A Visit with Santa - December 13

The kids had a chance to visit with Santa today. Here is their wish list...

Wyatt wants "a microscope that is a little better than the one I got last year"!

Sabrina wants "a microphone" so that she sing while Wyatt plays his guitar.

Colter wants "a pirate ship" for his Playmobil pirates.

Monique wants "some clothes for Baby Stella".

And Zane (who refused to get anywhere near Santa!) wants a travel magnadoodle. This was decided by his brothers and sisters who are tired of sharing their magnadoodles with Zane!

Playing with Daddy - December 12

Wyatt really looks forward to Danny's post-call afternoons so that he can "play with Daddy". They may head outside to work in the yard, sit down and read a book or play around on the computer (recently Danny taught Wyatt how to use Google earth and they went "mountain climbing"! Today they played Transformers and then worked out together. This is a little boy who loves his Daddy!

Snow? - December 9

We had our first snow of the year today - sort of. The snow was falling, but the flakes were so fine that they didn't stick to anything. At least it was pretty to watch and made it feel a little more like Christmas!

Rockin' Out - December 8

Wyatt decided we needed to have a "Christmas Band" this evening before supper. The kids had a blast "rockin' out" to our Third Day Christmas CD. And yes, that is Danny on the ukulele!

Christmas Wreaths - December 5

We made Christmas wreaths with cornflakes today. The kids had lots of fun and got really messy!

Our "Perfect" Tree - December 1

Start with a tree that needs a little bit of love (after all, we did drive through a blizzard to bring it back home!)...

add a little boy who is determined that this is the "perfect" tree...

and this is what you get - absolute perfection!

After we finished decorating our tree, Danny and I were in the kitchen joking about the weak branches and the bare spot when I looked over and saw Colter gazing up at our tree. "It's perfect!" he said. Oh, to just see Christmas through the eyes of a child!

Hunting for a Christmas Tree - Nov. 29

Five Easy Steps to Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree

1. Bundle up, find a hiking stick and don't forget the saw.

2. Search high a low until you find the perfect tree (or until the kids start to get cold!).

3. Take a family picture beside your tree.

4. Cut down the tree.

5. Drag the tree back to the car.

Sledding Fun - November 29

The kids were thrilled to wake up to snow Saturday morning at Gigi and Gpa's in Denver. They were even more excited to discover that Gigi and Gpa's new house has a perfect sledding hill!

Happy Thanksgiving! - November 27

Happy Thanksgiving! -from two little Indians, a couple of pilgrims and one cute pumpkin : )

Happy Birthday, Colter! - November 25

It has always been a little tricky trying to schedule Colter's birthday celebrations around our Thanksgiving plans. We are leaving town today (his actual birthday), so we did almost all of his celebrating this weekend. These pictures are from his party with his friends on Sunday.

Look at that cute pirate face!

We made spyglasses and treasure maps at his party.

But the kids favorite activity was the treasure hunt in the sand.

Look at all that pirate gold!

Dimmitt Follies - November 23

This weekend was Dimmitt Follies and we had four family members participating.

Wyatt, Sabrina and Colter sang three songs with their friends from school. We learned that Wyatt is not shy in front of bright lights!

Danny acted in one of the skits. His role was quite a stretch - he was a doctor! It was a really funny skit and he did a great job.

Priceless - November 22

There is just something priceless about my little boy dressed in his sister's new tutu running around the backyard chasing grasshoppers with his new bow and arrow.

Sharing - November 22

Having four other siblings means that my kids have to share lots of things - their toys, my time, their candy. But one thing these two will probably always share is birthday parties. With birthdays just four days apart and Thanksgiving either right after or in between their special days it's going to be hard to entirely separate their celebrations. This year we were able to do separate parties with their friends, but they shared a family celebration on Saturday with all of our family in Lubbock. It was a "fancy pirate" party!

Happy Birthday, Sabrina! - November 21

Sabrina requested a "fancy" party for her 5th birthday. We worked hard to fill her entire day with fanciness!

Here is our fancy birthday girl with her sparkly new birthday necklace.

Some fancy pink cupcakes with pink glittery sprinkles were "perfect" according to the birthday girl.

We did some fancy little girl crafts at her birthday party.

And a fancy party just wouldn't be complete without playing dress-up in new sparkly dress-up clothes!

Waving - November 19

Zane has started asking to put his shoes on in the mornings when the rest of the kids are putting their shoes on for school. Then we go outside so he can wave good-bye. So sweet...

Lots of Shoeboxes! - November 17

I was in charge of collecting the shoeboxes at our church for Operation Christmas Child. The kids helped me check all of the boxes, put rubber bands on them and then load them in our car. We collected over 120 boxes!

Dedication Sunday - November 16

Our adoption weekend celebration ended with us dedicating the girls at church on Sunday. We had lots of family there to celebrate with us!

Gigi and Gpa came from Colorado and spent the entire weekend with us.

Noni and Papa, Megan and Nathan, Craig, Kim and Abi, Cathryn and Jerod and Gummie and Robert all came for celebration.

Adoption Day - November 14

These are just a few of my favorite photos from Adoption Day. There were similar National Adoption Day hearings in numerous cities all across the country. You can read more about our Adoption Day here: http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/111508/loc_356238301.shtml

Our girls were just two of 28 children adopted in Lubbock on National Adoption Day.

The girls were happy to see their foster parents, Mimi (Letha) and Ken. After living with them for over two years they hadn't seen them in nine months. We are forever grateful for the love and care they gave our girls.

It was fun to be able to do our adoption at the same time as the Wilhites. When we first met the boys two years ago we would have never imagined that we could be connected to them for life!

Here we are just moments before we officially became a family of seven. What you can't see in the photo is Wyatt trying to wrestle with Colter, Zane wiggling around and Monique throwing herself backwards out of Danny's arms!

The kids all got to adopt a stuffed animal for their own. Here they are promising to be good parents to their adopted animal.

Our first official family portrait. The judge who did the adoption is the same one who has been hearing the girls' case for the past three years. He spoke for a little bit at the reception before the adoption and said that as judges they spend most of their time separating things - husbands from wives, kids from parents, criminals from society. One of the reasons they love doing adoptions is because they are putting something together instead of taking it apart.

Harvesting Cotton - November 11

We have enjoyed watching the cotton that has been growing behind our house for the past several months. Tonight they started harvesting it and the kids went outside to watch. Life in a small town... : )

Sabrina's Special Weekend - November 7-9

Sabrina had a wonderful weekend in Lubbock. Here are some of the highlights...

She got some new pompoms and went to a football game to watch the cheerleaders.

She worked on some sewing projects with Noni.

She went to the park with Aunt Cathryn, Uncle Jerod and their dog, Millie.

And she spent an evening with Aunt Kim and Abi. It was a weekend full of activities especially for Sabrina!

"Orange" You Glad I'm Smiling! - November 9