The Eve of Christmas Eve

Almost 2 years ago some very good friends of ours moved in with us while they were waiting to transition into their new home. There were 8, soon to be 9, of us living in our small house and we had a BLAST. Calida was pregnant with their 4th child and Judah was 3 months old at the time. We loved living with them and were so sad once they moved out. We have remained good friends, in fact they lived next door to us for about a year before moving into their new home.

We started having our own Christmas celebration with them last year and we plan on continuing to do so every year.

Maycee, Kenya, Judah, Moriah, Silas and Alysah

Such sweet friends!

Haha funny picture!

Kids enjoying their gifts.

Silas with his cowboy :)

Making homemade sopapillas with the kids.

Judah had so much fun getting dirty.

oh man this is a funny one too...

ya so we were making them at 10:12 at night... that's how we roll :)

They turned out sooo good and the kids had a blast!

Dallas World Aquarium

We took Marisa, Kenya, Natalie and Judah to the Dallas World Aquarium on Saturday and we had a blast. It is basically a HUGE indoor zoo/aquarium.
 

This is is a giant anteater and was one of Judah's favorite animals there. Every time it would come by the glass he would scream with delight.

Marisa and Natalie were waiting to feed blueberries to some birds.

I was shocked that Kenya wanted to do it too. She is normally scared of things like this but she did great!

Jason, Judah, Natalie, Marisa and Kenya checking out the sting rays.

Judah also loved the giant otters.

This lizard was creepy but cool. Not sure what the kids are looking at cause it is right below Kenya ha.

One of my favorite parts was this viewing area where the manatee would swim right up to the glass.

I thought Kenya was so cute trying to play with this turtle.

The highlight of Judah's day was finding Nemo. He yelled as loud as he could "NEMO, NEMO, NEMO!!!!"

I loved the design on this fishes face.

Natalie

and Marisa chillin with the penguins!

Here we are with our kids :)

This was a super cool tunnel that you could walk through and see the SHARKS!!!

Kenya loved getting to spend the day at the aquarium and has decided (after watching Dolphin Tales) that she wants to be a marine biologist. 

My sweet Baby A

Dear Baby A,
 I haven't written a letter to you in a while but I can not get you off of my mind so I just wanted to write a letter to tell you how much I love you. I had a dream last night that your "Papa" and I were back at the hospital. I picked you up and danced and danced around the room with you. You laid you face against mine and I lost it. I just cried and cried as we danced around the room. I remember how heavy you felt in my arms and how warm your cheeks were against mine. I remember how much I loved to have such a sweet moment with you.

I woke up and was so disappointed that it was just a dream. I can't wait to go back to Eastern Europe for court I can't wait for the day they finally say we can take you home. I can't wait until you get to meet your sister and brother.

 Your birthday is coming up and I am so sad we wont be there to celebrate with you. I have a bit of Mommy guilt because we brought your birthday gift with us the first trip but I was too excited so I gave it to you early. Now I am sad because you wont have anything to open from your Mommy and Daddy on your birthday. I am so so blessed though that you are surrounded by people who love you and will celebrate your birthday with you. I am so so glad you will be held on your birthday and told how special you are. I can't wait for the day I get to tell you Happy Birthday and tell you how much I love you but until then just know how much you are loved sweet boy.

 I miss you so much and I can't stop thinking about you. We have been working hard to get everything ready to bring you home. You are going to love it here sweet boy. I know it is going to be hard on you at first. I know you are going to miss your nanny, your room at the hospital and all the staff but I just want you to know that we love you and we will help you to adjust to your new life here. We can't wait to have you in our arms again.

 You are so so special and so so loved. I wish I could make time fly by so we can see you again but it will be here before we know it. I can't wait to post pictures of you for everyone to see. You are getting so big and are growing so much. I can't wait for the day we officially get to announce that YOU ARE OUR SON! Today my heart is heavy because I miss you so much but I know we will see you soon.

 I love you and I can't wait to kiss your sweet face again sweet boy! Enjoy your day and love on your Nanny. I know she will miss you so much and my heart breaks for her. You are so special and so loved. I will see you again soon!

Love,
  YOUR Mommy

2011 highlights

January:

We celebrated Judah's 1st birthday!

February:

We found out about Baby A and started working as fast and as hard as we could to bring him home.

We got to meet Ella and her Mom Katie. Ella has the same type of EB as Baby A. It was so neat to meet Ella and such a huge blessing to get to talk to Katie about Ella's day to day life.

March: 

I went to stay with the Williams Family so I could learn all about day to day life with EB.

Jonah is such a joy to be around and made me so excited to bring Baby A home.

Once I got back from staying with the Williams Family we had our home study. 

Jason and I celebrated 6 years of marriage March 5th!

April:

We celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

May:

We celebrated Mother's Day.

June:

I turned 27 WOO HOO getting up there in age ;)

We celebrated Fathers Day!!!

July:

The kids and I went on vacation with Jason's family. We went to Disney Land, California Adventure, Sea World and ended the vacation at Jason's family reunion. Unfortunately Jason couldn't go because he was saving up his vacation days for when we went to Eastern Europe.

We also had a HUGE garage sale to raise money for the adoption.

August:

I only took 47 pictures in August and not my normal 1500 so not a whole lot to share from August :)

September:

We celebrated my nephew Blake's 4th birthday and my nephew Dilan's 5th birthday.

October:

We celebrated Kenya's 5th birthday!

November:

Jason turned 29 and enjoyed participating in no shave November :)

Melody and Madison have been in Heaven for 3 years. I can't believe that much time has gone by. We still miss them a ton but are comforted knowing we will see them again!

We got to meet Baby A and officially commit to his adoption!

December:

We celebrated Jesus' Birthday and enjoyed hanging out with our family and friends.

2011 Was a super busy but great year. We can't wait to see what God has for us in 2012!

THIS is why Jesus came

2 minute video worth watching!