Growing Up!

As you can see, they're growing up!  

Let's play "Guess whose 12" in this picture from last February.

Hint:  they are the only two who didn't stick to the color theme.  lol!

Brothers

Want to burn this moment in my memory forever.  So thankful that these two are brothers through the blessing of adoption!

View from a Treehouse

Last month we were blessed to be able to spend some time with new friends who just happen to have five children including one sweet boy they adopted from Uganda about a year ago.

How wonderful it was to pray and eat and chat and watch our 15 children enjoy the summer sun in their incredible backyard - complete with a blow up water slide AND a great treehouse!

Dad had to try out the treehouse too. . .

He snapped this INCREDIBLE picture of all of the children.

Aren't they precious?

Maybe it's just the view from the treehouse, but everytime I look at this picture I think,

"hmm. . . 15 children doesn't really seem like much more than 10. . . "

Batman and the Basketball Pirate

More Christmas Pictures

Mostly, this life of ours is beginning to feel really "normal" to us and so I find myself wondering why people stare in obvious disbelief and/or wonder when we walk down the street or into a store or restaurant. I have a friend who reminds me that for most families, this is not the norm!

Well, when I downloaded these pictures tonight and was clicking through them, I laughed out loud when I actually SAW what other people see. . . our family does look really big! LOL! It is so much about perspective though: I'll bet we look small to families like The Duggars. Many times when we have been gathered to read our advent book (more about that later), we even find ourselves and our children commenting that it seems like someone(s) is/are missing. . .

I love these beautiful girls. Little Missy is loving her new sisters!

Our Many Merry Brothers. . . They are a GREAT bunch of boys!

Here are my sweet "babies."
They aren't really babies but we are going through a lot of the baby bonding phases right now.
The Lord has been so good to give me another chance to have "babies."

More fun with photobooth

And here we have our helpful fun-loving "Miss C."

Our quiet, contemplative "Miss D."

Our sweet and very little "Miss A."

Blessed is the man whose quiver is full!

Fun with Photobooth

My children love that my husband's computer will take their pictures. . . had a little fun with this program tonight! Here we have our crazy "Mr. Z."

And our serious "Big Joe"

Our "on the go"- "Speedy Mo"

Sweet and silly, in charge "Little Missy"

and apparently Picasa won't let me upload all 7 photos at once. . . more to come!

Love this guy!

I don't write much about my wonderful husband on this blog, but he is seriously the most awesome husband ever (I know. . . I'm slightly biased, but I really do think so!). Someday I'll share our story: it has been an incredible, interesting, never boring journey and I have a feeling we're just getting started. I can't imagine sharing this life with anyone else!

We love this "crazy daddy."

Camping on the Coast

We had such an awesome time on our camping trip to the Oregon coast! The kids look forward to this trip every year (well for some kids this was only their 2nd year but for them, that is a tradition!). We went with some other families who have children about the same age. One family has 4 kids and the other 5 so that made 13 children in 3 adjacent campsites (plus another 2 teenagers who joined us later in the week for a total of 15). They had LOADS of fun riding bikes around the campground and hanging out in "kid's kingdom" which was located somewhere back in all of the bushes where adults are "not allowed." LOL!

Here they are on the beach having a great time burying themselves in the sand and enjoying some driftwood houses to get them out of the wind for a few moments.

And, you can tell we go to the freezing cold river all of the time because here they are playing in the Pacific Ocean when it is only about 65 degrees outside! They were actually down rolling around in the waves!

I love these kiddos!

Freddy, these are for you!

What happens when you let your 7 year old, who is an insanely gifted athlete, build a skateboard ramp and then watch the X games?

This is the boy we affectionately call "Speedy Mo!"

I must be the mother of many boys: this wasn't worrying me a bit! In fact I was telling him to go faster to get more air. LOL!

Oh, do you see our pop up tent trailer back there? I'll have to post about our trip to the Oregon coast! It was awesome!

Frances, incase you were wondering, he was consistently landing these jumps AND then started trying to kick-flip the board while in the air! Crazy!

I love summer

 
 O.K., this is it, I promise.  I just got a new camera and I'm loving actually having pictures to post!

A new understanding

 I now know why having hair extensions put in costs so much money. . . 

 

90 braids, 12 hours, 4 movies, 2 coffees, and a bag of chocolate later,

 I am happy to post a picture of Little Missy's first official extensions. . . 

Done entirely by her mama and "auntie becky!" 

Isn't she beautiful?!

Little Missy

I couldn't resist posting just a few more of these great pictures my wonderful husband took of our "Little Missy."

 

 

 

 

Pictures, Old and New

Someone asked for some pictures, so I thought it might be fun to show our pictures from last year and this year!  

My, how the kids have grown.  

So, here is our Fall 07 picture 

with (L-R):  Big Jo, Little Missy, Mr. Z, and Speedy Mo.  

Aren't they cute?  

AND. . . 

Here they are now!  

This picture was taken about a month ago. 

 Can you tell who is who?  

Fall 08 

Kudos to one of the best photographers ever!  If you want to know who she is, email me privately and I'll tell you!