Meeting our SON!

I want to tell you ALL about Welly! But I don't know if I'll be able to write everything down. :) So many feelings, so many moments, so much to tell about him! When we walked into the room to meet him, emotions were running high for all of us. There are two amazing women that run the house where all the toddlers and big kids live at our orphanage. I wish we had been able to spend more time getting to know them. They both were in the room when we walked in. Molly was the one who took the amazing pictures, and Joyce had our video camera and videoed our meeting. I think they both were as excited and nervous as Welly, Lance, and I.

As you can tell from the pictures in my previous post, Welly was grinning from ear to ear when we walked into the room. He has waited for this day for a very long time as well. He is the oldest child at the orphanage. He has been there for almost 4 years. In a couple days, I will blog about that. It is so much fun when God lets you look back and see His hand and where He was at work and you didn't know it at the time. Sometimes we get to see His hand immediately and other times, it's years later when He lets us in on what He had been up to. :) And  there are other times that we never get to see. The key is to be content in all three of those circumstances.

Welly has been waiting for a family for a long time and for him to be able to hug his Momma and Daddy was an incredible moment in all of our lives. It was so cute how shy he was at first. All he could do was grin. And he is not a shy person! Just trying to take it all in was overwhelming. For us and him. Molly and Joyce gave us hugs and left us alone with him. Joyce brought us something to drink and checked on us periodically, but for the most part it was just us and him for the entire day. :)

We spent the first couple hours just looking at pictures and videos from home. I took video of different parts of home so he could try and get a feel for what HOME looked like. He loved it! The kids had taken video of the house and their rooms for him. He loved seeing them talk to him.

My mom had sent 2 baseballs for him, so when we were done looking at all the pics, we went outside to play catch. The moment did not escape me. He was playing catch with his Dad. Think about that. He's never had a dad. And now he has the most amazing Daddy ever. And he was playing catch with him. God sustained me that day. After the initial tears when I held him the first time, I was able to keep my emotions in check. The only way that happened was by the grace of God.

He also learned how to play his Daddy's iPhone. He was a natural! Ha!

They have a basketball goal at the Toddler house. Welly loves basketball. His eyes got huge when I told him that I played basketball. He grabbed a ball and we played a game! It's been years, but I was on fire! Ha! He was SHOCKED! :) It was so cute! He said, "You're good!" He beat me, and that's when I heard the most beautiful words. He yelled at Joyce while she was walking by, "I beat my Momma in basketball!" Once again, I held the tears at bay. :)

We stayed at a guest house that the orphanage has. The best part is that is is just 2 houses up from Welly. We had to leave at lunch so he could eat with all the other kids. We had lunch at the guest house. We only were separated for an hour. Then we were able to go back and spend the rest of the day with him.

We spent the afternoon playing Yahtzee. (Which he loved.) And then Lance spent time going through a Boy Scout handbook with him. He was enthralled. He looked at it backwards and forwards. Literally! He and Lance went through it page by page. He can't wait to start Boy Scouts when he gets home. :)

Like I said. He has an amazing Daddy. Welly loves to learn. And he loves to be outside. He couldn't have a better Daddy for that. Lance was pulled out his compass and taught him how to read it and showed him which way North was so he could know which direction we all were at home.

I think one of the things that has amazed me most about our adoption journey is how God knit Welly together in his bio mom's womb, knowing he would be a part of our family, and how much his personality is like Luke's. We are continually humbled each and every time we get an update about Welly. Our orphanage is AMAZING, and they send us an update at the end of each month with pictures and a little bit more info on Welly and what he's been up to that month. Each and every time we read it we marvel at the fact that you could take out Welly and replace it with Luke and you wouldn't know it was a different person. God knew they were going to be brothers and gave them very similar personalities and interests. I can not WAIT to see what kind of trouble those two will get into! Ha!

I have to admit something. I have always rolled my eyes when adoptive parents make comments about how their adoptive child has their eyes, or their daddy's nose, or grandma's smile. I know they are so in love with their child and are looking for similarities. And now, I am turning into one of them. But please bear with me. I swear to you. He has his Daddy's feet!! Haha!

Tell me I'm lying! Lol!

Our second day was spent going to the American Embassy and the Haitian courts to file our paper work. It was a loooong day. Thankfully we had another couple who is adopting with us. It made the time pass so much more quickly!

We only got to spend a couple hours with Welly that day. He was so anxious for us to get back. He cracked me up, because he was always trying to sneak up behind me and scare me. He got me once, but I got him back! Ha! When we were walking into the building from courts, I had rounded a corner and hear Lance behind me talking to Welly. I flattened up against the wall and waited for him to come around the corner. I jumped out and yelled and he screamed and fell to the floor laughing! It was so much fun just being silly with him and seeing how much he is going to fit into this crazy family of ours!

He did find time that day to play on Daddy's iPhone again. :) He really likes Waterslide. It was pure joy to see his face light up when Lance told him we would take him to ride a real waterslide. He will not know what to think when he walks into White Water!

And his sense of humor astounds me! Joyce and I have similar personalities. She is very funny and teases the kids really hard. She and Welly have a special bond, so he really likes to tease with her and play. When got to spend the entire day with him Thursday. When we got there, I saw his shirt and started laughing. When I commented about it, he smiled huge and said "It's bacon!" The fact that he understood that kind of humor made my heart smile.

You might be wondering. And I haven't said anything about it. But his English is perfect. There is no language barrier. He speaks English fluently. He even knew things that I would have never dreamed he would know. Lance was showing him pictures of a Boy Scout campout that he and Luke had been on. When he saw a picture of a snake they saw, he said, "that's a rattlesnake." I don't know how he knew because you couldn't see the rattles. And when he was looking through the Boy Scout handbook, he saw a picture of a skunk. He called it by name and when Lance asked him if he knew what it did, he said, "yes, they spray." He's a very bright boy!

He did get the chance to talk to his brother and sisters on Wed. It was another moment that I will never forget. The girls were beside themselves, and I have never heard Luke so excited in his life. We called them again Thursday and also talked to all the grandparents and a couple friends. We joked with him that he is the most famous Haitian in Arkansas!

When we walked back to the house after talking to the kids on the phone outside the gate (we got wifi from the guest house and could call for free). we saw some bags of rice and beans piled up against a wall. We had to get a picture of him with the rice.

That rice came from Stuttgart, Arkansas. I spent the first 11 years of my life 20 minutes from Stuttgart. He thought it was so cool he ate Arkansas rice every day!

And now is when it got hard. We had to say goodbye. He got really quiet when he realized it was time. He actually tried to just ignore the whole thing. He went to the bathroom and then to his room. Joyce called him back to the room we were in and we said our goodbyes. It's not a surprise that it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. I hugged him tight and told him the next time I saw him, it was to bring him HOME!

So here we are. Prayerfully waiting to move through the courts and be granted his VISA and passport so we can go get him and bring him home where he belongs. The average wait is 6 months. We are praying for God to move mountains and get him home much sooner. It is so hard be sitting in my home with my family knowing my son is in another country waiting for me to come get him. So I ask for your prayers. For us and for him. Especially for his heart. He is an amazingly bright young man with a depth to him that is astounding. He "gets it" all. And he knows what he is missing and what is waiting for him. We just want him home to begin his life with a family that loves him like no other.

Where Do I start???

Yes, I'm back again! Blogging after a VERY long hiatus. Life got really, really crazy the past year. That will have to be a few posts in explaining. So much has transpired. There is no way, in one post, I can even begin to catch everyone up. But there is an impetus that has pushed me into the blogging world again. And it's an amazing one!

Introducing Rilinxe (pronounced way-LEE) Faddis! His nickname is Welly.

This is the first pic of us with our son! We went to Haiti last week to meet him and file our paperwork in the American Embassy and Haitian courts. There are no words, or at least I am not eloquent enough to come up with any, that describe that moment when we saw him in person for the very first time and hugged him. Simply amazing. It's like all the pieces of my heart were finally in place.

It had been such a long, long journey up to that moment. And we still have a little ways to go before he is home where he belongs. But we have reached a huge hurdle and crossed it and I am praising the Lord for that!

Our journey started almost 4 years ago. Most of you know that Lance was on ground 9 days after the earthquake happened Jan 2010. That was the event that God used to tell us that we had a son in Haiti. We'd known since before we were married that He had called us to adoption. We just didn't know when it would happen.  When I went to Haiti with Lance in May of 2010, we spent time talking to pastors at orphanages about adoption; looking for the boy that God had picked out for our family. Then again in November of 2010. Every time we left an orphanage, we were discouraged because "he" wasn't there. Lance told me "He's not there. There's not a boy in there I can't walk away from. If Luke were there, I wouldn't be able to walk away from him." I was looking so hard and was trying to force something. I had to trust my husband and follow him and trust that God would lead us to "him."

Fast forward to March of this year. We had completed our dossier (fancy name for paperwork/file) and it had been in Haiti 5 months; since October the year before. I was getting discouraged and then we got an email from our adoption agency with a list of "waiting children." Waiting children are hard to adopt children. Most have physical or mental delays, but some are one the list only because of their age. I opened the email and there Welly was. I looked at his picture, read his bio, and I knew. I knew he was my son.

I showed the email to Lance that night and tears came to his eyes. He looked at me and said, "That's what I knew he would look like." I stand amazed that God had put his face in our hearts and we recognized him as our son! Over all of the other orphans we had seen.  God is GOOD!

Long story short, we contacted our agency, they called our orphanage, and we were officially matched with Welly on Spring Break. Then our dossier was submitted to the Haitian Social Services in May. I'm going to blog another post on the process we've been through with that. And all the ways we have seen God's hand in this long, long, process. I want to write it all down 1) so I don't forget the details, and 2) so Welly can read it and know how hard we wanted him, searched for him, waited for him and loved him. Before we ever knew him.

But for this post, I have to share the pictures of our meeting him for the first time. It. Was. Incredible.

We arrived in Haiti 2 days before we went to the orphanage. We wanted to spend some time with some of the guys we had worked with on our previous trips to Haiti. And also to have a little R&R. We came off of a very stressful week before we left. Sara's birthday, party, baking pies and delivering food for our church Thanksgiving meal, my grandfather's death and funeral and packing all 6 of us for a week. We needed a mental break. We really enjoyed our 2 days sightseeing some of Haiti we hadn't seen and doing some shopping. Then we had dinner with our friends at our resort. It was a blessed time. I'll write more about that, too, at a different time. :)

Tuesday morning we woke up with butterflies in our stomachs. The day for which we had longed and waited was here! We were going to meet our son!!! Our friend Gelin came and got us at the hotel and took us to the orphanage. We were a bundle of nerves!

When we got there, I knew that they would take us right to him. There really wouldn't be anytime to gather our thoughts. And I'm kinda glad. I think I would have been nothing but nerves knowing he was in a room waiting to meet us and I couldn't hug him yet. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of that day...

He was looking at us arriving. We were setting down our bags and then we went in the house and up the stairs to meet him. :)

And here's what happened next...

I will never forget stopping at the top of the steps; right outside of the room he was in. I turned and looked and Lance and said, "This is it." We had been waiting for that minute for a very, very long time. You don't always get the opportunity in life to stop and soak in a moment that your life is going to change. We had that opportunity. We knew that the moment we stepped through that door, our lives would never be the same. It was surreal.

I'll end it with that for today. Tomorrow, I'll share about out time with him and the amazingness that it was!

Moving' On Up!

Luke had ATA graduation tonight. He's now a purple belt. I know that means nothing to its people, but he's over half way to being a black belt! That represents a lot of hard work. We are so proud of him. He participated in his first tournament a couple weeks ago and now that he's moving higher in his belts, we will probably enter him in a few more tournaments. Here he is with Mr O'Conner. We LOVE Mr. O'Conner!

Super Bowl(ing) ???

Our day consisted of all kinds of bowling today. :) On our way home from church, Emma piped up from the back seat and said, "Momma, I don't want anyone to help me bowl." Pretty random comment, and all of a sudden I yelled, "Oh my gosh! Micah's party!"

We were invited a couple weeks ago to a Super Bowl party at some friends house. We've been planning on what to take and needing to go to the grocery store and I'd totally forgotten our friends' son's birthday party at the bowling alley. 

What threw me was Emma saying, "Micah's party??" She didn't know Micah's party was today and that we were going bowling. Which confused me with regards to the bowling comment. ??? 

The kids had a blast at the party and all of them asked to go bowling again. Love the blurry action shots! Ha! And Emma's form was amazing!!!

After the party, we ran to the grocery store to grab supplies for the Super Bowl Party we were invited to. We made our snacks and were on our way to the party. That's when Emma's bowling comment from earlier in the day made sense. I heard Luke say, "Emma, we're not going bowling again." And she very loudly and sternly said, "We are too, Luke! We are going to the Super Bowl party!" Hahahaha! Bless her heart. She had no frame of reference for a Super Bowl party! :) LOVE that girl!

Here are some highlights from the Super Bowl party...

Luke had the quote of the night. As Beyonce came on for the halftime show..."I don't get stuff like this." Ha! Bless his heart. So proud of him. 

Some friends of ours have adopted a sweet baby boy. His name is Parke Henry. He was born with several severe heart defects and wasn't expected to live but a few hours after birth. He is on day 24! Each day is a miracle and his Momma and Daddy (and the rest of us) are thankful for every day he has. You can read more about Parke on his Momma's blog here. Please be praying for sweet Parke and his family.

The girl's have prayed for Parke every. single. night. It has blessed this Momma's heart to see the love these girls have for this sweet boy they haven't been around much at all. They got to hold Parke for the first time tonight. So precious.

And the highlight of the night...

Lance's Mercy commercial was on during the Super Bowl! You should have heard up hoopin' and hollerin'! Haha!!!
 

Success!

The revamped chore chart is AMAZING!!! I think I have stumbled upon the right system for our family! It has worked this week like a dream.

I'm still doing some tweaking and probably will for a few more days. But overall, I think I was right on the money with dollar amounts, chores, and motivation. I was right in thinking that there would be a little competition factor in wanting to earn the most money each week. And just as I'm typing that, I just had an epiphany to encourage more chores getting done. Ha! I'm going to try giving a bonus to the child who earns the most money at the end of the week. Sweet! That will motivate my oldest into doing more. :)

This is the chore chart after 5 days...

You see who isn't so fired up about the chart. He doesn't seem to grasp the idea that the 25 cents and 50 cents adds up each week. Maybe the bonus will motivate him!

Here is my FOUR year old...

 
Tonight alone she earned $1.25! She did 4 different chores. It has been such a help to have the table cleared after meals, the dishwasher unloaded and loaded, the bathroom cleaned. It is worth every penny I am paying the kids!

 

Chore Chart

We have had a chore chart (multiple variances of chore charts) for a while now. It starts out great for a couple weeks. But then the kids get tired of it, I forget to pay them, they don't like the chores they are assigned, I have to nag them to do chores, etc., etc., etc.

I don't remember where I first saw my new approach, but I've seen it a few times online lately. I'm giving the kids control of the chores they do. I used our existing magnet board (that I painstakingly spent hours gridding out!) OK, not hours, but it took a long time. :)

I made up chores and gave them corresponding dollar amounts. I printed them out on magnet sheets, cut them out and stuck them on the laundry room door. 

Here's what it looks like...

Emma has already earned 75 cents, Sara 50 cents, and Hope $1.25!! Luke was busy doing a Scout project so he didn't have the opportunity to do any chores.

I think this is going to work so much better. If the kids want to earn money, they determine how much they earn! It's that simple. So much better than nagging them to do chores only to give them a "smiley face" that means nothing to them. 

They are in charge of their own destiny! And one thing I noticed tonight. It's going to instill a little friendly competition between the kids. Sara's mouth dropped when she saw Hope earned $1.25 tonight. They are going to be trying to beat each other to do the chores so they can get the money! Win for everyone!

A Walk in the Woods

What a great day! Lance has been wanting to get over to the Buffalo National River for a while, but fall came and went and we never had the time. Today was a great January weather day with highs in the upper 50's so we made plans to drive over this morning and spend the day.  He was on a mission. His grandfather's family homesteaded in Madison county and Lance knows from him all the stories of the families that lived there 100 years ago. He remembers his grandfather telling him of a moonshine spot and he wanted to hunt to find it. (He's been watching entirely too much "Moonshiners" on Discovery Channel! Ha!)

The kids spent the night with Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Leah last night. (My brother and SIL) We picked them up mid morning and headed out on our adventure.

Thanks Aunt Leah and Uncle Jeremy!

We have reached another milestone as a family. This was the best hike we've ever taken the kids on. We hiked for about 4 miles. And did some bushwacking on the side! The big kids did amazing! There was no complaining. And little Emma was great. She was exhausted on the hike back, but she made it. She was a trooper.

The only negative was knowing that it's only January and we will have cold, bad weather for another few weeks. But we are praising the Lord for the great weather today!

Daddy giving a nature lesson

Taking a snack break

Me and my girls!

Cool tree that had been hit by lightning

We found the still site!

Hope found a heart rock

Love

Love. My. Family.

 

History of our Adoption

My friend Kelly at Kelly's Korner is having a blog link up on adoptions. I figured I'd be in trouble if I didn't link up, so I'm going to try to condense our adoption story into just a few paragraphs. That is going to be EXTREMELY hard to do! :)

We are in the process of adopting a little boy in Haiti. Why Haiti? Read about how we fell in love with the country of Haiti here. Haiti went from being a place of that we were vaguely aware of to a people and country that stole part of our hearts.

Lance and I talked about adoption before we ever got married. The benefit of dating for 3 years is getting to talk through all aspects of your life together. We truly had the expectation of God adding another child to whatever biological children He was going to give us in a situation resembling the movie "The Blind Side." We had a vision of our kids having a friend when they were teens that didn't have a family and needed one. You would think after following the Lord for 32 years, I would have learned not to ever think you know how God is going to work in your life!

So fast forward 8 years and 4 kids later, our thoughts of adoption got pushed to the backburner. And if I'm going to be completely honest, Lance didn't think it was going to happen at all. Our conversation after finding out I was pregnant with number 4 went something like this...Me: So what does this mean for us adopting? Lance: Um, that's not going to happen. Me: But Lance, you're calling can't change. Lance: Oh yes it can! (Hahaha! He was only half serious.)

But on that first trip Lance took to Haiti, things changed for us. On one of the days leading up to his departure, we were talking in the kitchen while he was organizing supplies. I looked at him and said, "What if our child is in Haiti?" He looked me in the eyes and answered, "I've already thought that." Now if that isn't God at work, I don't know what is. 

We both knew then, that were were going to have 5 children. And that number 5 was in Haiti. It has been such and emotional roller coaster since then, and God has taught me so much about trusting in His timing and His calling. At the time that we felt Him calling us to adopt from Haiti, we weren't even eligible to adopt from that country because we had too many biological children. It was almost 2 years before laws were changed allowing us to pursue adoption in Haiti. And it's been over a year since we started the process of compiling our dossier. Our dossier arrived in Haiti October 30, 2012 and we are now waiting for our referral. 

There have been so many times throughout this journey that God has confirmed His calling and our response. He has revealed Himself in supernatural ways, and given us such a peace that we are following His will. Our kids tell everyone that they have a brother in Haiti. (It is a boy and he is between the ages of 4 and 7.) And that's another way that God has revealed Himself to us and our family. Our kids are so excited about the adoption and there has never been anything negative said by any of them about growing our family with another child. There will definitely be an adjustment period, but there always is when you add another member to a family. Whether that be by birth or adoption.  

The waiting is hard. I'm not going to lie. I look everyday for that email saying we have a referral. It gets really hard to hear the questions week after week from friends and family asking how things are with the adoption. There's just not a lot to report. We have had some forward movement and are cautiously expecting our referral in the next few weeks. But we rest totally in the fact that God is in control. He determined our children before the foundation of the earth. And our son will come home in HIS timing. You can read about where we are in the adoption here.

In the meantime, he is in an AMAZING place. An orphanage in Haiti called God's Littlest Angels. He is being taken care of, provided for and most importantly, LOVED on!

100

The kids are coming up on their 100th day of school. In 1st grade they do "100" projects. They have to make something that has 100 things on it. There's no guidelines. It just has to have 100 things. Luke drew a chicken and added 100 real feathers when he was in first grade. Sara drew a huge flower and decorated the petals with 3D glitter hearts.

We went wild and crazy for Hope's project this year! Kinda like her. :) She told me me she wanted to use crayons. I bought some crayons and foam board today and had no idea what we were going to do until I got home and we started talking through it.

I remembered a Pinterest project I'd seen and wanted to do. I showed it to Hope and she loved it. We hot glued 100 crayons to the top of the foam board and then melted them with a hair dryer and made art!

It was fun. She could do it herself. And it turned out so cute!

Socks

I've got nothing profound to say today. No big events. Kids didn't do anything cute. No fun family outing. Lance worked. The kids were off for MLK day. A friend from church and her kids came over for a couple of hours. Her oldest son and her daughter are Luke and Sara's ages.

That was the excitement for the day. But. As the post says. I'm blogging about socks.

I hate them. I can truly identify with the Apostle Paul when he asked the Lord to take the thorn from his flesh. Socks are my thorn. Ugh.

A family of 6 goes through at least 84 socks in 7 days. At least. That doesn't account for kids coming home from school, taking them off, not knowing where they are and putting on another pair if we have to leave the house again.

This was my sock pile when I was folding laundry today...

Target Practice

This weekend has been gorgeous! It has been so cold for the past couple of weeks that we haven't been able to get outside and do anything. I think we all have been getting cabin fever. Yesterday would have been a great day to go hiking, but we were at Luke's tournament all day. 

We had a narrow window to get outside today between church and the kids having to be at Children's Choir so we came home, at a sandwich and headed to the farm. 

My kids have the BEST daddy! We spent 2 hours shooting bows and arrows and BB guns. The kids had a blast!!! 

It made me soooo ready for spring and then the lazy days of summer!

Hope sporting the red boots!

 Sara is a dang good shot with a bow!

 Luke has had lots of practice with his Daddy and can hit the target every time. :)

Emma was not about to be left out!

Hitting the BB target proved a little harder.

 Hope had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to hold the gun. :)

Poor Emma just couldn't quite figure it out. Barrel? V? Trigger? Never mind, just squeeze this. Ha!

i LOVE this!

Lance told me when Luke shot his deer this year that Luke is a good shot. But man! He is! He hit the Mt. Dew can every time!

Hi yah!

Today was Luke's first ATA Tae Kwon Do tournament! My boy did great! He's been in ATA for over a year now, but I've been really nervous about letting him do a tournament. They are always out of town at least a couple hours away and I just didn't know if he would get there and perform to the level of the competition.


Our instructor manages 2 ATA's. One here in Bentonville and the other in Fayetteville. He decided it would be a good idea to have a tournament for just our 2 schools. It was great! About 300 kids and adults participated, and it gave all of us who haven't done tournaments a feel for what they are like. And I have to say, Luke did GREAT! It is definitely something we are going to think about doing at least once a year.


Luke's favorite thing was getting to do the tournament with his cousin. Clayton goes to the Fayetteville school. They had a blast hanging out and competing. :)

Watch out for these two!

Doing his weapons form

Combat sparring

Receiving his medals

Proud boy!

Look at those smiles!

 And I had to put this in! Our best friends called us and wanted to go eat catfish tonight. Lance and I haven't had catfish in years. And I guess I've been watching too much Duck Dynasty, because I had the urge to try frog legs! Oh my!

So here it is, my one and probably only time to eat a frog leg! It wasn't that bad, but I prefer chicken! Ha!

Just a Day in the Life

Today was a typical day in the Faddis house. Typical in that it did not go as I had planned!

I got an email at 9:30 from Sara's teacher. She had sent it at 8:30. She apologized for the short notice, but wanted to let me know that Sara was getting an award during Colt Stampede. Of course, Colt Stampede started at 9:15. And I was on the couch snuggling with Emma watching Disney Jr. 

I was upset because I go to all the kids awards and parties and field trips. And to know I was just sitting on the couch with Emma (which is one of my favorite parts of each day) made it a difficult pill to swallow. :(

I did jump up and pick up the living room and kitchen, jump in the shower, dress Emma, and run out the door at 10:30 to go pick up Sonic and headed to the school to have lunch with Hope first, then Sara. 

Thankfully, a good friend was at the Stampede and got a picture of Sara for me. :)

My Super Colt! Love that girl!

After school, I picked up the kids and we went to the girls' piano lessons. Luke has guitar on Tues and I so wish we could do this all in one day, but thankfully there is a great lounge room with a tv and vending machines and WiFi where they all take lessons. Makes it soooo much easier on this mom. We spent an hour at lessons and this was Emma's head attire. Her choice, obviously. That crazy girl.

My Laura Ingalls

Then it was home for an hour or so until Lance got off work. I had planned on fixing dinner in that hour, but I just wasn't in the mood to cook. And Lance had a really rough day at work, so we loaded up and went out for Mexican! This is what it's like to go out to eat with my family...
 

Hope was hamming it up with her fajita. She would not let me get a cute pic of her!

At Luke's urging, Sara ate a jalapeno. God bless her! The pictures get blurry because I was laughing so hard!

Sure, she's smiling now.

Wait a minute. This isn't so funny.

Holy Cow! What have I done!

Then Luke wanted me to take a picture of him so he can see if he can look cross eyed. I told him the first pic was going to be in his yearbook!

And then Emma wanted me to take a picture of her making a silly face. But it turned out more of a "man my hair looks really bad" face. Ha!

Dinner is never an uneventful occurrence in our family. Not by a long shot. :) It's like wrangling squirrels. As crazy as it is, Lance and I get complimented all the time by strangers in restaurants on how well our children behave and what a sweet family we have. Every time, and I mean every time, it happens, we just look at each other and laugh. We feel like all we've done is say, "stop, sit, no, quit, eat, no, sit, stop" the entire meal!