Winter is coming!

The kids were very excited that it started acting more like winter since we've been back. They've had to wear hats and gloves when going outside! We got about an inch of slush on Tuesday and the kids were super excited to play in it. Hannah even made a snow frog. Here are some pictures....

Kaleb hard at work on his digger

Damen working hard as well.

And here is the snow frog, isn't it cute?

A New Window

We've been having a very low key week since getting back from our crazy Christmas adventures. Tuesday Evie decided we needed a window on the side of the house where we have no windows. Makes sense right? So she made a window and taped it to the wall. Here it is, with clouds and trees for the view. Not bad!

Isn't it lovely?

My Christmas Surprise

When we got back from Maryland I checked email and found an email from the boys birthmom! It had a bunch of pictures in it and a short note. We have not had any contact with her for the past two years, so this was super exciting. I feel open adoptions are a better option for both the kids and the birth parents, but since the boys were adopted through the state that isn't really an option in general. When rights were terminated I gave both their birthdad and birthmom a gift and note including an email address for contacting us. I wasn't sure if we would ever hear from either of them...it had been two years after all. I printed out all the pictures for the boys and told them what she wrote. They have three brothers who still live with her and you can definitely see the family resemblance from the pictures. We never had a chance to meet the older boys, but maybe some day we will....at least this is a start.

Gringerbread houses and other random pictures from Maryland

After Barb and John left, Nathan and I headed over to visit with my grandparents for a little bit. I left the kids and the camera in good hands with aunts, uncle and grandparents!
Aunt Rachel was brilliant and brought a gingerbread house kit that came with four houses for the kids to do!

Here's Hannah working on putting her house together

 Evie got her hair and nails done by Aunt Debbie

And was putting her house together in style!

Uncle Magnus

And Aunt Rachel helped the girls put the houses together.

And now these pictures are from when I was gone....

No more pictures please!

Rachel and Magnus brought their dogs, Kara

And Faith along with them

Let's all pile on Hannah!

Maybe piling on Aunt Debbie is a better idea! :-) 

Thanks for hosting the chaos Mom and Dad! We had fun!

Christmas Take 3!

After Christmas morning with my family Barb and John, the boys foster parents, stopped by for a few hours to see the boys and brought more gifts with them.

Barb made amazing quilts for them, each one personalized and unique! They also gave the kids books and a craft kit. 

Kaleb is looking through his new book

Getting the quilts out of the pillow cases!

Hannah all wrapped up!

Kaleb taking a nap with his new quilt

Listening to one of their new books "Santa Claws"

One of the boys favorite games to play with Grandma Barb is lemons or sugar where they get lots of love and kisses!

We also had fun on the playground behind my parents house with them. 

Papa John watching Kaleb climb

Helping Kaleb cross the rings

And then they helped each other cross the bars

I think they were having fun :-)

We're so thankful Barb and John were able to stop by and are not only a part of the boys life now, but ours as well!

Christmas Take 2

We flew back to the East Coast late the 24th and spent Christmas day at my parents house.

There was a beautiful tree with stacks of presents under it awaiting the kids in the morning. 

And lots of people to bother! :-)

So the camera was handed over for entertainment and pictures were taken by Damen

Classic Aunt Debbie face here!

Here's Nana, who retaliated by taking a picture of her own shortly after this was taken!

Daddy from Damen's perspective. 

Uncle Magnus

Oh, look! Me :-)

A slightly better picture of Aunt Rachel

More silly faces from Aunt Debbie

And then the gift handing out began. Which in my families house has traditionally been done by the youngest child. Since the youngest were the twins we let them do it together. 

They then brought the gifts to their older sisters to read the tags on and tell them where they went

Then the gifts were delivered to the appropriate person. 

The boys were being a little slow about the whole process, so Nana started helping. 

Let the opening begin!

The boys both got diggers from my parents. 

Hot wheels from Aunt Rachel and Uncle Magnus!

Hannah was excited about her Superman lunch box

Evie got some more Snap Circuits and I got an AC adapter for them so she won't be asking me for batteries every five minutes!!!!!!!!!!!! I was excited about that :-)

Hannah also got an electronic drum mat that she loves!

 Evie creatively wrapped Aunt Debbie's gift in box after box...

And she found a pair of earrings that Evie had made her. 

Here is Hannah enjoying her drums