Happy Birthday Shaelyn!

It's hard to believe - my youngest child is turning 8 today! Seven years ago we happily welcomed you into our family.
We have a lot of plans for the day. First of all, it is Egyptian Day for her at school today. They have been
studying about Egypt. Today they all get to dress in Egyptian costumes and eat Egyptian snacks. They also will be making mummies with each other out of toilet paper. She was very excited that this fell on her birthday. Then I will be bringing her lunch from McDonalds. We will be decorating her birthday cake when she comes home. She chose a gumball machine birthday cake. There will be a lot of gumballs. For supper, we are going to Chuckie Cheese and will be opening presents. It's a lot to fit into 1 day but we're going to try.
Happy Birthday Shaelyn - We love you and hope you have a great birthday!



Here she is in her Egyptian costume and with her class.



























Standing by the mummy with her friend Grace

It's that Time of Year

Today is the day - Shaelyn goes back to school and starts 3rd grade! Summer
went so quickly. As we prayed together this morning, we talked about all the
things that were going to happen during the summer - my surgery, Chelsea going
to Guatemala, Katelyn leaving for India, vacations, etc... Now they have all happened
and here we are - August 31 - beginning of a new school year.
She's ready - new haircut, new clothes and new lunch box. She's excited
about the teacher she got for this year - she's the same teacher Chelsea
had and loved her. Thursdays will be a fun day every week. Her room has a loft
in it and that will be the day that she can use it for reading time. The other
reason I love Thursdays is because it's her microwave day. Her teacher has a
microwave in her room and there are designated days for the kids to use it.
This makes it so much easier to pack lunches - soup, spaghettio's, ravioli,
pizza - ahh, the luxury of a microwave. I think this should be a great year
for her with lots of fun times. Ready or not, here we come!

1st day of School Conversation

Shaelyn was talking to me last night about her first day of school. Here's how some of it went;
Shaelyn - Mom, I have a boy in my class who said a naughty word
Me - What was the word?
Shaelyn - It started with an "S"
Me - Really, what was it?
Shaelyn - It begins with "SH"
(I'm starting to wonder how this word fit into the conversation at this point)
Me - can you tell me?
Shaelyn - I don't want to say it but it also means "be quiet"
Me - Oh, he said "shut up"?
Shaelyn - Yes, I don't think I should really be around him anymore

Oh, if my child can only stay so innocent as she grows!

"Gotcha" Day

It seems unbelievable but 6 years ago we adopted Shaelyn! Today is her "Gotcha Day" We've never really celebrated it but I decided that we really need to acknowledge this special day. I took the day off work and she spent the day with friends doing special "China" things and we went to a special Chinese restaurant with the family for supper.
Shaelyn, we are so happy that you are the little girl that God chose to join our family. Hope you had a fun and special Gotcha Day!


Holding the paper lanterns that they all made














Going down the slide at Playworld with her friends

















New chopsticks and a jade bracelet!

Look who can see!

Look who got new glasses today and is actually able to see now. Shaelyn's teacher told me that she was having trouble seeing the board so we went to see the eye dr. on Friday. They must have done an express order because they were in yesterday.
Her vision was 20/200! Pretty pitiful. I really was hoping for her sake that our family's genes didn't rub off on her but apparently environment is all it takes around here to need glasses. So here she is and able to see much better.

Shaelyn's Animal Story

Shaelyn came home with some of her school papers today. She had to write a story. I thought it was pretty cute. Here it is in her words and spelling.

Once there was a cute brown hungrey small monkey. He lived in a pet store. A robirt
came with a key an unlock the cages. Than the animales came rushing out eveywere. Than the robirt got all the animales but the monkey was to fast. Then the robirt ran out the door. But the police was out the doors. Then the robirt had to go to jail.
The police putted the animales back in the cages.


P.S. We're leaving for vacation to Gatlinburg, TN tomorrow with Cheri and her family. I hope to have some great pictures when we return!

Dance for Him!

Shaelyn went to dance class this week. It was called Dance for Him. They were taught to use their talents for God. I thought this was a great opportunity for her to try out dance. Here is one song that they performed at the recital on Friday.

How do You Help Dad Wash the Car?

Here's how Shaelyn helps! Stirring up the bubbles in the pail.

A Requirement to pass Kindergarten!

Look what Shaelyn learned to do yesterday!


We started to teach her 2 weeks ago but she just wanted to ride on the grass. She could keep her balance there but wasn't able to pedal far. She did not want to try anymore so we put the bike in the garage. I "kind of" hinted that you had to be able to ride 2 wheels to pass Kindergarten. So yesterday she told me that she practiced with Dave Monday night and did a good job. I took her out and she just took off. Then I showed her how to get started on her own. I think she's got the hang of it!

How do You Sleep?

How do you sleep? Where do you sleep? If you're Shaelyn, this is how you chose to sleep Saturday night.

No, this was not a punishment that I inflicted upon her. She grabbed a laundry basket and said she was going to sleep in it for the night. I explained to her that it would be cramped and squishy and she said it would be comfortable. So I let her lay in there, thinking that she would move to her bed soon. A bit later she was asking for some water. I gave it to her but told her if she called again, she would have to move out of the laundry basket and into her bed. She didn't call again and this is how I found her when I went to bed later. She woke up Sunday morning without a kinked neck but I have removed the basket from her room!

Goofy Girls

Katelyn and Shaelyn decided to do their own "photo shoot" the other day. Here's some of what they came up with. What goofy girls! (but kind of cute too!)

You Hold the Pan....

Shaelyn was playing with her moon sand yesterday. I told her she had to clean up the mess when she was done. So she got out the broom and dustpan and told Dave her thoughts. "You hold the pan while I "broom" it"

Spending the night with Grandpa and Grandma

Shaelyn got to spend the night on Friday over at Grandpa and Grandma's because I was going to be working at the floral shop. Katelyn wasn't coming home from the dorms till later on Saturday and Dave had to go to work in the morning as well.
So she had her suitcase packed and ready to go on Thursday night. She was quite excited because she has never done this before. So when I picked her up Saturday morning, she had a lot to tell me.
She got to stay up late - till 10:00. "Mom never lets me stay up late!"
When she work up in the morning, she told Grandpa and Grandma it was going to be a busy day. First, we have to eat breakfast, then we have to make bread, then we have to go sledding. So Grandpa made oatmeal - but he did it wrong. He cooked it on the stove. (I always do it in the microwave). Grandma fixed it by putting brown sugar on it. Yum! Then they made poppy seed bread. There was a special little loaf baked, just for Shaelyn to take home. There's a slice in her lunch today. After that, they went sledding. Now I thought it was just down the little hill off their deck. No - I was wrong. It was back further - about 1/4 mile away. Can you just imagine Ann - who is 78 years old, trekking through knee deep snow? She told me it was really deep too. Yes, I believe it. It's been snowing for weeks here! This is just snow on back hills that nobody has been through. So she went sledding down the hill with Shaelyn too. No, she didn't break any bones. Whew! One time, she gave Shaelyn a push and didn't realize that she would go so far - she ended up in the creek. That was the end of the sledding - Shaelyn had mittens that were soaked and wet feet. But overall, it was a fun time. She was getting a grilled cheese sandwich to eat as I came. I was told that it was more fun over there than at home. Can you believe that?



(it's another snow day today)

Shaelyn's Acting Premiere!

Shaelyn had a really cute Christmas program last night. They sang, Polar Puppy, Jesus, Our Brother and Jingle Bells. They all got to wear some puppy ears, as you can see. Unfortunately, she was the first one in and was way on the right, so we couldn't see her for the first two songs. But then.....she got a special part for jingle bells. She got moved up to the microphone! She's the little one in the pink and black dress (next to the girl in the plaid dress) and she says, "Boy, that was a fun sleigh ride!" She's got some enthusiasm. Take a listen!

Shaelyn's artwork

Shaelyn has really been doing a lot of drawing lately. Here's an example of 2 of her latest. The first is cars driving on the road and the 2nd is of Chelsea and Millie. I love how she gave Millie a true Pomeranian nose.

Where does She Come Up with these Things?

Every year, instead of writing real names on Christmas gifts, such as To: Shaelyn,
we assign fake names. Last year, I used, Happy, Dopey and Sleepy. This keeps the kids guessing as to which presents are theirs. This year the names are Dasher, Prancer and Cupid. I was wrapping a present the other day and brought it to Shaelyn to put under the tree. Here's the conversation:


Me: Shaelyn, You can put this present under the tree.
Shaelyn: Who's this one for?
Me: Prancer
Shaelyn: Another one for Prancer? That Prancer sure must have been a good little reindeer this year. He's getting a lot of presents.

Who's turning 5?

Happy Birthday Shaleyn! (alias bunny herman, kiersten anne leigh, linseed,
sparky, gloria, rain, jane - it's amazing all that we've come up with through the years and I think there's still more)
I cannot believe you are 5 years old already - even though you think you're older than that. We thought our family was complete with your two older sisters but God had planted a seed in my heart since I was 10 years old. I wanted a special little girl from China, even back then. It was a long wait to get you but you were the one God chose for our family. What a lot of joy and laughter you have brought into our family. Even though you are a boundless ball of energy and you wear me out - I can still smile over what you say and do. We love you so much! Have a great birthday!

I apologize for the quality of some of these pictures. I do not have them on disc so I had to take a picture of the picture. This is Shaelyn's referral picture to us. She was about 3 months here.

















This was in her crib in China - what a huge smile!














I took this picture when we got home for her adoption announcement.















She always loved baths. This was after eating spaghetti. I think you can still see some in her hair.



















Look at those baby rolls of fat. This was about 1 and 1/2 months after she came home!














Sweet innocence!

Wordless Wednesday

Shaelyn and Todd enjoyed the day yesterday!