Life is short!

There are so many things that have got me thinking about this-LIFE IS SHORT! Life has been soooo busy! Sometimes I find it hard to balance it all out! I will say first and foremost I'm having a blast this summer with my kiddos! We've been busy! We've done lots of fun stuff but I've also been more busy than I'd like to be and can't find time for other things like spending time with friends and the rest of my family. I also haven't found the time to post on here which bums me out because I like to keep track of all our happenings because it's all forgotten so quickly if I don't record it. I also want to say how blessed I am for the wonderful people I have in my life! I have an awesome husband and two beautiful children. I'm blessed with the greatest Mom and Dad,the sweetest and most loving mother-in-law you can ask for,an ambitious sister and brother, a cool brother-in-law, a sweet and caring sister-in-law that loves Aden and Gracie as if they were her own, and a neice and nephew who I love like my own kids. I also think of the father-in-law that I never got to meet because he was taken by cancer at a young age but I know he's watching over us everyday. I think how proud he would be of Shannon. This doesn't include all the rest of my family and friends that I've been blessed with. I also want to say what's on my mind everyday! I know people will think I'm crazy but I really don't care anymore! If you don't agree, it's o.k. I can live with it so here it goes, everyday I think of all the little orphans in the world now and that will come into this world and need a family. I think of how Shannon and I can make a difference in another child's life. I know raising children is hard work but it's also fun and rewarding. I'm not saying I'm ready now but it's in my heart and if the Lord continues putting this in my heart and if He puts it into Shannon's heart we WILL adopt again someday! I'm still waiting on His guidance, where, when, how and even if. I learned so much about who is in control during our adoption of Aden, it was a tough lesson but I try to never forget that lesson. Life is short and you never know when it might be over so follow your heart. I'm really trying hard to follow my heart because there has only been one time in my life I haven't followed my heart and there hasn't been a day that has gone by since that day that I haven't questioned my decision.

Happy Gotcha Day and Happy Father's Day!!

I still have not found the time to catch up on the past month or so of life but I wanted to stop for a moment to recognize this very special day!! It was 4 years ago about this time of day that Aden was placed in my arms 4 years ago!! It was a moment I will never, ever forget. The best moment of my life!! I can't imagine life without that special boy. He amazes me everyday and every time I stare into those deep brown eyes. It brings tears to my eyes to think of that moment 4 years ago when I first saw him in person, it's an almost unexplainable feeling. I held him tight in my arms tonight just as I did for the very first time 4 years ago and told him of that moment we first met he just grinned and said "Can we do that again?". Also, a Happy Father's day to my Dad whom I am so thankful to have. He gave me a great foundation and I attribute much of who I have become to the way he raised me. Thanks Dad! Also, a Happy Father's Day to my hubby who got to enjoy the day just relaxing. Thank you for being a great husband and father! I am so blessed!!!!

It's been awhile!!

Life has been very hectic over the past month so the time for sitting down to post here hasn't happened but this week I hope to catch up on the past month's activities. It's Monday so we'll see what the week brings but I really need to get to it before I forget everything that has went on. Nothing really, really exciting I don't think just busy!

Special Mommy and Daughter Time!

This morning after taking carpooling the kids to school I had made special plans for Gracie! I took her for her first manicure and pedicure! I knew she would love it because she loves for me to paint her nails. She did!! She just sat there and let them pamper her with a huge smile on her face and little giggles. Then when they got to her toes she just loved the bubbles on her feet. She kept wanting the girl to leave the bubbles on it took some convincing by me to get her feet out of the water so they could paint her nails. She picked out the faintest pink for her fingers and the brightest purple for her toes. It was lots of fun! Then we still had gymnastics too!

34 years old!!

My hubby turned 34 years old!!! I can't believe we're even in our 30's already! Wow, time has really went by fast. I took him out to dinner the weekend before his actual birthday to his favorite "fancy" restaurant. We had a great time spent 3 hours just relaxing, eating the most wonderful food and enjoying good company! His actual birthday was Saturday and he was busy in the field, preparing the ground for planting. We actually starting planting corn yesterday. He had initially thought he would wait until after the rain we're suppose to get tomorrow but after it didn't rain like they said it would yesterday he just decided to get thing moving. We have I think if I'm figuring right around 1000 acres to plant this year so it's time to get things going. O.K., back to the birthday. The kid's and I baked and decorated Daddy's birthday cake while he was busy in the field. The kid's made birthday cards and Aden decided he wanted to give Daddy his favorite clock book as a birthday present, it really was so sweet. We celebrated throughout the day by making some of Daddy's favorite foods. Breakfast was homemade mini cinnamon rolls, lunch was homemade pizza and dinner was enchilada's and birthday cake. We sang Happy Birthday at least 3 times because the kids were so cute singing it and I loved seeing the big grin on Daddy's face!!

Easter Weekend!

It was an enjoyable weekend spent with the Richardson Crew. Most arrived Thursday evening, we ordered pizza's and just played catch up on all the happenings with each other. We met baby Ty for the first time and is he a cutie! He's is the chubbiest little guy, big chunky cheeks and short chunky legs. Very happy and content baby. When Darcie arrived it was quite a shock because although we had seen her in August and she had lost quite a bit of weight, she had lost even more since then and looked great. She has lost 100# by going to Weight Watchers and is still trying to lose more. She looked like a different person. We girls got up early on Friday and headed to the nail salon. We all got manicures and pedicures. It was so relaxing. They opened the salon early so we all could come in together before the Friday crowds started. It was great having to whole place to ourselves. After we were done there we shopped just a little until it was time for lunch and then headed to Hacienda for lunch. We enjoyed good conversation without any little interruptions if you know what I mean. We had one more stop to make after lunch because the Easter Bunny needed a little help with his shopping. We came home and relieved the Daddies from their duties and the little ones rested and took naps. We then all got together for dinner. As always we had a ton of food. We always end up with more food than we need but I would rather have too much than not enough. The remainder of the crew arrived Friday evening including Paul's girlfriend Emma! We haven't seen her in a close to 3 years. Her and Paul were apart for probably a year while she was in college and Paul move to Washington D.C., and then her family moved to New York so she wasn't around anymore. It was really great to see her and she is just doing great. She is now getting ready to start school in Pennsylvania to become a physician's assistant. Saturday we headed out to the fairgrounds where the Lion's Club was hosting the annual Easter Egg Hunt. The kid's had fun! After the Easter Egg Hunt we took the kid's to the the Learning Center(one of the two business my sister owns) to play.The kid's love playing there. It's a therapy center and a preschool. The specialize in providing therapy for autistic children but also do speech, physical and occupational therapy. They do a special kind of therapy called, ABA, it's proving to really make a difference for children with autism. We then went to the mall to get our traditional picture with the Easter Bunny. The kids all did great. It was the first year in quite a while that not one child was crying or had to be held in order to get them in the picture. Then guess what, it was time for lunch!! We had lunch at Harvey Hinkelmeyers which was great as always. After lunch we headed home for egg painting. We colored 36 eggs and the kid's had a blast. We just hung out and relaxed until it was time to prepare dinner. The guys hung out visiting and playing some games. Usually they like to hang out on the farm but it was freezing cold all weekend, not much fit for being outdoors. There was some card playing after dinner. The kids were exhausted after the busy day and no naps. Everybody slept good that night. The Grandparent's hid Easter eggs all over the yard on Sunday and the kids had fun hunting for them. When Aden and Gracie woke up Sunday morning Aden's first words out of his mouth were "Gracie let's go see what the Easter Bunny filled our baskets with". After everyone left on Sunday we kept busy getting everything back in order again. We're looking forward to July when we'll see them again for Heather and Jeremy's wedding.

Easter Weekend Pictures

O.K. two comments. First, I think I'm going to buy a new camera this week because I can't believe how many of my pictures were messed up from the one I'm currently using. I won't end up with the one I really want at this point but it will have to be better than this. Pictures are too valuable to have them ruined by spots and blurry lines through them! Second, if anyone can explain to me how to get my pictures in the order I want them published on this blog I would appreciate the tips, they are in almost the perfectly opposite order I wanted them! HELP!

Date Night, Movie Time and an Anniversary!

Friday night Shannon and I went out by ourselves. We had dinner and then went for ice cream. It was really nice to spend some quiet time, just the two of us. We had a really nice dinner and it was great being able to just sit and talk. Saturday afternoon we took the kids to the movie, we saw Charlotte's Web. It's was fun except for taking Gracie to the bathroom about 4 times during the movie. I guess we should have gotten smaller cokes!! On Sunday, April 1st was a special day. It was 16 years ago that Shannon and I went on our first date. It brought back some special memories from that day 16 years ago and some laughs too. Thinking back the day before our first date Shannon showed up with Rodney, my now brother-in-law at our house after Easter Sunday Service. I remember this well because Shannon sported a bow tie that we still have to this day sitting in a drawer in our roll top desk!! O.K., I decided this was worth getting out and taking a picture of, you will love this!! To think, I fell in love with an 18 year old man that wore a bow tie to church in 1991. Please don't ask him what I wore on that first date, it always gets a good laugh when we talk about it now. Yes, I admit I was a little dorky but Shannon fell in love anyway and according to him it happened that night!

The Bow Tie

Easter Weekend!

Well, I'm busy this week preparing for Easter weekend. For the past 30 years we have gotten together with our friends from Michigan. We moved to Indiana when I was 3 and my sister was 5 years old. Since then our friends whom were previously our neighbors in Michigan have come so we can spend the Easter weekend together. It started out as just our family of 4 and their family of 5 and then 6 years later turned into 10 when my brother was born. It has grown to 23 this year between the marriages, children and boyfriend/girlfriends we've added along the way. This includes 7 young children, 5 of which are 4 and under. We all divide up between my house, my sister's house and my parents house. They usually all arrive on Thursday evening although a few will not be arriving until Friday evening this year. All the Mom's will head out on Friday morning for pedicures and manicures and most likely some lunch before returning home to relieve the Dad's from the little ones so they can go have some free time. One tradition we have is on Saturday we take all the kid's to the Easter Bunny to get their picture taken with him. We squeeze all the kids into one picture and get enough copies for everybody. I'm looking forward to meeting the newest addition to the group Ty whom was born in October. It's always great to get together with the Richardson Crew as it always seems like you've never really been apart, it's like we always just pick right up where we left off.

Gracie's 3rd Birthday Party!

Grandma McClain and Gracie
Aunt Tonya, Grandma McClain and Gracie

It's taking me awhile to get around to posting this because I was waiting on the pictures. I ended up using my sister's camera because my was acting up AGAIN! I'm about ready to break down and buy one to get me through until I get the one I really, really want. Anyhow, we had a fun Minnie Mouse Party! Gracie was so excited about it. She wanted to know if "everybody" was coming to her party. She really couldn't wait to get her hands on the cake and ice cream part but once we go there she ended up eating very little she just wanted to play with all her new toys. We opened presents first because we made a huge meal for everyone before the party so we were not quite ready for cake and ice cream. She was so cute opening her presents and after she opened her first gift from Aunt Tonya she turned around to Aunt Tonya and said (in the cutest voice ever) "thaaank you so much Aunt Tonya!" One of her favorite gifts has to be this little purple microphone that Grandma got her. She goes around just singing with it, she holds it right up in front of her face and just sings and sings. She just really loves everything. She also got the cutest scooter from Papa and Nana which she keeps at their house. She is so funny on it, just scoots and scoots around on that thing forever. It's really great for coordination it seems. Well as soon as my sister returns from vacation with her camera I will try to get all my pictures posted. I have a few I took before the party and before my camera started acting up really bad, I will post them here but be looking for the rest later. These pictures have some red spots and are not the most clear but you get the idea.

A Sneek Peek at the Birthday Cake! SHHHH!

It's top secret but I thought I would give you a peek at Gracie's birthday cake. It is my no means professional but I have made it a tradition to make the kid's birthday cakes. Gracie is having, you guessed it a Minnie Mouse theme! I always decorate their cakes after they go to bed the night before the party. I started doing this with Aden's 1st birthday. Besides this picture of my most recent cake I will show you some others I've made. I don't think I have them all on digital but I will post the ones I do have. I can't wait until Gracie and Aden wake up in the morning so I can show them the finished cake. They will be so excited!! By the way, they always taste better than they look!!!!!

Birthday Cake Round Up

O.K., I did have them all on digital! Here's how it goes: the red barn-Aden's 1st, #1 and butterfly-Gracie's 1st, the tiger and elephant-Aden's 2nd birthday, Hello Kitty-Gracie's 2nd birthday, Mr. Incredible-Aden's 3rd birthday and Thomas the Train-Aden's 4th birthday. I had to also post a picture from Aden's 1st birthday with the RED cake all over him. Oh my, was it ever a mess. That red stained his hands for a day or so! He had it everywhere too! It was great!!

Gracie's 3rd Birthday!!

I can't believe my baby girl is 3 already!! I'm not ready for my little angels to grow up!! We are having her actual birthday party on Sunday. Yesterday, on her actual birthday we took cupcakes to Mommy's morning out for her to celebrate there with all the kids. We picked her and Aden up and Daddy, Aden and I took her out to lunch. The kid's chose Mike's Pizza. Gracie wasn't much into eating though. She actually was pretty ornery all day. You're not suppose to me that way on your birthday, are you? Oh well, I just hope that she's in a good mood on Sunday when we have her birthday party. She's been in a great mood today. I think she may have just been tired yesterday. We gave her just a couple of small birthday presents for her to open on her actual birthday and she was thrilled. She got a Barbie and a Mermaid puzzle. It was a busy week. Wednesday, Grandma, Aunt Tonya and I took Aden and Gracie to Indy. We took Gracie to get her 3rd birthday picture at Picture People. She did great posing and all but she didn't hold still very long so it was a little tough to get really good pictures. Although they took so many we ended up with some good ones. She loved every bit of it! We shopped a little then headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch!! YUM!! It is soooooo good. Aden was such a big boy putting his napkin on his lap and being sooooo polite to the waitress!!! They both did really well the whole day. It was a fun day with Grandma and Aunt Tonya!!