Introducing...

My sister's twins arrived early this morning!! I have the honor and PRIDE of introducing (sniff, sniff) my namesake Eva Christine...

and her "big" brother by 2 minutes Ethan Robert.
We are so happy to have these little rascals out of the womb (thanks to the full moon)where they were torturing mama by flip flopping in all sorts of positions. They have both been breech for the past week - in Dutch it means "naughty!" But they came out fine and look like sweet angels to me. Eva weighed in at 6.5 and her brother was a healthy size at 6.11 Welcome to our world little ones God has blessed you with a GREAT family and - we love you!

Potty Troubles

Let me ask WHO told my 2 year old son it was a good idea to practice standing up to go tee-tee without turning on the light?

Senerio: I was undressing Caleb for bed when he announced he had to go potty. I let him run out the door to the bathroom as I lingered in his room. When I caught up with him in the dark bathroom, he proudly announced "I stand up..go tee-tee!" Yep, you guessed it, when I turned on the light I had to go for the Scrubbing Bubbles!

Happy Chinese

New Year!

It's the year of the Rat.

This is a very significant holiday time in China where people travel far to visit with family. Please continue to keep this country in your prayers as they are dibilitated by the winter storms that are still hammering much of the country. Pray for the safety and protection of all the children that are dwelling with no heat and running short on warm clothes, diapers and food.

China's Storms

Military dispatched to crush ice on major roads in China

My heart has been touched the past few days. As some of you may have heard China has been experiencing wide spread snow/ice storms that has literally debilitated much of the country. Both ground and air transportation has struggled with this disater. The heart break of it all is that electricity for heaters is cut and those that depend on coal are not able to receive the shipments because of the conditions. There is no heat in the homes and orphanages with small weak babies. Other goods and food supplies are being cut off or at least the demand is causing local prices to sky rocket. Children need such basic materials as warm quilts, food, diapers and heat. Half the Sky is one charity which is collesting and dispensing money to the orphanges to help them with their critical needs. For many of us, our children are already there, lying in the frozen air. Please consider a donation to this charity they have dubbed "Little Mouse Emergency Fund" in recognition of their New Year of the Rat which begins this week.

Click HERE to give

Caleb Part 2

Get out bed! Drink your milk. Eat time! Put on coat - it's cold. Tori, bad doggie. Do you hear me??

No, I did not mistype my words that my children hear from me everyday. These are words that Caleb spouts off to his 6 year old sister at various parts of the day. My two favorites are "Sissy, get up - it's bright!" Meaning there is a peap of dawn on the horizon and it's time for the whole house to be alive.
The other is "Do you hear me?" This is spoken to any of us for any given request that is not met within the expected time frame of a two year old. It's better used on the dog when she's lagging outside "Tori, here. DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Here he is in his doggie towel from Mimi and Papa Jacques- cute huh? Caleb still doesn't let us forget Papa Jacques in our prayers as he continues to battle his cancer. So, he's cute and sweet. Today he hugged and kissed all the other children in Sunday School goodbye as he left - good thing he was the only boy in a class full of girls!

Caleb Part 1

Not a day goes by that I don't get a chuckle from my two year old. He is just at that really cute phase. His comments are funny, his voice is cute and he has developed some quirky habits that will pass all too soon. So, I thought I would share a few. Some might be funny only to me but maybe you will get a little chuckle too!

Here my little goofball eating what he calls a "daddy sandwich". Yeah, no bread in sight huh? We don't know where it got it's name, but it's a mix of peanut butter and honey stright up ONLY to be served in his orange bowl. Sometimes I can throw banana slices in there and it is accepted. Yes, no worry folks, I make sure it's not too thick and that he drinks a lot during this part of the meal.

He is also very nuturing to his pet dinosaurs - he likes to let them eat off of his plate and will put his sippy cup up to each of them for a drink!

14 months

You know you have been waiting a long time when you can't even remember how long it's been! I had to stop and think if it's been 14 or 15 months since our Log In Date. Well, fortunately I have my handy, dandy, trusty, little snail ticker up above to quickly remind me - it's only been 14 months. I was about to change our ticker a couple weeks ago and realized I that I think I have grown rather accustomed to my little snail buddy. Shall I name him now that we have been together so long?