Kiddie post & plea

 So if anyone is reading at all you've caught on that I have been horrible at posting about these sweet lil lovies these past few months.  So I wanted to give some updates on them!!!  They are the whole reason I started blogging in the first place :/   Here is Sadie this summer being her crazy self...she is SO strong and can do the monkey bars all by herself.  She has some serious upper body muscles.  She is FAST and can nearly out run me.  She is constantly smiling and giggling and mothering.  She loves everything and will make it her baby to love on and take care of.  She talks to babies, grown adults, dogs, bugs, balls, dolls, etc like they are her very best friend.  Its super sweet most times, but awfully scary when she grabs adult men by the hands to play with her.  Perhaps we need to cover stranger danger again! 

 Owen is an incredible young man.  He is a wonderful leader at school and a huge help to his teacher.  He is very active and loves playing basketball, riding scooters, playing football, soccer, golf and tennis.  He is sure having fun with a backyard, we missed that when living in an apartment last year.  He loves to read and often stays up with a flashlight reading past his bedtime.  He too is a fast runner, but it's not his favorite thing to do.  He is a great listener, master negotiator, & is sensitive to others needs.  Tonight as I walked in to scratch the boys backs Owen started singing a song we had sung in church...but he never sings during praise so I didn't know he was listening...he sung it perfectly pausing just as the song is written, "My heart will si-ing...no other na-ame...Jesus...Jesus" over and over.  Oh love, there couldn't be a sweeter sound for a mama to hear, and even more so for our Father to hear!  This year he turned 7!  I don't know how we have a 7 year old!

 Emery, who we usually call Emme, is at such a fun age...most of the time.  She is particularly frustrated when everyone else has someone to pick on and she does not :(  So we are working on talking about our frustrations rather than hitting them out.  Whoops.  Her favorite things to say right now are: I gonna tewl mommy!, I no wan to, I tootie, No Sadie pfthtttt (we have a minor spitting problem), Aw we goin?, Aw da guys? and I do it!!!!!  She still loves to cuddle, is left handed and is our best sleeper!  She is TALL and skinny.  Most people mistake her for being 3 and older, and she just turned 2.5 this month!  She talks really well, still loves to sing and knows a lot of songs and she loves to pray, even for large groups of people.  Be still my heart!

 Cooper!  Coop turned 6 in November and got a bouncy house of all things.  Have you ever checked out purchasing one of those boogers instead of buying one?  No?  You should.  Google it!  We just had a few grands chip in and vwa-la, we got to keep the dang thing UNTIL IT POPS!!!  It has been endless fun and can hold up to 500 lbs so that means that occasionally we have a mom that hops in and plays monster tickler.  Fun times.  It's even more fun when you have no furniture and can inflate it in room and just leave it out during the winter.  Cooper is another blessing of a kid.  He is bursting with passion, compassion, ambition, skills (he has wonderful penmanship as well as one heck of an arm) and love.  He often comes home from school and has drawn pictures of the crucifixion and resurrection during his brain break at school.  Just like with everyone of our kids, I cannot wait to see how this guy follows God through life. 

 One thing I have hesitated to share about our Sadie is that we have "lost" her birth mom.  I haven't wanted to share it for several reasons.  First, so many people don't get open adoption and quite frankly don't need another reason to not understand it.  Second, so many people don't try and understand birth parents, and I don't want people to judge these precious precious family members.  They are our family, so please understand how intimate and personal we hold them in our hearts.  But it's been nearly 2 years since we've seen Gerlisha, and we miss her terribly.  Sadie prays for her daily.  She cries for her.  She draws pictures of her.  She is only 4, so I am not sure what memories she has or if its just because we talk about her so much and tell her stories and look at pictures.  Whatever it is, it's real and it's painful.  I know adoption is layered and bittersweet, and we have been educated and counseled on how to walk through this with our loves.  I don't know where I would be without our adoption agency and their support.  But they don't know where she is either.  So this is me asking for prayer and only prayer.  Please do not judge our choices or Gerlisha's.  My hope is that she might follow the blog and see how desperately we need her, and that's why I am finally sharing this.  I am so thankful that I ALWAYS take pictures when we see our first families because we never want to take a day for granted. 

 Emery right before turning 2

 Cooper found a worm...he is such a boy loving dirt and bugs and all things boy!

 Priceless picture of me telling Owen thank you for smiling for the pictures...he HATES taking pictures so we bribed the kids with QT if they smiled!

 The girls had pajama day at school and watched Polar Express

 Owen's holiday party at school!  We had so much fun at his party and stole the idea to MOB the Neighborhood with love and give the holiday away.  It was cheap and helped the kids focus on OTHERS during the holiday instead of giving them a bunch of silly dinky knick-knacks.

 This was the girls party at school, even though we don't do Santa they got a kick out of seeing our pastor dress up and read a story. 

 Cooper's class party.  Isn't he such a handsome stud with that too cool smile? 

 I think since we never talk about Santa she was fascinated with him.  Ha!

Emery was just excited to get herself some candy!  This girl LOVES sweets! 

Sweet Sadie....

Our big princess turned 4 today!  We had such a wonderful time celebrating her sweet sassy self.  She has taught me so much about s.l.o.w.i.n.g down.  She has reminded me that girls feel things deeply, that laughing truly is medicine, that hugs heal, that giggles do too.  Her smile can light up an entire room and so can her silly booty dance.  She is starting pre-school at church and loves going to "school".  She goes 3 days a week and boy do I miss her when she is there.  Her favorite color is pink, favorite drink is "melonaid" or lemonaid ;)  She still screams at the top of her lungs if her brothers push her buttons, and she's still got her daddy wrapped around her finger.  She loves music, singing, dancing, Princess Tiana, painting nails, play dough, coloring, cooking, brownies, cookies, oatmeal, hot dogs, Emery Faith, swinging, and baby dolls. 

Her daddy caught this cute shot of her as we were all singing!  ADORABLE!

Here she is holding up "I'm 4"!!!  She is also a new swimmer!  This girl can swim without a life vest!  Wahoo Sadie girl.  We love you to the moon and I pray that I can be the best mama possible for you.  I thank Mama G for giving you life and choosing us to be your forever family.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of G and praise God for her life.  Lord, use us, even as broken as we are, to show Sadie your love.  If she learns nothing else from us, may she know how loved and treasured she is by you!!!

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!

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Owen

Holy moly. Five years has somehow seemed to be so slow and at the same time fly by.

How does that happen?

It was five years ago that I was just becoming a mommy and watching my best friend become a dad.

Five years ago today I watched a woman I loved so dearly give birth to this child and ever so selflessly place him in my arms as she watched me become his mother too. I will never forget those precious days we spent with her in the hospital. Mandy, I will spend the rest of my life trying to thank you. Thank you not only for choosing life, but for choosing and trusting Blake and I, and even more...for choosing to continue to be a part of our lives. What would we do without you?

I will never forget that we both promised we'd never have to have a reunion, that we'd always know where the other was and we'd always somehow keep in touch. It's incredible to think that in the last 5 years we are right where we wanted to be...if not closer.

She was the first birthday phone call we got this morning. How cool is that?

I know that someday soon birthdays might start to sting for this little guy as he understands that this is the day he was given life and given a family, but it came at the cost of losing his first mama. Lord prepare me now to walk through that with our children, and may I always teach them through my life that you can and will carry them through anything.

Today we had an incredible 5th birthday! Sadie and Cooper went to school so that left me with Owen and Emery! It was such a blast letting Owen pick whatever he wanted to do and not having to agree with anyone about it!

Owen and I had so much fun together! I really do love getting to spend such great quality time with him...it's such a treasure to just get to talk and give him my undivided attention. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade our family dynamics for anything. WE LOVE HAVING OUR KIDS CLOSE! But I think because of that, it makes days like today all that more special.

After only 5 hours without his two buddies he told me that he did miss them and was ready to pick them up from school. How sweet is that?

We were trying to get a pic of just Owen, Blake and I but Cooper wanted in on the fun. This didn't make O too happy!

His choice for birthday breakfast is pancakes. And not the homemade kind...he likes the frozen ones peeps. That should tell you how good of a cook I am!

And his choice of what to do for the day...the library!!! I was dying! Happy birthday sweetheart. We could not be more proud of you. Not sure how in the world they expect me to drop you off for pre-K in the morning. *sniff sniff*