Prayers Please!

As most of you know, we are licensed foster/adopt parents.  We are hoping to help some kids and hopefully adopt someday.  We are still waiting for our first placement, so I have been looking at other kids around the country that are already free for adoption.  And I found two that we are interested in, one little boy we are really interested in.  So, if you guys could find it in your hearts to pray for us that we will know Heavenly Father's will concerning if either of these little boys are supposed to be in our eternal family, and if so that we will be able to bring them home soon, we would greatly appreciate it.  Every little bit helps!!

Uggghhh...

I've been MIA for a little while because I've had the flu.  This was one of those kick you in the butt, knock you over, then kick you some more types of viruses for me.  Which is interesting because Cierra had it a week ago and snapped out of it pretty quickly.  I was not so lucky.  I think I'm finally getting over it.  I actually got into normal clothes today!  Yay!  Now, If I can survive a trip to walmart to get some milk (we've been out for 2 days!) then I will be grateful.

Caught up!

So so so so sorry for taking so long to post this stuff.  But, I'm caught up now.  I did it in chronological order, so you'll have to go down quite far to get to the start of the new stuff.  Enjoy!

The Perils of Winter

Having a trampoline in the winter is a lot of work, especially when you don't think about it and leave it under an eave so that when the snow starts to melt off of the roof it drips onto the trampoline and then freezes.  Then you end up with a huge ice mass in the middle of the trampoline that is threatening to end it's life!!!  So, we had to break it up to get it off.  Bryan lowered down jugs of hot water, and I poured it on the ice to break it up, then I threw the ice over the safety cage, or shoved it through the entry opening if it was too  heavy to throw.  Wow was that hard work!!!  Then we moved it out from under the eaves.

Christmas Morning

Cierra's Triceratops.  She has wanted one for so long, and it was her favorite toy of the day!

Woo Hoo!  Gavin got a train!!!!  He did a dance the night before when he opened extra train track from Ashley!

Ashley got baby dolls and a play pen and stroller for Christmas.  She loves it, and is such a little mommy!  The baby's name is Jakey!

Cierra got Ponyville stuff, too.

Playing with the mounds of stuff after it was all put together.

Here's Gavin's train set all set up.

Thanks Papa and Sweetheart!!

And for this, too!  And for Ashley's Tutu dog which somehow I didn't get a picture of!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

And Santa dumped his sleigh!

Our Christmas Present

I was so excited when I got this.  We bought this present for ourselves.  I went to Costco about a week before Christmas, and guess who was there???????   Greg Olson!  So, I bought one of the smaller paintings and had him sign it, plus he even dedicated it to our family on the back.  I was so excited!!!!

The School Christmas Sing

It's really hard to see her because I was sitting so far away, but Ashley did awesome in her school's Christmas Sing.  She is in the middle with short blonde hair.  You can see her better in the picture below.  Great job Ashley!

Cookie Time

At our house, Christmas means Grandma Brown Cookies!  So, this year, after a couple of hours of shoveling snow, we got out all of the ingredients, and the kids helped me make them!  

"Helping" roll out the dough

Using our brand new cookie cutters

Adding the sprinkles

Enjoying our hard-earned cookies!

This year I tried something new as a topping - Crushed candy cane!  It was pretty good, but the icing topped ones were definitely the crowd favorite.

Snow....

These are some pictures of the first good snowstorm that we had this winter.  The twins love to "help" shovel the walkway.

Gavin has a rake!

Cierra "shoveling" the walkway the best she can!

They are just darling!