Jack's first swim

Isn't that face just precious?? Today I took Jack for a little swim. In our apartment complex they have this shop where you can bring your children in for a massage, a swim and they give him a bath. We decided to give it a try. Jack loved it!! I thought you guys might enjoy these pictures and a short video below. I hadn't ever seen this in the states before. At least down south we don't have anything like it. Enjoy....

Swimming...

My New Job

My friend Sarah talked about her job as a translator the other day and I realized yep, that's it! That is my newest job title around here...translating everything Sadie says! :) It is quite fun to know what she is saying but yet can also be a challenge trying to understand everything. I think living in another country and learning Chinese has helped. Or maybe it just process of elimination...well wait a minute I do that with Chinese too! :) I thought I would share a few of the things that Sadie says, one so that I can keep a record because I know that all too soon she will be saying them so clearly that we will want her to just slow down! One of her first words was:
Lelelelele- Water (you ask how I know this...again, process of elimination...she pointed to her water cup!)
Nilk - Milk (now that is an easy one!)
Bissies (Horsies we have tried everything to get her to say this one right, she just can't quite yet!)
Bogurt - Yogurt
Gou Gou- (Dog in Chinese, still doesnt' know the English for this one!)
Mao Mao -(Cat in Chinese)
Ti, Ti - Dance in Chinese (well part of the word, it took a while to figure this one out!)
Bye Bye Boo Boo- (when she wants Jack to finish eating)
Toe Li help - Zhou Li help (when she wants our househelper (Zhou Li) to give her a cookie)
necky -nectarine
shy- pacifer (don't ask how she got that one, we have no idea!)
chock (chocolate)


She says many more words but those most people understand! These are just a few of those that have taken me a few minutes to understand.

Oh I do have a funny one for you....you guys have heard me talk about how we sing to Sadie before she goes to sleep at night, we sing "Worthy, you are worthy" to her. Well the other night I was singing to her before putting her to bed and she kept saying "neck, neck" over and over. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what she was trying to say. I kept asking her trying to go over every possible thing that it could be. I thought well maybe she wants me to sing something about a neck (okay, so I was desperate!) So I started singing "Neck, you are neck, king of kings..." I was thinking, anything to get her to sleep, ha ha! And after I sang that she was okay with going down. Well, I kept thinking that evening, what in the world did she mean?? Then it was like a light bulb went off...she wanted her necklace!! She wanted to sleep her the necklace that she has been playing with that day. That made me laugh, neck, you are neck...yes, I was desperate!

I am enjoying my job and thankful that I am not playing translator...but sometimes I think translating from Chinese to English just might be easier than translating from 2 year talk to English!!

Potty Training...

So, I have posted a few times today, so take some time to scroll down and see a few pictures! :) I had to update you guys on what's been going on in our household! Sadie has successfully completed day 5 of potty training!! Can I just say that I am one proud momma! She has done excellent! She was so ready to be trained and hasn't had a hard time at all with learning how to use the potty. We are still using the small ones that we have around the house. We are using this method of potty training and it has worked like a charm. At first I was a little leary of letting her go without panties on but it has worked great! She has just been wearing dresses or loose shorts when we go out. If you are thinking about potty training, I would check it out for sure. I am so thankful that she is only in diapers at nap time and bed time now. It will definitely help our wallet out as we have two in diapers now! Any tips from you guys on how long we should use the little potties? Or when to start putting big underwear on?

On more thing...we have a new sister in our family. We are super excited that you guys have been talking to Dad so much. We have a friend who has decided to join our family last week and we are just thrilled beyond belief! So, please continue to talk to Dad, there are others who are close to joining us as well.

Happy Monday! And oh, I also wanted to wish Vanessa a very happy birthday!!! Love you friend!! :)

Need to laugh today?

thought so....

Happy Father's Day

Okay, so this is a day late...but if it is any consolation, I did take these pictures on Fathers Day...okay, so the end of Father's Day when the kids are already in their pjs about to head to bed but I figured better late than never!! :) I am so thankful for my sweet husband and what a wonderful Father he is to our children. We are truly blessed to have him in our lives and I can't wait to see how our children both have such a special relationship with him as they grow up. They already love him so much and it just warms my heart to see them bonding with him.

I love you sweetheart and so do our children!! :)

Pray without ceasing....

A few nights ago Sadie just wouldn't go to sleep. She is never like this so we couldn't figure out what was going on. We have a very specific routine we do with her and she pretty much stays on schedule each night. We all have dinner together, she gets a bath and goes down about 6:30. Yes, I know that is early, but she is worn out (she has a lot of energy) and she is ready for bed each night, no problems at all. Well, this night was different, we couldn't figure out what was going on. Clark usually puts her to bed because I am feeding Jack and putting him down at the same time (yes, he goes down at 6:30 too, aren't we blessed?? ) Anyway, after putting him down I could hear her really upset and screaming she had a dirty diaper. Clark changed her and she was still screaming, we couldn't figure it out. I tagged him and took my turn to see if I could put her down. She was screaming like crazy and just didn't want to go to sleep. I knew she was testing us, she wanted to get up and play more but it was time for her to sleep. I knew that if I gave in this time then she would think she could do this every night. I have a smart girl on my hands. So, I disciplined her and put her in her bed and told her she needed to go to sleep. I left the room and the wailing and gnashing of teeth began! And so after a few more minutes of this I went back in, talked to her and told her she needed to sleep. Well...she started up again, she was mad. She did not want to obey me at all. After almost an hour of this going back and forth, I did only what I knew to do. She was standing in her crib screaming at the top of her lungs and I just started praying out loud. I prayed for her peace, for her comfort, for her to sleep, for Father to wrap His arms around her, I prayed she wouldn't have any fear, I prayed and I prayed and I prayed over her. After about 5 minutes or so of praying, she started to calm down, she picked up her dog, her paci and she just looked at me quiet as a mouse. I continued to pray over her and I picked her up and started to sing her song "Worthy, you are worthy" over her and she put her head on my shoulder (previously when I started to sing, she would yell, no, no, no) and I sang over her and then I continued to pray my heart out for this little girl. She completely calmed down and I put her in her bed and walked out of the room. I couldn't help but be utterly amazed at the power of prayer in that moment. I know that it might seem like such a small thing but it was because of the presence of my Father that I know she calmed down. She was receiving that peace that passes all understanding from Father.
Now, each time that I have put her down I have prayed over her, not just a simple prayer but simply pouring my heart out to Father. Each time she has calmed down and slept peacefully.
Why do I ever doubt the power of prayer? We serve an amazing Father who truly cares about the small things, such as putting our children to sleep each night.

"Holy"

Ever since Sadie was really small we have been singing to her ( I wrote about it in a previous post) we sing "Worthy, you are worthy" and she has been picking up on the words (in English and Chinese!) Well recently she has been singing to her babies and really anything that she wants to go "night night" It is so cute! I took a small video today so that you could enjoy her cuteness too!

Picture of the Day

Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?? I love them, so much that I am kissing them all day long!

Our Friends...

The shoes...this give you an idea of how many friends we had at our house last week! We had some friends come from the states last week, so we took the opportunity to have a party! We always love a good excuse to have friends over and laugh and enjoy people in our home! And so on this day, we had our friends who are students at a local university across the street over to our home.
Here is the whole group, Sadie wasn't too excited about looking at the camera in that moment. Who knows why...can I just say, she is a two year old? :)
Here are my sweet friends whom I have grown to love so much. They are so precious and have such sweet hearts.
And she is looking! I had to snap the picture fast but here is Sadie with some of her friends...she is always looking for her friends and is so excited when they can come to visit her.
Here Clark is with a group of his guys. He gets together with several of them a few times a week and has a great time pouring into their lives.
Our friends came over and got the chance to hear a wonderful story that we think is pretty special. Many of them really enjoyed this story and so we invited them to watch a movie about this story. Several girls were really broken by what they have seen. Will you please do some talking for us and really talk to your Dad about these girls. I am hoping that next week we will really be able to talk one on one with them and hear what Dad is up to in their lives.
I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into our lives and enjoyed coming to the party with us!

What we do on rainy days...

We build a tent...and of course eat cookies!!

Happy Birthday Sadie!!

Happy Birthday Sadiebug!!!

This morning we started out by talking to the grandparents online. We talked to both sets of my parents and also Clark's parents. Clark's mom and dad got Sadie a cake and we sang Happy Birthday online, she had a lot of fun "blowing" out her candles from 7,000 miles away :)

Here is her ladybug cake! This is my attempt at making a fun cake for her. It was not easy when I didn't have any cake decorating materials...but it was fun to make something special for her!

Here is the spread with ladybug plates, cups, napkins and pretty flowers!

Yay for Sadie being two!!

Here is an attempt at taking a picture of all three girls together!

And here is our family picture from the day!

Glad you guys could "join" us for Sadie's 2nd birthday! We had a wonderful day, tired but good! We are thankful that both kids are sleeping now and enjoying a quiet evening...gonna go relax and refresh and get ready for a new day tomorrow....

Has it really been two years??

Two years ago on the 4th of June, I checked into the hospital eagerly anticipating the arrival of our first child. No one can truly tell you what to expect and how your life will drastically change forever. I was to be induced on the 4th and hopefully within that 24 hours our sweet little Sadie Katherine would enter the world! On that Wednesday night, I didn't get much sleep as I often visited by nurses coming to check on how Sadie was doing and how I was progressing. I remember about 4 am my water broke and I thought things are really going to start happening soon! I was having contractions like crazy and man did they hurt! No one prepared me for this pain! I got my epidural at some point but wouldn't you know, it didn't quite work! I was having back labor like crazy. It was the worst pain ever. It was finally time for me to start pushing, I would say somewhere around 3 that afternoon and then I realized this is just not going as smooth as other people have told me that happened with them! Well, after a long, I mean long, time of pushing, I realized Sadie isn't going to come out as easily as I had hoped :) Her heart rate started to drop and they knew we had to get her out pretty soon! So, we went ahead with an emergency c-section. I can remember how nervous I was, I wasn't prepared for this at all. My friend told me that I need to be prepared just in case, but I though, nah, this won't happen to me. Well...wouldn't you know...it did! I can remember them pulling Sadie out of my belly and hearing the nurses and doctors exclaiming over how big she was! They realized now why my narrow frame just couldn't get this sweet baby out! :) I still had no idea how big she was but knew..she must have been a big girl! :) I can remember being in the recovery room and calling my best friend, Vanessa to tell her that Sadie had arrived. She said, do you know her weight yet?? I had no idea because I was waiting for Clark to tell me! It was quite funny that even Vanessa knew before me :) But as Clark came down to check on me...he told me that our little girl was a whopping 9 pounds 6 ounces! :) A sweet bundle of joy! Those next few days were a blur. We were in the hospital for almost a week because of my c-section and then Sadie being jaundice. I can remember those slow, slow walks to the nursery to see our little one and people asking which baby was ours and several times hearing "the big one in the back", how did you do that? :) I loved it! Our sweet Sadie has changed our lives forever, my first born, the one who made me a mother.
Time has gone by so much faster than I could have ever dreamed. She is now a bouncing two year old saying more and more words everyday. Each day with her is a blessing from Father and I am so thankful that He has entrusted her to us. Tomorrow, she will turn two years old. We are having a party here at our house which I will post pictures of as soon as I can! :)
We are so thankful for you, our friends, loving on us and loving on our precious children!

Happy Birthday sweet Sadie Bug. Mommy and Daddy love you more than you will ever know! You are such a joy and we are so thankful for your sweet personality and your loving heart!