LOA Day!!

Since our LOA came in to our agency, they overnighted it to us to sign and it arrived at our house on Monday. We signed it, added our I800 application and some other paper work, more copies of our passports, and Randy took it to be overnighted right back to them. We decided that night would be a good night to celebrate with Chinese food! We had heard of a good Chinese restaurant in Angleton but had never been there, so we went there. It was so so good!! Michelle went with us, and we all took some pictures to commemorate LOA day!!

 And just because it never gets old seeing it, here is our LOA again!!

We're coming, Calli girl!! We should be traveling in about 10 weeks - early April!!

Garage Sale, round 3

We had another garage sale on Friday and Saturday! A few families had given us some things for a sale back before we were fully-funded for the adoption, but since the things were given for the purpose of an adoption sale we thought we should go ahead and have one. We will be able to use any left-over adoption funds for Calli's multiple surgeries once she is home, so anything helps!

The weather was beautiful here on the coast all last week so we enjoyed a good couple of days for the sale. And it was very profitable! Friday was a great day - we made $480 and then Saturday was not quite as great - we made only $40. But for a total of over $500, we were pretty tickled!

The girls had fun playing with all the stuff...they also had a little too much fun "shopping."

 

 And Molly found several cozy places to curl up and bark at all the customers as they shopped.

Friday while we were sitting outside, we got a call from Logan, our representative with Lifeline. She was calling to tell us that our Letter of Approval for Calli came in the mail from China that morning!! We were beyond excited - we waited 52 days from our PA (but who's counting, right? ;) This letter means that Calli is officially as ours as she will be before we finalize the adoption in China, and it means we move on to the next stage of the process, which is more approvals through US Homeland Security. We are so, so pumped!!!

Potty training...done!

We have been on and off again trying to potty train Cooper for several months now. And she just kept having accidents. But she was so close. So after we got home from Ft. Worth, I decided we were just going to go for it - I was just going to have to put her in panties all the time and deal with the accidents I knew would come.

So all last week that's what we did. And we had a bunch of accidents. Many days I just let her stay like this picture below, because my goodness I was doing lots of laundry. Even when we would go somewhere, we didn't put a diaper on her, and even though she had a few accidents along the way, she started doing better and better as the week went on.

Well. Sunday I took her to church and let her teachers know what was going on. I am there for two services, so about three hours, so I sent two whole changes of clothes. And girlfriend didn't even have one accident! I was so surprised when I picked her up and she had the same clothes on as when I dropped her off! Then no accidents the rest of the day, none on Monday of this week, Tuesday, and so far none today! She has GOT this! We are so proud of our little cowgirl. ;)

 

 

And just because she's too cute, check out this pretty girl. She is getting so big. I tell her she can't wear this dress because it definitely looks like a kindergarten dress. So precious.

 

We are loving these two big girls!!



H. Oscar Lochridge

 

My grandpa Oscar passed away last week. He has had Alzheimer's since 2004 and eventually had to move into an Alzheimer's unit in 2011. It has been so hard to watch this disease take over. I grieved when it got so bad that we had to move him, so I was surprised a little when I was so sad last week when he finally went to heaven. We are thankful that he is no longer suffering or sick, that he can hear fully and remember fully, and that he is with Jesus, but we mourn him being gone from us here. He was the best grandpa and I have so many sweet memories growing up with him. We spent so much time with he and my Granny growing up and I love them both to pieces!

The service was Saturday, so we drove up to Ft. Worth on Friday and stayed through Sunday. The service was in Ft. Worth at their church and then we all drove out to Iowa Park where he was born and the graveside was held there. Randy and Scott led the graveside service and it was very sweet and such a blessing to our whole family.

Here are some pictures of us with Oscar. This first one was when we went to visit him in his new home, Christmas 2011.

Our wedding, December 6, 2003

At their house, right after Cooper was born, Christmas 2010. He was already sick at this point but still living at home. My granny did such a wonderful job of caring for him.

Here are some of the flowers from the funeral. This one said "Great Grandchildren." He had 14 - which includes a little girl in China he's never met! We will love telling her, Kendall and Cooper stories about Oscar as they grow, and passing down the sweet legacy he left for them.  

Texas Tech! He graduated from there and was always a huge fan. He loved his red raiders! At the graveside, before it was over, Scott and Randy had us all do one final "guns up" for Oscar. Loved it!

Kendall, Cooper and Calli, your grandpa Oscar was one of the best men I have ever known, and he loved his family so much. You will for sure grow up hearing some of his funny sayings and stories. We are so thankful for him and are resting now knowing he is in heaven with Jesus!

 

Here is his obituary:

 

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS -- Hugh Oscar Lochridge, 87, passed away Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, surrounded by his family.
Memorial service: 10 a.m. Saturday at North Pointe Baptist Church, 147 E. Hurst Blvd., Hurst. Interment: 3 p.m. in Highland Cemetery, Iowa Park. Visitation: 9 a.m. Saturday in the church parlor.
Memorials: Consideration of gifts in Oscar's memory may be made to North Pointe Baptist Church or the Alzheimer's Association, 2630 West Freeway, Suite 100, Fort Worth, Texas 76102.
Oscar was born Sept. 20, 1925, in Iowa Park to Oscar E. and Lottie Denny Lochridge. He graduated from Iowa Park High School in 1942 and cherished his classmate friends through their 60th reunion. He was Oscar to all his friends, Hugh to his fellow workers later in his career and "Bub" to all his family. Even with a lifelong hearing problem, he graduated from Texas Tech (then Texas Technological College) in 1949 with a degree in petroleum engineering-geology. He returned in August of that year to receive his second engineering degree in geophysics.
Oscar spent three years working in the oil industry in Alberta, Canada, and Montana. He married Corrie Laverne Stewart of Burkburnet. After months in Montana, far away from home, they decided to make the long move back to Texas to be near family and friends. They settled in Westworth Village where Oscar served on the City Council and as mayor pro tem. In 1961, the family moved to North Richland Hills, where they raised their two sons. Oscar spent his career working as safety engineer for Millers and Employers Insurance companies, retiring in 1983 from the Home Insurance Co. of New York, responsible for all the Texas division.
After the death of his first wife following a lengthy illness, he married Evalyn Nichols Wood. They traveled extensively, visiting all 254 Texas counties, capitals of 50 states and numerous countries.
Oscar loved history and the lore of Route 66. He served on the Tarrant County Historical Commission for many years and received an award for Outstanding Volunteer of the Year from the Texas Historical Commission in 1995. He was a life member of the Lok-Rig Family Association and served as president for four years. He had a passion for researching his family history and meeting Lochridges from all over the country, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including eight different spellings. He was a member of the Route 66 Federation and the Texas Tech Alumni Association, where he was presented the Outstanding Engineering Alumna award in 1994. He was a member of North Richland Hills Baptist Church for almost 40 years where he served on the deacon council. He had been a member of North Pointe Baptist Church since 2000.
Oscar was preceded in death by his parents; first wife, Corrie; son, Gary and his wife, Brenda; and infant grandson, Thomas.
Survivors: Wife, Evalyn; son, Grant Lochridge and wife, Gabriella; Mark Wood and wife, Lisa; Donna Wood; grandchildren, Karen Reddick (Patrick), Kathryn Aldas (Matt), Allen Lochridge (Mai), Angelina Lochridge, James Lochridge (Alyssa), Corrie Loftin (Jeff), Ashley Dane (Randy), Alden Johnson (Scott), Meagan Eason; 14 great-grandchildren; sister, Margie McDonald; and numerous other relatives and friends. 

Dance Class

Kendall has had three dance classes so far in January and she is loving it! She is a little shy and nervous at first, but I love watching her listen to her teacher and do what she says. She gets so excited each Monday when it is dance class day. They do ballet first and then tap - it's a 45 minute class. That's a perfect amount of time for her and we are loving that she gets to do it! I took a few pictures last week during the "free dance" time. This week during that time they got to dance with scarves. One week they turned the lights out and danced with glow sticks! I love the creativity of the teacher and that some of the time is structured and some is more free.

 

This and That

January has been pretty busy so far! We've had a pretty nice balance of laid-back days at home and busy days out and about though. Have I mentioned how much I love staying home with these sweet girls! Seriously so thankful.
And, I have been a part time mom of three this month! Kendall, Cooper and I are keeping a little boy named Hayes on Mondays and Tuesdays while his mom works. We have enjoyed playing with him and I have been thankful for a little part-time job!
Here are just a few pictures from some things we've been up to lately!
Last Friday Kendall had to have two cavities filled. We were not looking forward to the appointment because she would have to go back without us and let them get her settled with the mask for the laughing gas on her face. She loves going to our dentist, but we usually go back with her for her cleanings. I wasn't too sure how she would do going back by herself, but she did just fine! They got her in the room, let her pick out a movie, and started giving her the gas and getting her mouth numb. We were able to peek in on her whenever we wanted and when I went back there she had the mask on her face, her feet were crossed, and she was looking up watching the movie on the tv that was hanging from the ceiling! We seriously love our dentist office so much and were especially thankful for them on Friday! She had the two "princess stars" put in and the worst part was just waiting until the numbing wore off. She did NOT like how her mouth felt. We were so proud of our brave girl though and thankful to have that behind us! Now I will be much better about flossing! Cooper, Randy and I played in the waiting room while she was having that done.

Afterwards, we were on our way to Ft. Worth, so we found an Ihop and treated Kendall to pancakes. The girls were pretty jazzed about pancakes for lunch! They each ate two huge chocolate chocolate chip pancakes. These two love pancakes!

 

Last Saturday we had three birthday parties to go to! Thankfully (?) they were all at different times so we were able to make each one! First was Mikey and Katie Hintze's party and Jenny did a fun Dr. Seuss Thing 2 and Thing 4 theme. So cute. Love this picture of the girls!
Mason's birthday was after that at All Stars Pizza - no pictures there. Then Randy took Cooper home for a nap and I took Kendall to Connor's 5th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. She loves her friend Connor.  Check out what happened when I asked for a picture! Watch the hands, dude! :)

The Mitterlings gave us this sweet frame for Christmas and I finally got our picture put in it. I love it and can't wait to add a family picture with our Calli girl!

Randy and I have been talking about spending more one-on-one time with each of the girls and taking them to do special things. One afternoon we went to eat at Chick fil A for lunch and then Randy stayed there and had ice cream with Cooper before taking her home for her nap and I took Kendall on a date to Cherry Berry. We had ice cream and then she went grocery shopping with me. I loved spending that time with her and she was just so sweet - so thankful. She kept telling me how much she loved doing that. I can't believe she's only going to be 4 for two more weeks!

The girls got a couple of games for Christmas that we have had fun playing. This is the sentence game Kendall got from Kiki and Pops. It is really cool and great for her, being a pre-reader. You have a board that has parts of speech on it and you spin to see which part of speech you get. Then it makes crazy sentences. Love this and thought it would have been great for when I was teaching. I'm thankful that this is my classroom now though and I get to just focus on teaching these two! So fun!

 

Funny Girls

It's time for an update on the girls! I have not been blogging as much as I want to and pretty soon I will be slurping part of the blog into a book for Kendall's fifth year, so I need to stay more current!

We laugh so much every day with and at these sweet girls of ours. They are so funny and we love watching them learn and grow and change. Here are just a few funny things we have heard lately.

Cooper answers us with "uh huh" a lot but puts the emphasis on the last syllable - "uh HUH!" Every time. It's so funny and we wondered where in the world she picked that up. Turns out it's from me. Randy has started noticing that I do the same thing - and we never noticed it before Cooper started doing it. So funny!

We have been (trying) potty training with Cooper. So about half the time at home she has nothing on but panties. The other day she had her hand down in them. I said, "Cooper, why are your hands in your panties?" to which she replied, "Mine no have pockets!" Makes sense, I guess!!

Which leads to the next thing - Cooper says "Mine" instead of "I." As in "Mine wants some apple juice." Or "Mine is seepy." Love this stage! Recently I said she was cute and she said "Mine not cute, Mine Cooper Dooper!!"

Along with that, one day I was getting on to her about something and she said, "Mine want difent Mommy!!" Well, ok! I know she didn't mean it, but it kind of surprised me!

For awhile Kendall was talking in the third person. It just started one day and stopped probably a week later. It was very funny and we had no clue where it came from but she knew that we thought it was funny. One of our new favorite shows is Duck Dynasty. One night at Pops' and Kiki's house we were sitting down to watch it and she said, "Kendall doesn't like Duck Dynasty, but she watches it." Ha!

We tell Cooper to say "Adios Amigos!" and she says, "Agameegos, Amigos!" Same thing every time. Kendall used to say "See ya ow, migeeos!!"

And now for some pictures:

Check out this hair. It looks like this every single time she wakes up. And it's not even static - it stays like that until I brush it. It's crazy!

 Randy brought the girls back these "I love Cambodia" shirts from his trip. And some cute little purses from a place called Daughters that employs women who were formally trafficked. They wore them to church last week and looked so precious!

 Just playing with Mom on a Thursday morning when Kendall was at school! It's great to have some one-on-one time with her!

 Kendall asked me to come see how she arranged her unicorns one afternoon. This is what I found. :)

 And that's all I have for now! Except for this most adorable picture ever! They were getting warm by the fire after their bath. And this was our view:

Puppy Love

Kendall and Cooper love love love Bella, Sunny, and Dennis, Granny and Papas' dogs. But Kendall says she loves Bella the best. And I think it's because Bella lets her do this:

 When the girls are at Granny and Papas', they put leashes on the dogs, drag them all around the house, bring them in the play room with them, roll around on the floor with them, and just love on them constantly. It is so fun to watch!

Kendall told me, "Mom, I think I need a dog like Bella at our house." I said, "What about Molly?" She said, "Well, we can keep Molly, but I really need a dog like Bella, too." She just is so sweet with Kendall and lets her love on her - Molly doesn't really do that. Kendall always wants to play with Molly so much and sometimes Molly will play but most times she wants to sit either with us or by herself.

 Randy and I talked about getting a big dog, but Molly is enough for us to handle right now. Having two dogs, and a new baby on the way would just be too much! It sure is hard to say no this face, though! (We also think it would be a hard adjustment for Molly! She's kind of rotten.)

 For now she can just enjoy playing with Bella and Sunny at Granny's house. And Face Timing with them. They are the first ones the girls ask for when we Face Time with Granny - "Where's Sunny, Bella, and Dennis??" And Mom has to take her iPad and show the girls wherever they are. They're obsessed.

Science Museum!

Saturday morning, Mom took the girls, Alden and me to the Ft. Worth Science and History Museum! It was so much fun. This is where Alden and I grew up going to Museum School and we just loved it. This turtle has been outside ever since then and we used to play and climb on it. It was fun showing it to my girls!

 The museum has been all re-done and it was really cool. We went to the children's museum, the science and history exhibits and the planetarium. Very fun!

 In the children's museum part, the girls loved playing doctor.

 This was an exhibit on wind. Look at Cooper's hair blowing!

 Outside on the ABC bench. It's hard to see in the picture, but the whole bench is the alphabet. I loved it!

 Sitting in a dinosaur footprint! I didn't get a picture, but there is a huge dinosaur skeleton in the museum and the girls were pretty impressed by it!

The planetarium had a special show geared towards kids. It had Big Bird and Elmo on it, teaching about the night sky and stars. They also had their friend from China on the show, too! It was so cool - the girls were pretty excited. He talked about what China was like, and where it was. They talked about how even though it is on the other side of the world, we all see the same stars and the same things in the sky. It was great for the girls to learn more about China and for us to talk about how Calli sees the same stars and sun and moon that we do. Pretty cool!
Thanks for taking us to the museum, Mom! It was such a fun morning and the girls loved it. Great memories!