Riding, Singing, Speaking

When the kids and I arrived home Friday afternoon Dallas was waiting with the tractor (having just finished the first grass mowing of the year) to give the kids a ride.

They hopped in the trailer and off they went.


This picture cracks me up because Dallas was jerking the tractor forward and stopping quickly while the kids were being jerked around as if they were on a bucking bull. You can see Tru's foot flying up in the air as Dallas takes off again.


Lin-Ley gets her turn behind the wheel.





























Lin-Ley is driving. Hold on tight Tru!

Today at church all of the children from age 2 through 4th grade sang two songs together. They did a great job. Lin-Ley is right in the middle to the right of Mercy (wearing the hair band).



This was Tru's first "performance". I had watched him in rehearsals for the past several weeks and he stood very still and did not participate at all.
Today he surprised us by not only singing but also attempting all of the choreography.

Tru is on the bottom row, third from the left (clapping his hands).


I tried to get all of the kids in one shot.


As soon as we were done at church it was home for a very quick lunch and we were off to Chinese School. Lin-Ley's class participated in a school wide speech contest today. They all recited a poem together then they each had a turn to recite individually.

Lin-Ley is in the middle (again) wearing the Sailor dress. She loves that dress (and so do I) but the song "Good Ship Lolipop" keeps running through my mind when I see it.


Quote of the Day:
"Everybody Clap!"
Tru Herpin
At the end of their second song in church Tru began clapping, yelled "everybody clap", and led the congregation in their applause. There were chuckles heard...

Happy Easter 2009

Spring Break! Lin-Ley has had a fun week of goofing off with her friends. The church she has been going to had a theme for each day: silly hat day, pajama day, etc.


Lin-Ley wanted to participate in crazy hair day. So, we worked on her hair for about 30 minutes the night before putting in as many braids as we could.












The purpose of the braids was to have her hair look wild and wavy the next morning after we took out the braids.














However, the more she looked at herself in the mirror she thought perhaps she might just leave the braids in instead.
Because that was not the initial plan, and I had not braided her hair in the neatest fashion, we finally compromised the next morning by taking out all of the braids except for the two nearest to her face.










The following day was Sports Day at both of their schools. Lin-Ley's hair is still rather wild from the braids.

We're not exactly sure what's going on with Tru's latest smiles for the camera.











Good Friday meant even the church was closed (for child care) so Lin-Ley had to join me at work. She was greeted with Easter baskets from Granny Howard. She had made a beautiful basket for both of the kids. Lin-Ley was more than happy to accept on Tru's behalf!




Of course we had to dye Easter eggs on Saturday.

Tru took advantage of the eggs that burst during the boiling.













Lin-Ley watches the clock until she can remove the eggs from the dye.

Tru is eating another egg but for some reason needs to smell it first.


Another egg (to eat)!



Time to get ready for the Easter Bunny!
Baskets out - ready to be filled.


A snack for the Easter Bunny. Celery, an egg shaped cookie and a glass of water.


Goofing around.












Trying to put off bed time as long as possible.















The Easter Bunny arrived at last.

Lin-Ley's basket.


















Tru's basket.


Lin-Ley loved her Littlest Pet Shop animals and Tru was thrilled with his Choo-Choo.



Early morning candy consumption..












Time for church.
Lin-Ley was so happy to be wearing her new "Cinderella" dress.
So proud!
















Tru - not so happy! He decided that he did not want to wear his new outfit. Once I forced it onto his body he began screaming and tried to pull his vest and shirt off. This photo came about 30 minutes later. Still not happy!
















Ready to go. There was a big Easter Egg hunt after church.
















Annual visit with the Easter Bunny!











There's Tru new smile again.

Happy Easter!!

Song Of The Day:

"He's Alive!" By: Dolly Parton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbRPWUHM80M

Spring Has Sprung - Finally!

Finally this weekend the weather was nice enough to let the kids go out and play. They wasted no time and they both went out to the field and plopped down in the grass.

It was a little chilly only because the wind was blowing.






























Perfect Easter Egg hiding grass!













Dallas and the kids eventually disappeared from the field and were along side the house preparing one of their gardening spots. They were all using their lawn tools. Predictably Lin-Ley began collecting worms. Soon there was a knock on the door...

Look Mom!

















So proud of her newest worm family.
















Lin-Ley wanted to share her joy of worms with Tru. He agreed to hold the slimy critters but he was not going to take him eyes off of them.
(He does not like to get his hands dirty!)
















Then today the winds were gone, the sun was out and it was a perfect day. More outside time.

Tru went straight for the Barbie Jeep.

















Daddy's helper.











Dallas and Lin-Ley made another trip to Home Depot today. Today's purchase included tomato, cucumber and onion plants.
They started on another garden patch.







Why-Oh-Why does she enjoy getting so dirty???!!!





Ta-Da. Ready to plant.
















As I mentioned Tru was showing off his wild style of driving today. He drives with no hands, drives into the fence frequently, gets stuck more often than that and sometimes, apparently, he gets so excited he falls right out of the car....
Here is a clip of his crazy driving. The clip is a bit long but the first five seconds are priceless. We watched it over and over and Tru loved it!

Video For The Docs

Tru has a big appointment tomorrow at the Limb Deficiency Clinic. Lisa, his physical therapist, wanted to show the doctors Tru's progress in therapy as well as with his new leg and knee. This was the best way to give the doctors access to the video.

So... without further delay... here is Tru with his new leg and his new knee (which he is using quite well!). I hear the theme music from "Rocky" when I watch this video...





GO TRU!! GO TRU!!


By the way - April 1st is a memorable day:
It was 18 years ago today that Dallas arrived home from the first Gulf War (4/1/1991).