School Starts Today...Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

O.K., so I'm a little excited! Just dropped 4 of the 5 off at school this morning! Couldn't stop singing...kept going back and forth between George Michael's "Freedom" and "Imagine me for you and you for me...so happy together" to my dog Henry. I know it borders on tragic and sad but good comedies always do!

Alli was met by looks of "Wow...is that Allison from the second grade?" since it has been that long since she has attended this school. Ryan seemed fine since he had a swimming party where he met lots of new classmates...yes, he did a cannon ball immediately to introduce himself (his father's child). Michael and Kalkidan went right in after a huge lecture in the car about not being disrespectful, not picking their nose & wiping it on the walls, listening and obeying and what will happen when they don't...(it was a rough Sunday at church with the volunteer teacher who was about in tears after watching them yesterday). Gracie is at home with me today as her first day starts tomorrow. She has Henry dressed and covered with a blanket as she is working hard to make him cereal in her play kitchen.

So what will I do, people keep asking me, with all this free time? It is actually just 2 days of freedom...just 12 hours a week....I'm sure I will find something...work, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, purging the house of junk, yard, my sister's new baby, etc., etc., Actually, I'm most looking forward to having quality prayer times and maybe, just maybe, reading a book!

Kalkidan's First Birthday Celebration

Kalkidan turned 5 this July and in a way celebrated her first birthday. She had such a gleam in her eye (which you could see if I could get my other photos to upload...ugh) and was so full of joy and surprise throughout most of the day. She mentioned that she had never had a birthday cake before or presents and couldn't believe that the fun just kept coming! She was blessed by family both near and far celebrating with her either in person or in spirit. We kept it pretty low key for the most part, having a family pool party at Nana and Papas and dinner with Grandma and Silly Grandpa from St. Louis. All went well until the end (which you could also appreciate with the photo of her giving me a look to kill) as I announced the day was coming to a close...oh, the many faces of Kalkidan! (More to Come)

Happy 4th of July!

We had an awesome time with friends this year to celebrate the fourth of July...actually it was the 5th but whose counting. We love these friends like family and it is so amazing to watch our kids growing up together. I was pregnant with Ry when we first met. How things have changed!

Summer Fun

While Ryan was
away at camp
the rest of the crew
headed for Papa and Nana's pool
...way cool!

Welcome to our new Blog!

Hi Everyone!!!

Welcome to our new blog. O.K., so its been months since our last blog expired. We are still alive and still learning what it means to have a family of 7! Our friends and adoptive family, the Ellerbees, have been such an inspiration...We read their blog almost daily...it makes us laugh and feel somewhat normal (they're crazy too)! Allison kept prompting, pleading, begging,...well, you get the picture...until we got this done. I'm so glad we did! Stay tuned and we'll try to do a better job of keeping in touch.



If you want to see the videos just pause the music toward the bottom of the page.

Adding Two to the Team

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ryan Turns 10! Oct 07

Make a Smilebox scrapbook