Playgroup Christmas 2007!

Once again we had a wonderful Christmas party hosted by the Warming Hut! This year we had a new addition, "Doodle Bug"! From left to right the girls are: Panda Girl - Deshing Darling - Spicy Girl - Cheerleader - Snow Bunny - and Doodle Bug. The girls had a great time handing out and opening up their gifts to each other. The fancy dresses stayed on long enough for pictures and the gift exchange then it was on to play clothes for lunch. I love our time with our friends and cannot wait to see everyone after the holidays to catch up.

Make sure you click on the play button on the last pic. The girls sang Jingle Bells and it is the absolute best I have ever heard! I really like Deshing Darlings ending!

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to all!

Team Mom & Cheerleader

Ski Patrol and Snow Bunny

Doodle Bug , Mommy Darling & Deshing Darling

Spicy Girl & Spicy Mom

Panda Mom & Panda Girl

Something Strange Going On?

As some may have noticed, there are blank spaces at the top of my posts. I have no idea why it is happening. When I go in to edit the post a blank space appears that I cannot delete. It is driving me crazy! If anyone knows why this is happening, please, please let me know.

Cookie Tradition 2007!!

The kids showing off their Nativity scene.

Cheerleader was our families best decorator!

Everyone having fun!

Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus in the manger. Three wise men on the left, 2 shepherds & 3 sheep on the right. Three camels, 3 cows & 2 donkeys in the middle.

A wonderful blessing was brought to us 4 years ago. The "W" family moved in across the street and brought with them the neighborhood cookie decorating event! Each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving we all gather in their garage to decorate tons of cookies in every holiday shape imaginable. This year each family had their own nativity scene to decorate. When they were all finished, "Mr. W." read the Christmas Story aloud from the bible. As the story was being told, the kids placed their cookies on a table to display the Nativity. It was a great way to kick off the season with friends and family to celebrate the "Reason for the Season"! Head Coach was just as excited about the day as the kids, he mentioned that he hopes this tradition lasts for years to come! I agree! Thank you "W" family for bring us this wonderful Christmas tradition! Love to all! P.S. Another thank you to the "W" family for letting me copy pics from their camera because mine gave up last week. I know what I will be asking Santa for this year!

Princess Tea Party!

Yesterday we had Cheerleaders 4th birthday party. The theme was a Princess Tea Party! Everything was princess & pink! All of our playgroup friends came dressed as princesses. All the girls put their own make-up on and painted their finger nails! They all looked beautiful! I made a pink castle cake covered with candy. What started out as a giant pink monstrosity ended up being our princesses dream! The girls ate lunch while watching Cinderella as the moms took a breather. Nana made each of the girls beautiful monogrammed tea cups as party favors. Memaw came with princess favors as well. We are so blessed to have each of them in our family. I must confess I did not get a single pic of either of them the whole day! Cheerleader had a royal good time. We hope to have everyone back to the "palace" very soon! A thank you to everyone who came to celebrate this wonderful day with us!

Pumpikn Patch Kids!

The best in the patch!
Quarterback hard at work.

I just love this time of year! Cooler weather, and all the fall colors. While working at the youth pumpkin patch at our church, I took the opportunity to take fall pics of the kids. You never know, you just might find one of these in your Christmas card this year!

Homecomming 2007

My "ONE OF A KIND" Homecoming garters!

My boys are so handsome!

Runningback's team float.

PANTHER SPIRIT!

I am still playing catch-up with my posts. This year at Homecoming, I made the boys garters to wear to the parade and the game. This was a huge challenge to me. I found some cute mini panthers at the local grocery a month or two before. They growled when you squeezed them! I found a site on the Internet with bow instructions, so with various ribbons, do-dads, stick on letters and a glue gun, I was off! I will toot my own horn! The boys thought they were great and they were guaranteed that no one else would have one like theirs. Runningback had a great time being in the parade, yet quarterbacks team did not participate. Head Coach really got into the Panther Spirit by buying the boys hair and face paint to wear at the game! They all had a great time, it is great living in a small town!

Happy Birtday Runningback!

Party at the 'ol swimming hole!

How likes pizza???

U.S. Air Hockey Team!!!

Hey Mom!, I need more tokens!

WOW! Where has the time gone! So many things have happened, but I will try to get you up to speed. I will start with Running Back's birthday, he turned 10 this year! I can hardly believe it! Having 2 of 3 kids in double digits blows by mind. He and his friends went swimming, then we took them to a movie and to CiCi's Pizza. They all had a great time, ate too much popcorn and too much pizza. One of the boys spent the night so there was not much sleeping going on. This is a short post but I PROMISE to update again very soon!

Happy 13th Quarterback!

QB did not want a cake, so I decorated football cookies. They lasted all of 1 hr.!

This is the crew acting like "nerds" before going to the movie. They did this while at the Dollar Tree and at Wal-Mart.

After a long night of "TPing" and video games, this is what I found in the morning. Believe it or not, there are 3 on the bed & 2 on the floor. We did make it to Sunday School & Church!

Where has the time gone? I remember holding him in my arms. Seeing him start his first day of school. Playing his first games of T-Ball, Basketball & Football. Now he is a teenager, 6 ft tall and a size 14 shoe! Instead of rubber ducks in his bathroom there is deodorant, hair gel, acne cream and cologne. He still kisses me in front of his friends, maybe because I whispered that he had to into his ear when he was a baby. HAPPY BIRTHDAY "H", I hope you had a great day!

Here I am !

No, I have not fallen off the face of Earth! It has been a really crazy few weeks. The boys started back to school, YEA!, Runningback started back to youth football, & Quarterback started middle school football. There is absolutely not one night during the week that we will be home as a family before 8:00 p.m. ! Sunday will truly be a day of worship, family and rest for us! I will try to keep up a little better in the coming days.

Desheng Darling & Doodlebug!!!!

This was taken just after Doodlebug joined her new family. Mommy Darling said there was a lot of crying from Doodlebug, but big sister Desheng Darling was sure happy to finally be with her sister!
MD made these matching dresses for the girls, they are so cute!

The "Official Family Portrait". This is from the Chinese adoption documents saying DB is now a member of the Darling family. They are truly a "Darling Family"!

This is a post about our friends the Desheng Darling family. They have finally been united with their newest daughter Doodlebug! She is a precious 2 yr old from China. She has not smiled for them yet, but as you can tell, older sister DD has enough for both of them. I am sure that in a few days there will be smiled all around. We cannot wait to see her for ourselves and welcome her into our group of "Chopstick Chicks"!

Zale Party 2007!

Molly, Margaret, TaeSoon & Kelly
Trying to stay cool

Mark, are all the kids yours?

Jenni & Reiner

How high did you want to go Marion?

I think this is why Mark said his back hurt, Kory is half his size!

Molly, I thought you had only 2 kids?

Josh & Lilly , too cute!

Zenobia with Mr. & Miss Brown

Hill, Katie & Ethan

TaeSoon & her crew!

If you look close, there is not one adult in the pool with the kids! What were we thinking!

Sorry this post has taken a while to come up, it has been a crazy weekend! It was a HOT day but I believe that fun was had by all! I hope the "prunie"fingers & toes on the kids are back to normal by now. It was great to see old friends and get to put faces with names & voices I have known for so many years. We missed those who were unable to come. We cant wait for next year!