Keeping it Simple

There are so many things I feel the need to say, or fill you in on. Not sure why, but what I really can't shake today is the spirit in the air of Christmas. In our house, and my heart...its thick. And I love it. So I just want to share some lyrics of one of my new favorite Christmas songs by Francesca Battistelli called You're Here: (thanks to my daddy for sharing it with me)

You’re here, I’m holding You so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own, but you’re here… you’re here

Someday I’m gonna look back on this
The night that God became a baby boy
Someday You're gonna go home again,
But You leave your spirit and flood the world with joy

You’ll be here, I’m holding You so near
I’m staring into the face of my Savior,
King and Creator
You could’ve left me on my own, but you’re here…
You’re here
Hallelujah… You’re here… Hallelujah... You’re here

Let us never forget that He didn't have to come

And that He is always here. We can hold Him near and stare into His face.

May we feel Him and His JOY that He floods the world with!
Family pictures on my side of the family, for the first time in 5 years! Last time we took these there were 4 grandkids...now there are 11!!!

Someone likes the tree!

She also like to stand up to play

Don't they look so big?

Cooper's 4th bday party. I was so proud of this guy. We had arranged for a moon bounce to be set up after church for his party. The guy called during church and said it was too windy to set it up. He was such a trooper and of course was sad, but had a great attitude and we made the best of our party. SO thankful we got a pinata at least!

Papa Max loving on Emery at the party. We had her baby dedication at church that morning. What a wonderful day!!!

Happy birthday big guy! I can't believe you are 4!

decorating the tree!

The girls with Pops on Thanksgiving!

Cooper's actual birthday! We had lots of lil celebrations for this guy!

Earlier that day we went to the zoo and the boys found a great pile of leaves to jump in. Forget the animals there, we bring our own!

Matching jammies pic! Thanks Gigi for finding new pjs for the kids!

Sadie is TOTALLY into her dolls. She takes at least one with her everywhere. It's so cute, she changes their diapers and does pretty much everything I am doing at the moment with Emery.

Emery gives the best kisses! And Cooper LOVES them the most out of all of the kids. He doesn't get grossed out by her slobber and open mouth! Oh man, I love my life!

Huge smile! She loves to swing, but loves her siblings even more.

Blake informing me that we have too many kids and he can't even see the book to read! HILARIOUS! Of course I took a picture of it instead of helping ;)

Awww, that's better! Notice Owen's face...wonder what's going on in his head.

Our family pic! I love how the boys are holding each other.

Halloween pics, this one looks like he is flying!

We went on a hayride with my family...so fun!

Cutest superman ever!

Sadie was a fairy! She was so cute!

Last but not least, Emery was a sweet pea!

Sadie has some freakishly strong upper arm muscles...

Happy birthday to Blake!

The 4 of us went to the OU game for his birthday.

A Dress and a Dream

I have to admit. I am not very good at letting sister just randomly pick her outfit. I give her options, but not just full on pick whatever she wants out of the closet.

Today I did.

This is the dress she picked.

There is a story behind this dress.

Blake and I bought it 10 years ago in Russia. We were there on a mission trip working with orphans.

We had just decided that we were going to adopt our children. It would be our "plan A".

We were at the market and saw this dress. It was a dream. That one day we would have a child to fill it. We were only engaged at the time, but my pumpkin of a love bought it. I fell deeper in love with him that day.

At that time we thought we would adopt internationally so our child would be older and possibly from Russia. And here is our gorgeous African American princess loving this dress and having no clue what emotions it holds for her mommy and daddy.

Lots of pics!

We had an incredible picnic with Mama Mandy and her precious family...our precious family. We feel beyond blessed that we had the honor of meeting Mandy's daddy for the first time at this picnic. Mandy and I were like goons on cloud 9. We couldn't stop talking and smiling and well, it was just plain fantastic.

The kids had so much fun together. It was like a dream, seriously. Owen and the girls played chase and at one point I saw them holding hands. I never want to forget these moments and am so glad I at least caught some of these pictures. I didn't get near enough...I was busy talking...shocker!

Owen and Justice. I can't tell you how priceless this photo is now and I know will be for years to come.

Mandy picked up a cookie cake to celebrate and someone really liked it. That is, after she spread it over her hands, she finally ate it! Sadie Skielar...you keep me laughing and seeing life from a whole different angle. You have so taught me to relax and I thank God for that gift in your life.

Our kiddos eating lunch together. No one really ate much cuz we were chatting it up so much, well they ate the sweets of course!

Emery had tummy time and the kids all joined in! Soo cute!

She is getting so big! Not really, she is still in the 25% for her weight and 50% for her height. She just feels big in comparison to that tiny baby doll we brought home.

Look how big she looks. I love how Coop and O were down there with her. They said they were trying to get her to crawl. Looks like they are just having a conversation!

Oh my word! Could this be any cuter? Owen woke up from naps first and I was feeding Emery. He LOVES his baby sister...can you tell?

Emery is full of smiles and talks a ton (wonder where she got that from). She is SO super easy, in fact perhaps the easiest we've had. She's not too sure about sleeping through the night, but I think it has more to do with her mama not letting her fuss much. Shoosh.

Again, Sadie helping me to see the fun in life. Why wouldn't I have ever thought of smashing an egg on the floor and playing in it? I love you stinkerpot!

My lil supermodel. Daddy better get a gun now and start fighting off the boys.

Oh mercy! I love this one!!!! This is Sadie. This picture shows her personality SO well. Unless she is giving me a sassy hairy eye ball look.

Working on sitting up!

Doing a little ditty at the zoo. This girl lives with rhythm in her blood. I LOVE it.

Owen took this on movie nite...not bad!

They all wanted to hold her...she was a little freaked out by it, poor thing.

Her face says, "Mom, please save me!" and his face says, "I love her so much and can't quit squeezing her!"

My cup overflows. That's all I can say. Thank you JESUS for each and every one of these blessings and for their families that we can call ours too.

Cooper helping Sadie water...he's such a good big brother.

Lots of smiles!

She likes her exersaucer, but so do the bigs...so she has a hard time playing with her toys in it because they are messing with them. She seems to care less, she just likes having them around.

At the playground before dropping off Sadie and Coop for preschool.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you like the pics!