Photo Shoot

I usually get photos done of the kids on their birthday until they start school. Once they start school, I usually get the school photos. Even if I don't like the school photos, I still get them! Well, TJ didn't inform me of photo day so I missed his sophomore year photo! Lily turned 4 in November and I didn't make it in to get her photo done! On a spur of the moment I made an appointment and went today. I know....it looks like "Let's just get photos of our adopted chilren." Hey, that's just how it worked out! The bio boys managed to get their school photos done this year! Anyway, here are some of the shots. Not bad for spur of the moment!

Third of three Christmas posts......

Well, one more photo of my favorite guy and one of my favorite girls!

Oh, by the way, it was 21 years ago today that I first met Tom! He was performing the wedding ceremony for his sister, Brenda. Brenda and I had become friends through my graduate school days as a Grad Assistant at Ashland University. It was an early afternoon wedding so we went out that night! It's been a great 21 years! In three more years I will be able to say, "I've been with him half of my life!" I am blessed....truly blessed!

A few more pictures...........

Here are a few more pictures. I'm not sure why some won't upload. At least you can see one of Lily with Joel! The other is of Sarah with me after the Preschool program. While Lily was mesmorized with Joel, Sarah stayed close to me! The last picture is of the girls with their caboodle of hair products and silly make up! I'll try one more attempt at posting the final pics and then I'm done with blogger tonight!

Christmas Trouble

Well, I'm having trouble posting photos from our Christmas. I can only get the photo of the boys uploaded. (Any bloggers out there having problems or is it just me?) We had several school and church programs prior to Christmas. I have some great photos of Lily with one of her classmates...Joel. Lily can not talk about Joel without simply beaming...it cracks me up!

Santa came early to our house...on the 22nd! He seemed to understand that it made our life much easier to do that since we had to leave town on the 23rd. The girls were so much fun! They were thrilled with the gifts that Santa brought. The boys were pretty happy, too!

We left on the 23rd for Christmas with my extended family. I have seven siblings so between all of us there were over 36 people there. We then spent a couple of days on the farm with Tom's family. Tom has two siblings, but there are 19 cousins....so another big celebration! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Finally.....the girls saw Santa!

I finally got to take the girls to see Santa! Lily looked him in the eye and went totally blank on what she wanted for Christmas. Sarah acted shy the entire time! I helped them get all of the words out! As we were paying for the picture, they asked if I wanted to donate to an organization that help families finance adoption. I said, "Now, how could I say 'no' to that?" They handed me a flyer and it was one of the ones I mentioned in a previous post...the one with Sarah's picture on it! The Santa's Helpers were thrilled to see the little girl on the flyer up close!

Singing and Snow

Sarah is so very proud of the song shw wrote! I'm so thrilled she knows that she is loved!




The pictures of the girls in the snow was last week...I'm just now getting around to upload them. I know some of you have looked for the Snow Run Challenge. The boys took off to play in the snow or to shovel drives so I didn't get around to doing it. I hear that we are getting some snow this weekend so maybe we'll have the challenge this weekend! I will likely have the girls join in, but they will be required to wear a shirt! Lily is starting to get sick so I may have to rethink that!

The videos were done the other day, just after the girls got out of bed. As you can see, they are still in their jammies. Plus, you can see what terrible condition Sarah's hair is in each and every morning!

Enjoy!

All I want for Christmas.....

A friend of mine in Indiana (shout out to Lisa Perry) was at the mall to take her kids to visit Santa and was given a this flyer. I was surprised that it included a photo of Sarah and a quote from us! Shaoahhannah's Hope is a wonderful ministry that works with families who feel called to adopt...domestiaclly and internationally. They were generous with us when we adopted Sarah by giving us a $2000.00 grant! We will be forever grateful to the many folks that have sent money to Shaohannah's Hope to allow them to bless families like ours! When I showed Sarah the flyer, she got a big smile on her face and said, "Look, it's me....Sarah Alexander!" Yes, through the miracle of adoption, Sarah is an Alexander! Like many who have adopted, we hear the words, "Oh, you are so nice to adopt" or "what a noble thing to do" or "You have truly blessed her by adopting her." I always think that they have it backwards! I often smile and say, "We are the blessed ones to have her!" Certainly we are!

Thank you Shaohannah's Hope for helping us bring Sarah home!

Catch Up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tyler celebrated turning 15!!!!!!!!!!1

Sleeping Beauties!

The Famous Five!

Well, it seems like it is harder these days to keep up on our blog! Our life is simply busy!

Tyler turned 15 on November 21st! Time does fly! I remember our first Thanksgiving with Tyler. He was only a few days old. My mom came to help out with the transition. We had this wonderful video of our dinner that day....pre-feast. We then had another video of the remains...post-feast. My mom and I laugh to this day that the time between the first video and the second video was only 19 minutes! That Thanksgiving 15 years ago (me, Tom, my mom, TJ (18 months old then) and our newborn Ty was so different from this Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving at the farm in Holmes County. As some of you may know, the farm lost a barn to a fire several weeks ago. The barn has been in that spot for over 100 years and Tom's great-great grandpa. The barn, Dad's truck, two silos, plenty of hay/straw and some other things are gone. I think the silage was saved that was in the silos. Oh, the important thing is that the cows all got out of the lower barn and no one was injuried! Praise God! Something like this does put into perspective things that are important in life!

If any of you know the Alexander extended family, you know that it is big! We were all there for Thanksgiving dinner. We met at Julie's because they have the biggest table and the biggest house to spread out the family! Grandpa Thomas came down to join us. I think Grandpa is 95 now! Tom's parents, Larry and Carolyn, were there. Brenda (Tom's sister) and her huband were there with their three children....Brianna, Brandon and Bridget. We were there with our five...TJ, Ty, Dane, Lily and Sarah. Julie and Ron have eleven children....Tosha, Lateria, Chantrell, Britney, Gio, Alexis, Jonathan, David, Josiah, Marcus and Timothy. So, it was a happening place to be! We stayed for a few days.

We are now really busy with basketball and Christmas things. TJ is playing on the JV team and Lancaster High School. Tyler is playing on the JV team for Fairfield Christian Academy. Dane is playing on the sixth grade team for Fairfield Christian Academy. Needless to say, we are at a basketball 4-5 nights out of the week!

I added a few pictures of the girls. They were so excited to have the tree up...finally. They drove us nuts. Our tree used to seem so big to us! It looks very small now that we put five kids around it! I promised the girls that they could sleep under the tree ONE night before Christmas. Well, at least I got it over with! It was really a BAD idea.......fun, but bad! They didn't fall asleep until midnight. I didn't want them downstairs alone so I tried to sleep in the recliner. That didn't work. It was 3 a.m. and I was still wide awake thinking about how miserable I was going to be today! Tom came downstairs at 3 a.m. and took over so I went to bed. I don't think anyone has ever died from the lack of sleep so I'm sure I'll be okay! I did get some great photos at 2 a.m. though!

I will be posting something that my internet friend Lisa Perry sent me...waiting for a friend to scan it for me! Here's a shout out to Lisa for sending it to me! Oh, Lisa has two children from Yangjiang....the same orphanage that Lily is from. Thanks, Lisa...if you read this!

Kathy