Celebrating Jax

My baby boy turns 4 on Tuesday. I really can't believe it. We celebrated his birthday this weekend. We started with our traditional birthday breakfast on Saturday morning. We normally do our birthday breakfast on their actual b-day, but since Tuesday is a school day, we went ahead and celebrated on Sat. Justin's mom (aka LuLu) and sister (aka Auntie Jessica) stayed with us Friday night. Jax had blueberry muffins and candy for breakfast. This boy LOVES candy, so it was only appropriate to let him have some for breakfast. He opened some of his gifts and enjoyed his treats before we went to big brother's football game.
I really can't believe how big my little boy is getting. My parents (aka Nana and Poppy) met us at the game and spent the night on Saturday. Here is Jax sitting between his Nana and his LuLu.
We celebrated Jax's 4th birthday at a local gymnastics place. He had a blast! He loved the parachute games.
I love this picture of my little rule breakers. I am sure this was taken right before they did a flip.
This place is great for parties, because they take care of absolutely everything. All we had to bring was the cupcakes, ice cream, and kids.
I made cupcakes with Super Mario toppers.
Happy Birthday to my sweet blue-eyed boy. We love you to the moon and back!!!!

September Numbers

We got our updated numbers this month. They were lower than we expected which is always a nice surprise. We moved 6 spots from last month bringing us to 47 for a girl. We started at 97, 9 months ago, so we have moved 50 spots in all on the girls' list. We finally hit the half way point. On the siblings list we moved 2 spots from last month bringing us to sweet 16.
Praying for lots of good news and an abundance of referrals this month.

My Little Football Player

I decided last minute to sign Sawyer up for football this year. He is on the 5 year old flag football team with other little boys from his school and one other school. He had his first practices last week and a scrimmage Saturday morning. Justin is not the coach, but is helping out as much as he can. Sawyer is still trying to figure it all out. We are proud of him for trying something new.
Yesterday evening I had to run a couple of errands, so I decided to take Sawyer with me. I rarely get to spend one on one time with my kids, so even a trip to the store with just one kid is a special treat.

After our errands, I took him to Arby's for a mommy/son date. He loves the ham and cheddar sandwiches. He says they are scrumptious (his new favorite word). He chose a table for two in the back for us.
We had so much fun talking and laughing together. I am so proud of the little man he is turning into. I am so thankful for our special "date".

Overdue

I am quite overdue on updating my blog. Things have been different around here since the boys started school. They are loving it and doing well, but I am still trying to figure things out. I am still teaching Mother's Day Out twice a week. We started last week and I love my sweet class. I thought I would be so bored on the other days, but so far I have been very busy, and not bored at all.

I have signed up to substitute teach on the days I don't have MDO. I haven't had any jobs yet, which is ok, since I have been so busy with other things. I think I am ready though, so it would be nice to get some calls soon. I am hoping to put all the money I make towards our adoption fund.

Speaking of our adoption, our Lilypie ticker shows that we have been on the waitlist for 9 months and 1 week. If I was pregnant I would be overdue and miserable right about now. When we got on the wiatlist we were told the wait would be 9-12 months. A few months after that the wait was increased to 12-18 months. So, we may be half way through our wait, maybe closer, we really don't know.

Our home study expires in November, so it is time to start updating everything. Justin and I are going to get fingerprinted (again) on Friday. I just made check-up appointments with our doctors for the whole family. It is a little less exciting this time around, but I know it is all just a part of bringing our girl home.

I feel like I have many more things I could update on, but they are all totally unrelated. I guess I will just have to start blogging more, so I can catch up.

Got Coffee?

It has been a while since I have mentioned fundraising on our blog. The Lord has provided in amazing ways and we are so thankful that we have some money put aside for our adoption, but we are not done yet. Currently, we have enough in our adoption savings to cover the referral costs of one child and most of trip one to Ethiopia (we have to travel twice) or enough to cover the referral cost of siblings and very little of trip one.

So, to help cover some of the cost we decided to start a Just Love Coffee Fundraising Shop. Every time you purchase a bag of coffee or other item, a portion of the proceeds goes towards our adoption. Another portion goes to help orphans in Ethiopia. So, you can buy a bag of delicious, fair-trade coffee for yourself or a friend, help us bring home our sweet one/s, and help orphans in Ethiopia. What could be better than that?

I have to tell you that Justin and I have never been big coffee drinkers. We usually keep our coffee pot in the cabinet and bring it out just for guests. When I learned that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, I told Justin we probably need to start drinking more coffee. So, now it is a part of my morning routine and I can't wait to try some Just Love Coffee. The hardest part will be deciding what to try first. So, click here to check out our store.

Also, we would love it if you shared the link to our coffee shop on your blog or facebook page!!!

hHat: $3 eachCoffee Scoop: $1 each

1st Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school for my sweet boys. Sawyer started kindergarten and Jaxon started Pre-K at the same school. I just can't believe how big my boys are getting. I didn't cry when we dropped the boys off, but I did tear up when I looked at these pics.
I got the idea for these signs on Amy's blog. So glad she shared this link.

Jax loved all the picture taking attention, but Sawyer was not too happy about it. He just wanted to get to class.

I love this pic of my sweet boys holding hands. I'm glad Jax has his big brother right down the hall from him.
Jax was so excited to start school. He has the same teacher that Sawyer had last hear. I was really nervous about him starting this year, because he is the youngest kid in his class. His teacher is a sweet friend of mine and she sent me this text message yesterday: "Meredith, I have to tell you Jaxon had an awesome day!!!! He was a good listener and helper!!! You should be proud of Him!!!! I sure was!!!

This made my day! I am so glad he had a good first day!

Sawyer reported that his day was good too, besides the fact that he got bit by ants and had to visit the nurse. Sawyer's teacher is also a friend of mine. We actually went to junior high school together. I am so thankful my kids have wonderful teachers who truly care about them. We are all looking forward to a great year!

August Numbers

It's time again to update our numbers. On the girls' list we are #:

(We moved 4 spots since last month)

On the siblings list we are #

(We moved 1 spot since last month) We are thankful to be in the teens.