Happy 12th Birthday, Eliza Claire!!!

Our baby is TWELVE!!!

March 12th was Eliza’s GOLDEN birthday!!!!

That thing called time is CRAZY fast.

Eliza was SO excited about her birthday!!

We were SO excited to celebrate her!!

Eliza is tall for her age and such a beautiful girl.


Eliza asked for fish tacos and a chocolate cake with raspberries for her birthday meal and dessert.

You got it baby girl!!


We celebrated Eliza on a Sunday after church so the whole family could be there!

We were just missing Kamryn who was on a trip and out of town.

We missed her!!

After we ate lunch, Eliza opened her gifts.

I wish I could put a video here of all the funny things she said!!!


After all her other gifts were open, I had made a scavenger hunt for Eliza!

Even Kayla said, “Wow, Mom, that is creative!” as Eliza read the words of each clue to find her next clue!

I had been home alone the whole day before this party happened, so I guess the house was quiet enough for me to think of these cute little poems to help her find her last gift!

It was SO fun to watch all the grandchildren follow her around the house as she figured it out!

Eliza needed a new bike.

When she found her gift she said, “I thought it would be a new bike! Because I needed one! And you and Dad always give us what we need for our birthday!”

Sweet girl!!


Soon it was time to sing to our Zi and eat that cake and cupcakes!!

Addie Mae made the dessert, of course!

It was beautiful and I heard it was delicious!!


The rest of the afternoon the children played and the rest of us just enjoyed BEING TOGETHER.

What Sundays are made of!!


Birthdays make me reflective.

Especially when the birthday is for our youngest who the Lord brought to us from half way around the world.

Eliza will be home ten years this summer, as she was two years and four months old the day she was placed into our waiting arms.

My love for my youngest daughter is fierce and deep.

And super protective like only an adoptive mama could understand.

Some say they love their children all the same.

But I don’t think that is true!

We love our children differently here – because they all have different love languages, needs, and ages.

Love is unique.

It is not the same.

The Lord helped us fight hard for our youngest two children to be a part of our family – and that kind of love is just different!

I can never find the words with enough depth to say how very unworthy we are to be Mom and Dad to our Eliza.

She is a gift like no other.

The most precious child growing and maturing into the most special young lady.

Thank you, Lord, for our He Jie Zhao!!!

We are thrilled to be able to celebrate her!!!

Happy, happy golden birthday, Eliza Claire!!

We love your spunky personality, and how much you love pencils, paper, words, and crafts.

We love how athletic you are!!

We love how much you love animals and how nurturing you are.

You are SO special!!!

AND WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Our Little Weekend Trip

The first weekend of March took us on a last minute weekend trip!

If you have been here for awhile, you already know about our little weekend trips we take to Illinois and Indy!

We LOVE this trip!

Because it takes us to see our extended family!

We left on a Thursday night after Blake arrived home from work.

Tate and Eliza were part of our travel team this time, and we headed to Peoria, Illinois, and straight to our hotel for the night.

We are becoming friends with the folks who own this hotel!!

They remember us and we spend a lot of time chatting with them.


When it is just Blake, Tate, Eliza and I, we only need one hotel room – which is really nice – but limits my early morning self to have my quiet time and coffee in the bathroom of all places!

I did not want to wake everyone else up!

This time I had a very good reason to be up early anyway as I was sneaking out of the room to go and visit a friend at seven o’clock that morning.

We had the BEST visit that was WAY too short!

Please note the temperature as I headed out that morning!

It was so freezing cold, but that changed before the weekend was over.


Once I was back with my crew we finished getting ready and headed over to see Ross and Lilli.

It was SUCH a sweet morning and afternoon with them!

We took them out for lunch and found this wonderful deli that had many gluten-free options.

Eliza loved it so much she got a second sandwich!!

It always makes me so happy when the kiddos can get out and do things like just eat a sandwich that is safe.


Mid afternoon we headed to Morton to meet Blake’s Mom at our favorite coffee spot – Four30 Scones.

It was another opportunity to let the kids have a treat!

It is so fun to meet there to visit and have treats together!

Tate asked the owner what she was making someone who had come through the drive through, and so she brought him some of it – a shamrock shake.

Yes, he ate that all too!

We also got some scones to take to my Mom and brother.


Early that evening we hit the road to head to Indy, which is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Morton.

When we got to our hotel, we ran into some friends from many years gone by!!

And they had some friends who were also in the area that were coming to see them there, who were also our friends from years gone by!

It was SO FUN to stand in the lobby and chat with everyone!!!

What are the chances???

Then we headed to our room and got settled in for the night.

We had a wonderful suite with a kitchen, but only one bed and a pull out couch.


We woke up to a beautiful Saturday morning, devotions in the bathroom again, and soon headed to see my brother and my Mom!

My heart is stretched SO much on these short trips – as they are NEVER long enough – but I know that we would always rather do them more often than stay for a whole week at at time.


My brother took us to all of our favorite stops!

More coffee treats, grocery shopping for lunch, and Chipotle and ice cream for dinner.

He always buys the kids treats before we get there too – like Izzy pop!

We had a WONDERFUL visit and got to meet one of my Mom’s new caretakers who we love.


We spent Sunday morning with my brother and Mom too, and then headed out for the long drive home right before lunch time.

It is a LONG drive on the Sunday’s that we do this!

But super duper worth it!!

The weather that first weekend of March ended up to be crazy warm!

Just look at the temp on the dashboard as we headed home!


Home will always be my favorite place to be.

How I wish home also had all of these very special people right next door.

I picture it in my mind ALL the time how special it would be for them to be a part of our everyday lives!

I do know that this shapes the conversations we have with our own children about our future and how we will always do our best to stay close by to each other, Lord willing.

They see the need for this vision too!

When we turn down our road after that long drive I get teary.


Teary for the fact that we made it back home safely.

Teary for the fact that I cannot be in all the places I wish I could be.

Teary for the fact that time with our most precious loved ones is always WAY too short.

Teary for the fact that it gets harder to say “see you next time” every time we go there.

That’s the way it is for right now.

Until next time!

And we have plans to go back again already very soon.

The Rest of February

I have covered a lot of the events of February in the last few posts, but there is more!

Our everyday kind of more.

It’s the BEST stuff!!

There is not one day that is the same in this season of life, but there are days that are similar.

I was just looking back at my blog one evening this past week – I got sucked into 2018 somehow!

I will say that seeing the memories brought tears to my eyes – they are SO sweet!

But I also would like to mention, before I add all of these next photos, that seeing what I was making in the kitchen back then was a HUGE motivator and idea generator!

So – let’s take a look at what came out of the kitchen in February!


Oh my goodness, how many photos was THAT???

You can easily tell that what I post on Instagram stories the most is what we are cooking and baking that day, ha, ha.

At the encouragement of a sweet friend and neighbor, we tapped some maples trees in February during an incredible warm spell.

It was SUPER fun for us all, but especially the children!

They checked those buckets daily!!

We ended up getting 10 gallons of sap off of two trees!!

Blake diligently boiled it down and we ended up with two small jars full of the most delicious maple syrup I have ever tasted.


Blake and Lane received these awesome sweatshirts as a gift from Chad.

They have Lane’s robotics logo on them!

I love that they have this robotics thing to do together!

Especially now that we do not have the farm to fill our boys’ time.


I bought a new devotional for this year after floundering around the month of January and not feeling like my quiet time was fruitful.

I am SO glad to have this!

It is really wonderful and always starts my day with a good word and points to a section of scripture to read.


We were thankful when the director of the library contacted us to fill in for two Saturdays in February.

I really enjoy being the volunteer for Lane to be able to work a Saturday morning!

Speaking of Lane and the library – he taught an afterschool robotics class every Friday in the month of February that went EXTREMELY well!

It might have given him a new summer job!

Time will tell!!


I had a short lived illness in February that two cute pups capitalized on greatly, just saying!

Very thankful for how quick that was and how much we illness we have fought off easily this winter.

The Lord has blessed our efforts!


Blake brought these to me when I was sick.

Aren’t they pretty?

I love that man.


Someday we are going to finish this home we live in.

Like by painting the insides of the front and back door, the trim in all of the windows, and all of the touches we planned on but have never done!

My hubby hung this shelf for me.

It turned into a huge project thanks to that tile behind it.

This is why I don’t like to ask to finish things!!

But I do LOVE that little shelf there, don’t you??


The weather has been super weird this year.

One day we had a soccer tournament on the deck in short sleeves, the next day it was snowing.

I will say that playing soccer with my three youngest is a really great way to feel very old!!!

We had a blast though!!


Check out the temperature on my dashboard in this first photo.

Check out the temperature THE NEXT DAY in the second photo.

Weird weather, I tell ya!!


Those days made us all feel about like Ruby feels here.

To be a dog.

Looks like a good life, doesn’t it?


I have been working on the hugest decluttering, cleaning, and purging project EVER.

Two weddings will do that to a gal!

We have a lot of people who live here, I know.

We live a lot of life in this home, I know.

We have a lot of food issues and cook every meal here, I know.

But we accumulate A LOT of UNNEEDED stuff!

It was EMBARRASSING the piles I made as I got rid of it all.

I want to keep going with this project, but I have been too busy as of late.

Hopefully soon!

One of my projects one afternoon was to clean the spice jars.

Tate and Eliza helped me.

I don’t think I have EVER washed my spice jars.

So very sorry to admit that if you have eaten in our home!!!!!

It was a very good thing to do.

We also used my new label maker to give them a fresh look.

Sigh.

That cabinet is such a peace giver now instead of a peace stealer!

The nutmeg jar is your humbly given “before photo.”

I had to soak most of the lids to get them to come clean!


Here’s the funny thing.

We just keep adding things back into our home!!

What is wrong with us, ha, ha!

My hubby bought me this ice cream maker.

We had gotten Kayla one last year and I LOVE how easy it is!

We had an ice cream maker – but you needed ice and salt to run it.

Guess what I did with that one when this new one arrived??

GAVE IT AWAY.

Thank you very much.


I also gave away most of our decor that I was so tired of dusting.

I told my resident plant lady that I wanted to put plants throughout our home instead.

She was happy to make my dream come true!

Now she just needs to come back after she is married to take care of them so I don’t kill them!!


Here is Eliza.

She loves animals.

She gave up begging for a horse, but now is begging for a bunny.

I love her SO much!

Yes, she is super tall for her age!


I do not have many photos of school from February, but I promise you all we are finishing STRONG!

It is a huge desire of my heart to give our three youngest a full and rounded education, even in my old age where all of my seasons of life have collided!

This choice has me saying “no” to many other good things, but that is ok because this is important stuff!


My grands.

Life is best when with them!!!

They are seriously pure joy and enthusiasm!!


My water bottle broke in church one Sunday and filled my Bible that I was holding with water.

That was fun!

I got a new one, and based on its price, even on sale and with some rewards points, it better last – just saying!


Kayla, Addie and I planned (and now have had!) a bridal shower for Kamryn!

It was DELIGHTFUL!

This day I was working on invites!


We had and have some more orthodontist appointments coming up.

Lane is about half-way through treatment and Tate and Eliza have another evaluation here soon.

We have been seeing this orthodontist since Kayla was in braces!!

We probably own half of that waiting room by now, ha, ha!


We were SUPER DUPER excited the day that Scottie finally got his apartment!!

There was a little glitch and he was in a temporary one for a month.

This is where Scottie and Addie will live after they are married in July.

It is the SWEETEST place, especially now that Addie is putting her touch on it to get it ready!!

AND it is only SEVEN MINUTES away!!

Oh how I love this “two weddings” season thing!!


Of course I have photos of the sky.

Even in this busy, busy, I always notice the beautiful sky!

Do you all notice it too??


The sky is beautiful today too!

So thankful for the sunshine even though it is freezing cold.

Time to eat lunch and get on to our piano theory class – and then we are headed out for the afternoon!

It’s been fun spending some time with you all.

I hope you are having a GREAT day with SUNNY skies too!!

Until next time….

A Few More Celebrations!!

February brought two more celebrations to Twin Oaks – but we managed to combine them and celebrate them the same day!

Our celebrations always take place on Sundays after church because everyone is headed here for lunch anyway.

It’s PERFECT!!

Tate and Eliza really wanted to celebrate Chinese New Year this year and we also have a wonderful son to celebrate!

It was Grant’s day on February 28th – the anniversary of his arrival into our arms!!

Of course this celebration meant an Asian menu!

We gave Eliza the job of planning and decorating for this special day.

She did SUCH a GREAT job!!

Addie made dessert, as she does for every Sunday family lunch, but made what Eliza requested – panda cupcakes!


I was in charge of the rest of the menu and made our favorite Asian meal – jap chae.

David and Kayla marinated and dropped off all of the meat to be grilled – what a blessing that was!!!

I usually make some kind of bread to make sure the bellies are not only full but also satisfied.


Of course you already know we had the BEST time!!

Having everyone together eating and visiting is just the BEST way to spend Sundays!!

Yes, Chad is a literal GIANT!

He is so much taller than the rest of us here!


Grant Evan, happy Grant’s Day to you!!

I cannot believe Dad and I have the privilege of being your forever – we are not worthy!

We cannot WAIT for your and Kamryn’s wedding day!!

WE LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!!

Happy Belated Chinese New Year, everyone!

Xīn nián kuài lè!