So...I have not updated the blog in a loooong time. That sort of seems to be a theme around here.

We are officially in our new house with access to our desktop which means that I can download pictures whenever I want. Now the tricky part will be to actually sit down, get on the blog, and share pictures.

But today is a big day! My little guy turned one today. Zeke was our surprise baby, but I have never been more thankful for a surprise! I have thoroughly enjoyed having a little one around again.

He seriously melts me. 

About 1 month ago, Zeke discovered meat. And let me just say that he absolutely loves it. In fact, every time we eat it, he devours it, as in eats more than all of us. We have therefore decided to nickname him "meat". I know, I know it is such a sweet, baby nickname, no? I think one day he will thank us for it.
We decided that since he has such a deep fondness for meat, we should introduce him to steak. So for his birthday dinner, he got steak. And let me tell you what, he took it down!
He ate at least 10 helpings this size. He is quite serious about food.

And we finished it off with a little "Happy Birthday to You" and cupcakes. Again, he loved it. Food is just his thing.
I love this progression of facial expressions. In the third picture it is like he is anticipating the yumminess of what is about to happen.

As he finished up, we gave Taylor and Noah their cupcakes. Do you see his face of anger? How dare they eat cupcakes and not share?

Zeke has been such a blessing to our family. Taylor and Noah absolutely adore him (a little too much at times) and I cannot imagine life without him. He is always smiling, cries when you leave the room loves to be around people, and is a laid back little guy. Happy first birthday to Zeke!

Picture Time

For those of you who do not know, we are living with friends right now. We are building a house that seems like it will never get finished and our gracious friends have taken us in in the mean time.

Living with friends means living with the bare minimum which means no desktop computer. The only way for us to get our pictures off the camera is to put them on the desktop which is currently at my parents. All of this to say, I am hardly ever able to get the pictures off of our camera and on to the world wide web.

Lucky for you (Janet :)), I was able to get pictures off the camera last week and onto our blog for your viewing pleasure.

Zeke turned 8, then 9, and now 10 months. I still need to take the 10 month pictures, so maybe I will post them in 3 months when I upload pictures again :)

We had some fun dates with our kiddos. Me and Tay went to see Beauty and Beast at TPAC and Mark took Noah to see some race cars.

We had a camp out in the back yard with the family we are staying with. The kids had a blast and actually slept through the night!

Halloween happened. We thought we would be in the new house by then, but since we are obviously not, all of our costumes are somewhere in storage. Thankfully we have sweet friends who let us borrow costumes.

Til next time....

What's next?

There is not much to report, but I want to pass along what we do know. 

Right now, there is about a one year wait from referral until travel. If this holds true, we will travel to bring home our little girl sometime next fall. 

Our attorney will go to court on our behalf in about 6 months. After that, the US Embassy will conduct an investigation that is expected to take about 6 months. 

The Congo has implemented a new investigation process that has extended the time between when we pass court and when we travel to go and bring our little girl home. Because this process is new, we are fairly uncertain what to expect. 

I know this is extremely vague, but I wanted to share any details that we have. I will most definitely post updates as we get them. 

This will probably be the longest year of our lives. Knowing that our child is half way across the world where we cannot take care of her is a hard reality. But I do know that she is in God’s hands and he will protect her. 

Please join us as we pray that our sweet little girl stays healthy, is well taken care of, and that we get to bring her home before expected!

Our DAUGHTER!

She is beautiful, she is loved, and she is ours! Our little GIRL is 3 years old and we are over the moon with excitement!

Two weeks ago, we received the referral that we have waited so long for. We took these past 2 weeks to pray and listen for God’s direction. On Wednesday, we officially accepted our referral.

This is just as much our daughter’s adoption story as it is ours. We want to protect her and her privacy. For this reason we are choosing not to share much about her online. 

BUT, you better believe I will be carrying a picture of her sweet little face wherever I go and I would love to share with you.

I will post more details later! YAY!!

the yearly photos

Every year we have family photos. I spend way too much time picking out what we will wear, praying for good weather, and really hoping that our kids will cooperate.

Thankfully we have an amazing photographer who will get our kids to smile even when it means making silly noises, faces, and games. Trust me, she earns her money :)

photo slacker

Maybe it's this whole three kids thing. Maybe it's having one really "difficult" three year old. Maybe it's just plain ol' laziness. But I have not been taking pictures lately. I just forget. And when I do remember, I don't feel like going all the way upstairs to get the camera. Yep, that's just laziness.

But I do have a few pictures of my sweet, crazy kids.

Pater Pan and Tinkerbell (they are flying here in case you were wondering).

Playing in the rain and SUPER excited about it. There was also some serious signing going on. 

Zeke getting smothered loved on.

My beautiful baby girl loving the water.

Noah giving me his best smile. He's a keeper for sure. 

Brotherly love. 

Love her. 

Well, that is better than no pictures. But I do need to make a much better effort to take pictures. Let's see if that happens or not...

homemade summer favorites

Today is the day. My essential oils and glass bottles were all ordered and have made their way to my house. Our day is wide open and I have no excuses.

I have been wanting to make homemade sunscreen, insect repellent, and hand sanitizer for a while now. Given my extreme tendency to procrastinate, it has been on the "to do" list for quite some time. It's actually sort of sad considering that it took me a little less than 10 minutes to make all three.

 Note: all items are easier to tackle when a cute assistant is involved.

First on the list...sunblock. This one was super easy. There are 2 ingredients; coconut oil and Helichrysum.

To make sunblock:
Mix about 2 oz of coconut oil (other options are olive oil or sesame oil) with 12 drops of Helichrysum into a glass spray bottle. Apply every 2 hours and after getting wet.

Another recipe you may want to try is found here.


Next up, bug spray.

I had fun with this one. There are several great oils that can be used as an insect repellent. I used four that I knew would not only keep the bugs away, but would also smell yummy.

To make bug spray:
Mix about 2 oz coconut oil (or water) and 10 drops each of Lavender, Lemongrass, Peppermint, and TerraShield into a glass spray bottle. 
For a list of different oils and what insects they repel, click here.


And finally, hand sanitizer.

To make hand sanitizer:
Fill a 2oz glass spray bottle half way with water. Add 1t aloe vera gel, 4-5 drops of vitamin E oil, and 15 drops of OnGuard essential oil. Fill the remaining bottle with water and shake. Spray away! 
(recipe source)
  

A few notes:

• I use and recommend Doterra oils.  They are AMAZING! We have had wonderful success using them for everything from headaches to diaper rash and from sunburn to colds and flu.  
• Always use glass bottles. The essential oils cause plastics to break down...great for your body, not so great when put in plastic containers. 
• I used OnGuard for the hand sanitizer because it has anti-fungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. Click here to read other ways it can be used. OnGuard is one of my absolute favorite essential oils!