Daughter G's senior year of college!

Meanwhile, we also moved daughter G into her dorm for her senior year of college.  SENIOR YEAR.  How did that even happen?!?!?!?!  She was so happy to be back on campus with her "people," and is thriving there so much, my mama's heart was full of gladness to see her so happy.

She arrived on campus one day before her room-mate, so she had to figure out how to configure the furniture on her own, hoping her room-mate would be happy with it.  (she was!)

Daughter G with one of her dearest friends.

The next day her room-mate arrived and they finished putting the room together.  This is the third year these two have roomed together!  So happy to know they are such good friends, and look out for each other like sisters.

 Sibling silliness!

Milestones!!

Since I last blogged, this beautiful young woman turned 21,

this handsome young man turned 19,

this handsome young man turned 18 AND graduated from high school!, and

last but not least we remodeled our family room from this:

to this: 

just in time to host son L's grad party!  Whew!!

Busy spring with lots of wonderful milestones.  My heart is full.

Christmas Eve 2017

If you have been a long time reader, these pictures will look familiar.  They are just the 2017 version. :)  We started our family Christmas celebration at the Christmas Eve service at church.  I always love the Christmas Eve service!  We end it every time just with candlelight, while singing Silent Night.  So special.

At home we ate our traditional Chinese food for dinner, and then had our own worship service, with sons G, A, and C helping to read the Christmas story this year from my grandfather's Bible.
     

After prayer, we began opening our gifts to one another.  Daughter H was able to join us for the evening, and we had fun being all together!  She gave my husband this Keurig for Christmas!

Little Man is obsessed with this show.  We watch it with him....it's a little edgy (scary)....but we are all enjoying the very good acting by child actors, and can talk about each episode after we watch.

So happy that two of my boys still want legos!

Son L received these cool water speakers (behind him on the bookcase).  They light up and water spouts up with the beat.  We had fun trying out different songs to see how they would affect the water.

These are daughter G's feet.  She has long wanted Chaco sandals, and this was her year to get them!

We faked son G out with this gift....it was so fun!  He had wanted the battlefront 2 game (Star Wars, for those of you who may not know), but we packed it with a heavy book in a bigger box so that he wouldn't guess what it was by the weight and shape.  He opened it from the bottom and saw the book first, and was kindof confused....it was a book on eschatology!  Haha!  The rest of the evening, while all the gifts continued being opened, he loaded it on the xbox so he could play some before bed.  He LOVES this game.

Daughter G gave hubby and I light sabers, so we could have a light saber battle for date night!

Kyle Ren's tie fighter.

Daughter H got to open her stocking that night as well, since she wouldn't be with us the next morning.

Merry Christmas everyone!

College Readiness

Within hours of returning from our wonderful TN vacation, we helped son G buy his first car, and in the next couple of days went to parent day at his college orientation, and moved daughter G in to her dorm at HER college, for her junior year.  It was a busy few days with lots of "firsts" (yay!) and lots of "goodbyes" (boo).

Son G and my hubby, watching the family of geese that lives in the pond on campus.  There were also some carp swimming in this pond!

After convocation, all the freshmen met together in groups of 15 or so, and they stayed in these groups for the next days of orientation.

Son G is in the green shirt and grey pants, waiting for the rest of his group members to show up.  He bonded really well with his group leaders (one guy and one girl), and they were really great at showing him the ropes every day.

Meanwhile, the rest of us moved daughter G to her college dorm for the third time.  Hard to believe she is half done!

Love her so much.  So hard to say goodbye.  So happy that she loves her college and is thriving there.  That's my heart in three sentences.

Back home, her vacated bedroom, which used to look like this:

...now looks like this!  Son G moved in to her room to begin his college experience.  It's bigger and brighter, and.....he doesn't have to have a roommate.  First time since infancy that he has his own room!

Happy 20th, 18th, and 17th birthdays!

Welp, our oldest child is no longer a teenager.  HOW did that happen?!

We celebrated her a few days before her birthday, when she was home from college for the weekend.  Unfortunately, not all of her siblings were also home that same weekend, but we held up a picture of the missing boy so that we were all "together!"  We are in that stage of life where there are just a lot of comings and goings.

One week later, this boy turned 18!!

Son G's birthday fell during tech week right before the play, so I took a cake to play practice and all his drama friends sang to him during rehearsal.

He and son L's play performances were wonderful!!  They performed in Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility", and Little Man also acted in the play for the very first time.

Then today, son L turned 17!!

And in between there was senior prom for son G,

new laptop for him, as he prepares to graduate and head off to college,

senior "pinning" for daughter H,

the end of semester art show for daughter G, and then bringing her home after successfully completing her sophomore year of college,

and copious amounts of yard work, as we prepare for a double graduation party.

Love each milestone and each moment with these precious kiddos.

Happy birthday daughter G, son G, and son L!