our family

our family

Saturday, April 30, 2011

All Aboard for Michigan

Every year we go to the sunrise service across the street from church. It's a  great way to focus on the meaning of  Easter instead of thinking about things we would like to get. The kids really look forward to it.

Gabe and Zach have wanted to get baptized for awhile but we wanted to make sure they understood what it meant, and also had to wait for a time daddy was off from work. It was a wonderful service.

Rilla looked like  a beautiful doll in her lovely pink dress and matching hat that Ann Gayer sent recently - it was  a perfect match to the dress, which I found amazing!

Katy sang in the choir, she looked great in her new dress, and did a great job.

Jake was able to join us for church that morning and also came over later in the day while we were getting ready for our trip. He recently started a new job, and also has a new truck.

With a minor detour to the Canadian border, we made it safely to Michigan by noon on Monday. Being rather technologically impaired, we couldn't figure out how to set the gps to keep us in the states.  John and I are photographed here by our diligent daughter, who made sure to snap a picture of us talking to the Canadian police at 3 a.m.

Addie, (girl I don't know), Josie, Emma, Gabe and Zach the last night in MI. Josie had a concert at school which we attended just minutes before getting in the car to head home to NH.

Tamara and I 

Josh and John
This week was April vacation; it started out with a bang, which included my last night of work (more on that later), the Easter sunrise service, a 6:30 a.m. Easter morning breakfast at Nana and Grandpa's, church and both Gabe and Zach's baptism, a mad dash to pack up the van, and the beginning of a road trip to Michigan with four out of five kids. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Rockin' out

Once I am done working and things are less chaotic (!) I will be back to bloggin'.  We are headed out to Michigan at the beginning of next week, and the kids are super excited. Zach is planning to fall in love with Josie, Tamara's six year old, and Gabe is planning to play with Emma  as much as possible. Katy just can't wait to stay in a dorm.
Got to share one of my favorite passages from "Crazy Love" tonight with my girls, and now Greg is here to work on his computer with John  - it's so nice to see him.
Mary, our adoption social worker, at our last home visit. Hooray!

So cute

She is my little Superchic(k)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Busy day

This morning after a nice couple hours of sleep we were out the door to spend the day at church, first for the AWANA grand prix, then choir practice for Katy, then lunch, handing out fliers for Easter, and finally a potluck; in the middle of all this, there were a couple of breaks so I would bundle the kids up and head outside to the playground, and the first time outside Gabe made a "discovery" (I believe he chose the terminology to downplay the event) - when he steps into giant mud puddles, he sinks up to his shins.  So we made an unexpected trip home in order for him to change clothes.  The sneakers found their home in the trash can, and the pants are still piled on the tile floor, waiting for me to be in the proper frame of mind to deal with them.
While we were driving around with Wendy and Ann  to deliver fliers, Gabe was telling us about his "adventure" in second grade when they recently dressed up as pioneers and went outside to take a (pretend) trip on the Oregon Trail.  He told us they made butter, and had hard-tack.
"You had a heart attack?!?!" his younger brother said  in shock.
Gabe explained.
Overall they day went much more smoothly than I anticipated; not sure this has ever happened before.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Spring!!!!

Rilla was named April after her Nana's birth month, so its a special day to celebrate!

Zach spent Friday night and Grandpa taught him to whittle.

Smiling faces all around

Gabe lets his muscles get some sun

Too much pizza

Leadership conference at church this morning with my daughters
 Mom's birthday today; we celebrated in style, outside in the lovely April weather.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Nine years later

Yesterday was our ninth anniversary - this year was a wonderful year, the best yet. Although full of challenges, as our marriage ages (to say nothing of us aging!) it is awesome to see where we are, remember where we came from, and wonder where we are going.
Mom and Dad gave us some money for a dinner out, so we tried "O", the new place on Main Street.  The food rocked our weight watchers worlds, and while we enjoyed our night out Mom and Katy watched the little ones.