Our Sealing

 Now that the adoption is final we were able to take our family to the temple.  For our non-LDS friends - our church teaches that families can participate in something called a sealing ordinance, in which husbands and wives are sealed to each other and children are sealed to parents in eternal families. This means that we believe our family relationships will continue for eternity.  It was such a happy day surrounded by people that we love. My father-in-law took this picture in our front yard.  They just returned home to Boise this morning.  They were so kind to come as were all of my siblings and their spouses.  How I love families!

Adoption Day

 This is the Kids on Adoption Day morning.  We got all dressed up to see the judge.  We were all pretty excited and happy to have the finalization done.  The kids love reminding me that they are Wards officially.  I feel so blessed!  I must say they all look so handsome!!

All the kids on the courthouse lawn.  The attorney mentioned that they were better dressed than many of his colleagues.

This is Lily on the courthouse step.  I think she looks beautiful

Lily, Connor, Andy, Ben and Alec

The judge let all of the children sit in his chair as he reviewed their paperwork and signed the finalization papers.  The kids assignment was to draw a picture or write him a note.  Alec looked especially cute.

This was the only picture of all of us.  At this point the kids had been troopers as it was a long process to have the judge sign each order.  The kids were allowed to pound the gavel to make their adoption official.  How blessed we have been at every adoption proceeding.  My sister -in-law emailed me a statement recently that summarizes my feeling exactly.  She said "What an amazing gift is family!  No matter how it comes to us!"

Spring Soccer

Everyone signed up for spring soccer this year.  Here are some of the best action shots.

Scout garage sale / bake goods sale

 Our scout troup and young men's program had a garage sale the middle of May.  They made $1300.  To help the scouts I decided to make cream puffs and eclairs to be sold for $5 a box.  I think I did 13 dozen batches of the things.  Fortunately they all sold but it was because the scouts and the scout leader specifically got creative in their marketing.    I have 2 boys that really benefit directly right now from scouting and I am really appreciative of the program.  Probably would have been wiser to just make a donation - but the project was fun.  I certainly had never made that much frosting before!

Easter breakfast

This was our Easter breakfast.  I called it Bunny Bottoms as my kids like any reference to bottom or butt.  They or course like the M&Ms and gobbled them up first.  I thought that they were cute and deserved to be documented.

Chinchilla

Over Spring break we had Andy the chinchilla stay with our family.  He was an escape artist and did more wandering around the house than I would have liked, but the kids had a ball with his being "ours" even if it was only temporary.

 Andy the chinchilla lives in Mrs. Christopher's classroom.  He is well loved by Connor and the whole class.  Since we had him for Easter we decided to give him an Easter basket and sun glasses for the occasion.

Spring break / Easter / and Misc. pictures

 Andy has been making the Toothfairy work lately.  Here he is pictured proud of loosing his 12th tooth. 

 During spring break it was a common sight to see the boys all up on Connor's bunk bed building something or playing on their Kindles.  I was sick and so I was especially glad that they were willing to entertain themselves.

 These are our Elders.  Elder May and Elder Hussie.  They have been terrific with the children and I'm so grateful to have their help in teaching the gospel to the kiddos.  We have a tentative baptism date of June 1st for Connor and Andrew's baptism.

 On sunny and warm days the activity of choice is to climb trees in the back yard.  Andy is especially proficient.  Non of them shy away from the camera.

 Connor peaking through

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 The day before Easter we took the kids to play miniature golf.  The town of Manlius provided some Easter baskets and a picture with the Easter Bunny.  On the way out of the building after taking a picture with the Easter bunny Benjamin whispered in my ear..."That wasn't the real Easter Bunny, I saw his skin."

We saw these tracks in our front yard.  The kids thought they would compare sizes.  That was one big raccoon!

We had Jessica and Dave (Andy and Connor's former foster parents)  over for a campfire.  The kids came in after jumping on the trampoline and were glued to the TV.  I thought it was cute to see all 7 of them on our couch.