Happy Easter!!

Every time I post I swear I won't wait as long to post again, but then even more time passes by.  So, I won't make any promises of when I will post again, but here is a snapshot of what has been happening in our lives so far this Spring!!!

Easter morning - my three blessings ...

 Aidan showing off one of his Easter presents - I am not even sure if he knows who Michael Jordan is - ha!

 Bella reaching for an egg ... how did it get up there?

 Keenan is so proud of his new basketball - he says he has "moves" now.

Family pic

Everyone came to our house to celebrate Easter.  The rain held off and we had a great afternoon enjoying fellowship, good food and one of the largest Easter eggs hunts around.  Here are all of the kids (Bella, Addyson, Ashlynn, Aidan, Keenan and Hunter).

 Keenan with his best buddy, Hunter (it was also his 5th birthday!)

We have also been back into sports this spring.  Well, when it isn't raining.  Keenan is playing T-ball again and would rather just hit the ball all day and not have to field it.  Aidan is back into soccer and is learning what it is like to play on some cold and nasty days.  We are all having fun and enjoying watch them when we can.

I also just completed my first 5K a couple of weeks ago.  This is a HUGE deal for me because I have NEVER been a runner.  I started the couch to 5K training program a few months ago and when I started couldn't run a lap (seriously).  Anyway, I ran in the Race for the Cure with my wonderful family.  We did it in honor of my precious grandma Alice, who passed away from breast cancer 14 years ago.  There were 40,000 who participated.  We had a blast and now I can't wait to do another one!

Here is the group (minus me).  Janel, Thomas, Jeremy, my mom Natalie, Tom, Tiffany, Alyssa, Will and Addyson. 

Part of my grandmother's legacy ... Janel, mom, me, Alyssa, Tiffany, Addyson.

Random Photos

This blog for us is a way to capture what has been going on in our lives throughout the year.  I haven't been able to keep up with it like I would like to, but here is a little bit about what we have been up to over the past month.

We have had so much snow this year!  The kids have had snow day after snow day.  They enjoy it, but I am ready for the snow to end and for Spring to appear!  We have had a lot of fun and have taken advantage of some of the time off indoors and out.

Evening with friends - the kids were rockin' it out!  (Btw, this is Bella's boyfriend, Bryson.  They adore each other ... it is just too cute!)

 Emy with all of the ladies of the house (Bella, Lily, Lola and Eva)

Michael gave me tickets to see the Blue Man Group for Christmas.  They performed at IU last week and we ventured out in the ice storm to see the show.  The show was amazing and we stayed in another beautiful Bed & Breakfast.  We even got to visit our favorite winery and visit with my sister Janel who is a student there.

Here is the fountain outside the winery.

Michael and the boys have been skiing almost every weekend this winter.  This is Aidan's 5th year skiing and Keenan's 2nd year.  Keenan is now taking on the black diamond slopes along with his big brother and daddy.  They LOVE going and can't wait to get back out on the slopes each weekend.

On MLK Day, we went to the Newport Aquarium with some of our new friends from our neighborhood.  I did not get many pictures because the place was packed that day, but here are a couple of my three kiddos posing for me.

 And as I was going through pics to post, I found this one that I took last February of Bella.  My, how she has grown and changed!  She is still as sweet and loving as ever, but she has become the boss of the house.  She is little miss independent and tells us to "stop" and often does not want our help with things.  She is proving just how much she can do on her own now.  She can say so many words now, but we still are working on her putting multiple words together in sentences.  She has a tendency to leave off the ending of words and rush through her speech.  She is amazing at putting puzzles together; knows all her letters; is doing simple maze puzzles; and is starting to learn how to write the letters of her name (as well as others).  I know I always say this, but when I look back, I really see how much she has changed in the last 6 months ... year ... and since she joined our family a year and a half ago!

What we have been up to

We have had a wonderful few weeks and cannot believe our break is over already! But when I look back at all that we have done, I feel so blessed ... and tired. Wow, what a whirlwind it has been.  We were able to spend time with friends and family; celebrate Christmas, New Year's and Bella's birthday; enjoy time off from work and school; and Michael and I were even able to get away for a night at a B&B (which was wonderful!).  Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks ...

The college "gang" ... loved spending a great evening with them!

Just the girls ... and 2 babies on the way.

Another night, we met up with some friends for dinner and then went back to our friend's home so the kids could play and we could visit.

Bella, Eva and Josie.  Josie was such a great sport and the girls are both such cuties.

With all of the snow, we actually had a white Christmas this year!  The boys enjoyed some time outside sledding with our neighbors.  We have lived in our new house for 5 months and feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great neighbors and new friends.  We even had several of the kids over one day during break and decorated lots of cookies.  The kids all had a blast and so did us mommies.

The Garland Family Christmas.  One of the most awesome things about this picture is that 5 of these precious kiddos are adopted.  And another one was missing - praying you are feeling better, Andrew!

I don't have any Christmas morning pics right now because we had to take pics with a different camera (we left our camera at my sister's house - perfect time to do that.  Ugh!)  Anyway, here are a couple of pics from Gram's house.  The kids were all spoiled rotten as usual!

Aidan and Keenan and their new remote controlled vehicles. 

Keean was so worn out that he passed out on Gram's lap.  He LOVES to have his back rubbed and Grams loves holding him to do so.

Bella with Grandma and Grandpa ... playing her iXL, which she loves!

Bella also celebrated her birthday New Year's Eve.  We had a low-key family party.  Here she is with her cousin, Emy.  Emy and Bella dressed up all day and truly pretended they were princesses.

 Bella with her butterfly cake.  The funny thing about this is that she sang "Happy Birthday" to herself.

Happy 2011!  Praying it will be a great year for everyone!!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

The Christmas tree is up, the lights are on the bushes outside, the manger scene is on the mantle and the wreath is on the front door.  The Christmas cards have been ordered and most of the shopping is done.  We even woke up to snow on the ground this morning.  It is beautiful and has been snowing all day long.  The snow came just in time for Keenan's Christmas program at preschool.  He was so cute in it.  He loves songs and music and he did great!  We are so blessed to have found another amazing Christian preschool for both he and Bella since our move.  Their teachers are wonderful!

We also went to my work today to attend breakfast with Santa.  The kids had a blast!!  They got to see a performance by the MadCap Puppets, play games, eat breakfast, get a "tattoo", make an ornament, decorate cookies and even have a visit with Santa.  Santa had a great sense of humor today.  He asked all three kiddos what they wanted for Christmas.  Keenan told Santa he wanted a DS and Santa said, "Really, you just want the letters 'd' and 's" and no other letters?"  It was cute, but Keenan is now a bit concerned that he is only going to get letters for Christmas. 

Keenan decorating his cookie

Aidan and Keenan making their ornaments

    Family pic

 The kids with Santa 

Part of the event this morning included a toy and food drive for local families and the kids each took a toy and we took a bag of food as well. As a family, we are always trying to find ways to show the kids how to share God's love with others by giving and helping out.  We especially want them to know that Christmas is not just about them getting toys.

Here is a picture of Keenan's list for Christmas. I just have to share because it is such a cute story. Keenan is learning to write and read words right now. He can't spell, so when he and Aidan were writing their lists, he kept asking me how to spell the items he wanted to include on his list one letter at a time. Well, it got time for Bella to go to bed, so I told him that he could look at the pictures in the magazines and that under each picture the black bold letters spells what the item is. He continued with his list. Several days later I noticed that his list had things written on the front and back of it. One side had the few items that he wants and on the other side I saw this ... Michael and I just cracked up at this! What it is supposed to say is "Temporary Price Cut".

And here is a pic of Aidan's list ...

We have lots of plans this Christmas, including visiting the Creation Museum's Christmas Town, going to a local farm for a Christmas walk and live nativity, going downtown to see the trains and do our yearly ritual, and spending lots of time celebrating our Savior's birth with family and friends.  I hope to post a couple more times this month, so stay tuned!

Bella posing in front of a Christmas tree

Gatlinburg 2010

We did not get to go to Gatlinburg when we normally do.  Since we moved to Ohio, the school schedules are a little different.  Instead we went over Halloween weekend and stayed until the Tuesday following.  It was the PERFECT time to go!  Beautiful weather ... less of a crowd ...could get into places without a wait .... just perfect.  Michael's parents were able to go with us this year and we again rented a cabin.  The cabin was probably the least of the highlights because it was a haven for ladybugs!  Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem with ladybugs, BUT when there are hundreds of them all over the place (and I am not kidding!), it is a little much.  I guess it was because of the warm weather, but seriously, we could have done without.

Here are some pics from our trip ...

We took a pretty lengthy hike to see this waterfall.  The kids were are troopers because it took about 3 hours roundtrip (we had no idea when we started!). 

Aidan and Keenan at the falls

We took the kids to a Halloween event in downtown Gatlinburg.  They had a great time.  Here they are ... Robin Hood, Little John and a beautiful butterfly.

Look how fierce ... the scarecrow does not even have a chance!

At the event, there were multiple characters dressed up and Bella wanted to love on them all!  The event also had a Chinese acrobatic troop that did a short show.  She just sat down and watched it all, enjoying every minute of it.

Our favorite place in the mountains.  The boys, Michael and I loved jumping the bolders and successfully did not fall in.

Aidan

Bella's foster parents, Bobby and Julie, came and spent a night with us.  They were in town for a conference the following week.  We loved seeing them again and spending time with them.

My Keenster ... he kept posing and asking for me to take pictures.  So cute!

We took the kids putt-putting a couple of times and they loved it.

Bella, Keenan and Aidan

We also spent time racing cars, riding some rides and doing a little shopping and a lot of eating!  Aidan said it best, "This was the best trip ever!"

Happy Fall!

We have had an amazing fall so far and I just wanted to share a few pics.  We also are happy because Bella is doing great since her surgery and has also been released from the cardiologist's care.  He did another EKG and they said everything looks perfect, so no further need to follow up on her heart.  WooHoo!  One less doctor to see and one less procedure for her to have to endure.  She is such a little trooper and amazes me how much she has gone through.  We have lived at doctor's offices this past year, so to have one less doctor to see is a huge thing for us right now.

As promised, here are some pics of our clan ...

Bella cheering her brothers on at soccer

Family from Texas came in for a weekend and we went to Michael's parents and had a hayride, camp-out and bonfire - so much fun!  (Keenan, Aidan, Collin, Hunter, Bella and Abigail)

The boys ... Hunter, Keenan, Collin and Aidan

Mamaw and Bella riding the tractor

Keenan and Michael

Aidan and me ... I loved this time with the kids!

Me with my boys

Family pic

Keenan and I got to go along on a class field trip with Bella to Barn-N-Bunk.  They got to through a corn maze, make a scarecrow and take a hayride.  (Just look at how much Bella loves her brother)

We all went to Niederman Farm last weekend and had a blast.  We went through the corn mazes, went on a hayride, picked out pumpkins, went on the giant swings, visited the farm animals, ate some yummy food (including homemade doughnuts) and the kids also got to jump on the gigantic air cushion and played on the enormous mound of dirt they made for the kids.  Here is the trio smilin' it up.

Keenan found a keeper

Aidan showing off his strength

Bella just being so darn cute

Michael and I on the hayride

Silly faces ... there is not a day they don't crack me up!

Happy Fall Everyone ~ Love, The Garland's