2012 in Review

 Makenna graduated 8th Grade, we survived homeschool! 

Sawyer turned 12, and was excited that 6th graders are now in the youth group. He is quickly becoming a tween ready to be a teenager. 

 We started back to homeschool with just Sawyer and Malaine. 

 We celebrated Gotcha day with Sage, SIX years with our spicy girl! 

Sawyer and Mark did his Passport to Purity weekend. (Still think this is the best ever!)

Welcomed friends home from China with their beautiful BOY! 

Watched Makenna in her very first school parade with the colorguard team! 

Makenna attended her first homecoming dance. Had fun getting ready with cousin Courtney and help from Megan. We had a houseful of girls for the night afterwards. Nothing unusual there. 

 Makenna turned 15. The fact that this means she gets her drivers permit soon is not making us feel any younger. 

 We welcomed a sweet visitor with Safe Families. She was just a few weeks old. 

 Malaine turns double digits, TEN years old! 

We had a smurfday party! 

We celebrated Mavery's Gotcha Day. 4 years with our wild woman! 

We participated in Judgement House. 

We had trunk or treat at church and our theme this year was Alice in Wonderland. And yes I realize I have the best husband ever who agrees to dress up with me as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. :-) Malaine was Alice, Makenna was the Cheshire Cat, Sawyer the Mad Hatter, Sage was the Queen of hearts and Mavery was the Queens flamingo she plays golf with! 

Some of us did not think Halloween was all that much fun. 

 Mavery turns SEVEN! 

 We celebrated birthdays with family! 

Sage turned SEVEN! 

Enjoyed playing dress up and watching her grow! 

Received sweet love from Chenzhou for Thanksgiving! 

Had fun with cousins FREEZING at the orchards. 

 Lived out some of my pinterest ideas through Christmas decorating. 

And by hosting TWO Favorite Things Parties. A new favorite idea for sure. We had so much fun!

Enjoyed any chance of sleep we could get, which was not much. :-) 

Had friends visit from Charlotte, had such a GREAT visit! We had the chance to visit in May and it was so good to see my Chenzhou baby again! Really love this family. 

Had fun with the youth for a Christmas Party. 

Enjoyed Breakfast with Santa at Eckerts. The big kids really love that I still make them get in the pictures. 

Enjoyed all the kids being in 2 Christmas Concerts at church. 

Said goodbye to baby girl after 2 months of fun. Thankfully we still get to stay in touch with this one and though I cried MANY tears, it has been a good growing experience for all of us. 

Celebrated good news on an MRI that Mavery had done on her heart. All is well for now, hooray! And celebrated Good news on Marks yearly MRI. Hooray! God is good. 

Had a super fun family day at Incredible Pizza Company. After some misunderstanding with a GC, the new owner let us in FREE. A huge blessing for us! Go St Louis IPC! 

Made nativities out of graham crackers with cousins! 

And that sums up almost everything up till Christmas! My kids are giving me a hard time for neglecting the blog and so I wanted to catch up and hope to get back to it more often this year. Maybe I can get Christmas on here before the month is out. Miracles still happen, right?