A little taste of India

We took the kids to Indian food tonight. We needed a little boost of excitement and thought it would be fun for the kids to try it out. Kaylin LOVED it and Blake did not take one bite. Eric and I love Indian food, it is so rich with flavor and color as is so much of their culture. Everything is bright! :) It makes me happy!

Blake is trying some Indian Iced Tea

Our "YUMMY" food

...and some fresh fennel to help our digestive tract.

Blog Hiatus

I want to apologize for the significant break in blogging. Life as we know it has been turned upside down in the month of July. Don't get me wrong, we have had some fun times and yes, I am still thankful for everyday! However, I am having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words. I plan to continue my "52 weeks of Thankfulness" in August and hopefully be less overwhelmed with life.
We started out July with our church camp out, which is always fun for everyone and the kids play so hard everyday all day long and are very tired at the end of the day, its great! On the 4th we went to a rodeo with some friends and enjoyed getting to see bull riding, barrel racing and the one armed bandit (this was a man with one arm who road a horse with huge buffalo in the ring), it was really cool and scary. They ended the night with a big firework show. We came home to organizing a "huge" garage sale to benefit our adoption expenses. Our church family all donated items so we could have this sale, it was a huge success and we raised $2010.00. WOW!!!!! We were hoping for around $700. I am so thankful for those who helped organize this event. What a blessing it is to have so many who can't wait for our sweet girl to come home. This week the kids started swim lessons and are having a blast, they could live in the water! They both are already swimming by themselves. On Wednesday we headed to the zoo, it was a fun day, the weather was perfect. We have no big plans for the rest of the summer and I am so glad. I am looking forward to just sitting, spending time with my family and friends.

Here are a few pictures of the fun things we have done in the last few weeks, enjoy!
Camping with Dad in the yard


The golfing cowboy!

Is he not the cutest cowboy you have ever seen?!

Kaylin and her new love....glasses!

Crash and Burn = 6 band aids and a very sad boy


Blake enjoying swim lessons


Fun times @ the Oregon Zoo

"52 Weeks of Thankfulness"

Week 3: My family (The Admire Family)
This past weekend we went on a family campout to Loon Lake. The lake was just beautiful and the weather was HOT, 95 degrees. This was a special weekend of being with family and to spend time with my uncle Rick who was diagnosed with Cancer recently. We had a fabulous time playing in the water and just being together. I am so very thankful for my moms side of the family. What an amazing blessing it is to have a family of 6 siblings and all their kids who love to be together. It seems so unusual these days to find a family that enjoys spending a lot of time together, and I can honestly say, We do and we have fun! We were missing 4 people this weekend and were very sad they could not make it, Jeff, Nicole, Kindra and Nick we missed you a whole lot.

New pictures of our sweet girl...Ava

I am so thrilled to have a girl with some curls in her hair. She is getting so big and has so much hair all the sudden. I can't wait to be with her, love on her and make her smile. Enjoy!

"52 Weeks of Thankfulness"

Week 2: My daughter Kaylin
This last week I was faced with the reality that my daughter is growing up way too quickly. I know it's not like it happend overnight, but it has brought me to tears so many times and I find myself thanking God over and over for the gift of her.

I am taught each day by her example of faith, trust, laughter, her zest for life, energy and honesty. She always amazes me with her love for God. We have many conversations about faith and what it means to live that out. She loves our church community. She loves worship! One of my favorite times is when she is showering and worshiping God as loud as she can the whole time (this is like her daddy), I know God must be smiling at the sound of her voice. She also has a very energetic, sassy side that is so playful and fun but can also get her in trouble. She is always making us laugh! She has a glowing smile that radiates her love for people and relationships. She is often performing (dancing and singing) her way through life. She is smart...sometimes a little to smart for her own good. Kaylin has developed a huge heart for those less fortunate then her. She volunteered the last half of the school year in a special needs class at her school and loved the kids so much, I never even knew until the last week of school, this mom was so proud. She has prayed faithfully for Ava and other kids in the orphanages and is brought to tears quite often, by carrying the burden of how they live, in her heart.

This girl is such a delight to have in our family! I am so thankful God chose us to parent her (most days, hehehe). I love you Kaylin and am so proud of who you are becoming. You make us smile!

Good Friends

On Saturday the kids and I were able to visit with my dear friend Amber. Amber and Isaac are some of Eric and I's close college friends. They moved to Indonesia 2.5 years ago to work in the mission field. Isaac is a missionary pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship and is loving every bit of his work. We are so proud of the work they do but miss them terribly. This is their first visit home since they moved and it was very fun to get together and let the kids play and catch up.

Happy Father's Day!

We had a fabulous day today! We went to church this morning, came home and had sandwiches for lunch, went on a long bike ride together and had ice cream at the DQ. This was the first time we were all able to ride our own bikes and we had a beautiful sunny ride on the Springwater trail. Its so nice to have many miles and miles of flat bike riding for the kids. This is exactly what Eric wanted and I know he had a great day.