Happy Birthday Anaya!

 Anaya turned 6 on Sunday, on Friday we had a princess tea party for her and some of her friends.

The girls dressed up and had fun playing together, lots of giggling!

We made bracelets..

played pin the tiara on the princess...

I think their favorite game was sifting for treasures in the sand.

 

On April 28 we celebrated Anaya's 5th gotcha day, hard to believe, time is going by so fast.  We are so blessed to have this little chatterbox in our lives.  She adds quite a bit of spice to life, and we are so thankful God placed her into our family.

Interupting my Haiti blogging to say...

 Happy 15th birthday Dylan!  We are so thankful God blessed us with you!

 Happy Valentines Day!  Ryan gave all of his girls cards and roses! 

And Happy 2nd Gotcha day Luisa!  We are so thankful God blessed us with you too!

HappyBirthday!!!!

To my sweet girl who LOVES to dress up.  Every day she comes down and asks me to help her put on some sort of dress up clothes.  She will wear this all day everyday when we are home.

I wore this dress when I was her age in a wedding!

I can not believe she is 4 years old already!  This morning after we sang to her, I told her that she was now 4 years old and she said, "Oh, OK!"  She is such a sweet kid!  We are so blessed to be her family.  Sometimes people ask if we are going to adopt again, and while I LOVE my family and feel like we are complete, I would never want to say "NO" and miss out on the blessing if that is what God calls us to do.  But for now, we have no calling, just enjoying these treasures we have!

 A robe and some items for her baby dolls.  

She loves to find things that match or are "same" as she puts it.  I have a robe that I wear, so when she opened hers she said "same like you mommy....wwwwobe!"  Too cute! She is talking so much and sings so sweetly, we don't always readily understand what she says, but for the most part her speech is coming along.  It feels as though she has always been a part of our family, I truly can't imagine life without our Luisa JOY!

Happy Birthday Spencer!!!

I told him yesterday morning {on his birthday} that he is like fine wine, he gets better with age!  He was quite the crier as a baby and a handful as a toddler, but the kid is sweet as sugar now! 

 We had a couple of his friends come over after school and have dinner and cake and ice cream before AWANA.

We bought the boys lined work overalls for working in the barn this winter.  So glad they like the practical gifts we tend to give.  

Happy 10th birthday Spencer, we love you!

Happy Birthday!!!

To these guys! We love you both so much!

Ryan turned the BIG 40 and Jayden turned 12 today. 

This weekend we had a birthday party for Jayden...

 We played several fun minute to win it type games and had a scavenger hunt.

The boys had to weigh in their steers for 4H Saturday morning, so the kids went with, after eating waffles with nutella, Jayden's favorite breakfast, at 6:30am.

Ryan took them squirrel hunting in the afternoon! Such a great dad and brave too!  {only 2 had guns!}

And of course there was cake! This is the week we get really sick of cake around here. Jayden choose a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for his party Friday night, Ryan always wants angel food cake {gross!}

Spencer's birthday is Wednesday, so we will be celebrating again.

Happy Birthday Easton...

Nice, Jayden is pointing a gun at me!

 Who told my baby boy he could turn 7?  Oh my goodness! 

Happy 7th Birthday Easton, we love you so much!  I love how you tell me I am such a sweet mommy, and all of the cards you make for me.  Thanks for being such a blessing!

Happy Birthday Anaya!!!

5 years old!  This girlie was so excited to turn 5, she had been talking about it all week!  Last week one day, Easton made her a chain to count down the days to her birthday. Each day she (or Easton) eagerly ripped off another link.  But, the last 2 days have almost been too much, she just wouldn't stop talking about it, I surely hope she isn't disappointed!  We celebrated her birthday Friday since Saturday is filled with soccer games, 5 of them to be exact, from 8:45am till about 2:30pm!  {Yay*sarcasm*} and then she gets to go on a much anticipated birthday date with grama T!

Happy Birthday Anaya, we can't believe you are 5 years old!  We love you so much and are excited to watch you as you learn and grow this coming year!

VZ family fun...

I have been preoccupied lately with a little "review" from the lovely IRS...more on that in another post, but today I want to share some photos of our recent VZ family get together.

 We started out our morning with breakfast at the Trestle Stop, then we celebrated many birthdays.  Then we played a game of Kick ball.  Unfortunately we were too busy playing to get any pictures.  Then, the guys took the kids to the farm while the ladies hid the easter eggs, for the annual easter egg hunt.

 Lucy, was not so sure about the baby chicks!  What is that thing?

 maybe I can pet it...

 Oh yeah, this thing is cute, let me have it!

 Oh my goodness I am holding a chicken!

 Anaya loved them from the start, look at the dust on her face and sleeves!

 The boys helped uncle Robb catch floor birds...

 Ryan used to farm chickens and the boys miss it so much, they love helping uncle Robb.

 Aunt Sarah explains the rules of the hunt...

 the girls finding their eggs...

 everyone and their loot...

 we decided Dylan couldn't do it next year, he hit the mother load!

 The birthday gang! 

We had a great time sitting around and chatting while the kids went off on the golf carts, made forts and just had fun hanging around.  The guys, were of course, walking their hunting grounds and watching basket ball.
Lisa heads back to Mayo this week for more scans...please pray that they receive great news.

Happy Day...

Happy Valentines Day, Happy Birthday, and Happy Gotcha day!  It is a happy day here as we celebrate all of these things! 

14 years ago at nearly 5 weeks premature, Dylan weighed in at 5lb. 14oz.  He had to spend one night in the NICU(neonatal intensive care unit) but he was was totally fine and healthy!  We are so thankful to God for giving us such a great kid!  He is a great big brother to all of his siblings and they all love him and look up to him.  Happy 14th Birthday Dylan!

1 year ago today, a very quiet and nervous little 2 year old was placed in our arms.  Luisa Joy has been such a huge blessing!  It has been so much fun to watch her personality just shine as the days and months went by.  Medically, she is doing very well, her numbers{amount of hiv in her blood} have gone from a million, down to around 200.  We are still hoping to see them at undetectable in the near future.  Meanwhile, her immune system is recovering and those numbers are right where we want them to be!  While she doesn't talk much yet, she is learning more and more each day, and she certainly understands everything that we say.  Once again, we are so thankful to God for giving us such a great kid!  She is a fun little gal who is adored and loved by all of her siblings.  Happy 1st gotcha day Lucy!

And of course, Happy Valentines Day to the rest of my great kids and my amazing husband, I love you all so very much! 

Happy Birthday Luisa Joy!!!

I can't believe how fast this year has gone!  Last year at this time we were anticipating a trip to Colombia to pick up Luisa, and now here she is turning 3!  It feels as though she has been in our family forever, I can not imagine life without her, she brings so much JOY into our lives, and we are so SO blessed to be her family!  Happy Birthday sweet girl!  We love you so very much!!