What Our Open Adoption looks like this Christmas...

Silas, T & Stephen
Silas with Bekah & T

T, Silas & S

The whole gang at Silas' great-grandparents house

Stephen and his awesome new music maker

We adopted Silas and they adopted us!!

School Christmas Fun!!

Silas gave me a lot of flack for buying them matching shirts, his exact quote was

"IS THIS REALLY NECESSARY??!!"
But, as you can see, I am NOT the only mom who does these things :o)

Silas and his teacher, Miss Daniels!

Silas was the ONLY one wearing green, you could say he was easy to spot!!

His part was to tell how Christmas is celebrated in Italy

How sweet is this, holding his brother's hand in the hallway!

McAdenville-Christmas Town USA

Silas meets Mr. Snowman

It was super cold that night!

Most lights on any house in the neighborhood

What Christmas really means!

We would LOVE to have one of these!!

We made our annual trek to see the lights at McAdenville. We have figured out the formula- get there at 5:45 on Friday night before the crowd gets there! We were once again able to park by the lake and walk around. Most people just drive through, but we like the up close and personal tour. We had to walk behind Stephen and hold a blanket around him, he was shaking he was so cold.

Dressed up and ready to PARTY!!

Our niece Kristen got married on November 20th, the day after

Stephen's birthday!

Aren't they great looking together??!!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Trey Winslett!

Look at that handsome 8 year old...

and his sweet little brother who will not stand still for a pose....

...unless he is forced to by his big brother!!
It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time at the reception. The boys both did very well during the ceremony (which we were super excited about) and got to let loose a little at the reception. They clean up pretty good, don't they???

Stephen's party at Chuck E Cheese!!

This is the second cake, the first one was dropped on the way to the car by our oldest child...
Nikole and her dad, Grandpa Steve, with his little namesake!!

Stephen with Grandma Barbara

Silas helping his brother with his presents whether he wants the help or not!!

A good time was had by all!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Stephen!

What a BIG boy you are!! You keep us laughing with the new things you say. You LOVE chocolate milk like your big brother, and you are also partial to Chick-fil-A nuggets with Polynesian sauce! You love your Nintendo DS you got for your birthday (you got it early to keep you occupied on the way to Disney World) and you still love playing the Wii you got for Christmas last year. You insist that we apologize if we do something wrong and you get your feelings hurt really easy because you are very tender hearted. You're turning into a jokester just like your dad and big brother, very quick-witted too for your age! Mommy doesn't have a chance against all of you!

We so love watching you grow and grow. In fact, we can't keep up! At 4, you're wearing size 6-7 clothes and size 12 shoes. Your brother is 4 1/2 years older than you, but you are getting more and more of his "hand-me-downs" sooner than you should, but you think it's SO cool to get his stuff (I'm sorry to say that probably won't last much longer!)

Stephen Josiah,

you are definitely one-of-a-kind and we couldn't imagine life without you!

Our Latest Adventure....Disney World!!!!

We (read:Scott) have been planning this trip since March, and we had a GREAT time! The boys loved it, the lines weren't too long, so we actually got to do a lot of rides. Stephen's favorites were Splash Mountain and Goofy's Barnstormer in Magic Kingdom, and Test Track and Soarin' in Epcot. Silas liked everything that Scott liked, all of the roller coasters that I prefer to skip. We split up most of the trip, Silas and Scott in one direction and Stephen and I in the other. We got the dining plan for "free" when we booked it, so we did not spend ANY money on food (yeah!). Everything is so expensive there, we have put ourselves on the 4 year plan. We went when Silas was almost 4, and this time Silas is 8 and Stephen is almost 4. That puts our next trip in 2014, with an 8 year old and a 12 year old (I am NOT going to say how old we will be!). THAT should be a blast, right??!!