Family Together Again!

L to R: Andra (cousin), Aubrey (SIL), Aunt Susie (my mom's sister)

Anissa (aka Aunt ShiSha), Ginger (cousin), Aunt Rachel (my mom's sister), Priscilla

My sweet angel! Chavalah Lyn!

Charis fell asleep in Aunt Susie's arm!

The "aunts!"

Priscilla (my mama!) & Aunt Rachel

Aunt Shi Sha (my sister)

Andra & Ava, Me & Chavalah, Ginger & Charis (cousins through marriage)

Three sisters (my mom's sisters) and their "daughters" and "granddaughters." Absolutely PRICELESS!

Oma, Aubrey & Jack!

Our sweet baby girls all ready to get in the car and GO! (all second cousins!)

I have THE BEST family EVER! I'm so blessed. My mom has a family that are so very close. We got together this morning for a ladies' brunch and we had so much fun lovin' on all the baby girls! WOW! Busy, but so much BLESSING and MIRACLES! We've all adopted or are in the process of adopting. Jack had to be the only boy there, but he did GREAT charming us as usual! He's the best. Thanks mom for the FABULOUS fruit soup and coffeecake and BREVES!!!!! Yummy!

Laine & Mommy School Celebration Date!

At the entrance of Rainforest Cafe

We sat RIGHT in front of the elephants!

Laine was fascinated with the gorillas!

Mommy & Laine

This was the kids' cups! So neat!

The VOLCANO!!

Laine was THRILLED! Can you tell!?

On Tuesday, Laine and I went on a VERY SPECIAL date! The purpose of our date together was to go shopping for a backpack for school and some school uniform needs. Laine will start school Monday as an Early Kindergartener! This is quite emotional for mommy, but I'm so proud of him and he is SO EXCITED! He got to pick his very own bag, and once we were through shopping, we celebrated by eating at Rainforest Cafe! Have you ever been? If you haven't and you have kids, it's a must do! WOW! Unbelieveable. The restaraunt is completely designed to make you feel like you are in an actual rainforest! There are animated animals surrounding you, sound of rain constantly, dark and jungle looking, aquariums, lizards, elephants, monkeys and gorillas! It's AMAZING! Every 15 mintues they actually have thunderstorms where you hear thunder and rain pouring down harder and the lights flicker to make it feel like lightning. Seriously amazing. This was the first time I had been, and it's a must for daddy to go back and see at some point! We ordered dinner, and again, as a special treat, we ordered a "volcano" for dessert! Check out the pictures!

WOW! What a week!

So, I haven't blogged in several days because I haven't had internet connection. We had trouble and just today finally got everything working again, but it's been down since Tuesday night! So, now I have SO MUCH to update on. Our lives have remained chaotic much like our past, but I'm really hoping that all CHANGES once we get moved! :) With this blog, I'll start with a picture of the FRONT of our new home! YAY! Things are still "processing." We still don't have a close date. We were hoping for one before end of this week, but being that it's Friday night, I don't believe we'll be hearing until next week again! Please be praying with us on this. The house we're in is bank owned right now and they are wanting us out by August 28! Yes, that means this coming week, BUT we have no place to go, so we're trying to "wait things out" and the last tidbit we got on our new house that we're buying is that October 3 is about the SOONEST we'll get in. YIKES! So, we're just praying for God to works some miracles as He has all along, so please pray with us about that! I'll keep everyone posted!

The Kids

Chavalah right after her bath. She's discovered her fingers.

These boys are PRECIOUS together! They wrestle and play like crazy!

Well, it's been a great weekend with Daddy home. Laine spent the night at my parents and had a blast as always. Friday night (Ben was working) I actually went to bed at 8:30!!! I was exhausted! Saturday morning we slept in some and Ben went to our home inspection on Saturday morning. The inspector said everything looked PERFECT! YAY! Saturday afternoon we went over to our friends' house, Ben helped Rob with a water feature in their backyard while I made taco pizza for everyone! SO YUMMY! Mmmmm. Man, that's something I used to miss about the midwest, but I've found an even better solution! Got home later last night, put the boys to bed and just watched the Olympics for awhile. This morning, my dear husband got me my paper and coffee in bed! WOW! What more could I have asked for!? Such a treat! We've had a play day today. Such a fun day. All took naps, so relaxing. Yes, I SHOULD be packing! I'll get there! The boys are on a bike ride right now (should be home soon) and we'll all have raspberry pie that I made this afternoon and watch the Girls Gymnastics! Busy week this week. My sister is flying in from Iowa and we are SO EXCITED to have her here visiting.

Chavalah WIDE AWAKE........

..............and watching the Olympics with mommy! GO MICHAEL PHELPS!!!!

We got the GOLDEN TICKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, okay, not really, but we DID get our Certifiacation of Acceptability to Adopt Children!! YAY! Doing cartwheels over here! This is HUGE! Now, we will contact our attorney and have them file our Petition to Adopt Ezra and hear back on the next available date available for our "adoption hearing." Can't believe it! I'll keep you posted. We're going to continue on for the adoption of Ezra as Chavalah is intended to go faster than Ezra, but not fast enough. :) We want to know and officially take Ezra on as our son, not FOSTER son!!!!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!

A Better Walk!

Had to post a better video of Ezra walking! Sorry! That first one he had a lot of "splats."