Our Life in Pictures...

Playing dress up with Mommy's jacket.

Tea party with Daddy

Kieran and cousin Haley havin' a blast.

Our Thanksgiving gathering of family and friends.  

Reading is... Hilarious!

Proof that she's got a helmet.  She loves it too!
(I'm referring to the previous post if you don't know
 what I'm talking about.)

Kieran was "reading" a book to his sister.  It was such a cute photo opp. so we rushed to get the camera.  Then they started cracking up over something that only the two of them thought was funny.  I don't even recall what it was.  (This happens quite often- me not remembering, and also the two of them laughing at private jokes.)  These two love hanging out together.  It's so adorable to watch them interact.  

  

Then Kieran grabbed the camera and insisted on taking a photo of us.
After a long day of parenting those two live wires, we are worn out!

I'm Trying to Remember...

They call it Mommy Brain, or something like that.  It's this phenomenon where a mother can't remember things.  Possibly a result of sleep deprivation??  I have kiddo one that doesn't always sleep through the night, another who wakes up early and makes sure I wake up too.  (This morning it was 5:15 a.m.  Hello!)  So, to fight the Mommy Brain Syndrome and remember what we've been doing every day, I take pictures.  Well, this time, Mike took quite a few of them since I was on the other side of the lens posing with the kids.  Yep, he's here with us making cookies and cheering as the kids learn to ride bikes and trikes.  We've also had fun with aunties and cousin Haley dropping in for visits.  

Kieran, Aunt Katie, & Marisa.  They just finished reading a book together.

Kieran took the photograph: Cousin Haley smiles big for her favorite cousin.
Marisa is wishing she was the one in possession of the camera.  Maybe next time...

Now Daddy is the photographer: Kieran & Marisa helped Mommy make
chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.  They were fabulous little helpers!

Table for four (including Daddy)...we'll have cookies with extra milk, please!!

Aunt Kendra visits and reads a favorite book.  We did some finger painting
during her visit too.  See my Mom Thoughts blog for pictures & details.

Brother has a bike, so our little lady needed some
wheels too!  Do not worry, she now has a helmet also
but I'm too lazy to upload the pictures to prove it.

Goodbye!!  See you next time!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Four Years Old! (Part 3)

Before kids, I thought of birthdays as a special time to celebrate a person and look to the future and what they will become.  Since Kieran joined our family, his birthday has been a time to look back and ponder what was even as we celebrate who he is and will become.  In the two and a half years that we have known him, he has grown so much!  As he grows, some things about him have not changed.  He's still exuberant, a social boy who loves people and likes to include everyone; he's almost always energetic and enthusiastic.  He is curious, learns quickly, remembers just about everything, and makes us laugh often. We love him deeply.  What an amazing miracle God has grafted into our family tree!

Here are some pictures of Kieran's birthdays including the three that we have been honored to celebrate with him:

 October 2007: Kieran is born.  We had started the process to
adopt from China, but were contemplating concurrent adoption.
  In November we found out that our adoption agency was opening a
program in Rwanda. In my heart I knew that's where our son was.
We began the paperwork to adopt him in May 2008.

2008: Kieran's first birthday.  We had just sent our dossier to Rwanda
and were painting & updating his dresser as we waited for a referral.
We had no idea who our child would be, but as he turned one
we were preparing a place for him and aching to hold him.

2009: Home with us for almost five months, he turned 2 and had stolen our hearts.
Below:Picture on left shows Kieran at age 2.  On the right, age 4...wow he's grown!

2010: Then he turned three!  He went from barely talking to non-stop talking.

On his third birthday, we went to the pumpkin patch as a family of 3,
but we had a referral for his baby sister from China.  He'd soon be
meeting his sister for the first time!

2011: Now he's four and we are a family of four!  Our joy has multiplied.
Big brother and little sis are enjoying some birthday cake and ice cream.

Our wonderful boy!  We'd go to the ends of the earth for him again if we had to.