Gotcha Day Celebration (in pictures)

Believe, Dream, Inspire

Every school year our school district asks the kids to participate in a competition where they can enter various methods of expression (art, photography, writing, etc.)  Katie's teacher assigned her students a paragraph on this year's topic:  "Believe, Dream, Inspire".  Following is Katie's paragraph:

I want to be a teacher when I grow up.  I want to be a teacher because I get to help kids learn.  I will teach them how to read and paint.  If they know how to read, they can learn everything.  If they know how to paint they can create beautiful things.  My mom and dad say I will be a good teacher.

Gotcha Day 2013

If you've never been to Family Court, I'll let you in on a secret:  it's not generally a happy place.  It's where parents go to part ways forever.  It's where decisions are made (arguably) "in the best interest of the child."  It's where parent's rights are forever terminated.  It represents mostly broken families.

On July 15, 2013, our family entered Family Court.  We, however, going against the grain, made it a happy place for just a few minutes.  We showed the judges, lawyers and caseworkers who spend day after day in Family Court that what they do matters -- that sometimes family works.  We gave them a happy ending to the many stories that they endure day after day.

Lots and lots of friends and family came to help us celebrate a life changing banging of the gavel.

We busted the seams of Courtroom #2!  

Seriously, the judge didn't know what she was getting when she invited us in!

It's official!  

Welcome to forever!

So very thankful for these and dozens of others who have walked this journey with us over the past five years!!

We celebrated at Tommy's with scrambled eggs and bacon!!

Soon, I'll post pictures of our Gotcha Party -- 

that was where the real celebrating was!!

Am I Allowed?

Here I sit.

In an empty house.

Alone in our home.

I can't remember the last time that happened.

9 years ago?

So, I decide to write?

Blog?

Am I still allowed?

Has it been too long?

My kids have all started school in the past few weeks.

Ella Grace, 4th grade.

Annabelle, 2nd.

Katie, Kindergarten (how can that be?).

Kanius, 4K.

And, Brielle started three days a week in a two year old class this week.

So, it's me and Mo, our dog.

Laundry is running; bread is baking; dinner is prepped for tonight.

Starting a new school year brings mixed emotions for me.  I like my kids being at home.  I also like the structure that being in school provides, and, honestly, my kids crave that structure.  Usually, we are all ready for the schedule, but not ready for our Summer to come to a close.

Mixed.

My emotions are also mixed because it's yet another reminder of the passage of time.  My sweeties will only stay under my roof for a little while and then I'll launch them out into this big, scary, exciting, adventure we call life.  Despite every warning to "treasure every moment," I find myself sad that time is passing so quickly.

I am trying to remind myself that in the midst of "treasuring every moment," real life happens.  There are still groceries to buy, spelling words to call out, car lines to sit in, dinner to make, baths to take . . . The truth I am trying to preach myself is that not every moment has to be a big production to be treasured.  Life happens in the day to day and that is where my children will learn most about how to live out their own adventure.

So, if I'm still allowed, I may use some of my new found time to blog about some of that day to day with five kids, a dog and an amazing man!

2012 in Review

January:  Settled from the chaos of the holidays!

February:  On the 9th, we welcomed our son home!  Katie turned 4 on the 13th!  K-man turned 3 on the 18th!

March:  March 3rd brought our little nephew Jeremiah Michael into the world!  He soon joined his mommy, daddy and 2 brothers and forever became a part of our family!

April:  Our Little Peanut turned 1!  We traveled to Ocean Isle for Spring Break and had a great time with the Williams side of our family.  All three girls kicked off soccer season!

May:  Annabelle turned 6!  We wrapped up K3, K5, and Second Grade!

June:  Ella Grace turned 8!  Our family participated in the Miracle Hill Cycling Challenge!  Ella Grace and Annabelle attended art camp and all three girls went to VBS.  We also all tagged along with daddy to Myrtle Beach -- he sat in conferences all day and we swam!

July:  We visited Michigan.  MB had another birthday and we celebrated our 13th anniversary!

August:  Wrapped up our very relaxed summer.  Begin to readjust to schedules.  Started K3, K4, 1st and 3rd grades.

September:  Spent a weekend in Stone Mt., GA.  Sweet, sweet family time!

October:  Eric grew another year older.

November:  Celebrated a sweet Thanksgiving with the Powell side of the family as well as Christmas and birthdays with them!

December:  Celebrated Christmas for the first time as a family of 7!  Traveled to Michigan for Christmas festivities!  Got notice of a court date . . .

2013 promises to be a life-changer!

Day Eight: Jolly Old St. Nick

Day Seven: Gearing Up for our MI Trip

Day Six: Homemade Ornaments

We actually made these with cousins at Thanksgiving.  They were super easy and turned out super cute!  

We just hung them on the tree today!

Just after this picture was snapped, one of these glass balls broke.

You'll never guess which one . . . 

Unbelievably, the paint was still wet!

Day Five: Ella Grace's BBall Practice

See my girl right in the middle of the picture?  

Super proud that even though she's the smallest she gives her all!

But . . . 

Seriously -- what are they feeding these girls?

Day Four: Katie @ BBall Practice

Can I just say there is nothing funnier than a bunch of four and five-year-olds playing basketball?

Love it!

Day Three: Love December in the South!

December 3:  75 degrees!

Day Two: A Journey To Bethlehem

Day One: Our Jesse Tree 2012

Participating in:



Day One:  Getting our Jesse Tree started!

Getting (re) Organized!

As I mentioned a few post ago, my goal for the Summer was to chill with my peeps and forget the day to day schedule that we are so accustomed to!

Completely accomplished what I wanted.

Completely paid for it in the past few weeks!

So, I've been on a mission to (re) organize our home and thought I'd share a few things that have been super-helpful:

1.  Charts!  They are hanging all over my house in highly visible areas.  Lots of printables can be found here! I'm using this for mornings and this for after school!  From a different site, we are using this for bedtime.  Does my house look like a preschool?  Sort of!  Tacky?  Probably!  Not my best decorating style, but it's cut down on my nagging so, so much!

2.  Lunchtime prep is a nightly activity.  I try to make all 5 lunches for the next day (this helps when the preschoolers get home - they can just pull their lunch out of the fridge - it makes getting down for a nap a little quicker)!  We bought these for the big girls' lunches (significantly cheaper at TJ Maxx!) and they are great!  From the same company, we got these for the littles' (again, at TJ Maxx)!  They have made packing healthy lunches much more manageable!

3.  We have a schedule dependent little boy!  I mean, really, really schedule dependent!  Any change can set off a series of days with significant behavior issues.  In an effort to avoid these kinds of days, we've worked hard to prep him for anything different that may happen during a given day.  Since he's in school only three days a week (and he's too young to really understand the concept of the different days of the week -- weekends really confuse him!), we made this for his room:

Each day has pictures of who will be home when he wakes up and the places he'll go that day.  Before bed each night, we move a star to the next day and talk with him about what tomorrow will look like.  It's helped so much!  For those interested in such things, the process to make this was easy:

Started with a blank bulletin board, a measuring tape and some painter's tape.

Painted.  Painted again and again (cork board is obviously porous!).

Used stencils to add the days of the week.

Pulled the tape (so gratifying!)!

Tah-Dah!

One more small project in the works . . . 

. . . involving this plank of wood!     

Will post pics of the finished project when it's . . . well, finished!

First Days

Ella Grace -- 3rd Grade -- Dr. Parris & Mrs. Field's class

Annabelle -- 1st Grade -- Mrs. Black & Mrs. Hunter's class

K-man -- K3 -- Mrs. Bagley's class

Katie -- K4 -- Mrs. Hall's Class

Li'l Peanut -- Baby Class -- MMO

With their countdown to school charts!

Goal: Met!

My goal for our Summer was to chill.
To relax our very scheduled existence.
To enjoy my children without worrying about every little detail of every little thing.

Goal:  met!

We had an incredible Summer filled with too many adventures to cover here!

A few highlights:

Our trip to Michigan to visit the Williams' side of the family.

Our trip with the Powell side to the cabin.

Our family trip to Atlanta and Stone Mountain.

I have hundreds of blog worthy pictures, but, the reality is that they'll never be posted or blogged about.  That was part of my plan!  Not to blog.  I really wanted to journal -- you know -- the old fashioned pen and paper way.  That didn't happen, but I'm not too worried about it!  See how good I was at meeting my goal?

Alas, Labor Day has passed, school has been in session for a few weeks and Summer is officially over!  I will say that I'm paying dearly now for the summer-adapted, laid back attitude.  My kiddos (and myself) are having a hard time getting back into the routine!  No regrets -- just, maybe, we should've started back into the routine a little sooner than, well, the first day of school.

Oh well!  I have several things in the works to get us (re)organized and back on schedule!  I'm planning to share many here in case you are facing some of the same difficulties we are!  Also will update soon on our family dynamic and the process of adoption!!

Until then . . .