A few recent pictures

Brenna Laine

Olivia and Brenna

Aubrey LOVES his little sisters.

Livie

ok...

I'm unfortunately a very "all or nothing" person. I have wanted to blog certain pictures and stories in order and thoroughly. It has been so busy lately, with Christmas pictures and now baby pictures, plus several events in between... I am getting more and more behind without hope of catching up. It is time I face the facts... with my computer down during this very busy season of life, I have to just get by and throw the occasional post up. This probably doesn't seem like a big deal, but I do hope to turn this blog into a book someday and hate when things are out of order or missing... however, I will tell myself that I can come back soon and fix it. :) (yeah right!) Anyway, here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve to get us started.
Aunt Julie made the kids these great blankets, they were a huge hit!Especially with Aubrey!
The kids also had a great time rocking out to the music that JC and Uncle Jerry helped them make. It was so cute. :)

Christmas Morning...

The kids had a wonderful time, they got this adorable play tent and loved it! It promptly went into the backyard where they have been loving playing resturant and all sorts of other fun games.

Of course, the shields and swords were the biggest hit with the boys. They have spent countless hours fighting each other and saving princess Baylee.

When we got home from Christmas eve at Jerry and Julie's, we gave the kids their Christmas Eve pajamas. It was a little late to get a good picture. Aubrey was done for the night and hid under the table.

Jaden and Baylee loved them though, and are always up for a photo shoot. :)

Christmas Day...

Ashley and Baby Chase

Aubrey got a LOT of Yoda stuff.

The kids on the way up to Grandma's.

Misc Christmas...

Jaden with his "man in black sword".

Candace reading princess stories.

Chase was cracking us up with his funny new face.

Baylee and her cat.

Grandpa loves his girl.

Where to Begin?

I should begin with Christmas... but pictures of the girls are so much more fun. :) I am going to try to play catch up, but my computer is down and Tony's doesn't blog very quickly or easily. Also, I don't have as much time as I used to because I now have 5 children. :) I love saying that. Here they are, finally home.

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.