Daniel's Birthday

Daniel had a wonderful birthday! We kept it pretty low key because we are doing a joint party for both boys next month. Both sets of grandparents came up to eat dinner and we had cake, icecream and presents after dinner. He loved to sing Happy Birthday to himself and did it often throughout the day. I didn't quite realize just how much that he enjoyed his birthday until I went to get him to sleep. Ususally he waits until we get N to sleep then hops in our lap and we rock him to sleep. (He very much wants his snuggle time before bed now...far cry from the little boy just 3 short months ago who would cry and cry if we tried to rock him to sleep:) As I was putting N in his bed, D was at the chair waiting on me to rock him as usual. When he hopped in my lap he began talking about everything that happend that day with a lot of excitement. He re-counted the entire evening and was so excited that he couldn't quit talking about his birthday. It made my day that it meant so much to him.


Daniel and his first birthday present. We let him open this one early in the day. The pics of him opening his other presents were so blurry:(
His birthday dinner per his request...spaghetti! He asked for spaghetti for his birthday dinner weeks ago then at the last minute he decided he wanted chicken and feench fies (french fries)...which he got for lunch.

His cake. It is small but I wanted to make him a Daniel in the Lion's Den cake. We read the story about Daniel the night before his birthday so that he would understand the cake a little better. I had 5 cakes to do this week so his little cake did get a little neglected, but he loved it and that is all that mattered to me.

Noah enjoying some cake and icecream. He did so good with Daniel's birthday.

Happy Birthday our sweet Daniel

My Precious, precious Daniel!
This is the first birthday that we have been able to spend with you. I truly hurt for the past few birthdays that you had to celebrate without being with your family, but I can assure you that you will never ever have to spend another birthday without your family by your side.
Your daddy and I thank God for you each and every day. On this day four years ago you were not born with us but rather for us. The Lord hand picked you to be our little boy. For that we will thank the Lord each and every day. You are so very special, you are our heart and we love you more than words can ever describe. We loved you before we ever knew you, before we ever saw your beautiful little face. You (and your brother) have made our lives complete and I don't know how we ever survived without you.

Our prayer for you is this:
The Bible tells us of a man named Daniel. Daniel was ever faithful to the Lord. He was a prayerful man who loved the Lord deeply. Daniel was cast into the lion's den because he stood up for what he believed in. While in the lion's den, the Lord sent and angel to protect him from the fierce lions. It is our prayer that you always stand up for what you believe in. We pray that you always put the Lord first in your life and that you remain faithful to him. We also pray that the Lord sends his angels to always protect you. When life gets fierce (like the lions) we pray that you always look to the Lord for your protection. The name Daniel means "God is my judge". Always know that God is your only judge. No matter what life throws you and no matter what anyone else on this earth says, God is your judge...not the world. God created you just the way that you are and he has great plans for your life.

You are and will always be our precious son and we love you with every fiber of our being!

Happy Birthday to our precious Danny Boy!

We love you so, so much!
Daddy and Mama

Happy Mother's Day

Normally, I somewhat dread Mother's Day. I don't mean to sound like a Debbie Downer, but when you are in the process of waiting on a child for so long Mother's Day can be a tough day. I am so blessed with a wonderful mother who is my best friend and for that reason alone...Mother's Day was tolerable. I remeber year after year on Mother's Day I would get the constant "Well maybe next year you will finally be a mother" comment from people. That comment made me cringe.
Well...this year Mother's Day had a whole new meaning for me. I am so incredibly blessed to be able to call these two boys my sons. They have changed my life in so many ways. The Lord has blessed me as a Mother far beyond anything that I ever deserve. He has given me two of the most precious sons that a mother could ever ask for. I am so thankful for the journey that the Lord sent us on to bring our sons home.
To anyone out there that is in the "wait" to be a mother, please know that it will happen, and when it does it is well worth the wait. The Lord is always faithful!

Me and my precious little boys on my first Mother's Day (yes....I am much happier than I look in this pic. I was in the middle of saying something when my dear hubby snapped the pic and it was the only pic that we took:)

Fishing and Gardening

Benji took D fishing for the first time this morning and I have never seen D more excited about anything. He was so excited to go. We packed his backpack and set out his fishing pole the night before so he went to bed super excited about his fishing trip with his daddy. A dear family friend took them to his pond where they racked up over 50 fish....and my little fella caught his first fish. D and his daddy went straight to the taxidermist to mount his first fish. I am not sure who was more excited D or Benji. D has told everyone that he has seen today about his fish. There is nothing better than seeing him so happy. He got to go fishing and have some one on one time with his daddy.

Here is D and his catch:

Life with two boys can be a challenge to keep things perfectly even. Benji is taking N for some special time in the morning so I don't have a pic of his daddy time just yet. However this one captures his personality to a tee. This was after his spaghetti lunch the other day. He was thrilled to be so messy. He thought it was hysterical to have spaghetti from head to toe. How can you get mad at this face?My daddy plants a garden behind our house every year (we live next door to each other). This year he has a helper. D had the best time being his Pop's right hand man. He was such a good little helper and was on his Pop's heels the whole time.

Everything Pop's did....D had to do:

And this is how N spend his time while D and Pops were hard at work....observing with Belle. N loves his Belle....and she quite fancies him as well.

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).