I am about to fill out the paperwork to start our homestudy! I am already a nervous wreck! Last night I found a cup of milk and leftover Ravioli and peached in the pantry!! I will be a little scatter brained through this entire process but hopefully it will be painless! Juven is in Salt Lake City today and Seattle tomorrow. He is spoiled with the warm weather here and tired of the cold! More to come!!

Luke has changed so much this last month since turning 5. It's no secret that he has slept with us since he was a baby. But- he has gotten really big and keeps us up at night and I knew it was time to work on him sleeping in his own room. So- we redid his room for him and made a big deal about him being 5 and being a big boy now & talked up how his buddies sleep in their own rooms. So we finally convinced him & have been successful with no one being tramatized! I am so proud of him!! He is also such a sponge & we really have to be careful about what we talk about in front of him and what is on the TV when he is in the room. I have always been careful of those things but now even more.

I was picking him up from school the other day and he likes to go in the infant room to see the babies and my friend Karen who is the teacher. He told Karen we were getting a baby and she asked him if he wanted a brother or sister and he replied he would be happy with whatever God gave us. So precious!

Another accomplishment for him is that he finally went to the gym kid play area! He is known to not to anywhere without me especially a place he has never been before. I have been running a lot but decided to join the gym with my friend Heather to take my workouts up a knotch. I told him he was going to get to do rock climbing and play basketball and play with Evan, Heather's youngest and he said, OK! Usually there is resistance but he did great! He ran right in with Evan and had a blast! YEAH!

So I'm getting very eager to start our adoption process. We are just waiting for our funding to come through to begin. Any day now! I'm excited this time to know what to expect and to know how God will guide us the entire way! It's been raining the past couple of days so we have been stuck inside. We are not use to that in the desert. We are so use the sunshine and warm weather! I'm getting cabin fever!. Hopefully we will have the sun back soon!

Happy Birthday Luke!!

While in Texas over the holidays we were all able to get together in Abilene to see my Grandaddy. He will be 90 on February 5th. It's so neat to see him with all of the great- grandkids.

We were so fortunate to have a white Christmas! The kids had sooo much fun!!!

Opening presents at Aunt Jenny's.

This was before presents. They were bouncing off the walls!!!

Little cuties!

On our way to Texas!!!!

Santa came early to Arizona.

I had been bugging Juven for years to get blow ups for Christmas. While at Lowes Luke and I were looking at all the selections and I made a big deal about him picking one out. He LOVES penguins for some reason and picked out this one. Juven tried to over rule it but got some tears from Luke. So- we got the penguin.

Luke writing Santa a letter.

Juven and Luke checking the lights to decorate the house.

So I am the worlds biggest procrastonater. sp? As always I wait until the last minute to Christmas shop and I get it all done in about 2 days. So- I started this morning and am almost done! I LOVE IT! I've never been one of those that shopps all year long. I tried last year starting in August and it was okay but I just had to do it my way this year. It works best for me- so if Mamma is happy everyone is happy! Luke is loving going to school part time now. I felt bad him being there so much while I was working even if I was in the same building. It is such a blessing to have a choice of working or not. I have worked so hard and it is nice for the Lord to bless me to be able to stay at home. I am VERY fortunate! I am getting the house ready for our trip home! I have time to do laundry, pack and clean! YEAH!

So I know that not many look at this blog anymore with the new wave of facebook but I decided I will try to keep it updated anyway and write down memories I will otherwise forget. So- last Friday was my last day of work! We have made the decision that we are ready to adopt again and I have finally come to the realization that I am not superwoman. I can't devote the time and energy I need to my job, be a mom, wife, & all the work the process takes. So- I am officially a Stay At Home Mom or SAHM again! I am loving it so far!!! I have really gotten to enjoy the holidays and actually have time to do laundry and pack for our Holiday trip back to Texas!

So after each trip back for Christmas we try to "fix" everything from the prior year we had problems with. So after 2 years of either flying and shipping everything home or driving and packing the car down and both years of being gone for 10 days we came up with we will only be gone 3-4 days and fly. So once we sat down and looked at cost of airline tickets and boarding the dog & shipping toys home... we have decided to drive. We are leaving Sunday for a 2 day 18 hour travel time to Plano. We will spend a few days at my moms and then off to Juven's mom's for an additional few days.

Starting in January we will begin paperwork for our next adoption. I have found an agency in Arizona that I am excited about. I have been praying for God to find us our next baby just like he found us Luke! Hopefully I will keep this updated on our progress!!