Happy Adoption Day! 2012

A very special day had to begin with donuts, of course! Kien and Gabriel LOVE LOVE LOVE donuts! Now, I am not the perfect parent by any stretch, but I DO care for their food intake. Lucky for me, both my youngest children LOVE fruits over anything else. (It's pretty impressive when you offer a chocolate dessert and he rather have strawberries! Ha!)

Back to the day... 

We drove over to the local donut shop and everyone chose their own along with organic chocolate milk! YUM! 

There are two things we do on our special Adoption day celebration. 

1. We ALWAYS have a yummy dessert after dinner. I discovered that everyone is a fan of the cookie cake! So, we had it written on the cookie cake, "Happy Adoption Day!" 
2. We talk about some facts about Kien- where he was born and how he came to be with us. Of course at age 4 we share vague details until he is a bit older and can comprehend the situation a bit better with out too much confusion. 

We celebrate Kien in our raising, teaching, training and and loving on him every day of the year, but it is a good thing to dedicate our special day to sharing his journey and how he has a very special calling in his life! 

We love you Kieney beanie! <3 

Super Hero = Bible Man

Kien has taken a recent interest in "Super Hero's" and I am not sure how to feel about this change. I miss the Wiggles and Sesame Street requests!!! So, instead of submitting his mind to watching the violent nature of super hero movies or shows, I purchased a couple of the "Bible Man" dvd's for him to watch. They are a little cheesy for a 4 year old to watch, but nonetheless he was interested! So, upon making a non-related trip to Lifeway Christian book store, we found the Bible Man cape and face mask! SCORE! He even fell asleep on the way home with them on. :)

Another Day At The Park

Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone but sometimes we like to visit neighboring parks in sub divisions to check out the equipment. :) Gabe is such a big boy, he likes to explore the many different ways to get "up to the top" as he says. :) 

I SO told Jeremy he was not allowed to go THAT fast with the little boys on this one, so instead his intention was to spin Brandy so fast that she would sling herself off. Well, guess that was an EPIC FAIL, because he flung HIMSELF off! Hahaha!

Kien LOVES anything that he can jump or swing from! I can SO see him as participating in an Olympic event! :) :)

A Closet Project... Purifying and Death By Fall

I had to get our closet re-organized because let's face it, I KNOW I am horrible when it comes to cramming the "back seat" things in my closets. Which has been recently revealed to me in my spiritual walk, it could be a parallel of my spiritual life that needs some tweaking, or rather CLEANING-PURIFYING-PURGING! It is very true that it is so easy to stuff things in life in the back of our minds as we do our closets to "deal with" at a later time or not really at all. This can be very dangerous. 

Greg and I put in some white wire shelves all along the top (10 foot ceiling) to put our "organized" boxes and bins on to keep them from cluttering the floor. Truth be told, the shelves that were above our clothing rack were beginning to separate from the wall due to the weight, so, we reinforced the screws, built the extra 2nd row of shelves and WHAAALLLAA! Um, ok, 2nd confession - the shelves were completely full by the time we went through everything! Ha! BUT- we DID go through everything! 

In any event, going through things such as the flip flops posted below it was a revelation to me that sometimes we carry so many things and let them add up that we lose track. Now, this is hard coming from a shoe hoarder, because I am a girl, and I do love shoes... So, I went through my stack of just flip flops and downsized. I was thinking to myself that I would need one for every color outfit I had. Flip flops are just easier to slip on especially when you have a wonderful husband, and 3 children who NEED me to be quick in getting diaper bag ready and walk out the door at a moments notice. 

I am going to throw this out there as well, because if any of you know me, you know I believe very strongly in my heart that there is a lesson or some sort of parallel in everything. We just have to have our eyes and ears open to hear from God at any given time in order to grow! So, as we all enter, complete or are smack dab in the middle of spring cleanings let's also remember that our hearts and minds need to be "de-cluttered" and "purified" 

2 Timothy 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,^[a] he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Oh dear... death by a fall... We bought these really cute piggy piggy banks and as I was moving the book shelf, I knocked them off. Yes, the one split right in half spilling the spare change everywhere. Sorry Mr. Evil Pork Chop (Toy Story reference) you have been defeated.

 Since I was already in organize mode, I decided to sift through and separate all the change into their respective piles. Unfortunately, we can no longer purchase these piggy banks at our local store, so I will have to check thrift stores or online. They are so cute!

Weather, Christmas Story And Fun Cookies!

Needless to say, our winter was, well... next to NONE! I think we could actually count on one hand how many "freezing" temps there were in the evening. I always have my radar at bay so I can keep up with any of those crazy thunder/hail/tornado storms in our parts. This was so funny because on this particular day in December it was beautiful outside and people were stating that they saw a couple snow flakes here and there. I could hardly believe it. So, I had to screen save this Accu weather app that showed it to be 75 degree's outside with wintry precip. Of course, "I" never saw any snow, and from the storms, they were not snow, but rain, lighting and thunder and possible hail. WEIRD! 

On to the day's activities, it was cookie making time! The boys love to help mama cook even if it means let's make a mess! 

 And yet, they are so very animated! 

Cookie cutting! They are such a great help! 

And, but of course Gabe HAS to have cars involved... So like his father!

The boys have been sick, well, everyone since October, but it was time to get out of the house. Even for just a drive. So, at Lake Country church in Saginaw they had a drive through display of the Christmas story. It was actually quite cool, my sweet friends Angela and Julia told me about it, and I thought for sure I missed it, but we went the LAST night! We didn't get out of the van to see the live animals at the nativity scene because it was just the boys and I, AND they had been sick. 

So when you first enter into the church parking lot, they hand you a CD to put into your disc player to listen to a story that narrates through many canvas photo's. It was a grandfather telling his child the story of Christmas. AWESOME! 

At the end of the tour, you return the CD and they invite you to church with a candy cane! It was quite cool. I can't wait to do it again next year, except this time actually getting out to pet a camel! Ha! 

By the time we got home (around 9:30pm) they boys were so excited about the adventure, but WOW did they pass out quick! Such a sweet sweet slumber. I love how even in their sleep, they acknowledge God in clasped hands! (They didn't really like my flash so much though)

Grandma and Kien baking candy cane cookies!! YUM! 

Happy Birthday Jesus cake! YUMS! We have THREE birthdays to celebrate! Jesus, Greg and Nina! 

My friend Julia gave me the details about this cookie and it was SO fun to make! Here are the boys decorating theirs! Of course it is WAAAAYYY more sugar I would let them consume in one setting, but they enjoyed the majority of it over a course of three days! ;) 

Christmas Decor And A Family Photo?

It is family tradition that Mom spends a couple of hours un-boxing the Christmas tree and fluffing the branches, piecing it all together and putting lights on so the children can help put the ornaments on. It's like a tranquil moment before the rush of messy design takes place. (Fellow crafters/scrapbookers would understand)

Gabe and Kien thought the lights were "pretty"!

 I am thoroughly convinced that family poses are not a team effort when it comes to having multiple children. Of course, we ~TRYYYYY~ to make it happen, good thing for D-I-G-I-T-A-L!! I could TOTALLY say that developing film was a HUGE waste of money at times! 

If one is smiling, two are looking away the other is trying to smile... 

 If three are looking, one really smiling, one fake smiling, one not smiling at all and then the other looks away....

 awwwww... shucks! Shall we just put the camera away?! lol 

again... 

um... again?!

Oh, oh.... almost! 

SO CLOSE PEEPS!

and.... no.. 

And, again... 

 This is as close as we are going to get! YESSSS!!!! LOL

I love the placement of the tree every year because all the extra ornaments that I can't put on the tree I stick on the ledge behind the tree. It's a cute little touch to the decor. :) 

The decor doesn't stop here.. but my post must. Until the next one... Remember, Jesus IS the whole reason for.. well, EVERYTHING! <3