Excited for Cara....

To our surprise, Cara is a really great little swimmer! I know it sounds bad to say that I am surprised, but I really didn't think she'd ever make it off the block (based on her school anxiety issues)! However, my sweet little girl did in fact make it off the block and has had a great swim season this summer! She swam great tonight and is heading to finals on Saturday. We are super excited!!!

Jake didn't make it this time around and it was a bummer, but a good life lesson on winning/losing and being happy when others do a little better :).

She has also really enjoyed the social aspect of swim team !!

Once a Week

Looks like summer means I have time to post about once a week! So, again....here is what we have been up to.

Jake enjoyed having his buddy Collin stay with us for three nights. So fun! He loved it. He gets a bit bored from time to time with just us girls and the neighbor boy goes to daycare during the summer days.

On Saturday we enjoyed cooking out and swimming at my Aunt and Uncle's condo pool. Lots of good food and company. Afterwards we were laying in bed talking and Jeremy said, "i really appreciate their unconditional love and support." This from the man who fakes sleep when I start talking about something serious,  so it says a lot :).

On Sunday my Aunt Joyce called and wanted to take Jake and Collin to see some baby hawks that hatched at her office building. To say this has been a highlight of Jake's summer would be an understatement. My little birdwatcher took tons of pictures and has talked about it all week. Here are a few pictures he took with my camera (which may not have been a good choice on my part to send a $500 camera with an 8 year old)...

We spent Sunday afternoon at the pool and then we enjoyed hanging out with B's first foster family at the park. It is always so nice to get together with them! They have lots of helpful information for us since they've been doing foster care longer and they love seeing B. We are thankful for them and I am especially thankful for the awesome scrapbook Hazel made for B. What a special gift!

Not sure if this boy could be loved anymore than he is!! 

I know he will always have a special place in Hazel's heart....she has a special place in mine!

Monday we had a swimmeet. The kids are really enjoying it and did great. Jake got a first and Cara got two 2nd's. Jake also DQ'd but he doesn't have a clue so it's all good ;). I was most happy not with their wins, but with their team spirit. Jake asked to stay after his events so he could watch his pal swim and cheer him on. It made my heart happy to see him cheering for his friend, give him a hug and give another boy a bump after the race.

It is also an answer to our prayers to see Cara building confidence, having fun and making friends. So, YAY for swim team (even if it's about to kill me). This coming Monday is Semi-Finals and it will be my luck won't it be exciting if they make it to Finals! :)

Tuesday and Wednesday we went to the pool and Jeremy left for Alabama via Atlanta. On his way home he picked up our new van. It has been a great couple of pool days.Good weather, good friends and just lots of fun. I have the best video on my phone of B floating around in the pool with his water wings on. Wish I could post it!


My business has been consistently busy and I am thankful! Tuition went up a whole lot with two in all day so it is a blessing. I will admit that the other day when I ran in the gas station I really wanted to try my luck at the lottery because that would be a whole lot easier than staying up late and getting up early to get orders out since working with all of them home all day isn't woking out :)! We are having too much fun at the pool!


And.........I don't think I ever posted this adorable picture of Abby when she turned 4 1/2?! Maybe I did...but thought it was too cute to post even if late.

Happy Friday!!

Happy 4th of July!!

 This picture is Jake explaining to me how he is dressed appropriately for the 4th. He is wearing camo to support the army :).

Mid-Week Update

Another busy week is half way over. Here's what we are up to....

We enjoyed tagging along on a business trip for Jeremy last week to Iowa. It just so happens that we have some of our favorite friends there!! It was such a fun time. Here are a few pictures from our time there.

We really had a great time! It is nice to have friends you can stay with and everyone gets along and the kids all have a blast together. Thanks for a great time A family!!

We got home on Saturday night and spent Sunday at the pool and then looking for a new (used) van. I mentioned in a past post that our van was totaled in the hail storm. The insurance company is coming to pick it up on Friday and as of now we don't have a van. Hopefully we will find something soon!!

Tuesday night we had a swimmeet. Both kids placed 2nd in their events. They are loving it this summer and it is a lot of fun, but keeps us busy. Still undecided on if I like that :). It is really fun, but it is a lot of work getting everyone up and out for practice every morning and to the meets. I think we only have a couple weeks left!!

My Mom flew out to NY to pick up my niece and bring her back here while my SIL recovers from an injury. We are LOVING having her in town. She is so cute and so much fun!!! She went to the pool with us today and she was adorable. Tomorrow my other niece will arrive and it will be a great big cousin party at the pool! 

Jeremy surprised me with some great news today. He is on vacation through Tuesday! We are so excited! Tomorrow he is doing swim practice and then taking Jake to buy a basketball hoop. Jake is thrilled. I am hoping to sleep in a little and then get some orders out the door and head to the pool for the day. Tomorrow night is a dive in where they show a movie while kids lay on rafts in the pool. It is exciting when you are 6 and 8. Not quite as exciting at 33 and 36, but we are going to fake it and load up on the bug spray :).

Hope you are having a great week!

Put Up or Shut Up

I came across this article tonight and finally had the chance to read all of it and think it is a must read.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/16/my-take-on-adoption-christians-should-put-up-or-shut-up/

I am a supporter of adoption all the way around. International, foster, domestic...whatever. Sometimes I wish I didn't care so much because life would be a whole lot more care-free! Unfortunately, since I was little I remember caring about kids who had no parents. It really bothered me. Maybe this is because I got to grow up in a loving home? I don't know, but it was always in me and I knew I would adopt someday. When we were first married I would print out pictures from the waiting child list and put them on the fridge and pray that they would get a home.

It causes me anxiety to think about what our littlest guys life will be like if he goes home. I just have to completely block it out most days and only think about it when I have to (on big review days etc...).

My Dad called today just to tell me how exciting it was to see B climb all the way up the stairs and work his way back down (with us there of course). He was so proud of himself and had the biggest smile on his face. He so deserves to have a family to love him and cheer him on!! He (and the other half a million children in foster care) deserve a chance to break the cycle of abuse and neglect that seems to come with their family of origin.

I get it that we have chosen for our extended family and our biological children something a little out of the ordinary by fostering. Sometimes I feel bad because our family and friends are so emotionally invested in B's life and I feel bad that we chose to bring a hard situation with lots of ups and downs for everyone to worry about.

And then I get these emails that encourage my heart and keep me going....

Just last week I got one from the Mom of a high school friend saying she had just filled out her application to be a CASA worker! Maybe you aren't in a spot where you can foster or adopt, but maybe you CAN be an advocate for a child. We are very thankful for our CASA worker. She gives of her time to try and figure out the crazy mess of a case we are in.

We would do it all over again. How can you not??? Oh, I love him so much! He is my wake up call everyday and it is a good, happy one!

We only get one chance to live our lives....I for one don't want to have regrets over things
I wanted to do but the timing just wasn't right.

Sometimes you just have to make a decision and get off the fence. I'm sure the county worker who answered the phone the day I called thought I was a nut. I said something like, "Hi, we want to do foster care but I don't think our house is big enough. We have three kids age 2, 4 and 6 and we live in a 3 bed 1 bath house. Do we qualify?" Ha!! Two things. They don't get a lot of people with small children who actually want more AND yes, our house was kind of small. We were willing though and God's timing was perfect. We lived in our new home for about a week when little B joined us. What if we had waited to start until we had a bigger house...we would have missed out on B! Makes me sad.

So, that was a bit long winded, but you all know how I can get when I am passionate about something :)! Imagine being Jeremy. He fakes sleep all the time!!

Catch Up Bullet Style

I am so behind on blogging about what we've been up that it is overwhelming so here's a quick run down...

* School did not get out for Jake until June 9th. We had Field Day, a class picnic and an awards chapel that   week. Jake got the character quality of honesty. We were happy about that :)

* We have been to play at the fountains, had yogurt  at the Yogurt Mountain, ice cream at the Dairy Shed and Coldstone.

* We started swim team. J and C are swimming this year. They are doing great. Cara has gotten two first place and Jake got 4th the first meet, but apparently didn't like it that Cara got first so he stepped it up a bit this week and also placed first. I have to admit, with Cara's stage fright, I didn't think the girl would make it off the block. I am so pleasantly surprised that she has found something she likes.

* We have been to Urgent Care for one injury this summer. Hopefully our first and last.

* We have done VBS. That was a blast for the kids and they are still singing the songs. I realized last week that I am in the market for one of these -

It was sad to have to leave the neighbor girl behind because I didn't have enough room in the van. So.....since our van was totaled, we are thinking this is our next vehicle. 

* We celebrated Abby's half birthday with really good cupcakes at a new cupcake place. 

* We watched a cousin graduate and move up in rank in the Army.

* We are missing another cousin who moved.

* We are bummed to have missed another cousin's bridal shower and big family dinner.

* We are super excited to be gaining a BOY cousin!!! 

* We are spending lots of time at the pool and it has been fun to have so many friends join this year. 

* We are looking forward to meeting our friends new baby boy soon.

* Sweet B has conquered the stairs and walking. He loves to hide and jump out and cracks up!! He gives the BEST hugs and is just the cutest little thing. 

* Cara got an ipod and we crack up at her singing her songs. I really don't think she realizes that the rest of us only hear her and not the music!! It's a hoot!

* Jake is the bird watcher. We have hung a few bird feeders in the yard. One day a lady at the pool told him he wished he was at her house to identify a bird she saw.  He asked her a few questions and the next day brought down a picture and asked her if that was the bird. She said, "well, yes it is." When she asked him how he knows all these different kinds of birds he told her it was his gift. That's what his teacher told him :).  

I am seriously behind on some things with all the kiddos being home and getting used to our summer 

schedule. I hate that I often miss calls, don't reply to text until two hours later, forget to send thank you's, and this year completely forgot to mail Father's Day cards out. I just want to enjoy the summer with my little people. They are so much fun and time is passing by so fast. I can't believe my baby girl is almost 5! I am so thankful for my friends who know that I really do have good intentions and try hard :).

End of the School Year Fun

We've been doing end of the year activites for the last couple of weeks. Abby's last day of preschool was two weeks ago and Cara's last day of Kindergarten was last Thursday. This is Jake's big week.

Here is Cara on her last day. Miss Cara made cake pops for her to take in. They were a big hit :) They actually passed them out as treats to each of the kiddos with their little diplomas. Cara's graduation was very cute and low key for us because she gets sooooo nervous before performances. So, we just tried not to make a big deal out of it. She was terrified before and got a stomach ache and cried a lot, but I am happy to say she pulled it together and the night was a success :). I loved watching afterwards. Jake walked around with her with his new DS that takes pictures and captured cute shots with all her buddies!

 This picture below is her dress and bracelet she laid out with a note she made for her teacher. I found it laying with her clothes. She put it there so she wouldn't forget. It said, "you are the best teacher ever. I love you!" She had the sweetest teacher. We just love her to pieces and hope that Abby will get to have her too!!

For Jake's last week we have Field Day on Tuesday, class picnic on Wednesday and an awards chapel on Thursday. Should be a fun time!

And, since I couldn't find pictures from Abby's last day (I think they are on Jeremy's camera....here is a picture of her and sweet B at the pool). He loves all of the kiddos, but he and Abby are tight :). He's always quick to hug and pat her when she is sad or hurt.