Friday night with the Legends

Friday night we enjoyed the beautiful weather out at Applebee's Park. The boys weren't too interested in the game, but they loved the kid's area. Granny, Grandad, Amy, Caleb, and Anna were all there too. My favorite part of the night was singing and dancing with the kids when the music played between breaks.

Matthew and Austin playing in the bouncer

The boys did well hitting the ball off the tee... although there were several strikes!

Sweet Cousins

Momma's Girl

At the end of the game there was a great firework display. When they first started Maggie looked around trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. When she saw the fireworks for the first time she got so excited. She reached her hands towards the sky and moved her fingers trying to saying, "More, More, More." It was a great end to the night.

All three kids were asleep before we left the parking lot. They were worn out! We didn't get home until 11:30. Luckily, they slept in until 8:00!!!! We were very pleased!

Watering my Bloomers

After school Friday we spent some time outside enjoying the beautiful weather. I turned the hose on to water my flowers, and Austin asked if he could put his hand in the water. I said sure, and before long they were in their undies. They laughed and screamed and ran all over the yard. It was so fun. I can't wait for hot summer days, sprinklers, and lemonade!

Party Time!

Matthew and Austin Airborne!

As tired as we were last night, I can surely say that our son had a fantastic birthday. From start to finish, he loved every moment of yesterday. We started the day with pancakes at Cracker Barrel and ended with a second wind of slide time and pizza. We wanted him to have a special day. We talked about it and talked about it, so when the day finally arrived he was totally pumped!

We rented a slide with an obstacle course from Air-time Inflatables. They were wonderful! Originally we were scheduled from 3-7, but they asked us to set up early because they were already going to be in Nicholasville. So we ended up with the slide from 11:30-7:15! We got a deal! With the chance of rain, we moved the party to 12:00. It poured one mile from us, but there was never a drop of rain where we were. Thank you God! We prayed and prayed over the weather. God is good!

We had the party at mom and dad's because of the back yard. It was the perfect spot! There was plenty of room for the kids to run around. Mom and dad worked so hard to get everything set up and ready for the party.

In the end there were 50 party guests. 21 of those were kids. Austin loved having his family, friends, and school friends. He is so excited about all of his new toys! Thank you , thank you to all of you who celebrated with us! Austin and Matthew LOVE all their new toys!

Austin and Matthew going in for the first time

Emily, Anna, and Austin climbing the wall to the slide

Austin and Emily waited for each other almost every time

Matthew getting ready

Allison liked to sit at the top

Ellie cooling down

Caleb loving on cousin Maggie

Thomas and Matthew

Austin and Emily were inseparable. They held hands most of the day.

Jason's mom made delicious spiderman cupcakes

Ellie hitting the dinosaur piñata

Matthew hitting the jelly fish piñata

Caleb giving one last breaking blow

After most of the party guest left, Sara and I had a little fun of our own!

My girlfriends Emily and Sara

Cool kids cruzin around in the trailer

The after party crew! It's 7:00 here and they are about to drop!

We are Blessed

We are often told that we are doing a wonderful thing for Matthew. It is nice to know people are supportive, but we want you to know that it wasn't our doing. We were being prepared for this long ago. It felt right. We had a heart for them long before any of this happened. Many of you may not know this and others may not believe it or not understand it. Without going in to detail, Jason and I prayed for Matthew and Katie long before anything happened. My bible study girls even knew about them. We knew he was going to be in our home long before he entered the door. We just never knew how it was going to happen. When the time came, we didn't hesitate. Although it may have seemed like a quick decision to someone else, God had been working on us long before. We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know how we could handle three. We didn't even know Matthew very well at all. Now, he feels more and more like ours. Matthew has blessed us as much as we are blessing him. If we have him four more months or fourteen years, we are blessed.

I feel blessed...

• that my husband drove home from out of town tonight
• to owe less than $400 on a car that needed all four rotors replaced
• that there are 11 days of school left
• to have a mom so willing to help out whenever needed
• that the boys had a ball playing in the batting cage at the WCHS baseball game tonight
• that as we get closer to Austin's OUTSIDE birthday party the chance of rain is getting less and less
• to have such a comfy bed
• together time with my husband... got to go!

"Thank you for this day. Thank you for the baseball game and the train..." --Matthew's prayer tonight

We're not saying it's always easy, but having him here feels right.

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Tea

Friday the boys invited me to a Mother's Day Tea at their school. I was so excited to be able to go. The boys were sure to point out their hand prints on the banner hanging across the room that said, "We love our Mommys!" I sat down with the boys at their circle time spot. They sang "You are my Sunshine" except the words were changed to "...you'll never know Mom how much I love you..." It was so sweet. There were even motions... of course my boys didn't do them! I knew the song was coming because Matthew has been singing it around the house for days. It was so precious the first time I overheard him singing!

Beautiful Weekend at Granny and Grandad's
We had a great weekend enjoying the beautiful weather with Granny, Grandad, Amy, Caleb, and Anna. We took the boy's scooters and roller skates, so we spent most of the time outdoors. We went on several walks too. The boy's got so hot, they even took off their shirts. Of course Amy had a hard time convincing Anna that little girls can't take their shirts off.

Look at those Muscles!

Sunday Afternoon at Great-Granny's

After lunch Jason, Uncle Jesse, and I took the kids on a walk around the farm. After going through the barn, the kids were all equipped with a walking stick. Although they love the farm, it doesn't take them long to wear down. Caleb educated us on the benefit of using cow poo as fertilizer, Anna wore the cow poo after falling in it... twice. Matthew screamed, "Water" every time he saw some, and Austin made sure he didn't get his shoes dirty. The boys came back wanting to go fishing in Jesse's pond. They are super excited. I told them we needed to get fishing poles first. Matthew said he was going to buy a Superman Fishing Pole.

I had a fantastic Mother's day weekend. Jason and I fell in bed last night! It was a hard Monday morning! But, aren't they all?

By the way, I got a great new digital camera for Mother's Day! I love it!

Our Big Helpers

Life is good. Jason and I are getting the hang of three kids. Finally, we are figuring out our morning routine, dinner time together, and bedtime routines. I'm not saying its easy, but we are learning! Matthew is doing great. He is getting better and better at doing what we ask, when we ask it. He still tries to get one last time in though. But I think that's normal. The boys help with dressing, undressing, bathing, cleaning, and even scraping off their dinner plates and putting them in the sink.

Teaching Compassion: After church this past Sunday, Jason and I felt it was time to start doing something with the boys to show compassion. Showing compassion is one of our six qualities we want our children to possess when they leave our home (earlier posting about our qualities). Our plan is to help them count out their piggy bank money and divide it into save, spend, and give away. We talked with them about this on Sunday, and they were very excited. We also decided to go through all of the toys and pick out some to give away. Although the boys wanted to do it, the keep pile way out weighed the give pile. Our plan is to take the give percentage of their money with them to the toy store and let them pick out brand new toys to give away with the used ones. One of Austin's all time favorite toys is his lawn mower. When Jason and I started talking about the boys and girls that don't have many toys, he immediately shouted that he wanted to give a little boy his lawn mower.

Sweet Nibblets: Austin loves Hannah Montana's saying "sweet nibblets." I don't really even know when he starting saying this because we don't watch Hannah Montana, but it cracks me up nonetheless. Tonight at dinner we overheard Austin breaking it down in syllables trying to teach Matthew how to say it correctly. The stuff we hear and see when they don't think we're listening/ watching is so funny! Of course the way he pronounced the syllables to Matthew was priceless... and wrong! One syllable was rib.

Tattle telling to Jesus: Jason and I were talking about being out of trash bags and Austin overheard. Arbelia, our fantastic cleaning lady, came today. After hearing us talk about needing bags, Austin said, "Mommy and daddy, Arbelia is going to be so mad. So mad." A minute later he said, "She might even tell Jesus."

Corn hole helpers: Jason and I played corn hole against each other yesterday afternoon. We had the best helpers. Matthew was on my team, and Austin was on Jason's. After tossing all the bags, the boys ran to the other side and picked up our bags for us. Then, they handed us one at a time to toss. Matthew was so encouraging to mommy. He kept yelling, "Go mommy. Throw it in the hole!" Of course then he'd have to yell, "That's okay mommy. Try again. Throw it in the hole!" He is so sweet!

I have the sweetest boys (two small and one big)! Thank you God!

Advice from the wise

Yesterday, my ma-maw and pa-paw celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. Before we ate, mom asked ma-maw for any words of wisdom or advice for the rest of us. Ma-maw said, "Go to church. Stay in church. Give and take." All night I thought of how blessed we are to have grandparents and parents committed to Christ and to each other. We have perfect pictures of what God intended for marriage. Thank you mom, dad, Jackie, Greene, Ma-maw, and Pa-paw for demonstrating God's love and for honoring Him and each other.

Stanley and Becky Stinnett- 63 years

Greene and Jackie Keith- 40 years

Clyde and Debbie Baker- 36 years

Jason and Becky Keith- 7 years