Jed's first word

I know that I owe a few months of Pictures but I couldn't wait in posting this video of Jed.  Jed loves to eat so it was only proper that his first word is connected to food. In this video you can hear him trying to say "please" which comes out "ease". Too cute, if I do say so myself.

July in America

     We spent the majority of July reconnecting with our family in the states.  We drove up the east coast to the DC area to see my brother and his family and then parked our travel weary bodies in PA for 7 weeks.  As many of your know my father had a brain bleed on Christmas Eve 2011.  He has been in a hospital and a nursing facility since and it was VERY difficult to communicate with him while overseas.  During the first while he was not able to physically communicate but then it became an issue of not being able to talk with him since he didn't have a phone in his room.  While in PA we were able to house sit for my sister's friend and be just miles from my mom, sister and my dad.  What a blessing!  The kids were able to take two weeks of swim lessons with my sister's kiddos, visit with Grandmom, finally reconnect with my Dad and see some other dear friends in the area.  What a blessing.  We're so thankful for God's provision of the home we were in.  The home was just what we needed- they had a boys room with one crib and a twin bed, a girl's room with 2 twin beds, baby gates, high chair, play room, backyard with tree house and this home was just miles from family to boot- doesn't the Father give us more than we deserve?!!!  I couldn't have ordered a better fit.
   

Games with cousins

New cousin- Welcome Daniel!

Opa meets Jedidiah for the first time!

My little bees!

Crayola Factory with Grandmom and a few of the cousins.

Silly Miriam- waddles with the best of them.  :)

Reunion with my college roomie.

 Jed's crawling!

A few of the cousins participate in Cousins Summer Olympics

Look at all those rolls- I love babies and rolls!

Can't take the crazy out of Aunt Karen :)

We finally got to meet this cute little fella - We love the Milliken boys!

I am back among the living :)

Wow, how do I even begin?  It has been four months and I haven't posted a thing.  Has nothing been going on in our lives... oh, the contrary.  We packed up our lives into a tiny one bedroom apartment in China, crammed everything else into a load of suitcases, and ventured back to the states.  We have been back in the states since June and haven't stood still since- or so it seems.  Our time has been filled mostly with getting reacquainted with family and friends and getting our bearings in the American culture.  Here's just a small glimpse into the last four moths... actually just June.  I couldn't narrow down the options so decided to post one blog of just June pictures.  More to come soon- I hope.

Jed and his cousin Hanley

Chris & his Mom

CJ, his cousin Bennett and Chris' good friend from childhood

Miriam and her friends enjoying the lake

Chris and his father

Birthday Boy!  

Mama & Jedi

Adventure on the Beach

Fun in the bay

Jed's not sure what to think of the beach... but ended up loving it- even the taste of sand  :)

Fun on the porch

Cousins

Water bug Eliza

This photo captures Miriam's personality-she loves to live life out LOUD!  :)

  

Party, party, party

Our kids love a good party.  What defines a good party?  Usually some sweet food, a glass of soda, and a handful of college students.  This spring we hosted a handful of parties with students from a local university.  

Eliza enjoying a St. Patrick's Day Banana Muffin (yep it's green :)

One of the students finding hidden three leaf clovers.

 A few reasons that I love parties: I get to show off my house.  My house is not beautifully decorated or creatively organized but it does have lots of intentionally placed items all about.  We talk about the "House Rules" that our kids follow (i.e. Love one another, obey parents, ...), we talk about family photos which are everywhere (yes, family- your pictures are everywhere in our house- our kids love to see pictures of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins), we talk about verses that are posted so we can see them at meal time and those times when we need a reminder of how we should behave...  I love to share about why these things are so important to me and how they have all influenced my life.  We love to share about holidays and why they are so important to us.  

Decorating eggs with college friends.

We love parties!

Wondering what's on her mind???

Miriam loves art.  More specifically she loves to draw.  Daily she makes a new creation with a piece of paper and a pencil.  Well, her masterpieces are not limited to paper and pencil.  Over the years I have found her art work on various surfaces about the house: on the bottom of the shopping list, on a sweet little note tucked under my pillow, on the white board, my jewelry box, on the pages of my Bible, her wall, the dresser... (we won't talk about the consequence for some of these drawings ;)  Her drawings have gotten more detailed as she has gotten older and I love to look at her drawings and see what is going on that little mind of hers.

Here is a collection of some of her work over the past year.  I love what it tells me about her.

Miriam drew this family portrait before Jedidiah was born.  She is holding hands with Chris (far left), CJ and Eliza are holding hands, Eliza (curly hair) is pushing a baby in a stroller, and I'm on the far right (notice the bun in my hair).  I love the anticipation of her baby brother's birth that this displays.

Miriam is very orderly... her stuffed animals used to be on her bed in order- from large to small.  She no longer had room to sleep in her bed so the ever growing collection was moved.  

Here is her drawing of the above mentioned stuffed animals.  I was shocked by the detail.  Even before she told me about the picture I knew exactly what it was.  From Spring 2011.

The below picture was probably one of my favorites just because of the story that went behind it.  One Sunday I noticed Miriam looking a little suspicious when at a friends house for our weekly church time (we worship with other foreigners in each other's homes.)  I thought she was trying to hide something and, sure enough, she had some unwanted snack stuffed in her pockets- she was picking out what she wanted from a trail mix and was planning to throw the remaining unwanted items away.  Later that day when I was home with her I wanted to talk a bit about the "sneakiness" that I saw in her eyes and countenance when at our friends house.  We talked a bit and I brought up the fact that even in the Bible there is a story about that same time of sneaky behavior.  Now, keep in mind that I didn't plan this conversation- I was just chatting with her and brought it up without planning the whole conversation out...  She inquires about the "sneaky" story in the Bible and the first thing that I could think of was Cain and Abel.  I told her, "In the Bible there is a story of a man who killed his brother and thought that by being sneaky he could hide it from God."  As soon as the words came out of my mouth I wished I could have taken them back.  I knew that Miriam is so detail oriented (imagining things in her head with such detail) that this might very possibly lead to some nightmares.  I was trying desperately to cram the toothpaste back into the tube.  "I mean, remember the story of Adam and Eve?  The ate the forbidden fruit and tried to hide it from God."  Her reply, "Mom, let's get the Bible out and look up that story about the man killing his brother."  I tried to ignore her request and talk more about Adam and Eve.  She wouldn't have anything to do with it.  Somehow I distracted her and we got off the subject... but later that day this (below) is the picture that I saw on the white board in our living room.  

Miriam's drawing of Cain and Abel... Cain with a very angry face and a very large Ninja knife in his hand.  Abel- headless , tongue hanging out and blood dropping.  UGH!! 

So, if you ever wonder what's on Miriam's mind- pick up her sketch pad and take a peek into her world.  (By the way- most of her sketches have lots of hearts and family scenarios in them- this is the first thing I've seen like it- quite shocking.   I say this all in case you were doubting what type of parents we were... hee hee :)

What wattage?

40 Watt or 100 Watt?

So, this picture is from a recent trip on the plane, but I thought it showed the shape of Jed's and Chris' head well.  One neighbor pointed out that their heads looked like light bulbs and even added a comment about the wattage.  Made me giggle!

Game of the week- what in the world is that???

What ?????

Ok, so I have been collecting pictures on my cell phone for months & today was the day that I decided to sit down and share them.  The first one I came to was this picture I took in the grocery store a few months ago.  Since we live in such an enormous city we rarely go to market- there are a gig-gazillion grocery stores within 5 minutes of our house (we can talk the pros and cons of that another time).  Anyhow, despite it being a grocery store there are still items in ours that you might expect to see at market but would most likely not see in the grocery stores in America.  This one is from the meat section- obviously.  I'm sure some of you won't take long figuring out what piece of meat this is- but I thought I'd ask since a few that received the picture in a text from me were a bit stumped.  Leave your guesses in the comments section. :)

While uploading the above picture I remembered a video I took of the kids in the grocery store over a year ago (look how much they've changed).  The kids love this part of the grocery store.  It's like visiting the pet store and the grocery store in one stop.  They are incredibly curious when butchering time comes but I'm not sure if they have ever stuck around to see the deed completed.  * Take note in the video how I catch myself... EW (I mean) yummy?!

During the process of posting this I recall when we first moved to China 6+ years ago when CJ wasn't even three years old.  At the time we lived in a much smaller city on the sea where fish markets were plentiful.  CJ would love to go to market and check out the daily catches.  One day he saw a patron choose her fish and someone prepare it- knock it with a bat and skin it (is that what it's called?).  A little later he saw the beginnings of a chicken getting a similar fate (I made him turn around for that "preparation").  He had a very sad face and I asked him what was wrong.  He told me "I don't want to go to a Chinese persons' house.  They will cut me up and eat me for dinner".  I quickly told him that Chinese people are very loving and don't eat children.  I told him that people, including our family, all around the world eat animals but he just never saw the preparation process before.  He understood and was a lot more at east.  Poor fella!  I'll never forget that day or his reaction.  

Birthday Boy, CJ

This year CJ was ecstatic about his Birthday.  Not only did he get to celebrate with a Lego theme but with lots of friends (who were also XY chromosomes and spoke in his heart language- this is the first time in years that this has happened).  This past May we were blessed to meet a native English speaking family with 6 children.  They have 4 boys in their family, three of which are 8,10 and 12 - or something close to that.  CJ has been in boy heaven.  Our families haven't been in the city together much this year because of various travel plans but when we have been together the boys have loved to play- soccer, Lego's, and all things boy.  CJ was beyond happy to know that, for his birthday this year, he would be able to celebrate with his sisters and this other family.

Our two families loaded up on the subway for a 45 minute trek to an indoor play area.  We brought along cupcakes, treat bags, bottles of water and lots of energy.  The kids had a blast and we were so thankful for a great day of celebration.  A day to celebrate our precious boy- Christopher Lane Hanley, Junior.

A ride on the subway to the indoor play area (a ride that is much more fun with friends).

These boys are an answer to prayers.

I wish I had an up-close pictures of the Ninja cupcakes and Weapons cupcakes.
  It was quite  an adventure making them :)

Lego was the popular gift this year- CJ couldn't have been any happier.

More Legos and a Dinosaur Fossil kit.... hours of fun in a box!

The Ninjago Cake!
  We used this cake during a separate celebration with our grown
 up friends a few days closer to his birthday!