Daddy and Addie Acrobats!

A little fun playtime after dinner. I don't know if I would be so brave after a big meal. :) Addie loves goofing off with her Daddy!

So high!

They are looking in a mirror. Addie couldn't get over her head being so close to the ceiling.

Now down for the drop, safe in Daddy's arms. Well, not safe from a tickle though!

My Ballet Baby

Josie decided to follow in her big sister's footsteps. She is now enrolled in a ballet class this year! She is really enjoying it, and I'm enjoying watching her. Josie has such a delicate and graceful way, and ballet just brings it out more. :)

They keep the door to the class open once a month so we can watch what they are learning. I decided to take my camera and I got some cute shots.

Eighty Five Years Young

Sunday we were able to celebrate with Josh's grandpa his 85th birthday! What a fun day it was. I said to Josh as we were going back home late that night how it felt like a holiday. He said "It is. When you have a family like ours, Grandpa's birthday becomes a holiday". I couldn't have put it better!

We sure missed Ben and Emily who live in Texas. Everyone else was able to make it out though. We enjoyed two delicious meals, and lots of visiting, and what Mathew get together is complete without a nap?

The kids spent most of their time outside watching the neighbor harvest soy beans. They must have thought these kids were crazy watching them for hours. Crazy? No. City kids? Yes.

This visit made me very excited for the upcoming holidays soon approaching. What a great day!

Giving Great Grandpa his gift.

We gave him 85 Hershey kisses and 85 kisses on a card. :)

Grandma reading a family favorite.

Group hug!

Little Ones

I never knew how special a first born child really was in a family until I had my own. When Emma came into the world, I became a Mom. I learned a lot with her, and there is a special spot in my heart that only she will have.

That being said, I never thought Josie and Addie would have their own little special spots in my heart, but they do. With Emma gone at school full time now, I've got to see a different side of things.

Josie doesn't play the roll of little sister then, but she plays the big sister. The teacher. The protector.

Addie can be heard now. When Emma is at school, it is Addie who becomes the talker. Much like her oldest sister, Addie has something to say about everything!

I do miss Emma while she is at school. More than I ever thought I would. You hear moms make jokes about summer vacation being over and them rejoicing because their kids will be back at school, but I didn't feel that way. Emma is one of my closest friends and I miss her when she is gone. I am glad that I have been able to share these special times with my younger two though. Ah! I just love my girls!

Birthday Blessings in a Box

Uncle Ben and Aunt Emily sure do know how to make Josie happy!

Josh too for that matter! Thank you for the birthday presents for Josie and Josh!

Black and Whites

I decided to enjoy the overcast day we had today by taking some pictures of the girls outside. I love taking outdoor shots when the lighting is just right, and there are no squinting faces.

I also was in the mood to do some black and white shots. These seem to come out a lot better when there is not direct light as well. If you click on the picture, it will enlarge for you.

Here is Emma. It is hard to get a good shot of her these days. She is now getting older, and wanting to look a certain way, so it is hard to get a real smile out of her. This one was close.

Addie's hair was so full and golden. I have better shots in color, but this was the best black and white.

Josie was so fun to shoot today. She was still a little sleepy, so most of the silliness I get in a lot of shots lately were not awake yet. :) This was my favorite of the shoot.

This one is Josh's favorite. He likes the movement in it.

Tuesday Morning Cheer

I need some of this today. When it is gloomy and cold, and not even a week into Autumn yet. When one of your children got you up in the middle of the night, and you couldn't go back to sleep. When your oldest spills and shatters a cereal bowl full of milk all over her and the kitchen on your way out the door to take her to school (...and on her uniform. Did I mention the uniform? This would be the only clean one left. Yeah. That one.) When you try to do something nice, and it comes across all the wrong way. When you have to go into work, when you'd rather be at your Mom's and Toddlers group...

Why hello cheerful one. You remind me to keep smiling today.

Joy Worth Waiting For

Words cannot describe how I am feeling tonight. Having just witnessed one of the most beautiful and touching moments of my lifetime, I am left speechless.

God is so perfect. He is so amazing. To see the answer to so many, many prayers come true in one evening was...WOW. That is all I can say.

I want to let Brad and Rachel tell the story, and I am sending them all the photos, but as you wait to hear from them, whether in person or by blog, I just wanted to leave you with these four photos.

Home Coming Like No Other...

Today we are going to witness the end of a journey for two very good friends of ours. Today Matthew James Seok-wu will be leaving Korea and finally coming home!

If you haven't yet checked out Brad and Rachel's blog, you should. What an amazing story they have as they trust God through this adoption journey! God is so good!

So, for now I am off. I need to put something in the crock pot for dinner and get the ballet/tap clothes out. My wonderful Dad is going to watch the girls today and a friend is taking Emma and Josie to dance class so we can be there in Chicago when Matthew comes. They have asked me to take pictures and Josh to video. We are both so excited!

Not too long now, and I'll get to meet this cutie! Please pray for the Hunts for everything to go smoothly today.

Just Plain Beat!

Have you ever been just SO exhausted that you just collapse where you are?

I feel like our whole family has felt that way this past week. Just beat.

What do you think?

Football and Family

This past weekend we were beyond blessed to be able to visit some family in Indiana. For at least three years now, Josh and I have been saying that we'd like to go to one of our nephew Winston's football games. This year we were determined to make it happen. We asked Ken (his dad, and also coach) when would be the best time to come see Win play. He gave us a couple weekends, and we ended up picking this one, because Saturday was also Winston's twelfth birthday!

We really enjoyed seeing Ken and Winston's team play (and win 13-0!!!), and it was so fun for the girls to play with their other cousin Cora. Josh and I also loved being able to catch up with Ken and Chris for a little while.

It was a whirlwind weekend, but I'd do it again if I could!

Ken coaching his son, #17 Winston! :)

Here we are trying to get a picture with our nephew. We were so proud! Josie quite resembles a certain uncle of hers...

Winston blowing out twelve candles. I thought it was cool how the candle light left a green reflection on my lens.

You know that your nephew is getting older when he requests red velvet cake for his birthday. I don't think I even knew red velvet cake existed until I was in my early twenties! This was the most delicious red velvet cake I ever had too. That's because my sister-in-law is a master in the kitchen. Way to go, Chris!

Wonderful Weekend and Creepy Creature

I don't have a lot of time tonight to tell you about our super fun weekend in Indiana celebrating our nephew's twelfth birthday with the family. I will have to tell you about that tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait to share this:

Think this is from an amazing zoom shot on my camera?

Well, that is not the case.

No zooming required! Look at the size of this caterpillar! I can't believe we found this in southern Indiana!!! Papua New Guinea? Yes. Not in Indiana though. I get the heeby jeebies just looking at this puppy.

Anyone want to move to the Hoosier state? I can't think I will ever be talked into THAT!

Oh, and he wasn't trying to make a call, I just wanted to use something for you to measure him against. I thought of my hand, but there was no way I was going to put my hand even close to this green guy. Seriously. I had to have Josh put my phone next to him.

When Boredom Gets the Best of Me

Okay, so I guess technically I am not really bored. I do have plenty of things to do. I was just not wanting to tackle the third load of laundry this morning. :)

Let's be honest, Josie's hair is just super thin. I have no idea how this can be. My hair used to break hair ties after only being wrapped around twice when I was a little girl. My hair is very thick, and full. Josie's though...not the case.

The problem is, Josie has a dream. Her dream is to grow her hair as long as Rapunzel's. She wants to have long golden locks of braided hair. I'm sorry, but it's not going to happen. Well, when she is four anyhow. It could get thicker as she grows, right? Someone please say that is? Anyone?

Today I finally convinced her to let me "trim" her hair a bit. Just so it will grow more evenly. Unfortunately she is a wiggler. Something I conveniently forgot from the last hair cut. So, her hair is significantly shorter than "Just a trim", but to my joy she actually likes it.

Here is a picture of Addie and Josie at the park a couple of weekends ago. Notice the thing, stringy wisps of hair?

A little "before" shot.

Here is the back of her new haircut.

Here is the front. To be honest, I don't even notice the hair. She has got one of those faces that just light up a room. Man oh MAN! I just LOVE that girl!

They Like to Keep You on Your Toes...

Dogs that is. I don't think kids do that, do they?

Sonny is a pretty mellow dog for the breed he is. Jack Russell terriers are known for their energy. Sonny is actually pretty chill.

Chill, that is until neighbor kitty sits against the fence and takes a bath, or decides to nap under the window. At that point Sonny can not be described as mellow at all.

So, the other day I see Sonny looking out the window and he is just sitting there, staring. I think to myself "Could this be? Is Sonny getting used to neighbor kitty?" Alas, it is not so. Neighbor kitty was not there, but something else to amuse our furry friend.

"Well, what did you expect? I'm not a bird dog. I'm more of a cat man myself"

It was the First Day in the First Grade...

I really can't believe I am a mom to a first grader! I remember my first grade so well: the smell of the markers, thinking I had to like "hot pink" as my favorite color to fit in with the other girls, the little boy named Tommy who sat next to me and peed his pants all the time, already trying to get boys to like me (oh man, I am NOT ready for that!).

Alas, this is not MY first grade experience I'm sure you all want to hear, but rather Emma's. In her words "Today was the best first day ever!" She really liked everything about today except for one thing. She accidentally chose strawberry milk to drink with lunch (thinking it was juice). I guess if that is the worst thing to happen, that would make today the best first day ever. :)

If you have a moment, please look at last year's post as she went off to kindergarten. So small, so scared. It was not like that at ALL today.

I am so proud of my big girl. Way to go, Emma!

My big girl. Thankfully it stopped raining just long enough for me to take a couple of pictures.

All set for first grade!

Twins?

I baked muffins last night for the married ladies chapel that I was hosting this morning. Yes the first day of school of ALL mornings! How did I wind up with that schedule conflict? I need to fire my personal assistant...

Anyhow, as I was baking these most delicious of raspberry muffins, I cracked an egg and proceeded to find this:

What exactly would cause this? Is there such a thing as chicken twins? Oh, and I need to know, does this count as one egg or two? Answers people! I need answers!!!

Growing Girls

As today officially winds down the last day of summer vacation for Emma, I decided to make room on my camera so there would be room for pictures of her first day of school tomorrow. When I was looking at these pictures, I realized that the girls have grown a lot this summer!

Emma's front teeth are almost all the way in! She also just got new glasses.

I can't even believe this one! Josie apparently thought that since she turned four she has a license to grow up. I don't know if I like that...

Addie is as blonde and curly as ever. Here she is at the top of a very tall play structure that took a LOT of coaxing and finally some help from Papa for her to go down the slide. She may have inherited my fear of heights. Lets hope not.

So, now I am off to put these big girls to bed. Tomorrow is a BIG day!

We FINALLY Have a Winner...

Congrats to Jessica Young for having the gumption to guess a second time, and get it right! Toffee Nut latte is my favorite, and if you haven't tried it yet, go out and get one now! :)

Please e-mail me your current address and I'll pop your gift card in the mail asap. :)

Way to go, Jess!

Coffee. Simple As That.

Because I love coffee, and because I have nothing too exciting to post about (I think we've all had enough farm animals and beach posts this summer) I decided to do another contest.

Today I am giving away one $5 gift card to Starbucks (that is enough to enjoy a couple of cups of coffee, or one specialty drink) to the first person who can answer correctly:

What is my (Tamara's) favorite drink at Starbucks?

I'll announce the winner sometime tomorrow.