city garden

i have to ask myself two questions. 

1. why have we waited this long to come here this summer and
2. why did i leave my camera at home

thank goodness for camera phones...

fun times had by all :-)

if you have not visited city garden, go NOW!!

my little sandbox and cool moves

i'm always looking for some sort of activities for the boys to do at home.  they have toys overflowing from their toy boxes at any given time but like anything else they get tired of the same old same old.  i like to keep certain toys put up and only get them out on  rare occasions, to keep them new and exciting!


for example the my little sandbox...

the boys love the tiny pirates and treasures, and have fun carefully scooping the bright blue sand...

they will sit quietly and play for a good 45min, thats huge for their busy butts. you can purchase your own here:  'Pirates Ahoy!' My Little Sandbox | Overstock.com
 


show me your moves...

ya, pretty sure i can't top this kid :-)

btw: if you enjoy reading my blog please subscribe, it's easy!!  it's nice to see where my views are coming from.  ta ta for now

looks like china

we took the boys to the park this morning and i attempted to shoot a couple pics!  for whatever reason seany wanted to pretend we were in china...

they swear they could see fish swimming below...

mommy's stinkers...

china's a lot closer than i thought :)

embrace the camera 7-27-12

so i guess i'm making a bit of a habit out of linking up with emily on fridays instead of thursdays.  o well :)


my boys and i doing what we do best in this heat... hanging at the pool!!

linking up with emily here !! have a great weekend friends.

it was time

for quite some time now, deep within my brain ,  thoughts have been stirring.  thoughts, questions, and fears about when is the appropriate time to slightly scratch the surface on finding out just how much seany knows about being adopted.  our intentions were never to keep it a secret, but still at the age of four and a half he's  yet to ask questions. i know it may sound crazy because it's obvious he is very much unique in appearance compared to the rest of our family but to me this can only mean one thing, he feels loved, accepted, and complete with where he has landed in his short little lifetime.  with that being said i will continue on by saying i am definitely not naive to the fact and am all to aware that times may get tough down the road.

i went to get my hair chopped last thurdsay, and my friend who cuts it is the mother of two beautiful girls through adoption.  it's so enjoyable to chat and compare intimate family stories and journeys that not many others can relate.  we got on the subject of how much her girls already knew about being adopted and at that very moment i almost felt defeated as the mother of an adopted child.  she said her plan was for her girls to always know and be proud of being adopted and hopefully diffuse the the possibilities of it "being an issue" in the future.  wait... those were my exact wishes for seany.  i want him to be proud of who he is now, where he came from, and make the most out of what there is to come in his future.  have i waited to long? did i already set us up for "an issue"?

i drove home that evening with not only a new hairdo but a new goal that had to be accomplished much sooner than later.  as soon as i arrived home i instantly told hank about the conversation and told him we "must tell him".( insert devastating  music here)  i could tell he was a bit leery of the plan i had just abruptly delivered, but after going into more details on the subject he too agreed. how was i going to take such a fragile situation and shine just the perfect amount of light on it?

i went to the library and checked out every single book they had on adoption for children and headed home. i try and make a habit of reading to the boys each night anyway so i figured if i planted the new books amongst the existing books,  it would just feel normal when it came time to read them.

last night was the night to get the ball rolling.  it was time to possibly find out if sean knew more about being adopted than he led us to believe.  as a family, we climbed up on the top bunk in seany's room and daddy  pulled out a couple books to be read.  he carefully handed me the books, almost as if he were handing me a ticking time bomb.  i opened the first book and started to read.  with every turn of the page hank and i would glance at each other with reassuring eyes that everything was going to be okay.  i was nervous, but to the boys it was just another book.  i kept peeking over at sean every time the word adoption trickled from my mouth.  i read every word with caution and elaborated further in my own words on how special and wonderful it was to be adopted.  seany agreed, but never referred to himself as being similar to the child in the book.

well one book down, and things were sailing smoothly.  i began  reading the second book and still no reaction from either child.  the second book even included details about the baby growing in one mommy's belly while at the same time growing in the adoptive parents hearts.  i don't know exactly what i was anticipating to happen, but it never did.  again we elaborated on how some babies grow in mommy's belly like vito, while others are brought into the family through adoption, "just like you seany".  he just smiled and agreed.

i will continue to include the adoption books in with our evening story time and see if any questions arise in the future.  hank and i talked with the boys about gaining a new baby brother or sister one day and they very much liked the idea.  seany requested that we adopt a baby, "because i don't want mommy to be in the hospital".

at this stage in the game i feel like we have been trying to conceive for an eternity and my patience is growing thin.  even before we started trying this time i had a feeling it was going to be difficult. i don't know why, and had not one single reason to back up my gut feeling but as of now it's ringing to be true.  we had also discussed that even if we were not able to conceive we would be more than thrilled to adopt again. my family will grow...  this is a promise i have made to myself.

i have never for one tiny second doubted myself on the choice we have made as a family to adopt.  i look at my boys as two perfect gifts just sent in two different types of packaging.    they are my proof that the power of prayer truly exists for those whom believe.

we are gearing up for seany's gottcha day!  august 12 will be four years since we saw his little face for the first time.  i cannot control what the future holds for seany as an adopted child, but you can bet your bottom dollar i will give it my all in trying to make it a splendid one:)

embrace the camera 7-20-12

well i usually embrace the camera on thursdays but i guess late is better than never.


we celebrated hank's 30th birthday this past saturday evening!
friends, family, food, alcohol, and snow cones....that about sums up the evening!  ooo and fun :)

 embracing my new hair doo!  we are fierce, don't mess with us.


so true, children are miraculous!!!

linking up with emily here!! tgif

putting instagram pics to use!!

so what do you do with all those cool pics captured via instagram???

first-  down load the app.  PostalPix

second- order your favorite photos

trust me you will be obsessed

third -decide how you want to display your favorite photos.  i painted a cork board and then attached my pics with push pin!

finally- hang in a happy place, enjoy, and smile

embrace the camera 7-12-12

happy thursday folks!!!

i love when he smiles for the camera :-)

linking up with emily and embracing the camera!  you should so try...it's fun i promise!!!!

vacation instagram

embrace the camera 7-5-12

myself, youngest son, and hubby

captured this photo via instagram while boating on the lake of the ozarks this week!

if you don't know what these are, you must live under a rock :-)

hope you all had a great 4th of july!!  linking up with embracing the camera