Easter Weekend 2019

We had such a fun Easter weekend! My parents stayed with us, and we were thankful for a beautiful weekend to enjoy time together.

Most of the weekend was filled with playing, playing, and more playing :)  Our kiddos just wanted to soak up as much Grandma and Papa time as they could! And Grandma and Papa were not complaining!

Friday was the 9 year anniversary of my and Mike's first date. So we were able to enjoy a fun date away while Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Michael, and "Tia Linda" {my aunt Rosalinda} babysat for us. I forgot to snap a photo, but we ran some errands, sat and talked at Starbucks Reserve, and had dinner at a new restaurant called Mexican Sugar. It was a fun date and so nice to have some time just the two of us!

On Saturday, we celebrated my mom's birthday. We went to lunch, and then we headed to Towne Lake Park. It was a gorgeous day, and we had so much fun!

The birthday girl enjoying the park :)

That tongue :)

Aiden's first time on the swings!

Saying hello to the geese

After naps, we gave Grandma her birthday present, and Eli and Maddie were very excited to help with that haha.

  

On Sunday, we finished our Shepherd's Treasure journey {post to come tomorrow}, went to church, and then had lunch at home. Granny and Grumpz came over, so we enjoyed a fun afternoon with them too!

Aunt Lindsay sent her cookie love :)

And finally, we had a little Easter egg hunt for Eli and Maddie. We did it inside because we had treated the yard for weeds and didn't want them outside with those chemicals. But they didn't seem to mind at all. Most of the eggs were empty, but I did fill a couple with a few M&M's. Eli loved finding the eggs and filling his basket. As soon as Maddie realized there was something inside one of her eggs, she stopped searching for eggs and just wanted to open it haha.

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We had such a fun weekend, and we are so thankful for the gifts of family time, laughter, and love. Thank you, Jesus for the life we experience in You!

Lunch with Papa

My dad usually attends a leadership conference in Dallas every year, and I have always tried to see him at some point during his week here. Last year, I made the trek downtown with Eli and Maddie, and we had lunch with him in his hotel room {mostly so we could contain the twins haha}.

We decided to try and see him again this year! But of course, now we have 3 little ones, so this mama is thankful for valet parking haha. We planned for lunch in Papa's hotel room again, and we had the best time!

Eli and Maddie loved being able to look out the window and watch the Dart trains go by. It was really the highlight of the whole adventure :)

Papa brought gifts for the kiddos, and they loved getting to play with them! Hopefully the neighbors were not in their rooms in the middle of the day, because there were a lot of toddler giggles in our room.

Saying bye-bye to the trains

We loved getting the opportunity to see my dad, and it was even more fun knowing we would see him again in a couple of days for the weekend! We hope to keep this fun tradition :)

Spring Bucket List :: Go to the Zoo

Yesterday, we got to go to the zoo with our cousins, Granny, and Grandma! I really enjoy going to the zoo, and I knew that my kiddos would too, since they love animals. It really turned out to be a great day, and everyone did so well!

It had rained overnight and in the morning, so we weren't sure what the weather was going to be like. But it turned out to be a good day! It was cooler in the morning, but warmed up pretty quick. I'm glad we decided to go now in the Spring, instead of waiting for the summer when it's crazy hot! There were a few school groups there, but it really wasn't too crazy busy, which was nice.

Ready for our zoo adventure!

We love fun adventures with our cousins!

Eli loves his Aunt Lindsay :)

I didn't get a ton of great photos, as it was enough to juggle 3 kiddos, a stroller, and a Grandma {haha- just kidding. My mom was an awesome help!} I kept everyone in the stroller as long and as much as possible, and that worked out pretty well. Thankfully, Eli and Maddie could see most of the animals from their seats, and we didn't have to worry about anyone running off in the crowds :)

Maddie spent most of the morning like this: pointing at everything she saw :)

Elephants!

You can buy lettuce leaves to feed the giraffes, and they will come right up to you to eat them. I wasn't sure how Eli and Maddie would do, but they ended up LOVING it! Neither one got scared, and they thought it was SO fun that the giraffes came so close.

The Dallas Zoo is a little smaller {compared to other zoos I have visited}, but it's a nice size for toddlers. We got lucky that a lot of the big animals were out and visible, which was pretty fun.

This little guy did so well!

They have a little children's play area, so after seeing all the animals, we headed there for some play time and lunch. Eli and Maddie loved the opportunity to get out of the stroller and run around. They were not a fan of the water area {the water was "too cold"}, but they sure loved the slide!

After lunch, we packed up and headed home. It was a fun morning at the zoo, and we look forward to going back soon!

The Beauty of a Snowflake

Our agency asked if we would be willing to share our embryo adoption story with prospective families. We love getting to share about the amazing way the Lord formed our family, so we were more than willing to share!

They have posted our story on their website, and I also wanted to provide that here. We hope that our story can help encourage others as they pursue God's plan for their family. And ultimately, we want others to know how great our gracious God is. 

“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.”

– Anonymous

The day we were diagnosed with infertility (and given very few fertility options) was such a dark day for us. In an instant, our dreams of becoming parents to genetic children vanished, and we felt so overwhelmed with that loss. While we were heartbroken and frustrated that we were given so few options, we see now how God was preparing our hearts for the family He had always intended for us.

Early in our research, we had come across the beautiful option of embryo adoption. The fact that you could carry and give birth to your adopted child seemed like such an amazing thing! So when we were faced with the reality that we would not have our own genetic children, we knew that embryo adoption was something we wanted to pursue.

We didn’t really know where to start in the process, so we knew we would need some guidance. We chose the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program, because they pioneered the process, and we wanted to partner with an agency that would uphold a high value on life. We are so grateful for our relationship with them. In each step of the process, we felt confirmation about our decision to pursue embryo adoption.

While we knew this was the path to a family we wanted to pursue, it was not without its own set of heartaches and struggles. We initially matched with a sweet donor family in our home state. We gave all the adopted embryos a chance at life, but unfortunately, we did not have a successful pregnancy. We were once again left heartbroken and frustrated, wondering if we would ever have children.

Nightlight was kind and gracious through the whole process. We did decide to rematch with another family, and soon we adopted more embryos. We welcomed our first 2 snowflake babies in November of 2016, boy/girl twins! They are our rainbow babies, the beauty of God’s faithfulness after the storm.

We transferred another embryo in November 2017, but unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to that sweet little one. We tried again with our last embryo, and we welcomed our third snowflake baby in August of 2018! He is such a blessing and joy to us, and we love the fact that all 3 of our snowflake babies are full genetic siblings.

We will forever be thankful for embryo adoption because through it, we got to experience pregnancy and become parents. There will never be enough words of gratitude to express to the donor families for the gifts they provided to us by making the decision to donate their embryos and entrust us with their care. It is incredible to me how God was preparing our family, even way back in 2007 (when our first embryos were frozen), and then again in 2009 (when our second set of embryos was frozen). How He led my husband and me to each other, walked with us in our road of infertility, and led us to pursue embryo adoption. He allowed us to skip all other fertility options so that we would discover and then choose this unique path to growing our family. I believe this is part of the reason we had to walk the road of infertility- because God always intended us to be the parents of these precious little ones. We had to stand out in the cold for a bit so we could stand back now and be amazed at the beauty of the family God created for us.

2019 Goals :: March Check-In

Here's a look at how March shaped up...

Goal #1: Drink 60oz of water every day

I did about the same this month as last. With the weather warming up and us spending more time outside, I have already started drinking more water, so I am hopeful that April will be a good month for my water drinking.

Goal #2: Increase my fitness level

My fitness this month was...abysmal. I did some more walks with the kiddos, which is good. But other than that, my overall fitness was pretty lacking. Everyone was sick at the beginning of the month, and I never seemed to jump back into my fitness routine. I got busy, I got distracted, I just didn't feel like it...definitely need to do better next month!

Goal #3: Listen to the Audio Bible daily

I finished the books of Leviticus, Numbers, Hebrews, and Galatians. I also continued through the book of Psalms and started the book of Deuteronomy.

Goal #4: Read 55 Books

This month, I read 6 books. I wasn't sure if I was going to get to that many this month, but then a few came up all at once in my library queue, and they were books I have been waiting to read for several months now, so I found myself frantically trying to finish them. I didn't want to have to wait another several months to read them! Some were worth the wait, and some were definitely not.

Goal #5: Participate in the #150hoursoutside project

We did pretty good with our time outside this month! It definitely helped that the weather was so gorgeous- beautiful, sunny, not too hot yet. With the change of computers, my Microsoft Office programs didn't transfer. I apparently need my product key {which I can't find}, so I can only view and not edit my documents {super unhelpful}. So I don't have my pretty tree picture this month. Hopefully I can get into my programs or just recreate it for next month :)

Goal #6: Do something creative every month

Last month, I started a little sewing project that I have been meaning to work on for awhile. We were stuffing towels under doors to block light and noise during nap time. Easy and effective. But I decided I wanted something that looked a little nicer and would stay in place, since the towels usually end up moved all throughout the house during the day. So I searched Pinterest and found some good ideas for a double sided door stopper, and I was able to sew these fancy things together haha. 

I got the foam pipe covers {that you get at Home Depot}, filled them with dried beans to weigh them down, then wrapped/sewed fabric around them. I then sewed a piece of fabric between 2 tubes and slipped them under the doors. They work great! It's not exactly creative. But for me, it was relaxing, served a practical purpose, and it didn't involve changing diapers. So I'm counting it for this month!

Goal #7: Be more intentional with discipling Eli and Maddie

We continued through the Play Through the Bible book. We didn't do as many of the creative snacks, but we did more crafts, so that evens out, right? 

Coloring our Coats of Many Colors

She was so proud of her "coat"