Happy Holidays 2011

We want to send warm wishes and holiday cheer to everyone this season. We have so much to be thankful for this year. We are blessed with health, family, love and..............yes another addition to our family. We are adopting again and are so excited about our new daughter! I never thought the day would come that I would have the privilege to say I am going to be a mother of four children. Four children. Four children! A little overwhelming but so exciting...........

Her name is Lila and I will tell a little more of her story soon.
Without further ado....Here is our soon to be 3 year old daughter! We are in love!



HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Asian Pear & Apple picking

The Belkin Family Lookout Farm in Natick has THE BEST Asian pears! They are a cross between an apple & a pear. So, so yummy! We spent the day there yesterday picking lots of pears & apples (And eating them, we couldn't resist!) There was so much to see & do for the little kids. Pony & camel rides, moon bounce, face painting, farm animals, playground, magic shows, train rides......And of course walking around the beautiful orchards. Definitely worth the trip!

Family Day & Lily's Family Song

Two years ago today we were in Guangzhou, China meeting Lily for the first time. Remembering that time makes my heart melt & brings a smile to my face. She is a beautiful treasure! This video is from tonight after our "Family day" Chinese dinner. Each year we celebrate this special day by using the beautiful tea set we bought while we were in Guangzhou & we put up Chinese lanterns and eat Chinese food. The kids love it. We love it. I think Lily really loves it. Her song says it all if you listen carefully (silence the music at the bottom of this page). Family.............

Beautiful Lily

Summer......Love It!

The beach....Oh the beach.....Love it. Could spend our whole summer enjoying it. Morning, noon & night. We are so fortunate to live only a few miles from such a beautiful place....So much of our summer is spent on the beach.

We spend most of our time on Sandy Neck Beach. We love driving out (4X4) on the beach & spending the day, or at night having a bonfire. So relaxing & beautiful.

Daddy & his girls.

Beautiful lighthouse scenery in Barnstable Harbour.

Tubing with friends. The kids have so much fun...

Fresh clams. The kids love digging in the mud/muck for these treasures. Still have stuffed Quahogs in the freezer from these. So good.

Jumping off the boat.

Pretend surfing.

My nephew, Carter chillin' at the beach. So cute!

Sophie turned 12 this summer too. Can't believe it. We celebrated with family & friends.

Loving the $100.00 bill!

Beach posing.

And more beach posing.

Serious rock collecting.

Beach running.

And of course the "Come on Mom, enough already, put the camera down" look.

So sad the summer is coming to an end. We really enjoy the laziness of summer without the crazy, hectic schedules. School will be starting in a few weeks, our schedules will be full again, the days & nights will be getting cooler, the tourists will leave & we are left dreaming of next summer.....

It's official! I am the worst blogger ever!!!

I know, I know. The worst. Ok, I get it. No arguments from here. I have no excuses for not updating except that life is keeping us busy, too busy. Life is a little overwhelming right now. By the end of the evening when everyone is in bed I am just ready to chill out, alone, regroup. I haven't been able to muster up the energy to blog. I admit it. I am spent. I feel defeated at times. I see families with many more kids than we have but still manage to do it all. Working, side businesses, more activities than we do, church, family trips, awesome blogs, etc.... How come I can't manage to do it with such ease? I struggle with this daily. I feel guilty. I Feel like I need to do more for myself & family but don't have the time or energy. Why do I feel guilty? I need to get over that. It is not like we have nothing going on. Our plates are full. Over flowing even. Between speech therapy, preschool, competitive traveling cheer leading, guitar lessons, school, homework, doctors appt, working 24 hrs every weekend in Boston (opposite of my husband's schedule, we are two ships passing in the night), husband gone 12 hrs/day M-F at work in Boston, house duties, yard/garden duties, family, friends....Blah, blah, blah. I used to feel very organized, on top of everything with two children. Now with three children & working every weekend I can't seem to get it together. I don't like this feeling. Don't get me wrong. I do feel blessed with our life, marriage, family, health, house, etc. I am so thankful for the abundance of good in our lives. Things could be far worse than complaining about feeling overwhelmed. I get that. I guess I just need to come to grips with the fact that right now things may be out of sorts for a while. Maybe someday I will feel organized & put together again. One can hope.......



Now with all that said this next statement will make you think I am crazy, have lost it, gone bananas, loco, nuts. You ready? I want to adopt again. I look at children from China needing families everyday on adoption websites. A piece of my heart was left in China when we adopted Lily. I want to do it again. I often wonder if we can do it again physically, financially, emotionally. I don't know if we can. I can't stop feeling like we need to do this again. Adopting one more child will not change the statistics of the 147 million orphans in the world. It will drastically change the life of that one child though. Now I just need to get my husband on board. This will not be an easy task. He is feeling more overwhelmed than I am. I can only pray he will open his heart one more time to adoption. Right now I don't think it is in our family's immediate future or ever . Again, one can hope...... I will leave this post with a few pictures of the last few months.


Lily helping plant the garden.

Smelling the Lilacs. These truly are my favorite flower. I just love them. IF we were to adopt again, I would love to name our next 4 year old daughter Lila. (Yes, I have this all planned out in my head! I know, I am crazy! I can dream.)

Gavin on his dirt bike. He has grown so much this last year. Truly an official teenager. He is almost as tall as my 6 foot tall husband & wears a size 11 men's shoe at the age of 13.

Tu-tus almost everyday in this house. So cute.

My nephew Carter just turned 1 today. He has got to be THE cutest kid around. I just love him so much. I watch him 2 days a week on Mondays & Tuesdays. I think I kiss him a million times a day. I just can't help it.

Sophie is the 4th girl from the left. Not the best picture of her with some of her cheer team. She competed on two teams this year. We are very proud of her. This was a big time commitment for our family this year. Wish I had a better recent picture. Again, feeling defeated......UGH!

We went to Disney in March with friends that we met in China while we adopted our girls. So nice to see them again. We had a great, exhausting time.

Lily was in Princess Heaven!

Skiing in February. I think this was at Loon Mountain. Maybe Gunstock. Can't remember.

Lily waiting for a train ride at Gunstock.

Lily's first ski lesson with "Brian". She still talks about him even now. She was very proud of herself.

Chinese New Year. The whole family was there. Gavin & Sophie were around but with friends. So hard to get a picture of us all these days. Teenagers. Not so cooperative.