Happy New year!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Goodbye 2008 Hello 2009

2008 has been an amazing year. For me it will always be remembered as the year we brought Kolby home.

It has also brought us MANY changes, one adventure after another.

As an eternal optimistic I have high hopes for the New year.

I hope for wonderful things for all of us in 2009.

As the clock strikes midnight tonight lets be thankful for all 2008 has brought us. And look to 2009 for all the amazing things sure to come.

Best wishes all!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

A Blessed Christmas!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas!!!

We are blessed to have the most amazing people in our lives.

We got up extra early on Christmas morning. Kolby was not really sure what was going on but Luke lead the way running into the family room to see if Santa had come.

Luke was thrilled to find Santa had brought him his Cowboy boots. (he has had them on since and will only take them off to go to bed and then the boots have to be right under his bed)

Boots, tool belt and batman jammies..... yep its a look that works.

Grandma and Grandpa came over early too see the boys open presents and have a Christmas breakfast
Hum.... is there a possible future as a Rock Star for this kid???

Kolby is happy just being Superman with a guitar.

A wonderful Christmas with amazing memories to cherish.

We are blessed beyond words with amazing friends and family...............

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas then and now.....

Isn't time amazing?

It goes by so fast, you don't realize just how much has happened in a short year.

This picture is of Luke, me and Cassidi at the Christmas Parade. Cass has now gradated high school and is attending college.

This is one of my Christmas home shots of Luke....

I look at Pics of him and can't believe how much he has changed.... he doesn't have his little baby face anymore..... My lil' guy is growing up so fast.

I love this pic, its Luke's face when he first comes out to see what Santa brought on Christmas morning.

We left the day after Christmas to fly to Guatemala to meet Kolby for the very first time.

What a wonderful week, memories I will treasure forever. The emotions of meeting our child for the first time and then having to leave him behind as we traveled home were beyond overwhelming for me. But like everything in the past a memory I hold in my heart.

Just look at those chubby little cheeks!!! Kolby was just starting to take a few steps by himself while we were in Guatemala. Now he is unstoppable, literally if he is awake he is running.

With all that the economy has brought this year its easy to become discouraged. But its just as easy to look at these beautiful faces and remember how incredibly blessed we really are.

I Love this time of year, it's simply magical.

We have amazing healthy happy kids, wonderful family and friends, we are blessed beyond measure.

Have a WONDERFUL Christmas week everyone!!

YEA!!!! Letters from Santa!

My wonderful friend Marlene has an "in" with Santa Claus. She arranged for the boys to get letters directly from the source, the big red guy himself.

The boys were beside themselves excited. We picked them up at the mail box a few blocks from our house. It was a very long five minutes for us to get home, out of the car and coats off so he could open his letter.

Luke has had us reread both his and Kolby's letter over and over again.

What a fun surprise!!!

THANK YOU MARLENE!!!!!

Eat your heart out handy manny

Yesterday some heavy equipment pulled up across the street to start working on a new water system for the neighborhood. The boys love big construction stuff so they were in heaven.

We snuck across and climbed on it today and managed to get a picture of Luke on one of the excavators. Kolby didnt care for climbing on them, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the snow being up to his waste. We got hit with a huge storm last night, and another one coming in tomorrow. Tis the season, I guess.

Christmas pics.....

Sunday we drove 45 minutes to get to our closest mall. Being that it was Sunday we were not sure if Santa would be there so we didn't say anything to the boys.

Luke was so excited when he saw Santa sitting in his big chair. He started waving and yelling "hi Santa" immediately, we were still quite a distance from Santa's village. The other people in the mall thought this was pretty funny :)

We all made a big deal of being excited that we got to see Santa, hoping Kolby would be ok. Luke climbed right up on one knee and we sat Kolby on the other. It didn't look good from the start but Santa's helper really tried, she gave both boys an ornament to hold. Even so less then a minute and Kolby was screaming his head off.

So here is our 08 Santa pic

And here is a Pic of Kolby safe and sound away from the big red guy.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!!

Please keep this family in your prayers.....

While we were in Guatemala on our visit trip with Kolby we had the privilege to meet this amazing family. We were touched by their wonderful spirit and have followed their adoption journey to bring their daughter Josi home from Guatemala. The shared with us the story of seeing Josi's picture and knowing she was their daughter, they jumped on a plane I believe the next day to make it to Guatemala to meet her before the Dec 31st deadline. Well is has been a year and they had just received her birth certificate and were planning to have her home before Christmas.
They just received the unimaginable news that Josi along with her foster family have been killed. This is a tragedy beyond words for this family. Please take a moment to look at their blog, and please keep them in your hearts and prayers.
There are things beyond my understanding but I know that Josi is in the arms of her heavenly father. And I know that she was and will always be loved by her family on earth.
http://azhderianfamily.blogspot.com/

Christmas Parade

Saturday was our towns annual children's Christmas parade. I had to work but Dewey took the boys and met up with some friends there.

Check it out we are big time, we have one of those floaty balloons, you'd almost think you were watching the Macy's day parade :)

Luke is in the striped shirt. Our friend Drew is in the yellow.

Last year Luke would not have anything to do with any of the costumed characters, he was so scared. Now look at him running out there to meet, spidey and batman.

Kolby on the other hand not such a fan of costumes. He stayed back a "safe" distance from everyone. But Dew said he still had fun watching everything.

FFF= Lil' Cowboy

Our little Cowboy.

(this is his cowboy face)

When you ask Luke what he wants Santa to bring him he says "new cowboy boots". He grew out of his boots (quite awhile before he would quit wearing them) and was devastated when he could not get them on any longer.

He loves anything outdoors and pretty much gets excited over everything his dad does, boots, hats, tractors and horses.

Whats interesting to us is that Kazakhstan has a very long history of proud horsemanship. Traditionally one of the big celebrations in a boys young life is his first horse back ride.

For some reason that song "mama's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys" keeps running through my head :) Oh well, a little late now.

Have a wonderful weekend and check out Sarah at http://kissthefrog4me.blogspot.com/ for more cute FFF pics.

Oh how time makes us forget......

365 days is apparently enough time to make me forget that trying to take my own Christmas pics is NOT a good idea. I should have remembered that it was near impossible to do with just Luke last year. So the chances of me getting a good pic with two boys would be 100-1.

As it turned out I stopped at 40 pictures and picked two that while not spectacular at least have both boys looking in the same direction.

I could have taken them outdoors somewhere to get some winter shots, but my battery is near dead in my camera so I can take a good 6-8 pics before I have to recharge the camera. So inside it was to take the pics, download them, say "frick" recharge the camera then take some more...... Over and over again.

I thought I would share a few of the 40 pics.......

Luke had the smile down pretty well. It was just getting him to look at me that was the problem. Kolby as you can tell didn't quite understand what we were trying to do.

I have vowed that whatever it costs next year we are having them professionally done. My sanity is worth it :)