3.5 Year Pictures

I cannot believe Silas is already 3 1/2 years old.  We have a nightly routine where I read him a book and then he ‘flies’ from my arms to daddy’s arms where they read the Bible, pray, etc..  As he was ‘flying’ to daddy tonight, it hit me how those little baby legs have grown into little boy legs. Everyone who has older children warned me, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly he is growing up!

It has sort of become our tradition that we get professional pictures done around his birthday, but then do our own photo shoot at the half year.  So, yesterday we headed to a local historic site to snap some pictures of our big boy!  It was a bit challenging as he is one VERY active little guy! We may or may not have resorted to some bribery to get this photo shoot done:) I have included a handful of my favorite pictures below, and they are just another reminder that my cup overflows!

 

The primary activity of the day….running!

He is off again!

He finally stopped for a minute to get a picture under this gazebo.

I love that smile!

My favorite picture of the day.  Those eyes say so much!

 

We had to sneak in a picture with Mama!

Testing out the tree stump!

Here is daddy tickling Silas with his goatee(Have I mentioned that he’s been growing his goatee since mid-January?  He isn’t shaving it off until we get our referral so we REALLY need that call to come for more reasons than knowing who our daughter is!).

 

Silas and Mama in sync

He’s probably dreaming about the ice cream we promised him!

I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26

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He is Risen!

We have had such a fun weekend celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord!  After obsessing over being number one on the list for our referral, it was great to have a weekend to truly put things back into perspective.  God revealed to me that anything, ANYTHING that is put before him is an idol and I think I have been guilty of doing that over the past couple of weeks.  I have really been praying that I would daily, intentionally allow Jesus to hold the preeminent place in my life.  Once I do this, everything else just falls into place.  So, we spent the past couple of days celebrating JESUS and the fact that He is Risen! 

We started off dying a few Easter eggs

So proud of himself!

Yesterday, we headed to a local farm that had an Easter celebration event for children.  We started off with a little egg hunt

Doesn’t Silas looked thrilled to have his picture taken?

He’s a little bit happier here with daddy

Silas feeding some of the animals

Some of the sheep got into the Easter Egg Dye;)

The barrel train was a hit once again.  We had to do this ride twice!

Silas did a few slides on his own, and then we did this one together.

 

Silas was mad about something here so daddy decided to have a mad face with him; however, Silas didn’t quite see the humor in it:)

He has always loved to swing, and a horse swing was right up his alley!

Love this one!  Pure joy!

We couldn’t leave without getting in a hug for the Easter Bunny!

He had to milk the cows too.

One last picture to wrap up a wonderful day.  The weather was perfect, and we had wonderful family time!

This morning, Silas awoke to find this on our kitchen table.  I had to chuckle because we don’t really talk about the Easter Bunny a whole lot at our house.  When he saw the basket, he said “ Did the Easter thing bring me that mama?”. 

He was happy!

All smiles!

 

Then it was off to church to celebrate our Risen Lord!  I don’t know what I was thinking, but I didn’t get any pictures of Silas dressed up for church.  Thankfully, Troy snapped one on his phone.  I think he looks way to grown up here!

After church, lunch, and a nap, we headed outside to hunt for eggs.

 

He didn’t care to much about hunting the eggs.  He just wanted to eat them.  They were real, hard-boiled eggs which he loves!

Success!

During the course of the weekend, we also added another ornament to our Lent Tree.  The Lent Tree was a new tradition we started this year.  I learned about it at my friend Andrea Young’s blog.  I have loved doing this with our family, and you can learn more about it here.

So, we had a whirlwind of a weekend, but I always love opportunities to celebrate what Jesus did for us!  He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

6 He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.  Matthew 28:6

March Memories and ‘Adoption’ Madness:)

Last weekend, we took a dual purpose trip to see my family and to attend another performance by the His Little Feet orphaned children’s choir.  We did a lot of visiting, ate way too much, watched some great March Madness basketball, and loved on some beautiful children from Ethiopia and Honduras!  Below are a few pictures from the trip:

Silas with his cousins, Kennedy and Ross.  Silas is finally old enough to play and interact with them more which was fun to watch.  They live on a farm which Silas loves!  He’s always asking to ride Uncle Paul’s tractor, and he got to go on a four wheeler ride which he wasn’t sure about initially but ended up loving it!

On Saturday, Kennedy had a small choir performance that we attended at one of the local elementary schools.  This map of the United States was in the parking lot, and Silas wanted to stand on the state where he lives.

Silas with his Aunt Amy(my sister) and cousins.  My sister spoils him rotten, and he enjoys every minute of it.  The first thing he says when she calls is “Are you going to make me some cookies?” to which she answers “ I think I can do that”.   Some time later that week we usually get a package in the mail……complete with cookies for Silas:)

Silas enjoyed celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year.  He got a kick out of the fact that you get ‘pinched’ if you don’t wear green, and he loved the Shamrock Shakes his Mammaw made for everyone.

We celebrated Silas’ Great Pappaw Harold’s birthday.

This picture cracks me up.  This is Silas’ Great Mammaw(she’s almost 85 years old), and this picture speaks a lot about her personality.  Here she is trying to get a rise out of her great granddaughter by taking her shoes and doing silly things with them.  My cousins and I didn’t think a thing about it because she has been doing these kind of things every since I was little:)

Silas with his Great Mammaw and Mammaw.  He gets a surplus of love from his extended family!

 

This picture warms my heart.  Our last night, we got to attend the His Little Feet performance, and it was definitely a highlight of our trip.  We weren’t for sure we would be able to attend so we ended up surprising them.  The two boys(Eyob and Yohannes, both from Ethiopia), and their sponsor, Kourtney, are the ones we hosted when they sang in our area last November.  It was so good to see them again and give them lots of hugs!  All the children in the choir have grown, and each child is absolutely precious!  I strongly encourage you to attend their performance if they ever travel to an area near where you live.  I assure you that you will be blessed!

Finally, I just HAVE to share some very exciting news!  This past Friday, the family that is just ahead of us on the waiting list for our daughter received their referral. SO…….what does that mean for us?   Yes it is true…we are FINALLY unofficially :

 

#1! #1! #1! #1!  The above picture accurately depicts how I feel on the inside!!  We are SOOO close to seeing the sweet face of our precious daughter for whom we have been praying for two long years!  Troy has been instructed to keep his cell phone with him at all times as he will get the call first.  So, there you have it…we do have some March Madness but not related to basketball!  Can’t wait to blog about THE CALL! Thanks for your continued prayers!

Two Years and Counting

 

Today marks two years since we officially started the process for our 2nd adoption.  It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around that.  We certainly didn’t anticipate that we would still be waiting to bring our daughter home, let alone still waiting for our referral.  God has done a lot of amazing things during this wait(that is a blog post in itself one day),and as hard as it has been at times, I would not change a thing.  My God is never a day late, and I will continue to trust that we will bring our daughter home at the exact right time according to HIS plan. We will continue to lean on Him as we move closer to that wonderful day. Thank you for praying for us, and please continue as God places our family on your mind.  We have certainly learned that He is faithful to those that call upon HIS name.

Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.  Isaiah 40:31

Spring Family Fun

This past weekend, our local children’s museum celebrated their 25th anniversary, complete with a birthday party.  The price of admission was what is was when they first opened in 1987…$2!  We thought we could swing that price, and we decided to make a family day out of it!  Of course, Silas was primarily concerned with the fact that they were going to have birthday cake:)  Troy and I have gotten a little lax with taking pictures on our cameras, but Troy managed to capture a few on his phone. 

Digging in the rocks

 

Silas got to read a story to the dog:)

The weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch.

Checking out the Tinkertoy exhibit.  Silas actually plays with a set of Tinkertoys that were Troy’s when he was a child so this exhibit was right up his alley!

Silas calls the concrete squares in the picture ‘lily pads’, and he has to play on them every time we go to the museum.

He gets a little braver each time, and he now has to jump across the water!

A couple of weeks ago, one of Silas’ toys that he got from my mom for Christmas broke.  We returned it, but they didn’t have anymore.  So, after the museum and a nap, he got to pick out something else and this is what he chose.  He loves his new tent, and we have been doing a lot of indoor camping lately!

Finally, I wanted to share that we have added some great new Ethiopian products to the Olive Tree Promise website.  There a couple of cute things for children that could be great for Easter baskets.  You can check out the Ethiopia products here, and remember every purchase helps adoptive families bring their children home!

A Quick Silas Fix

OK, I know we don't give you enough pictures of him so thought I'd throw one out real quick - here's a picture of Silas before church this past Sunday -

He is growing up WAY TOO FAST!