Not a dull moment...

Happy Birthday Olivet!! 

Our baby turned ONE on June 29th,

 a day before daddy got home!

 I am guessing that's why we had gift opening in this spot. All the kids r in sight! Here, open your gifts quick! 

 Lily bought her bath ducks and an inner-tube! 

 Olivet wasn't quite sure what it was at first, but after we blew up the hippo, she liked it.

 We got her a new stroller :)

At "one," Olivet can say "Dadadada, Mamama, roarrrrrr, aya! (chinese for OH!), roof roof, hi, and yuuummm."

 She is still only standing without walking- but her stance is a pretty sturdy one!

 We had church at our friends' Krista & Steven's house. The night before, we practiced blowing out a candle, and she did it! But today, nah!

 Here's the crew for the morning

 That's it? One piece? 

cozy

 Olivet in her cute new kitty jammies from Lydia, Josiah & Greta

 Hadassah the Artist

YEAY, FINALLY!!! Daddy came home!!!!

We missed him a lot. 

 Lily and Caedmon worked hard on some Bible memory verses while Josh was gone, so the day he got home, we went to a courtyard with a stage and performed them, along with the skit "Corduroy." It was so much fun- don't let the picture fool you :). 

 Vivi in her pout stance

 On the way home, we met a dog named Fei Fei- the same as Lily's Chinese name! 

She seemed to have a mix of emotions as she held the puppy :)

 Dad came home with a letter (and some tattoos!) from our sweet friends in Wisconsin.

Here's Tough Cade:

 And Lily's Ink:

 Dassah got the polar bears

 And "Hamsterrific" for Viv!

 This was what the weather was like the whole time Josh was gone, in between short moments of sun.

 Short Story: Lily's pretty braid

Long Story: Josh and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on August 3rd! Josh got me some beautiful earrings and a necklace to match. At the store, the clerk did Lily's hair and let her pick out some jewels of her own for free :) I tried to imitate this style the next day without much success.

 At the field with dad. Cade is a natural!

 Lily may be more inclined to art and nurturing :)

 This is our first day of 2nd grade. It started fine. It ended disastrously. The second day went much better. Now that we have about 3 weeks under our belts, we can take a week off- Uncle Phil and Auntie Danielle arrive from America TONIGHT!!! We are so excited! 

 Cade, Nate & Lil- Sleepovers rock!

 so do baths!

 borring moments

 Sweet Greta

 Si en is TWO!! Happy Birthday bud!

 The rest of the pictures are from a family walk. Never a dull moment in China.

(don't sit on this bench!)

 This is the hospital (view from outside of our apartment) where I got 10 stitches in my hand after getting cut by a broken peach jar :(. Thank JESUS for that timing- Josh being home, Joey shu shu being available to watch the kids etc. Two days ago (2 weeks later), my friend Natalie (a P.A.) took out my stitches and all is healing well. Anyway...

 A particle board fire to heat the tea

 A delicacy: larva from a wasps nest!

 (The adult bugs are also edible- for a price)

 eggs

 A walk to the market- not for the faint of heart

 Need a medical exam? Why go all the way to the hospital?

 huh

 Nothing like a trip to the market

 The Eel Slicer

 High Five!

 YUM!

 multi-tasking

 railroad tracks side sale

 If all else fails, sell balloons!

 Lil and I found some great aprons for 10 kuai = $1.57

 Welcome to China Alma & Jon! And Happy Birthday to Alma! This is the awesome cake Jon got after handing the cake makers the note ""Happy Birthday" in Chinese Characters." 

 After e-mailing for months, we finally got to meet! We are glad to have this sweet family as neighbors.

 The last couple weeks we have been studying Amish culture. So on this night, the kids made Beef Stew and we ate it over candle light! Most were relieved it was a sunny day :)

Ending on a sweet note. A sweet Chinese girl named Anna came over last week to learn English. To show us her thankfulness, her mom brought us this cake! Normally, Chinese cakes look amazing but they seem to have a missing ingredient: sugar! But this cake was delicious. It had layers of cranberries and coconut on the inside. Some things do change :)