The Journey of a Lifetime

Ryan and I have decided to pursue our forth adoption and add another beautiful baby to our family. We couldn't be happier and are thrilled! Join us in our journey in adopting baby Schlenner!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

My Blonde Turns 9!!!

Happy Birthday Gabriella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Easter Monday marked Gabriella's GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!!!! She was 9 years old on the 9th of April!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm only a day late posting!) We kicked off the day with our traditional birthday "breakfast in bed!" The night before Gabriella picked out her birthday menu: Baked Egg Souffle, blueberry muffins, fruit! So momma got up extra early and was preparing the royal breakfast for Ms. Birthday Beauty!!!!


And she loved it!!!!!!!!!! Daddy was up and out the door at work early...so Jocelyn had the honors of video taping for me while I brought in the breakfast!!! Gabriella was all smiles on her special day!

And of course, the tribe was right behind me! Ahnya, Magnus and Jocelyn sung their little hearts out to the "Happy Birthday tune" together and jumped in bed with big sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all had breakfast with Gabriella in BED!!!!!!

...................Naughty and naughtier here......................................

That evening, when dad finally pulled himself away from work, we went out for dinner and came home to gifts!!!!


Gabriella got an American Girl doll that is named "Rebecca." And she is Russian!!!!!!!!!!! How cool is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gabriella is so prideful of her Russian heritage!!! She is a sponge to anything and everything Russian! So happy American Girl makes these special dolls for children to learn different nationalities.

Gabriella also received some American Girl books, American Girl clothing and matching clothing with her and her doll, and accessories! IT was an American Girl doll theme!

Here's Magnus with his smerk! What a sweet little stinkiner!!!!!! He was trying to open Gabbi's gifts and I think I caught him in the middle of "thinking" about pouncing on another gift to try and open!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's Gabriella with "Rebecca."


.................both in their matching robes!

.....................waiting for birthday cake!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday my sweetie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you with all my heart!!!!!!!!!!!! So glad I am your momma!!!!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter to you all!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's the high lights of our week. The week started out tough as Magnus and Ahnya were battling RSV. They both were doing nebulizer treatments around the clock and on top of that, Ryan was traveling for the week. So I was home (as usual) with two sick babies.Here's Magnus in his Ergo carrier. All I could do was carry him around ALL DAY LONG! He wouldn't let me put him down for 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a picture of our Easter Egg Tree on my favorite wall in our house!

Thank goodness MAgnus and Ahnya are feeling much better. Another week will do Magnus better in healing. We also found out Magnus has asthma. So now I am educating myself on that.

Daddy met us at the lake on Thursday and we had a wonderful time in the sun and fresh air. It was just beautiful outside Thursday and Friday!!!!!!



The Easter Bunny came a little bit early at the lake and brought Ahnya and Magnus a new summer chair and sun glasses!!!!!

Gabbi and Jocelyn got roller blades and are already GOOD skaters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who said the Easter Bunny only brings candy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Easter Sunday we spent the day on the Johnson farm with Nana and Bumpa!!! It was a windy day, but we had a wonderful time with everyone!!!!

Harley and Ahnya are 4 months difference in age. So they are pretty tight!!!!!! They hung out all day!!!!

Gabriella is my most beautiful blonde!!!!!

Ahnya started to do the "monster" smile lately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not excited about her NEW smile!!!!!! Hopefully it's another one of her phases.

Here's the grandkids under 9 years old!!!! Adri, Tyus and Deacon didn't want to take pics!!!!!

..........................Gabbi collecting eggs

Everyone is counting up who has the most eggs collected!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the winner is...........Jocelyn!!!! She won the GOLDEN EGG Bunny!!!!!!!!!! She was so sweet she said, "there are NO winners! Gabbi won it, too!" She is the sweetest little girl ever. Always thinking of others and how they would feel!!!!!!!!!!! My parenting is WORKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And....this is proof my parenting skills are "work in progress!" Magnus is Magnus!


Happy Easter all our loved ones!