9 Years Old!

Who would have believed that my sweet baby girl would be nine years old today? Katie Beth celebrated her birthday tonight by taking 1st place in the 1 meter and 3 meter diving boards at her dive meet. We were so proud of her!
Katie Beth has brought so much laughter and love to our family the last 9 years. She was the answer to our prayer 9 years ago. Tonight, our prayer for her is that she will seek God's will in every aspect of her life. Katie Beth is such a joy and delight. We couldn't have asked for a more precious daughter!

HELP!

I need help from anyone that can help me upload some video. Computers are not my thing! I am trying to get video of Katie Beth diving uploaded to this blog. Please let me know how to do it!! Thanks!

10 YEARS AGO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!



10 years ago today, I woke up and prayed that I would get pregnant.
10 years ago today, I woke up and prayed that God would please answer the desires of my heart.
10 years ago today, I woke up and prayed that God would somehow give me a baby.
10 years ago today, I didn't really expect the answer to change or anything to happen.
10 years ago today, I didn't wake up expecting the best from God, but God looked past my weakness and began to let His plan unfold.
10 years ago today, I watched as God himself, orchestrated a miracle in our lives!
10 years ago today, I received a phone call at work, telling us about a baby to be born in 2 hours!
10 years ago today, Mike and I became parents to our precious Daniel!
10 years ago today, I couldn't imagine our baby being 10 years old!

Today, Daniel turned 10. It has been an amazing 10 years for Mike and I! We have loved every single minute of parenting. 10 years later, we give thanks everyday to God for the two blessings that He has given us. It is amazing to watch Daniel change and grow. One of the biggest blessings is watching as he learns about God and the life God wants him to live.

Last night, we sat with Daniel and told him the story about him joining our family. He thought we were funny as we explained how crazy we were until we saw him two days later! It was a great time for him to hear his story again and for us to explain, yet again, how much he is loved!

So, tonight, 10 years later, I am hopeful for another blessing that God can bring into our family.

VALENTINE'S DAY

I have had a GREAT day with my 3 valentines! We were suppose to be in Mississippi the whole weekend, seeing my family and the children playing with their cousins. Sometimes, plans don't really workout. Katie Beth got sick and Mississippi was under a winter storm warning. We never dreamed that the weather in Mississippi would cause travel problems for us! Daniel was the most disappointed of us all, since Mississippi is one of his very favorite places.

We have had a great weekend together, even though we didn't go out of town. All 4 of us have gone shopping together and out to dinner for Valentine's Day on Friday night. On Saturday, Daniel's basketball team won and the Jayhawks did too. We played Mario brothers together, made homemade pizza, and Daniel and Katie Beth helped me make chocolate covered strawberries. Today, we went to church and then we have all been in our PJ's since we got home. It is very cold and we have loved staying inside! Once again today we all played Mario Brothers and Katie Beth and Mike painted some pottery that we had made earlier. Mike did beat the pants off of me when we were playing Scrabble! I am trying to forget about that!!

Today, I am truly in love with all three of these wonderful people! Michael is my true love, the love of my life, that is always there for me and the children. He is the one that loves me all of the time, makes me laugh, and keeps my uptight personality in check. Michael gives all of us his time and his heart. For these reasons and many others, he will always be my Valentine.Even though we didn't go out for Valentine's Day, I know how much I am loved and hope he knows how wonderful and loved that he is.

Daniel is my first child, love of my life. I would say there is nothing like being a mother to a boy, but there is also nothing like being a mother to a girl! I am in love with Daniel because of his sweet personality, the way he takes everything so literally, the way he loves his family, and because he will do anything to make someone else happy. Daniel always exhibits the "I'm Third" spirit! For these reasons and many others he will always be my Valentine!

Katie Beth is my second child, love of my life. She brings me joy on a daily basis! I am in love with Katie Beth because of her excited personality, the way she can make me laugh, her love of babies, her willingness to always help, her creative side,and the many times of the day I hear "I love you!" I never have to wonder if Katie Beth is in love with me, because I hear it all of the time! For these reasons and many others, she will always be my Valentine!

As for me, I am in love with God who has given me these wonderful Valentines and so many more blessings in life. God is gracious, kind and good all the time.

DIVE MEET

Today was Katie Beth's first dive meet. She was very excited this morning, but grew nervous as the time to compete got closer! This was also our first dive meet. Mike and I are learning all of this right along side Katie Beth, as all we know is that Greg Luganis hit his head very hard during the Olympics!! Katie Beth loves dive team and we are very excited to have found something that she loves! I will tell you that watching a dive meet is VERY, VERY HOT! It is very warm on the pool deck! Mike wore shorts, even though it was only 17 degress when we left home this morning!

The dive meet was great and Katie Beth took 1st place in her age division! She was thrilled and we were super excited for her! She informed me that she loves dive team even more now! These are some pictures of Katie Beth diving and on the award stand this morning!

There is no news on the adoption front, except that we keep being contacted by scammers. It is so sad that there are individuals that will do this to people. The sad thing is that I am not even excited when I see that we have an email about adoption. I now just immeadiately think everyone is trying to scam us about adoption. I do know that this isn't true, but sometimes you think it is!

COUPONS!!!!!

This post is not about adoption or about my two children. Some of you may know and some may not know, but over the last 9 months I have become a serious couponer. I started out small, but now I take my coupons very seriously. I was hooked the first time I got free toothpaste!!! So, over the last nine months I have learned how to get great deals with internet coupons, clipping coupons, and by reading blogs about couponing. I have been able to cut our grocery bills at least in half!

My latest goal was to eat from our pantry for the month of January. I wasn't sure how we would do, but worst case scenario was that I would have to go grocery shopping. I had several meals frozen in the frezzer and our pantry was pretty well stocked. I decided that I would only buy fruit, dairy, bread and mine and Mike's pop. Well, there are only 11 days left in January and we have done great! The snack foods and boxes of cereal are running low, but I think we are going to make it!!!

I did go to the grocery store and buy grated cheese. Hy-vee was having a sale on kra.ft grated cheese this weekend. After the coupon that printed out I was able to get 5 bags of cheese for $1!!!!!! It was a limit of 5 per customer, so I took the whole family to the store with me on Saturday and Sunday. In total we were able to get 40 bags of grated cheese to put in the freezer. I am hoping that this will last us most of the year. So far this month I have only spent $78.48 on food and that includes my year's supply of cheese.

Mike and I are going to San Antonio for the weekend with just the two of us. It is near 70 degrees there and I CAN'T Wait!!!

CHRISTMAS 2009

It has been a long time since I have updated, so I will cover some things that are going on in our family. We had a great Thanksgiving spending it with my Mom and Mike's family. We worked at packing meals for the less fortunate in the morning and spent lunch with Mike's famliy. My Mom and I temporarily lost our minds and went out shopping at Midnight. I am not a night owl at all, but I was a trooper and made it until 3:00 pm the next afternoon!!!! We won't do that again, but we did have a good time.

We haven't had anymore contacts about adoption. We are trying to be patient and know that God's timing is the best. I have become a little anxious over the last few weeks about no one contacting us, but God has gotten my attention and put things back into focus for me. Mike is forever patient and a good example for me to follow!

December was very busy with the holidays approaching, but I love this time of year. We are forever grateful for Daniel and Katie Beth and our Christmas card talked about the unspeakable joy that they bring us everyday! God showed me that even if our family only includes these two children, that we couldn't be more blessed. I hope and pray for another child, but life is good for the blessings He has already bestowed.

Christmas came and brought a major snowstorm to our Midwest town. My Mom, my brother and his family were all staying with us. We had a great time being snowed in and having a very relaxing Christmas. Daniel and Katie Beth had a wonderful time and were so excited about every aspect of the Christmas season. It is fabulous to watch them overjoyed when they open gifts and see their presents! Since we had a white Christmas, we also had fun playing in the snow. It snowed for four days in a row! This was the first time that we had spent Christmas with my nieces and they added a lot of excitement for Christmas morning. All four of the children had a great time playing in the snow on Christmas Day! The only disappointment was that church was cancelled on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve morning we did a scavenger hunt that a friend had given me for the children to find their Christmas presents from Grandma. It was a big hit with the kids as they found their presents in the freezer, the bathtub, and the garage! This will probably become a yearly tradition!

2009 has been a great year for our family! We have gotten to travel, spend time with family, and watch the children be involved in many activities. We are very excited to see what 2010 holds for our family. We pray that a baby will be a part of 2010 and we pray that daniel and Katie Beth will continue to grow in their walk with God and be happy and healthy children. We hope 2010 is a wonderful year for all of you!

The pictures are from Christmas or the couple of weeks before Christmas!