Christmas with the family...

The family exchanged gifts the night we arrived in South Carolina. 

It's fun, because it was like an extension of Christmas when we got here.

It's so fun being back home in SC.

Just Dance 3.

Long family dinners with mom's fabulous cooking each night.

Sister time.

The Lil guy and Peyton chasing each other around and loving on each other.

Snuggling with my baby boy, Peyton.

Shopping with my mom.

Biking with the family.

Coffee in the morning and after dinner. 

Late, Late, LATE night talks with lil sister.

Shopping and styling advice from big sister.

So many parts of this visit that is so precious.

Can I say what a blessing my parents are to me and my husband?

We got some much needed encouragement and advice about parenting.

They are full of wisdom...a life time of wisdom and experience.

Their loving talk brought both Ryan and I to tears.

They said just the thing we needed to hear.

I am so glad to be home.

memories to be made...

The last night in Kansas, we had to take out annual pajama picture.

Each year we take some:)

They always come out so cozy and fun.

 After a weekend back home in Storm Lake for Christmas Eve and Christmas church services,

we headed out for the drive to SC.

We drove and drove and drove and stopped in Indianapolis, where we stayed at a hotel.

Taking a kid to a hotel with a pool for the first time in his life was a BLAST.

and the memories are still continuing to be made!!!:)

Made it to my family and enjoying being in the beautiful state of South Carolina!!!

Christmas with the Brandenbergers:)

Spending Christmas with the Brandenbergers is always a sweet treat.

We get to spend Christmas with both families this year, and we're so thankful to be able to go.

 Actually, Ryan and Katie are actually not feeling too great this time around, but it's still nice to be able to spend the time together as a family. 

And as the day as gone on, both of them have been feeling much better:)

Opening gifts a littler earlier for Christmas since we're here. 

Wow! Just so thankful! I look at what we've been given and  have given I'm just thankful for the thought into the gifts and the fun of opening them together! 

 I got new owl pajamas from Katie and the SWEEEETEST owl vintage purse. 

 Early Merry Christmas to everyone!!! 

3rd grade concert

 Getting three kids ready for a third grade concert was crazy and yet so fun.

Everyone was running back and forth in the house, trying to get their hair ready, get dressed, and asking, "what do i wear???" or "Do I look good like this??!!!" 

We had a full house of people while everyone was rushing back and forth getting ready.
Right after school, i had three 3rd graders and two highschoolers until the concert, so we played a few games together, ordered a couple pizzas, and headed to the school.

Such a fun night full of fun memories.

Here are two of our high school supporters;). 

They're two people who are wonderful with the kids that we are involved with. We can usually count on them to cheer for the kiddos and be extra support and encouragement:). 

Each child got their individual shot by the tree...

Again, i can't show our lil guy's pics, so  many of our great pics aren't going to be online, but here are some of our sweet friends that we had the privilege of going to the concert with.

Karen did this lil gal's hair for the concert. They two ladies turned out guest bathroom into  pamper room for her:).

Damian decided to go with his hair completely spiked up like an anime character.

When I asked, "are you sure you want to go like that?"

He said, "Oh, yes! I LOVE my hair!"

I had some extra boys shirts just his size donated by a couple of wonderful ladies that I work with, so Damian went to the concert looking absolutely handsome.

I tell ya, this kid is growing up fast.

The concert was so fun. Probably the most fun of all the ones we went to this past week...I'll let the pics show you. 

Damian had the big important part of Santa Claus.

Sweet boy, I about teared up every time I heard your voice on the speaker.

3rd grade class.

 

It was SUCH a fun night.

It ended with a special treat of seeing one of my favorite girls ever...one of my favorite students and camper from Summer Sizzle was at the concert! Karen and I were thrilled.

Christmas is full of such fun special things.

The Christmas concert was just one of those many things that we'll get to look back on years away from now.

The night with three crazy 3rd graders, two highschoolers, my hubster, and myself made me look forward to the days that we have a full house of kiddos. 

It was such FUN. I can't even describe how exciting and fun it was for me to have everyone getting ready for the concert.

I felt like i was getting these kids ready for prom. 

and i teared up with each thing they did. 

pardon the delay

My apologies on updating my blog.

My blog is usually the first place I go with pictures or stories or updates.

However, most of what I've been taking pics of usually have to do with our little foster boy.

and I can't post pics showing who he is or disclose any info on him.

so that's my excuse, i know, probably not a very good one.

But so much has happened in the past couple months!!!

I'll let pics tell you the story of the past couple of months:).

we went to Kansas for thanksgiving.

These are ryan's toys from when he was a kid.

He brought them out and it entertained our lil guy for hours over the weekend.

 It's always so good to see our family.

Such a refreshing time monkey in' around with Katie again;)

 She got tired;).

 Here's the early morning hour after a snow day in our home. I love the serenity of our main room when there is the warm lighting of the Christmas tree and the white snow background outside the window.

 We always celebrate birthdays with this family:)

This month we celebrated Damian's 10th birthday. 

TENTH!!!

I can't believe he's already ten.

This night on his birthday I had this conversation with him while it was just the two of us in the car...

*true story*

"Damian, I can't believe you're ten already. I remember when I first met you. You were a little shrimp of a kid cuz you were in f1st grade and it was my first day of work at the school.

You punched a kid and it was my first recess duty ever and when i tried to talk to you about punching the kid you RAN CIRCLES AROUND ME and called me the "B" word!!!"

He reached over and hugged my arm while I was driving and he goes, 

"I know!!! I'm SORRY!!!!!" 

We both laughed at the memory and then while he was still hugging my arm he looks up at me and said,

"But then...you told me about Jesus."

Boy, i tell you, that made my heart skip a beat and melt. 

here we go to the many wonderful memories of the past couple months.

I wish i could show you some of my favorite sweetest cutest pics of our lil guy, but i can't. 

More to come though!:)