Ok Mom...I'll update the blog!

Yeah, yeah...I really suck. We've had Easter, Jacob's birthday, Liyah's 3rd happy family day and lame-o blogger Mom here has not updated since early April! Pretty sad when your Mom has to shame you into updating your blog. Anyway, here goes...

April: Jacob's birthday. We had his party at Chuck E Cheese, and much to my surprise, it was one of the funnest and easiest parties we've ever done. Jacob and his friends had a blast, and even got to dance with the giant rat (woohoo)

I think Tom may have enjoyed that a bit more than Jacob : )

I can't believe my little "baby" boy is already 8 years old! We love you so much Jacob! You are the sweetest, kindest, most awesome little boy with a true heart for God.

MAY

Hanna has been home now for over 4 months and she was definitely made for our family. She just has the best little personality and we all just love her so much.

We had our Ethiopia group gathering in May and Hanna got to see her buddy, M from the Hannah's Hope home they were together at in Ethiopia. We have so many wonderful families in our group and we just love seeing more and more beautiful children coming home!

So far this summer, we've been to the zoo a couple of times. We LOVE the zoo! We are quite the

crew when we go too : ) I think the animals may fear US.

I promise to post swimming pictures soon. Oh...last but not least, we finally got a new family picture done! So here we are...the Casa de Chaos crew! Happy summer and love to you all!

Baby girl turns 2!!!!

My sweet Hanna turned two the day before Easter. We were blessed to have some of our aunts and uncles here for her birthday and had a nice family celebration at Grandma's house. Of course she had to have an Elmo cake!

Mom and Jesse helped with the candles...

And Daddy helped open presents.

Aunt Kimmie provided the "bling" and the awesome Princess/ballerina/fairy outfit!

We also colored our Easter eggs that evening which was so much fun for all the kids.

We LOVE you Hanna Ruth! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Playing Catch-up!

Oh, I'm so far behind! Hanna's been home three months now, just turned two and I'm back at work. Where does the time go!? So now I'm gonna try to play some blog catch-up. I'll start with life at home with Hanna so far....

That pretty much describes it...she's a star! Sweet, funny, smart...with an amazing temper! She has just taken over the house and all of our hearts. I was so worried that she would be afraid of the dogs, but she LOVES them!...not sure if that is mutual at this point : )

We all adore her, but her big brother Jesse is especially enamored with her. Enough to play "princess" with her and actually smile for the picture.

And, speaking of my sweet, Jesse...my baby boy turned six just a few weeks ago!

He and his big brother share a laugh with his birthday card over breakfast...

And, after a great backyard barbeque with family and friends, he shows off his "Agent P" birthday jammies and new "mighty beans". (If you don't know what these things are, you are better off...if you are parent of young boys...you know.)

Next up...Hanna turns two and Easter pics....hopefully I'll get them posted before the kids start college : ) I am so blessed!

Rock Star, Baby!!!! 3 Weeks Home.

Hanna is truly a rock star at our house right now. She loves music and really LOVES big brother's electric guitar...Thanks again, Aunt Kimmie ; ) She bobs her head and snaps her fingers to any beat. She and sissy are pretty funny rockin' out, side-by-side in Momma's minivan!

Album cover...

I can't really believe it's been three weeks since we came home with Hanna...only one month since we the day we met her; it's just so surreal. You wait and wait for soooo long and angst so much and sweat and pack and overthink and freak out, etc, etc. It's just really so strange when suddenly you're like "wow, we've already made that trip, been home for three weeks, and it seems like we've just always been here, just like this."

Hanna is just doing amazing. I almost feel guilty saying this because I know how difficult this journey can be, and we've been blessed AGAIN with a sweet, funny, confident, smart, good eating, good sleeping little girl. I almost feel afraid to say it to because I know we're still in the "honeymoon" period and I certainly don't want to jinx myself : ) She tells us when she needs to "ca ca"...and she does it, signals when she's done and assumes the position to be wiped. Too funny, but I am grateful for the non-poopy diapers!

She is really melding well with all the kids and our house is chaos at best, but so fun and full of laughter (and a few screams and meltdowns here and there). I am thrilled (and again fearful) to say that last night she slept in her own bed, in her OWN room! We put her bed down in her room with rails and all the kids piled in for the fun, so she loves is now and has done, so far, pretty well sleeping in it. This is just night two though, so we'll see. I do miss having her snuggle up to me in my bed, but she seems to sleep better by herself. She also got a big FIRST...SNOW! I think she liked it for about five minutes, and then decided she missed the gorgeous 78 degrees ofEthiopia!

XOXO,

Casa Crew

Two weeks home.

Yay for Saturdays! We have been home two weeks now and Hanna is settling in quite well. She is sleeping much better, although still waking up a few times a night and still getting Mommy up most days around 5 ish. I do love my snuggles though! I can honestly say at this point going from three to four kids has really not been much different, just now we have a toddler who requires a lot of attention and can't really tell us what she wants all the time. She does an excellent job of communicating most things, but any toddler gets frustrated from time to time with not being able to just "say" what they want. The kids all act like we just always been a family of six. I love the way that are all melding together...our family really does feel complete now. The girls pretty much have decided they are rockstars and run the house...which they do : )

SAY WHAT?!!!

I had to post this picture...I took "L's" braids out last week and combed her hair out. It has gotten so long...she had quite the "fro". So far Hanna is eating pretty much everything and anything...but has a special appreciation for Chocolate pudding and salsa...that's Mommy's girl!

More updates soon!