What We've Been Up To.....

Sis had an all day Tennis Tournament and did GREAT!!!!

We went to the Art of Freedom event to support those who are enslaved and trafficked against their will

We each got to create our own art piece and Sis had the idea to paint a picture that our friends have on their daughter's wall (actually, it's one of Kaylee's former orphanage mates that has it on her wall!)

We got a little help from the professional artists there ;). We are SO happy with the way it turned out and Kaylee was SO EXCITED to see it! 

The boys went to the Bulldog game :)

Keegan had another football game

Jog A Thon at school! Here is Keegan with his friend Grant :)

Kaylee always draws a crowd when we go to school! Here she is with some of her friends ;)

Kols and his friend Tobey! 

My little helper as we shop :)

Kaylee's Big News...

Love this picture Stacy got of Kaylee's dedication :)

 We have a HUGE praise! Kaylee ate a FULL fruit squeeze yesterday! When Claire was over at our house and had a snack, she chose one of the fruit squeezes. We always give Kaylee whatever snack Claire has and she asked me to open hers...I did and she sucked down every last drop :) She had another one today for a snack and half of one out at Sissy's tennis :)  One step closer to eating solid foods :)))))

 This is one of the first times that she has actually put anything other than her bottle IN her mouth...usually everything just touches her lips and that's as fas as she'll go. Yay! 

She has also been eating the broth from soup ... I have soup often for lunch and I've been making a bowl for her ~ she slurps the broth off the spoon and each day has had about half a bowl of broth (leaving the meat and veggies). I'm going to make a new batch of soup tomorrow and grind her meat and veggies up into the broth...just to sneak a few nutrients in ;)  We'll see how that goes...

Learning to pedal :)

Arts and Crafts time with Claire :)  Making Fall Pumpkins!

Kaylee Grace's Dedication

Today was a special day for our family! Our church celebrated our annual Orphan Sunday event and we figured it'd be a perfect day to dedicate Kaylee's sweet life to Jesus!

Waving to her fans :)

 Kaylee, we lay your precious life in the hands of our Lord Jesus ~ you've been in His Hands all along! We commit to pouring His Love & His Word into you so that you may know Him.

Kaylee felt quite comfortable up on stage :)  She had us all laughing 

 We are so blessed to have such a wonderful church family! They have been so supportive in every way and have been a part of this journey from the very beginning...over 2 years ago when the Lord first spoke to our hearts about adoption!

Pastor Mitch had some very encouraging words for our big kids...he knows how awesomely they have loved on sweet Kaylee from day 1 and he was telling them how proud of them he is...we are too!!!

We love you, Kaylee Grace! And we know the plans He has for you are GREAT!!!

We are SO VERY BLESSED by your sweet and precious life!!! We thank Jesus for entrusting us with you :)  We laugh a whole lot more, we've learned what unconditional love really means, and we've all grown so much closer to Jesus through the blessing of YOU :)

Time For An Update!

Whew! So much happens in a week or two!!!

Football for the boys:

Keeg's team

Kols' team

 Tennis matches for Sis:

Mommy and Kaylee on our way to Sissy's match

Go Sissy, Go!!!

 Time at the cabin with family and friends:

Kaylee and Cousin Anna playing playdough at the cabin

Keeg blowing up a raft to take out on the lake

The Marini's came up to the cabin and Sis and Kiki made us breakfast...smores pancakes - yes, those are marshmallows, m&ms and crumbled graham crackers ;)

 One last swim for the season:

Playdates with Claire ;)

Having a snack on the slide

Painting ;)  Claire likes purple...Kaylee chose orange

Someone VERY SPECIAL turned 40!!!!!  Happy Birthday to the BEST husband and dad!!! I love you, Babe! And I am SO BLESSED to do life with you ;)  Praying this will be your best year yet :) You are a strong, godly man and the plans that He has for you are beyond what we can imagine...He has placed so many gifts in you for His glory :)

Miss Kaylee, Brodie's mom and I all dropped by with cake and goodies to surprise him and celebrate with his office

 Nana Carol spent a few days with us :)

We had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Cute kids ready for church ;)

 Miss Kaylee tried a fruit pouch on her own!!! Can't wait till she eats REAL fruit...or even these squeeze pouches on a regular basis ;)  She tried it once and hasn't tried it since...one day!!!

You can do it, Kaylee!!!

Digging in the yard:

Kols LOVES playing with Kaylee...always so kind and willing to do whatever she wants.
She LOVES playing with him, too!

We've had a few sick days...

Sissy was sick and as she was feeling better she and Kaylee were playing with my camera...
Sis was having her make funny faces ;)

Keeg got it next....here he is feeling MUCH better and getting some HW done...
Miss Kaylee has her crayons and Dora coloring book ~ doing her HW, too!

Family Birthdays

We celebrated Brodie and Papa's birthdays tonight at Nana & Papas. Papa has been wanting a picture for his office with the grandkids so we started off the evening with a photo shoot ;)

 We actually got a few cute ones in about 5 minutes! We will see which one Papa chooses for his wall ;)

 As soon as we were done the kids all ran off to play!

Kaylee found the "tennis" racquet early on in the evening & coaxed most everyone into playing with her ;)
Even Great-Grandpa! 

The Clarks!
Auntie Julie is on the home stretch...the twins will be coming soon (but hopefully not too soon!)
So, we will have to re-do Papa's family picture once TWO more grandkids arrive ;)

We spent our morning cleaning up our front yard...we got TP'd last night :)  It was Jr High boys (Brodie saw them! ha!). The boys and Kaylee were nice helpers and we all worked together and even had fun cleaning it all up ;)

So thankful that tomorrow is Sunday...a day to worship the Lord and RELAX as a family!

The Movement

Last night our church hosted The Movement 2013...a dynamic youth event where hundreds of kids gathered to FULLY commit their lives to Jesus and to changing the world around them with His Love. 

It was an awesome evening!!! Worship was led by our good friend Jon Shabaglian and band and Coach Babcock shared the truth of the gospel and the power of Jesus to change lives for all eternity!

Hundreds of kids recommitted their lives to Christ!!! We are praying for this generation of Christ-followers to boldly lead their peers to the LOVE of Christ so that they can not only live eternally but abundantly now! The enemy of our souls has more traps set for our kids than we could ever count...only Jesus can lead them though victoriously!!!

Lord, we praise You that You are All-Powerful!!! We lay our kids in Your Almighty Hands. Please give us wisdom as we parent and give us an unwavering desire to pour Your Word into their hearts "that they might not sin against you" Psalm 119:11

And please bless this group of girls to want YOU more than anything and to live their lives fully for You!!! 

Our Week ~

This week flew by since it was nice and short :)

We had an eye doctor appointment for Kols...glasses will come next week :)

He actually sees really well - just needs some glasses for when he reads for long periods of time :)

Patient brother and sister watching Kolson's exam ;)

Kaylee has a new "game" she plays...as soon as we get into the driveway after dropping off the big kids at school she says (with  HUGE smile on her face) "dri-dri-dri" for drive, while pointing to herself...asking me for a turn driving - which is what she gets to do with daddy ;)  So we usually sit in the garage for about 15 minutes while she "drives" and adjusts all the mirrors, etc

Can you tell she likes driving? ;)

We ended up in the ER last night ~ Brod and I had a date night and Kaylee was playing with the big kids while the baby sitter was here and she all of a sudden jumped backwards (being silly) off the couch and bumped the back of her head. The sitter called us because she was disoriented and not acting like herself. We came right home and sure enough it seemed like she had a concussion ;(  Shortly after, she started vomiting and just didn't stop...so off we went to ER and thankfully, they just monitored her and once she was able to keep some liquids down we were able to head home...poor girl!!!

Here she is...finally alert & starting to feel a little bit better and wanting to go home

She was back to her normal, spunky self today!
We had Sissy's tennis match this afternoon :)

Her first match ever! She did great (won 8-3) and we had fun watching ;)

And off to her first Jr. High dance tonight ;)

Sports theme :)

Looking forward to Keeg's FB game tomorrow and a fun, relaxing weekend!

Loving Long Weekends

We LOVE long weekends! I worked in Kolson's class on Friday and my mom watched Kaylee ~ Claire was there, too, so the girls got to play. This was Kaylee's 2nd time being left at Nana's without the big kids and she did AWESOME! No tears at all...just gave me a kiss and said, "bye" (or "dyeeee"...but we're really working on those "b's" and she got it down a couple of times this weekend!) We're so blessed to have Nana and Papa right around the corner ;) Nana & Papa always have at least one grand-kid or another there ;) When I came back to pick Kaylee up this is what I saw when I walked in the door...

They had just come out of Nana's "kiddie" pool and were all wrapped up getting dry ;)

We went to the cabin and Keeg did a lot of fishing...unfortunately this fish is not real ;)
He was teasing me and told me he caught a big fish...ha!

When we got home, Kaylee got her FIRST haircut! I needed to give her a little trim...she did a great job ;)

Thankful for extra time together as a family!