This year for Christmas we did something different. We have friends who create a scavenger hunt for their kids to find the gifts. Well, since the kids had big outdoor items, we thought it might be good to have a hunt. After opening the gifts inside, they found a note from Santa. It told them to put on a coat and shoes then go to the backdoor to wait for instructions. Chloe had the first clue, followed by Keegan, then Kale, and last Cody. They could only open a clue if all 4 of them were at the spot. It all led to the church trailer which Jon opened. Inside they found Chloe's jeep, Keegan and Kales's bikes, and Cody's DS. Now, let me say, Cody had already found his DS. Kale had been sick throughout the night and had ended up in our room on the floor. When Keegan and Cody got up, they came to our room also. We were not quite ready to get up yet since we had not slept much. As it got lighter, I heard some discussion about some sort of game. It suddenly dawned on me, I had plugged Cody's DS into the outlet to charge and they were looking right at it. I was VERY upset. I wanted him to be surprised along with the others. Oh, well, he was very excited. Anyway, they had a super day with Papa, Aunt Wendy, and Uncle Matt. They look forward to receiving Papa's gift each year--a gift card to Dollar Tree--and he did not fail them. They love to go shopping there with their money. The bow and arrows were big hits. The weather being so nice helped with the outside rides. They rode lots throughout the day in their jammies. Chloe preferred to have Keegan drive her around and he was more than happy to oblige. It was a wonderful day spent with family!

Christmas Digi Scrapping

I did these 4 pages today of the kids from Christmas. Once I get going, I really get going!!!

Papa and Keegan cook

PS The pie did not turn out too well. Papa blamed it on my electric stove. He uses a gas stove and says it heats differently:0)

Pillar Church did a kids choir/musical this year of the Christmas Story. Cody played Joseph; Keegan was an announcer and had to say "Hear Ye, Hear Ye" three times. He did an outstanding job!! Kale was also an announcer who had to tell everyone the king had issued a decree (and a little more). And Chloe sang the first and last song in the kids choir. She knew all the other songs as well. We practiced often in the car; so much so that all 4 of them pretty much knew everybody's lines. It was quite amusing to hear them go through the entire musical with only the 4 of them.

Catching up before Christmas

Yes, I know I am behind again. I actually like the catching up thing; it goes so much quicker!!Let me catch you up until Christmas and then I'll do that soon and add pictures from all our Christmas activities.

*November 15 we headed to Maryland to Matt and Wendy's for Thanksgiving. Dad was already there. We ate lots of great food, laid around, went down to the water (it was rough and cold), watched football, and preetty much did nothing. It was terrific!!! We spent the night which is always fun. Wendy cooked us breakfast the next morning and then we headed to church. The boys came back with dad later that day. They were out of school the next day and he was going to hang out with them.

*For Thanksgivng, we went to the Toole's and ate with everyone from Pillar. We had a huge feast and lots of good conversation. A great time was had by all.

*On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we headed to NC with the first stop at Papa's. He cooked the normal requested shrimp--you can't even know how good it is until you taste it:) We had fun and enjoyed our time together. The next morning we headed to Nana Jo and Grandaddy's house for another round of food. It's always fun to eat, eat, talk, eat, and well eat some more. It was rainy and cold so it made for soem crazy kiddos, but they managed to have fun.

*December 5, the kids, myself and Jennifer and her kids headed to Blue's Clues Live at a local high school. It was kind of cheesy, but the kids enjoyed it. Free tickets always make things better. Next, we went back to my house and had hot chocolate and cookies before putting the kids to bed. Then Jennifer and I stayed up very late doing nothing. The next day, Jenn and I headed to town to do a little shopping (Jonathan stayed with all 7 kids!!). On the way back it began to SNOW!! I am like a little kid when it snows. I was very excited even though it was very little.

*December 14, the kids were in a musical at Pillar Church. Cody played Joseph and Keegan and Kale were Ceasar's announcers. Chloe sang in the choir. The kids were amazing and really enjoyed the experience.

*On the 19th we attended the annual Pelt Christmas party. It was a t Kelly's Ford Inn which is near our house. Becky Castle (one of the boys favorite sitters) made it back into town just in time to keep them. We enjoyed decking ourselves out for the event and hanging out with adults. As always, the Pelt's out did themselves.

Now we are up to Christmas break. Since I am home from school for the next week and all our company will have come and gone, I can catch up blogging and pictures. I'll leave you with one of the kids for now. Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

BEST Christmas present ever!!

Is this a Chloe face or what??

We received a package today from our adoption agency. Inside was a small sketch book with her footprints at birth, photos of Chloe from when she was 2 wks and up, and notes to Chloe from a few different people. The notes were written in Chinese so we will have to find someone to translate, but it is so precious. There was also a CD with hundreds of pictures from near birth all the way to Gotcha Day!! There are several pictures of her birth mother and other people that we are not sure who are. We can easily tell her birth mother--she looks just like her!! There are pictures with her and the gifts we sent. We have asked many times for these pictures and had given up getting these so we were very excited!! I will post more later.

PS After "opening" the CD, they have the pictures in categories. There are folders with her birth mother and they are labeled with three different visits. This will be awesome for her to see as she gets older to kow her mother came to see her at least these three different times. They also included pictures with her BM, Chloe, and the gifts her mother left for her.

Wordless Wednesday

My kids

At the grocery store today, Chloe was looking at something while I getting chocolate chips off the shelf. She says, "Mama spank my hiney" as she spanks herself. I look and it is wooden spoons she is looking at:0) (Which we do use) The lady near us started laughing.

This evening Keegan and Kale were playing a Wii game. Now you guys know Keegan and his vocabulary is . . .developing shall we say, but lately we've heard him say many funny things such as telling Kale he needed to "hustle". It was too funny.

Just a glimpse into our world . . .

Chloe's birthday

I am trying to go back thru my pictures and create scrap pages as I go. So, tonight I created pages for Chloe's birthday party. I get to scrap and you get to see pictures and read about our lives. Enjoy. . .

Relaxation

This is so much fun!! It is very relaxing to sit back, scrap, watch TV, chat with Jonathan, and drink hot chocolate.

Another page done

Our family, the Clifton's, and the Wire's held a pumpkin party this year. The kids had a grand time with all the different activities. Here's a page that shows some of the activities.

Christmas scrapping

Keegan and apple orchard

I can't decide if I like this or not, but I worked too hard on it not to display it. So, here goes. . .

Playing catch up

Well, let me see if I can catch everyone up on our last couple of months. . .

-a virus ran through our family minus Kale and myself (Actually, I forgot, Kale also ended up with it)
-we attended the Davis family reunion (09/13)
-we went to Hartland Orchard to pick apples (10/27)
-we attended the Homecoming football game at Massoponax (10/03)
-enjoyed the Garman sendoff concert (10/04)
-daddy came for a visit and the kids had tons of fun (10/10)
-Jonathan and I went to see Fireproof and out to eat (10/11)
-travelled to West Virginia with the Pelt's; Chloe and Cody spent the day being sick while
Jonathan, Keegan, and Kale enjoyed the train ride (10/18)
-help take photos at the Scott wedding (10/25)
-Keegan and Kale went on a field trip to Belvedere farm (10/30)
-celebrated Chloe's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with many friends (10/30)
-pumpkin party at Clifton's house (10/31)
-Jonathan spent Election day with the kiddos; he let them make all the decisions (11/04)
-Cody went on a field trip to Pamplin Park (11/06)

Well, I think that sums it up!! I have not wanted to blog because I was so behind. Now, I can get back to regular blogging:)

Busy day doing NOTHING

It has been awhile since I have blogged anything but pictures. We've been really busy and soon I'll hopefully catch our blog back up. Today, we have not been busy. We have stayed home the ENTIRE day; I am still in my jammies:) Besides washing clothes, eating, and playing we have done nothing and it feels great. I had to mess with my digiscrapping and I did accomplish a page, 2 new desktops, and organized my supplies. I have not scrapped any in a while, but I started a friend scrapping and she has inspired me to get going again. So, here are my creations from today. The first I created from scratch and the next is a quickpage (I just add a picture and title).

Happy Birthday, our 3 year old princess!!

Chloe turned 3 on Sunday. We are having a birthday party in a couple of weeks for her. She was sick all weekend so it really stunk, but she was very excited to get her very own pink Leapster. Then on Monday, she received the Cinderella Leapster game and has been playing ever since. She also got a Dora game and coloring book as well as money. She had "Rella" cupcakes at school with her friends.

It is amazing to think this little princess is 3 and has been home with us for 18 months. She spent exactly 18 months at St. Lucy's and has now been with us the same exact amount of time. It seems like she has always been ours. She acts like all of us in both the good and bad ways. She talks quite a lot even though it is not always completely understandable. We will have her speech evaluated in the spring. However, she understands everything we say and has become quite a helper. She enjoys music, books, the Wii, her Leapster, playing with her brothers, and adores her daddy. It is hard to remember the times where she went crazy when he was in the house. Everyday when I take her to school, she asks for daddy to pick her up. It is really cute. We all love this girl with our entire hearts!! She is a happy little girl:)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Football season

Kale began football a few weeks ago. He had his first game this past Saturday and his team kicked the other teams tail. He played many positions and did well. He really likes it and gets wound up tight to play. Pretty much every day Jonathan and the boys play football outside. Kale has quite a temper and often gets in trouble for yelling at someone about the game. We were glad to see he did not display this in the game on Saturday. Maybe it is just a brother thing.