Lily's Birthday

When Lily saw her birthday present.  She wasn't excited at all....

The Birthday present

We moved the dinning room and family rooms around to provide more room for our family for mealtime.  The bike was close to Lily's place for dinner and she spotted it quickly.

Lily's other birthday present was a horse that walks and another random horse that I picked up at a thrift store.  She played with them over and over, probably more than any other toy she's been given.  

 

 

Birthday Interview
February 22, 2014

Q:  How old are you today?
 A:  7

Q:  Who is your best friend?
A:  Isabel

Q:  What is your favorite thing to do?
A:  Paint my nails

Q:  What is your favorite color?
A:  Purple and pink

Q:  What is your favorite food?
A:  Fried chicken on the bone

Q:  What do you like to do with your family?
A:  Go to the Movies

Q:  What is your favorite toy?
A:  Mommy;   Dolls

Q:  What do you want to be when you grow up?
A:  A movie star -  a famous one!

Q:  What makes you happy?
A:  When Daddy chases me around and tries to kiss me.

Q:  What makes you sad?
A:  When Mommy has to cut my long hair.

Q:  What is your favorite show to watch?
A:  Frozen

Q  What are your favorite books?
A:  The Cat in the Hat;  The princess books

Q:  What do you love to learn about?
A:  How to read.

Q:  What was your favorite part of your birthday?
A:  Going to the museum of Play.

Q:  Where do you like to go?
A:  Disney

Q:  Who is your teacher?
A:  Mrs.  Beeman and student teacher Miss Strut

Q:  What is your favorite treat?
A  Going to the baseball game and getting cotton candy.

Q:  What do you think about before going to sleep?
A:  My birthday:  Being baptised

Q:  If you could meet someone famous who would it be?
A:  George Washington  (They share a birthday.P

Q:  What was your favorite birthday present?
A:  My bike.

We sure Love our Lily-bean.
Here are a few shots from our day at the STRONG

Connor in the teacup

Andy enjoying his ride

I love this Smile

Benjamin kept giving us a high-five every time he went around.

Alec

Captain America video game

Playing electronic Bingo

The Legobook

Our cute crew

Connor's birthday

 Connor had a fascination with volcano's at the time of his birthday so we created this volcano cake to help him celebrate.  He is a big 9 year old in this New Year's eve photo.  What a cutie.....

Mother of 5

Who would have ever dreamed I'd be the mother of 5 children.  Here is a picture of the cuties

Their ours

Yesterday was a big day.  Jeff and Jennifer surrendered the children to us.  Their had been a termination trial scheduled but in the end they chose to do a surrender rather than go through the trial.  It was definitely a selfless thing to do to free the children to move on rather than stay in limbo.  I always admire those that are able to be selfless.  I hope they can take this terrible tragedy and turn it into something positive.  The courtroom and court experience was terribly difficult and I feel for them. At the end of signing 32 documents the judge was very kind to us and said "Thank you for being willing to adopt these 4 children."   He also praised Jeff and Jennifer and their decision to help the children be in a good place.
Jeffery Holland once said

Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it. 

I hope they can find mercy and healing thru the atonement and am so grateful for the gift I have been given.
 How blessed I feel!  I stand in awe of the Lord's plan for each of us and how his works are brought to pass.

Birthday Presents

Benjamin's birth-mother is always generous and kind to all of us. This year again she sent something that Benjamin loved. Here is his reaction as he opened Dusty cropduster. Many thanks!!

Birthday boy

This is our excited Birthday Boy.  He wore his birthday badge all day at school.  He counted down the days to his birthday this year and jumped out of bed when he realized it was his special day.  Here he is with his special bookmark waiting to open his presents.

The lego set present

Scooby-Doo birthday cake

I made lego cake pops for Benjamin's classroom.  As it turned out he couldn't take them because they have a no homemade stuff rule.  I ended up going to BJ's and got cupcakes and cider for the classroom and Benjamin delivered the cakepops to his favorite teachers.  In the end it worked out well.

This morning Benjamin woke up super early.  Before 7 am -and breakfast, he and Daddy had the model plane that his birth mother sent together.  I expect to have it flying around the house upon his return this afternoon.  

Cure for cold weather

We installed a new fireplace.   I really love it.  It's so nice to hit the remote and have a fire.  It's also equally nice to be able to shut it off if it's too warm or if we are leaving quickly.  Many thanks to my brother Scott who gave up a valuable Saturday to come install it.  It now looks beautiful with our stocking hanging from it in hopes that Santa finds us.

The kids building a snow man and making snow angels.

I couldn't resist including this picture of Alec on his sled.  He will wait forever for someone to pull him on his sled around the yard.  He is the most patient of all the children.  We made lots of trails back and forth in the front yard as there wasn't enough snow to go sledding.  Ther'e snow in this weekend's forcast though -- hopefully we get enough to sled.