Four Years!!

I cannot believe it's been four years today!

This little girl changed our lives and hearts forever!

Just look at her now!

God is so good!  What a blessing that He hand picked this precious child to be ours.  She makes our lives so much better!

We love you Wesleigh Jane!  We are so thankful that we "gotcha" 4 years ago today!!!

A Special Visit

For whatever reason, our school board decided the kiddos should be out of school 3 weeks for Christmas! I know one thing for sure...whoever made up the schedule does NOT have small children at home!! In all honesty, we have enjoyed our break. The girls have been ready to go back to school since the day after Christmas, but they have been very good. We have seen Frozen 3 times. I don't think we can go back to the theater again because Gracie already knows the songs and sings as loud as she can. I'm sure others don't appreciate it very much ;) They have played school, doctor, princess, bride, pet shop, birthday party, and dance class. I am so thankful that they play so well together!

 One fun thing this extra week allowed us to do is visit the girls' preschool class from last year. We spent the morning there yesterday. The girls thoroughly enjoyed being back in their classroom with their teacher. The weather warmed up just in time for them to get to play outside with their new friends. It was perfect!

Wesleigh is explaining that her kindergarten classroom is right next door to Gracie's :)
 

That amazing preschool music class :)


And the playground.  They were just a little excited :)






Our friend, Sara, who came home from India last summer is in this class. We loved spending some time with her!
 

 Wesleigh turns 6 in Feb, Sara turns 6 in March and Gracie turns 6 in April :) She's a peanut!!







And with that...our Christmas break is over.  I can't believe that we already half-way through the school year!  Bryce has one more semester of high school!!  Time definitely flies!!  I'd better get with it.  I have ALOT to do before May!!!!

Theme for the New Year?

I hope it isn't, but I'm afraid it might be!  I knew Wesleigh's top two teeth are loose.  In fact, I am not happy about it at all!  I have been dreading the inevitable "snaggletooth" phase :(  I told her she has to wait until her birthday (Feb 12) to pull it, but I don't think it's going to stay in that long.

But...that's another story!  The real story here is that Gracie lost her first tooth Friday (Jan. 3)!!  I had wiggled her teeth many times, but none of us knew her bottom teeth were even loose... not even her!  Braden was home with the girls and Gracie walked in crying with her mouth bleeding.  She was biting on a blanket and it came out.  Braden had to call Richard to get him to talk Gracie off the cliff :)  She was not happy at first, but when she realized this meant a visit from the tooth fairy for her...she changed her tune!!


The tooth fairy came through with a special pixie dust dollar, and a sprinkle of pixie dust on the bed :) I have to say, at 11:00 that night when the tooth fairy remembered she had a special job to do, she was not very happy! But seeing this precious smile makes it so special :) I have a feeling though, that the tooth fairy had better be prepared to make multiple visits to this house this year! She'd better make sure she has a stash of pixie dust dollars on hand!!!

What a Year!

Personally, 2013 has been great.  For so many years, my life seemed to be consumed with preparing for an adoption or adjusting to an adoption.  While I treasure those times, I feel like I was able to find some sort of "normal" this year (whatever that means!).  I am quite aware that my life has no resemblance to what people consider normal, but for me...I wouldn't have it any other way!

This year brought an amazing trip to China (without an adoption), the start of Bryce's senior year, the beginning of high school for Braden, and the start of kindergarten for the two crazies.  That last fact alone has helped me gain more control of the other areas of my life.  I am not ashamed to admit that the beginning of kindergarten was very welcome :)

The girls and I were able to travel to Florida, Dallas, Minnesota, and Colorado to visit some very special friends and family.

2013 brought us Trevor...and also took Trevor away from us.  

It's hard to believe that all of this happened in the past 12 months!  As I look ahead to 2014, we are anticipating a high school graduation, Braden getting his driver's license, Bryce going to college and an amazing trip for Richard and I to celebrate our 20 year anniversary.  Lots of exciting things on the horizon.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!!

I thought I would leave you with some funnies that have happened in the past couple of days.  I try to keep up with all the funny that happen and are said, but I am not doing a good job of that.  I will get better this year.

* I'm laying down with the girls the other night and Gracie says, "Let's get some shut up eye"

*  Wesleigh sees a commercial for a pillow that keeps your head cool...she immediately says, "Oh, I need that!"  She has talked about that thing over and over!

*  Wesleigh woke up on Christmas Eve, thinking Santa had come.  When she discovered there were no toys, she was heartbroken because she thought Christmas had been cancelled.  She said, "But I've been counting the days everyday!"

*  Out of the blue, Wesleigh has started calling Gracie "Grace" and Gracie has started calling Wesleigh "Wes".

*  Wesleigh saw this picture a couple days ago.  Her comment, "Why is Gracie so dark?  She looks like Tiana, except for the curly hair" lol...  She also asked the names of the "two white girls".

*  Wesleigh is very jealous of the girlfriends.  She loves that they're around, but gets very upset when they spend time with the brothers instead of them.  We have had many tears and a few statements such as:

"Why are they just lubbin' each other?"  (They were holding hands!!)

"Branen just takes Karleigh away from us every time"

"Why does Bice just want Alexandra to play wiff him and not us?"

"I'm tired of Bice lubbin' on Alexandra.  All he wants to do is lub her."

I can't help but laugh every time she gets started.  It's usually when she's tired and there's really no good way to calm her down.  She keeps going on and on until I can get her to bed.

Dating is definitely a different experience when there are littles in the house!

*One more fun fact...the boys are all within 1 inch and 5 pounds of each other!  There has been alot of stealing out of closets lately and because they all wear a size 12 shoe, there has been lots of shoe sharing.  In fact, there is one pair of size 12 sperrys that have no real owner.  Whoever needs them, wears them :)  Braden and Cade are both going to need to start shaving soon!!!!

Look at this pic.  Now look closer....see Braden and Cade's feet?  They are each trying to make themselves taller than the other.  They actually tattled on each other after this was shot :)

I have to wear some massive stilts to be even close to their height :)  Love my tall boys!!

Praying for a blessed and happy 2014 for us all!!

Happy New Year!

Brick Floors... Who Knew??

I have written about this story many times already, but it happens to be one of my favorite adoptions stories ever!  The world of adoption seems to be filled with "red threads".  There are a few families that are "that" family to me.  Families who I silently watched their journeys to their daughters.  Families who brought me one step closer to our own journey.  The fact that God would use me to be "that" family to anyone is so humbling and exciting.

If you don't know the story...Jennifer and I grew up in the same hometown, but never knew each other.  (She doesn't live here anymore).  She was in the process of building a house and wanted to use brick floors.  She did an internet search for "brick floors" and my blog came up!  (I had blogged throughout our building process.)  I didn't know, but Jennifer started following our blog.  She followed us all the way to China to get Wesleigh.  The seed of adoption had been planted.  By the time she reached out to me, their family had already decided to adopt from China!!  There are now 3 other children who have come home from China in her community!  Yay, God!!  Jennifer has become a precious friend to me, and a reminder that you never know what God will use...you just have to be available for Him to use it!

I love this picture.  It represents where this amazing story began...brick floors :)

   

Wesleigh and Molly.  I can barely look at this picture without getting choked up.  Little did I know that when we were blessed with Wesleigh, I would also be blessed with some of the most amazing and unexpected  friends and connections.  God is awesome!

The Messengers

For 50 years, this local family has set up a huge light display at their house over the holidays.  I remember going to the Messengers when I was a little girl.  They add a new display every year, and some have been around for decades.  It has been so much fun to bring my kiddos every year.  Sadly, this was the last year this family will be creating this display.  We didn't make it until after Christmas, but we couldn't let the year pass without seeing this house one more time.

The frozen "north pole"

 

How cute are these two? Braden and Karleigh have been alot of fun to hang out with this holiday.

Taken in front of the display made the year they were born.

From the year I was born

 : 

 Much to Cade's dismay, I made he and KiKi pose for a picture. They're adorable though :)

The big girls always love the little girls and the little girls always love the bigs!

This post is the last of our holiday celebration...thank goodness!  I am so determined to document everything here (if I don't, I'll never remember half of it!), but sometimes it seems like a chore.  I am determined to start printing blog books from each year.  It will all be worth it, when I can see years of memories saved forever.