Splash Pad, Pool, Food, Friends....LOVE

With the long holiday weekend upon us, we decided at the last minute to travel to Lake Charles, LA, to meet new friends and visit old ones.  We spent the day of the Fourth at Millenium Park, where the kids played at the splash pad and pirate playground.  We met with new friends there, and our combined kids had an incredible time together.  It was good to connect with a family raising a child with a special arm like Adaline's, but also with a heart for God and children as we have.  We had the chance afterwards to visit with one of my closest brothers/friends.  With our five and their four, we had a swimming pool full of kids and water guns.  It was great to catch up after more than a year from our last visit.  We moved on to the hotel, which for our kids is the highlight of any vacation.  More swimming and tons of junk food later, all kids crashed with Mom and Dad in one hotel room!  Corbin decided to sleep in a "tent", so he had a towel over the desk in the room, and slept on the floor!  He loved it.  Two slept on an inflatable mattress, and Allie shared her bed with her little brother!  She is such the great big sis.  We swam some more the following morning, and finished our trip with Tony's Pizza!  Allie says anyone traveling to Lake Charles MUST eat at Tony's.  We had such a great time, and it was only 2 hours from home, and one night.  It never ceases to amaze me how kids see such small trips as this, as being the same as a week at Disney.  As you can see from the pictures, the kids are really growing and maturing.  They are thick as mud when they are in a crowd.  I adore my family, and love these moments!

Brian

 

 

 

 

This little girl has more facial expressions! Quite the little ham!

 

 

                                      
                                         Check out Corbin's hair.  I can only wish to have these 'dos!

 

 

                                       I know, you had to take a double look to make sure they really aren't twins

                                                  Such a happy boy when he can run and play

 

                                   Our teenager shuns the camera most days.  I stole one shot all day

                                      Miss Annabelle was quite the entertainer.  Very funny girl     

                                         Annabelle with her little sister, Parker

 

 

 

 

Showing off his Ninja Skills

 

This kid has his momma wrapped.  I think he knows it too!

 

 

The Phantom Blogger

My teen is harassing me because I never blog anymore. TRUTH is I'm busy!!! It's been seven months since I have posted pics of our crew. So here goes a looooong blog of pics. We have a Jr. High kid under our roof and she is about to enter High School. OMG!!!!! She is playing softball on the school team which equals MORE driving for the Smith bus. The three middle kiddos are playing t-ball and wee-tee. Anyone been to a wee-tee game lately?? Yeah, HILARIOUS!!! The smallest of our crew is finally trying to put sounds together that make words. We can't wait for him to be able to talk and tell us all kinds of stuff. BTW he turns three Tuesday. This means THREE 3 Year-olds under one roof.

3 Three-year-olds under one roof. Just making sure you got it.
Potty-training=Not my thing. We will revisit that subject.

The husband and I along with Allison Grace have started on a "to get healthy journey" together. My fitnesspal app is our new best friend. Couch to 5k is in process. 30 Ab challenge oh yes!!! Pray for us. Three hungry people sometimes raises the tension lol...

Corbin is reading. Can somebody shout with me YEEEEESSSSS!!!!! Small books, baby steps, but reading nonetheless. He is spelling all kinds of stuff while we are driving down the road. He is reading billboards. Ya know the sound out kinda stuff. It's really funny and amazing to see their minds work.

OK lots of pics!!!! Love love you guys!

Wearing big brothers batting gloves. He didn't take them off the entire game.

This is where he lives. He kinda hangs out looking cute. If the ball hits his foot he will throw it home:)

 

 

 

 

Very serious practice swings

 


 

 

She took it from her brother

 

 

 

Look at that throw

 

 

"can I hit it now"

She did it!!!

 

Running to first

Socializing is mostly what she does on the ball field

The big brother is about to turn Six

It rained and they loved the mud

 

Cuteness overload

 

This little fella is about to turn three. Can't believe it

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Lily Rancourt

http://www.rancourtfamily.blogspot.com/

Please visit the Rancourt blog!! They really need our prayers and support!!

Happy Nine Months Home

Nine months ago we landed in Alexandria exhausted and questioning our ability to parent all five of the babies God gave us. A family of seven soon became more than we were really MENTALLY prepared for. The first few weeks home are a blur. It was totally survival. Trying to make sure we slept and ate and bathed occasionally. I've dreamed of adopting for so many years. They were finally home and it was HARD!!! I didn't really understand how hard it would be. I loved their pictures for months, but I didn't know them. I didn't know that one would instantly want me to do everything for them and one wouldn't want me to even touch them. Nine months later...we love our family of seven. I thank God multiple times a day for blessing us. I will never take one single second for granted.

Last month William Cole turned three years old. I can't believe that little fellow is three. He is still suppose to be a baby. He has totally embraced his big brother role. He leads Wen into all kinds of trouble. I LOVE it!!! Miss Adaline had surgery to repair her arm on Sept. 5th. She is out of her cast now and is beginning to use it. That was a long painful process for her, but she is doing great now. Corbin J. is rocking and rolling through school. He doesn't care for the work much, but doesn't really fight it. He has a complete fascination with Titanic right now (no idea why). So, documentaries are his new favorite thing BLAH.... WenHao has a new teacher that comes to our house to help with speech. Nine months home and TODAY was her first day to finally make it here. I think the speech therapist realized our desperation for communication with our littlest one. So now speech one week and a specialized teacher the opposite week. He is really improving, but still gets very frustrated trying to tell us what he wants:( PRAYING!!!

Allison Grace is totally a teenager!!! I love her to bits, but when do they outgrow being a teenager??? I realize it just began. She has endless amounts of homework and lots of girlie drama....at least she will still talk to me or Grandma about it. My sweet girl keeps me praying more than Wen does. I pray for protection over her ALL the time. Junior high is just rough.

Here are a few pics Shannon took of our babies. They are growing so fast.

These two are pretty thick into trouble these days:)

She has grown up sooo much!!!

Trying to get them to all look forward and smile is impossible.

This picture makes me cry. I love this crew to bits!!!

Adaline's Surgery

Well, the day is here. We had to be at the hospital for 5:30am. The anesthesia doc had lost his mind. Soooo we were here at 5:30 to SIT for four hours. I'm done complaining about that.
We watched Dora, Barbie, Animal Planet, Cool Runnings, played angry birds, cried and fussed, took Versed...and then wailed because mama would NOT allow her to stand up drunk, falling over. They came for her just before 10. They started the surgery at 1020ish. We WAITED impatiently. The surgery went great. The Doc placed a pin into her Ulna that runs all the way into her second metacarpal. This straightens out the wrist. The wrist will grow and mold over the Ulna. The surgery is called Centralization if you want a true medical description and graphic pics. This will hopefully stabilize the wrist. She is in a soft cast/splint now. It's 3pm and she is asleep in my lap. We are ready to see her awake, drinking and urinating so we can take her HOME!!! Missing our other babies. Thank you soooo much for praying. BTW she never put the gown back on. Still naked wrapped in a blanket. This girl is a hoot!!! To surgery and back with no hospital gown. Oh well, will work on modesty later.

The Big 13 and The Beach

How many can you fit??

Allison's 13th bday cake

So I've fallen off the blog wagon. Sorry!!! It's quite busy around here. Miss Allison turned 13 years old. I still can't believe our baby girl is a teenager. She is oh so sweet and gorgeous. She also loves ALL people (except Corbin) ...this girl amazes me that she doesn't care about color or social status or disabilities of any kind. Don't get me wrong she is a typical teenager with a sassy mouth on occasion, but she is very sweet and full of life!!! I love you Allison Grace and Happy Birthday!

Then we headed to the beach. We had a good time, but had to come home to rest. Brian shared his bed with two blonde boys and I shared mine with two Asian babies.   WHOA...we were tired. The beach was great though. Grandma, Mimi, and Papa joined us!!! I think they had a good time seeing their grand babies in the water. Lamberts was the highlight our trip. We had a blast there!

Now we are getting into the school groove. Corbin is a big kindergartner and Allison is an eight grader. YIKES!!! William has learned his letters...so we will call him a pre-k baby boy. He wants to do school with Corbin. Let me just tell ya, school with four kids five years old and under VERY CHALLENGING!!! We are homeschooling for this season, but may not do it forever. Allison is NOT homeschooling and she LOVES her time away! After much prayer and tears, CCA was the best choice for her and I'm so glad she loves it.

 

 

 

Want some??

The sleepover...morning after

Silly at Lamberts

I love this boy

Their first time to the beach!

He wanted goggles but couldn't keep his eyes open with them on lol...

He doesn't like the water just sports the suit lol...

YUM!!!