We got an e-mail a few hours ago from Jeremy's dad. He is in Missouri with Grandpa and he seems to be doing OK. Grandpa is in the hospital and is very weak but they do not believe that he is necessarily at the point of death. Grandpa is 93 years old and so they know that any difficulties could turn very serious very fast. He only weighs about 115 pounds and he is actually burning more calories from breathing then he is actually taking in his body. Please continue to pray for him and our family. 

I have a prayer request this morning. Jeremy's Grandfather is not doing well at all. We knew that he was having a rough time but Jeremy got a text from his mom this morning saying that Grandpa had taken a turn for the worse. Please pray for our family. Other than the bad news about Grandpa we have had a pretty good weekend. Saturday night the kids and I stayed home. There were several severe storms that rolled through so we just stayed home. Saturday Sam and I took Maggie back to the vet. She was better but there was still a problem. She has these glands that keep filling up with gross stuff and they are supposed to be able to empty on their own but they are not emptying. I need to take her back next month to have them rechecked and the glands may need to be removed. After the vet we came back home and and Jeremy and the girls and then we spent the afternoon together. Yesterday we went to church and then came home and all got naps. We had a fellowship night at church last night so that is always fun. I am about to get everyone ready and go to the bank and a Starbucks run is definitely needed this morning. We have not slept great the last few nights. Saturday night the wind was blowing something outside and it was making this horrible sound. Samuel was scared to death so I ended up sleeping with him and the noise kept me awake most of the night. Emma has not been sleeping well at all the last week or so. She wakes up whining and carrying on. Last night we were up with her several times. She has been doing that thing again where she gets something on her mind that she wants to do and she is going to throw a fit until she gets it. She has been quite a handful the last week. Well one quick funny story and then I have to go. Samuel found a pad of yellow post-it notes the other day and he wanted to play with them. So Jeremy gave him a few and he gave Emma a couple pieces of paper. They went in the other room and we heard Sam say, "Emma get that out of your mouth it is not a piece of cheese!" It was so funny. Actually Sam has been the manner police lately. Even t church yesterday he kept pointing out those who were not using manners. I am not quite sure what sparked this new interest. Well I better go. 

Once again nothing too exciting going on around here. It is raining outside so we are just staying home. We did get out last night so that was nice. We went to Old Chicago to eat and then we went to Sam's Club for just a few things. Today I plan on doing some major cleaning. Thankfully I woke up in a cleaning mood so I should be able to get everything done. I am hoping it stops raining long enough this afternoon so I can walk but it is not looking like it. I need to take Maggie back to the vet tomorrow for a recheck and then we have district competition at our church tomorrow. We have several kids competing so I think I will try to go and watch them. Jeremy is actually having practice with them tonight. Well I better get the sheets back on Emma's bed so I can put the girls down for their nap. Have a great weekend!

Well it is another day of sitting at home. It is a little rainy this morning so it looks like we are stuck in the house again. I am hoping it clears up so we can go for our walk this afternoon. I am hoping to get motivated and get some things done around the house today but it is not looking to promising. I am fighting the urge to go to Target but I am going to try and be good and not go. The kids are being a little crazy this morning so the temptation to leave is pretty strong:) Not like it takes much for me to want to go to Target. Well here are some pictures from yesterday. Jeremy was not happy to see Sam holding a baby doll but he was being so sweet with the doll so I took his picture. Well I guess if I am going to get anything done I better get off of this computer. 

Well Jeremy did not take the computer this morning so I thought I would post a video of the kids. We have been using the wagon to take our walks so the wagon was in the house the other day and the kids played with it for hours. It is pretty big so I do not keep it in the house all the time. They also tend to fight over it quite a bit too so we only play with it for a few hours at a time. Samuel was trying so hard to get the wagon in the the bedroom. He had been trying for a while when I got the video going. Well it is a raining day here today so we are just staying inside. I really wish we could all go back to bed. 

The kids and the wagon

I was not going to post today because there really is not anything exciting to write about, but Jeremy will have the computer tomorrow so I thought I better write something. I am really sore today from all my exercising yesterday but I am going to do the same thing today. My friend is coming in about an hour to walk and then I am going to Curves when Jeremy gets home. I did not do much around the house today. I got tired of picking up the same thing over and over again. The kids have played pretty good together today. The girls still have a runny nose so I am have wiping noses and I think I have told Chloe to get something out of her mouth at least 25 times. Chloe is still progressing each day. She is starting to wave bye-bye and wave hi when she sees someone or when someone is leaving. She is also blowing kisses without someone else doing it first. She tries to do everything Emma does. It is cute to watch Chloe watch Emma. Chloe tries to put her hands the way Emma has her hands or tries to sit just like her. It is funny because Emma gets mad at her for copying her and Emma does the same thing to Sam. Emma these days is really into herself, She is always looking at herself in the mirror. She will fluff her hair and pretend to put on make-up and then she kisses the mirror. She is getting into dresses that swirl and she wants you to compliment her when she gets dressed. I have started curling her hair some days and that does not help but she does look so cute. Every day Sam makes me realize how big he is getting. He loves to write and he actually does a good job. He writes his name really well. Every day he mentions something about turning 5. He thinks that is the magic number that will let him do everything. He is getting a bit sassy. The other day he told me he was going to do something and I told him that he was not going to do it. He then replied to me, "Ok mom, WHATEVER". He sounded like he was about 15! He got in trouble and I do not think he will be talking to me like that for a while. Today he came running in my room and said, "Mom, can I get a tattoo?" I never know what is going to come out of that boys mouth. Well my friend will be here in a few minutes so I better go. 

We had a good weekend. We wen to Gran and Papa's house after lunch yesterday and then we came home and took a nap. The kids were pretty crabby yesterday afternoon but that is nothing new for Sunday evenings. Sundays are hard on the girls especially because their nap time is all messed up. We also had a good day today. I got so much accomplished. We made a run to the bank and made a Good Will donation this morning. I had a bout 10 bags of clothes and toys that I have been meaning to take for a few months now. After I got the bags out of the garage I actually cleaned the garage up. Our garage gets so messy. It is easy to just open the door and through stuff out there when we do not know what else do to with it. After I got the garage cleaned I opened the garage door and the kids played in the garage and in the rocks. They had so much fun. I got my laundry done and the bathrooms cleaned up. My friend came after school and we walked and then I went to Curves. Well I better go. Jeremy needs to use the computer. He is swamped at school with grading, report cards, and testing. Please say a prayer for him, he is kinda stressed. 

The kids were in Maggie's face all weekend. They were so happy to have her back in the house. I think Maggie was ready to go back in the garage after all the attention she was getting.

Well Maggie will be OK. I took her to the vet this morning and she has an infection. They cleaned out the infection and then put her on some antibiotics. I am not going into details about what is wrong with her because it is actually pretty gross. Thankfully the vet took her to another room to clean out the infection because I probably would of gotten sick. Anyway, she is already doing much better. The kids are so excited that Maggie is back in the house. We have been keeping her in the garage or outside until we figured out what was wrong with her. After the vet I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart and then I came home. The kids are just playing and hanging around the house. Emma and Chloe both have a runny nose so I am hoping that it is just allergies. My throat is kinda scratchy and I have a bit of a headache. I stayed up too late last night so I am pretty sleepy. I do not usually get too involved in college basketball even though we watch it quite a bit around here, but last night there were a couple of games on that I got way too involved in. The games went into overtime and so I stayed up watching them. I did fall right to sleep when I finally went to bed. I usually have a hard time falling asleep when Jeremy is gone. The kids slept good. I was up at 4:30 with Emma but I am not quite sure what she was crying about. We then all got up about 7:30. Jeremy will not be back until late tonight but I am hoping to get to bed early. Well that is about all that is going on around here today. I think we may be walking again this afternoon if it is not too chilly. Well have a great weekend.

          So you can see that I almost cut Sam out of this picture. I guess I was just trying to get them all looking at the camera and I snapped the picture when it was not centered. Anyway you an still see how cute they are.

Sam trying out a new hair do. He really needs a haircut  but he thought he was cool.

It was one year ago today that we had Emma's first post placement visit and the day we got the amazing news that we could adopt Chloe. I still cannot believe that it was a year ago and she has been home for almost 5 months! It is strange how the emotions that I experienced that day still feel very fresh in my mind and heart. When we first heard that Chloe existed we were very hopeful that we would be able to adopt her and in my heart she was already my daughter. We knew that because of circumstances we were already in with Emma's adoption we knew there was a possibility that we would not be able to adopt Chloe but we were very hopeful and everything was falling into place. We left for Korea in February and the morning we were to meet our Emma we got a phone call from the states that there was a problem and our chances to adopt Chloe were very slim. It was a very emotional day! Here we were going to meet one daughter and hearing that we may have lost our other daughter. That morning we met with the director of the agency in Korea to talk about the issue that had come up. It was very difficult to communicate our case but Jeremy and I both just spoke our heart and we left that morning leaving it in the Lord's hand. We left Korea with our precious Emma and our hearts were overflowing, but I admit that we left Korea feeling like we left another child behind. I was a little confused as to why this had happened. We got home with Emma and we started to settle in to our family of four. Now I know that most people that know Emma do not believe me, but she was really hard work those first few weeks. When I think back those first few weeks were some of my hardest parenting days. Many night as I was up trying to get Emma to stop crying I would convince myself that it was better that I was not adopting that other girl. I would have myself convinced that there was no way I wanted to go through this again. I would have myself believing that it was for the best. As quickly has all those reasons why it was better that I only had two children would pop in my head another thought would always replace them. I knew that I would ALWAYS wonder about that little girl. I knew that my heart would always feel a loss for the daughter that I had already claimed in my heart. So, one month after Emma's arrival we got our second daughter back and I could not imagine life without our little Chloe. 

Well, I guess this kinda a long post but I just wanted to share my feeling about today. I have also had a pretty good day. I got a lot accomplished today. I went to exercise this morning and wen to the grocery store. I got my house mostly cleaned and I am finally seeing the end to our laundry from the trip. Jeremy left today to go to Georgia for the weekend to make plans for a summer mission trip so we are on our own tonight. I have to take my dog Maggie to the vet tomorrow so Mrs. Trotter (aka Boo Boo) is coming to stay with the kids. I think Maggie will be OK but I am a little worried. We do not have the money to invest too much into her if it is something serious. Well I better go. My friend and I are walking again today and she is on her way over. 

We are having a pretty good day. Everyone seems to be back on schedule. Yesterday the kids slept in until 8:30 and then the girls took a three hour nap yesterday afternoon. I went to Curves yesterday morning and then the kids and I just stayed home and played. We were able to get outside for a few hours so that was nice. I got most of my laundry done but I am still getting it all put away. The kids slept pretty good last night. I heard a bump against the wall at about 1 AM and then I heard Emma crying. She must of bumped her head or something. Her crying then woke Chloe up but they all went back to sleep pretty quickly. We all slept until about 7:30 this morning. I got up and went to Curves again and then when I got home I walked with my friend so I have had a lot of exercise today. Jeremy went up to the Christian school to have lunch with some of the kids from youth group so we are just hanging around the house. This afternoon we are going to Opry Mills to have supper with my mom's cousin. She is coming in from Memphis with her granddaughters and they wanted to see my kids. Well here are some pictures from the Aquarium. I have a few more but I will post them tomorrow. As soon as we got to the aquarium there was a lady standing there with a snake. My fearless Emma wanted to touch it. Sam put on a brave face and they both got to touch the snake. The other pictures are from the sting ray tank. They have some sting rays that you can touch. Once again Emma just stuck her hand in the water and wanted to touch one. Sam was not so sure but he ended up touching one. Well I better go. I still have a few thing to do before we leave. 

We got back home a few hours ago. We picked up Maggie from Jeremy's parents and then we came home and unloaded the van and then we went to the grocery store. Everyone is so tired and glad to be back home. We had a crazy night with Chloe so we are VERY tired. Chloe went to sleep at about 9:00 but the she woke up at 11:30 last night and would not go back to sleep. We were still awake with her at 3:30 this morning. She was in the bed with us and we tried to just go to sleep but she flopped all over us. Jeremy and I finally went to sleep at 3:30 but I am not sure what time Chloe went to sleep. Well everyone is taking a nap and I am about to go for a walk with a friend. Here are some of the pictures from our trip to the zoo. It was not a big zoo but it was really nice. The kids had so much fun. 

Chattanooga Zoo

Chattanooga Zoo

We are having a great time here in Chattanooga but I am ready to go home.I realize when I am away from home how stressed out I get when I am not in my normal routine. The kids have been great but I think they are also ready to go home. I have taken so many pictures and I will not try to post them all in one day. We went to three different places so I will post the pictures over the next few days. The pictures I posted tonight are from our train ride. We went to the Tennessee Valley Railway and took a train ride. It was so much fun. The train ride was about 50 minutes. The train went over several bridges and went through a tunnel. We got off at the East Chattanooga station and took a tour of their repair shop and they had a turn table to turn the train around. It was very neat. After the train ride we went to the zoo. I will post pictures and information about the zoo tomorrow.

Tennessee Valley Railway

We are in Chattanooga and we are already having a great time. We just got back from swimming. We were not sure how crazy it was going to be with three kids who cannot swim and one child that probably has not been swimming before, but they did great. I got Chloe a little ring and she just floated around playing. Sam and Emma would never get in one of those rings but she loved it. The only problem we had was that I forgot to bring the little swimmer diapers for the girls so when we got back to the room it was a mess. Sam and Emma thought it was ice coming out of the diapers. Jeremy is gone to the store to get a few things so he is going to pick up some swimmers for the girls. Well I just wanted to post a video of the kids from last night. Every night about the same time the kids do laps around my living room. Chloe usually joins them in the run but as soon as Jeremy got the camera out she came to see the camera. You will hear at the end why Jeremy entitled the video "she is dead". 

she is dead

OK so I decided to post a few pictures from today and I have a sweet story about Sam. Today Sam went to school with Jeremy and he met his teacher for next year and was able to see what his classroom will look like. Now most of you know that I am having a hard time thinking about my little boy going to school in the Fall, but I have done really good at not getting to weepy in front of him when we are talking about it. I do not want him to think that school is bad or that it makes me sad so I try to be very excited about it when we are talking about him going to school. Well today when they got home Sam went with me to exercise (they have a little room that kids can sit) and then we went and got an oil change in the van. During the oil change he came to the front to sit while they were working on the van. We were talking about his day and about his teacher and I guess my eyes started to tear up. Sam looked at me with the sweetest face and said, "Mom you do not have to be sad. I will always be your little boy and you will always be in my heart." Of course that did not help with the crying. I told him I was not crying because I was sad but I was crying because I am happy he is my little boy. 

I know I have been horrible about blogging this week, but Jeremy had the computer with him most of the week. He had a field trip yesterday so he also took the camera and he left it at school so sorry no pictures. Well Wednesday afternoon my friend took the kids for a few hours to give me a break and it was so nice. I was going to clean my house but I decided to just take a few hours and relax and not work. I went to Target and walked around and then I came home and I just sat down. I did not turn the TV on and I did not pick up a single toy. I just sat and enjoyed the quiet. I picked the kids up about 3:30 and then jumped back into high gear. Yesterday it was so cold and we had some snow flurries so we just stayed in all day. I had a horrible headache and I was running a low grade fever but I feel better today. I did get my house cleaned yesterday afternoon so that always makes me feel better. I did not mention that our cat Boots had been missing for a few days. I am not that attached to the cats but Boots is kinda my favorite. I had not seen her around for almost a week. She was the first cat we got and it is not like her to run off. The night we moved into this house she got spooked when Jeremy was putting her in the garage and she ran off and was gone for almost two weeks and one day I came home from work and I heard a cat meowing out in the field so I called her name and she came running. So since that first runaway she stays close to the house. Well yesterday Boots came home and Sam and Emma were so sweet with her. So that was all the excitement around here. Jeremy has a work day at school so he actually took Sam with him. It is weird the difference it makes having one of the kids gone. It is actually a pretty quiet morning. I have a few errands to run today so the girls and I will be leaving soon. We are leaving tomorrow for our trip and we are all very excited. I am sure I will make up for the lack of pictures this week while we are gone.

There is not much going on round here today. Yesterday we spent most of the day enjoying the beautiful weather but today it is raining so we will be staying in all day. I was way too tired yesterday to post or take any pictures so sorry no pictures today. I was up most of the night with Chloe Monday night. She usually goes to sleep without any problems but Monday as soon as I put her in the bed she started screaming. Now she does not usually scream because she is mad so I thought maybe she was hurting somewhere but as soon as I picked her up she stopped screaming. I sat in the room with her until she fell asleep but as soon as I left the room she would wake up and start the screaming again. I finally got her asleep but she woke up an hour later screaming again. I decided to just sleep in her room but I could not get comfortable so I just sat in there until she was deep in sleep for a while. Thankfully she did stay asleep and I was able to get a little sleep. Everyone is still healthy around here so we are happy. We are all looking forward to our trip that is coming up. We all desperately need a break. Well the girls are fighting over a book so I better go before it gets ripped into shreds. I will try to take a few pictures today. 

Playing Outside

We had a pretty good weekend. Yesterday we were all pretty tired because of the time change but still had a pretty good day. The kids slept good last night. Emma woke up about 6:30 this morning but I made her go back to bed. I think she heard Jeremy get up so she wanted to lay on the couch and watch Dora, but I got up and put her back in the bed. We all got up about 8 so that was nice. We just played inside this morning and then we went outside to play after lunch and naps. It was so nice out today and the kids had so much fun. Emma got a blister on her foot from the shoes she was wearing so tonight she is milking it for all it is worth. Well it is supposed to nice again tomorrow so we plan on being outside a lot. We also had a break through in Emma's potty training. She wore underwear all day (except at nap) and did not have a single accident. She had them on even when we were playing outside and she did great. I would bring her in every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom. Well we just got the girls out of the bath so I better get them ready for bed. 

A Day at the Zoo

I was not going to post today but I am just sitting at home kinda bored so I thought I would share about our weekend so far. I ended up getting out with the kids yesterday. I actually got out twice with them. We went to Wal-Mart yesterday morning to get groceries. We came home got lunch and then the girls went down for their nap. It was after lunch when the girls got their first nap so I knew we would be off for the day. After their nap I decided to take the van and clean it out and get it washed. The mess in the van has been driving me crazy the last few weeks so I decided to do something about it. I was going to wait and do it this week before we went on our trip but I needed to get out and pick up my contacts that came in at the eye doctor so I just went ahead and cleaned the van. The kids were so good. They just sat in their seats and watched me vacuum. I thought it might scare the girls but they were fine. After getting the van cleaned we came back home and played outside. The kids had so much fun. I wish we had a few more outside toys but they still had fun. We came back in and got supper and then  gave the girls a bath and the girls were ready to go to bed. It was a little after 7 when I put them to bed so I was afraid they would be up really early this morning, but they slept great. Emma wanted a drink at about 6:45 so I gave her one and she went back to sleep. Chloe was up moving around in the living room at 7:15 but I got up and put her back in the bed. I laid down with her and we slept until 9:30. It was such a nice day that we decided to go to the zoo. It was so crowed at the zoo. We may not go very often on Saturdays. You could barley move. Anyway, we had a great day. The girls fell asleep on the way home so they only got one nap in today so they are ready to go to bed. I need to go to bed too since we lose that precious hour tonight. Jeremy is at the basketball game tonight so he will be in late again tonight. Well here are a few pictures from yesterday. 

This afternoon we went outside to play because the weather was so nice. Samuel let Emma ride his tractor but he rode it with her. They were so funny. Here is one of the videos I got of them riding together.

Well there is still not much going on around here. The kids slept good last night and they all seem to be in a good mood this morning. They have not fought at all and we have been up almost two hours. My plans for today was to get out and go to the store but I am still trying to decide. I am feeling pretty stir crazy but I am trying to decide if it is worth getting everyone ready and get out. Jeremy is going to the Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournament tonight in Nashville so he will not be home until late tonight. He is going with his Dad and brother. I am glad he is getting to go. He has had a rough few weeks at school. His Spring Break starts next Friday and he cannot wait. We are planning a trip to Chattanooga for a few days over his break. We are going to the Aquarium and we may try to take Sam to the see the trains. We are ready for a chance to get away for a few days. Well we are starting to see a big difference in Chloe and her adjustment to our family. She has been doing great but this past week we can see it in her eyes and actions that it has clicked that she is completely comfortable with our family. It is kinda hard to explain and most people would not notice the difference but we can just see it in her eyes that she loves and trusts us as her parents. She also said "hot", "bye", and "more" this week. She is waving bye bye and blowing kisses. So she is making progress. Emma has just been playing a little mom all week. I put her hair in pigtails the other day and she was so excited. Sam has been playing with his trains all week. My living room floor has been covered with Thomas and all his many friends. He has been pretty good about sharing some of his trains with his sisters. Well I better go. I need to get a few things done around the house before I decide if I want to get out today.