Today I'm thinking about my friend Melissa. Well, I have been thinking about them all week. On Wednesday they left for Thailand to bring home their little boy. Today is Saturday, which I think means it's Sunday in Thailand. If I'm right, they got to meet Kamin today for the first time. I can't even imagine the emotions they felt today. But, my thoughts are truly with them. And I can't wait to meet Kamin!

Children are a blessing regardless of how they come into our lives. But, adoption is a special thing. I thought I would take this opportunity to share some pictures from Joshua's adoption. Brian got Joshua and me as a package. When we got engaged, Joshua started telling people that, "In May Brian is going to be my dad." When we got married Joshua started calling him Dad, entirely of his own choosing. As soon as we could, we started the paperwork for Brian to adopt him. Here are the pictures from the hearing. The judge was a good sport too. He even gave Joshua the pen he signed the order with. The pictures are already scrapped so here is the page. (The scrapping isn't crooked, just the picture, lol)
Melissa, Lowell, Mikaela and Toby ~ I hope you are having an amazing time in Thailand. Can't wait to hear all about it!

Well, it's that time of year again. Back to school. I love going back to school. I love the routine of it. This has been the first summer that we have all been out of school together and it has felt like one long weekend. There has been no schedule, no consistant bedtime, no routine. Somedays, I couldn't even tell you what day of the week it was. Now that's bad!

But here we are on the first day of school. I have a hard time believing that Joshua is a senior in high school this year. Well, until I look at all the expenses of senior year. I'm not sure we will be able to afford college after this year. AND my baby is going to kindergarten! Wow, where has the time gone.
Here we are sporting our new backpacks. Notice that Joshua and Jacob have the same backpack in different colors. When did Jacob get to big for a character backpack? Last year, both of the little boys had transformers. This year, Nate is enthralled with Wall*E. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Wall*E backpack? I had to order it online. It has stars that light up; could it be any cooler?

Jacob was so excited for school to start that he wore his backpack around for most of the weekend before. There school has back to school night the Thursday before school started and the kids got to meet their teachers. Jacob also found that his best friend from kindergarten is in his class this year. I think it's going to be a great year for him. Here he is one the first day with his teacher, Mrs. J. Excuse the face, they were both looking right into the sun, but Mrs. J. still managed to smile!

Here is Nate by the door of his classroom. It's kindergarten, of course I took more pictures of him. He was less than thrilled with the whole idea of going to school.

Here he is with Mrs. G. She is a great teacher and I am happy that he has her. She was also Jacob's kindergarten teacher. I'm going to have to come up with a really good end of the year gift for her! I think we are going to have a long year.

You don't think so? Well, here is Nate in the first 10 minutes of class. The children were supposed to write their names on this sign in sheet. He was frustrated that he couldn't get it just perfect. I know we all have days like this. Unfortunately, the day only got worse for him.

After school, I asked him how his day went. He only said, "Bad." I asked what was bad about it. He said, "The teacher made me do everything." Then he told me that, "kindergarten is not fun like preschool." I asked him if he had any fun and he said, yeah, he got to play on the playground. So, it wasn't all bad.

Yesterday (Thursday), Nate finally had a good day at school, lol. I hope this is the start of something good. Maybe he just took a little longer to transition.

Am I proud Auntie? You bet I am. Meet my new nephew Luke. He is a big boy! He came into the world weighing 8lbs 11ozs and measuring 22 inches long. He do make little babies in my family. (I think I said that Dakota came in at just over 5lbs.) Here is Aunt Sheri and Baby Luke. (note: Brian does not take good photos. Maybe that is why there are rarely photos of me on here.)

I am tickled...well blue to have another little boy in my life. I am a boy mom through and though, and I love it. I love my niece too (I only have one) and it's fun to shop in the pink isle for her birthday and buy baby dolls for Christmas. But, I just really don't get girls, lol. I am not a girly girl either. I guess God knew what he was doing when he gave me boys! Here is my other boy, Shawn, with his baby brother. I think he is a proud big brother!
Either Luke is smiling at his big brother, or he has gas (although I never really understood that, because I don't smile when I have gas, tmi?). To me it looks like is has a milk high. Gotta love the content look on a baby with a full tummy.Here is my sister with her boys. I think this is a great pic, although you really can't see any of their faces. Faith was at the babysitter's house, so I didn't get to see her this day. I wonder what she thinks of her new brother.


I didn't get any photos of Brandon either. Poor guy, he looked like he hasn't slept in at least two weeks. My sister looks quite well rested. I wonder how that works... Congrats Deb and Brandon. You got a cutie there.

Luke ~ Welcome to this crazy thing we call a family. Good luck!

Just another summer day... Grandma's new apartment has a swimming pool and we have been spending a lot of time over there, well the boys have been since we have been busy this week. Here are the boys cooling off and having fun.
Jacob and Nate racing from one end of the pool to the other. I really need to get these guy swim lessons. Would some please give me a couple more days in the week? They love "swimming" with their life jackets, but I know they would not be safe without them. That's scary.

Here Nate is practicing floating on his back. We do this periodically to remind him what to do if he ever gets tired while in the water. I just thought this photo was too cute.

Brian and Joshua were playing a game of "throw the keys in the pool" and Jacob wanted to play. Because he had on his life jacket, he could not dive after the keys. So, Brian tossed them into the shallow end and Jacob picked them up with his toes. I big Thumbs up from big brother. He was quite please with himself. Silly boy.