Christmas is Coming!!!

We are SO excited to start celebrating Kaylee's 1st Christmas!!! She is so interested in all the lights and trees...we got started with our Christmas Lights today :)

Kaylee loved every minute of it :)

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here at our house...my sister, Andrew, Claire and the Twins were able to come....so fun to have them all!!!

Getting ready for our guests :)  I am THANKFUL to have had 2 awesome helpers to clean and set up...
Keeg and Kols were awesome helpers all day long!

What a great SMILE for 1 day after surgery!

We were missing two of our favorite people....

they were having an AMAZING time in Haiti loving on some really sweet kiddos :)

Fun Peterson and Samy

And Mirlande and her friends

Rachel, Thomas and Anna spent the night Thanksgiving evening and we went out to breakfast the next morning...sweet time with cousins! Kennady was sad to miss out!

And look who is getting a little braver with food....she will now eat Cheerios all on her own. She eats bites of cheese when I put it in her mouth ;) and is pretty consistent with eating soup!

We are THANKFUL to have Brodie and Kennady home safely! They had an amazing trip that you can read all about HERE.

"For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; 

His faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:5

Kaylee's 2nd Eye Surgery

She was a trooper as usual! This time she went back without even crying! 

The surgery went well but the doctor found a mass in her right eye that she needed to remove- so it was more invasive of a surgery than planned. 

The doctor feels the mass is probably benign but will have it tested to be sure. 

Prayers for our girl as she recovers are greatly appreciated! 

She really hasn't opened her eyes yet but the few seconds here and there that she has I was able to see that they are very crossed- so crossed that she can't even see. I'm hoping and praying that as the muscles loosen her eyes will straighten out and we will not have to do this surgery again. 

So thankful for the Lord's provision and that He opened the surgeons eyes to see that mass! 

Keep resting sweet girl!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!!

Brod and Sis off to Haiti!

Yep! They're off! In fact we just saw them fly over our house ;). 

Praying for a sweet time for them as they love on the fatherless...those who are near to The Father's heart. And that as this team is going to be Jesus to those in need, that He will speak to them in sweet & special ways!!

 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by he world." James 1:27

Sissy's Birthday Party

We had a FUN group of girls!!! So thankful for SWEET friends for Sissy :)

Team #1 - "Green Apples" . We went on a scavenger hunt...thankful for our dad friends that drove the girls all around town following their clues!!! This team WON!!! It was close....they only beat the other team by about 1 1/2 minutes! It was fun to have all the brothers on our teams, too!!!

Team #2  "Blueberries"  .  They sure had a lot of FUN!!!!!

We had a great time celebrating our Sissy Girl!!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!!!!

And something even more FUN.....she and Brodie are headed to Haiti in 5 days!!!! They will be serving with our church at an orphanage (Creche) and this girl is in heaven that she gets to love on kids for a week!!! Her older cousin Jordan will be going as well so that will make it even more special to get to go do the Lord's work with not only her daddy but her awesome cousin as well!!!

She will be posting on her blog as much as possible!

Follow HERE

Orphan Awareness Month

November is National Orphan Awareness Month! Our church celebrated Orphan Sunday last month (a few weeks early) and we have seen great fruit coming from celebrating this special day!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to hear stories that show us a glimpse of our Father's Heart toward orphans....

Here is one of the most touching stories I've heard about just how far 

our Father's love will go ~ 

PLEASE READ HERE 


"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 
1 John 3:1

I see Jesus in that sweet girl's smile :))) He is SOOO GOOD!!!

Please pray for this family called by God...tomorrow is their forever family day with this sweet girl and I know how greatly appreciated prayers are in this time of transition ;) Follow along on their journey HERE

We cannot even begin to fathom the love of our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! But we can see a glimpse of His Heart when we watch how He takes care of orphans....and it's the most beautiful thing we will ever see this side of Heaven!!!

One Year Ago Today We saw This Sweet Face....

And then we saw these...

SOOOO...thankful for the Lifeline staff and UAB doctors that went and loved on our girl before we could :)
It means the world to know that Jesus sent someone to hold her and pray over her!!!

And now we have had you for almost 8 months!!!

It's AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING to watch JESUS perform "miracle after miracle" (as Sissy said in her testimony) in this sweet girls' life!!! We are so blessed to have a front row seat to ALL that God is doing and all that He will do ;)  We love you, Kaylee Grace!!!

(Look at the light in her eyes in this picture above compared to the first pic in this post...ONLY JESUS can heal in that way! What need do you have that ONLY JESUS can meet? Trust Him for it...He is Faithful!!!)

Happy Birthday Sissy!!!

We have had 2 very special days around here....yesterday Sis got baptized at church! She felt God nudging her to make this public declaration of her faith in
Jesus about a month ago and yesterday was the big day!

Look who had a front and center seat ;)  Kaylee Grace didn't want to miss any of it!

Baptism is our public declaration of our faith in Jesus.
It's a picture of how we as Christians die to our old selves....

And are made new and given eternal LIFE in Him!!!

Miss Ashely read her testimony :)

I accepted Jesus to be my Lord and Savior on April 13, 2006 with my mom and my brother. I never really had a real relationship with him until recently. I always went to church because it was just what my family did every Sunday morning. I would go and pay attention and answer every question asked to me. In May 2011 my dad came home from work and showed us a picture of his client who had just adopted from Africa and asked us if we wanted to adopt. My brothers were all in and my mom and I said NO.  A few weeks later my mom felt the Lord put it on her heart but I was still a no. About 2 months later I had felt the Lord put it on my heart. We started the adoption process for a special needs little girl in China. My faith grew a lot in this process. When we brought her home on March 20th 2013 she just started making leaps and bounds, miracle after miracle. I started realizing that I needed Jesus more than I thought, He was more than just a Sunday morning hour deal... He was my life. I realized the depth of my sin and how He could save me and forgive me. My favorite verses are Proverbs 31:8, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” and James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” because they both remind me of my little sister and how one day when I am old enough I want to adopt.

 And TODAY is Sissy's 13th Birthday!!! How could it be that our sweet girl is already 13??!!

We celebrated with dinner out as a family :)

And with Grandpa and Nana and Papa :)

Happy Birthday to our TEENAGER!!! You are and always have been such a JOY to have as our daughter. We are so proud of the young woman that Jesus is growing you in to. It has been a delight to watch your faith deepen and become your own over this last year and a half. We know that the plans that He has for you are so far beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine! Your heart for the fatherless has encouraged and challenged us to seek Jesus more and be open to all that He has...His Ways are so far beyond our ways ~ and you are blessed with eyes to see that. Sis, the Bible tells us that when we give up our lives, we find true life. We watch you do that more and more everyday with your little sister (and all the other orphans that you advocate for!). Thank you for following Jesus towards the least of these ;)  "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted when He rose Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the Heavenly realms." Ephesians 1:18,19

Our Little Cheerleader

Kaylee was a Cheerleader for her 1st Halloween :)  Just like Bis Sis was ;)

Kennady in the cheer uniform (almost 2 years old), Rachel in lamb costume (6 months) Keegan in bear costume (5 months...sorry Keeg!)

Just for fun...here are a couple of our favorite Halloween costumes:

Keegan was Peter Pan...hiding behind a chair sneaking a cupcake

Kolson wanted to be a "Cool Rider" which is what he called motorcycle riders ;)

 Kaylee was so excited to get her uniform on tonight!!! The kids taught her to cheer, "Go Dogs Go!", so that's all we've heard since the uniforms been on (go daw goooo!)  So cute!!!
We love being able to share her one of her "1st's" with her!

Go Dogs Go!

Proud Cheerleader :)

Our big kids decided they really wanted to stay at home and pass out candy and not dress up this year...it's always been their favorite! We passed out the usual BIG candy bars that remind our neighbors how much Jesus loves them!

We love our tradition of trick or treating with family...we missed Claire and the twins! Next year :)

Four Day Weekend!!!

Well, the boys had a four day weekend...Kennady got to make hers a four day weekend too!

We had Sea World passes and the big kids begged us to take Kaylee to Disneyland on the way ;). 

We weren't too sure if she was ready for it but she had fun! She also had a yucky cold so I'm sure she would have enjoyed it even more if she felt better! 

She loved seeing all the characters!

Dumbo ride was her all-time favorite!

Aunt Abbie met up with us...her first time meeting Kaylee Grace! We had fun catching up with her...she's always making us laugh :)))

On Elmo ride at Sea World

Dolphins were the whole reason we took her there...she LOVES them!

She really liked watching all the shows

Kaylee and Daddy watching the Sea Turtle

The big kids had a BLAST!!! We could use a 4 day weekend every week ;)