We finally did it!

Decorated our Christmas tree, that is. Our dead Christmas tree. That we have had for several weeks. :/

But it didn't matter to the kids. They loved every minute.

Especially the ride on Daddy horse afterwards. :)

Daddy's are the best jungle gyms.

And they make the best faces.

Very proud of their creation.

The saddest picture of the night.

Christmas Program

Our church had it's annual Christmas program last Sunday evening.

Considering that this is what it looked like in the car on the way there, I'd say it was quite a success!

Baylee did a sweet song with the preschoolers. We had been hearing this song for months, "All your heart, all your heart, Jesus wants to dwell in every part!" Finally, Baylee and Matthew got a chance to be on stage and they both sang their little hearts out. So cute!

Jaden is always the one I'm worried about.

He did very well this year though, only being distracted by a few minor things, like the loose strings from his "costume" and by Reese not standing up on que. :) Overall, it was great, he sang all the songs and delievered his line, "A Lion!!" like a pro.

Brenna and Olivia

Well, as most of you have heard, we are home. Our girl's mom decided to keep them, and boy do we understand her decision. They are absolutely beautiful, no mommy in her right mind could give these angels up. We had them for a couple of days at the hospital and loved every minute with them. They are precious and we don't regret anything about what we went through. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of this young mom's experience and to get to know the girls a little bit. We hope that we helped her (and them) and they will always hold a special place in our hearts. It looks like for now, our adoption journey is going to take another route. God is in control and we can't wait to see what He has in store! Here are the girls, just in case some of you think we are making it all up. :)

Brenna Laine

Olivia and Brenna

Olivia Noelle

Brenna and Olivia :)
They are going to keep the names we chose for them. I'm not sure why, but I am pleased about it. We love those names and think they fit the girls perfectly! We definitely miss them, but know that their mom loves them very much. That is so comforting. More than that, God gave them life and has a plan for them. All we can do, as with any of our children, is pray for them. We know He is in control of their little lives and in His perfect wisdom will care for them the way that He sees fit.

What's going on???

Well, a lot of stuff! First of all, we had a C-Section date scheduled for Wednesday December 2nd, but they ended up cancelling it because they were too unsure of our birthmother's due date. So, now instead of 39 weeks, they believe she could be as few as 37 and don't want to risk taking the babies too soon. In the mean time, they continue to grow like weeds, out of all of the preemie clothes I bought them I'm sure. :) That is ok though, we want healthy babies. We will wait! In other news, there is nothing. We have just been working around the house, doing school, and having fun! We are starting to realize that things are about to get very crazy, and we should enjoy our time as a relatively "mobile" and "easy" family. ;P Tony and I plan to go to his boss's Christmas dinner in LA tomorrow night (thanks Nana and Granddad!) and we have a birthday party for our sweet friends Elle and Matthew who are both turning 1 tomorrow afternoon! Jaden also has rehearsal for his Christmas program tomorrow morning, and Sunday morning will be our first week in our Church's new building!!! We are thankful that we will get to enjoy all of these things that we though we would be missing. However, we are ready for those girls! God's timing is so perfect, we wouldn't want it any other way. Thanks as always for the prayers, we will be updating as soon as we can. Otherwise, look for pictures of our decorated Christmas tree (that hopefully will appear on Sunday, after it is decorated!)

Christmas Tree

We went today with my Dad and Mom and got a tree! The kids were very excited, they love Christmas! I am going to do my best to decorate today and tomorrow. Most importantly, it is Christmas music time, which is the very best part. :)

It's Fall!

Ok, I know it is well into Fall, but I never count it as Fall until my tree does this.

I love this tree, it gets beautiful every fall/winter and turns our yard into a paradise of radiant colors with huge piles of soft leaves for the kids to play in. Then, each spring it blooms beautifully with tiny white and pink flowers. I always tell Tony we are taking it with us when we move. :)

Aubrey enjoyed playing all afternoon in the leaves.

Then, we (I) decided that the chickens needed to eat more grass. We took them out for some "free range" time and looked for earthworms for them to eat. They LOVED the worms, it was so much fun. The kids loved it, and had a blast chasing them around the yard.

Pre-Thanksgiving Photo Shoot

This is all I get anymore when I take pictures.

At least we are out of "running away from the camera and Medusa-like eye contact avoidance" stage.

But come on, what is with all of the funny poses? Aubrey is trying to be a tough guy, Jaden is being a Knight doing some sort of strategic, defensive pose and Baylee, well, we are just not sure about her all together.

I know, it is probably good that I will remember them how they actually are rather than how I think they should pose, all looking ahead smiling and keeping their hands to themselves. *Sigh* We are just a "candids only" family, at least for several more years. Right when they get into that awkward teenage stage, then they will learn how to sit and smile nicely. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my parent's this year. I actually didn't get very many pictures, and most of them are of Baylee and Chase. This is my favorite! She loves baby Chase. :)

We did try to get a good family picture... yeah right. Oh well, this is probably a more realistic picture than one where we are all smiling nicely and looking at the camera.

Baylee liked to pose for me today. I guess that was why she got in so many of the pictures.

And Mr. Chase was being so cute that he got his fair share too.

More Thanksgiving

Baylee and her favorite dog, Benny

Grandma and Baylee

More Baylee (What can I say, she looked cute)

Aubrey wanted a turn with Benny too. :)

Hold your babies...

http://6yearmed.blogspot.com/2009/11/all-of-my-days.html

Just about the most heartbreaking thing I've heard. I will never understand how there are so many couples out there who cannot have children, and so many children out there who don't have parents, and so very few of them that actually meet up. Makes me want to start an agency (in all of my spare time.) This is a neat blog, by the way. I love finding good blogs (in all my spare time.) :)

Quote of the Week

Their god is something which they created themselves, a being who is always prepared to oblige and excuse them. They do not worship him with awe and respect, indeed they do not worship him at all. They reveal that their so-called god is no god at all in their talk. For they are forever saying that "they simply cannot believe that God will punish the unrepentant sinner to all eternity, and this and that." They cannot believe that God will do so, therefore, they draw the conclusion that God does not and will not. In other words, God does what they believe he ought to do or not do. What a false and blasphemous conception of God! How utterly untrue and unworthy! Such is the new paganism of today.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Our Big News!!!

Well, it's not like all of you don't already know... but we have been (Lord Willing) blessed with twin girls!!! This is Baby A and her sister is every bit as adorable. :) We have been scrambling like crazy trying to get our paperwork in order (as we switched programs) and our house in order (as we switched from one to two, and from boy to girl!) Also, just because our house is never quite in order. ;) We are thrilled and excited and can't wait to bring them home. They are officially due on Christmas Eve. (I think) Their birthmother has a scheduled section planned for December 10th, but no one thinks she will make it that long and our social worker keeps telling us that it will be any day. Hopefully not, because we are not quite ready and would like them to get a little bigger... but God's plans are perfect and we can't wait to see what He has planned for us! It has been a whirlwind, but such an amazing experience seeing how God has worked this all out. We are so VERY blessed! Keep us in your prayers as we go through this process, it is very difficult and emotional and there is some risk on our side. We do feel like God is calling us to take that risk and want to be joyfully obedient to His will, no matter what that ends up being.

A while back, I posted this quote from Elizabeth Prentiss as I was musing about the idea of having more children. She had just become pregnant again.

From a (well meaning) friend in a letter to Elizabeth:

"You shall now have one more mouth to fill and two more feet to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing."

No doubt Elizabeth understood this to be true. But look at her response:

"Well! That is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly servant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ’s name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother’s heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!"

I love it and hope I am able to maintain the same, biblical perspective! (Especially while I'm up at 2:00am with 2 little ones!) Thanks for your prayers, I can't wait to announce that they have come home! :)

Our Little Yoda

I almost forgot to post this... our little Yoda went up to Grandma's on Halloween. They went to Kasagiri for dinner and had a blast. He was so proud of his little costume. He was so cute!

Quote of the Week

This is a convicting one!

Perhaps the saddest observation of all is that the spending habits of people in the church differ little from those of the world. The lifestyles of most professing Christians are not substantially different from anyone else’s. Too many in the church have adopted the world’s indulgent attitude toward money. Almost every form of materialistic extravagance and excess has found its way into the fellowship of believers. It is as if the church has forgotten Jesus’ mandate to invest in eternity.

John MacArthur

Happy Reformation Day!

No, we didn't actually celebrate the Reformation, although this is my plan when the kids get bigger. Actually, I finally gave in and let them dress up this year for the Hoe Down. They were very excited! Baylee was Strawberry Shortcake... or as she says, "Strawberry Shortpants." Which actually turned out to be true since the costume came with tights that were too big, and dress that was too small. She had to wear shorts underneath. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to go past her knees. Anyway, she was very cute.

Jaden was Indiana Jones and loved every minute of it. Since he had never seen the movie before, Tony let him watch one scene from it to get an idea who he was. He was VERY excited after that. We had to turn his whip into a belt for the party so that he didn't whack anyone with it. Not that it stops him from finding something else to use as a weapon, but at least we didn't actually give him something for that very purpose. :)