Christmas Card Chaos

I guess I'm a procrastinator this year, okay I know I am. Today the boys went to get pictures taken professionally after church, so I decided since I had them dressed I would take my own photo for our Christmas cards this year. It took me over 30 pictures and many minutes to get one picture I thought would maybe be suitable for our card. These are a few of the many bad photos we got today. You can make up your own captions. I know that ALL of the blame lies in the unprofessional photographer, but they could have helped me a little:)

Wordless Wednesday- First gifts in the mail

Thanks Pea!

Christmas fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thoughts about Christmas

I know I haven't been good at writing lately, I guess just nothing exciting to write about. However, I thought I would share a new website that our pastor used in her sermon today. Go here and just watch the video, it's eye opening. Then browse the website for more ideas.

Adoption Update

As of today we have been waiting 10 months for a referral. It seems like such a long time especially when you add how long we have been planning. To think we visited our first adoption agency information session before Liam was even conceived. So, I guess that makes our wait more like 8 plus years since we started the research phase, so ten months to wait for them to find the right children for our family isn't so long.


We are trying to stay positive and busy during the wait. We are using the time to get ready financially. We have the next "payment" that we give our agency when we accept the referral in savings now. We are going to start saving for travel money next. We could use the time to get the house ready, but we still haven't painted or rearranged like we want to. I guess if we keep putting it off it makes the wait shorter in a way. We will get our referral and have to get into action right away.


We are just taking life one day at a time and enjoying them all. We are thankful for all that we have been given and enjoy our boys everyday. It is a little difficult to know that somewhere halfway around the world our children are waiting for us. I think the holidays make it harder also. We keep all our boys (the ones that live with us and the ones we are waiting to go get) in our prayers. Please keep them in your prayers also.

The Season of the Eternal Birthday

If you haven't heard yet, Liam turned 7 this year. The official kick off of his birthday party started in late October and it seemed to never end. I do recall the birthing experience of this child and it lasted a while, but it was hours not weeks. However, now at age 7 we had a month of birthday fun including 3 parties and many gifts. (Sorry if he is behind on your thank you card, he is catching up). Thanks to all that made his birthday month a joy. It was fun, but I'm kind of glad it is all over. Here are some highlights:

Blowing out candles at the 2nd family birthday party.

Showing off one of his great gifts. He wants his name included to this poster some day.

Oh yes, the friend party!The reason I'm probably tired is that we saved the best (most work) for last. We invited 8 little first grade boys over for 3 hours of fun. It was just cold enough with just a dusting of snow, so that would equal cold, muddy boys. So we kept it inside. We started the party with Liam's requests of "board games" and Madlibs. Pictionary went okay, but we lost them at Outburst. No one liked the Madlibs but Liam. I ended up going upstairs and dragging down every bin of Lego's I could find. This entertained them for a half hour. I chose to have them decorate cupcakes (check off another half hour) and then they played a rousing game of hide and seek for the last half hour or so. I really wanted to count, but they wouldn't let me. I was thinking 1,000,000 was a good round number to count up to. The important things were that Liam was happy and they all left with a sugar rush. I guess it was a successful party.

Thanks again for anyone that helped make the the month of the birthday fun!!

Brag Time

I just have to brag about my husband and how great he is. Yesterday he took the day off just to burn some vacation time. I had to go to a teaching conference for most of the day. He had told me that he was just going to play video games all day and have a me day. He would try to get to the honey do list. However, while I was gone he ran a bunch of errands and picked up the house. And to make my day brighter he bought me a rose and left it in my car. So when I was done with my training I had a nice rose and beautiful card waiting for me for no reason. That's why I married him :)