joy of love (gift from the heart)

Most days without fail, I'm handed a gift or gifts.

They're carefully made with love by hand and are always for me.

They arrive at unexpected times and I smile at their arrival...

and I've been receiving them since my oldest son was a little boy.

Now my two littlest loves have started giving.

Grace draws, paints or creates something every day...

I keep all kinds of paper, markers, colored pencils and craft supplies available

in a cupboard in our kitchen.

The pictures Will draws tend to be of Batman or Robin standing next to me!

I should have taken a picture of one of them.

I treasure their gifts and have a special box for these keepsakes...

the problem is I have so many, I have to pick and choose which ones to keep.

If I throw one away and they see it in the trash...they get upset.

So sometimes I do have to hide it. ;)

joy of love - day 8

joy of love (who they love and generations)

For lesson 6 our assignment was...

who do they love?

Since I'm using Grace and Will as my inspiration,  one of their loves

is our 11 year old labrador retriever, 'Molly.'

Molly is our gentle giant of a dog who looks out for my children when we're outside,

 is quite playful, endlessly patient, and tolerant of my two when she'd rather be taking a nap.

Molly is the only dog I've owned as an adult,

and the sweetest animal I've ever known.

And day 7's assignment is about generations.

The above was taken at Christmas with Grace and Will's Grandpa

(my dad).
My parents live just an hour away.

Grandpa is still a big kid in all ways,

and is blessed with great health along

with a fabulous sense of humor, and true joy of life!

He'll pretty much do anything the kids ask of him and more.

I love seeing them together.

We are fortunate that we live close and their Grandparents are such a big part of their lives.

joy of love - days 6 and 7

joy of love (love to hate)

Day 5's assignment for joy of love

is to show something I 'love to hate' about this person or people.

Well, I love that Grace and Will happily brush their teeth twice a day.

They rarely complain, in fact Will embraces it

and sometimes it looks like a party has gone on in the bathroom when he's done.

The above was taken this morning...still not sure who was wrestling

with the tube of toothpaste. ;)

I do get a little tired of reminding them to clean up.

joy of love - day 5

joy of love and 5/52 - blizzard

The blizzard hit our area of southern Wisconsin around 3pm Tuesday afternoon.

School was let out early and that never happens,

Fortunately we were prepared well and it was great fun

for all of us to be together on Wednesday

and wait for the wind and snow to stop.

We already had 10 inches of snow on the ground and the blizzard left another 15-16.

This was taken of Grace late Wednesday afternoon after the plows had come by and

my husband had finished shoveling and snow blowing.

Yes, sometimes I wonder...why DO we live here?

 Other than living in North Carolina and California for a total of 10 years,

I don't know any other way.

I'm a Midwest girl through and through.

 But, I can do without the blizzards.

The joy of love assignment for today was 'what they wear.'

Thought the above one of Grace was appropriate for us this week!

Happy Friday.

joy of love day 4

joy of love ( how they look and then and now)

I'm catching up on the assignments for Joy of Love.

The above and below pictures are 'How they Look.'

 Will's were taken today in the morning and the one of Grace

shortly after she came home from school.

Their true personalities speak loud and clear from these images.  :)

And  below is 'Then and Now.'

Will holding a picture of himself at age 2 & 1/2

and Grace with her picture at 12 months, taken shortly after we first met in China.

No explanation needed as to how much they've grown and changed in that time.

Joy of Love day 3.

joy of love

In December I took Kelly Willette's 'Finding the Holiday Joy'

 online photography class and loved it.

So this month I'm taking her free class, 'The Joy of Love.'

Every day we have an assignment and I'm already behind. lol!

I will attempt to keep up but know that it's pretty unlikely I'll post every day,

so I'm thinking I'll combine a few days together in posts.

I highly recommend her classes, they keep me inspired and especially this time of the year

when I have cabin fever.

The first assignment was to photograph someone you love

doing what they do... whether it's working, playing, eating, etc.

The above ones are of my little man doing one of the things he probably does best,

which is play.
Those mini super hero toys get played with constantly.

I happened to get my husband in the background working on the computer.

He was home because we had a snow day today because of the blizzard.

So I got two of my loves in this one.

black and white Wednesday - Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Tomorrow is Feb. 3 which starts the year of the Rabbit.

I can just imagine what it's like in China right now, with all the preparation for this holiday.

Chinese New Year is so much more than firecrackers and lion dances.

Though I've never been in China during it's Spring Festival,

I've heard it's very much like Christmas is to us.

It's a time for families to gather, give gifts, eat and celebrate together.

We have our own family traditions of decorating for the holiday,

eating special foods,

 and later in the month, a weekend get together with our beloved China travel group.

I also take pictures every year of my kids in their traditional Chinese clothes.

It's a way for us to look back and see how much they've grown.

This particular session turned into a giggle fest,
starting with the supreme giggler (Will) and then Grace had her turn.
We had lots of fun.

Please be sure to go to Lisa's Black and White Wednesday,
over at The Long Road to China
 to see many more pictures...

and Happy New Year!

Sunday snapshot - snow!

The hard Winters here last until late March,
 sometimes early April

and lately it's been snowing every few days.

So we embrace this beautiful season and have fun.

This week we had a couple of overcast days,
 so the snow wasn't blinding us when we were outside.

Giggles and laughter pierced the quiet of a Winter's day.

And that's such a wonderful sound to me,
my heart is happy when I hear it.

There was a lot of running, sliding, rolling, throwing of snow

and creating.

Grace was making the 'Great Wall of China' and Will was building a pyramid.

The above is Will's (attempt to get the snowflakes

off his nose) face.

For a little boy who hated to go out in the snow and cold in previous years,

he now asks to play outside (pretty much) everyday.
And I love that...
:)