Nolan's 5th Birthday!!!!!!!

So, I ment to post yesterday on Nolan's actual birthday, but after the party I was pooped! We had SO much fun! ha! At Nolan's request we had the party at Grammy and Pop's house(my parents) in Kentucky. Everyone came.. all 7 cousins in one house, makes for a crazy time!! I will have to do a separate post on Nolan's little life so far 'cause I have so many pics from the party it would make it the longest post evvvver! ha!
So, here is a look at the paarrtyy!!

 Pin the tail on the donkey!It' a party staple around here...

 they all got medals for playing pin the tail on the donkey;)

 Uncle Dave(soon to be a dad) with the birthday boy! 

 My dad and Mike's dad

 Carey and Marin

 Alex with her boys Brennan and Carson

 mike and I 

 I can't believe he is 5!!!!!!

 Hollyn hitting the pinata!

 Nolan broke it open!

 and the mad dash for candy!!!

Papaw and the birthday boy!

We are SO blessed to have amazing families and ones that live so close together that we can do one big party instead of separate ones. Nolan did get the  Scooby- Doo party he wanted.. I forgot to get pictures of the decorations and the food! My mom made all the food and boy was it yummy!! My mom is the BEST cook around! Thanks so much for getting all of it together Mom while we were driving down, your the bestest!;)
 I know all the kids had a blast and it went by too fast! I am a little sad at how fast this year went...last year we were in Hilton Head celebrating Nolan's b-day... I can remember it like it was yesterday!:(
I am so thankful today and feel very blessed to have the people I have in my life!!!!


Much love~Lauren

A new family member... and MAD camp

  I wont keep you hanging! Our newest of the family is...... a hamster!!!! ha! Nolan turns 5 on Sunday and he asked Mike and I for a hamster! It didn't take too much convincing from a sweet little boy! ha! We are suckers I know... But to see the smile on his face was well worth it! We have friends with hamsters, so Nolan has been asking for awhile now and it is a pretty low care animal so I was fine with it. Nolan decided on the name Leonardo, after his favorite ninja turtle!  We went to our local PetSmart  to check them out and we picked a Russian Dwarf hamster. Apparently they are the calmest out of all hamster breeds, so thats what we went for.:)  PetSmart is one of my kids favorite stores to go to see all the animals and we go sometimes just to wander around and pass time. ;)

                           just look at this cheesy smile! ha! Is he happy or what?!

                                       Leonardo! Isn't he cute?

                                Calling Mamaw and Papaw to share the details!

                                   The girls were equally excited about Leonardo :)




On a different note, Peyton went to a camp at our church this week called "MAD camp",the MAD stands for music, arts and drama. Boy, did she have fun! This camp was right up her alley! She LOVES arts, crafts, music and she doesn't run short on drama! Ha! Thank you so much to everyone who made this week possible!!! Today was the closing event and all the kids got together and sang songs for the parents, so here are a few pictures of that. We are so blessed to be a part of a church that puts a lot of emphasis on children and their families!

                                Peyton is in the middle to the right of the boy in the red shirt.

                                 I am not certain, but I believe there were around 730 kids  that came!

I need to dig up pictures of Nolan through the years and post them Sunday! My little guy isn't so little anymore.:(

Much love~ Lauren

Family, birthdays and ice cream

We have had a busy few weeks recently! My Aunt Joanie, uncle Tom,  and cousins Brian and Jenny came for a visit from Canada! As a side note..I am from Canada, the great city of Toronto, and all of my family still lives there except for my parents and they live in Louisville, Ky. So we had fun hanging out with them and the kids had fun hanging and climbing all over Brian like monkeys, I think he felt the love though! ha!
 We also celebrated little Carson's 3rd birthday and my hubby's b-day as well as my dad's! We love seeing our family and spending time together and there is always a birthday to celebrate! There is nothing like family...I feel blessed to have a family that takes care of each other!  We have a lot of fun just hanging out and picking on one another and that doesn't seem to change as we have gotten older !;)
 Total change of subject but we live right down the street from an awesome little ice cream place that does cute sundaes for the kids. They make  monsters, elephants, cats, monkeys..you name it they will find out some way to make an animal on your kids ice cream. And it a daily thing to hear my kids ask in the summer if they can have some, so off we go down the street to eat some. I think they will have fun memories of doing that and going to the parks right by our house. Oh, to be a kid again... only thinking about when you can get your next ice cream or going to the park...
So here is a look at  what we have been up to.....

And I will be posting Sunday about a special little boy turning 5!!! Have  a great weekend!

Much love- Lauren

no news is good news

I feel like the past six months have flown by and stood still, does that make any sense?ha! Lots has been going on, good and bad and at  times the bad has stopped me from doing the fun things in life. I do see the sunshine on the other side and we all will get there soon enough. Heart break shouldn't stop you from living your life and finding joy...even if it is in the small things.. We have SO much to be thankful for! My brother is having his first child this summer and we couldn't be more excited to have another baby in the family!!! I can't wait to get my hands on him sometime in late July or early August!!!
 We did have our yard sale to raise money for our adoption and it was my first experience organizing one, boy, is it some hard work! So many of our friends came out to support us and assisted in baking pies, brownies, bread ect, for us to sell at the yard sale or donating their things for us to sell. I could get all emotional about it.... Mike and I really felt loved and supported by you all!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
We now have a leg up and the total for the yard/bake sale was 1,600 SMACKERS!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?! On the adoption note.... we have no new news ...it will be a slow process for us as we will raise the money as we go and inch a little closer. For those of you who haven't heard we chose Bulgaria (Eastern Europe) after prayerfully considering  the three options  that were available to us, which were Russia, Ethiopia and Bulgaria.
 Our sweet Nolan turns five on the 19th of this month and I am having a hard time with it!:( His little life has gone by SO fast already!! He of course is SO excited and has requested a Scooby-Doo birthday, so i better start looking!ha!
 Time is goes by so fast and I want to be pouring God into my children and praying for them everyday that they will love the God with all of their hearts. It's hard to get the everyday stuff in and their spiritual growth..there is so much we are responsible for as parents and teaching them about God is a huge one that I don't take lightly! But, I surely can not accomplish any of it with out God guiding me, which means I need to have God first in my life. It always starts with us,the parents, little eyes are watching us and will learn how to be God fearing people only from their parents. What am I teaching my children? What do they see when they look at me?
Peyton's last day of Kindergarten is today., so let summer break begin!!