The pics that I promised from Easter

We had a wonderful Easter! I feel so incredibly blessed that the boys are finally home to celebrate Easter right where they belong! The boys loved spending time with family, hunting eggs...and of course the incredible amount of candy that they consumed. D got into the Easter Bunny more than I thought that he would have. He didn't quite understand why he didn't get to see the Easter Bunny at his house though. My dear cousin came up during the night and left 405 plastic eggs in my yard (she is still bitter about an egg hunt that we had when we were little...love ya Erin!) The boys looked out the window and saw the eggs scattered everywhere, D immediately yelled "The Easter Bunny!!!" So now he thinks the Easter Bunny left him all those eggs. I hate to crush the little fella...but the Easter Bunny will not be leaving 400 eggs in the front yard next year:)
Despite all the hoop-la over the Easter Bunny, I am ever thankful for the true meaning of Easter. I am so thankful that the Lord loves us so much that he sacrificed his son. Having two sons of my own now...I see just how hard that sacrifice was!
Here are a few pics of our Easter weekend:

Lord help me raising 2 little boys:)

Warning: this post may be a little inappropriate and my boys may kill me for posting it one day but it is much to funny to not share.

I am learning more and more every day just how much "character" little boys possess. Last night, we went out to dinner. As we were waiting on our food, I gave D his little magna doodle to keep him occupied while N was playing with a toy car. D was practicing drawing his shapes. His shape of choice right now is a circle. He would draw circles then show them off the Benji and I and we would tell him how awesome his circles looked. Then my dear innocent little boy draws 2 circles next to each other (they were touching might I add). Then he proceeds to draw a dot in the middle of each circle hold it up and yells "Look mama: boobies!!". My dear hubby almost spewed sweet tea across the table. I had to turn my head. I tried to discuss that his picture was very good but was not something that he needed to be drawing but I honestly couldn't get through the sentence without laughing. I had to look over at Benji and tell him that he had to have that discussion because I just couldn't. I have been warned about little boys before but was totally not prepared for that one.
I do have to say for the record if he was depicting me...I am proud:):)

I promise I will get Easter pics up in a day or so. I just have not taken them off the camera just yet.

Our first family vacation with the boys

Tomorrow marks our 2 month anniversary of our "Gotcha Day". In some ways it feels like yestereday, yet in other ways it feels like the boys have been with us forever. In a sense, they have. They have been in our hearts and prayers for quite some time. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. People tell us all the time that the boys are so blessed to have us. Do let me tell you....we are the ones that are blessed. I don't think that we could have been given any sweeter and more precious sons than the two that the Lord has given us.

I am in awe of their progress. D is speaking great English. He speaks very little Russian now, yet he does still have the cutest accent ever. Our dog Dixie has been renamed "Ditchkie", a biscuit is now a "bitchcuit", and Bugs Bunny is "Budge Bunny". He is such a good little communicater. We always do hand gestures, or point to things or act something out so that he understands. He has become quite the little mime. It is so cute to watch him do gestures and little hand motions for almost everything that he says...even if we understand him perfectly. He is a great helper. He loves to help cook and help do laundry....even help change his brother's diaper (holding his nose the entire time, mind you).

N is a charmer. He is such a sweet and affectionate little boy. His verbal has begun to really explode. He was almost non-verbal before we got him home, now he will repeat anything that you say....it just has to be on his terms. He was assessed for a program here and on his assessment it listed things that he could and could not do. Just about everything that was listed as he could not do...he most certainly can, he just chose not to when they were evaluating him. He is the type of child that you just can't be mad at because he knows how to charm you. If he is into something that he knows he isn't supposed to be into, he has a way of flashing you this grin that makes you completely forget what he was doing. It is cute now...but may be trouble later:):)

We have been talking to the boys a lot about family. I have shown D pics of the orphanage and will tell him that is where he used to live but he is home now. We tell him that he is home with daddy and mama forever and ever. The other day he said "Mama: Daniel home with daddy, mama, N, Belle (our other dog), and Ditchkie (Dixie) for-never and never and never (his version of forever and ever and ever). I also tell them both every night that I love them so, so much. One night D asked for an extra hug and kiss during bedtime (it is yet to be determined if he really is wanting the extra loving or if it is just a bedtime stalling strategy....but I am gonna claim he wants the extra smooches:), as I leaned down to hug and kiss him again he said "I love you oh too much"...this was his version of my "I love you so, so much". And yes...I was putty in his hands in that moment.

This past week we went on a cruise to the Bahamas. The trip has been planned for a year now...thanks to my dear daddy!! The boys did amazing. They didn't seem even slightly phased by the vacation. N hated the sand at first and refused to put his feet in it. It was so funny, but by the end he was digging all in the sand. They both loved the water. The boys got to spend some good time with my parents and my sister and her family. My nephew and D are 6 months apart and played and fought like cousins do:) We had the best time and I hated to come home. I have gone back to work a 3 days a week and that is the max that I can handle being away from them. So having a week without having to leave them was so great. They do just fine with us going to work (they get to spend the day with their Grammie). I think...better yet I know that I have a harder time being away from them then they have being away from me.

I will leave you with a few pics from our vacation:

Our family

The boys mesmerizedby the water

My bor-in-law gives me heck about dressing the boys alike...this time they were at least in different outfits:):)

The kiddos

They loved smoothies!

The family and our fabulous waitor and waitress (minus Jenn because she had taken off with some friends).