A long time

A few nights ago I found myself looking at our blog for the first time in what seems like months.  I started reading some of the entries and going back all the way to when we started the blog and realized that this is serving as a family diary for us and that I don't want to give up writing in it.  I am not sure if anyone even looks at this anymore, but I figure this is a way to really capture what is going on in each of our lives.

Sooo, with that being said, here is a brief overview of the past several months ...

In September, Bella's first family (her foster family) visited us and we had a wonderful time, as always, with them.  Here is a picure of her "sister" Cassie.  They were being pirates and were so cute together.  They truly feed off of each other and enjoy getting into trouble together.  One thing they did was to go into Aidan's room and destroy (and I mean absolutely destroy) several of his Lego sets.  He is still working on putting them all back together.  He took it pretty well, actually A LOT better than I would have.  Silly girls.  I also should say that this all happened while Julie and I were out shopping and the guys were home with the kids.  Would this have happened if us moms were around???  Maybe, but I like to think that it would not have. :-)

Michael and I got to take a trip to Las Vegas in October to attend a conference.  We  had a really great time and got to do a little extra sight seeing.  Here is a picture of us at Red Rock Canyon, which was beautiful!  And it was nice to be in the warmth and able to swim in October (can't do that in Ohio!).

Halloween is always a fun time at our house.  We have some really great neighbors and we got together with several of them and had a fire pit and ate yummy food before the trick or treating began.  Once it was time, the kids took off and got around the neighborhood in record time. (They are still talking about the king size candy bars that one of our neighbors handed out to everyone.)  Bella and the neighbor girls went around with us and they were so cute.  As you can see from the picture, we had a muscular ninja warrior, a tae kwon do ape (Aidan's own creation) and a beautiful Belle.

We added to our family this past fall as well.  Lulu joined our family and has been such a joy to us all.  The kids adore her and Bella finally has someone to boss around so she is in her prime.  Lulu is a Yorkie Coton mix, so she is called a Yo-ton.  She has been the best puppy ever.  She trained quickly, hardly barks and is so good with the kids.  We really could not have asked for more.  This is a precious pic of Keenan and her just a couple of days after we got her.

Certain seasons of the year, I truly become a "soccer mom" and tote the kids to practices and games throughout the week.  We love it!  Michael has been assistant coach for Aidan's team the past couple of seasons.  Here is a pic of the team right after they won the tournament in the fall.  Such a fun group of boys!! 

Christmas was wonderful this year.  The kids really had a great time and I took the last couple of weeks off at the end of the year.  We did a lot of fun things ... decorated cookies with friends, visited with other friends and had a lot of family time; went to Niederman Farm for their Christmas Walk with our small group and just played ... a lot!  The one thing that did happen right before Christmas was that Michael was in a car accident.  Everyone involved was fine, but our car was no so fine.  So in the midst of getting ready for Christmas, we also got to add car shopping to the list. 

Here is a pic of all three of the kiddos at my mom's house for Christmas. 



Last week, Michael, the boys and I took a trip to Copper Mountain, Colorado.  Bella is not a skiier yet, so she stayed with grandparents while we were gone and had a blast!  I think she really enjoyed the one on one time and all of the spoiling.  She is already asking to go and stay with them again.

We had a wonderful trip to Colorado.  This was Keenan's first time to Colorado and he truly cracked us all up from time to time (like he always does).  As we headed over the first mountain pass outside of Denver, I said, "Keenan look!  Aren't the moutains beautiful?"  His response, "Am I skiing down that?!" (disbelief in his voice)  The boys both did amazing skiing and took on just about anything.  Their favorite thing to do was to go off of the marked run and ski through the trees.  We all went to the very top and skiied all the way down which took about 30-40 minutes.  We cannot wait to go again.  Maybe next time Bella will be ready to tackle the mountains also.    Here are some pics of us and the beautiful mountains that God created ...  

I also attended a retreat in January for adoptive moms called Created 4 Care.  Awesome!  That is best way I can describe it.  I want to blog about it and hope to do so soon.  So, until next time ...