Amy's surgery

Brent and Amy got up around 5 this morning and went to the hospital for Amy's foot operation. It lasted about an hour. Brent called me to say everything went well and the Dr told him when he lifted the tendon, Amy's foot immediately went to a normal foot position. Her little foot is no longer twisted and bent!! I just teared up when I heard that. What a difference this will make to her! Right now she is home and sleeping, pretty tired little girl. Before I put her down for a nap she was propped up on the couch and holding court like a queen.

Freedomfest

We had our Church 4th of July celebration last night. Karianne decorated her bike and road it in a bike parade. Angie and Amy got from place to place in a red wagon. Angie doesn't usually like bounce houses, But she and Amy spent a lot of time in them. Amy likes to sit and let everyone else bounce her. The blew bubbles and Angie had bubble juice all down her front. Karianne wanted to climb the rock wall but she doesn't weigh the minimum 45 pounds yet. She threw a ball at the dunking booth instead and she and I entered the egg toss competition, we were out on the first throw. :-) They were all very excited about watching the fireworks and Karianne and Angie assured us they were big girls this year and would not be scared. We brought lawn chairs for everyone to sit in, within 5 minutes, all six of us were sitting in 2 chairs. Brent had the frightened Angie and Amy in his lap, I had the scared Karianne and laughing Lucy in my lap. Karianne felt a little more brave after she threw a blanket on her head and watched the show through the blanket. Afterwords, they were all talk and said how much they loved the show and wanted to see more. Ha!

Lucy 5 months old, Karianne at 7 months. We've been told Lucy looks like Brent and Karianne looks like me, so there you are, what do you think?

Too Cute!

I just love this picture!

Kiddiepark

We went to Kiddiepark last night. It's a sweet little amusement park for little ones. All the rided cost 25cents. I wasn't sure how Amy would react, but she loved it. She is adventurous and game for anything we've sent her way so far. She loved all the rides. Karianne felt more mature this year from when we went last year and declared she wanted to go on the ferris wheel AND the roller coaster and she did! Angie didn't like the roller coaster and didn't feel very adventurous after that and opted to ride the carousel a couple times instead of any of the other rides. It seemed the safest choice. I had to ride with her holding Lucy the first time because Brent went off with the other two. I do NOT like going around and around. We went around and around FAST and for a LONG time! I thought I was going to slip off from the g's that thing was doing ;-) . We timed it for Angie's second ride (with Brent and the girls this time) and it was between 8 and 9 minutes long!! That is a long carousel ride!

We got home very late and the girls got in bed around 11:30 instead of their normal 8pm. Don't worry it didn't bother them at all, they were still up at 7am this morning!

The Peaks!

Here's the photo we took yesterday

princesses

We were at the mall today getting some pictures made. Since a lot of their pj's were ruined in the crayon load, I couldn't resist getting some nightgowns at the Disney store for our princesses.

crayon stain follow up

Thanks to everyone that gave me tips on my crayon stained wash. I worked on the stains every day for a week and tried all the concoctions you sent me. I still ended up throwing away about half of the load but I did manage to salvage some of it. I'm really glad I was able to save my Beijing Olympic shirt that I got in Beijing.

Beijing enlists army of toilet trained staff

Olympics host city struggles with seated vs. squat commode decision

(none of the squatty potties I saw looked this clean! -Karin)

updated 10:44 a.m. CT, Fri., June. 20, 2008 BEIJING - Beijing has dispatched 8,000 toilet maintenance staff, each responsible for a specific public restroom in the city and trained in hygiene standards and techniques, Olympic knowledge and practical English expressions, Xinhua said on Friday. There will be selective inspections every week and the results will be posted on the Web site of the Municipal Utilities Administration Commission, said the news agency. The city was also struggling with which style of commode would be best, noting Westerners prefer seated toilets, which are more comfortable and convenient for the elderly or infirm.The squat toilets widely used in Chinese public facilities are considered more hygienic as there is no direct contact with body, it said. At more than 30 test events held by the Games organizers, the squat versions drew frequent complaints from foreigners, said Xinhua.

"Not all of the toilets will be changed, but those for journalists, athletes, and VIPs will be," Xinhua quoted Yao Hui, the deputy director of venue management, as saying.

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on Friday Add to Calendar

It's like having a party!

it has finally stopped raining long enough for the girls to play in their little pool in the back yard. It rained almost every day in China, and almost every day since we've been home. we had about 3 days of dry weather so the girls have been playing in the yard. Even though Amy hates baths, she does love playing in the pool and in the sprinklers. Yesterday, all the older girls and Brent were in their bathing suits in the yard playing on the slip and slide (mostly slip) and the little wading pool. They had so much fun. Karianne sqealed and told Brent, "it's like we're having a party!!"

Every day Karianne. :-)

You be nice!

Amy hasn't learned to say a lot of English yet. She says all of our names, "sit down" and "you be nice" I didn't know if she just liked the sound or if she really knew what "you be nice" meant. I finally decided she does know what it means today. We took the van in to the mechanic today. Brent drove the van and we all followed in the minivan. Amy recognized the van in the front of us and thought it was the biggest joke that we were following him. She laughed and pointed and jabbered and the word "daddy" popped up quite a bit so I knew what she was talking about. When we got the the mechanic we parked next to Brent just as he was getting out and Amy wanted to tell him all about it. While Brent was in the office, a guy got his keys and got in the van and started to drive it into a bay. Amy started yelling at him "hey. hey!!" "You be NICE!" I think she thought he was stealing our van.


Thoughout the day today she's been singing a Chinese children's song with motions and wants us all to join it and do the motions. We just did the motions but it was so cute to hear her belt it out. Wish we knew what she was singing.

big girl

Here's Lucy trying out her high chair for the first time.

Lucy is 5 Months old today

Can you believe it? Such a big girl. When she went to the Dr on Friday she weighed in in the 40th percentile. Last time she was in the 7th percentile! Thanks to my sister Debbie for giving her 6oz at every feeding while I was in China.:-) I haven't been able to do that since I got back.

Quirky

Aren't we all? Today we were a little stir crazy from all the rain so we took the girls to McDonalds for lunch. We seem to always time our lunches with the local daycares whereever we go so there were lots of very big kids in the McDonalds playground so we really didn't play there. When I got home, Karianne had fallen asleep in the car. I got everyone else out and I was going back for Karianne when she burst in the door shouting, "Mom, I forgot to get out of the car!!" Whew, good thing she remembered! :-)
For the past 2 days Amy has been taking off her clothes when she takes a nap or goes to bed at night. I have no idea why, she never has done it before and it's not like I can ask her yet. She strips down to her diaper some time after I put her to bed and then carefully gets dressed again when she gets up. I know this because I have seen her in bed with no clothes on and when she gets up her outfit is on inside out. Today, I went to wake the girls from nap and Amy was sitting on the floor playing naked as a jay bird. Took her clothes and diaper off and layed the in a neat pile. My first reaction was to look around for an accident remembering the fun we had in China before I put her in a diaper. Weird. I mean, quirky. :-)
Karianne and I filled up our bird feeder and we spilled quite a bit on the ground. I told Karianne the birds would eat it after we went inside. We came in and she watched from the door. She called to me in a distressed voice, "OH NO, the Dogs are eating it!" Our dogs like bird seed. I should have guessed that. Once when we lived out in the middle of nowhere in Texas, Nala was caught in a hog trap overnight. We were looking for her everywhere and our rancher neighbor asked if maybe that was our dog in his Hog trap. Apparently she was lured in by the corn. Who knew, she's just a little quirky. Speaking of Nala, I entered her in our town newpaper ugly dog contest. Feel free to vote for her. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19746416&BRD=2754&PAG=461&dept_id=635668&rfi=6

Lucy has finally figured out how to grasp things in her hands. It's a whole new world for her! Now she loves it when we put her in her walker, and fill the tray with toys. She systematically knocks them all off until she finally gets a good hold on one so she can slober all over it! Lucy will be 5 months old tomorrow!

Father's Day Review

Yesterday was jammed packed and a lot of fun for our family. In church we brought Amy and Lucy up on stage during the service and the pastor prayed over them and dedicated them to the Lord. It felt like a victory. We have been through so much in the past year to bring these two little ones into our family. It was just an awesome feeling to be standing there in church with them both for all to see and to say, "here they are!" Thank you God for these amazing little lives, both miracles in themselves that they have made it this far. I pray that God uses their lives to glorify His name.









After church we went home briefly to change and to present Brent with some father's day gifts. Karianne picked out a frog cookie in the deli at the grocery store for him, provided he shared. Amy and I picked up a hat in China for him that says "Ba Ba" in Chinese on it. It means daddy and that is what Amy calls him. She has turned into a daddy's girls and just lights up when he is around. All the girls made some crafts for him and they all helped eat his cookie. Then we went to the Incredible Pizza Company, our favorite place to spend a day. It was a little trickier with 4 girls instead of 2 but we managed.
After the Incredible Pizza Company, we went back to church where some friends got together and played on the Wii's at church. It was my first time to play on a Wii, I wasn't very good at it. :-)
We finally crashed into bed a little later than usual and the girls for once went right to sleep, now that's a good fathers day gift! :-)

Happy Father's Day!

To an awesome Dad, we love you!

Our own Series of Unfortunate Events

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not quite as dire as Leminy Snikett's stories, but we had our own series of Unfortunate Events just the same. Thursday we tried to go to the lake. We waited til the end of the day so it wouldn't be crowded and hot. The girls were looking forward to it all day long. I checked the Lake website to make sure rain hadn't closed it down, it all looked good. Finally, around 5pm we head to the lake, the girls, thankfully, all fell asleep on the way. We got there to find it was indeed closed due to flooding. Grrr. Dumb website, do they think gas is cheap?? We tried to make up for it by taking them out for ice cream instead. Karianne thought we were getting ice cream THEN heading to the lake. She was pretty sad when we told her.
When we got home I pulled a big load of clothes out of the dyer to fold only to find that a dastardly black Disney Princess Crayon was in the wash and had ruined the whole load! I've been trying different stain removers and brews for the past several days trying to recover some of clothes. My Beijing Olympic Shirt that I bought in China was in that load. Waaaa.
Yesterday I took Amy and Lucy to the Dr for shots and check ups. Neither one of them understood what was going on, so hard to see that look of suprise and pain in their eyes when they get the shots. Amy has to have quite a work up of samples and blood drawings to make sure she is a okay. Poor thing. Lucy ran a low fever all night and today, but is still very cheerful. Amy and Lucy both sported bandaids and I think Amy liked that she and Lucy were on the same team at the Dr's office. :-)
This morning Brent woke up went in the living room and came back and informed me we are getting the carpet cleaned today. What?? One of the dogs, the one Amy appropriately calls "Yucky" had uh, 'the runs' as they say in Texas. I quickly agreed we are getting the carpet cleaned today.

So here I am sqeezed in the kitchen with all our funiture, waiting for the carpet to dry, and experimenting in the laundry room on some crayon stained clothes.

Have a nice day! :-)

Wednesday

We took Amy to the Dr yesterday. He took some xrays and looked at
her foot and said, "who said she had a clubbed foot?" Uh, China I
guess. She doesn't have a clubbed foot. It is a contracted achilles
tendon. Basically it is too short so her foot in the relaxed position
is all the way supine. To put it in the normal position is stretching
it to it's limit and she can't get it there all the way. The leg and
foot are underdeveloped because of it as well. She rolls her foot to
the side and walks on her ankle to compensate. We thought she walked
that way naturally. If not fixed it will soon be very bothersome and
painful. So she still will need surgery, not a whole lot different
than what we had expected. She will have to get her leg lengthened in
a few years as well. The Dr also told us had her leg been about an in
more shorter than it is the recommended treatment is amputation and
prosthetics! Praise God we'll be able to avoid that!

Sunday

Amy' s first time to church. She was totally at ease and acted like a preacher's kid who thought she owned the place. everybody wanted to say hi to her and it didn't daunt her at all. She either gave them a shy smile or a big throw-back-her-head laugh! She really suprised me on how well she did. Just a few days ago she would not have been so sure of herself. I had planned to stay with the girls in their class but Amy didn't need me and was totally at ease. Just to be sure I volunteered to work in her class during worship. Angie and Karianne were more clingy than Amy! She wasn't so sure of Kiki the Monkey in Kiki's treehouse and refrained in giving him a hug with the other kids. In class I watched her actually initiate going up to kids and engaging them in play. It was wonderful to watch.

This morning (Monday)I closed the door on Amy's thumb! I was sure I had broke it. Poor baby.Brent held Amy and kept her thumb on ice while I ran around getting the other girls dressed so we could go to the Dr. After about a half hour of keeping it on ice, Amy was tired of sitting still and being sad so she got up and went back to laughing and playing! Her finger hasn't even bruised so far! Amazing.

Karianne's photography

Karianne was snapping pictures tonight here's some of her work appearing soon at an art show near you!

The Karate Kid

Amy turned her headband around and was very pleased with the effect. :-)

Slowly every day she's had some firsts and it has been so rewarding to watch. Yesterday evening I sent her out in the backyard with her sisters and I did not go out with them. Amy is usually glued to my side, she follows me all around the house and won't let me out of her site. She hung around the door for a little bit and I kept pointing at her sisters and telling her to go play. She went and sat on a bench for a little while and just watched them and then she was playing with them! She doesn't like to be out in the grass for some reason, but there she was kicking a ball with Karianne. Big step for us. Today we went in two cars, Brent had the older girls and I had Lucy. Amy seemed fine with it, that's another big step. Just two nights ago we went shopping and Amy had to be right next to me at all times. Oh, I also heard her call Karianne by her name tonight, not an easy name to say!

I was trying to get a picture of Lucy's profile, she was really staring hard at something outside. But when she saw the camera she stared at it, and followed it wherever I moved it. Doesn't she have the craziest hair? it is so long and whispy. Not at all like Karianne's curly hair.

Tuesday

We had a good day. Amy is slowly working on words. She has our dog Rocky's name down. Our little dog is called Dinky but she calls her stinky- mostly true. :-) Caught her petting Dinky for the first time today. She usually keeps her distance from our dogs.
We all went out to eat tonight, kids eat free, big draw for us! :-) The girls had a lot of fun and they all got ice cream at the end of dinner.

Looking pretty

Amy was a little clinging and sad today. I got out the nail polish and I was an instant hit!

Lucy's first bite

Lucy took her first bit of food today. She liked it, just couldn't figure out how to swallow it. I remember when Karianne took her first bite there was quite an awful face that accompanied the taste! :-)

Happy Birthday Jason!

Just want to say happy birthday to our son Jason Benjamin Peak. He would have been 5 years old today. We miss you so much baby and look forward to our reunion in Heaven.

Today is Children's Day in China. It is supposed to be a happy celebration for Children and their parents. I know there are many parents in China grieving for their children today as well, in most cases, their only child.

Reunion

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. We actually slept until 3pm. I am completely on China time and didn't even get to sleep until after 9am, the same time I would have gone to bed in China. I felt like the walking dead for the rest of the day. The girls came home around 4 in the afternoon. It was the best part of the trip to have all of our family together! Amy is beyond herself to have sisters. Within an hour of meeting Karianne and Angie she couldn't stop hugging them! Karianne bent over backwards to impress and please Amy. They all got a bath together and went to bed. Karianne wanted to make sure Amy was going to stay and We assured her Amy was here to stay. In our evening prayers Karianne prayed for Amy to come home out of habit and stopped herself and said, "Hey, I prayed for AMy to come home and she IS home!" We used to always pray for Amy's foot to get better too so she told Amy we have to fix her feet. :-)

Brent went to church just now and the rest of us are staying home today. This jet lag thing is awful. It's like a super version of Daylight savings, except instead of one hour it's one day! You know how hard it is to adjust to 'Spring Forward'? It's really bad to lose a day! It wasn't as bad going to China and gaining a day. It's hard to go back and actually relive a day again except you don't sleep in between. We actually left China around 4:45pm on friday and arrived in CHicago at 4:20pm on friday! I'm getting to old for this. I feel sick to my stomach and can't figure out when to eat or sleep. I woke up this morning a little after 2am and couldn't get back to sleep. Brent woke up after 5 so we watched the Lost finale until everyone else woke up. :-)

Oh but it is so good to be home and have all my girls with me! It's worth it all.