I miss blogging

As our adoption story fades and the normal routine of a family of 5 takes its place, I find that I am blogging less and less. The other night, I got to reading old posts, and it was like being transported to that particular time and place - like living that day all over again. That was one of my goals in starting this blog - to preserve our family memories. It motivated me to at least make an effort to blog once a week or so. Our days are so quickly turning into weeks, and time is just flying by. I don't want to forget all the little moments that make life so much fun. You know those moments or comments that you think you'll always remember, but you just don't? Those are the moments I want to record. I don't scrapbook and I'm not an author, but I can use this simple blog as a memory holder. Sweet Halle Grace will never have a baby book like my boys have. But I can at least make the effort to record the memories of her first few months and years in our family, right?
So I start again with a goal of at least a weekly post! :)

Here's the latest...
I have started reading The Shack - again. Life keeps getting in the way, but I am determined to read it. Next stop - the Twighlight series. :)
Halle Grace LOVES ballet! Sweet thing. She's just the cutest little thing in a ballet leotard you've ever seen! I promise to post pictures. Her class is through the North Central Ballet. They put on a show every spring, and they let all the little ballet classes participate. So - she's going to be a little fairy in Cinderella in May!

Garrett is so cute with his toothless grin. His grown-up teeth are starting to come in, which is sad to me. They just loose that little kid look when those permanent front teeth come in. He's lost 4 now, but Halle Grace still has all her baby teeth still intact (much to her dissappointment). Garrett is excited about starting another season of soccer in March. He continues to just crack us up with his comments and his outlook on life. God really broke the mold on that kid! Some blessed girl is going to get to spend her life figuring that boy out!!! :)

Grant is just getting over the flu. He only has two speeds - ON and OFF. This week, he's been OFF, which is highly unusual for him. I think few people have watched as much Star Wars in one week as he has! He's back in full swing now and loving every minute of it. I get the fun task of getting him to finish his make-up work. Grant is excited to start spring football next month. Other highlights in his life are that he got the the finals for the 2nd grade "Around the World" competition, and the finals in the Jump Rope for Heart contest at school.

We have started a new weekly family devotional time. It was something we have wanted to start for a long time, and finally just made it happen. The kids LOVE it - Grant especially. Here are some quotes from his prayer one night...
"Lord, please be with the girl that I will give my heart to someday and help me choose the right one."
"Thank you for keeping your hand on Halle Grace while she was in Ukraine and thank you for bringing her into our family".
How sweet is that boy?! Anyway, the format is simple - a Bible story with a short discussion and prayer time. We ready the David and Goliath story last week, as requested by the boys. :)

Other random things I want to remember...
On the way to ballet class, Halle Grace was talking about what she would do if she ran an orphanage. She said that all the girls in her orphanage would have pink bows and Strawberry Shortcake flip-flops, and that none of the kids would have to rest on Sunday afternoons. :)

Garrett was so proud to tell us after school one day that everyone wanted to sit by him at lunch. Can you blame them? :)

We have our house on the market - for almost a month now. It's a slow market (obviously), but we're having plenty of showings, so that's good. A couple of them have been pretty serious, but no offers so far. We have our eye on a house to move into when ours sells, so we'll see what happens! It's a great house and we are praying that it will work out!

Signing off now...way past my bedtime! Western Day at school tomorrow...I'll post pics. :)