Little League May 2010

So Ashlyn has learned a lot while playing a season of T-ball. When she first started, she didn't really know how to run. But after playing for two months, she really started to run faster. She picked up the basics of the game pretty quickly too. She learned how to run through first base and how to get the ball and throw it to first base.

Here's a little clip of a more recent game. She was safe the first time on base, but got out the second time. You'll notice she started to cry when she got it. This was her first out and she cried really hard walking all the way back in to the dugout. As she was crying she said, "Mommy, I ran fast". I had to explain to her that everybody gets out at some time and luckily Ellie got out right after her and was ok about it. Ellie told her that it was ok and Ashlyn seemed to feel better about it. While she was in the outfield, notice the dancing. This happened all season long :-) She got the ball and threw it to first, but notice she hurt her hand in the process. This was a quick recovery though!



She had a lot of fun all season. Their last game was a Friday night lights game. They got to play with the lights on and their names were called out on the loud speaker while the score was kept on the scoreboard (game tied 31 to 31). Every time they called her name she would get a huge smile on her face and point to herself saying, "that's me!" She was so happy for most of the game...of course the game didn't end until about 9:30 pm. A little boy that goes to our church was also adopted from China. He was playing third base on the opposing team and when she made it to third base she looked at him and then looked over at daddy and said, "daddy, he looks like me...1, 2!" She was so happy about it that we let them talk for awhile after the game. She really liked the fact that he looked like her and it made her very happy. They saw each other the next night at church.

Here are some pictures of Kaylyn playing machine pitch baseball. She has improved tremendously! We're going to try machine pitch softball this fall and see how that goes. I think she's really going to go places with this! I'm so proud of both of them.

6 Months!

Today marks 6 months since adopting Ashlyn! I can't believe it has already been 6 months!!! She has grown a half inch and has gained 5 pounds in that 6 months :-) She started eating ice cream without getting tummy aches last week. I think eating a little cheese here and there has helped build up her tolerance.

She's speaking more and more English and I'm sad to say that she's losing her Chinese language very quickly. I'm not even sure she really speaks it anymore. One day I would like her to at least learn Mandarin for when she goes and visits her home country. We plan to take her on a trip back when she becomes a teenager and do a whole touring thing so she can see the other parts of China she never got to see.

She's reading three letter words now and her handwriting is slowly improving. She still needs to work on cutting paper. The tutor will be working with her four days a week for an hour each day during the summer. This should help catch her up to the 1st grade level hopefully.

She absolutely loves swimming. She balances herself very well in her swim vest and probably won't be long until she's swimming on her own. She'll be good with the snorkeling in the Bahamas as long as she has the swim vest and life vest on :-) Her and Kaylyn are very much alike when it comes to the swimming. Kaylyn was the same way...fearless of the water and learned to swim very quickly.

Kaylyn and Ashlyn are getting along pretty well now. They play together a lot more. They're definitely sisters though...tattle telling on each other, bickering at each other, and annoying each other :-) They'll definitely grow closer to each other as they get older...I can tell!

May 2010

I have two amazing kids!

2nd grade at Calvary did a Moses play. Kaylyn played Miriam. The play was really cute and the kids did a wonderful job.

Ashlyn had her award ceremony for Kindergarten. Ashlyn got a perseverance award and a Helping Hands dog tag award. She was practically dancing across the stage for the helping hands award because she was so excited.

Kaylyn had her 2nd grade award ceremony and got the character award for responsibility. Then Kaylyn came home with about 12 different other awards!

Kaylyn sang in her school's talent show with two of her other friends. They sang "What Faith Can Do" by Kutless. It was very cute!

This is the girls singing in their talent show. You'll notice they accidently started the wrong song, but quickly fixed it. Then they didn't cut off the music where they were told it would be cut off originally. Luckily they knew the words to the whole song :-)

A week from today we will be going on our Disney cruise. This will be our 5th Disney cruise, but Ashlyn's first. I think she will absolutely love it! We are so excited to be going on a well needed vacation. Also, we have planned another vacation for 4th of July week to meet another family that we met in China adopting their little girl at Disney. We are very excited about seeing them again!

10 Questions About My Adoption

I finished a scrapbook for Ashlyn. It's for her to keep to answer some questions she might have about her adoption. Our 6 month anniversary for Gotcha Day is coming up on May 23rd and our 1 year anniversary is coming up for pulling her file on June 1st. We have been very blessed!

http://www.cmphotocenter.com/sbpreview/StorybookPreview.aspx?StorybookID=494830&CustomerID=504614