This just in! Winners!

The kids were being goofy this morning, and thought it was so exciting to draw the names.  It was hard to keep them still enough to snap a picture!  They were dancing around the room, announcing their winner. :)

Kelli and April!  Please email me at andykiara@cox.net and give me your address.  We will mail your book out right away!

Vacation in Big Bear

   

After years of hearing about my side of the family's beach and Flagstaff vacations, our CA side of the family decided to follow suit.  In celebration of Mom's 60th birthday, we all headed out to Big Bear over Labor Day weekend.  I can safely say it was as fun and chaotic as the AZ family vacations. :) 

Gabriel and Amy joined us all the way from Valdepenas, Spain. 
Phil, Amy, & Gabriel made their special seafood paella. 
*Delicious!*

Destany celebrated her 6th birthday.

Card games and good drinks filled the evenings after all the kiddos went to bed. 

Oh, and we can't forget the many games of pool in the game room, and a couple rock climbing movies.

Thanks to Aunt Sue, we came prepared to do a really cool

t-shirt tye dye craft.

Gabriel is the tye-dye t-shirt pro.  His was awesome!

(About 10 minutes before we all traveled home, Dad announced that Gabriel had just asked his permission to marry Amy.  Hooray!)

And of course we went to the beach. 

The boys caught little crawdads in the lake.

Andy and Uncle Matt biked out to meet us.  It was a long ride, but they're tough. :)

First giveaway!

I've always loved blog giveaways, but never had a good excuse to do one.  Now, as we go through our (too many) belongings with the goal of keeping only those things we need or love, we are finding we have duplicates of some items that we no longer need.  We have TWO copies of this book to give away!

This book was a great encouragement to me when we first adopted!  We didn't know anyone else who was pursuing the adoption journey the way we were -- with the goal of growing a mutually beneficial relationship with our daughter's first family.  This book  really encouraged us and 'normalized' our adoption journey -- for us AND for our daughter's birth mom -- so I purchased a few extra copies and loaned them out to family and friends who were interested in understanding our adoption journey better.  Now that we no longer need the extra copies, I'd love for them to go to new homes, to encourage and help other waiting or adoptive families, or for a birth family considering or participating in an open adoption. 

If you'd like to read more about the book, check out reviews here.

You can enter the giveaway two different ways.  One entry for each of the below:  (please leave separate comments for each of these)
1. Leave me a comment.  (If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear where you are in your adoption journey and why you are interested in the book. :) 
2. Become a follower of our blog (or let me know you are already a follower).  

We'll draw for two winners on Friday at lunchtime.  The kids can't wait to help draw the names! :)

Funny Friday

When Mama steps away...

"Who, me?  *I* didn't push any buttons.  Come on.....I'm only 4 months old!"

August Kids' Quotes

Keandre --
Mommy: "Keandre, what are hands for?"
Keandre: "For loving and helping....and eating...without hitting!"
Mommy: "Ummm, yes! You are correct." :)

Destany --
"Keandre, the chicken avocado isn't done yet.  Would you like a side-kick?  I'll get you a menu of the sidekicks."

"Chez and Leslie go to Satan Joe Church."  (They attend a Catholic church...and that is not its name! ;)

For family that likes to keep up on recent quotes, check here for July.  I just finally posted these, and Keandre had some pretty good ones!

adoption playgroups

As you can see, adopted children are photogenic, cooperative,
and exceptionally happy! ;) 

(Thank you, Annie.  That is the perfect caption! LOL)

Adoption playgroups are such a blessing.  Today we met up at a local Chick-Fil-A.  Six families, 16 children (3 are missing from this picture), and lots of fun and chaos!  We sat outside the entrance of the play room so no one could escape the restaurant without our notice.  The noise level in there was over the top!  Amazingly, the manager invited us to come back again soon.  Probably only because we were so successful at keeping noise contained in that little room. ;)

first swim

We were at an adoption playgroup this morning (16 kiddos, one little Chick-fil-A playground, and lots of fun and chaos!), and afterward we went to a friend's mom & dad's house to hang out.  That led to an impromptu swim in a salt water pool (my favorite!).  It was pretty hot out, so I decided to let Brooklyn enjoy the water.  She was missing a naptime, so she was quieter than usual, but she kicked her feet a bit and was very relaxed.  In a pinch, cloth diapers make a great swimsuit!

Mighty Mud Mania

It's not my fault.  I give Andy full credit.  He's the one who took them to the real Mud Mania last month.  I bet these kids have been waiting for a day like today -- a day I naively said, "Sure, you can play in the hose. Just stay in the shade."  Ha!  I went out a little later, and Lucas, Destany, and their cousin Devin exclaimed, "We made our own mighty mud mania!"  Highlight of my day....stripping them down and hosing them off.  No baths needed today! ;)

Innocent little boy, out picking flowers, when suddenly he is attacked by mud monsters!