One More Night

 After two years in China we are moving back to America.  It has been a crazy amazing adventure.  China has changed us forever.  We have learned much, experienced so many new things, met so many amazing people and of course added a tiny tot to our family.  It has been two of the hardest, most challenging, and best years of our lives.  We are leaving for now, but I'm hopeful we will be back someday.

 They shipped our boxes a couple of days ago.

 The girls are so sad to leave their home, but at the same time they are so excited to get a little more space in their bedroom :)

 

 This is home to all of our kids and it will be a big adjustment going back, but we are excited about the next chapter.

  

Goodbye China, it has been great, thanks for all the memories!  

And thank you all for following along on all our adventures...

Kisses From...

 This little guy gave his mommy and daddy kisses yesterday for the first time.  

It was real wet, but super cute and so special! :)

Last weekend our driver, Mr Shin, came over and taught us how to cook some of our favorite Chinese dishes.  Hopefully I can recreate them, they were SO delicious!  Before we started cooking he took us shopping at the whole sale food market.  This place is really close to our house, I wish I had known about it before now.  Everything was so so cheap!  They also have a section of wholesale meat.  We didn't go to that part, but I really want to go see what it is like and what kind of meat they are selling...

At one of the small markets right outside our complex someone pointed out a chicken that was walking around and the owner grabbed it and chopped its head off.  It was a little crazy to watch that happen and crazy how long that chicken kept going after its head was gone!  I am often reminded in China, how far removed most of us are from the farm in America.

Then we started cooking.  Well he started cooking and I tried to take notes and pictures just to make sure I didn't forget anything.

 They cook everything in oil which surprised me when we first came here because they are all so thin!

 He cooked green beans, cauliflower, fried potatoes, and sweet and sour pork.

The girls dug in.  It was so good!

 They have a play area in one of the malls where they let the kids play while the parents shop.  The girls love it.  My favorite thing about this picture is the crowd outside the store looking at the foreign kids.

Favorite pastime.  Watching mom cook and waiting for food to come his way.

Happy Birthday!

Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le

Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le

Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le

Zhu ni sheng ri kuai le

Happy Birthday Madison!!!

Last weekend we celebrated our 3rd's number 3 birthday.  She has celebrated all 3 birthday's in China!  I think next year she might have to have a red white and blue themed party in America!

She has been asking for 'cake and water' all year long so we set off first thing on Saturday morning to find some cake.

 Madi and our driver, Mr. Zhong looking at cakes.  He is Madi's favorite driver :)

 After choosing a cake we had to go buy food.  The kids always try to play in the rice which I think is disgusting...  the Chinese kids always play in it too, this little girl brought some toys to play with in the rice.  I always try to dig down a bit in the hopes of getting some rice that hasn't been played with by every kid in the store.

 This is the cake she chose.

It was perfect!

 Cake choosing is exhausting!

 Kyle and Kaylie waiting for the little's to get up from naps

 Now off to find water

 The little store where we always get our big jugs of water no longer sells them! 

 Birthday ride

 Had to stop to do some jumping...

 Yep, she is now 3.  I'm pretty sure she wishes she was still 1 :)  She loves being the 'baby' of the family.  I'm pretty sure she ignores the fact that she is larger than Jaxon, she is not going to acknowledge that he may have taken her spot.

 This is some sort of intermediate shipping place, everyday they bring in big trucks of packages, dump them all over the place, sort them and they deliver them in little vans.  When I had to take Kenz to school every morning, we had to walk through the craziness, they usually cover the entire walkway with packages and you just walk through them or over them, whatever works. 

 Next stop.  We get all our snacks from this little store.  And we go here almost every day so we know all the people here.  It is only a couple blocks from our place so the two oldest girls can walk here by themselves to get a drink once in a while.  They love it!

 The lady who works here speaks a decent English and between her English and Kyle's Chinese she was able to call the water company and have a jug delivered to our apartment.  Yeah for drinkable water!  Getting the water turned out to be way harder than the cake! 

 Waiting for food.  He always thinks he is on the verge of starvation while I'm cooking dinner, it cannot get done soon enough!

Birthday dinner.  Fried chicken and mashed potatoes!  SO GOOD!

 Finally.  Cake time!

 This cake was probably the best we have had in China, the bar is real low so that doesn't mean much.  It had a layer in the middle that tasted something like a blackberry mouse and then just the bland whipped stuff they use for frosting.  It was decent.  Madi really liked it and we had water to drink so it was a great birthday!

After party, meet in the packing bins!