My Sweet Family

Brian & His Fishing Buddy

We've recently discovered that Emma loves fishing with her papa & let me tell you, that's made one papa a very happy papa! She now has her own pole & will be getting some new fishing things from jolly ol' st nick. She is a daddy's girl through and through!

Site Seeing

We happened across this sign while we were out and about the other day. For some reason it really cracked Brian up, guy humor maybe? Somehow he had watched a youtube video about this place as well.



men ...

Happy Birthday To My Better Half

Today is my sweet husband's birthday. We celebrated a little early this year, trying to procure overnight child care can be a tad bit complex. Just getting up enough nerve to ask someone to stay with them is difficult as it is! We haven't had been anywhere overnight without kiddos since Ryan was probably 4 or 5 so we were long overdue. Thankfully, Emma's first teacher Amy came and stayed with the kiddos (bless her kind soul). We went and had dinner - alone! Checked into a lovely bed and breakfast that overlooks the Ohio river, went for a long walk then spent some time on the deck just talking to each other and enjoying a beautiful sunset. It was so nice having that much time together to just do nothing!!! The next day we went to a small town and walked around checking out a few cute little stores and few antique stores. It was really, really nice & it's something we really should do more often.

Then last night we went out as a family and enjoyed some yummy Indian food!

Happy Birthday Brian - Love you with all my heart!!!!

Papa & His Newest Peanut

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

First of all, Happy Father's Day to my sweet, sweet husband! Not only do I love him, but I love spending time with him and laughing with him ... just plain ol' enjoy any time I have with him!

The real reason for this post though, in honor of Father's Day is that I want to share a little about Brian and Rebecca. Not sure why, but Rebecca pretty much took up instantly with Brian and Emma when we first adopted her and kept me at arm's distance (at best). Thinking back and trying to analyze the 'why', I think it was really because she saw me as the woman who took her away from Amanda. Maybe that's it or maybe I'm completely off base but nevertheless, she wanted nothing to do with me while we were in China. When we went walking she wanted to hold his hand. When we were on the bus, she wanted to be seated next to him. At meal time, you guessed it - she wanted to be seated right next to him. I'd be telling a major kind of story if I were to say that it didn't bother me because it did but I also knew that once we got home and settled in that it would be okay. Which it was. No sooner had we gotten home than I became the 'go to' parent and our relationship hasn't done anything but grow stronger since. But as our relationship grew she had less and less to do with Brian. Now here we are a year and half since her adoption and I am starting to see a little daddy's girl emerging from Bex. It started out with some small silly little things and then the other day I heard her refer to herself as 'papa's peanut'. You can't imagine the smiles on both of our faces when she said that because that is Brian's pet name for Emma and by her saying that it appeared that she was basically saying 'move over Emma - another peanut is in the house'!


Xian, China ... holding her papa's hand.



Adoption day - asleep on her papa's shoulder.



Summer 2010 - pretending to fix her papa's hair. We've come a long way baby!

Happy Father's Day!

I know, I know ... a few days late but it's been hectic around here. The girls & I had a great day with Brian. He's such a sweet papa and husband.

Happy Belated Father's Day!

Daddy Names

• Dad or Daddy - Seemingly the most common name for a father.
• Papa - What Ryan & Emma call Brian. This wasn't intentional but Brian thinks I may have inadvertently started it when Ryan was born by referring to Ryan as baby bear and Brian as papa bear. Regardless, the moniker stuck.
• Baba - Chinese name for a father.
• Paba - What Bex calls Brian!

14 Years Ago ...

Fourteen years ago Brian and I were married in a somewhat small wedding in Denton, Texas. Neither one of us were up for going out and celebrating tonight but we did go to Lowe's and also took the kiddos out for pie and ice cream. I laughingly asked Brian if 14 years ago did he give any thought to having 3 more children and especially two little dumplings crawling all over him. I know that for me, I certainly wasn't thinking that 14 years ago - at that point in my life I wasn't even sure if I wanted one or not. Goodness how times have changed! Back then my life pretty much centered around my career and around "us". Back then we did things like Gallery Night, ballroom dance lessons, weekend trips and all kinds of other fun things. Now, career is well - hmmm, not exactly a career at the moment and everyone who stops by here already knows about our quiver full of children. My blessings, each and every one of them. And of course the biggest blessing of all - my wonderful, loving, kind and thoughtful husband.

Happy Anniversary Brian, here's to many more!

Thankful Thursday

This is from a post I had over a year ago, but I have this same picture hanging up in my cube at work. Every time I look at it, I'm reminded how thankful I am for my children and for my sweet husband.

It's funny how different the children are with each of us. Ryan and I have a very special relationship and while he loves his papa, it doesn't seem to bother him too much if Brian is gone for the evening or overnight for work. It's a different story for Emma though. Brian was gone to a weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago and Emma was just devastated that her papa was gone. She even woke up early that Saturday morning and was laying in the floor with her nose in the carpet crying for him. It was awful.

Back to this picture though, I just love to see her little hand wrapped around his finger.




Hands
(Grace Noll Crowell)

My hand is large and hers is small,
And there is nothing on earth at all

More important than the task
That lies ahead of me, I ask

For wisdom, Lord, that I may lead
This child aright; her every need

Depends on me. Be Thou my guide
That I, in walking by her side,

May choose the right paths for her feet.
The days are swift, the years are fleet,

Mark me alert in deed and word
As we go forward, blessed Lord:

Her precious clinging hand in mine,
With always, Lord, my hand in Thine.

Speaking My Love Language

Brian & I took a class based on the book “The Five Love Languages of Children” a couple of years ago at our church. Part of the class included learning what your own love language is as well as the love language of your spouse. Basically, it helps you understand those things in life that make you feel the most loved. The categories (as I remember them) are:

 Words of Affirmation
 Quality Time
 Receiving Gifts
 Acts of Service
 Physical Touch

I was really surprised at what my primary love languages were because had I been asked to choose, I probably would have picked something else. But after taking the quiz and thinking about the results, I knew the outcome of my quiz was right. My love languages are ‘Acts of Service’ and ‘Quality Time’. Which makes a lot of sense because I absolutely love it when people do things for me and the time I most treasure is time spent with my family and with friends. And acts of service that I treasure are not necessarily the big things in life either. What some may consider inconsequential can absolutely make my day.

As an example, I came home the other night and in the foyer was a wide array of things to step over: baseball bag, cleats, dirty socks, two back packs, roller blades and seemingly more. You can see our kitchen table from the doorway and it was covered with newspaper, mail and all kinds of things that Brian had brought in from cleaning the van the night before. My heart just sank and my mood went south. I didn’t say anything though because I’m so thankful that Ryan loves playing baseball & rollerblading and I was more than thankful that Brian had cleaned out the van because it had been a mess. I ventured into the kitchen and it was a mess too, but thankfully Brian had dinner ready and waiting for us. Again, I didn’t say a fussy word at all.

We had our dinner and I ventured upstairs to change clothes only to discover that Brian had been working on the upstairs and had done some of the household chores that I severely dislike. My eyes welled up with thanksgiving. I could have kissed his feet, but he had left for church. I promise, the man couldn’t have bought me 12 dozen roses and made me any happier. A diamond ring pales in comparison to coming home to a sparkly clean bathroom and bedroom.

Emma likes to say “Thank you Jesus for friends”. Well, I was saying a big “Thank you Jesus for my wonderful husband” that night!

Happy Birthday Brian!

Happy Birthday to Brian ... he's not just my sweet husband and father to our children, but he's the best, best friend I could have ever asked for. What a blessing to be able to spend my life with someone I love, trust, admire and respect.

Happy Birthday!!!

Our Anniversary - 13 years!

Thirteen years ago this evening Brian & I became husband and wife. In some ways it seems like it was just yesterday and in others it seems like an entire lifetime ago. We were married at "Little Chapel in the Woods" in Denton, Texas. The quaint little chapel is located on the grounds of the Texas Women's College.

One of my best memories from that night was the toast we received from Brian's best man. He told us "through the years as you look into each other's eyes, may you be looking into the eyes of your best friend". I'll have to say, Hudson was right on track with that. We were best friends then and we still are.

Most of the pictures from that day are in a scrapbook but here's a few that were duplicates and so I was able to scan them in. The couple in the picture with us is the pastor who married us and his wife. Not only were they are pastors, but wonderful friends as well. We used to have so much fun with them - absolutely delightful people to be around. We were fortunate enough to be able to spend an evening with them when we were in Texas back in November. Babs & Shelby - we miss you guys & count ourselves blessed to have you guys as friends.

Hand in Hand

Hands
(Grace Noll Crowell)

My hand is large and hers is small,
And there is nothing on earth at all

More important than the task
That lies ahead of me, I ask

For wisdom, Lord, that I may lead
This child aright; her every need

Depends on me. Be Thou my guide
That I, in walking by her side,

May choose the right paths for her feet.
The days are swift, the years are fleet,

Mark me alert in deed and word
As we go forward, blessed Lord:

Her precious clinging hand in mine,
With always, Lord, my hand in Thine.


Some may think this picture was an odd request for a photographer, but my goal was to capture some of the real life moments of our children. Some of my favorite memories are not necessarily some of the things we've done, but moments I can picture in my mind. It seems like those "stay with you moments" are those tender times between us. I've tried capturing some of those on film, but I'm just no where near being as creative as Elizabeth. Is there anything more touching than a father holding the hand of his daughter? Or a father walking along a path with his son?

My next project is to capture a portion of Brian & Emma's morning ritual as we are getting ready to leave for work. Brian picks her up and sits her on the table in front of him and Emma gets right in front of him, nose to nose and then gives him the most tender kiss I've ever seen in my life.