High White Belt--Philip & PJ

PJ & Philip had their high white belt test this weekend. They actually tested during the week and then had graduation this weekend. This is a BIG deal!

Philip doing a rear naked choke. Notice Mr. Bussey tapping out!
Philip during the two minutes of shadow boxing. It is much harder than it looks (according to PJ!).

Look how proud he is of this new belt! I love his expression.

PJ & Philip

I did not post pictures of PJ because the adults were across the room & the gym is all dark AND PJ's partner was MUCH younger than him. So PJ looked like a giant.

Orphanage Call Update

Angela from Ladybugs n love emailed us this morning. If you have never used them, these ladies are awesome! The orphanage answered all 10 of our questions! Yeah! But no pictures (which I really wanted). Since we requested pictures in June, they did not want to send more this time :(.
One of the most interesting answers------Sydney has been with a foster family since December 16, 2008! Hello--how did we not know that? This totally changes all of our "what is Sydney doing right now" questions. We pictured her waking up (while we are eating dinner) in a little room with several of her little friends all in their small beds!
How do we feel that Sydney is in a foster family? I think it is a good thing for her?? (right?) We are hoping that she is getting a ton of lovins and attention from her foster family. I also hope they are reading to her at least 30 minutes to 1 hour a day and teaching her the ABCs in English(he-he!) Back to being serious--I think the transition might be really hard on all 3 of us. I think Sydney will be brought back to the orphanage again before we come to China. We are really not sure what to think right now. The kids are having a hard time with Sydney living with a "family" that is not our family. I'm amazed at how much the kids LOVE their baby sister without even "knowing" her. It warms my heart!
Sydney likes to play outside and eat candies. She will fit right in with her big sister. Ashlyn would eat candy all day if we let her! She does not like to crackers. Do you think she will like goldfish crackers??!!
Sydney grew a little over 2 inches since June but lost just a little weight. I'm sure from growing taller or different scales. She still just has 20 teeth!
The girls room is finished! I will try to post pictures soon.

No RA Call x 2

Nope. The Vinyards did not get the call again. We have been waiting 141 days since accepting Sydney's referral (yes I read the ra instruction sheet about how you should not count your days!). I never would have dreamed we would still be waiting. I'm starting to panic that something is wrong with our dossier or Sydney or they lost it or whatever!
Praying ours is in the next batch. And also hoping we get our orphanage call information back soon.

Cousins

2nd Orphanage Call

PJ & I decided to order another orphanage call today since we are still waiting on our RA. We were devastated last week when we realized we did not receive our RA. But it is a new week and we are still hopeful. Coming up with 10 new questions to ask was difficult! We are really just wanting new pictures and a little bit of weight gain. Can not wait to share our cutie with you guys! Thank you for all of your prayers & super sweet comments. Come on RA!

Birthday at the Ranch

Philip decided that he wanted to invite a friend to the ranch for his birthday instead of having the big birthday themed party. We picked up his friend, PS (not his real name!), on Friday & headed to the ranch. The boys packed everything labeled with "Nerf"--seriously!! I'm amazed at how Nerf guns can entertain boys for hours. Ashlyn would play with them for awhile & then come back for some crafts, movies or other fun stuff. Great weekend!

Ashlyn & I waiting on the fire pit so we can roast marshmallows. (that does not look right??)
Birthday boy eating his birthday brownie! Hard to believe our first baby is 10.

PS, Ashlyn & Philip

These next two are not great pictures. But I wanted to show how much fun the kids had on this "better than slip-n-slide"!

The boys racing.

No RA Call

I was really thinking that this was the week we were going to receive our RA. Received the email this afternoon from the agency that stated that all RA calls had been completed. The Vinyards did not get a call today. We are obviously disappointed, teary and happy for the ones that did receive theirs. I'm not sure if we just continue to wait it out or call our family coordinator or what? The waiting has been difficult on several levels (which I know several of you have been there). All in God's timing.

Philip turns 10!!

Today, our 1st baby turned TEN! Wow. The last ten years have flown by. Philip is a wonderful son. We are very blessed that he is our son! He is a great big brother (most of the time!) and is super excited about Sydney Hope coming home. Since Philip's birthday was on the weekend, we let him decide what we were doing for the day. (also we know that eventually Philip will not want to spend his birthday with us :(!) He just wanted to stay home & hang out! We cooked cinnamon rolls for breakfast, played the DS & playstation, went for a bike ride, watched the Tour de France (which bummed us out bc/we are big Armstrong fans) and went to the pool. Philip's Uncle Justin (my brother), Aunt Melissa & Ava came over for awhile to hang out. They bought Philip a remote control whoopie cushion for his birthday. I'm amazed at how that can make all generations giggle! Great present guys! Several pranks were played during the day.

Happy Birthday Philip! We love you. Our yummy breakfast with candles!
This is Philip's big birthday present! A lot of the family chipped in for this awesome cool Specialized bike. Philip picked out his bike early for the big tri race.

This is Ashlyn going down the slide today at the pool.

Philly hanging out in the pool!

Town Club Triathlon

PJ & the kids competed in the Town Club Triathlon. This was Philip & Ashlyn's first triathlon. Philip was a little nervous before the race. But both kids were excited! PJ competed first. This is his 3rd tri but 1st of this season. PJ's quote about the race was that he "finished". He tends to be a little hard on himself. The kids also compete in swimming, biking & running. I was amazed at how fast the kids competed. We did not get a lot of pictures of the event because the kids started at different times. Philip was completely done with his race before Ashlyn left the pool area. My mom, PJ (who already competed) and myself were tired from running back & forth trying to see both of them & help them with their gear! We loved all of the kids enthusiasm for the event.

PJ after his race. Everyone received medals!

Philip is a great swimmer.

Check out Philip's new bike! Early birthday present.

Philip at the finish line. Great job Philly!

Philip with his medal. (the medal looks small in person too!!)

Ashlyn trying to hurry up with drying off & getting her gear on.

Ashlyn speeding to the transition area to start the run.

I love the look on her face.

Ashlyn at the finish line. Good Job Ash!

(FYI--that is Ashlyn's markings (age/race) mixed with sunscreen on the back of her leg. Looks kinda gross!)

The kids with their medals! Great Time.

Nothing New!

The girls room is almost finished. Just a few things left to do. My mom took Philip, Ashlyn & Ava (my two year old cutie niece) shopping to buy a few things for Sydney. They picked out really cute outfits. Mom said that Philip was a big help in picking out the clothes. Isn't that cute! I just love how much Philip and Ashlyn think of their baby sister. I need to go buy some bows to match some of the outfits.

Nothing new in the adoption process. If we don't hear any news today (Friday), it will be next week for any new news. I don't think that the agency has received a packet of RAs recently so still hoping that ours is in the next batch. I took some pictures of the kids to send with our care package. I took a few of them holding Sydney's pictures. They turned out super cute! I was going to post one, but decided not to since you could really see Sydney (which is the point when we are sending it to Sydney). So I posted the one without Sydney in a picture frame!

The wait is still difficult on us. But I'm trying not to focus on it. Also trying not to count what "day" we are on. PJ is better at this than me. Thank you for the sweet comments. I save a lot of them in my email folder & reread them throughout the week.

Have a wonderful weekend! PJ & the kids are doing a "tri" on Saturday. This is the kids first one so wish them luck!