Girlie girl

Craig picked up a box of "honey nut loops" at the import store when he was over on that side of town a week or so ago- Grace has started liking these, and all our kids have been requesting bowls of cereal before bed...trying to break this habit! The requests usually come just as the toothbrushes are coming out. Anyway, the back of the cereal box has a picture of a monster truck and I think it says, "Draw a monster truck" or something like that. H & G didn't know what monster trucks were, and it just so happened that Uncle Scott had just had a dream involving monster trucks (a pretty funny one) that daddy shared with everyone. Ever since that night, the kids- especially Grace- have been requesting monster truck stories. This is not my strong point- mine have all involved parades...monster trucks being in parades. I'm not sure I even know what the purpose of a monster truck is. She asked me last night for 4 monster truck stories- I said sorry, no- don't have time or the creativity :)

G has had a good week at school, been growing and seems older- asking nonchalantly while reading her bible, "How was running daddy?" or always after a meeting "How was your meeting?".

In the middle of an exciting 1 Samuel battle story, we were all "wow"ing and she whipped around toward me- caught up in the moment- and said, "Wow! I LOVE you!" and gave me a big hug. G makes us laugh a lot...and is having more and more of her own ideas- including going "real bowling". We went last week- thinking it was a great idea and wanting to stay in out of the heat/pollution. Here's a picture of her showing her muscles (because bowling balls are HEAVY!)-



And! It cooled off a TON overnight here. Went from shorts/t-shirt/fans on to our breath being visible outside this morning! Here she is in a new fall outfit that she hadn't worn yet- Hudson told her several times how pretty she looked, went to grab the camera, took her picture, and showed me this picture saying, "mommy, doesn't Gracie look pretty?"




thankful for...
Sovereign Grace kids' music - especially our "To Be Like Jesus" CD
loneliness- and Elisabeth Elliot's book on it
the "Cross that lifteth up my head"
Ren Dong's wedding and the guests it brings to town this week w/o Daddy
my 3 little buddies this week
sweet emails from sweet friends
Hudson's subject line in an email he sent yesterday "JESUS IS WITH YOU"
Craig getting a chance to meet up with some great guys this week
knock-off Monopoly Deal cards I found on the street!
rain
cooler weather
our house helper's trip and all the stories of His work and His people's faith

What is happening to my kids?!?

Uncle Troy just sent this sweet jersey- yes we all love it in our house- it hurts a little that he's a cardinal, but...

our little football fan

For a few weeks now, Hudson has been in love with his aussie rules football- playing imaginary games constantly - and also has been just about daily checking nfl.com (he's still getting used to the idea that football teams just play once a week). And even really getting interested in his parents' fantasy football teams. When we first talked about it at breakfast one morning, I told him the draft, where you pick your team, was in 10 or so days. He replied something along the lines of, "Well, I don't think we should take the Giraffes. I think we should take the Bears, Colts, Saints or Broncos." He then learned that the DRAFT is for picking players, not teams. And he was his dad's assistant when Craig had to be gone for a China-league draft and also was influential in picking the Saints defense, kicker, and Matt Forte in our family draft. We aren't too happy with our "Great Wall of Coady" team- we could probably call ourselves "the giraffes"-- but Hudson said the other day, "Well, we'll at least get points every week, right?". I assured him we will and that we'll probably squeak out a win or two- we'll at least for sure have a chance against Papa ;).

Here he is doing some football research with daddy- and possibly with me too- G took this picture, chances are we were looking at something football:





Another recent exciting time in the Coady house have been our 1 Samuel stories before bed. Hudson is totally in to it, glued in on Craig as he tells the story. We've had lots of enjoyable/funny/cute moments during the stories...one the other day when Craig asked Hudson where he would want to be if lots and lots of Phillistines were coming- would you run and hide in caves like the Israelites? (This is a few days before the story of Jonathan's singlehanded massacre.) Hudson answered, "I'd want to be right in the middle! And I'd kill them all with my sword!"

knuckles

I'm not really even sure how this tradition started in our family, but one of the first instructions our kids have understood and followed- or maybe I should say one of their first interactions with other people have been knuckles. Titus has more than the others embraced this form of saying goodnight or goodbye- or hello- or just hey man, whats up, I'm cool- in the middle of a convo. He's often walking around the room just giving everyone knuckles (always accompanied by his tough face) and usually has a hard time stopping (needing intervention to distract and do something else). Even when he's knocking, he'll turn his fist down and knock as if he's giving the door knuckles.

The other day we were walking back home (just the 2 of us) and ran into a little buddy's dad (who is more like the age of our parents, sharp businessman). We talked for a minute and I said it's time for Titus to go to bed- telling Titus to say "bye". Titus went on to whip his hand up in fist form- in this dad's face- wanting knucks. I quickly pulled his hand down and said, "We better go home." :) Needless to say- it's not really a way of greeting or saying goodbye to people that our local friends are familiar with.

Here's the little guy...eating his breakfast this morning- yes so messy- and doing the usual goofy faces to try to make us all laugh (the last one being his serious face which is his reponse when told "no"), and of course- knuckles.

Big Week

It all started on Saturday night when our neighbors invited us to go swimming with them...required swimcaps and all. We've had quite a week here...(I wish I had pics of those swimcaps...not including mine)

Welcomed friend Brittany to town (156)!, planning on taking off the training wheels (don't know we'll end up having time to do that- seeing as we take out Hudson's bike like 5 times a year), GJ had her first day of school (more on that later), and Titus -- well, he just walked into the guest room where Grace was napping and punched her head (didn't wake her up though, she's our sleeper) and then was found playing with what Gracie forgot to flush down the toilet...yuck!

Yesterday's ready for school shots- forehead bump and all: (Titus felt left out and wanted to take one too- and actually felt left out when we said bye, he ran in the gate after them) :)





So, Grace and Hudson walked into school- no big deal was the feeling of the morning (that i was faking/not feeling). They walked in no problem, Grace's sweet teacher waiting at the gate (they're in different classes), walked her in (bonus= no screaming kids at the gate). Spyed on them come out for the opening ceremony including exercises, the Chinese national anthem and a speech of the principal's. Went back to get them at 11:30...they came out holding hands- Hudson as happy as can be (as has always been the case since coming out that first day)- Grace looking fine, then more and more sad til she lost it when she got to us. She cried for a while- probably just sad/scared and kept it in all morning. Thankfully, a pkg had just arrived from Mimi Coady- that caused Grace to 180 :)

The teacher said she was great- no crying, listened, did as told. I'm wondering what tomorrow will bring!? I think she'll make a quick adjustment, make some friends quickly, we'll see...she has been so sweet lately I hate to make her go- but know that it will be good for her for this season to work on her language, interact a bit with kids her age. I'm guessing she'll start liking it soon...

thankful for:
these sweet questions asked today:
157. how do you tell people about jesus?
158. how do you do pat-a-cake?
159. can i see girls shirts? (online shopping)
160. can i help you mommy?
and-
161. a pretty good first day for GJ
162. that I can spy on the kids at school :)
163. turning the calendar to September
164. football- HS, college, pro, fantasy, and games in the house...
165. that He does never leave us
166. for the real food of the Word
167. cheap pottery sellers
168. plans to see family
169. our family
170. sweet friends blogs that encourage me...
171. a husband i miss when he's gone during the day
172. the spirit who helps put to death the deeds of the body

Old Video

The kiddos loved shooting this one back in June...

teachers and school

Our dear friend and teacher is about to leave for Malaysia...we will miss her so much!

Hudson also got some new teachers - and seems to have adjusted quickly to a new classroom (on the 3RD! floor) and will next week be taking his little sister with him!?!

We're excited and confident its a good time for GJ to start up a bit of Chinese preschool- but sad to see her be so big too. As a treat for one of her last mornings at home with mama (after getting her blood drawn for a check-up for school) we went to paint our toe-nails together- Gracie's choice- yellow. It was soon after getting home that Titus discovered it and has been scraping at it since that morning. My toes look terrible! :)