Sunday, March 31, 2013

celebrating easter


The boys had fun at an egg hunt in our neighborhood yesterday.



And they were rockin' awesome hats for Easter this year! (Side note: they wear these hats A LOT, not just on Easter. They love hats like their Daddy!)
Getting the sillies out so I could get a few good pictures...

resulting in my new favorite pictures of the boys. I mean seriously...the hats, the smiles, the blue eyes. They are SO CUTE! I love them.


We can't wait to add our Ethiopian princess to the mix. Celebrating that this is our last Easter without her!!!

So we do the egg hunts and a tiny gift from the "Easter bunny" but I am so thankful that our biggest emphasis is on celebrating our Risen Savior! We started the Resurrection Egg tradition a few years ago and it is by far my favorite Easter tradition that we do. This morning we opened the last egg and talked about how the tomb was empty! Here they are showing me the empty egg which represents the empty tomb!

Easter really is a celebration of the greatest event in the history of mankind. 
Praise God that Jesus AROSE!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

spring break recap

This is late, late, late but I wanted to post a few pictures from spring break. We didn't do much but recover from our trip to Ethiopia but we managed a few pictures toward the end of the week.

The boys thought these huge apples were awesome and wanted me to take a picture.

One day we went to the Water Gardens. I remember going here as a kid a lot and I don't think we'd been since Elijah was very little. The boys had fun climbing and wading in the water.









Then we went to the park with cousin Solomon, ate dinner and had ice cream.


And that's a wrap for Spring Break 2013! :-)

Friday, March 22, 2013

judah's week with grangoat & nana

While Jason, Elijah and I were in Ethiopia, Judah was having his own fun with Grangoat & Nana. Grangoat took the entire week off work just to hang out with Judah - thank you SO MUCH Grangoat! Judah had so much fun and is still talking about what all you two did! Here's a glimpse into their fun week!


They went fishing and Judah caught his first fish! He was super proud!

 They visited a firehouse and Judah got to sit inside the firetruck!


He sat on a real John Deere tractor and helped move dirt in Grangoat's backyard with his own John Deere tractor.



He went to the zoo with Uncle Brad and cousin Solomon.


He helped paint boards and played with rope!


 He went to a dairy farm where he pet cows, held chickens, gathered eggs, milked a cow and fed a calf a baby bottle! What fun!





He suckered them in to Chuck E Cheese (you guys are brave!!! :-)

  He just generally had a lot of fun and I don't think missed us one bit! When we arrived at the airport he ran right past me and tried to tackle Elijah. I was so sad but at the same time happy that he had done so well with us gone. He is growing up! Thanks Nana and especially Grangoat for a wonderful fun week of memories!!!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

ethiopia {final visit}

 On Friday morning, we packed up our stuff and headed over for our final visit with Evangeline. When we were called upstairs she was getting a diaper change.


I think she remembered us because she warmed up right away!

My beautiful baby girl.



Can't wait for those beautiful curls to come in!!!

So happy!


Not long into our visit she started to get sleepy. I was so proud of myself for reading her cues and knowing what was wrong with her! It was the first time I felt like her mom.


Not wanting to say goodbye.

It took about 2 minutes and she was OUT!








Our last moments were spent holding her, studying her features, kissing her, telling her how much we loved her and that we would come back to bring her home soon!

When I laid her in her bed she woke up crying. :-( I wish I could have held her for her whole nap. I snapped a few pictures with two of her nannies.


They laid her in her bed and we told her goodbye. This is what she looked like when we last saw her.

It was hard leaving her but I take comfort in the fact that she is getting good care, she is happy and comfortable where she is and she does not realize we are gone. We miss her but she doesn't miss us yet.  In hopefully just a few weeks we will bring her HOME!!! Can't wait!

When we left Evie, we ate lunch and then headed to the airport. Over all, we had a wonderful trip to Ethiopia...it is full of sweet memories and things that we can tell her about her country as she gets older. Evie, we're coming soon baby girl....get ready!!!!