HAPPY EASTER

From the Whitten family!

Praying that you are serving our risen Lord today & everyday!

THANK YOU, JESUS FOR THE CROSS

Easter Weekend Fun

Happy Easter everyone! The girls had some fun this morning hunting for some eggs in our back yard. We hid 118 eggs and best we can tell, only one is still missing. That's a record for sure as there are usually quite a few eggs that we cannot remember where we hid them.

We have never had a nice size yard to actually hunt eggs in until this year. For the last 6 years we've went to the church and hid them around all the buildings so it was nice to be able to stay home and have fun here. Madison had a great time, and of course, is enjoying the candy.

While we want our kids to have fun we also do not want to make Easter all about eggs and bunnies. We want them to know the REAL meaning of Easter; that Jesus died on the cross for all of our sin and rose again from the dead three days later to prove He was God. If you haven't already made plans to do so, why not attend church somewhere tomorrow and celebrate the great love that God has for you? You'll be glad you did.

Have a wonderful day!

Melissa

FIELD DAY

Every year the girls school has a "field day" outside where they have a lot of games set up for them to play. I enjoy going each year and watching the girls play & have fun. Morgan no longer gets to have field day:( Once you hit middle school its all work and no play!

Oh my, that smile melts my heart!

 Look at her go...she was drug to the ground but still would not let go of that rope..my little "team player".

 And ended the day with a snow cone!

Happy Thursday!

FUN DAY

Today was our annual Easter Extravaganza at church. This was Madison's first year to go and she loved it. It was suppose to rain but God had other plans and it was beautiful (and HOT).

I feel the need to explain the face painting.First off I will just say that she was in the care of her father during that time:) and secondly, I think she may watch a little too much of Jack  the never land pirates!



Morgan volunteered the whole time so I didn't get any pictures of her. It was a fun day & now the girls are swimming...Oh how I wish I had their energy!


Happy Saturday!

7 Months

• Madison you are beautiful
• your smile takes my breath away.
• you still talk ALL.THE.TIME.
• you are funny
• you love to eat..anything
• you like to dance
• and sing
• you still like your routine,it ruins your day if something goes off your regular routine.
• you give us hugs & kisses daily

I cant believe we have been home for 7 months now. Most days are really good but recently Madison keeps reminding us of just how broken & hurt she still is. It makes me sad to see her begin to shut down emotionally and the fact that she cannot tell us how shes feeling makes it even worse. Recently she has been asking to look at all her stuff from China and there have been several days in the last week or so where she just has little meltdowns.  What's worse is the fact that we cant figure how what is setting her off or really how to make it better. The good news is that Madison also says she loves us all the time & is hugging much more than before. I think back to 7 months ago & she didn't even know how to be held. When I would pick her up she would just be limp.

We've definitely come a long way and for that we are grateful. We are also excited to see how much further along she'll be 7 months from now.  Thanks for being a part of the journey.

Blessings,
Melissa

Duck Dynasty

I realize not everyone loves DD like I do, But click on the link below & this is some of the reasons why I like it so much!


http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/03/18/9-things-you-should-know-about-duck-dynasty/




Happy Wednesday!

Melissa

A relaxing afternoon...or is it?

It is a beautiful day here in Florida. David has a meeting tonight so he came home a little early to spend a little time with the family before he has to go back to work till around 10pm. Anyway the two "Little's" are swimming in the pool and Morgan is inside doing homework:(

Let me go back to this morning, Madison wanted to look through her china backpack (It has all the clothes & photos of her with her foster family) lately she has been asking for it a lot. So I let her go through it a few times and then I put it back up. Afterwards, she became really whiny and wanted me to hold her which I did. To me, it seems like every time she looks at those pictures it just stirs up these emotions in her & they last for the rest of the day. It is so frustrating not being able to know what she is thinking. Anyway skip to 4 pm when David goes & picks her up from school...He was on his phone & so shortly after they pulled out of the parking lot she started pitching a fit.... not a normal 4 yr old tantrum, mind you. We just refer to them as "Madison's tantrums" So back to the story, that lasted about 45 minutes and she finally calmed down...or did she ? I just found this! HA

So now David & I are sitting outside on the Lanai while the girls are swimming trying to talk for a few minutes before he leaves and I kid you not, our middle school neighbor must have gotten one of those flute-o-phones at school today in music class . Obviously her parents told her to go practice outside because for the last hour all we have heard is this horrible, out of tune version of Mary Had a Little Lamb! We are just minutes away from having our very own Seinfeld scene play out over here because either David or myself is about to hop over the fence & break that flute into tiny little pieces!! Some days we just cant seem to catch a break.  Ever had a day like that? I just cant make this stuff up.



Hope your having a relaxing Tuesday!

Melissa

Just a few pictures

Were having a relaxing Sunday afternoon and I don't want to think to hard about a post, so I am just going to post a few pictures I took this morning before church.

I was taking a few "sweet" pictures of Madison & then all of the sudden she jumps up on the fireplace & does this.....

OH. MY. WORD. I am not kidding when I tell you this girl has more spunk then any kid Ive ever seen!


And even Morgan "allowed" me to take a few pictures.

Happy Sunday!

Melissa

Another first

Today Madison went to the Dentist for the first time and she did GREAT! I let her watch a YouTube video last night so she would know everything that was going to be happening.

As always she had all the ladies in the office wrapped around her little finger. She talked the entire time:) (have I mentioned that she talks a lot?)

She was very happy to get her stickers and another little treat when it was all over.


Now we are off to Haidyn's birthday party!

Happy Thursday!

Swimming,bowling,& the beach ...Oh my!

Yesterday we had some friends over to swim but today was rainy so we decided to go bowling. I knew that since it was yucky outside that the bowling alley would be packed, but when we got their we were told that Tuesday's are senior citizen day!!! There were no lanes ope until 3pm...and it was 10:45 AM.
So I then had to shell out more $ than I wanted to to let the girls play in the arcade for an hour. We left there after everyone had finished wasting  spending my money.

Tonight we met some friends at Little Harbor and ate dinner & then then guys fished a little while Julie & I watched the kids play on the beach. We all had a good time the only negitive was that it was freezing!

                                                   Morgan & Julianna

Madison was perfectly content digging in the sand for an hour while the other kiddos ran around like wild heathens.

It was a fun day had by all!

This & That

I haven't posted much lately because I really haven't had much to say. In all, things have been pretty quiet and normal around the Whitten house and for that we are thankful. Since the kids start spring break tomorrow I'm sure that I'll have some pictures of a few of the fun things we will do (although as of right now we have no plans :-). While we do have some friends coming over to swim tomorrow that is the extent of our plans right now.

Yesterday Madison had a little set back. She got mad about something small (dropped her bracelet in the car and since I couldn't stop and get it, it progressed into a tantrum that lasted about 40 minutes). We still never know what will set her off or even what she is really thinking/feeling in those moments since her English is still very limited.  She's come a long way for sure but beyond the basics it not too clear what she is saying.

I checked the two big girls out of school a little early on Friday & took them for ice cream..I never do this, I am a little OCD about them not missing school unless they are sick. They were surprised and enjoyed their ice creams.

We went to PF Chang's (my favorite restaurant) on Friday night. I think you can tell from the pictures that Madison loved it! She ate all her plate then had some white rice AND then asks for more! she started picking up every morsel of food left on the table.

This is usually what my China doll looks like when she gets up in the morning:) and let me just say, that it is very hard to get that hair to lay down without completely washing it .

It amazes me how she is such a good "mommy" for her bears. The way she takes care of them & loves on them you would never know that she never had that in her life.


Tonight I made the girls corn dogs..(because I am a great mother & believe you can never get enough processed foods! Kidding) anyway, I didn't realize Madison had never had them before & she kept saying "Look Kinley theres a hot dog in it" then she would just laugh & say "that's funny". Oh the things we take for granted.

Happy Sunday,
Melissa

Wordless Wednesday

She got a hair cut today:)