more of our fun night...

We started our night by cooling down with some ice cream...what a treat!

Brent and Keri saved all their big baby stuff boxes for us to use to do some serious sliding.

Because the sun was setting behind the hill all I could get was their silouhettes from the top of the hill....cool.

Yes, even I did it!

Off to meet the Babies

My first morning with precious Ava. She gives sugars and cuddles the whole time you hold her. I could hardly put her down the whole week.

We took all the kids to the beach for the first time. They loved it! Malachi played in the baby pool Kelly brought the whole time. He was happy as a lark dumping and pouring the sand. He let Sean take him out into the ocean too and he smiled the whole time.

Grace wanted to show Caleb and Noah her tricks. Way to go Gracie!

Thatcher sure does love being a big brother. He helped entertain the little guys while they were in the pool. My camera broke after taking it to the beach so these are all the pics I got. There were a million photo ops that I had to pass up. I had such a sweet time loving on the kiddos and getting sweet sister time in too. What a treat!

ROCKPORT

SPRING

These pictures just remind me of spring. Sweet Annie found one of the big boys hats and thought that she was sooo cute. I did too!

Our winter hodge podge

Valentine's Day was a treat this year for a number of reasons :
daddy was home to celebrate with us and both sets of g-parents planned special events with the boys and their cousins. We made the kids a special breakfast and loved on them all day. My parents had a party with all the boys and their boy cousins the night before so Matt and I went on a double date with the Cupps. It was so fun for the kids and the parents! Thanks Grammy and Padge! Saturday night they went on their first cousin crew outing to the TCU basketball game. They had fun and it gave us time to have a quiet dinner. Thanks G-Mommy and G-Daddy! We love you all!

Since the party was boys only, sweet Annie joined the adults for a night on the town. We "dolled" her up and took her to dinner with us.

I don't remember when this was, but the kids loved playing in the snow/ice wintry mix.

Here is silly Annie posing for the camera. For some reason she really wanted to lay down. I thought that the lighting was pretty and this is one of my favorite hand-me-downs.

This was a lovely attempt to get some pictures in the gorgeous daffodils. Annie wouldn't smile for anything and of course the sun was in the boys eyes. Oh well, we tried.

Ukraine Mission Trip

Matt, along with a team from church went on a week long mission trip to Ukraine. They were there to work along side several of the pastors supported by SGA. The pastors ministered tirelessly to people in the villages. Matt was encouraged and convicted by their passion for the gospel. The weather was very cold, some days it was -10 degrees. They ministered to several villages in the Chernobyl zone as well. Most of those villages were abandoned, but not all of them. They also spent a great deal of time in orphanages doing skits, playing basketball and sharing the love of Christ. The team was able to hand out Christmas gifts sponsored by our church. It was special to hand deliver gifts to the children that members of CBC have been praying for throughout the Christmas season.

This was the seminary where the team stayed. The accomodations were wonderful. They had warm beds, hot showers, good food and indoor plumbing. Yay!

These are some of the children recieving their stars and gifts from Calvary.

Here is the team with the children from one of the orphanages. They had a lot of fun with our wild and playful guys!

Here is Damon and Jeff showing one of their breakfasts that was a little harder to stomach. The white logs that look like fingers were sausage and the noodles I guess were pasta.

The team heading to the Chernobyl Zone. It was a cold cold day!

New Years Eve

We celebrated Christmas with the Schefflers on New Years Eve. We had a wonderful time opening presents, building projects and playing Guitar Hero. The kids had a blast and Grandmommy and Granddaddy gave special gifts as always.

Here is Annie immediately playing with her precious new kitchen from G-Mommy and G-Daddy

She played with it all night. It was so sweet. She new just what to do.

Here are all the cousins (except Annie) with their gifts from their grandparents. They got "cousin crew" t-shirts to all wear to the outings that G-Mommy and G-Daddy will be taking them on throughout the year. It is such a thoughtful gift! I love that it didn't have a million peices. haha... The daddys worked on the basketball goal down in the shop and it came together quickly and w/o any problems..lol! Way to go guys!

They are numbered in order from oldest to youngest....too cute!

To ring in the new year, we headed down to Ben and Laurie's to see what this Guitar Hero thing is all about. They have the whole band set and it was a blast! Madelyne is awesome at it! She plays the guitar on the hardest level! You rock Mady! Matt and I, not so much, but it was fun none the less.