My baby girl is 4!!

Pizza of course- true American

Some creepy uninivited guest showed up

Open those presents girl- just for you!
(and a few for Noah) :)

Happy Birthday to Laurel!! I can't believe she's 4 years old. She has now actually been here with us longer than she was in the orphanage. Is that not cool??!! This is the first birthday that she actually gets what is going on. She understood it was a party for her and she even picked the food we were going to have-Pizza. I showed her several pictures of what kind of cake she wanted me to make and she picked the Rainbow Cake. She had a blast with her Grandparents & Aunts & Uncles. Thank ya'll for making her day so special.

Mountain Air-Good for the Soul

Uncle John & Aunt Rach (Baby Duncan-not yet pictured) :)

Panning for Gems- We actually found some!

Saw a bunch of Turkey's~

Climbed a few Mts..... Er, Rocks

Picked up a scary hitchiker! ;)

Explored a Cave-please excuse Laurel's paci but it was the only

way to keep her from screaming in Total Cave Darkness!

We made a trip up to the Mts. this weekend. Kind of a last ditch getaway before the busyness of the Holidays begin. Despite Laurel having a double ear infection (we only knew about 1 ear before we went), Noah on meds to prevent Pneumonia and having Asthma flair ups, Mike getting their cold & feeling crummy, Pregnancy (NOT me but Rachael), we managed to have a very nice time. The food was good, the mountains were beautiful, the company was delightful and a good time was had by all!

Updated Pictures

Mike took this of the geese flying over the pond!

Trying to Catch Minnows

Well we're a dinosaur of course!

I have no idea what happened with the last posts pictures so here are finally some updated pictures of the last few days. Enjoy!

MIA

Big Brother reading to Little Sis

I do feel like I've been MIA a little this week. Sorry for the lack of updates but things were a bit busy this past week. I don't even have any new pictures to show due to the fact my camera is at home and I am not. Aunt Ruthie has been in the hospital (5 days) and I have stayed with her a few days and will return home tonight (Sunday). She's doing fine now at home and after 1 hr. home didn't even remember the whole hospital ordeal.!

Where did this cold weather come from? I admit that I am looking forward to fall, the fair and all the wonderful stuff that goes along with it but Brrrr... I've got to find my winter clothes. Noah asked me one night if we could have a fireplace and seeing there is no fireplace in my house, I set out to find a way to make that dream a reality. So, my parents gave me an awesome old mantel that I painted a little (not to much as I wanted it to look distressed) and I bought a wall mountable electric fireplace. Sound strange?? I hope not. Hopefully I'll show pictures next time of a new cozy fireplace nook to read in. Work in progress.

BE RARE....

I had the privilege to meet together with some wonderful friends who have all walked the adoption journey and all have a special needs kids who were featured on Reeces Rainbow. We get together at least once a year to share stories, laughs, woes, and our hearts. It was so nice to sit together and be an encouragement to each other. While the adoption journey has not been easy for all of us, it was part of God's plan for each of us, and what a wonderful plan it is. A big thank you to these godly ladies and thank you to Kristin who gave us our mantra which was taken from a Proverbs 31 devotion...... BE RARE!! I love this saying. A Proverbs 31 woman is rare to find and one to be treasured . It is what I aspire to be..... RARE!

Sometimes you just need to take your clothes off and dance in the rain..... then slide in the mud.... then get a REALLY long bath! It rained a lot last week and we made the most of it.

That time of year again...... Hunting

You have to get up early to get the birds!!

He's better than a retriever!~

Fall is here! Can you feel it??? I definately do. Football season is back (Mike is thrilled) and also Hunting season is back! Noah wanted to go with Mike dove hunting this year so they got up early and went. Don't worry, Noah is NOT carrying a real gun. He has a pretend shotgun that makes real shotgun noises so he's happy. They ended up shooting 7 birds. He helped Mike clean the birds and prepare them to eat. The rule at our house is that if you are going to shoot it you have to eat it, no waste here. So, we ate them and the kids loved them!!

Tonight we took the kids to the airport to watch the planes land and take off. I thought Noah would be the most interested but Laurel absolutely LOVED it. We may have a future pilot on our hands. As we were leaving, Noah told us he wanted to "be the one who sat in the big tower and told people to get out of the way because planes were landing." I can see the markings of a great Air Traffic Controller! :)