ostrich mating dance, chef hats, and celebrations

random weekend number 2, people.

gabe: my biggest little chef. we were blessed by some friends who gave us some hand-me-downs...among them was a home depot apron. -that plus the chef hats from a recent field trip have made my little men very eager to help in the kitchen.

saturday was asher and judah's gotcha day anniversary. TWO YEARS of being a forever family of 6. 

when i wished judah happy gotcha day, he was so excited. when i asked him what we were celebrating, he said he didn't know. --but i'm glad we got the point across that it was an exciting event. ;)

i explained to him that it's the day we remember and celebrate becoming a forever family. -that God let us adopt him into our family. and we are so thankful. i didn't get that far with asher's conversation. i tried to have this meaningful moment discussing the beauty of adoption and he was more interested in gum. i get it. 

this is us at our triple birthday celebration/gotcha day celebration. 

my sister came in and we went to a wildlife ranch. since three birthdays and two gotcha days are in the same month, we combine it and have some family fun. parties take it out of me and can cost some money, so we went a less-expensive way and really enjoyed ourselves!

my sister and asher. at one point, asher was so tired and there were no animals, so he hummed a tune and threw out a piece of food at a time, resembling a flower girl at a wedding. we enjoyed it. 

these are my handsome boys. they were excited that they were all wearing sleeveless shirts to show their muscles. lots of the time they are fighting, but sometimes they work really hard to all get along and help one another. --like working for 10 minutes and changing shirts so they could all match in sleeveless-ness. 

 beautiful.

here's the gun show. bam. muscles galore.

i love the picture below of elijah. if you look closely, he is holding a flower in one hand and a few arrows in the other. 

cowboy hat+arrows+flower=awesome, thoughtful, masculine little man.

chef hats. asher's face is brilliant. 

a sicilian donkey. they were eager to eat and were so sweet. what a cutie.

at one point in the tour, we saw ostriches doing a mating dance, which is funny in its own right, but was HILARIOUS to me because in college i watched the jeff corwin experience or something and it showed the mating dance which consists of the wings being way out to the sides and it throwing its head back and forth while shaking its feathers. --well i decided i could re-enact it anytime i wanted (apparently i had lots of free time in college). so i did. and we have pictures to prove it. and now my whole family got to see it. and now my boys act it out. so we are a rather large family of awesome ostrich mating dance pros.

broadening our horizons one discovery-channel-moment at a time.

that's how we roll.

 hope you all had a blessed and fun-filled weekend.

asher's two

our little asher celebrated his second birthday this weekend and it got me to thinking...
there are a lot of things i never knew before asher came into our lives. he has really broadened my horizons.
so to commemorate this oh-so-auspicious of occasions, i thought i'd make a list.

before asher, i didn't know...
1. i would ever be on a first name basis with several different doctor's office staffs
2. what to do when a child swallows windex (the poison control lady was SO nice!)
3. how to go through a cps investigation. it sucks. it really, really does. all because he thought it'd be a good idea to face-plant onto a tile floor
4. how it feels to see your baby roll over, learn how to sit up, and all sorts of other milestones you miss when you start with toddlers
5. how kids could get so dirty while eating. now i see it. i really do. he basically bathed himself in his dinner. and finger painted with his chocolate milk. really creative.
6. what a screaming banshee sounds like. it's interesting, especially in public.
7. how hilarious it is to see a little guy attempt to be a big boy like his brothers (and be pretty good at it)
8. how much a curly-headed boy gets called a girl. yes, i have four boys. not three boys and a girl. no matter how many times you ask, the answer is still the same.
9. how you could possibly willingly care for a child at the hospital even though every fiber of your being wishes you and your child were asleep in your own beds and not on a gross fold-out couch
10. how much a kid could like getting licked in the face by dogs. -i'm talking pure, unadulterated excitement and joy. ew.

asher, thanks for being patient with daddy and i as we learn through trial and error (lots of error) how to be the parents of a truly wild and wonderful little man. you're pretty great. -i'm not gonna lie.

it's all happening!

i'm back!

sorry i've been away so long! i have missed you guys!

so much has happened and instead of doing one post per special event, i'm going to be realistic and do one big whopping post. that way, you will actually be up-to-date.

here's a picture of judah's birthday. he asked for buzz lightyear cupcakes. say cheese!


on march 23, we adopted asher and judah into our forever family. it was a GREAT day! our family came to celebrate with us and we are now official! God has blessed us in ways i cannot believe! the same day, while in the courthouse, i received a call telling us we were under contract with our current home! yay only one mortgage!

(from left to right: elijah, me, judah, the hubs, gabe, asher)

the day after we adopted, we closed on our new home and started moving in. we found out at 10:07 we were closing at 10:30... God likes to teach us patience and faith. ;)

the boys now each have their own room and it is JUST as amazing and wonderfully stupendous as i had hoped! bedtime no longer lasts hours!

sunday was elijah's 3rd bday. we had a great lazy afternoon! he asked for a cookie cake. yum!
in a few weeks we will be having our gotcha party. people are coming dressed as their favorite superhero or making up one of their own. i will be supermom! stay tuned for pics on that one.

thanks so much to you all for your encouragement and prayers!
we are immensely blessed and to God be all the glory, honor, and praise!
God is good all the time. all the time, God is good.

dear jane

today is judah's 3rd birthday. sometimes on our kids' birthdays, i think about the day they were born. i wasn't there. did i feel different? did i feel something special in the air that day and not know what it was. 3 years ago today, in a hospital somewhere, a scared teenage girl delivered our son into the world. so i thought i would take this time to write her a note.

dear jane,
our son is beautiful. he gets that from you. he is strong and loving and stubborn and passionate. he is eager. he is precious. in a world where you could have taken the "easy" way out and ended his life during pregnancy, you chose to let him live inside you. thank you. i know life has been hard for you and losing your boys was crushing, but i want you to know i take this responsibility very seriously. judah is a gift and i treasure him. i promise to care for him, nurture him, disciple him, and help him to grow into a man of God that delights in doing His will. someday he will ask about you. someday he'll wonder where he came from. and he'll deserve a great answer. my answer will be: your biological mother loved you very much and did the very best she could. she could not take care of you, and God gave you to us. we are so grateful to have you. you are our forever son. nothing you ever do could make us stop loving you.

thank you, jane, for doing what was difficult. -the hardest thing you've ever had to do. thank you for letting go. thank you for judah.


happy birthday, judah. we love you so very very much.

gabe turned 5!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABE!!!

well it's happened, folks. gabe turned 5. i haven't blogged in so long because things here have been a bit hectic. but here it is. better late than never.

we had a small celebration with the family and gabe got to pick his favorite place to eat. then we came home to do presents and yummy chocolate cake.



our plan is to celebrate sometime soon at chuck-e-cheese with all 4 boys since 3 of them have their birthdays in march and april.


this is the delicious cake that we enjoyed. then this weekend i turned on the oven to cook and forgot it was in there. needless to say, it's no longer edible.

sad, sad day. the death of chocolate is always a travesty in my mind.

here's some posts to look forward to (in no particular order): adoption day, moving day, new house pictures, and more birthdays.
whew. i'm tired just thinking about it.

have a great day!