Taking Turns Being in Charge!

Since Tessa has been de throwned from her Princess hood they are remarkably learning to take turns and share. Some days are better then others but this is just what siblings do 2 1/2 years apart. They love each other and miss one another when one is gone and can hardly wait for the other to come home to play with them.... Trey is still doing fabulous. He is testing the rules a little more trying to see what he can get away with. But no more then a typical 5 yr old.

He is going to Tae Kwon Do with his big brother Travis. His teacher is from Taipei and he is certainly leary of her more then I thought. Must be the thought we might leave him with her... maybe to be his new Mom.... I think as time goes on he will ease in with her better. He goes 2 times a week. There are two other handsome boys 19 and 24 from an hour away that also come to joing the class. They too are from Taipei. We really feel it is the only thing to do to help retain a little of his Taiwanese language. Trey is doing awesome academically in class.

Has the best handwriting of all the students. Gets what the teacher is instructing him to do and is very detailed in his work. So this is so good....

He is still having a hard time not touching or bothering other children. Not in a mean way. I really think this is really the only way he can communicate with them so far. So other then that he is the best......Sleeps so great... So loving and such a happy, funny little boy. He truly is a blessing to our family. We all love him soooo much and hope that he still continues to do so well. It has been 2 mos since he was ours and we are just so proud of him excepting us as his family.

One would never have thought this transition would have been so easy....

we love you Trey...

Grandma comes to visit!

Grandma with Tessa and Trey.... She ate up all the love....



We had a great visit with my Mom. Trey loved my Mom from the first sight when he got off the school bus. I am sure she enjoyed her visit but the peace and quiet of going back to Arizona was probably a relief also... Ha Ha. She raised 5 children also, and is still living proof you do survive... Love ya Mom...Of course Tatumn is missing in the family photo with Grandma. Soccer interfered with this photo session.... It is really hard to get everyone together all at once....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

First Day of School!!!

August 25th was the first day of school here for the kids.... Yes... I am a few weeks behind with those photos... But it is better then none at all...

We decided to go ahead and start Trey JingLai the first day since he has done so great adapting thus far with the family. We also felt if we sent him in 2-3 weeks the other Kindergartner's would already have the morning routine down and he would not... He would then be behind learning how the classroom works. So off he went. I went the first day all day but only spent the first hour in the class helping the teacher then running errands for them in the school. Then I went to help Tatumn's teacher in the 5th grade. I really enjoyed helping Ms. Carter and her big kid class... Then we went to lunch while Trey was in the lunchroom with his class. I sat with him for a few minutes because I was obviously distracting him from eating. He wanted to mess with my lunch. His teachers told me he was doing great!!!!!!!!YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

The next 4 days will be half days for Trey. Then to full days. His first few days he did just perfect his teachers said. He is really doing just great with the language barrier. They are showing him what to do and then telling him. He catches on very quickly. They are very structured in his class. His first full day went awesome also. A little boy was playing with him most of his recess time outside and came in to tell the teacher he has a new friend Trey and he has fun with him, but he can't understand what he is saying. Ha Ha... This is when the teacher told all the students he speaks Chinese/Mandarin. So he is just learning English from all of you students. They thought that was pretty cool, that they would be teaching him something...Trey's teacher call me the other day to tell me that he did his M&M graphing perfectly... So he really gets most of it.... We are just so proud of him.

Tatumn loves her 5th grade class and is pretty much ready for the homework load 5th grade brings. She is also in soccer for the fall... So we will be very busy...

Travis doesn't really say much about the 12th grade which is good. No complaining...He is taking an online college course as an elective for the high school and is enjoying that also. He will graduate this year and go to the community college for 2 yrs and due his 2+2 program which allows him to do 2 yrs comm. college and 2 yrs state college for his engineering degree. That is if he doesn't change his mind... 4 yrs he has talked about it so hopefully that is a definite plan....

Just Having Fun!

Trey and his Spiderman bike. He sure does love his bike. His foster parents owned a bike shop so now I know why at 5 he can ride on 2 wheels.... One less to teach...

Trey has a worm in his hand... Uck... I should have known he is a boy. Soon he will be bringing in lizards.... Tessa wants no part in the bug hunting...

Both of the kids wanted to show off their artistic side. They had so much fun painting.

I had a fridge full of art work.

They first thing Trey painted was his numbers 1through eight. I could not believe he just did not paint pretty colors all over the paper. This painting was more of his artistic side.

This is the first time Trey had been on the waterslide. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. Tessa really is enjoying having someone to play and swim with.

Surprisingly happy to be sitting with each other today. They still have there moments when only

one can be in the chair at a time. So I make sure to get some photos of them sharing things so nicely together...

Trey loves this camera. We got it from the baby store in Taichung when we adopted Tessa 2 yrs ago. It came with the purchase of our diapers and the rest of the store shopping spree that we did...

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Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium

Oh, Tatumn you will find your prince someday sweetie!!!!!!!!

We had a great day at the Aquarium. Just the 4 of us headed down and Trey really enjoyed the aquarium. He loved the stingray petting pool and the horshoe crab petting pool also. He was pretty amazed to see the big tank of sharks. We spent most of our time there.The sandcastle is done in cement. They do a new one every year. Pretty cool to see in person. It was just an awesome day to have just 2 of the kiddos...

Out And About at Home

What a beautiful smile.

Playing in the sprinkler

Trey prefers to go up the slide to come down..

Well, what do you think Mei Mei. Can we do these monkey bars????

Ham!

where is the smile from Dad.... He obviously did not want his picuture taken today... Ha Ha...

Trey loves his big sister.

Our sweet baby girl. Almost 3. Where does the time go?

This is pretty much what these 2 do. Chase each other around then play fake sleeping.

They both are quite the characters to say the least