Looking Back {2013}

Tonight we will say good-bye to 2013 ... it has been a hard year to say the least. God had our family on a journey that required us to invest all of our time, money, and our hearts. We would never have imagined that the journey we were on would end this fall in such heartache.

While part of me would like to just pretend 2013 never happened I cannot look at it that way ... trials are a part of life. And, looking back at 2013 there were beautiful moments ... those were blessings in disguise now as I reflect on them ...

{Lots of ballet ...}

{... and baseball}

{Fun fieldtrips ... like this rock climbing one}

{Our family spent a month in a European country ~ amazing lessons in culture and history}

{Fun times with friends ...}

{... and family}

{Ave Mae cast as Cindy Lou in "How the Grinch Stole Found Christmas"}

Good-bye 2013!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas ... our family is enjoying some much needed downtime as we finish out the year.

Wishing you all the best as the new year approaches!

How the Grinch "Found" Christmas

Last weekend we enjoyed the girls' ballet school performance of "How the Grinch Stole Found Christmas". Like two years ago, we had the privilege of having a daughter dance the part of Cindy-Lou. Ava Mae absolutely loved every second of rehearsals and performing. She took the role quite seriously, even deciding the choreography would be better with acrobatics - so we spent several months taking tumbling lessons so that Ava Mae could add in two aerials {cartwheels with no hands} to her dance. Ava Mae also had the blessing of having her very good dance buddy as the other Cindy-Lou {there are two shows and a different Cindy-Lou for each show} - so fun to be able to attend all practices with a friend.

Lexi also enjoyed performing in several dances - including an amazing opening tap "Rockette style" number. And, for the first time Ava Mae and Lexi had a ballet dance where they performed together.

Always love this performance of The Grinch... and though Ava Mae has repeated constantly how sad she is it is over ... I, for one, am glad to have a break from all the ballet school craziness for a few weeks.

All photographs are courtesy of professional photographer, Andrew Savasuk - who did an amazing job shooting the performance!

The Advent Season Begins

This year Christmas seems to have arrived more quickly than usual ... with everything that the early December calendar holds it is sometimes hard to come up for air.

God has taught me a lot this year ... it has truly changed my heart and thinking about many things. One of those was the feeling that for us to celebrate Christmas we had to decorate a certain way, spend each day doing some sort of Christmas activity or baking some special treat. Not this year .. it is not to say that any of those activities are bad but, they are not necessary. I have been reminded several times during our Advent studies over the last week that to fully participate in this Advent season we must quiet our selves ... which is hard to do if we are not "quieting" our calendars. It is not easy ... and truthfully, I will be happy when the busyness of this week is behind us and we can settle into a slower pace. It reminds me of the last night we were in Asheville over Thanksgiving ... standing in the breezeway of my parent's mountain home - snow still scattered on the ground, the sun setting behind the mountains, and the absolute silence - other than a breeze rustling some fallen leaves. I felt - this is what it means to truly quiet ones soul.

As we dive into Advent this season, we are enjoying Bartholomew's Passage as our family Advent Study. Loved Jotham's Journey last year and this is another book in the series.

We are also keeping our focus on Jesus by, performing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness ... it helps the kids to keep their focus where it needs to be - rather than on gifts for themselves.

Two recent acts of kindness ... donuts for our local police station and fire station and picking out a Christmas wish to fill with our local radio station's morning on air personalities.

Thanksgiving {2013}

This year we had what we could only call the Hallmark Thanksgiving ... my parent's invited us to join them in Asheville for Thanksgiving at their new home on top of a mountain. It was just the time away our family needed after a very rough few months.

We enjoyed spending time with family {6 out of 9 siblings were at Thanksgiving Dinner} and the kids loved playing with their cousins from Florida. My sister's little ones are just 1 and 2 years old and absolutely adorable.

Even Maggie, our golden retriever, came along for our family holiday ... she enjoyed countless hours outside being walking by many members of my family. She is now depressed after coming home to what she now must realize is a boring life.

And, what a blessing to be able to enjoy snow ... which arrived the day before Thanksgiving. {Pictured above, the kids with my mom and dad and below, my parent's new home}.

Art Birthday Party {Painted Initial Canvas}

When Ava Mae decided on an Art Birthday Party I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration ...

We decided painted canvases and jewelry boxes would be good projects for this age group. I covered our dining room table in butcher paper. And, each girl had supplies at their spot - canvas, paint brushes, paint tray.

We had several color schemes to pick from for the canvases but, it seemed all the girls either wanted blue or purple. We began the project by taping each child's initial on the canvas. Then we had the girls paint a stripe of dark and a stripe of light colored paint down the canvas - one after another. It was not easy as I thought it would be - the pin I had did not mention that the tape might easily pull up. We had to have the girls constantly go over the tape with their fingers to get a tight seal before they started painting.

When the paint dried we pulled up the painter's tape.  Some edges still pulled up and paint got underneath during the process.Thankfully, I had purchased white paint and it was easy to touch up the canvases. Here was my daughter's finished canvas - 

Food for the party was simple ... we had lots of colorful things to pick from - fruit, veggies, crackers, and various dips. For the cake ... we did cupcakes. All were frosted in different colors  and we added breadsticks which resembled paintbrushes stuck in a pot of paint.

A bonus for this type of party is that you already have a nice favor ... we also gave the girls some art supplies in their favor bags to take home. 

Linking this up over at See Jamie Blog and her Pinterest Challenge for November. Hop on over and see what others have been working on ...

A Season Ends ...

Last month a season came to a close in our lives ... our adoption journey ended.

To protect Hope's privacy we will not be going into all the details publicly. It was a very sad ending but, we have peace in the way things came to a close.

Thank you to all of my blog readers - who prayed for our family and supported us in our journey. Please know how grateful we are! Our ways are not God's ways ... we can only be obedient to him in faith and know that He is sovereign.

^"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!" 2 Corinthians 4:16-18