Tongue Talkin'

Sweet Little Singer

Park today...

Those Legs!!! :)

Project 365 Week 30

I can't believe I am posting on Week 30 of this year!!! It is flying by! Just 5 weeks until Liliana starts Kindergarten... wow!!! Boohoohoo... Mommy is gonna have a hard time with that... ahhh.....

Sunday, July 17th

She's a-climbin' up those stairs! Liliana loves to lure her up there with toys and such. I tell Liliana, we want to divert her FROM the stairs, not coax her UP them... :) Sweet Daddy came home from church with a cold sweet treat and the kids flocked around him for bites, especially Elia! ha! :) She seems to have a sweet tooth like her brother and her daddy!
July 18, 19, & 20th - no pictures... hmm?... I can tell you they were super-blessed days, photo or none... probably filled with sunshine and swimming at Casey's pool! :) woooh! Sometimes I refuse to bring the camera to focus more on savoring the moment than on documenting it... to remember how to remember. :) I also take a lot of pictures with my iPod, which is much smaller and easier to tote... too complicated to consolidate those into my comp pics... i think... ?? :)

Thursday, July 21st

Friday, July 22nd
I was trying to get a good picture of he belly and her super cute legs... hard in the evening lighting... So cute!!! Yes, she is standing in a pile of clean clothes. :)

Saturday, July 23rd

A painting session gone too far! :) They went straight to wash up after this photo.

Casey's POOL!

We meet up with Casey at her POOL at least once or twice a week... Over the past 2 or 3 visits, Liliana has been SWIMMING without a floatie!!! She has been swimming under water and diving in from the steps like a dolphin and just a BEAUTIFUL SWIMMER!!! In watching Liliana, Noah gained confidence to do the same and he soon took of his floatie and last night just started SWIMMING too... head under, swimming! :) Manny, then followed in Noah's path and went through 3 phases yesterday, shedding the layers to become a swimmer, just the same! It was a very "magical" evening for Casey and I to watch our kids swimming in such a way last night... a beautiful and oh, so SPECIAL evening of MILESTONES!

Here are a couple of photos of us in the pool today... it was 101 degees out, feeling like 106, but we did it for the kids! Whew! :)

Little Swimmers!!!

Elia Sleeping in the Van

This past Tuesday Liliana was at Auntie Joy's and Donnie took Noah out bowling, leaving Elia and I home alone for me to work on my sermon. Well, Elia did not know what to think of this quiet scenario... She kept crawling under the desk and wanted me to hold her the entire time... So, we met up with the boys to use the Applebee's gift card Aunt Patsy sent us... This is what happened by the time we drove over to BJ'S for gas... Long story... Nap didn't last so we ended up hitting the mall. :)

Project 365 Week 29

Sunday, July 10th

Last night we hit PetSmart and bought the kids FISHIES! :) Bettas, Liliana requested a girl one because they are easier to name... Meet: Minnie and Minnie (too)... :)

Monday, July 11th

Fun in the pool while daddy mows the lawn! :)

LOVE this one!!!

Elia was BUSY!!! Look at that tongue... she makes it into a bowl-like shape!

Tuesday, July 12th

The kids love getting into this part of the desk!

Wednesday the 13th and Thursday the 14th - no pic!

Friday, July 15th

Lyman's Orchard for the first time... too far... had fun, but I think it is over-rated. :)

Elia playing... she loves her sippy cup!

The kids LOVED climbing the trees there.

Liliana has been wanting to climb a tree for the longest time... she got her wish! Yay!

We had Emma with us that day and other friends joined us there too. :) Here, Jeremiah, Emma, Liliana & Noah are feeding the ducks.

Later that day in the backyard...

After blueberries, Liliana spent the rest of the day at Auntie Joy's with Emma... Here is when they got home... she is hanging on Daddy...

Family Carwash Day! Donnie just bought the stuff so we can start washing the cars at home to save a couple bucks. The kids loved it!

Noah SWIMMING No Floatie!!

Project 365 Week 28

Sunday, July 3rd

Liliana and her baby sister... she definitely takes her role as big sister very seriously and just loves on Elia, teaches her new things, like climing up the stairs... "ahh"... she loves sitting her in new chairs and sitting next to her... Just SO NURTURING, CARING, AND SWEET SWEET SWEET TO THE CORE... EVERY FIBER OF THIS GIRL IS PURE SUGARY SWEETNESS!

Monday, July 4th

Here they are trying out a new chair to sit in together... this adorable chair and ottoman is a hand-me-down from our SWEET just-like-family-friends and we are SO THANKFUL for it! I LOVE hand-me-downs! :)

A hot and sweaty nap on the way to Wickham Park! :)

Elia was so tired and had the grouchiest look on her face... haha, but she didn't make a fuss at all!

Here is Noah squealing because Daddy just snuck up on him through the trees and said "Boo!". What a sweet shot!

Our animal lovin' girl is always trying to catch animals and insects... she catches moths all the time and has this great determination to one day catch a bird... here she is trying to "catch" the tiny little chipmunk next to the brush on her left... he is tiny and camaflauge, you might need to zoom in to see him. :)
There was also a bunny...

that Liliana tried to catch...

Tuesday, July 5th - no pic

Wednesday, July 6th - no pic

Thursday, July 7th

What a FUN, out of the box, kind of day! After a quick and sweet breakfast I said, let's go for a ride kids and we ventured 30 minutes down a road we had ever gone to a small town to meet someone at a Wal-Mart to pick up a Craiglist find, the car pictured below! What a fun ride, windows down, fresh morning air, country roads, local diners, John Deere and fields of grass and corn! MY STYLE! :) Nothin' makes this girl smile like little taste of simple ole' "country"! :)

Friday, July 8th - no pic

Saturday, July 9th

Playing with Pooh!

Clifford, Cleo and T-Bone

Project 365 Week 27

Sunday, June 26th - No pic

Monday, June 27th - No pic

This is VBS Week! :) I worked in the Nursery this year for the first time. This was my 5th VBS here at Crossroads and I have loved every one of them and never want the week to end! It is SO much fun for the kids and the biblical truths that are rooted into their hearts as the learn, play and worship with their friends is priceless and I know from our families personal experience has ETERNAL value! :) The music from Group Publishing is always blessing to us as we listen to each cd for years... this year's Theme was PandaMania. I don't have a whole lot of photos fromt this year, but it was a blast! Liliana was in the preschool room with her sweet friend Josephina, they have alway had a special bond with each other even though they don't see each other very often throughout the year. Noah was in the Toddler room with his little buddies Manny and Jeremiah. SO THANKFUL for the friends God has blessed our children with! Friendship is something that is always on the forefront of my heart and mind... maybe because I grew up in a rocky home of 5 and our extended family was hundreds to thousands of miles away and even now we are multiple hundreds of miles away from our family and it is us 5... I do pray that from this generation forward things will change and family will be bigger and closer... always a prayer... but blessed beyond measure with the people/friends/adoptive families God has filled our lives with! :)

Tuesday, June 26th

Jam session!

Wednesday, Jne 29th - no pic

Thursday, June 30th

We took care of our neighbor's garden this week... Liliana and I went over to water it today and found this baby toad! SO Cute!!! She caught him with her hands and we brought him to our yard to "play" for a little bit then we brought him back "home"... So fun!!!

Friday, July 1st

The last day of VBS.


Liliana examining a flower in the backyard... so beautiful!

The toothbrush hog... Elia got a hold of 3 family toothbrushes... Daddy's is in her hand and Liliana and Noah's are in the tub... :) Cracked me up!

Such Joy!

Sweet Elia, you bring me such JOY!!! I feel so complete with you in my life!

Looks like someone needs to be buckled into her highchair now without a doubt! This is where I found her when I left the room for a moment... She crawled out of her highchair and right onto the table... Mr. Noah was right there rummaging through the fridge and did not think to holler to me about it! :). I couldn't believe my eyes! :)

Kindergarten in just over 7 weeks

Mommy shouldn't have counted... :( my baby girl starts kindergarten in just over 7 weeks.

Cute things from Yana lately:
Here word for piano is plan-o
Hospital is hostable
Elia has a lovely huge belly... hehe... I love it! Well, the other day Liliana said it looks like Elia has a baby in her belly... Hehehe! So cute!!!

The kids love it when Mommy goes to BJ'S! :)

Me... Like my hair! :) hehe

Valley Falls

Valley Falls with neighbor friends... SO MUCH FUN! What a beautiful spot! Grass, sand, rocks, snails, clean water (a pond or something), trees... just perfect! :)

Look at Liliana dodging Rosie's splashes...

Look at Noah back there, he was getting busy with those goggles... SO SWEET!
Look at Noah putting his face in the water... hehe... trying out those goggles! LOVE it!!!

Love Liliana's pose here! Fun and carefree!

Love this one!

Elia chewing on a stick... I am sure some rocks saw their way through to her diaper too... hard to avoid with a 9 month old. :)

This is Timmy, he was born 9 days before Elia last year... see Elia in the background... :)

This is Joshua, a sweet Christian boy who lives down the street, they are being "doggies" digging in the sand.

Okay, so, we had been there for 2 or 3 hours and were getting ready to leave and I layed Elia down to put he diaper on and she layed there with her eyes closed... JUST LIKE THIS... she did not move, she just like, slept or something with a little smile on her face for about 5 minutes... it was the cutest thing! She looked like she was sun-bathing. hehe! :)

See... oh, and the shirt is one that Donnie got for Liliana on his first trip to Guatemala 5 years ago. :)

The kids had an awesome nap that afternoon... Even Liliana! I think she slept for a good 3 hours!