Catching up...

You may (or may not) have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. We've been a wee bit busy- aren't we all this time of year?! Of course, we have been squeezing in as much as possible- creating extra memories with our littles, knowing that we will be leaving them soon to get Baby Sister.

Funnily enough, I just got an "anonymous" comment on our adoption blog today about "wishing time away" causing me to miss time with the kids I have at home already. I assure you, not a moment is being wasted.  I may be one of the least likely people on the planet to take time with my kids for granted, to be honest.

Since I've been soaking up my babies every chance I get, I haven't really had time to just sit at my computer and share.

It's after 11pm, which means I have some "quiet time" to show to you where my attention has been- as obviously, my attention has not been on this blog ;)

Precious Moments.

Brynn and Cale were in the car talking on their plastic cell phones to one another.

I heard Cale say on his phone:
"Yeah... my job is to protect people like my Daddy, but I have to go. There's an emergency- a wreck on the interstate. I'm going to save them! And then I have to go to White House to see my brother, he's a fireman. And then I need to hurry up and get home to pick up my kids from school. I'll talk you later though because I need to talk to my sisters sometimes."


Aaahhh.
1) He's using his imagination.
2) His vocabulary is age-appropriate (if not a little ahead!).
3) His heart is precious.
4) I can absolutely imagine this conversation happening for real in about 20 years.

Sweet sweet sweet.

*Side note, I totally took that picture by holding the phone up and checking the reflection of the screen in my rearview mirror, ha.

little things.

Christmas Dinner for the 118th Security Forces.

It was a fun night!  We got to catch up with the Eaves' (unfortunately, none of us had time for a repeat dinner at RosePeppers).  The also handed out some awards and promotions while all the families were there. It's always kind of cool to see all the pomp and circumstance. They had babysitters, toys, pizza, etc in a separate room for the kids- which our's loved.

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Friday was an emotional day for our family. After wallowing in our sorrows for quite some time, we headed out to run a quick errand. That turned into randomly stopping at a gas station for $.89 hot chocolate- with Christmas sprinkles- in our pajamas (and ballistic goggles, apparently) at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Best $3 I've spent.

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Layla has been stretching and working on her flexibility pretty much every day so she can get her side split. One of the things she does, is lay on her back with her bottom against the wall and her legs out as far as she can get them. She was practicing that the other day, when Little Sister decided she was gonna give it a whirl.

Um... not bad. She also jumped up and did a drop split like she's a dang Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. Impressive.

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The Christmas before we got married, we got a TON of perfectly matching, high-quality, fancy-shmancy Pottery Barn ornaments for our tree (after-Christmas sale). I'm really loving that we've reached the point in our lives where 75% of our ornaments are made from cardboard toilet paper rolls and pipe cleaners.  It may not be the prettiest tree on the block on the classic sense, but I love that it represents our family.

We did much better this year trying to add ornaments that represented big experiences for our family. We added one from the Alamo (that I can't seem to find right now...), a beautifully hand-painted one from New York, a (quite hard to find in June) tree from Jamaica, and the one that arrived yesterday....

Our Reece's Rainbow ornament. We didn't buy it, we got it as a "gift" for donating to sweet Alissa with their Angel Tree Program. And guess what?! The day after we donated to her, she got a family!! (Which has nothing to do with the fact that we donated, it's just exciting!)

 I'm super glad that we have an RR ornament - considering they've been a pretty significant part of our year! ;)

*If you'd like to donate to an orphan thru Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree program, click here. There are some little loves that have absolutely stolen my heart!!