B-Ball time

Tyler joined basketball this year for the first time. He's an 8th grader who's never played for a team, so he wasn't too surprised that he was put on the JV squad with mostly 6th and 7th graders. The great thing about this oldest kid-o-mine though is that he doesn't let that sort of thing ruffle his feathers. He just plays. And he's lovin' it.
He got to take a foul shot....he missed, but it sure looked good on the way to the basket. :)

There he is....my number 44

The poor child has my legs......I can always tell which one he is without even lookin' at his face. So sorry dear.....

A great action shot....

America, the beautiful

With a grateful heart, I thank all our military today, past and present, for their service to this great country.
For all the sacrifices, for all the time away from family....
For putting your life on the line for our freedoms,
and for giving of yourself, unselfishly, for a coutry you love and the foundation on which is was built.
May we never forget all that have served and died for us and for our freedoms.
The freedom to live our lives how we want
The freedom to worship without hiding
The freedom to succeed in anything we put our minds to
The freedom to vote
The freedom to speak our minds without fear
The freedom to have as many children as we want
The freedom to adopt from a country that doesn't share that luxury
And the freedom to know that we can sleep in peace at night.
Thank you.

Livi turns 2!

Yesterday was Olivia's 2nd birthday.
We wanted to celebrate, even though she's not home yet, so I got some cupcakes and we ate in honor of her.
I got pink and purple ones....cuz I can now.

When I got home, the boys and Jason had decorated the foyer and kitchen in pink streamers and balloons and Timmy was making a sign.

All day, I thought about her and all day I wondered.
I wondered if the orphanage was celebrating with her too.
I wondered if she got to eat some cake.....

Or blow out some candles.

I wondered if she got sang to....
or if she even knew if was her birthday.
I wondered if she could feel our love all the way across the ocean.....
and I wondered what it will be like next year when she's sitting here,
at the table,
under the sign,
on the chair with the balloons,
and feeling all the love of a family.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie.

Fundraiser for Olivia!

So, yesterday was the day.
Finally here.
All the planning and cleaning and organizing paid off and it was a huge success!
We had over 100 people show up for our fundraiser to help us bring our Livi home.
It was actually very overwhelming to look around and see how many people wanted to be there to help us out.
What a blessing to know we have so many friends and family that support us.

Here's how it looked on the inside.....
Our entry way......

A table to introduce everyone to Livi along with a guest book for everyone to sign and write something for her.

We had signs telling where everything was located....




The family room was set up for the silent auction (with so many things that our good friends donated and got for us)




and the living room emptied out to make room for the pasta dinner.....


The garage was completely transformed into a carnival for the kids.








All the kids (our boys included and Tyler's friends from school) that helped out with running the kids' games.....

And to top it all off....a friend who did his DJ thang for us and a rockin' dance downstairs!





Thank you, Thank you, Thank you everyone!!!
We will never forget it and we love that it will be a part of Olivia's story that we'll be able to tell her about how everyone helped get her home to our family....to her family. God bless all of you!

pics by kids

This is what happens when you leave your camera laying around.


I'm thinking this tells me one of two things.....



Either I have a future photographer on my hands......


or I just have a lot of junk laying around my house.

Cleaning

It's probably a bad sign of how well I keep up with the housework when every time I do major cleaning, my allergies kick into high gear. I'm thinking I need to dust more often.....
I am spending every moment this week getting ready for our fundraiser this Saturday. There is so much still to do, but there are so many things that can't be done too early. Like, I'm not spending an hour cleaning bathrooms today because it will have to be done again on Saturday before everyone comes. I can't clean the carpets until I have picked up everything else and gotten the furniture moved out of the way. And I can't really do too much for the food yet.
But I can clean, and I am diggin' in today with a vengeance. I love when I can just put on my faves playlist on the computer, crank up the volume, and get moving. It's amazing what a woman on a mission can accomplish in one morning.

Sunday Snapshot: Pumpkins and Costumes

In an effort to cram absolutely everything into one day....
we decided (after going to church and getting Subway for lunch)
to head to the pumpkin patch to play and pick out pumpkins before diving into the evening's events.
We headed to a place nearby where there was plenty to do and have fun with.
We took a hay ride......

Walked through the corn maze....what was left of it....

did some pumpkin bowling....


and took advantage of the photo ops.



When we got home, we got all the pumpkins carved....

and got costumes on.


Tyler headed to a friend's house, seeing as how he is officially too old or too cool now to trick or treat with his brothers.....
We laughed when Kaylee showed up in her bubble bath costume...

and had a really fun time over all!