Travis' 17th Birthday

Here's some pictures of our celebration of Travis turning 17 (our first birthday at Homes of Hope!):

We started the day by Ashton showing off his muscles by holding Travis on his shoulders.

The morning continued with trying out the new Wii (purchased the night before).

Travis spent the late morning/early afternoon with his Mom so while he was gone we decorated the dining room, wrapped his presents, and made him some cards.

For dinner we went to Pizza Inn- an all you can eat pizza buffet.  Here I am with Trell- the newest addition to our family!

Ariel, our one girl, and Travis

Cate (House Relief Parents daughter) is ready to party!

Happy 17th Birthday Travis!

The favorite present.

The birthday beat down

Happy Kids

Yesterday Michael, Mrs. Rachel, and I went up to the Lower Elementary to have lunch with Ashton and Cate. When we walked into the cafeteria their eyes lit up and big, big smiles came on their faces. We sat down and were mini-celebrities to the kids. They all wanted to tell us something and have our attention. It was such a great and easy way to show them that we cared.

Today I had my first experience of checking a kid out of school early.  Jonathan had an eye doctor appointment and so he was able to leave school 20 minutes early on a Friday but by the smile on his face you would've thought he was able to miss the whole day.  The smile of a kid is a beautiful sight.  Jonathan is in need of glasses and will have to wear them all the time.  We're slowly getting everyone into the doctor, eye doctor, and dentist for check-ups and to see if anything needs corrected. 

After the doctor's we went out shopping to buy Travis some birthday gifts.  He turns 17 tomorrow and the younger ones are so excited for his "party".  I'll make sure to take pictures and post tomorrow.

From 0 to 2!

Yes I know that A LOT has happened since I last posted and I do not plan on letting that happen again.  We finally got internet at the cottage approximately 2 weeks ago!!!  One doesn't realize how much they depend on the internet until they must go without.  :-)  So as not to make for too long of a post (for anyone out there who may actually be reading this) I shall try to break up the past 6 weeks.

We had been waiting to move into the cottage until 1. We had blinds, and 2. We had internet/cable.  We were originally anticipating serving kids by July 19th but due to some circumstances we moved the date up one week to take them on July 12th.  The blinds were installed on Friday, July 9th, we moved in on Saturday July 10th, and that Monday became the parents to 2 boys- AB, age 6, and JB, age 11. 

They are such sweet, well mannered, and well behaved boys that it made our transition into the parenting world a smooth one.  We still had 4 weeks of summer to go before school would start so we "invested" in some $3 water guns and a $10 blow up kiddie pool from Walmart.  They love playing outside and especially ganging up on Mr. Mike.  We have also done what any responsible parent would do and introduced them to The A-Team.  We started out with Season 1 Episode 1 and are working our way through.  We were watching an episode a day before school started.  We're now stuck in the middle of Season 2 until we can find some free time.

We are so thankful that we were able to spend a lot of one on one time with them as well as having about a month to adjust to this new role before we accepted more children.   Here are some of our summer highlights:

Gatti Town for Homes of Hope for Children Night

Hattiesburg Zoo & Picnic

They LOVE puzzles!

Who doesn't love a good Silly String fight? (Until having to clean it up)