Miss Julia Clarise

Julia had a great time today trying on dresses at a junior's store in the mall with Moriah and Alyssa while the rest of us shopped. 

She loved the way she looked, even though they are about 10 sizes too big!. She even asked Alyssa if she could get ALL of the them for her on her birthday. 

These shots Moriah and Alyssa took; they really show her personality.

This was her all time favorite - 

The ball gown that they had to hold up in the back for the picture - 

                                                Different dresses, different heels! Wonderful day!

                                                                                                              

Garden Beginnings

 Last night I left these two capable young ladies inside to make dinner while a crew and I started outside in the garden. They prepared chicken for the grill (that JD cooked), corn bread and brownies. 

James, Ben, Julia and I worked on beds for our new strawberry plants. We took two old pallets and pounded out every other board to create a divided raised bed. After debating where to place them, I decided to put them along the edge of the area that we plowed for corn. After we created two for strawberries, the boys wanted to make their own little gardens, so I let them each do another one for whatever they want to plant and tend do. 

 Aren't they cute in there? I bought 12 plants and only nine fit comfortably, so now I have to go buy six more to fill the second palate. 

Julia then got to work with a little hammer and some small nails building Elijah a swing-set. Kids are great entertainment!

Weekend Whirlwind

 I was gone between 12 and 14 hours on Saturday and Sunday, which has made me feel like I have a lot of catch up to do around the house. On Saturday, Alyssa and I helped with food for my friends daughter's wedding; we fed 250 people. Let me tell you, the biggest thing I learned is that I don't want anything to do with feeding the people at my children's weddings - it's way too much work! I'll leave that to some capable caterers. All in all, it turned out wonderfully; it just was a ton of work. 


Sunday we went to church and planned on coming home and then just JD or I making the airport run to pick up Aunt Deb from her three-countries-in-two-week tour, but we both really wanted to go, so just fed the kids after church in town and then headed north. She came into the airport that is on the far side of D.C. where we flew in and out of when we headed to Liberia. Once we arrived, we found out that her flight was pretty delayed, but JD stumbled across the U.S.O. and we had a lovely time waiting. They had a little kitchen stocked with snacks and a big living room with a TV, books, toys and games. The best part was that we didn't tell Debs (who was in customs for a long time after her delayed flight) and she texted me that she was sad that it was so late that she wasn't going to get to see the kids. JD brought her in for a bottle of water and we were all there. I love surprises. I'm pretty sure that the employees thought that she had been gone for more like six months, from all the kid excitement!

I sure wish we had discovered this spot back in 2007 when we sat with Ben and Julia for almost three hours (after traveling for 32) waiting for the man that volunteered to pick us up! Now I know.


Welcome home Aunt Deb!

Next time we are at this airport, it should have something to do with this - 

(that's a pretty pitiful smile I have, but it goes with my conclusion.)

 

Short Post

 I accomplished four doctor appointments today - two in "town" 45 minutes away and two more over an hour away. I then came home to a huge mess, since my children all tend to be little piggies; 30 minutes after walking in the door, there was a remarkable improvement. Since my brain is fried and the crock pot dinner got made but never turned on, I'm concluding early with a few pictures. 

Tori's "Easter" corn-rows - 

"King of the World" (compliments of Burger King) - 

Julia's Plans

 Julia told me that when she grows up, she wants to be a toddler in a tiara. (No, I do not watch, nor endorse that show in any way - in fact I'm in quite anti-beauty pageant all the way around.) This has not detoured Julia in the least from  thinking that it would be the most wonderful thing in the world to tour the beauty pageant circuit. Once her sisters broke it to her that she may not be able to enter as an adult (the youngest she could be since her mother won't let her until then,) she said she would just run the beauty pageant then. 


These pictures are what I got when I got out the camera to take a picture of her new no-top-teeth smile. If you DON'T want a picture like this, you have to coach her to not pose!

(If anyone gets fake tanner around here, it needs to be me after seeing my glowing white legs in yesterday's Easter pictures!)

                                                     Jenny

 

Easter 2012

Happy Easter From our Home to Yours

I didn't realize the camera was on the wrong setting until this morning, so the only egg dying picture that came out from yesterday was this one. 

Gabriel went with his girl-friend, Alayna, to a family reunion this afternoon, so we did our egg hunt this morning before getting ready for church. (A benefit of living in the country is being able to hang around outside in your pajamas!)

Gabriel and Magnum - 

Gabriel and Alayna - 

Julia lost her other front tooth yesterday - 

Day Highlight

 This morning we headed to the Amish to get wood to fix the trailer, plants for the garden and baby chicks. We didn't come home with any baby chicks, but we did come home with this - 

He is a nine week old cross of German Shepherd, Australian Shepherd and a bit of border collie. We had planned on getting a full German Shepherd, but were concerned about the hip problems that often occur, so went with a safer mix. 

The kids were pretty thrilled with him and he seems pretty thrilled with the volume of attention he received today. 

We think his name is Magnum (after the old Magnum P.I. show that JD watches with the kids); here he is with 7 of the 11 kids he will be tasked with caring for.

Quiet

There is plenty going on, but I am taking the advice of a little skunk on Bambi who said, "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." 


So, instead of saying much, I made apple pie. No one complained about my silence then.

Here's an awesome song I've listened to over and over. As much joy as this life can hold, it doesn't feel like home.

New Van, New Chicks and New News!

We picked up our new (to us) van today. It is fairly new, a 2011 and only has 10,000 miles on it. It should last ten years and maybe, just maybe, I won't be forced to drive something quite that enormous at that point. As we stared at it in the dealer parking lot today, we commented that it isn't everyone who rolls into the Ford dealer in a 12 passenger van with the complaint that they have out-grown it! While I searched for the perfect van for the last several weeks, the only thing I asked every dealer was that I wanted one that was NOT white. I don't have anything against the color white, other than there are a hundred of them in my county alone. Of course, I got white - thank you Ford who decided to make 95% of the vans the last few years white. I would like to apologize in advance to the other large families in the county when my children open your side van door and throw in their grassy cleats before they realize that they are at the wrong van! 

We took Julia and Elijah to the dealer today to fill out the paperwork; here they are watching the Chipmunks while they waited. 

Here they are at the opening of the new white van. (I think I'll paint some shooting flames down the side or something.)

Julia found a tree to climb during Dad's last few words with the nice salesman who filled the tank for us before we left.

There she is! I know you are thinking church van, but there are little options for people like us at this point. 

While JD went back to work, the little guys and I hit Tractor Supply for grass seed, lime, chicken feed, (a small cool toy tractor)  - 

AND  six baby Americana chicks. Americanas lay "Easter" eggs that are pretty shades of blue and green. 

We had some chick bonding time before moving them out to the baby cage in the hen house. 
Nothing brings a family together more than baby anything. That long box in the picture is a big sun umbrella I bought at Ikea for the deck - it made a wonderful temporary chick condo. 

So, our exciting new news is that our first trip to Ethiopia for court could be much sooner than I anticipated; it may also be sooner than JD is even able to leave the country since he is in the middle of a re-compete for his job contract. In that case, I will be going without him, with a power of attorney. We are not willing to leave our little girls there any longer than we have to. There will still be a three month wait after our court date until they are cleared to come home, but the sooner the first trip, the sooner the second.