EXCITED:)

I just went out to the mailbox and instead of junk mail found a free sample of Similac (uhh thanks for the reminder, jerks! ) and a more happy piece of mail from AGCI (our adoption agency) saying they are refunding a nice 1,000 dollars of our adoption expenses! I am pretty stoked! Gotta love it when you get money you weren't expecting!

On another note.....I am now the proud owner of something that I am not old enough to have in my mind. I'll share it with you tomorrow:)

Sorry I haven't been around this week, but more exciting blogging is coming your way.....haha! It has been a bit crazy this week.

Arboretum

We were blessed with some free tickets to the arboretum so we packed a lunch and headed out to meet some friends. It was a great morning and Jackson slept ALL afternoon which he doesn't do very often anymore. However, he was up until 9pm as well but it was worth the nap I also go to take!

Jackson took this picture of Ferdinand the Bull.

He loved all the open space to run! I have 25 pictures of him running in different areas like this!

Maybe one day I'll get a good one of both of them. That day was not today.

Tot School

Ah, Tot School. It is the first thing to go when things get crazy around here. It is a shame because it is my kid's favorite part of the day, but it is so much easier to just tell them to play with their toys than plan out meaningful play for them. But when it is gone for too long, we all get a little antsy with days on end of free time. We have gotten some really great new learning toys lately that I'll share with you. They have provided hours of entertainment lately!

I was driving in my neighborhood the other day when I spied some great puzzles at a yard sale so I had to stop! The Melissa & Doug ABC train puzzle was only $1! Oh and please excuse Olivia of not wearing pants.....we are working hard on the potty training this week as well.

Jackson worked on sequencing and identifying the letters. Olivia worked on identifying the pictures and they both did a great job working on putting the pieces together.

We were also given these great Kumon learning workbooks. I absolutely love them and will probably post more as we work through them more. This is the from the My First Book of Cutting. He loves it.



Jackson got this Tall Stacker Pegs Building Set for his birthday and they have spent hours creating all sorts of things.



Olivia worked on her matching colors mickey folder game.



Another yard sale puzzle. I love that it has both capital and lowercase letters.



We also spent a lot of time running around outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. Here they are running at the Arboretum. More pictures of that to come!

Huge Garage Sale benefitting our youth ministry!

Some of you may know that we work with the Junior High youth ministry at our church. They are a great group of kids and Paul and I really enjoy ministering to them. Well, this Saturday we are having a HUGE church-wide garage sale to benefit our youth program. If you are in the area, you may want to stop by for some great deals!

Huge Garage Sale
Saturday, April 24
Trinity Bible Church
400 W. Campbell Road
Richardson, TX



It comes at a great time as we try and simplify our life so that we only have the things we absolutely need for Ethiopia. I started taking pictures after Paul had already loaded half of it up but you get the drift. I didn't really realize we had so much stuff. This doesn't even show any of the stuff from the garage! It was several carloads!

Cutest Baby Shower EVER:)

On Saturday, a few of my friends and I threw the cutest baby shower for my sweet friend Amanda. I know what you are thinking, that I am a glutton for punishment. I was a little worried that I might cry but really it was so much fun. I love being with these girls and I am just thrilled for Amanda so it was all good. So anyways, she isn't finding out what the gender is so I knew exactly what I wanted the theme to be. I found it on a blog several months ago and I was really excited to copy the idea! Oh yes, no original thoughts for me....I am an expert copycat!

Our theme was She's about to POP!

Jars of bubble gum and blow POPs:)

POP art of our favorite pregnant lady:)


Cute paper lanterns hanging above the food table.

The food included POP tarts, POPcorn brownies (they didn't actually have popcorn in them), POPpy seed muffins, and POPsicles.

We had a yummy POPcorn bar with cheddar, caramel, butter and kettle popcorn with cute tiny popcorn boxes for each guest.



Everything had cute POP labels!

It wouldn't be a party without Ashley making something from Bakerella!




Poppies.....oh ok they didn't have actual Poppies so these are what I call knock off Poppies:)





Kristen made this CUTE diaper cake!



And of course, everyone went home with a cake POP favor! If you aren't up with the cake pop hype, they are super yummy and from Bakerella:)

Teaching Kids Hymns

So for a while I have wanted to teach my kids hymns. The service we go to at church is wonderful and they are getting plenty of contemporary praise music there and on the radio, but something about the hymns make me happy. Maybe it is all the wonderful theology in them or maybe it just reminds me of our old church, but I love them.

I have Joni Eareckson Tada's Hymns for a Kid's Heart (we only have the first book, but plan to get the rest soon!) which we LOVE but I was wondering if there were other resources out there? Do you teach your kids hymns? If so, how?

Romans 5:3-5

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Wordless Wednesday

Referral Day!

One year ago we got "the call". I had waited so long to hear our those sweet words from our case worker. "I have a little girl to tell you about." She said that she was a bit older than the other babies but still within our parameters. I didn't care. "She may have a slight delay." My heart sunk but it didn't matter, I knew that this was the child God had chosen for us. As she continued, it was only more and more certain that this was the Lord's hand. Olivia was a little behind, and may have some slight developmental delays. That was ok. Jackson was a little delayed in walking. We were well versed in the ways of ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and we knew how to handle it....we knew the Lord would see us through. We knew that whatever child they called us with was our baby no matter what.

Thankfully, a few weeks later some friends of ours traveled to get their baby and had great news to report. Olivia was the life of the orphanage! (or the princess of Hannah's Hope Orphanage as Almaz the director likes to say about her!) She no longer showed any signs of delay or not communicating her needs. Knowing her now, I know her little heart was just grieving. She had only been there a week when they called us with her information. She is definitely shy and withdrawn until she feels comfortable, but when she does, look out! I see these same non communication and "delay-like" signs when she is sad or in trouble, but since being home it is less and less. Even her strong will is becoming more compliant. She is such a happy girl even though she tries to test us sometimes. I know that her heart will always hurt, but I also know that the Lord is healing her every day that she is home with her family.

Here are some of the first pictures we got when we got the call!











Two weeks later, these were taken by a friend traveling to get her child:







Hannah's Hope does such an amazing job loving on these precious kids! Here is a photo of her now after being home almost 9 months.