A Month in Photos

Yep, we are still here. Since Mother's day, we went to California to visit family and celebrate my sister-in-law's graduation from law school, watched the girls' end-of-session gymnastics "show," celebrated Lily's 4th birthday, cheered Chris at his latest triathlon, remembered Mike (Chris' dad) on the anniversary of his passing, celebrated my birthday, attended Claire's ballet/tap recital and now we are days away from Lily's ballet/tap recital and Father's day this weekend. Aside from that, we have been swimming most every day. OH and did I mention Zane started walking in California?!!

Fun photos to catch you up...

California swim with Uncle Paul; Zane's first ocean dip

Little gymnasts (quite the posers, aren't they?)

Zane practicing his serious, disapproving face

Lily's 4th birthday was a "Messy Paint Party" which turned into sprinkler fun amid the insane humidity and heat. It was a Mess Fest - paint, sweat, watermelon, pizza, sprinklers, drippy ice cream cones, etc. I'm sure the parents appreciated the dirty drive home. Hey - at least the kids were worn out and ready for naptime!


Is our little man gorgeous, or what?!!! Still quite the charmer. My brother-in-law, Scott, met us to watch the triathlon. He was a massive help corralling my kids.

Go, big daddy! (blue shirt, Chris). Muggy and hot temps = snow cones.


Claire danced to "Where Has My Doggy Gone?"

Happy Mom's Day

Today was a great mother's day. 1) I didn't have to change any of Zane's diapers. and 2) I actually now have a photo of me and my children. Since Zane's homecoming we have yet to capture a pic of me and my trio mostly because I'm usually the one taking the pictures and also it's a monumental challenge to get the three of them sitting still at the same time. On top of that, we even snapped one with my mom.

In all seriousness, today was one of those heart swelling days of great joy and gratefulness that I get to be mom to Lily, Claire and Zane. It is my joy.

Catching Up

A week or so in photos:

Our neighborhood group of pals met up at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last week, two days after my wedding anniversary. Sweet timing as this is where Chris and I were hitched. I don't think I had been back there since the first year we were married. It was special to show my kids around this lovely place and share with them about our big day. Plus we saw a snake!

After the girls' ballet/tap class this week, a bunch of us grabbed lunch and went to a nearby park to enjoy this gorgeous weather before the Texas heat takes over. I love watching these girls play together. Many of them also live in our neighborhood. These kids are blessed with sweet moms that I have so enjoyed getting to know and call friends. It's encouraging to see friendships developing among our children as well.

This particular park has some of the best playscapes in town. However our little girls were more interested in searching for bugs and climbing trees.

Yesterday Chris skipped work and we went to SeaWorld. It is one of my favorite outings with our children. They are too dazzled for fussing and have these big goofy grins plastered on their faces all day.

Lily and Claire are adrenaline junkies. We have a hard time pulling them off this roller coaster. I think they road it 6 times yesterday. They waited very patiently in line so they could ride in the front!

Lily is a "no hands" coaster rider while Claire opts for eyes closed. Last time we took Zane to the Shamu show he cried. I think the volume freaked him out. This time he was all smiles.

I love this photo. I was glad to catch this sweet moment of Claire loving on Zane, without them noticing the camera.

Back home but too wired for sleep!

8 Years

Yesterday Chris and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. Our 8 years have been richly blessed with great adventures, both at home and in travel. Our greatest adventure has definitely been the growth of our family with 3 amazing kids. I used to think of God as a list of rules to obey but thankfully He has grown my understanding to see Him as the author of our great adventures. He has incredible plans for each individual, if we would just seek Him and His dreams for us - what a great ride He desires to bless us with!

In explaining what it means to have a wedding anniversary to our children, Lily's first response was to ask if I was going to wear my wedding dress. Of course I had to take a spin in it but here is what happened next:

Oh man...I could write a novel about these pictures.

Thanks (a huge thanks!) to my sister, Leslie, Chris and I enjoyed a rare evening out alone. It was a slice of heaven. I will leave it at that!

Strawberry Pickin'

We went with our neighborhood playgroup to pick strawberries last week at Sweetberry Farm. It's one of our favorite outings - they let you pick strawberries in the spring, blackberries in the summer and pumpkins in the fall. Plus they have goats, donkeys and horses in pens you can get up close to. However, Claire was not impressed with the volume of the goats.

120 Years

The Gladney Center celebrated 120 years over the weekend. We drove to Ft. Worth to participate in the celebration. It was a gift to be there and meet some of the people that connected Zane to our family and helped to bring him home. Mary, Natalie and Tonia are three special people in particular that helped us through the process and before Friday, we only knew them via email and phone. I can still hear Mary's voice on the other end of the phone when she made "the call" to us saying she had a referral for a baby boy. And Natalie's voice calling sharing the joyous news that we had a successful court date and Zane was legally our son. They work so hard and we loved showing off Zane so they could see the sweet fruit of their labor!

Friday night's festivities included a party at Billy Bob's. Being the punctual family, we arrived about 30 minutes before the party ended. We were bummed to miss out but glad to meet the Gladney folks and visit with Belay (Gladney's in country director of the Ethiopia program) and the Brown family (on staff with Gladney in Ethiopia). Not sure they even recognized Zane as much as he has grown!

We stayed in a hotel Friday night which provided entertaining conversations with our three-year-olds. They have traveled before but I don't recall ever staying in a hotel with them? They've stayed at a condo, house rental, cabin, tent, friend's houses, etc but I can't remember ever staying in a hotel with them and they were so confused by it.

Me: "Girls, don't jump off the bed!"

Girls: "Why not?"

Me: "You might wake the other people here."

Girls: "There are other people here? In the closet?"

Given Lily and Claire's imaginations, it's a miracle they didn't have nightmares all night wondering about "the other people."

Saturday we went to Gladney where it was an all out kid fest! Gladney did a fab job of celebrating adoption and the various cultures represented. Ethiopian dancers, face painters, bounce houses, pony rides, cotton candy, pop corn, balloons, clowns, some way tall dude on stilts juggling stuff, burgers, hot dogs, etc.

We met a few families who have also adopted from Ethiopia and a few currently in process. I am so jealous of those in process because the ride is amazing! Thank goodness for their blogs so I can live vicariously through their adoption adventures. We also ran into a couple that we crossed paths with in Ethiopia. Actually they enabled us to record one of the most historic moments in our family. Upon arrival to the Gladney infant home I could not find the tape for our camcorder. This family was at the foster home for a coffee ceremony and were scheduled to fly home the next day. They came to our rescue and gave us a blank tape to record our first moments with Zane.

I think the highlight of the day was watching these young ladies dance. Zane was rightly smitten and the feeling was mutual. One of the girls asked if she could take him home. Lily and Claire were thrilled when they invited kids on stage to dance with them. I wish I could bottle L&C's lack of inhibition!

After stuffing our kids full of sugar and depriving them of naps, we loaded the car and drove to my sisters...lucky Aunt Brittany and Uncle Greg!

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend started off with Lily and Claire's first egg dying experience. Now, my primary focus in maintaining some sort of sanity with two 3-year-olds and a 1-year-old is simplifying. So when it comes to dying eggs, I would have skipped it until the kids were a bit older. I envision eggs + dye + little hands = massive mess with egg yolk and dye on on my walls. We have lots of daily messes so I try not to add to the chaos. BUT, when Grandma and Aunt Rebecca show up with all the supplies including already hard boiled eggs - and the weather is nice for doing this project outside - it was great! The girls loved it. Zane opted for a game of peek-a-boo.


Sunday we shared our Easter celebration with friends and family. The kids of course enjoyed the egg hunt and gorged themselves on chocolate. But I think the confetti egg fight took the cake!


Chris gave the kids a serious pep talk before the kids are letting them outside.


Zane ferociously guarding his eggs. Lily definitely found the most. Claire had the wind working against her game.

Thankfully no black eyes resulted. And yes, I think the grown ups had the most fun.