Pre-School Gradutation and Father's Day

Last week end my sister and her family where up to a wedding so they got to spend some time with us. In the picture above Tate was trying to teach Samuel how to ride his bike. It was so cute to watch. Tate was much more patient than I would have been. Sam still has some more practicing to do but we are hoping before the end of the summer he'll have it conquered.

We took the kids to the park and it worked out great for me. My sister has 4 older boys who are very helpful. So they each took a younger kid (their 2 younger sisters and my twins) and played with them. I got to sit and be lazy. It was so nice. They are great kids. Of course Aria and Zach loved the attention and the toys at the park. This face that Zachy is making above is one you will find on his face often.

Aria got to swing a lot. Every time she came to a stop one of her cousins was there to push her. She was pretty spoiled. She's not going to like going to the park with just her mom now. :)

Well I didn't get to take a picture of Travis and the kids on Father's Day this year. But I did find this picture that clearing depicts how much the kids love him. He is a wonderful dad and the kids love to play with him. The minute he sits or lays down on the floor the kids think it is play time. When I married Travis I thought he would be a good father or of course I wouldn't have married him, but I have be pleasantly surprised at how great of a father he is. The kids are blessed to have him as their father and I'm lucky to have found him. I love him dearly.

Aria has always loved shoes. But now she can put most of her shoes on by herself. This is the first time I noticed that she did and they were on the wrong feet. She was pretty proud of herself and I was proud of her too.

The kids love to be outside. But is seems no matter how big of yard you have for them they want to be on the other side of the fence. The grass is always greener on the other side, so they think. Anyway, they reach through the fence and grab rocks from the driveway and filter them through out the back yard. They have a great time but daddy isn't too happy about it.

This is Samuel's pre-school teacher Miss Jaci. He loved pre-school and learned lots. Miss Jaci was a great teacher and soooo full of energy. I don't know how she did it with 15 lively kids. Samuel keeps me hopping on his own. I will be sending the twins there in a couple of years and I know they will love it too.

Jaci put on a cute graduation for the parents. In this picture they are doing the "Brush your teeth" song. The little girl to Sam's left.... well lets just say they are good friend and couldn't keep their hands off of each other.

Grandpa and Grandma Porter got to come to Sam's graduation. He was very excited and proud to have them there. We are thankful for their love and support.

This is Sam and Aria on the train ride at Health Days. Aria doesn't look excited in this picture but she was and had a great time. Zach wasn't sure of the situation so he stayed with dad to be on the safer side.

Boot Camp!!

FYI!!!

My husband (Travis) is a trainer at the Smithfield Rec. Center. He is putting on a "Beach-Friendly" Boot Camp starting June 6th for six weeks. The class will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 pm for about an hour in the aerobics room. For members the cost is $125.00 and for non-members it is $145.00. For more information call the Rec. center at 563-0048 or you can email Travis at www.tsquared01.q.com.

I am really excited to take the class and of course I 'm very excited for him as this is his first class. I know he will do a great job and has a wealth of knowledge. I hope to see some of you there. Please no laughing at me. :)

Couldn't sleep so why not blog.....

We had a bit of spring in March and we took advantage of it. The twins are getting so brave. They will now go down the slides by themselves. Even the big ones. They had a blast.

Aria loves to put other peoples clothes on. She especially likes hats and shoes.

Zachy wasn't very happy about taking a picture with mommy. But I made him. He still is cute even though he is grumpy.

Sam is always ready and willing to get his picture taken.

He was much happier to take a picture with mommy than little brother was.

This was the first mowing of the lawn this year. All the kids were so excited to be outside. Sam loves to mow the lawn with daddy. It is one of the things I love to see. Father and son working along side each other. Of course, Sam sees it as fun for now.

Zach wasn't quite sure about the lawn mower. We barely got him to touch it.

Aria will do anything to spend time with daddy. Even if it is to just mow the lawn.

I was so excited to get out and weed my flower garden. I had plenty of help too. This is Samuel and Zachary helping. They helped so much that I found one of my flower plants cut to the ground. Thank goodness I have more than one flower plant.

The kids love being outside. Aria found she could fit her whole body in Sam's dump truck.

Sam tried to fit himself in the dump truck too.

Out of all my kids Zachy loves being out side the most. When Aria and Sam have decided they've had enough, Zach is still out side playing and exploring. He always comes in kicking and screaming. I love that he enjoys the outdoors.

It was Mother's Day this last Sunday and I have to say this is why I love being a mother and wife. I have a wonderful husband and 3 of the best kids around. They all bring so much joy into my life. I can't think of a better place to be then here with my family.

Grandpa and Grandma Rasmussen came for visit with their trailer. Samuel got to sleep out with them one night. He had a great time. In the morning they fixed us all a yummy breakfast.

Last week end Travis and I went to Lava Hot Spring for a couple of nights. Now the really cool story behind this is that it was given to us by my sisters. They booked the hotel and gave us spending money. They felt we needed some time alone. This past 6 months have been really busy and I've been gone a lot. So being the sweetest sisters I know they decided to take it upon themselves to get a couple of nights alone. Amy watched Samuel and he was so excited. He was also on a vacation. My parents watched Aria and Zach. They also loved the one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa. Travis and I had a very fun and relaxing time. We needed it more than we thought. Thank you Lori, Maria, Amy, Shea, mom and dad. This is a picture of us in our hotel. My camera ran out of batteries so I don't have any more pictures of the week end but we stayed up late watching T.V. , ate good food (and I didn't have to cook), sat in the mineral pools, met my sister Maria and Roger for the movie "Tron" (loved it), sat in the jetted tub in our room, slept in and just enjoyed each others company. Thanks again!

Adoption Update

I don't know how else to say this...but there is not going to be an adoption. They sent us a text last night saying they have decided to keep the baby. For those who don't know, he was born April 9th at 29 weeks. He is still in the NICU and doing pretty well. It has been a very long 6 months and we feel a great loss. But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger... Right? :) Our prayers will be with this little guy that he will continue to grow big and strong and be watched over. We are so grateful for the kids we have. They bring us so much joy and happiness. We still feel there is one more out there to complete our family. We are anxiously awaiting this little baby's arrival.

We also want to thank all of those who have gone through this journey with us. We have felt your love and support and could not have done it without you. We love you all.

Just catching up again.

We decided to take the kids sledding to a hill in Richmond. Well Sam had a great time and as for the rest of us (I'll just be honest) it was a ton of work and frustration. Zach didn't seem to mind going down the hills but Aria wasn't very happy about it. Of course carrying one kid in one arm and dragging the sled with the other free hand and then helping Sam after he kept losing his sled and putting gloves, hats and boots on over and over again wasn't the funnest. But we did it and next year will be fun as the twins will be able to walk better in the snow. But either way we were together as a family and I absolutely love that.

At the end of January Aria and Zachary got RSV. Aria ended up in the hospital for 2 nights and 3 days. I stayed with Aria and Travis was with Zachy and Sam. Zach just laid on daddy the whole time and Sam was a big helper. It was a scary time but they are doing great now. The nurses took great care of Aria and even brought her a brownie with a candle and a stuffed animal for her birthday. We celebrated the twins birthday a week and half later once they were feeling better.

The kids like to lick the beaters after I make a cake. Above is Samuel and below is Zachy.

Aria likes to sit by Samuel when watching a movie. It is funny at family prayer time she will go sit on Samuel's lap. She loves her big brother.

We celebrated the twins birthday on Feb. 9th (b-day Feb. 1st) Zach got a very noisy fire engine and he loves it.

Aria got a bike and she loves it too.

I can't believe they are 2 years old already. Where did the time go.

Big Announcement!!!! and update.

We are so excited!!! The twins' birth mom is blessing us with another baby! I wanted to announce this in a fun way but the twins weren't really wanting to cooperate so I'm forcing their hands. ha ha Regarding the picture above. When we first told Samuel, he said "I want two". We said "how about one at a time". We showed a video of the ultrasound to the kids and Aria kept repeating "baby". She loves babies and every time she see one she has to point it out to us. As for Zachy, at this point he is more interested in playing with the sign. :) I know he'll be excited once the baby gets here as when he sees my little niece he gets excited. Although he has pulled her off of the couch. YIKES!!! I'm going to have to keep an eye on him. The baby is 17 weeks 3 days along. I have been to all the doctor appointments and ultrasounds. I have never been involved through this much of the pregnancy and it has been so special. When I see the little baby on the screen and it has it's arms, fingers, legs and toes and it's moving around it just melts my heart. The baby is due June 26th. With the last ultrasound the doctor made a GUESS with the information in front of him and thought it could be a boy. I'm sure the next appointment we should know for sure. Sam wants to name it Jack so for now that is what we call the baby. We again are amazed at the miracle of adoption. It has GREATLY blessed our lives. We love both of our birth moms and thank the Lord for them every day.

This is Christmas morning with their new P.J's on. Samuel was so excited he could hardly stand it. As for Aria and Zachy... they weren't so sure.

Samuel and Zachy get along so well. They definitely have that brotherly love. Sam likes to play PBS and watch their videos. I came in to check on him and he had Zach up with him watching.

We finally decided to cut Zach's hair but before Travis started cutting, we did some fun styles with his hair. This is one of them.

Samuel has been going to preschool and just loves it. He is learning so much. He can now write his name. Not only is he handsome but smart.

I think Aria is going to be like her mommy...Loves Shoes! She loves to put on any shoes that may be lying around. These happen to be Sam's boots.

I just loved this picture of Zachary. If I remember right he is playing with daddy at this time. The minute daddy sits or lays on the floor, the kids think it is play time.

It is very hard to get a picture of all the kids together. As you can tell, I was barely able to keep Aria sitting. I just love my kids and feel so blessed to be their mommy. I love the way they have come to us and created our little family.

Happy Halloween!!

It was Travis's birthday on Nov 3rd. His parents came and celebrated with us. I think the kids were more excited about the gifts then he was.

For Halloween Samuel was a "Dinosaur Trainer". I got this costume at a thrift store for a $1.00. I was pretty excited and Sam loved it. He couldn't wait for the trick or treating part. Holidays are so much more fun when your kids get excited about them.

Aria as you can tell was a witch. She wasn't as excited at Sam was. ;) I changed her in to some black shoes as she could barely walk with these purple boots on. But she sure was cute.

Zachary was a Harlem Globe Trotter. Sam was this when he was Zach's age to and they both were adorable. He was a little bit more excited than Aria was but he wouldn't leave his head band on. I'm surprised I got this picture with it on.

We are remodeling our laundry room. Travis is above and Travis's mom is below. They both worked hard and still are working. I'll post the finished product. It will be so nice.

This was one of the last warm enough days for the kids to play outside. We got a bunch of leaves from our next door neighbors and put on our gardens. The kids had a blast in the leaves. They all love being outside but Zach could play out there forever. He is an explorer.