Cold feet anyone?

I just loved these 2 pics! Time spent w/ dad is priceless! Bert love's to make up stories to tell the kids. They love to hear them b/c he always makes them the hero. I hope he knows he is OUR hero!

Christmas Baking 08

I wish I would have taken an "after" picture of the mess!! Thankfully the memories were priceless!!

Christmas Banquet 2008

We had our church Christmas Banquet this past Sunday. It was so fun! EG played the piano, read scripture, sang and mimed! Wow was she busy. Tyler played the drums. Micah and Sophie decided to sit this year out, but maybe next year they will give it a try.

2 year Gotcha!!

Yesterday was our 2 year gotcha day. I simply cannot believe it! The time has just flown.  It feels like we have always had Sophie, and I can't believe she spent the first 19 mos of her life w/ out us.

 We started yesterday morning laying in the bed and showing Sophie pictures of herself in the orphanage and the pictures of the day we came home w/ her. We talked about the day mommy and daddy came to get her in China.  I had the kids write letters to Sophie..of course this totally made me cry. Then we went to children's theatre. We let Sophie pick out where we should eat. She had a hard time picking between McDonalds and Chinese buffet, but the buffet won out in the end!  Sophie has grown leaps and bounds and is truly a joy in our lives.  She is definitely trying at times but nothing more so than any other 3 year old. She is such a little diva and everyone is constantly reminding me of how much I wanted a "girly" girl! She loves to change clothes constantly..loves shoes, loves to get her hair fixed.(like Amber's, or a braid like Lody) She can put her hair in a ponytail by herself.  She like's to change her name and have us call her Brooke, or Hannah or AntieRay. She is just too funny!  She loves to sass her older siblings and that really irritates them which makes her want to sass them all the more! I was really worried about what kind of letter's they were going to write to her! I told them they could be anything about Sophie (memories, poem etc.) lol.  I tried to take pictures of the letter's but they wouldn't show so I am going to type them. Grammatical errors and all.

Here is Tyler's:

2 things I remember the most about Sophie is that her hair was short and she was small. Now its hard for me to hold her without my arms breaking and me getting a mouthful of hair! I feel sad to know how fast she is growing.

Micah's: 

Dear Sophie to me you are a trophie       (omg I loved that  line)

you have shown me how to believe

and how to deceive                         (what!! lol she is a major trickster)

and may you have another great year.

EG's:

Sophie is the sweetest sister in the whole wide world. here are some memories of her

I remember Sophie always wanted mommy and never daddy, I remember how she did sign language, I remember how her first word was apple. but more importantly she needed love and care, so i think she got the perfect family in the whole wide world.

Hello Cupcakes

My friend Ashley bought this awesome cupcake book called Hello Cupcake. Well, being the experienced cake decorators that we are we got busy making some serious cupcakes. Every cupcake in this book is like a piece of art. Seriously, if I made something that looked that awesome, nobody better touch it..let alone eat it!!! But no need to worry we didn't make anything that came even slightly close to looking like anything in the book. I made the cupcakes and we had some awesome decorators! Look at all the sprinkles on Sophie's plate! They had more fun dumping out sprinkles than anything else!

Lucas will be ready for the action next year

14 years and counting...

Bert and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary the weekend of the 8th. My parents kept the kids at their house while we went to Chattanooga for the weekend. We had so much fun! I took so many books and I enjoyed catching up on my reading. The scenery was awesome! Our cabin was way up high in the mountains and the view was phenomenal. Check out the 2nd picture in my post. Bert actually woke me up at 2:00AM to show me that picture! He had so much fun taking pictures. We ate at Aretha Frankensteins on Friday night. Saturday we just chilled at the cabin most of the day and then went to the mystery dinner theatre that evening. Sunday we went on a fall lunch cruise on the river. We werent supposed to go pick up the kids until Monday but we decided to surprise them by showing up a day early. The older kids weren't that excited(go figure) but Sophie was thrilled to see us. I soooo appreciate my parents keeping the children and letting us have time together. We had a blast and I am so thankful for the wonderful husband God has blessed me with! (yes, babe I ended that sentence w/ a preposition just for you)!

Fall Festival '08

Well, our annual Fall Festival was this past Saturday. It was a blast as usual and our numbers grow every year...over 550 people were there. It is awesome outreach and our kids enjoy every second of the festival. I am only sad that I don't have any good pics of Sophie on here. She loved singing in the karaoke booth! I have a ton of video of her! Laura or Amber if you have any pics email them to me please. Amber you can just add them in on your own if you have any. THANKS!

Budding Artists

My kids look forward to every Thursday at noon. Why? Because it is art day! They have class for 1 1/2 hours w/ an awesome art teacher and one of their favorite people! Amber! Here are a few pics from this year so far. The dragon and the monkey are Micah's. He also did an awesome fish painting. I was so shocked when they started bringing home their paintings, b/c they all look so good and I love how each painting reflects some of their personalities.

Baking Fever!

It must be the cold weather..either that or the fact that I am on a diet and I love to torture myself! My sister Laura sent me a link to kraftfoods.com. They have this cute pumpkin bundt cake and tons of other awesome recipes. My house smells so yummy! Here are a few pics to enjoy. The stacked cake is the Luscious Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake. I have everything done on it except the topping, which is melted caramel topping and pecans....yummm! You add that right before serving. On one of my pumpkin cakes I used neufchatel cheese, it is 1/3 the fat and also less calories, everyone said you cannot tell the difference in taste. On the second pumpkin cake I used a spice cake mix (one of Bert's fave's) and I am hoping that will be really yummy too!

Pumpkin Patch 2008