Trick-or-Treat

Shaelyn and Aiden with Papaw.

The back of Aiden's costume was sooo cute!!

Our little "mouse" ready to trick-or treat!

We took the kids to the Mall and to a few houses

this evening to trick-or-treat! We stopped by

Mimi and Papaw's house before we went so they

could see the kids in their costumes. Papaw was

dressed like a farmer and was all ready to had

out candy at his house. Shaelyn looked beautiful

in her 50's attire and Aiden was adorable as a

little fat mouse. He did not want to keep the hood of

the costume up however, so it was hard to tell what

he was suppose to be. We enjoyed seeing all the

different costumes at the mall and enjoyed

just being together as a family. We were thankful

Rob was off tonight! It was a fun night!

Jack-O-Lanterns

We did not get to take the kids to the pumpkin patch

this year due to some rainy weather. Instead we opted

to just buy the kids a pumpkin at the store. They were

still very excited about picking out their pumpkins.

We almost waited too late and had a hard time finding

nice pumpkins! We finally found some and then were

back home to carve them. The dining room table became the

carving station and needless to say was cleaned very

well after the event:) Rob was off tonight so he helped

Aiden with his and I helped Shae with hers. We had a

fun time! We already had a fake jack-o-lantern on

display on the front porch so we just added our two real
pumpkins for a nice trio of Halloween fun. Another fun

tradition at our house is sealed in our memories! We are

blessed!

Fall Leaves

Aiden just "chillin" in the leaves.

Shaelyn and Sophie in the leaves. Sophie is not too sure she

is in love with this idea.

Shae and Aiden keeping Mr and Mrs Scarecrow company.

Aiden in the pile of leaves. This is only a small portion of

the leaves we have:)

Aiden is "free" to enjoy the nice sunny weather!

Aiden apparently thought his clothes were too restricting!

I found them in the yard! I'm actually surprised he kept

his diaper on.

Shaelyn riding her bike through the customary "leaf road".

It was not a journey of love however. Shaelyn thinks she

is far to old and mature for this tradition.

Every autumn we are blessed with tons of leaves!

It has become somewhat of a tradition to make a day of

raking and playing in the leaves. This year was no

exception. Shaelyn pretty much thought she was too old

now for the tradition and would have much rather been in the

house on the computer. Aiden sure enjoyed himself though!

He had a blast playing in all those leaves. He must have

gotten overheated because I turned around from blowing

some leaves and discovered that he had shed his

clothes and was parading around in nothing but his

diaper. It was so funny! It was a warm day today

(almost 70 degrees) so I just let him run around

the yard without his clothes. He was nothing but smiles!

We will probably have one or two more leaf raking

days before our trees are all bear. I love the leaves

but quite honestly wish we didn't have so many:)

His Eye Is On The Sparrow!

This past week has been especially stressful, and to be honest

there were times I felt like the wind had been knocked

out of me! I am ashamed to say that I have indulged myself

in a few self pity-parties. I had one of those weeks that I

felt like God was a million miles away and really could care

less about me and my problems! Well, it took a little bird

to shake me back to reality. As we were leaving for church

this morning, Rob discovered a little sparrow that was "dying"

on our front porch. He was on his back and was jerking and

gasping for air. I swooped up this little bird and held him in

my hand. Nothing seemed broken and he wasn't bleeding so

I begin to think he had flown into our glass storm door and

had knocked the wind out of himself. I carefully placed him

on the bench in our flowerbed, rubbed his little head and told

him it would be okay. We left for church and I wondered if

he would be dead when we got back. Well, when we arrived

back home we checked on the status of the little sparrow and

he had flown away! God used that little bird to let me know

that everything would be okay. His eye is on the sparrow

and I know he watches me!

Pumpkin Painting

We took the kids to the Autumn Jubilee today

at Dan Nicholas Park. They had fun painting a

pumpkin! Thankfully the paint is washable!

We ALL got paint on us:)

Worth It All!

This time last year we were adjusting to a new little

member of the family. We had been home with Aiden

for about 10 days and oh were we adjusting!!! I

remember many times I felt like I was going to

pull my hair out! Shaelyn and Sophie (the dog) were

insanely jealous of Aiden. Shaelyn wasn't too sure

she wanted to share her turf with a brother after all!

I began to wonder when and if our house would ever

me "normal" again:) Well, I am happy to report that

a year later we are FINE! Shaelyn has finally adjusted

to having a brother and Sophie is now Aiden's best buddy!

Shaelyn adores her little brother and is thankful for him.

They have their moments, but most of the time they are

enjoying each other as I so hoped they would! What a

difference a year makes!

My "Creative" Little Guy

Today I purchased a sucker for Aiden while we were in town.

I gave him specific instructions that he could not eat it until

after supper. He did very well with these instructions and

did not open it. After supper I gave it to him and then I

proceeded to go outside to unload the yard sale items from

the truck. Aiden followed me out there and wanted to help

me carry things from the truck to the shed. Just moments

later I noticed that the sucker he had come outside with was

nowhere to be found. I asked Aiden where his sucker was

and he pointed to the muffler pipe on my car. He had put

that sucker (stick end first) into the pipe. It was perfect fit!

We tried and tried to get it out but just kept pushing the

sucker further and further into the pipe. Finally I decided

that I would just turn on the engine .....that sucker blew

out with such force that it sailed across the driveway and landed

in the middle of the road! We had to laugh!! These little guy

is so creative and curious about everything. He never ceases

to amaze us!

Aiden's First Gotcha Day!

We celebrated Aiden's 1st Gotcha Day today! It is hard
to believe that last year this time we were just
getting to know this precious little guy! He is a joy
and we are so thankful for him! We always have a little
cake to celebrate Shaelyn's Gotcha Days so Aiden was
no exception. He was too cute trying to blow out his
one (1) candle! He actually spit all over his cake :)

Last year

Last year at this very day and time, we were sitting
aboard a Boeing 777 Korean Air Jumbo Jet in route
to Beijing China. We were so excited, nervous and a
little bit of every emotion mixed together. We were
not only going to get our new son, but we were also
taking Shaelyn back to China to see the land of her birth.
Wow, what a journey we were about to experience! As
I sat there in my seat on that enormous plane, I had
all the time in the world to reflect back over the past
16 months. The calling God placed on our hearts to
adopt again took us a bit by surprise. We had more
questions than answers for so many months. We ran into
so many road blocks and detours along the adoption
journey and there were times we nearly said "forget
it"! But sitting there in that huge plane I felt a
peace. I knew without a doubt that we were right
where God wanted us to be! Now a year later, I
can say that God sure knew what He was doing! This
little boy he gave us was exactly what we needed and
didn't even know it! Aiden has brought us so much joy
and I simply can't imagine life without him. The
adoption path was not easy, but the reward for walking
it was beyond our wildest dreams!

Skyler's Skating Party

Skyler (my sister's youngest)turned 6 years old and
wanted his party at the local skating rink. The party
was today and boy did my kids have a good time! This
was the first time Aiden had been to a rink and I
wasn't sure how he's react but he loved it! He was
determined that he was going to skate and was getting
pretty frustrated that it wasn't happening! He kept
pushing my hand away when I tried to help him. Shae
learned to skate years ago and she was just flying
around the rink. This made Aiden even more frustrated
because he wanted to be like "Sissy". It was pretty
cute ! Thank you Maresa for including Shae and Aiden
they had such a good time!

Shaelyn's School Years in Review

First year of Preschool

Second year of Preschool

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Today was Shae's first day of 5th grade! I was a bit sad

thinking that this will be her last year in Elementary

School! She has grown up so quickly. I took out her

scrapbooks this evening and was looking back at

all her "First Days of School". I am amazed at how

quickly she has gone from my little preschooler to my

5th grader! Where does time go??

Daddy's Socks

Aiden surprised me this evening when he came into the

room wearing a pair of Rob's socks! He had taken the

time to put them on all by himself and was very proud

of his accomplishments! As you see they were more like

thigh-highs for Aiden but are actually Rob's ankle socks:)

Too cute!

Shaelyn's Artwork

Shaelyn took art classes this summer at Waterworks

Visual Arts Center and had a terrific time! Here is a

picture of her displaying one of her projects. She used

charcoal pencils and oil pastels. She created this project

to look like Sophie. She was very pleased with it and we

were so proud of her accomplishments. She is definitely

our budding little artist!

VBS - 2009

Every year our church has Vacation Bible School and each

year we volunteer to help with some aspect of it. Well this

year we played low key since we are busy chasing around

a very active 2 year old. We did however, help with the

decorations and had a really fun time doing so. Here are

some pictures of Aiden and Shae in the "swamp". Our

theme this year was Crocodile Dock!

Fireflies

I took these photos a few weeks ago and am just now getting

around to posting them. It was a night that the kiddos

decided to catch fireflies and put them in a jar. Shae wanted

to put them in her room for a nightlight. :) As you can tell

by these pictures, Aiden was completely perplexed by the

whole operation. He wasn't sure he wanted those bugs in

that jar. After a few hours of being help captive, I finally

convinced Shae to release them back into the backyard

where they could go back home to their families. :) I know

it is crazy, but I can't stand the thought of even a bug

starving to death in a mason jar. :)

Lela Jade

We are so very blessed to have Chris and Kathy as long-time

friends!! They love our kids and spoil them royally! When we

stepped off the plane with Shaelyn in our arms, Kathy was

there to cry tears of joy with us! She remembers how tiny

and beautiful Shaelyn was. A few years ago Kathy bought this

Lee Middleton doll (Pampered Asian Doll) and said it reminded

her of Shaelyn when she looked at it. She kept
the doll until Shaelyn was older. This evening Chris and Kathy

came over and gave the babydoll to Shaelyn. When she opened

it she was so surprised and giggled with excitement. I was

completely overwhelmed with emotion because it so reminded

me of what Shae looked like when we got her! It was truly

amazing! Anyway, Shae gave the doll the name Lela Jade.

This was the name we recently had picked out for the girl we

thought we would get from China, but of course God gave us a

boy. Thank you Chris and Kathy for giving this doll
to Shaelyn, she will treasure it forever!! When I get to missing
Shaelyn's baby days I will just look at Lela Jade!