A little more of this and that.

Update on Russian Adoption Ban~ We are waiting for an update some time tomorrow to see if we will be grandfathered in since we have already registered and have met our child.  But all we know as of now is that all Russian adoptions are banned.  Your prayers are appreciated.  

And to keep my mind on something other than this horrible news here are some of the other gifts I made for the kiddos.

Sadie's upcycled kitchen, both pieces were bought at Goodwill for $3.99 a piece.  I painted them and sewed the curtain and oven front.

Made these cookies as well, more food are in the works.  It's a little addicting, they were fun to make.

Madi's vintage suitcase dollhouse, I found the tutorial here.

Tatum's puppet theater.

I still have to photograph a few more gifts, I will post those soon.

I made some yarn trees, they are very addicting as well.  I can't stop myself!

Some of my favorite Christmas ornaments.

This and that.

First things first, my friend Amy is in Russia right now visiting her sweet Davis for the first time.  I was overjoyed to see this picture this morning on Facebook.  Gosh that is the sweetest thing EVER!

Update:  We were not able to make our November 20th deadline for our paperwork.  Our social worker has been dealing with health issues so we asked the judge for an extension.  She gave us until the end of December to get everything in.  We are currently waiting on one document, why does it always seem we are waiting on one document, from our social worker and will be able to mail it all out once we receive it.

I'm sure everyone has been busy, busy with getting ready for the holidays.  It's no different here, since the day after Thanksgiving we have been working on many projects.  Ash put up a plank wall for me in the living room which I am in love with!  Can you be in love with a wall?  Definitely!  We just have a spot to caulk in the corner and it's done!  We used leftover wood we had from our kitchen project, gotta love a free project:)  I took a look at all the pinterest pics I was pinning and all the rooms that I liked were white, so I painted the entire living room white and it feels so much better and bigger in there.

I had written about doing a handmade/thrifted Christmas this year in a previous post, and I have been working really hard.  Here is one of those projects, this is for Ainsley:)

If you'd like to make your own you can find the dollhouse and doll patterns here:)

Me and the kids have been doing Christmas crafts, we made our mason jar snow globes.

And pine cone Christmas trees.

And I love the fun things they bring home from school.

I have lots of things in the works so more pics to follow:)

Halloween 2012

This year we had a cheerleader, Super girl, The Nana, Princess, Scarecrow, Super baby, Tony Stark and Bat girl.

I have been really busy getting the last documents needed to send to Russia. We were told we needed everything in by the 20th so we are in a bit of a rush.  I only need a few more documents and then I'm done! After almost two years of paperwork I will be so happy to be done!  After everything is submitted we should have travel dates very soon after.  Please if you would keep us in your prayers:)  And please keep the Kelley family in your prayers as well, they left early this morning for their first trip to meet Isaac!  So happy and excited for them!

Happy Mother's Day

Valentine's Day...a day late.

This year I decided that we were going to make homemade valentines from some of the craft ideas I have had saved.

They were a lot of work and I ended up doing most of the cutting and gluing, but the kid's seemed to enjoy it and they turned out really cute too.  But I think next year we will be buying premade valentines;)

Adoption Awareness Month

November is Adoption Awareness Month and around this same time last year was when I was introduced to Reece's Rainbow.  They are hosting their Angel Tree event again now through December 31st.  I encourage you to visit, pray and donate to help these children find their families.  Just look at some of these cuties who are waiting for a family!

Don't you just wan't to kiss those cheeks?!
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The kid's had a blast last night at our church's Trunk or Treat:)

I'm loving this idea that Amy shared today and want to do the same.

1.  Today I am grateful for words of encouragement.


Today I received an unexpected email from my sweet friend who is in country to bring home her son.  Her encouraging words were exactly what I needed to hear today and for her to think of me while she's in another country in the process of bringing home her son meant so much.

Celebrate

This month we celebrated my son's 10th birthday on the 16th, mine on the 26th and Sergey's yesterday.  We don't know the exact date of Sergey's birthday but we wanted to celebrate him and take pics for him to show him he was and is loved.

Prestin loves Legos!

My projects are coming along nicely, I will post pics as soon as I can:) 

11 years!

Today is our anniversary, it's been 11 awesome years!  I am so very grateful for the man God has given me and am so thankful for the very full and blessed life we have.  Ash I love you more than ever!!!!

Lots of stuff going on

Wow, what a busy week!  I never did do a post for Mother's Day, but I hope you all had a wonderful day:)  I know I did!   I really didn't get any pics on Mother's Day because most of my day was taking a very long nap and who wants to see a pic of me sleeping? But I did get a pic of the cupcake Ash got me, it was as yummy as it looks.

 The day before Mother's Day I went to the "Teddy Bear Tea with Mommy and Me" at our church.  It was so sweet, and Vil did a great job of putting everything together.  My girls loved it!

So speaking of Mothers, mine is coming for a visit this Thursday!  I'm so excited, I haven't seen my mom for a year and a half:(  We were talking last week (you know having those really AWESOME mother/daughter convos where you are so excited about what God is doing in each other's lives)  about how much we miss each other and then my mom surprised me with a call saying she was coming up.  Totally made my day! I'm excited to take her to my favorite shops and take her to this yummy restaurant, Cristiano's, I know she will love!  And get her my favorite, red velvet hot chocolate from Donna's.  To die for!

But for the most part we will hang out and talk and laugh a lot I'm sure:)

She's going to have to have a sense of humor at this funny farm.  We had some water damage to our downstairs ceiling in the den, so we had a friend come over to check it out and found out that the leak is coming from the upstairs bathroom.  So we will be having the bathroom gutted and the ceiling downstairs torn out.  So lot's of stuff is going on:)

And I wanted to thank you for your prayers, Ash was able to get the last document that we needed to finish our home study!  We are just waiting to have our next meeting with our social worker and we will be done! Hopefully sometime this week.   I can't wait, this is such an important piece of the puzzle and will help us get the rest of our paperwork sent out to Sergey's country.  We are now in the process of getting our Yard and Bake Sale together.  We are having it on June 4th, so if you would remember to keep us in your prayers that would be AWESOME!!!  We are so close to our goal!

Munchies with Mom

Today I got to go to Madi's Pre-K class for Munchies with Mom:)  It was super sweet and lovingly prepared by each child for their mommies.  The teachers, Amy and Kayla as well as many helpers, did a wonderful job of putting this event together.  The attention to detail was right up this lady's alley:)  We were surprised with a lovely table setting and these lovely hats each made specifically by the children to their mommies.  Madi's was precious, I loved it!

 
Then all the children came out and sang a few songs to us.  So sweet!

Each child then said something that they loved about their mommy.  Madi said, "I love my Mom because she gives me good food!"  That is so something Madi would say, she asks me at least, AT LEAST, 40 times a day for something to eat.  They then gave us a gift of a beautiful handmade necklace that I forgot to get a picture of:(

Me and my little lady:)

We dined on blueberry muffins, chocolate covered strawberries, crackers and pretzels.

We had such a wonderful time and Madi was so proud of everything she made.  Thank you to Amy and Kayla for putting this together, it is now a very special memory for me and Madi:)

Easter

This post is late, I know:(  Trying to get caught up on all the stuff that I had let build up during the fundraiser, like the mountain of laundry!!  Unfortunately God did not move that mountain for me as well:)  It's not so much doing the laundry as it is folding it.  I LOATHE FOLDING LAUNDRY!!!  Then putting it away, it takes hours.  And there's never the satisfaction of knowing it's done for the month, or week for that matter.  It's like the laundry is reproducing, sorry that was a weird little tangent.  I'll move on to the real reason for this post, Easter weekend.  We started it off by making a resurrection garden, idea found here and here.  My description won't be quite as poetic as theirs.  Making it with the kids was a wonderful visual for them and stirred up a lot of questions.  Ash said this was his favorite new tradition, and I agree:)

Jesus laid in the tomb.

Guards are placed at the entrance of the tomb.

Early Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.  Suddenly there was a great earthquake!  For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it.  His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.  The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.  Then the angel spoke to the women.  "Don't be afraid!" he said  "I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He isn't here!  He is risen from the dead, just as He said would happen.  Come see where His body was lying.  And now, go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and He is going ahead of you to Galilee.  You will see Him there.  Remember what I have told you."

On Saturday we did an egg hunt with our neighbor across the street, the kids had a blast!  Prestin was to cool  for a basket:(

So that was our weekend:)  I will finish this post with my new apron that a lovely friend of mine just got me.  I love it and have been prancing around in it all day.  I was making a weird face, hence the headless pic:)