church today I promised Madelyn and Joshua we would make some cookies, so yesterday I prepared the dough and today we had some fun! We rolled out our dough and Maddie chose a pumpkin cutter and Joshua chose a Ghost! We baked them and decorated with icing.....yum :) Maddie decided that after decorating two cookies she would just eat hers and had about a pound of icing to three bites of cookie. Beleive it or not she is Actually napping right now, even after all that sugar.

Madelyn was a trooper at the dentist this week. They used a mask to sedate her...it didn't work! But she did like to play with it so it kept her busy while he filled one of her teeth. She has another appointment this week and probably one-two more after that until all five can be filled!

Joshua got his first set of golf clubs this week and he is pumped! He is ready to hit the greens to hit some balls!

Hope these pics are easier to see!

The Next Tiger Woods?

2007-09-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well, Joshua has decided that he likes Golf??!! Matt took him to hit some balls on Sunday and he loved it so we are looking on e-bay for a set of clubs for him. He can hit the ball hard and far so maybe he has already found his sport :) He is doing great in first grade and is reading up a storm already! Tonight he had two books to read and breezed right through them, we are so proud of him!

Maddie continues to pick up English each day. A few minutes ago she told Joshua and I to "be quiet, I have to do my humwork". And shooshed us with her fingers..too funny! She has grown a bit to and is starting to fill out more, her cheeks are not quite so chubby and her 4t clothes...sigh....are starting to get smaller. The fall ones seem to be fine though! A friend of mine at work gave us a dozen pairs of shoes, including 4 pairs of boots and Maddie is in heaven, she loves them!!!!! She goes to the Dentist on Thursday to start her first round of fillings. I think she will be just fine, she is a strong kid and our Dentist is great with kids! Maddie planted herself on his lap at the football game a few weeks ago, she gets along great with everyone!

Business is slowwww right now but the deer are beginning to run which means lots of business for us. God led us to open this business so we have faith He will provide, even during slow times, we have been just fine.

Here are some updated photos too.

Something New

2007-09-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hi friends and family. I decided that with so many of you living far away I would start this Blog and try to update often so you can keep up with our family...if you want to that is :) I will work on it this weekend and try to add some photos and will hopefully keep it up to date with pictures and chronicles of our lives!

Tonight Joshua and Madelyn are "sleeping over" at nana Linda's and papa Alan's house. We'll see how that goes!!! This will be Maddie's first sleepover since we got home from China. Matt seems to think she will do fine....I am not sure!

Will be back soon with photos and more fun stories!