Discouraged

This parenting stuff is tough.  Ongoing.  Endless. 
Been re-reading this post.  And trusting that God will give us wisdom. 

Is was a cool morning....it was a happy morning!

After Destany's party yesterday, we invited Arjay and Dedrick to stay the night.  Thankfully, naptime was next on the agenda, and all but two kiddos slept, so even Mama was able to catch some Zs!  That was a great start to our time together. :)

After naps, first on the list was a snack and a nice long walk at dusk, followed by dinner, showers, and stories and prayers before bed.  Everyone was *wiped out*, and soon it was quiet.  Peaceful and quiet.  Blissful. 

And then....bright and early the pitter patter of feet, a 20-month-old who had forgotten where he was, kids excited to go outside and play.  And with the weather a cool 75 degrees, we lived it up!

Sorry - no pictures of the sleepy Mama. ;)  And Daddy was long gone, miles away, biking.  But, amazing Daddy that he is, he was soon home and took over so I could take a little break.  I can hear them wrestling out there right now.  Love it!

Hey!

Half-way through the morning, the kids looked at each other and suddenly exclaimed, "Hey!  We're all matching!"

Funny Friday

Hmmmmm....  Now *that* is some creative new marketing!  Fresh prunes, anyone???

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!"