On September 13th, we celebrated Riley's 6th Gotcha Day! As is our family's tradition, we made airplane cookies. Riley wanted to take them into his class, so we made a big batch and he shared them with his classmates.
This past May when we flew to Boston for Karoline's graduation, we had a connecting flight in Detroit. I was so excited to get to fly through Detroit because it meant the chance to be back at the airport where I was handed my sweet boy for the first time!
In 2006, Riley's flight came from Korea so he arrived in the international part of the terminal. We weren't able to go to that part of the airport on this day, but we still posed to take a picture with our boy and paused to reminisce about that amazing and miraculous day when we became parents and met the most amazing baby boy!
2006
"Mommy, I'm doing my action kick to try to get myself going." Maybe that's what I'm missing in the mornings...my action kick.
"Mommy, why do you always change your mind?" This after I let her do something after first saying "no."
"Sleep...that's what matters to Santa and the Tooth Fairy. If you aren't asleep they won't come; if you are asleep they will come!"
Here are some pictures of my cute girl and her new glasses. At Mary Kenzie's four year old check-up she failed the eye screening. She couldn't see anything on the chart using her left eye. We then took her to a pediatric opthamologist who diagnosed her with amblyopia. Basically her left eye was either nearsighted or farsighted but her right eye worked perfectly, so her brain started telling her left eye to stop working and it did.
She has to wear glasses full time until she's eleven and currently has to wear a patch over her working eye for six consecutive hours a day.
Mary Kenzie has done so great with it all! She loves her glasses and doesn't complain at all about having to wear her patch.
Yesterday, my sister closest to me in age...Susannah...got married!
It was a beautiful wedding and reception with lots of "miracles" big and small. The rain held off until everyone was safely under the reception tent. The clouds made the ceremony a lot more bearable temperature wise.
It was so amazing to have all of my siblings together at the wedding...John came from Oklahoma, Kaitlin from Arkansas, Meredith from New York, and the rest of us live in North Carolina. We haven't all been together since Christmas 2010. This is a picture of me and all of my sisters:
And here is a picture of my brothers:
It was so fun to be in a wedding with my own little girl...I was a bridesmaid and Mary Kenzie was a flower girl.
Annalise is my vacuuming pal! Whenever I pull out the vacuum cleaner she goes and finds her toy vacuum cleaner and stands right beside me. This is in stark contrast to my Mary Kenzie girl who still screams when she hears me in the vacuum cleaner closet and runs to the couch for safety.
Annalise and her first encounter with pudding...messy, messy, messy!!!
Riley bought this snake with his own money at the Dollar store. The package promised that if you put it in water it would grow. Well, that snake grew and grew! I finally had to tell Riley that I couldn't live with the snake in my kitchen any longer. He was a good sport and moved it to the playroom.
And, finally, here's Mary Kenzie with her sweet Aunt KK. We've had such a great week having Kaitlin home! We will be sad to see her head back to school on Tuesday. But, it will be easier to say good-bye because we will see her in just two weeks for Susannah's wedding!
Mary Kenzie is 4!!!! She woke me up first thing yesterday morning and said, "I'm four!"
It's hard to believe that sweet baby we met at nine months old has grown to be our sweet four year old girl!
We decided not to do a birthday party with friends this year since she had a big one last year, but we were trying to think of something fun to do. We decided to take a quick 24 hour trip up to Busch Gardens. Aunt Beth and Austin came along, too! We didn't tell the kids we were going...they thought we were going shopping somewhere. For the entire four hour trip they never questioned where we were going! When we pulled up to Busch Gardens this was their response:
Mary Kenzie had fun riding some of the bigger rides for the first time...the big swings and the pirate ship. She also was content to ride some of the little rides with Annalise!
Here are some pictures of the birthday girl:
Happy, happy birthday to our sweet Mary Kenzie! You bring so much joy into our family with your smile and your happy-go-lucky attitude! We are so blessed because you are in our family. Always praying God's very best for your life!!
Riley loves to write notes for people. Most of the time he will go in the kitchen, pull some paper out of the cabinet and begin writing a note and/or drawing a picture. At the end of the school year he told me he wanted to write a note for Mr. Ron. Mr. Ron is the crossing guard at Riley's school. This is the note he wrote and gave to Mr. Ron:
If you can't read it it says, "Dear Mr. Ron, Thank you for helping are school! You are the best Mr. Ron!" The picture is of a man holding up a stop sign like Mr. Ron's.
Today was my sweet girl's very first dance recital! It was so much fun to see her on the stage having so much fun! The video of the actual recital didn't turn out too great because we were just too far back, but at the dress rehearsal I recorded it so you can at least get an idea of what their tap routine was like!
How has my baby girl grown so much? (Her answer was "Mom, it's because I eat lots of healthy food!)
MK "Are we going to the Harris Teeter close to our house?" Me "Yes." MK "Oh good! That is my favorite! Well, actually my real favorite is chocolate cake!"
R "When I grow up I think I want to be a Michigan!" Me "Do you mean a missionary?" R "Yes! A missionary!"
MK to me "Mom, when you say no to me it makes God sad!"
MK "Riley, you are so handsome!" R "Thank you, Mary Kenzie! You are the prettiest girl in the whole world!" MK "I know! Thank you!"
Hi, it’s me. Not me Erin. Me Michael, Erin’s husband. I’m not normally a
blogger (heck, Erin is doing well to get me to talk, much less WRITE stuff
down) but think this is an important enough occasion for me to hack into Erin’s
blog (she has no idea I’m doing this) and let the blogosphere know what a special
mom Erin is to our kids. So, here we go:
“The mother's heart is the child's school-room.” ~Henry Ward Beecher
I believe this statement, and am so thankful it’s true – there is no one I’d
rather our children learn from than Erin. And that’s why we are going to home
school. OK, so the last sentence isn’t true, but I wanted to make sure you
weren’t just skimming my post. Because if I was reading this blog entry I’d be
skimming. Back to Mother’s Day. Sure, Erin isn’t a perfect mother – no mother is –
but each of our kids KNOW that Erin loves them. Not just that she tells them
before they go to bed or before she leaves to go somewhere. But that she shows
them she loves them on a daily basis. She lives it. Reads them a book, helps
with a puzzle, fixes their lunch, snuggles up to watch cartoons, helps them
learn their Bible verses, puts on a band-aid, gives them a bath, takes them to
ballet, takes them to swimming, helps with homework, fixes dinner, washes their
clothes, volunteers at their school, encourages them, disciplines when
necessary…I’ll stop here because if I don’t you’ll start skimming. But you get
the idea. Erin does a LOT for our kids.
Still, it’s even more than that. Kids know what our priorities are – they are
some of the most perceptive people around. Our kids know that they and our
family as a whole are a priority to Erin. She doesn’t have to tell them. They
KNOW it.What a blessing that is. Happy Mother’s Day Erin! I LOVE YOU with all of my heart.
“A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for
five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” - Tenneva Jordan
Hear are a few thoughts from the kids on their wonderful mother:
I will be the first one to tell you that there are hard days being a mom. There are days where my kids seem a little too whiny, a little too chatty, and a lot too needy.
But then there are the amazing moments that remind me that they are little people that God has amazing plans for. Moments that make me pause and thank Jesus for His compassion and love for even the youngest ones.
One of these moments I happened to overhear last week. Riley has begun to read and has realized he can also read some out of his Bible. So, on this particular afternoon he asked Mary Kenzie if she would like for him to read out of his Bible to her. She said yes and they proceeded to snuggle up in the couch while he read to her out of Genesis.
Eventually, Mary Kenzie got a little bored being read to by a beginning reader so she got up to look at a book on her own. Riley was quick to inform her that this is God's true word and it's really important to read it. Mary Kenzie told him she knew that it is God's holy word but she wanted to look at another book for a few minutes!
These are the feet of our free spirited three year old (three and a HALF year old as she will always correct). I had to snap this picture tonight because this pic is so typical "Mary Kenzie!"
Mary Kenzie is the most fun loving, easy going, smiley girl. Michael and I always joke that adoption was the only way the two of us could ever have a "free spirit!"
This girl loves her slippers! She doesn't care if they match as long as she has some slippers on her feet!
God is so good to teach us things through our children. I have learned so much through the way Mary Kenzie enjoys life. Two of the things I desire as a mom are to learn from my kids and to apologize when I mess up. I want to learn to be more like my sweet Mary Kenzie...to see the joy in all situations and at the end of each day echo her new favorite phrase "Wow! That was fantastic!"
In Riley's class from time to time they have "show and share." Kind of like show and tell but you can also talk about something instead of bringing an object in. One day recently when we were walking to the car at pick up he told me he was so disappointed because he hadn't had the chance to talk today during show and share. I asked him what he would have said and he told me there were three things. I cannot remember the other two but for the last one he said he was going to tell his class he could make bullets out of straws. Great.
The next night at dinner I wasn't feeling well so Michael picked up chicken from a local restaurant. Riley ate a chicken leg. Our dinner table is usually pretty loud and our kids are fairly chatty so I admit that sometimes by the end of dinner I am just trying to make it until it's time to clear the table. Thankfully this night I was paying attention when I heard Riley say he was going to put the chicken bone in his book bag for show and share. That would have been great...the boy who makes bullets came to school with a dirty chicken bone. Lovely!
That same "little" boy is growing up...Riley lost his first tooth last weekend! He was beyond excited. He had noticed it was loose the week before and would tell anyone who would listen that he had "Big News!" The next weekend we were out of town and sitting in the van and he said that part of his tooth had just broken. When he showed it to me we realized that he had just pulled the entire tooth out! What a fun memory! The tooth fairy made a visit to our hotel that night.
Somehow my sweet baby boy has turned six! It's a little surreal at times.
Sometimes when I glance at him I see the quiet 6 month old baby
who was handed to me and Michael in the Detroit airport.
Sometimes I forget I didn't give birth to him and that he doesn't have his daddy's DNA but somehow he got a lot of the great qualities and mannerisms his daddy has.
Sometimes I wonder who he will be when he grows up.
Sometimes I ache for the woman who gave him life but doesn't get to see him live his life.
And many times I marvel at the young man he is becoming...so full of life...so full of love for his family and especially his God...so interested in knowing more from the Bible...so intent on telling others about Jesus.
My sweet baby is growing up, and I'm so glad I get to share my life with him.
Or is it January "Daze"? Some days I wonder...coming off of the sugar rush that is Christmas.
We have jumped with both feet in to 2012...Annalise turned one...we've had our regularly scheduled activities--school, ballet/tap, AWANA, Bible study, and basketball-- resume. And, along the way we've enjoyed some moments of laughter.
At school Riley's class was spending some time talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. in preparation for the holiday. At the store, he saw a magazine at the checkout counter and pointing to a picture of OJ Simpson, said, "Look, Mom! It's Dr. Martin King Luther!"
Some days I wonder if I'm raising a teenager or a one year old...Annalise has always been a great sleeper but this week she has slept until 11am, 10:30am, and today was up early at 9am. And those late mornings are after nights of going to bed around 7:30pm or 8pm.
Over Christmas we went to Charlotte to watch NC State play in the Belk Bowl. It was a cold evening, but we all bundled up well and had a wonderful time. All of the kids were troopers! Riley was really into the game; Mary Kenzie enjoyed the atmosphere and the snacks until she fell asleep at the beginning of the fourth quarter sitting up in her chair; Annalise did great and slept through most of the second half. We met up with some friends at the game and Karoline, Kaitlin and Michael's parents went with us. We spent the night in Charlotte and the next day enjoyed some shopping!
The week before Christmas we had Annalise dedicated at church. The verse we chose for Annalise is "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
We put the kids to bed early one night over Christmas break. After they'd been in bed about 5 minutes we ran in there and turned on the light and said "surprise!! get up we are going to look at Christmas lights!" I made them little cups of hot chocolate and baggies of cookies to take with them in the van as we drove around town and looked at the lights! It was a fun night! Here are some of the pictures from our Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.
