Born In China

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We have been in a state of “cocooning” for almost three years now.

It is needed when you bring precious treasures home from hard places!

We have kept close to home with limited, well thought out outings for very good reasons.

Tate and Eliza had and still have so much to adjust to!

We also want to make sure we do everything we can to achieve strong bonding and attachment with our little ones.

Right about the time endless illness entered our home this winter, we had just started talking about expanding Tate and Eliza’s world some more.

Instead we ended up cocooning all winter long because of illness after illness here.

One-on-one date night with Blake and I was one of our ideas to expand Tate and Eliza’s world.

It was a blessed idea! Tate and Eliza have an opportunity to experience new things on date night, but all while we are bonding more with that one-on-one time!

Last night Blake took the opportunity to take the kiddos and go to a theatre to see a Disney movie called Born In China.

(I had a church meeting to be at!)

Tickets are only $5 on Tuesdays!

Blake saw a preview of this movie while he was on the airplane to Omaha a couple of weeks ago which prompted us to look into it.

It was a nature movie, with beautiful photography and a lot of cute animals!

I think the experience was a positive one – especially for our sweet sensory girl!

She did SO good!!

They have been talking about it all morning!

We hope to have some more new experiences coming up soon!

It is not lost on us how much progress Tate and Eliza have made!

Thank you, Lord, for this huge blessing!!

A Sweet Date Night

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Friday morning I announced to the kiddos that Blake and I were going to purpose one-on-one time with them.

I quickly added that we would be going from youngest to oldest, and taking each child on our Friday night date night.

They were excited to say the least!

Except maybe for Tate – who quickly realized he was not the youngest.

Sweet boy!

I told Eliza she was first and she would be going on date night THAT night.

Date night could not come fast enough! For Eliza or for me!

First I spent some one-on-one time with my sweet baby while we shopped for the perfectly softest clothes for Eliza to wear this summer.

I think having her help look for, touch, feel, and choose her clothes was a huge step in the right direction to helping her overcome her severe sensory sensitivities to clothing!

I enjoyed her SO much!

Soon we met up with Blake and headed to the grocery store to get a snack dinner.

Then we headed to the coffee shop to eat our snacks and get coffee!

And orange juice for Eliza!

I also took the tablet to let Eliza play with it there.

We had bought Eliza a whole container of ice cream.

She has a significant lactose intolerance, but she loves coconut ice cream anyway!

Don’t worry – she did not eat the whole thing!

After the coffee shop we had one more stop to make.

At Wal-Mart to allow Eliza to spend her birthday money from her Grandma!

She kept calling her gift card her debit card, and was SO cooperative as to the suggestions her Mama and Daddy made as to which things would be good choices for her to choose from!

Life is so busy and full of all kinds of good things.

We want our children to know that we treasure time with them!

It takes time to build relationships!

So we have to purpose the time to do so!

I think this will be a new tradition that we do often with the kiddos!

Date night was such a sweet time.

I cant wait till Tate’s turn!

Fun Facts Friday!!

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It’s Friday!!!

We have had a very quiet week!

Monday night I spoke at our Women 2 Women gathering at our church about adoption.

Something very near and dear to my heart – wouldn’t you say?

It was super fun, but I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over!

The rest of the week we have been focusing on our schedule, chores, school, and keeping these four kiddos busy because the weather has been nothing like the best day ever!

It has been more like this –

Snow. Cold. Rain. Cold, cold, cold!

Crazy Wisconsin!

Our few flowers that Addie brought home from work are living inside right now.

Our fire has been running all day long!

I think the farmers must get used to this weather – maybe?

In the fields on the south side of our farm, they have been hauling and dumping big piles of manure.

Eliza calls it “kanure,” and Tate corrects her every time she does.

They are so cute!

In keeping these kiddos busy, besides school we have been doing lots of projects, lots of read aloud, and listening to you tube read aloud as well!

I enjoyed this quiet and scheduled week very, very much.

And I know four kiddos who did too!

They always do so much better when we are on schedule – especially this sweet baby!

My favorite guy in the whole world bought me a new vacuum!

We were going to wait until we moved to replace all. these. things. that. are. wearing. out. – but some things just cannot wait anymore.

Thank you, honey!

I had one happy boy this morning when we did our Friday cleaning.

He got this place looking GREAT!

Lookie here – another blurry photo!

Good grief.

Speaking of my favorite guy in the whole world – he bought me these new shoes too!

They are called Sloggers, and I LOVE, love, love them!

They kind of work like a mucking boot, but are so comfortable and form fitting.

I know I will live in them outside this summer!

We have not showed the farm this week – but we still are keeping up with everything just in case.

I have the best crew of helpers!

Tate has attached to this dinosaur that he named Spike.

He sleeps with him every night instead of his Teddy B now.

Spike went missing one night at bed time.

We could not find him anywhere!

A couple days and many tears later, we found him between the wall and the corner of Tate’s bed.

Interestingly enough, then the next night he was missing again!

WHAT?

We sent everyone looking again – and Chad found him.

In the oven of the toy kitchen.

Hmmm.

The next night – guess what?

Uh huh.

Missing AGAIN.

Are you catching on?

Our little stinker dimply cherub realized all the attention he received when Spike was really lost the first time, so he took it upon himself to make him lost every night at bed time.

Our Tate is street smart.

Really, really street smart!

Oh my, how I love this boy!!

I organized my recipes recently!

It was super fun and I have ALL kinds of things I want to make!

This morning I made these Cow Patties.

The original recipe is from the Pioneer Woman, but I might have changed it up a bit – I don’t remember.

It is 10 ounces of melted chocolate chips, 1/2 cup raisins, and 1/2 cup nuts of your choice.

I used slivered almonds.

Mix it all and drop teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper.

Sprinkle them with sea salt.

Have it set up in the freezer and store in the fridge.

I might have eaten that big one in the middle right after I took this photo!

Cooking and baking is therapy for me!

Especially chopping veggies!

I have a list of things I am going to make this afternoon after my grocery crew returns home.

They should be here soon!

I LOVE Fridays!

Hope you all are having a GREAT Friday too!

Happy weekending, everyone!

The Best Day Ever

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WHAT a blessed weekend!

JUST what we needed!

Warm temperatures, blue skies, no wind…..

Tate kept running up to me, squeezing me around my legs and shouting “MOM! This is the BEST day EVER!” or “MOM! This is the BEST day of my life!”

Sweet boy, if it was not the best day ever, it sure was close!

Saturday morning Blake left before any of us were awake to fly to Omaha to bring Grant home.

Thank you all for your covering of prayers! And also for your texts, e-mails, DM’s to check on us! You all are a blessing.

That left a beautiful day, a lot of work and a lot of play for us left at home.

Sadie girl was loving this beautiful day too!

She ran, and ran, and ran, and ran…..this girl is solid muscle.

These two were a JOY to watch.

Just look at them!

There are buds on the trees!!!

Lots of spring clean-up to do!

Bikes to ride!

Blake and Grant got home around 7 p.m. Saturday night. What a long, long day for them.

As I was typing this, I just confirmed an appointment for Grant for early tomorrow morning.

Because Grant is so sick, we worshipped at home yesterday morning.

And then some fence repair needed to be done while we had Blake home.

We have horses that need to be eating that grass!

It was just so beautiful I couldn’t stop taking photos!

Addie Mae served us lunch outside.

Grant was awake about three hours yesterday.

Besides noticing those BARE FEET on our sweet baby, how about that Chinese squat?

The littles played and played and played outside all the day long!

Addie Mae buzzed around blessing me in all sorts of ways.

Soon that fence was DONE!!

And we had some happy girls munching on all that beautiful grass.

A beautiful day ALWAYS calls for some porch sitting!

So we did that.

Sat on the porch, I mean.

Except for some who have endless energy.

How I wish I could bottle that energy up and sell it!!

We were praying it would not get windy so we could end our weekend around the camp fire.

It was the perfect evening for a camp fire!

The best day ever – remember?!

We cooked sausage and hot dogs, had chips, hummus, salsa and watermelon.

We roasted bananas for dessert!

Have you all ever done that?

SO yummy!

We watched the sun go down on the BEST DAY EVER.

We talked about chasing that sunset so the day would never end.

Then we drug ourselves inside to clean up and get ready for a busy week.

This morning I have slllleeeeepppppyyy kiddos.

Guess what they talked about when they finally woke up?

Yesterday I heard Addie Mae say, “Today is like the good ole days!”

It was.

New seasons ahead if the Lord sees fit to sell this farm.

But relishing in a day “like the good ole days” was a blessing beyond compare.

Now if the Lord will see fit to get Grant well again.

We would be so grateful if you keep praying with us!

Have a GREAT start to your week, everyone!

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