Eva Kate's Adoption Day

On January 8th, we got to celebrate the one year anniversary of Eva Kate legally becoming our daughter.  As with Samuel's first anniversary, I breathed a little sigh of relief. According to our attorney, there is little legal precedent for adoptions coming into question after a year of the finalization.  With the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision in just a few days, I thought this would be a good time to post this. Our kids have the brave woman as their birthmom. Their birth fathers both advocated for her to abort these two precious lives. She obviously didn't listen to them, and we are forever grateful that she made the courageous choice to give these little ones the gift of life.  We are so thankful for her belief in the sanctity of human life.

We had a fun evening with Eva Kate. James and I both worked that day, but he brought home St. Louis' finest cupcakes from Jilly's Cupcake Bar for us to have for dessert. Then she had a gift waiting for her in the basement.

We gave her a play kitchen. She and Samuel both love it, and they have already had several hours of fun with it.

 James gave her a silver coin. He a few of them for her to choose from, and she picked out a Chinese Panda.

On the following Saturday, we all went out to lunch at The Tattooed Dog. This place is about twenty minutes west of our house, and I'm glad it's not closer. Or else I'd be tempted to eat there too often. They have delicious gourmet burgers. I ordered kids' meals for Samuel and Eva. The hot dog that came with Eva's was way bigger than what they give you at the ballpark. She didn't come close to finishing it.

The next day. we all went to the art museum. This place is such a treasure. Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Warhol, Chagall, Renoir - to name a few. They had several pieces of Native American art on display too. We got to see the new wing that they just added, where there was a fun contemporary art display.

We are so thankful to God for making you our daughter, Eva Kate!

Christmas Day 2014

I was going through some photos to put together a montage for Samuel's third birthday, and I saw that I never finished editing my photos from Christmas day. Here they are, finally!

 We add a new ornament or five to the tree each year.  I took the kids to Target one day before Christmas and let them pick out one ornament each. Eva Kate chose Minnie Mouse and Samuel chose Superman.  The sphere with the fish on it was our souvenir from Hawaii. We bought it at the resort we stayed at on Kauai. It was handpainted by a local artist.  The ornament on the bottom row was one of the stocking stuffers I gave James.  We had to say goodbye to Daisy in June, and these were some of my favorite photos of her.  That ornament is made from metal, and I ordered it from Shutterfly. I'm really pleased with the quality.

 Stocking stuffers are always fun. The kids got socks, a coin, soap, sunglasses, cutters for bread, annd Frozen band-aids.

 Eva liked the new silicone baster that I gave James. Silly girl.  We ate breakfast after we had opened our stockings. The kids wanted to use their new bread cutters.

On to the rest of the gifts. 

The day after Halloween, I got up early and went to Wal-mart to get some costumes for the kids. These were a big hit. They like to play dress up. I embroidered chef's hats and aprons for them too, and they have already used these several times.

I gave James the Rosetta Stone spanish suite and he gave me a studio backdrop that is portable. I'm looking forward to using this!

The kids had a fun surprise waiting for them behind these doors. James' parents gave them a power wheels car that they can both ride in. The weather was really nice, and they were able to play outside for a while on Christmas day.

I took Samuel to register for preschool a few days ago. He was very excited to see the school, and he told me that he would drive himself there in his new car - not ride in my car. Hahaha.