Baby Girl!

We found out Friday that we will be expecting a baby girl this October!  We are also halfway to meeting her.  An exciting journey and I hope the second half will go as smoothly as the first.

Big brother and big sister won't know what hit them, having a newborn in the house!

House Projects

A couple weekends ago Calvin did many projects that we had lined up.  Here are pictures of a few...

Before, our bathroom cabinets had these plastic pull handles.  With a small change to shiny silver, it has an updated look...

Same with the kids' bathroom...

And after...

We bought a slipcover for our sofa, and hung a silver beaded framed mirror on the wall to give off more light in the living room...

A new canvas picture (from IKEA of course) to hang in our family room...

I bought a new circle rug at a garage sale that weekend for only $10 (!) and put it under the kids' play table...

Landon has some new shelves for his room to display his trophies and special items...

And for the biggest project of all... Etame's room got a facelift with major shelving and dressers to line the wall...

I love it.  Now the kids have room to display their favorite items and we have more room for the baby clothes and baby items in the fall!

Nature Walk

For Mother's Day, we went on a nature walk around our property.  I had no idea of this one trail above our house.  It is a great short walk and could be therapeutic to go out there and walk the loop to clear the mind when the kids are melting down.

Landon insisted Daddy write down everything we saw:  Deer feeder, cardinal, ant, worm, squirrel, and one funny family carrying binoculars, a camera, paper, and pencil.

After our walk, we finished by riding bikes and doing some light yard work.

It was a great Mother's Day.  Calvin helped Landon create a scavenger hunt around the house, ending with a note written by Landon saying simply, "I love you".  I got two dozen roses as well, an afternoon nap, dinner cooked for me, and time with the family.  Couldn't ask for more!

Stike a Pose!

Etame totally posed when I asked her to smile. 

She's wearing her new dress from grandma today, bought from an individual whom makes little dresses from salvages chenile bedspreads.  Genious!

Adoption Finalization Court Date!

We received word yesterday that we could schedule a court date for our adoption finalization for Etame!  So we will be going to court June 4 to finalize!  Finally!  :-)  This has been many months of paperwork (much of my procrastinating) so it's a big relief.

We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and maybe even go out to Ethiopian food that afternoon to celebrate.  Wahoo!!!!

ColorKu

This is my favorite game/toy for Landon yet.  First of all, it's beautiful.  With a wooden board and colored wooden marbles, it is gorgeous to see him playing it.  Basically it's Suduko for kids.  You have to have one of each color (and not more than that) in each row, column, and 9-square grouping.

It's thought provoking and good for him to do mostly on his own.  I highly recommend it.  It comes with a stack of picture cards which show you how to set the board up, and they range from easy to challenging.  We have only done the first 5 and are enjoying the quality time working on it, but Landon insists on doing it mostly on his own.