Relaxing on the Guadalupe

For Vacation this summer we took a trip to New Branufels. We rented a cool treehouse and got to play and tube on the river.

Zane enjoyed some serious hammock time.

Ty on the other hand did not enjoy his encounter with the hammock. We aren't sure if he jumped completely over it or got on then flipped off.

We all enjoyed the water though. Yes the water was pretty shallow but the kids didn't care. They fished...

caught frogs

paddled around in the Kayak

Then we took a tube trip for several hours

It was a nice day....Even with the drought we had a Great time

The Disco Den

The girls have decorated and transformed the bunk beds into a "Disco Den"

They even went to their closests and dressed in "rodeo" clothes and declared one night as Western night at the Disco Den. Ha! Love it!

Summer's Here

Summer's here and that means a lot of different things..............

Like a high stakes show down between Dad and Kaylee in a mean game of Spoons

Sewing and crafting....Trent's first time to sew.

Lots of Naps! (especially for Max)

Sculpting a portrait of Mom....apparently I often wear high heels and have an iguana on my shoulder

and lots of fort making and special sleeping spots

I love that summer gives us all a chance to use our creative side!

Sleepover(kinda) Seventh Birthday

Mia asked for a sleepover birthday party but because of lots of activities birthday week, we settled on a Pajama party that lasted up until bed time and then the guests returned home. All the girls had a great time getting manicures and pedicures, Kaylee made them all balloon animals of their choosing and our friend Lauren did their makeup. It was such a girly night and I had as much fun as Mia did!

Happy 7th Birthday Mia! We love you bunches

What's Up with the Adoption?

When we started the aodption process again this time I thought by now we'd have a referral and might be possibly hoping to travel in the next few months. However, things don't always go as we plan or as we hope either.

Paperwork is taking a lot longer than we anticipated. The actual Homestudy process took almost 6 months just to complete. This document is the crucial piece to the big puzzle. There are many things that simply CAN'T be done until the homestudy is complete. We received our final, approved copy on May 20. I got it turned around to Immigration and now we are awaiting THE LAST PIECE of PAPER that we will need to get our paperwork packet to CHINA.
It's a long road with many stamps, seals, approvals and fed-ex packages.
But we're in the homestretch and anticipate that LAST PIECE of PAPER within the next 10 days.
THEN

Once the paperwork packet (dossier) gets to CHINA we will wait for a referral match. Once we are matched we will likely travel SIX (Long,excruiating) months later. So if you want a best case/worst case scenario. Best case is that we might be traveling in March....worst case...any month after March. (Let's pray for sooner rather than later) It would just depend on when we could get matched with a baby girl.

Still, we are excited, anxiously waiting, and trying to get our paperwork turned around as quick as humanly(and fed-exly) possible.

We appreciate your prayers, especially for our newest addition. Because it's highly likely she is already born and living somewhere in CHINA.

Cake Bakers

For at least a year the older kids have been wanting to try to make Fondant! So our second day of summer vacation we got caught up on our missed episodes of Cake Boss! and here came the "wanting to make fondant discussion" again.

Frankly, I've been a little scared of even trying it....I've heard it's really hard to make. But Kaylee got on the internet and checked out several recipes. We finally decided on one and went for it. (by went for it ...I mean the next day and after going to 4 grocery stores for the ingredients) Did you know that most major chains don't sell edible glycerin?
Yeah neither did I, but they don't. I finally substituted something else in the recipe for glycerin, crossed my fingers and hoped it worked.

and much to my (shock, awe, amazement) IT WORKED!

Mia took more of a supervisory role.

Everyone enjoyed sculpting, modeling and forming the fondant. It kind of reminds me of edible play-doh.

I think even Buddy Valestro would be proud of Trent.....he was attempting a bow

And voila....Our final creation. A pink and white polka dot cake

Time to EAT up!

Even clowns show up when it's time to devour cake.

What a fun way to spend the afternoon, and since it took so long we ran into dinner time. We had a kind of big lunch so we had cake and milk for dinner ( I know mom of the year here) But we rarely do that kind of thing and after the powdered sugar fight it seemed like a FUN thing to do...

the powdered sugar fight on the other hand....I maybe should have thought that one through....my floor is still sticky ( and I've mopped it twice)

But as Buddy would say....." At the end of the day, seeing their faces is why we do this"
AND
"That's How we do it...Hoboken Style...BABY!"

the Bear went over the Mountain

The first grade class did a cute play called "The Bear Went over the Mountain" There were lots of woodland animals involved in the play. Mia was assigned the role of fox. So we crafted a cute fox costume out of orange clothes and fake fur. She even had a cute furry tail.

She was so excited to be in the play and couldn't wait to be on "stage"

Art Show

Zane's artwork was chosen for display at the local Art festival. The middle school teacher was only able to choose 12 pieces from all of her art classes. Zane's was chosen to be entered in the Pop Art category. (Think Andy Warhol) We are very proud of him and are still wondering where he got his artistic skills?

Fishing at Grandma's House

While we were in Westlake for Easter the kids had a great time fishing in the pond behind Grandma's house.

David's been telling the kids about how he fished in this same pond many years while growing up. It's been a fun thing to do with the kids.

Obviously by the size of the catch you can see that it was a catch and release kind of day. But we still had a lot of fun!

Zane

1st place

Mia came in first out of 12 girls in her age group. The water was freezing so that might have sped her up.

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Ty the snake charmer

Ty's friend Tate had a Snake birthday party. Complete with live snakes to hold and wrap around you. Everytime someone held this snake it would trry to climb up the curtains behind. I think the look on his face is priceless!

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from the garden

In our own backyard

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Bringing home two!!!?????

OK, So we're not bringing home two new babies from China, (Well not that you know of anyway.)
BUT my friend Stefanie is!!! She is such an inspiration and a joy to know and work with. Yes, along with parenting her own 10 kids she has time to be the US Director for An Orphan's Wish. Don't know how she does it. I actually met her in China when we were there for Ty.

So in order to get these two new little lovies into her nest she's doing a giveaway and T-shirt fundraiser. So go on over to www.solovedinchina.com or just click on the black box on the right.
Once you see those precious baby faces you'll want to help too!

dying eggs with Nana

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