Our July Birthdays!

We have four July birthdays!

Emma, Ellie and Joey each have b-days consecutively in July!

Our "daughter in love" Caitlin has a b-day a few days before these three!

The two girls LOVE their birthday celebration!

They missed out on so many birthdays while they were in China.

And this little guy is completely loving life!

He has memory issues... 

so I told him we could not celebrate his birthday until he remembered the date!

Needless to say, he remembered it immediately!

Because they get soooo incredibly excited for their birthday they also can get easily disappointed.

We try to manage the day wisely so they enjoy it without any disappointment.

We gave them a play by play on how they day would go.

We went boating in the morning and had a picnic lunch on the boat.

Many of the kids jumped in the lake and swam!

Ellie did but Emma did not - for safety reasons.

As long as she knew what was happening she was okay with it!

She was just so tickled that it was her birthday party and that she had presents!

I have to make sure all the presents are even between these two!

They notice!

They really did well this year!

We celebrated on a Sunday.

The next day, Monday was Ellie's bday.

Then Emma's and then Joey's bday.

For the sake of the parents sanity 
we did not celebrate on all three days 

but instead had left over cake and just had a great day!

We also had to explain why Joey's boxes were bigger.

Little boys like large pieces of plastic ;-)

While teen girls like clothes, jewelry and crafts!

Thank you Auntie Barb and big bro Billy and Johnny for joining the celebration!

Hubby insisted on putting 15, 13 and 7 candles on the cakes!

I was thinking we should put a few less on there so we didn't have a fire hazard!

But they loved it and it went well!

They each got to order their own cake!
Emma and Joey chose chocolate cake and Ellie chose ice cream cake.

They so deserve to be celebrated!
We are so thankful they are home!

Sometimes, as a busy Mom of many I go through the motions and do all that needs to be done for the birthday party.

It's not until I look back and 
I see the complete joy on their faces 
that I realize what a beautiful moment this is!

Blog readers often ask how we can only eat one cake with so many people!

Well, this time we had three cakes so we had plenty for everyone!

Make your wish!

C'mon Emma!

Blow out those candles!

Sam wants to see how many boyfriends you have!

And if she doesn't do it quickly Sarah is going to do it for her!

Joey is rockin those roller blades!

Praise YOU Lord Jesus!
Thank you for you many blessings! 

Grandbaby #2!

We are so excited to share our good news with you!

GRANDBABY #2

is on it way!

Big sister Emily is so happy about it!

She plans to share all of her toys with her new little sibling!

(wink, wink!)

Baby Burgess #2 should arrive sometime in 

January 2016!

Note To Self...

Note to self- 

don't attempt to do the 2 yr post placement paragraph 

with your tween/teen 

when they are hungry 

and/or nervous because
they are about to be tutored in reading 

(by a very nice lady). 

When you ask them "How has your experience been so far?" 

They may look at you like

you are from mars

or like

you have a huge booger in your nose

or like

I have no intention of answering you because

I am starving hungry and it's lunchtime and you mother, 

should be making lunch not asking me this stupid question...

Plus, I do not want to see a tutor for reading 

and

I don't even know what a tutor is...

(and that's why YOU ARE seeing a tutor-
vocabulary, comprehension, language development, 

yadda, yadda, yadda)

All this was accomplished by one look...

yep, 
"the look"

you know,

"the look"

verbally-

she grunted

and

with that grunt came the shrug...

uh huh,

the shrug of one shoulder!

So I did what any other good Mom would do and 
I decided that I probably was going to have to write this thing myself.

Of course, I would base it on what her potential attitude would be 
if she were to have 

 a full tummy,

a good night sleep,

and lots of presents to open!

Hey, what's wrong with picking the best moments

 to reflect our daughters true feelings of having her very own forever family!

I could see that this was not going to go well...
yet, we needed to get it done asap!
(it was only 5 months late)

So I fed her
and the others.
I had her go in with the tutor first.
Once she figured out that it was actually kind of fun and she liked it - 
she was no longer afraid and 
she was a more willing participant in the 2 year post placement paragraph.

In order to go to horseback riding that afternoon we had to get it done right away. 
Horseback riding just so happens to be her favorite thing in the whole wide world! 

By golly, it was no problemo at all!
She did it in 5 minutes and made it to horseback riding on time. 
Which I will repeat,
is her most favorite thing to do in the whole wide world!

It's funny how that works!

Do ya need any more help with this parenting thing cause 
I got it down!
I'm rockin it!

(not really... at all...)
I'm doubling up on the prayers now that they are turning into teens!
It's a whole new ball game!

And don't remind me that I will have 7 that will become teens all at about the same time...
Okay, I tripling up on the prayers!

Control Freaks!

We happen to have...
a few...
 Okay, maybe more than a few...

 CONTROL FREAKS!

With the controllers

that is

the TV controllers...

It seems that the person who is holding the controller-

 is super special and is

"in control".

You know...
in control of everything that is really important-
 volume
channel
on/off...

If someone(such as me) happens to tell the person holding the controller they can no longer have the controller in their hand 
they will chose to...

HIDE IT...

Because if the motto around here is-
if "I" can't have the controller...

nobody can!

So then, we will all have to search...

for the controller...
It's usually under a couch or chair or hidden between cushions.

There are a few of us that are not into
"controlling".

Melissa and Ava would rather read a good book than
control...
anything!
I so appreciate their lovely personalities!
They are like their Daddy.

BUT,
sadly
this Momma falls into the "control freak" category 
along with all the others!

Guess we got a few things to work on over here!

Best Gift!

For my birthday the big kids went in on a gift!

I was so surprised and ...

so thrilled!

What a treasure this is!

Photos from over the years that have been on the blog!

And notes that were written from the big kids!

So many wonderful memories, 

all in this book!

I have seen other people have books like this but have never had one of my own!
(I do want to do this for the kids at home!)

It is wonderful to see the bigs and littles, 
all here, 
all together!

My heart is bursting with love!

Such kind words from each one of the bigs...

This is so funny!

And this is so Johnny!

Awwww, Johnny!

Thank you!

Praise GOD, for each blessing!

The time has gone by so fast(too fast) and I am in awe of how the children have grown!

And now there is a granddaughter in the mix!

WooooHooooo!

Feeling so loved!

 Thank you so much
my dear sweet children!
Each one of you,
is the light of my life!

Feeling amazingly BLESSED
and so THANKFUL!