Little hands painting!!

Evan and Ben have always enjoyed painting... the littlest one is no different! Samuel experienced painting for the first time today and had a blast!!

So excited to paint like big brothers!!

This is so much FUN!

He really knew what he was doing!!

Even used a paint brush!

Can you tell he's having FUN?!

Should I paint myself too?

Painting on paper is fun too!

Really focused on his masterpiece.

Painting belly & paper:)

All of my boys have to paint a goatee like Daddy;)

Springtime beauty and a growing garden

Our family of boys really enjoys getting outdoors; we are blessed to have a beautiful place to play, rest and enjoy each other right here at home! We are very thankful for the beautiful and relaxing setting just outside our back door. The previous owners built a pergola, a swing, and planted numerous beautiful flowers, trees, and a "bamboo forest".

 Our boys love to explore and play in our yard and bamboo forest! Spring is a wonderful time to be outside watching everything grow and bloom. We have decided to grow a few more things in our backyard... a vegetable garden!! We are going full force this year with 4 garden boxes and MANY different types of fruits & veggies! We're hoping for a good crop this year to feed our growing family!

We planted some cooler weather crops a couple months ago, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, radishes, beets, spinach, lettuce, and sugar snap peas. While we were not typically a radish eating family, all of us really enjoyed the fresh radishes from our garden! Our salad box with spinach and lettuce has been a big producer--we've enjoyed salad from the garden almost every day! However, the biggest hit in the garden has been the sugar snap peas!! The boys love picking them and eating them right off the plant! I envisioned sugar snap peas in salads and stir fry from the abundance our plants have been producing, but the boys are consuming them so quickly the peas have yet to make it back to our kitchen! 

The unusually cold weather this spring delayed the planting of our summer crops.  We were finally able to get our tomatoes, pepper, beans, and okra in the ground 2 weeks ago.
Our family is really ready for garden fresh tomatoes!!

This peaceful setting is just around the corner from our home, and a favorite stop on our neighborhood walks.

We are thankful for the beauty around us this spring! 

Would love to hear about your family's favorite activities and places in the springtime!

My favorite kitchen appliance

As many of you probably know, I love to cook! Out of all of my kitchen gadgets and appliances, I would have to say my bread machine ranks among my favorites! I enjoy making homemade breads and goodies for my boys. My Sunbeam bread machine helps me bake all of these goodies, while saving bundles of time! Several of my favorite recipes for my bread machine are pizza dough, french bread, Italian bread dough, our best sandwich bread, hamburger buns, and yummy cinnamon rolls. Truth: I only use the machine for the dough cycle. I like to bake my bread in the oven and don't like the rectangle shape of the bread from the machine.

best sandwich bread

Our bread machine has also helped with meal planning on a budget. I can whip up a meal based on one of these recipes. Throw some marinara sauce, cheese, possibly a few other toppings, and my boys are happy for pizza night! A loaf of french bread can be a great addition to soup night, or can be the start of a sub sandwich meal.

hamburger buns - I will never eat store bought buns again!

One of our new dinner favorites is making Stromboli with my best sandwich bread recipe. I make the dough, roll the dough out into rectangle, line with ham (or favorite deli meat) and cheese, roll up and place in greased loaf pan. Bake 30 minutes at 350 and you have dinner!

If we manage to still have some of the bread left a few days after baking, I throw together one of my family's favorites... French Toast! My Granny would make french toast for my sister and I when we spent the night at her house as kids... loved her french toast and think of her when I make my own. I dip the bread in a mixture of eggs, almond milk, and a dash of cinnamon. Cook in cast iron skillet with hot coconut oil and serve hot with powdered sugar or syrup---yummy!!!

Check out my Pinterest board for more bread recipes!

Getting messy in a dinosaur swamp!

Want to give little boys an activity full of creative, sensory, messy, imaginative fun?

 Have fun creating this dinosaur swamp for your little guys (or girls). 

You can use items from your kitchen, house and yard. This week I used green spaghetti (spaghetti cooking in water with food coloring), several types of beans/rocks (pinto, lima, lentils, split peas), rice, large rocks, mint leaves, and toy dinosaurs. Sometimes I add a little of the green pasta water to make it extra messy fun!

 Enjoy watching your little guys play and explore... or go work on those 7 loads of laundry;)

Looking for other ideas for creative indoor play? Check out these other blogs:
Indoor Activities for my stir crazy boys
Cooking like Mommy: Pretend cooking with real ingredients

Indoor activities for my stir crazy boys!

Anyone else super excited about springtime? Even though it is March, this freezing winter weather has made us a little stir crazy and ready to play outside, take walk around the neighborhood, plant our veggie garden, play in the mud, and have lots of fun with our boys OUTSIDE! Here are a few of our fun indoor activities that make these cold indoor day a lot more bearable... even FUN!

Pretend cooking with REAL food is one of the boys favorite messy FUN activities! I blogged about this awhile back, but we enjoyed this great sensory activity this weekend inside with our guys:)

Monster play dough is another great activity for the boys! My 5 and 6 year old guys enjoy creating monsters out of our homemade play dough! I give the boys a mound of play dough, toothpicks, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, buttons, and sit back to watch them create!

I made these felt dress up Mr. Potato Heads for a long road trip last spring, but the boys enjoy playing with these at home too! I glued a solid piece of felt to cardboard and glued the face shape and googly eyes. They each have a bag full of clothes, hats, and facial features to dress up their own Mr. Potato head.

 Dinosaur swap involves some prep by Mom, but is loads of fun!!

Dinosaur swamp

Painting or drawing is always a winner with my creative little guys! 

My boys have such a blast dressing up as one of many superheroes, fireman, soldier, race car driver, Mario & Luigi, and wild animals! I hope the boys never tire of playing dress up! 

And then there is always the option to get outside and build an igloo!! 

How does your family have fun indoors on cold winter days?

Family Christmas card 2012

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Big decisions & Adoption changes

2 years... I can't believe we began our adoption journey 2 years ago! Back then we expected to have a sweet baby from Ethiopia in our arms and home by now. Out Lord is so gracious and has blessed us with a new baby in our home, our precious baby Samuel:)

Also can't believe that Samuel is almost 8 months old... they grow up so fast!

When we began our journey of adoption, our desire was to demonstrate God's love and adoption of us as we adopt a child and bring an orphan into our family. When we began the process, Ethiopia was one of the countries processing adoptions in quick and efficient manner. We decided to pursue an adoption there to bring a child into our home as quick as possible (knowing that adoption isn't quick). Since then, the process in Ethiopia has slowed down dramatically. We have had several twists and turns through our adoption journey (changes and longer wait times in Ethiopia, having to complete a new home study, immigration and fingerprints expiring) ... once again there is a new twist. We found out this week that our dossier has been in Ethiopia so long, it is actually expiring next month. This means that we would have to compile a brand new dossier (birth certificates, marriage license, medical letter, police records, too many notarized and state sealed forms to count!) The first time I put together our dossier, I took a break from homeschooling, and the process still took 3 months! Along with the paperwork, we were going to have to more fees to pay again. Needless to say we were a little overwhelmed by this news!

After prayer and many conversations with our wonderful Bethany Christian Services case worker, Josh and I decided to switch gears and pursue a domestic adoption. About a year and a half ago, we were made aware of the GREAT need for families open to adopting babies from different races... right here in Arkansas. We had just completed and sent our dossier to Ethiopia when we had a conversation about how we wished we had known about that need sooner. We talked about domestic adoption a couple times over the past year, and currently sense the Lord leading us down this path. We want to be good stewards of our time and finances; we feel that domestic adoption is the best route for us to adopt. We will begin working on the paperwork and process for domestic adoption in the next month.

Many of you have been supportive of our fund raising efforts over the past two years. Much of those funds are able to transfer over, and we do not have to pay the application fee or home study fee again. Unfortunately some grant money and a lot of the funds we raised have already been sent to Ethiopia or used in our home study/dossier process; we will not get those funds back. Thankfully two major grants from Show Hope and Lifesong will still apply and be able to help in the costly process. We have two-thirds of the funds needed, but still have funds we need to raise. We're excited to see the Lord's provision through this new process.

Thank you for praying for us throughout our journey, we ask you to continue to pray for us...

• Pray for our family as we navigate this new process of domestic adoption (learning more about birth mother and open adoption).
• Pray for God's timing of adding a new sweet baby to our family.
• Pray for God's protection over our child and the birth mother.
• Pray for Evan, Benjamin & Samuel's transition as they get a new baby brother/sister.
• Pray for God's provision of the last $5,000-$6,000 we need to complete this adoption.