2011 Year In Review.

Well as 2011 comes to a close it is time to reflect back on the year to see how much life has changed.  We have both lost and welcomed in family members this past year.  We celebrated birthdays, adoption days, anniversary's, and weddings. We celebrated the life of Granny who passed away at age 99. We grieved the loss of our dog Mia and welcomed in our new new dog Bea. We look forward to 2012 knowing we are blessed by our God and know He has some great plans for our family. We will start the new year praying for health and blessing as we pursue our dreams, plans, and hopes for 2012!  God Bless all of you who have faithfully followed us and prayed for/with us over this journey.

We started the year on the Great Wall of China
north of Beijing.  (it was freezing!)

On Jan 4 we met Lauren in Shanghai for the first time and on Jan 5 she became a member of the family. 

After settling in back home and getting some time for Lauren 

to adjust to her new surrounding we took her on her first visit 

to Disneyland. 

Lynda then turned her attention to finishing off all the final plans for Amber and Eddie's wedding which took place in March.

In May Lynda's Grandmother finally went home at the age of 99, although we grieved we also celebrated her life and how she touched not just our lives but countless others over her life.

At Granny's 95th birthday - the 4 generations.

We then got our 10 chickens and built a coup in the area behind our barn.  We ended up with 3 roosters and 7 hens - right now we are getting close to 2 dozen eggs a week.

May 2011

Nov 2011

Cameron not only graduated high school in 2011, but attended his first homecoming dance at a local high school with his friend Destiny.

In October we (Kevin & Lynda) celebrated
 our 28th wedding anniversary.

This year we also lost one of our sweetest dogs, Mia.
We also welcomed into our family a new dog a basset hound named Bea.

Mia

Bea

Kevin and Cameron also had the opportunity to travel back to Pennsylvania for a hunting trip with Kevin's brothers, nephews, and family friends.

HAPPY 2012

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, we celebrated our Lord Jesus' birth today and as our family tradition we were visited by Santa Claus for the children. As usual all the "older kids" and parents were up first, we eventually had to go get the girls out of bed as we wanted to make sure they had the chance to see what Santa brought them and were able to open all the presents that have been under the tree that we get for each other prior to Eddie having to leave to go lead worship at his church.

Lauren seemed to be a little confused at first, she was not really sure why she had several presents from Santa and not just one.  She also was a little hesitant to rip open the wrapped presents - but quickly caught on with the help of our pro - Hannah!

Eddie's parents joined us in the afternoon for dinner and brought some gifts for the kids with them, so they were excited that opening presents went beyond just what they got that morning.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Christmas Eve!

We made the final preps today so that Santa is clear to visit our house - the girls are so excited, we will see in the morning how Lauren reacts to her first experience with Christmas!

Cameron spent some time today helping the girls make some rice crispy holiday houses - the pictures tell the story:

We also spent some time watching Santa's progress though the day on the NORAD website, we forgot to get a picture with Lauren checking out the site, and she is now fast asleep so we will let her dream the night away.

And finally, Amber arrived with Eddie's sister Erica to spend the night, Eddie arrived shortly after as he was leading worship at their church service and needed to pack things up prior to heading over. Everyone is now sitting around eating some venison bologna, cheese and crackers!

And in the words of Kemit the Frog, "Only one more sleep til Christmas!"

Christmas Card, Santa, & the Mall.

"Christmas Card, Santa, & the Mall", almost sounds like something Ed McMahon would say to Carnac the Magnificent (Johnny Carson). However there is no funny question to match the answer, it only describes what we were up to last night and this morning.  We needed to complete a family photo in front of one of our trees, it is an annual tradition and we can look at photos over the years and see how the children have grown and we have changed as a family. We took the picture last night printed up our cards and Lynda has been busy getting them all out in the mail.

2011 Christmas Photo

Then today we took the girls to the local mall to meet Santa, this was the first time that Hannah actually wanted to go and sit on his lap - we did not even try last year as the previous years it seemed too traumatic for her!  : )  While at the mall the girls got to experience the food court for the first time - yummy!

Getting Ready to Go.

Waiting in Line

Santa!

Lunch at the Food Court.

We finished off the day at the Apple Store where dad needed to have his laptop battery replaced and get a new power adapter (which was under warranty replacement). The girls enjoyed playing some children's learning games on one of the computers while they waited for dad. Cameron took the opportunity to walk around the store and dream of his next laptop or iPad.

Christmas Tamales.

Yesterday, Lynda went over to Amber & Eddie's apartment where they were joined by Eddie's family (Liz, Eddie Sr, and Erica) to make tamales, a Christmas tradition for Eddie's family.

Eddie's sister Erica gave Amber and Eddie a little gift for their tree - an ornament to celebrate their first Christmas as Husband & Wife!