Maddox's Birthday Celebrations

Celebrating at preschool

Do you think he's excited to open presents??

Team Umizoomi cake

Lego Firehouse from Nanny and Papa



His babysitter, Andria, made him a cake!



Happy 5th Birthday, Maddox!

I cannot believe my baby is 5! We love you so much, Maddox Lane.....you are so sweet, tender-hearted, and fun to be around! Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Playing Catch-Up: Snip-Its of the Past 4 Months...

So here I am again, going about 4 months without a single post on my blog, and the thought of getting caught up was extremely overwhelming to me.  So, instead of doing a bunch of different posts, here is one post

 with several different pictures to give you an idea of what we've been up to lately.  I have put all of my pictures on facebook, so feel free to see more there:-)



Christmas at our house



Florida......We did so much during this trip and had SO much fun, it was hard for me to just pick one picture!

While in Florida, we had our first incident that required stitches.  It's quite the interesting story.....ask me about it sometime:-)  (This is Maddox, by the way)



Christmas Day (in Florida)



Our sweet Landon got glasses and lost his first tooth on the same day!

Lance took me to Chicago one weekend for my birthday, and we saw the Blue Man Group.  SO FUN!!

Hotel weekend with our potluck group.....always a blast

Lots of fun in the snow

Coloring Easter eggs

Easter morning....ready for church!

We recently spent the night at a hotel after one of Kelsey's gymnastics meets

Kelsey at one of her meets:-)

It's been a crazy, busy last few months, but we've had a lot of fun.  I want to remember to cherish these times, even when we are so busy, because the kids are growing SO fast!  I can't believe that our kids are now 9, 7, and almost 5....where has the time gone?!

On another note, for those who have been wondering....nothing new is really happening with our adoption.  We have had our paperwork in Ethiopia and have been on the wait list for about 5 months now.  Our home study is getting ready to expire in 2 months, so we are currently working on updating that.  We remind ourselves daily that, while we are ready for our daughter NOW, God is in control, and this is all part of His will and in His timing.  So, for now, we wait and just look forward to the day we can bring her home!

Maddox's Preschool Program

Getting ready to walk on stage

Standing with his buddy Brody:-)

So cute!!

Happy 9th Birthday Kelsey.....12/12/12!

Wonder what this huge present could be??

A gymnastics mat...just what she needed!

Make a wish!

Her gymnastics cake that she wanted:-)


I can't believe that my baby girls is 9 already!  What a blessing this sweet girl has been to us, and we are so thankful for her!

It's Time to Find a Christmas Tree.....

So many to choose from!

Kelsey was our photographer for the day:-)

Found one!

Landon cutting it down....

It's a pretty tough job, so dad had to finish:-)

Decorating.....we needed a ladder it was so tall!

Kelsey's First Gymnastics Meet

All ready to go!

Level 4 girls

Level 4 with their coach

2nd place in vault....way to go Kelsey!!!

So tired after a loooong day!

Finally.....More of the Kids' Pictures

So I definitely forgot all about putting more of the kids' pictures on here.  Oops!  Here are a few of my favorites.  The lighting is not too great on a lot of them, but what can I say....I'm no professional!!

Kelsey LOVES getting her picture taken....she was constantly posing for more:-)

This is similar to the one I posted in an earlier post, but I love Paetyn's face here so I had to share!

A True Gymnast......

.....she can't even read right side up!!

Picture Day

It was sooo beautiful out this past Saturday that the kids and I took advantage of the nice weather and went to Monticello Park to take some pictures.  I have so many great pictures to choose from I don't even know where to start!  Here is a little sneak preview of the fun we had:-)  I'll post more pictures once I can decide which ones to put on here.

Halloween 2012

Once again, the kids had a great time dressing up and Trick-or-Treating this year.  I'll admit, I'm definitely not a fan of Trick-or-Treating (actually I hate it!), but it was pretty fun this year.  We just drove around and stopped whenever we saw someone we knew.  The kids got loads and loads of candy.....oh my!!  Even though they all looked adorable in their outfits, I'm still glad it's over:-)

Frankie Stein

Bumble Bee Transformer

Army Guy