Crazy, Busy!

Is that grammatically correct? Hmmm... Well, it is what it is - crazy, busy! I have spent any "free time" these last two days "in the closets". Literally, in the kid's closets and drawers. Sorting through winter clothes, trying to figure out what summer clothes still fit, what clothes that I bought ahead at the end of last season will fit or already fit, yada yada yada - I am a fairly organized person, but this job is so tedious and exhausting. So, that is one reason for my lack of posts.

I did want to document some "Out of the Mouths of Babes" things before I forgot...

Rylee: On Sunday, she and I went shopping for some shorts for her gymnastics class. Oh, she is taking gymnastics and it started yesterday. Unfortunately, in the process of rounding everyone up to take her, I left my camera on the table by the garage door. She ate up the class and absolutely loved it! The whole time I was sitting there watching her I was thinking "Come on girl, use up all that energy you got bottled up inside of that little body!" Back to the story, on the way to L. for shopping, she wanted to talk about "baptatism". Yes, it was just her and me (Mike is not there once again. And, we are in the car! Most of our deep discussions end up in the car. It was the same way with Morgan). So, we discussed it on the most basic way I could. I had to tell her that Pastor Bill would be the one to baptize her and not Mommy. Later as we are walking into a store she announces "Dr Phil is going to baptatize me!" She is still insisting that is who is going to baptatize her!

Ryan: Yesterday, while giving him a shower. We are in the process of teaching him to become a little more independent with that task...I step away for a moment and then come back and peek around the shower curtain and he says (with all seriousness) - "Where is my tail?" It appeared like he had been straining to see his tail. We don't call their backside their "tail" so, I think he seriously thought he had a tail. Oh my goodness!

Best go - one more sock and underwear drawer to go! UGH!

King of the Hill

OK, so perhaps "King of the Hill" is a bit overstated but that's what his beaming with pride dad called it, so I thought I'd go with it. Morgan had his first opportunity to pitch today and he did great. While we're not ready to begin seeking an agent for him, considering it was his first time ever to do this, he did remarkably well. Most coaches will tell you that at this age a good pitcher is simply a kid who throws strikes. There is nothing more frustrating for coaches, other players, and parents than to have to sit through the "merry-go-round" of walks. Morgan went 3 innings and I don't think he walked more than 2-3 batters and he hit none. He even recorded his first strikeouts (and yes the "s" is not a typo!). 3 complete innings took him to his 75 pitch count maximum so he was forced to come out at that time. As usual, he is MUCH harder on himself than anyone else could ever be, but I think deep down he knows he did extremely well for his first time out there. As for me? Pass the Imodium, please.

Too funny!

It doesn't take much for this little boy to make me laugh!

More Than Enough Room

Okay, we have more than enough room in this house for our family! Why is it that when I am cooking, this has to be the case - Oh, let me just say that I am trying to cook dinner and have a treat for Morgan's teachers in the oven. Luckily, the two little ones decided to remain outside playing so, I guess it could have been worse as they usually stand and stare me down waiting for the signal that it is time to eat.

I am not sure if you have noticed some changes to the blog, but I have been busy. I have been kicking myself for not keeping our old blog as we have been asked from time-to-time about our adoption journeys. In the past, it was easy to just pass along the address for Snippets & Snapshots. I couldn't quite justify keeping the old blog at $5/month, but have wished that it was still accessible. So, I created adoption blogs for both of the little ones (see sidebar). This is firsthand information written "in the moment" if you will (compiled directly from the old blog)... Nothing I write today can even compare to when we were in the midst of the experience. I still feel strongly that God called us to adoption for a reason. One of those reasons being to share our stories with others. We do not feel called to adopt again, but my heart melts every time I see those sweet little faces. Although we are not adopting again, I will continue to advocate for these children and to share in the hopes that other children will be united with families! Having adopted a "special needs" child, I wanted to share Ryan's journey and story so that others that may be considering a child with a similar condition (microtia/atresia) might see the possibilities and be fully informed through our experience. So, Ryan's blog will continue to share his progress with regards to his hearing impairment. That is the update from here... My next chore is to write out the miraculous journey that led us to Ryan. Although we have notes, we do not have it written out. So, stay tuned as we never fully blogged the journey and how God moved mountains!

Opening Day

Today was Opening Day for the local little league. Morgan has been very excited about playing and the prospect of possibly being one of the team pitchers. Due to lots of rain, the team has not been able to practice as much as we had hoped. Hopefully, with a few games under their belt they will all begin to get into the groove! Oh, the coach is kinda' cool...

Rylee's New Occupation

She is our storyteller! Boy can she come up with some wild, crazy, and very long stories. - Usually, they are about a monster (see picture below). Here is her newest story...
"The monster taked my stamp and run away. It go down the slide and up the slide and down the slide he met a woman named "E" And the monster ran away and feds some cats and go'd home and he went away from his home and see a dog named Rispy and the monster feed hims some bones and then run away and then go to the city and run in his car and drive it and went into the post office and run inside and then he runned outside in his pink car and rolled away and see'd another dog named Sock. He feed him some bones dog bones and then run away and see and go to his home and then he went night-night and then he go'd to school. Then he come home and eats flies - He likes flies. He then go'd to the moon and then he go'd somewhere and it was special. He runned away and see more city- It was a different city. The pink went out and crossed the river with a boat and his car turned into a boat. He crossed the river then he met a cat named Meow then runned away then he met a person in a house and go'd home and he go night-night and he ate flies for breakfast and then he goes across the river, up the slide, down the slide, and go'd home and met a woman at his house. The sand was hard and he couldn't ride his car in the sand so he walked then he flied in a rocket ship to the sky and moon and go'd home and eat some flies for lunch then he go'd out of his house and run out of his house and play then he go'd to the road and looked both ways. He went to the big white house to see womans and people. THE END!!"

Well, that is a Rylee story and I have the pleasure of listening to these stories while I am driving!

The Gift of Easter

I am a bit behind on the Easter post. After viewing our Easter pictures, we discovered why our pictures have not been coming out very well - Evidently, Mike changed the settings on the camera to compensate for the lighting in the gym at Morgan's school (see 4/3 post). I was bummed that the beach pictures did not come out as bright as I had hoped and figured it was the mist from the rain and ocean. Then, the Easter round of photos were not very good either. Then, the light bulb moment! Oh well... I decided to do a couple of digital scrapbook layouts to compensate for the lack of quality photos.

We love the Easter season and it always seems to sneak up on us! I am not sure if it is because Spring Break usually falls around this time or because of the hustle and bustle of the university at the end of the year. Next year, I am not going to allow all of those things to cloud our celebration. I love to share the Easter story with the kids and although the little ones do not quite understand the full significance they are learning the story. They love to make the resurrection rolls and the anticipation of opening up the resurrection eggs! There continue to be many questions about Jesus and why He died. We have had discussions on sin and God's might power. I don't remember the exact date that I accepted Christ, but I do know that I made more of a public profession on Easter in 1991. So, sharing beyond our daily bible story and studying only the Easter story is especially sweet!

Ryan's First Faith Question

Well, Ryan has been with us for nearly 16 months now - Wow! Time has flown by so quickly. To see the changes in this little boy is just amazing and breathtaking! Just a week or two ago, I stumbled upon this video from China that I had never seen. We have gone from this - saying only "why-ow" and "chu chu" (car/truck) (see video)....

to asking speaking in mostly complete sentences and asking lots and lots of questions! While buckling him in his car seat on the trip, he asked "Why Jesus in the Bible?" Once again, I am surprised. This time I am not surprised by the question, but by the fact that he is beginning to ask faith related questions! Seeds are being planted and we can not wait to see how God uses Ryan! We know without a doubt that God has big plans as God has done everything "BIG" when it comes to this little boy!

Pure Delight!

Ryan's first experience at the beach. We have never heard him squeal and giggle so much! This little boy had an absolute blast! I wish we had a video of him as it was such a wonderful sound!

What Do You Do...

in the car with your toddlers for 10 hours? Well, we finally made it to our destination. Today we hit just about everything we could hit that would delay our trip - torrential rains, huge construction delays, and a fire! Okay, so maybe not everything we could have encountered. What did we do on the trip? Let's see... We answered the question "Where are we going?" another five hundred times - That is on top of the 300 times we got the same question yesterday. We hit the "Play" button on the dvd player quite a bit. Every time we stopped, we answered the question "Time to eat?" We took bizarre pictures of things... Mary Kay car for a co-worker of Mike's and the side of a truck for a bible study Mike is leading for one of the university ministries on Thursday. Ummm... We filled up with gas and led the crew to the bathrooms....

But....we had no car troubles, we avoided all accidents, and Morgan's wardrobe was restocked with fresh new Gator paraphenalia. Sometimes you have to look at life through the eyes of a nine year old and appreciate the little things.

So what DO you DO? You overlook the mundane things and the repetitive answers to find the joy in the little things.... new Gator shirts and husbands seeing their dad for the first time in a while. Pretty special when you really think about it.!

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky...

I wish I could say that today was planned...That is was an extravagant "Red Letter Day"... But, I can't. We had no idea when we stopped at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site yesterday that it was the 41st anniversary of his assassination. Morgan took an interest in Martin Luther King Jr. this year. So, we decided to stop off in Atlanta as part of our trip to Florida.

3 Children, 3 Very Different Personalities

Looking at the "shoe" picture, you can tell quite a bit about the little personalities of our children. Morgan is in his "cool" stage - Rylee is very girly and straight forward - Ryan laid back taking the world as it comes!

I noticed yet another visual reminder of how different our children are today...Morgan just throws his stuff in the bottom of his closet and closes the door - Rylee hides her treasures under the bed - Ryan just leaves his stuff out for all to view! Oh my goodness!!

The Opry!

The 4th graders at Morgan's school have been preparing long and hard for their Opry performance. They have been studying our state for a month or so now and the grand finale was this performance. They sang songs about the state and by famous musicians that were born and raised here. It was great and so wonderful to see so many kids showcase their individual talents throughout the performance! We live in basketball country so, the show started off with a university fight song and excitement about the new coach that is the talk of the state! Yeee Hawwwww! Oh, Morgan is the one in the red hat - That is him "dancing".

Where O' Where Are All The Eggs?

Today was Ryan's egg hunt at school. He had a blast, but got slightly frustrated when there were no more eggs and he did not have 11. He got over that very quickly when he realized that the kids were playing on the slide. Off he went, up and down the slide, with his bag in hand!

Sippin' Lemonade

Oh, how I wish I had some lemonade on hand...The moment has finally arrived! For years now, Mike has told Morgan that when he gets old enough and tall enough to reach the pedals on the lawn mower, he would kick back and sit on the deck sippin' lemonade while Morgan mows. Tonight was another M.I.T moment. Morgan although he is as light as a feather - just recently broke the 60 lb. mark - he is tall enough to reach the gas pedal and is out mowing the lawn. Mike got it started for him and then spent a good 1/2 hour walking beside him guiding his path. Then, Mike sat and watched him for awhile from the front steps. A tall glass of cold lemonade with a slice of lemon hanging off the side would have made the moment even sweeter!