Race Time

Nate Dogg was selected from his District to go to the Nacar race at Bristol & receive VIP treatment. We are not race fans by any means. Normally, Nate Dogg watches a little racing only to keep up with how the Home Depot driver is doing. However, a day without the kiddos (they stayed with his parents) got us pretty excited since we have only had one date night since we traveled to Ethiopia! Our seats were in the Home Depot suite, we had pit road access, & we even got to hang out with Joey (the rookie Home Depot driver). We really enjoyed ourselves & the whole racing experience...that is until we left the race to head home & sat in traffic for 5 HOURS! If we had a helicopter to whisk us from the suite to home, avoiding all the obnoxious, red-neck drunks, we would have been fine. Now we hate Bristol & Nascar! Lol!

Soccer Time

Siskel & Ebert have started their first season of soccer. One of their best friends from school & a boy from Gabriella's class is on their team, and Nate Dogg is helping coach...all making for an extra special season! The boys are having a blast, and the rest of us are having fun, too!

My Big Boy's B-day

It is so hard to believe that Troy turned 7! We spread the celebration out over a several weeks b/c his birthday falls on Spring Break, & we wanted to make sure his school friends were in town for all the fun. We started with a bowling party. All the kids loved it & had a blast! Then my grandparents & uncle came up for the weekend to help him celebrate. We topped it off on his big day with lots of St. Patrick's day fun, Build-a-Bear, & celebrating American Idol sytle. Happy Birthday Leprechaun Boy!

Dental Work...Check

The princess finally finished all of her dental work & what a good sport she was! We started with the most important filling about 7 weeks after she got home & this winter we did the remaining ones a little at a time over a month period. She loved smelling the bubblegum through the orange clown nose & ELEVEN cavities later she still seems to like going to the dentist! Her strength never ceases to amaze me!

Playdate for Two Ethiopian Princesses

Saturday we took the princess to Nashville to play with her orphanage buddy. The girls were kind of quiet at first, but it didn't take long for the giggles to start. Troy joined us & had a great time watching his sister play with her friend...Daddy took him to a guitar store for some of the time & that was a great treat for him! For me, the best part of the day was watching them on the swings...it immediately took me back to Hannah's Hope Ethiopia & watching them swing together there. It still amazes me that God places these girls in homes so close to each other! God is so good!

Disney World & Celebrating Our 6 Month Gotcha Day!

We are back from our whirlwind trip to Walt Disney World! We laughed & giggled until our bellies ached and came home with every muscle in our bodies hurting from going non-stop for 3 days straight. It was fantastic and we can't wait to do it again...as long as we can take Gee-Gee and Cayla...we could have never survived without them...taking four kids under the age of 7 to Disney takes a lot of work!

Ready for all the magic...our kids plus "Cayla the Great" (my flower girl/friend & extrahands for the trip)!


Exhausted at the end of our first day!


Day #2 at Disney Hollywood Studios (aka MGM)

Our very own Gabriella & Troy gots lots of special attention that day...it made for an extra magical time!

We were the day after opening day for day #2 of the American Idol Experience...it was great!

Major sillies at the end of the day!
Our second day at the Magic Kingdom just happened to be 6 months since the day we were united with the princess! What better way to celebrate than an amazing day at Disney World! I can't believe it's only been 6 months! It seems like she's been with us forever!

Gabriella loved meeting all the characters!

Dinner with Pooh & Friends at the end of the day was worth the wait!

Breakfast with Mickey on the last morning was the perfect ending!


The kids loved, loved, loved dancing with the characters during breakfast!


Here we are pretending to be in Hawaii! We sure won't be celebrating Valentine's Day or our upcoming 10th Anniversary on a romantic getwaway to a tropical location, but we wouldn't want it any other way! We sure won't have any regrets about not having the most amazing family vacations...those memories will last forever! One day the kids will be grown & we'll have plenty of time for things like that...if we're not living in Ethiopia or raising our second set of kids who will all be adopted form Ethiopia...LOL!

A Big Surprise

This week, Nate Dogg decided that Troy needed a new Electric guitar. Really it wasn't just for Troy. You see, Nate Dogg has been going with Troy to guitar lessons, and he's learning to play, too. Nate Dogg said that he always wanted to learn to play, but in high school when his two best friends learned to play he didn't for some reason. Now, he and Troy are learning together and it's so cute! They love their new guitar, and it is quite a beauty! When Troy wakes up in the morning or gets home from school, he runs into our room to check on "Bluey" as he calls it!

Don't you love "the finger pointing" in this picture. Nate Dogg was laying down the law about their guitar.

Now, that's a happy boy! Is that look great or what!!!