Ethiopian Reunion! and Olivia's first..........

Two weeks ago we were able to go down to Austin to meet some wonderful, and hopefully life long friends! Troy and Amber were down in the trenches with us when we were adopting Olivia and they were adopting her buddy Silas. In fact, I was in the middle of emailing Troy when we got "the call!" I don't remember exactly what I was emailing about but I remember in the middle of a sentence typing JULIE JUST CALLED! EMAIL YOU WITH DETAILS LATER! I think that was pretty funny. Actually I think Troy and Amber might of known before Paul! They traveled to get little Silas a couple of weeks before we went to get Liv and we were blessed to finally meet them in person when we drove through Tennessee on our way to Virginia for Thanksgiving. It was great to finally see them again as we emailed almost daily for a year!


We also got to finally meet another great family that traveled a little bit before us. Kim and her family adopted Finn and it was so awesome to finally see all our kids together and not just in pictures through blogland!

cutie finn


handsome silas

We headed to the Austin Children's Museum to have some fun!

seriously that little Finn was so delicious I just wanted to eat him up!!

After the museum we headed to the County Line for some yummy BBQ and amazing views of Austin.

Olivia was in heaven dancing with Kim's son Tucker


Then Silas got a bit jealous and had to show her who her man was.....



Then Daddy chased him clear out of the state! Or maybe he just got on a plane with his parents and went back to Tennessee......

We miss you Silas and Finn!!

I have arrived......in my swagger wagon

A friend of mine sent me this video since I have now joined the club..... Enjoy!

Beauty Secrets by Olivia

So some of the most asked questions I get are directed to how stinkin' cute Olivia is, and while I can only point to her Creator as to why that is so, I can answer some of your burning questions on how I maintain that sweetness:)

Where did you get that outfit/hair bow/shoes, etc.?

What, this old thing?

Well, I did not get them anywhere. We are blessed by a wonderful GiGi who spoils them rotten and has a slight* addiction to Gymboree. (*editor's note: slight? are you kidding me?) On the off chance that whatever my kids are wearing is not hot of the shelves of Gymboree then I probably bought at Kid to Kid or Once Upon a Child, which are consignment stores that I buy gently used clothes and I usually look for things from Old Navy, Gap, or you know our favorite the G of course.



How do you get her hair to do that? Or what kid of products do you use?



Ahh, the hair. Well, first we only shampoo once a week. Shampooing is very harsh on curly hair so we only do it on Saturday nights before church:) The rest of the week we co-wash, which is just washing with conditioner only. We LOVE Curly Q's Curlie Cutie Cleansing Cream for shampoo and their Coconut Dream Moisturizing Conditioner. By far the best we have tried! Sometimes at night I put on a heavy cream or butter, which right now we are using Carol's Daughter Healthy Hair Butter. I won't lie, I don't really like it but it's getting the job done and it costs too much to waste. I really like Blended Cutie's Curly Cake Shake, which isn't heavy but keeps it moisturized really well.

Then in the mornings I spritz it with a water bottle and add hair milk, like the Curly Cake Shake and detangle with a wide tooth comb. This is taking a long time most mornings because she doesn't wear a sleep cap, but I think I am going to order a Nadia's Sleep Cap soon. Being on time to places may depend on it! Then I add a bit of Blended Cutie's Jelly Cream and let it dry. We are going to attempt some more elaborate styles this summer perhaps:)

For those adoptive parents out there, I have tried a lot of products. A LOT. But I keep coming back to Blended Beauty's kid's line, Blended Cutie. The thing I love about it is they have 5 different blends for different types of curly hair! We have all been there, frustrated that the curly hair product we just spent an arm and a leg on is just too heavy or is just too light for our kid's hair. With Blended Cutie, I get exactly what I want. And they aren't paying me a dime for saying this.....something is wrong with this.

What kind of lotion do you use?

With hair, I am all about the all natural stuff. Not because I am green or anything, but because I can tell a difference over time. Her hair gets dried out when I use the stuff I pick up at Walgreens or the grocery store. But with lotion I use Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Moisture Cream. It is absolutely wonderful on her skin, I can get it at the grocery store, and I don't have to pay shipping:) I am sure that there might be better stuff out there but her skin looks great! If it ain't broke, right? And this stuff keeps it moisturized for a couple of days because really who has the time to bathe the kids every. single. day? We just put it on after bath, no reapplication necessary.



As for the sweet smile, shining eyes, and the ability to talk your ear off, she is fearfully and wonderfully made. God's works are wonderful and I know that full well:)

Tot School

Tot School was a little sporadic last week since we had lots of fun things to do like the Gladney Skittle. We decided to do a few baseball themed things since some friends of ours were taking us out to see the Rangers beat the White Sox (Daddy's favorite)!

Some people have wondered about how we "do" tot school and how much preparation it takes. I may try and do more of a post on this sometime soon since we are about to step it up in the tot school/preschooling here. We need to be ready to do all of our preschooling needs in Ethiopia and training them, and more importantly training me, to make this a daily and scheduled activity is important. Thankfully, Jackson will most likely attend Bingham Academy for Kindergarten where we will live and work, so we don't have to worry too much about homeschooling while in Ethiopia. But being a teacher, my kids will probably always have to suffer through some type of learning at home! Jackson goes to preschool two days a week now and still has to have fun home schooling with his mommy!

And I know a lot of people think it takes a lot of prep work, and to some degree yes. I do own a lot of stuff from being a preschool teacher for 5 years, but even still, I have made a majority of it since starting with Jackson. The key is to make things you can use over and over again and then put it away when it is not in use. This way, it always seems like a new activity. Once the prep work is done and you have a nice stash, you can do it pretty easily. Just add small things as you have the time. To learn ALL about how to home school your tot or preschooler you can click the link below.

Practicing putting capital letters in ABC order



These are mini colored clothespins (I just colored them with a sharpie) that they have to clip on to the matching pipe cleaner loop. Great for fine motor. Jackson is having a goldfish and raisin snack at the same time.....learning at an early age to multitask:)

We brought out our baseball lacing cards.



here she is trying to show it to the camera....I dont know why it isn't flipping!

Jackson has sensitive hearing and we normally have headphones for him to wear if it is too loud for him but Mommy forgot them. Actually there were no fireworks that night so I thought he would be fine but the speaker was bothering him. Thankfully though Geico was giving out these sweat bands so it became ear muffs:)



They looked so cute in their matching Texas shirts!

We also practiced tossing and catching soft squishy baseballs but I guess I forgot to take a picture! Sorry!

So hopefully in the next few weeks you will see a bit of a difference in our Tot School time. We sold some furniture (ahh it is actually refreshing to get rid of stuff) and we are making a little school room/playroom so we have some more space for our fun!

Gladney Skittle

Well I told you it's been a crazy week, right? We have been super busy with lots of fun things.....and well buying a minivan, which I wouldn't classify under fun:) What was fun was that Paul's work donates to the Gladney Adoption Agency (not our agency but still a great one!) and every year we get to attend one of their annual fundraisers at Six Flags for free! They provide dinner and a night of fun rides with no lines!! This was the first year we were able to take the kids, and Jackson and Olivia had a blast!! Jackson is such a daredevil and rode all the kiddie roller coasters!

she thinks she is really hot stuff driving the car all by herself.



Just a bit nervous on the first roller coaster.

but he got over it really fast and wanted to do it over and over again!

Even the characters were out for the big event! Olivia is near by screaming her head off....



uhhh how high is this thing gonna go???

It was a great night together and fun to participate in such a great event! Thanks Gladney!

Why am I so happy?

Why am I so happy?

Because my brother and I hiked and hiked....

through the dangerous woods and creek* by my GiGi's house......

to see a mama duck and

her 9 sweet ducklings!

*editor's note- or complained about dirt through the lush and beautiful landscaping

oh please don't laugh.......

Yep, for those of you who guessed minivan, you are correct! Who knew I would be 26 and driving this bad boy around?? Oh, and I don't laugh at you other moms that drive minivans, I just, well, have to get used to the idea......I'm sure you understand.

Finances are crazy and a hard point for lots of families and couples. It sure was for us for a long time.....well it is still is hard but we have learned a lot! Dave Ramsey got us completely debt free allowing us to start the adoption process for Olivia. His plan changed our thinking, our spending, and our family! The end of the adoption put us back into some debt but after being 9 months home, we are finally back on the other side. Well, once we sell Paul's car on craigslist next week! Not having a car payment will be great!

And we are blessed to have found this car. It was a great deal and we only need it for about 15 months. Oh yes, that's right, only 15 more months until Ethiopia! It feels like time is flying by! We are just praying that God will continue to fill the seats of this little minivan before we have to sell it!