Thanksgiving Trip

We were so blessed to celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday with our Church Family in Tennessee, AND our families in Cincinnati.

Wednesday night we were able to help serve Thanksgiving dinner to the Dream Center residents at Family Worship Center. Then it was off to Cincinnati to see both families and some good friends. The kids enjoyed a visit to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal where they got to see the traveling Egypt exhibit, the Holiday Train Station, and a visit with Santa. Davis wowed everyone by asking for cookies, waffles, and pancakes.

Homecoming

2 Years Ago......our son, Burke, arrived home. We are so blessed!

Hanging Out

Kolpin's favorite thing is Hanging out with Mama!
Amy made this fitted pouch carrier which is used daily at our house and beyond. The pouch keeps Kolpin close and secure where he can feel mama, smell mama, hear mama and be so snugly and warm. He'll often lay back and snooze, but recently he has enjoyed poking his head out and watching the world.

*Kolpin is Three-Months-Old*

Christmas Cheer

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Yes, we are a few days away from Thanksgiving, but we have been listening to Christmas music for the past month and now our house reflects our eagerness for Christmas. We have enjoyed decorating the tree, getting out the Christmas books, and setting up the nativity sets - all in preparation for celebrating the Birth of Jesus!
This is the biggest birthday party all year...and we wanted to get a head start!

Thankfulness

We are so incredibly blessed. Yet, we don't pause often enough to reflect on our many blessings. Thanksgiving is a perfect reminder to stop and thank God for the abundant gifts He has given. This year, the kids came up with a list and Hendrick wrote all 31 things (one for each day of November plus a bonus!) on paper to create our "Thankful Chain".

We are thankful for:

1. God 2. music 3. toys 4. our house 5. Maegli
6. Veggie Tales 7. Olive and Chaska (our dogs) 8. books 9. Kolpin
10. Daddy 11. our big table 12. Jesus died for us
13. our family 14. Mr. Jeff 15. wildlife 16. Mama 17. pencils
18. food 19. Hendrick 20. Daddy's job 21. our car
22. Davis 23. bugs 24. babies 25. Burke 26. my bed 27. Christmas
28. trains 29. homeschool 30. cookies 31. the zoo

What are you thankful for?

5:1

1 double stroller
+ 1 baby carrier
+ 1 Bible-Based Zoo Guide
+ 5 excited kids
+ 1 Mama
= a wonderful day outing to the Memphis Zoo

This mama was ready to get out of the house for the day and have a weekday adventure, so we took advantage of gorgeous weather and ventured to the zoo. We had a great trip: visiting our favorite animals, exploring the "new" Teton Trek, and having a romp on the playground. As an added bonus, all five kiddos fell asleep in the car on the way home - they were tuckered out after running all over the zoo!

Funny Talk

We talked with our local farmer while playing and taking Cotton Field pictures...he rightly deduced we aren't from around here because we talk funny and actually wanted to take pictures of cotton! To us, cotton fields are pretty exciting!

Wide Neck

What happened here?

1. We are bringing back the '80's-one-shoulder look (the legwarmers will be next).
2. We prefer wide-necked shirts for ease of dressing.
   
3. We have a 2-year-old who mouths everything, including his shirt collars, stretching them out!

Fall Boys

Green Baby

Kolpin and Maegli are our green babies. Our family has been using cloth diapers for over a year. We love how much money we're saving, the landfill waste we're reducing, and the diaper rash we've avoided...plus they're super cute!

Captured

11-Week-Old Smiles....Finally Captured!

Celebration

We had a great time at Hueston Woods Resort near Oxford, OH celebrating Amy's Mom. We appreciated having a great excuse to celebrate Mom for the weekend (60th Birthday!). The entire family stayed at the Lodge and Family Cabin at Hueston Woods where we enjoyed the Nature Center, playing with cousins by the lake, swimming with Grandpa, a private dining room for a birthday dinner, and s'more outside our decorated cabin.
*We also had the pleasure of watching the UC Bearcats win, vaulting them closer to a BCS Championship spot!

It was a great weekend - Happy Birthday Mom, we think you're pretty special!*We enjoyed a spectacular sky on our drive home*

True Colors

(Yes, that's our house)

10 Weeks

#2 and #4

November 1st - Ours

Gotcha! Two years ago today, Zerihun Atnafu from Kembata, Ethiopia officially became Zerihun Michael Young (Ethiopian tradition is that sons take their fathers' name - we changed his name when we re-adopted him in Tennessee). God saw us through a wild ten months, including a pregnancy and thousands of dollars showing up to pay for the adoption, to the day when an Ethiopian judge agreed Burke's best future was with our family in America. Only 30 short days later he arrived at the Cincinnati airport with Daddy and Grandpa to meet the rest of his new family.

We are so proud of our charismatic little Burke - our house would be empty without his charm and energy!