July 2013/ Gym camp/Idaho

Laurel and Mom took off for Idaho for a week at gymnastics camp. WE had a great time and all went well.
Nastia Lukin came and spent two days at camp with the kids,worked with laurel on her beam and even went to the lake with us one eve. It was quite the experience for her for sure. After we left gym camp we flew to Oregon as we have done the last couple years. Zak and Stan had driven. We stayed with our wonderful family/friends the Bray family in Salem. They are the family who adopted the little girl that Zak lived with in the foster home in China. We all had a great time with them and then we all drove home together home to California.
We are now home and back to some summer routine. 
We stopped on our way back to California in Cottage Grove Oregon to see a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG time friend and her wonderful family(all formed thru adoption). We only had a little while but it was so nice to see them all.

I just noticed that I will have to post more pictures of gym camp later. I have the Nastia pictures elsewhere and will have to get ahold of them. Don't worry though,i will do that ASAP,

JULY $ 2013 Forever family day!! laurel Sage JiaWen Raymond

Happy fourth of July to you all. Hope you all have a fun,happy and SAFE day and evening.
Last eve the kids and mom walked in the benicia July 4th parade to promote  Laurel"s gymnastics team.
THis am,we take the usual traditional every year picture to post for Laurels "special day",or  "Forever Family Day" as I prefer to call it. lol lol
8 yrs ago We met Laurel in Changsha,China. She was just turning 9 months old and she was tiny. I have posted the day of and todays picture below to show you the changes that we have seen. Dad can hardly hold her anymore. lol

Today we will celebrate a friends bday with a bbq at their house and then do your annual trip to 6 flags,Discovery Kingdom,our local amusement park in Vallejo for rides and fireworks. We go each year with our good friends the Toyama family who also have an adopted daughter from China.

I have to work tomorrow so it will be fireworks and then home to bed.  Enjoy

Strep Throat! do we have a petri dish in the house?

So this is the second strep throat that I have had in less than one month,. Im sick and tired of being sick and tired,the rest of the family have gone to get their throat cultures done to see if anyone is a carrier. We had a carrier a couple years ago,Zak and I passed it back and forth like three times till we figured it all out. I will keep you posted!!

We have a foundation June 2013

We have a foundation!! i keep waiting to come home from work and have a house,walls rooms with paint and carpet and the kids unpacking their gear in their own bedrooms. Stan says "NOT" quite like that but i think we are moving that direction anyway,

Zakarys HERO project. Leonardo De VInci June 2013

I am going to post a video of Zak's Hero presentation,. I am hoping that it will download so that you can get an idea of how it went. Fingers crossed,lets try

APRIL 2013//// the house addition is beginning

I slipped right by April and the beginning of the house addition. We are right this minute in a holding pattern waiting yet for more permits to come through but things have started,slowly but surely. Im a little frsutrated right now since there is pieces of the back fence missing and no back stairs off the back laundry room,i cant put the dogs out in the back yard as they are used to so we are having to take them out several times a day to walk them,i dont mind walking them,i just dont have tons of time at 5:15am on work days between shower,getting lunches made for us all and getting out the door by 7am for an hour drive to work. Will be very glad when either stuff starts going again,and i am seeing some progress OR a fence goes up. GRRRRR.
There was alot of dirt that had to be removed and rearranged,and the foundation outline is done. We will keep pics coming of the progress as the permits continue and there is progress. lol Is it over yet???

May 2013

We are already a good ways into May......and here i am,finally. I forget how darn busy May is between birthdays,kids school and gym activities. Somewhere in between there is work and laundry too. lol
Mothers day came,i got wonderful flowers delivered to me at work from Katy,cards from the kids and a wonderful picture frame with a picture of Zak in it from Zakary,made at school. I had lunch out that day with Chris and Destiny so my day was "ALL THAT". Then a new license plate frame(for my new car) from the kids, reading Laurel and Zakary's mom!!

May also brought my birthday,we took the kids out of school that day and went into SF to see the Terracotta Warrior exhibit at the Asian Art Museum,it was very nice and then had Pizza dinner with my mom who turned 89 two days before i had my birthday. It was a very nice day!

This coming week there is AWANA awards for the kids,and the kids "Celebration of the Art"s,their yearly dance production and then Laurels "Spring fling" the last of the month for her gymnastics! IS it all over yet?? lol  i will post pics of those events as we get to them.

The weather is getting warmer and school is coming closer to the end. Zak's hero project is on "Leonardo De Vinci" YES!!!! he picked that himself. He is doing nearly all of it on his own,he requires very little help on these types of things. I will post pics of that as well,when he dresses up at Leonardo and foes his presentation.