Random Happenings in February

Asher was given a scooter by his friend, Mary. He loves it and picked up how to ride it right away...

Our 11 year old daughter, Abby, took this picture of Asher & edited it. I love it so much...

Steve put a ballet bar in Mackenzie's room. She's in heaven...

And he built a balance beam for Abby...

Abby and Asher were in a talent show at Old Navy just for the fun of it...

Bathtime/bedtime pics...

Mackenzie got to see "Cinderella" with some of her friends. She loooves the ballet!

We met the owner of "Oklahoma Biker" magazine, Darrell Briggs, at the post office. He was such a nice man and let Asher sit on his bike for a little while. Of course, Asher loved that! Darrell took his picture and said he'd put it in the next March/April issue ;-)

The kids began their next semester of classes at our homeschool co-op. Here's Asher keeping up with the girls, lol...

And the girls are having fun in a new culinary cooking class they are taking with their friends...

Asher loves to play with shaving cream - and big sis does, too...

I recently had the chance to meet new friends from Uganda and Rwanda. We had a fun night of eating, singing, and sharing stories about different organizations and groups we are involved in...

One Year Ago Today

Exactly one year ago today, our family of four boarded a plane to go meet 2-year old Muhamad Twinomugisha. Little did we know that our stay in Uganda would last for 8 weeks (although we were thankful for that as many families have stayed much longer) and many hardships along the way - but in the end it was so worth it! I shudder to think what if we would have said "no" to what I believed was a calling from God to adopt. Not only did an amazing little guy join our family, but God grew our faith in a way that more than likely would not have happened if we were living our typical, boring, everyday life. Sometimes you just have to say "yes" - even when it seems scary & there are so many unknowns. God never says he'll make the path easy, but He is there to walk every step of the way with you if you rely totally on Him.

Reminiscing...

Valentine's 2014

We enjoyed celebrating Asher's first Valentine's Day this year! The girls are kind of outgrowing the activities so it's been fun having a toddler to do it all over again!

Asher made a card at Library Storytime...

Our homeschool co-op had a Valentine's Day party at the skating rink...

And Abby and Steve went to a Daddy-Daughter dance with friends...

"Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:13

Winter Olympics 2014 Lesson Plans

2014 Olympic Winter Games (Share My Lesson)

2014 Olympic Winter Games: Sochi (Teacher Vision)

Countdown to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games (Education World)

Olympics Printables (Activity Village)

Olympic Themed Books (Scholastic)

Sochi 2014 Games: 6 Winter Olympics-Themed STEM Resources (Edutopia)

Sochi 2014 - Winter Olympic Crafts (dltk Kids)

Team USA

The 2014 Winter Olympics (The Teacher's Corner)

The Olympic Games (Scholastic)

The Winter Olympics 2014 Lapbook with Study Guide (A Journey Through Learning)

Winter Games 2014 (by Amanda Bennett)

Winter Olympics (ABC Teach)

Winter Olympics (Activity Village)

Winter Olympics Bingo (30 Handmade Days)

Winter Olympics Free Activities and Printables (Homeschool Giveaways)

Winter Olympics Pack (3 Dinosaurs)

Winter Olympics Pack 2014 (Enchanted Homeschooling Mom)

Winter Olympics (Trillium Montessori)

Winter Olympics 2014 (Pinterest)

*** If you know of more great lesson plans for the 2014 Winter Olympics, please leave a comment with the link so I can add it to this list. TIA! ;-)

Our First Celebration of Asher's Birthday - Well, Sort Of ;-)

We've had a fun and busy month celebrating birthdays this month - Steve's was the 6th, mine was the 16th, & Asher's was the 29th.

I can remember well the morning of January 29th, 2013. I woke up and for some reason started thinking about Asher and wondering when his birthday was. This was before we met him & I had been told the babies home in Uganda thought his birthday was sometime in May. So, just being curious, I e-mailed our attorney and asked if she had ever received his actual birth certificate and if so, when was his birthday. She wrote me shortly after I sent my message and replied, "Why ma 'dear, his birthday is today!" I could not believe it. I mean - what are the chances of that actual day truly being his birthday?! I mean, seriously?!

But just in case, we went ahead and made a cake & celebrated that night without him but felt he was there in spirit. Cheezy, I know, but I just wanted him to know when he was older that we celebrated his birthday on the same day we found out when it was - and it actually happened to be his real birthday. (And now, we do have proof because his birth certificate does say January 29th!) What a God thing!

Jan. 29, 2013

For mine and Steve's birthday, we ate at Fuddrucker's, one of the kid's favorite restaurants. Their favorite, but I didn't have to cook so I'm not complaining ;-)

And here's some of the sweet homemade gifts the girls made for me...

Made with love by Kenzie

Made with love by Abby

We always celebrate our birthdays with Steve's family so we recently got together with them to celebrate. Asher is still trying to make sense of what birthdays are but he had fun opening his gifts and eating cake...

The Sunday before his birthday, some sweet friends of our gave Asher a little black baby doll that they had seen at IKEA & said it was perfect for him. And perfect timing, too! They didn't realize his birthday would be in just a few days...

Asher decided to name him "Bubba" and they've become pretty good buds ;-)

The morning of Asher's birthday, we ate at a local donut shop and had "#3" donuts for his special day...

Then we ate at one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants for his birthday dinner...

And opened gifts when we got home...

This little guy has blessed our socks off and we're so thankful we got to celebrate his 3rd birthday in our home, together as a family ;-)