Church Easter Picture 2010

Every year as we go into church for Easter they snap a family picture. Was pretty happy to get everyone looking and smiling!

Baby Chicks!

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On Fridays we attend a home school co-op and are able to take some fun classes. Not in place of what I teach, just as extra fun. The kids take things such as art where Makenna has been able to really do well at her sketching. Sawyer's favorite this year is Robotics where they use computers and lego's together, what could be better! Malaine enjoys anything that her cousin Jaylyn is in, I think her favorite is The Magic School bus. Even Sage & Mavery get to take a few things. This year for the first time I decided I would teach a class. You can basically choose anything you want to teach on, so I thought it would be fun to do a class based on the American Girl dolls. We have had so much fun! Sometime I will share all the excitement we have had in there, but I came across these pictures today and wanted to share. Each week we cover a different girl, and on the week we learned about Kirsten, my co-teacher and dear friend thought it would be great fun to bring in baby chicks! So off to Rural King we went (local farm store) and purchased our minimum of 25 baby chicks. I took just a handful home for the night, and my kids sure enjoyed them! They are pretty cute I must admit, though I am in no hurry to raise chickens for sure!

Easter 2010

I know, I hear ya, I am a blogging loser. I have a whole list of excuses, but they are lame even to me. I really do want to catch up, hopefully I will very soon. But I wanted to at least share my Easter cuties from today along with some quotes from the kids.
On Saturday night before bed we did the resurrection eggs as a family. As Mark was asking what came out of Jesus when they pierced his side Malaine says " I think his appendix came out!"
When asked where Jesus prayed, Malaine said " OH wasn't it in the forest?!"
Sage, is able to tell the entire story in her Sagey way. "And then they nailed Jesus on the cross, and they stuck him in a cave and put a HUGE stone in front of it but after 3 days he rose again and rolled that stone away and now we get to go to heaven! " (all said in one breath) Last was so sweet from Mavery. When we opened the nails, in the shape of a cross, she grabbed it and jumped up and said, "Jesus died for ALL OF US on the cross, so we can go to heaven!" If you know Mavery, you know she is very animated and watching her tell this was so precious. To think of this child just coming home a year ago, and already getting that Jesus died for us, it melts my heart. Well that is till today Mavery asks my dad "Where is your daddy?" My dad replied that his dad died. Mavery: Oh, did he die on the cross too?! ;-)

Fun at the park

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After many MANY days of cold weather here, we were all thrilled for a nice day to get outside and play! We visited a sculpture park not to far away, that we had never been to. We will be back for sure. It was a perfect place for our family. Lots of room to run and run and run! Mark and I commented all day on how EASY the day was. No strollers, no diaper bags, everyone was happy! It was a very good day, and for that we are thankful.

Our toothless Lainey!

Malaine is losing lots of teeth! She now has her 2 top out and 1 bottom. We think she looks adorable! (and yes she has had them out for awhile, I am behind!)

Chinese New Year Pictures!

We had a fun time celebrating Chinese New Year with family and friends here at our house. In years past we have also attended our local FCC dinner, but since Mavery we have not braved it. We hope to eventually join in the fun of the Lion Dance and LOTS of kids! We do love our party to though. We did not have one last year due to Maverys heart surgery so technically this was her first year along with a few of our new friends! It is always a fun night of celebrating our girls. Our family has always been so supportive of our adoptions and it is a fun evening.
Sheila brought us these beautiful dresses back from China. The girls love them. What could be better, pink with fluffy skirts!
All of the Chinese princess'! From left to right. Mavery, Eden (home in October) Hadasah/Haddie (home in August) Hannah, Haddies sister (home in April 05) and Sage with her chinese smile!

Sweet sweet girls!

All of the gang! We sure did miss Colby & Dalayna. ;-( Notice the boy girl ratio, it is our life story!

All the beautiful girls!

The dessert buffet, yum! I did not get a good picture of it I guess, but Makenna & I made "sushi" or rice krispie treats. Yes, I know it is japanese, but the kids loved them.

Haddie, isn't she adorable! She is hilarious and makes us all laugh!

Makenna, Eden and Jordan! I love that these sweet friends share the connection of their sisters, what a blessing!

Amy made this adorable cake in honor of the year of the Tiger, isn't she great!

A shot of the food. We had another counter with the same amount, but we finished it all off! None of us cook chinese, or have time to cook, so everyone just brings a carry out dish. All yummy! I do hope to learn how to make dumplings.





One thing we always do is take up a collection and then I typically send it to China to one of the foundations that took care of our girls. This year, we took up a collection and presented it to my brother. Who is going to be living in China later this year! I missed a picture of him. Or most of the people there, we had lots of people!

Valentines Party

We had some of our home school friends over for a Valentines Party and had lots of fun! The kids were very excited about trading valentines!

Hannah with her new sister Haddie after decorating iced sugar cookies

Malaine enjoying her cookie, YUM! Notice how toothless our girl is?

Everyone having fun icing cookies

Makenna insisted we needed to have a baby food eating contest

Wesley was pretty serious about his baby food and won!

I was nice and only bought PINK baby food. But next year, I think I will make them do the veggies!

A very fun day!

Happy Birthday Mark!

It is a really great thing when your oldest child is old enough to BABYSIT and we can sneak out for a quiet birthday lunch for Mark's fav, Mexican food! Makenna even pulled off making her dad's favorite dessert while we were gone, oreo cake balls, YUM!

Craft Day #1- Family Values Canvas

This is Makenna making lunch for the kids, she is awesome!

Lots of girls having lunch! And a counter covered in lots of crafting supplies. Not to mention a dishwasher that needs cleaned, oh the fingerprints on that stainless!

click on the picture to enlarge and read the rules.

Here we are, next craft day I think I will put on makeup! Do not click on this picture, eek! ;-)

**Our friends blog did have to go private for now. They go to court on Friday afternoon, during our Thursday night so please continue to pray for them and their sweet little girl.

Amy, (who is married to my cousin, so now my cousin), and I had fun doing a craft day. She also home schools, so before you believe this was a craft day for the kids, let me clarify, it was a mommy craft day! Surrounded by 8 children, 7 of those girls.

I had come across these Family Value Canvas Pictures & loved it. And thought it did not look to hard, if I had Amy to help because she is A. Creative B. Patient C. Really good on the computer and I knew printing off all those rules was going to be tricky. D. Does not care if my house is a wreck or I answer the door in sweats and no makeup for craft day!

We had fun and it really was not so hard once I got the hang of printing off the papers. I am not going to type out directions, because really, if you want to make one just google family values canvas and you will find TONS of blogs with directions. The cost is next to nothing, we got our canvas at Hobby Lobby for just a couple of dollars. Some of the scrapbook papers we had. Some of my papers are a little to busy, but overall I like it.

I have another one started with bible verses that I hope to finish soon. I will take a picture of them hanging on the wall next to each other when I am done.

We already have plans for craft day # 2 and it involves some clothes refashions. For us. Which obviously means some sewing lessons for me and digging out that sewing machine I have yet to put to use.