UPDATE

we're still here.....we've just had a ton going on and blogging has had to take a back seat. :)

we spent Memorial Day Weekend hanging out at home, swimming, and getting ready for our 1st ever family camping trip.

John had Monday off, and he gets every other Friday off so he only had to take 3 vacation days in order to have the whole week as a vacation!

We left Tuesday morning and headed up north about 2.5/3 hours to our "rim country".

It was beautiful -such a nice change of scenery and weather. We left our desert home of 100 degrees and were lucky to hit 70 during our days....low 40's at night!
CHILLY for us! :)

we borrowed a friend's trailer for our adventure-such a blessing!
(and I had to borrow John's flannel-I completely forgot to pack warm clothes for me! Thank God John had brought his warm flannel and a jacket!)

the extent of the wildlife we saw. :) squirrels and chipmunks...no deer this time, but I'm sure we'll get to see them sooner or later.

Bible stories around the campfire our first night there.

our first real "hike" on our first morning there (Wednesday).... .7 miles each way. Andrew was a trooper -he was our trail blazer. :) The girls were good hikers on the way there, but got a bit whiny and wanted to be carried on the way back....we didn't carry them -I wanted them good and tuckered out for naps. :)

I LOVE this pic!

Andrew was so sweet -he let Becca "lead" with him even though she insisted on holding his hand.

-and I didn't get a pic of it, but at one point when Elizabeth was whining and didn't want to walk, Andrew picked her up and tried to carry her. He is such a sweet little boy-I love seeing his kind heart emerge as he grows older. :) -

stopping for a water break

thought this tree looked cool with the one-sided foliage

dead tree in the middle of the living ones

between 10 and 12 all 3 days, the storm clouds gathered and we had a rain shower/thunder storm that lasted 2-3 hours.

and Andrew loved trying to drink the rain. :)

we visited the fish hatchery for something fun to do Wednesday afternoon

literally just a bunch of fish segregated by their sizes in various "pools" but the kids got the biggest kick out of it!

we had squirrels all over our campground....while we were out and about on Wednesday, we stopped at a convenience store and picked up some peanuts.

Thursday morning we woke up to 5 squirrels hanging around our site....so we let the kids throw peanuts to them. The squirrels got fat and happy and the kids had a blast!

We left after breakfast Thursday morning and got home right around noon.
I don't like the heat we returned home to, but I sure did love being home....cooking in my own kitchen, sleeping in my own bed with my husband (I slept with the girls both nights-well, "slept" isn't really the right word...laid in between them for 9 hours better suits what I did. :) ), etc etc.

It was ALOT of work to get ready to go and of course work to unpack us when we got home...but the kids had a blast and that's what counts. I know they'll remember this for a long time, if not forever. :)

ANOTHER SARA BETH BOW GIVE-AWAY

aren't these stinkin' adorable?!

and you know what? -there is this set, a "Little Fishy"set, AND a "patriotic" set up for grabs this month.

hop over to Sara Beth Bows and enter for a chance to win and to see how you can "earn" other entries in the give-away.

Hurry-the last day to enter is May 31st!

and if you do enter, make sure you let them know I sent you over! :)

OUR WEEKEND IN PICTURES

We had a great weekend..full of family and fun...and swimming :)

Saturday evening we were invited to our neighbor's swim party at one of our local pools.

The kids had a BLAST!!!

caught Andrew stuffing food in his mouth. :)

I love this shot of Elizabeth!

doesn't it look like they're conspiring? :)

my blue eyed beauty




and of course Sunday was Mother's Day.

after church, the whole family came over to our house for BBQ hotdogs, swimming, and homemade ice cream!

Jeremiah's first real swimming experience

grandma with Josiah and baby Jameson

Joanna trying not to smile

Elizabeth trying to play with Jeremiah

Josiah getting his first real taste of swimming

enjoying homemade ice cream on the patio

these 2 were TUCKERED OUT!

I can't think of a better way to spend our weekend....and with it consistently over 100 degrees here now, I have a feeling we'll be spending ALOT of our weekends (and weekdays!) in the water. :)

2 YEARS AGO TODAY...

we saw this face for the first time

Our agency had a list of about 25 kids. John and I looked at the list separately so as not to influence each other.

When we came together to discuss if we wanted to apply for any of them, we actually agreed on 5! 4 girls and a boy. There were 2 girls we were particularly both drawn to -Elizabeth and another beautiful little girl (whose mom has now become a VERY dear friend and confidant!). We continued to pray and pray over whom to apply for...all of them to give us better odds at being matched? or just 1?

It doesn't matter how many or exactly who we applied for, we were matched with the child we were supposed to be matched with..Elizabeth. All along there was something just so very famliar about her. I would look at her pics and there was that...I don't know the word...maybe it was just a sense that I knew her. I can't describe it. When we got the call we were matched with her I realized why I had felt inexplicably drawn to her since the first time I saw her face....she was my child.

I can't believe it's been 2 years. It seriously feels like it was just last week!

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now a little update:
I ordered some videos by Po*wer 90 and have been doing them on days I can't get to the gym.
The kids like doing the cardio ones with me. :) Andrew can actually hang with me the whole 30 minutes!

the other night John was doing one of the videos since he didn't make it to the gym.
Elizabeth was whiny so we made her just sit on the bed for a minute (instead of "working out"). The next thing we know, we turn around and find this:




she had completely sacked out!
I never thought she was whiny cuz she was tired!



I love to look at her face when she's sleeping.
I think she has the most pefect little lips!


and then about an hour ago I was cleaning up lunch and the kids were playing.
at least I thought they were playing.

We had played in the pool for 30 minutes before lunch-but nothing strenuous...but apparently enough to tucker out Elizabeth again!

she actually woke up for about a minute, turned over, and is still asleep on the floor!

I knew if I picked her up to move her, she'd wake up and she obviously needs the rest! :)