My Babies...

Just a few pictures ...
We've been busy around here with school, photography, church, baby proofing the house. keeping up with 4 active kids, going to the park, enjoying the Fall, watching football...

How sweet are these faces :-)

These yellow shirts are the ones that Carey sent me from the Blog Union. THANKS CAREY! Julie and I were set to go but ended up staying home because Julie's mom was diagnosed with cancer. Her mom had surgery and all of the cancer was removed! They are doing radiation to make sure it is completely gone.

This girl makes the craziest faces every time I take a picture of her. I LOVE IT! She is such a nut!

How cute are they?

Addie drives poor Abel crazy. Always wanting to invade his personal space :-) Too cute.

Look at that face ... LOVE ME SOME ABEL.

The family joined me tonight as I did a photo shoot. They were doing a scavenger hunt (Geo cashing) while I took pictures. I snapped a few shots of them afterwards.

Lookin' at me.. Lookin' at you!

HA!

My friend, Tammy, took pictures of me taking pictures of Cooper. HOW FUN!


You can see his photo shoot here
This shoot was totally spontaneous...

We were actually saying goodbye to a sweet family that is moving... I WILL MISS YOU SHAWNA!

PHOTO SHOOT

We had a photo shoot today...
check it out
HERE

Hurricane Update and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HURRICANE UPDATE
Our friends and family are fine. Thank you so much for praying. My friend is home (with out power). They didn't have much damage to their house but did have damage to their apartment complexes.
Ted's sisters didn't have damage... just a few trees down.
Other friends had water damage... lots of water in certain areas.
But the good news is... NO LIVES LOST. That is what is important.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Last Thursday was the Ethiopian New Year. Yes, September 11th was when Ethiopia rang in their new year... 2001. Yes, you read that right... they are 7 years behind us. Why, I am not sure. So, Abel was really born in 2000. So he is just 2 days younger than Avery (figure that one out!).
We got together with friends that have adopted and are adopting to celebrate. There were 13 families there and a total of 58 people. Not that it's about numbers but it BLOWS ME AWAY that GOD IS BUILDING THIS COMMUNITY of adoptive families from our SON'S BIRTH COUNTRY... right here in our area. AND... I know of several families that did not make it.
My pictures are not that great... I didn't really take a bunch of pictures... I was too busy enjoying the ETHIOPIAN FOOD and talking with new and old friends!

Maya and Abel looking outside... too cute!

Food and Fellowship!

The Mizes :-)

Abel loved this toy... it's his friend, Liyah's but he had a good time on it.

Maya checkin' out her boyfriend's ride.

Tom flying Abel around the house!

Jules and Trendy Mindy

That's me with my daughter-in-law Maya!

Love me some Beelers!

Please Pray

Ted and I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Hurricane Ike is headed right to our home town and surrounding areas... We have family and close friends there. I just got off the phone with my best friend from high school and she just evacuated for the 3rd time this month. She has 3 small children and her husband is always one of the first ones called back in to town because he works at the refinery there. After hurricane Rita, she was unable to go home for almost 3 weeks (due to power outages).
Ted and I both grew up in this area. His parents now live in South West Louisiana and his sisters live in South East Texas. One sister has evacuated and the other sister is staying behind. Her and her husband helped a lot of the service men after Hurricane Rita and are staying behind as long as they can to help.
PLEASE PRAY! My heart is heavy for them and I can not imagine the anxiety that goes with these storms and the aftermath.

Characters, Characters and MORE Characters

One of the BEST things about Disney is the Characters you meet while there. They come alive to the kids ... and to us too. I got so excited to see so many of these guys/gals :-)

Here are some of the characters that I didn't share pictures of during my posts below!

and here is a question for you...
Who is your favorite Disney Character? Mine... SIMPLE AS CAN BE... IS MICKEY MOUSE!

Dreams Really Do Come True...

I decided on Day 5 that I had to take pictures of our resort. We stayed at a Value Resort but COME ON ... IT'S DISNEY WORLD! Even the Value Resorts are LARGER THAN LIFE!
We had this right outside our complex.... I felt safe with Buzz protecting me :-)

Do you see Avery at the feet of Buzz. That's how HUGE he was.

Sweet Savanna (from the family we traveled with) had a few sick days. She wasn't feeling good this day. Our family headed out to Magic Kingdom first and then met up with Angela and Samantha later at MGM (Hollywood Studios).

At Magic Kingdom... WE MET MICKEY ... and HIS GIRL MINNIE WAS THERE TOO. We didn't expect that! We were so excited to see her!

Minnie played peek-a-boo with Abel. It was precious!!!!!!
After riding our favorite rides at Magic Kingdom (Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain), we headed to MGM.
We didn't know it was NIGHT OF JOY... which is a Christian concert weekend at Disney. We didn't have tickets to it but the artists were Chris Tomlin, Mercy Me, Rebecca St. James... and MORE! HOW COOL?! I was kind of hoping we'd see Chris Tomlin on one of the rides. I actually met him one time before (YEARS AGO !!) and he looked at me like I was SO weird! haha... surprise surprise! I saw him in a hotel and walked right up to him to tell him people we knew in common. I'm sure every one plays six degrees of separation with him. I don't think it's his favorite game.
ANYWAY... No Chris Tomlin or Michael Phelps (A friend told me she heard he was at Disney the same time as us).

If you knew me, you'd know... I will just about do anything. So I volunteered myself for some show at Disney (MGM). It was my movie debut... don't I kind of look like I'm on Apollo 13 or something like that. Well, if you saw my acting, you'd think it was a SAD remake of the movie Airplane. I didn't really hear the instructions that the lady told me (she was talking so fast) and so LONG STORY SHORT... I looked like a fool. We got a good laugh out of it though. Especially when the guy said "HIT THE DECK" because it was a "mock" movie set and a torpedo was crashing into the water. I saw the water splashing up and instead of hitting the deck, I threw my arms in the air like I was a kid running through a sprinkler. I heard the audience laugh... had no clue they were laughing at ME!

This night we went to the Fantasmic show. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!
One thing Disney does well... IS EVERYTHING! But this was UNBELIEVABLE! and scary too. They definitely have the scare element down at Disney!


DAY 6
We spent our last day at MGM. It was my second favorite park. I loved it! This is the order of my favorites... Magic Kingdom, MGM, Epcot and then Animal Kingdom.

After coming in and going straight for the Rockin Roller Coaster, we went to get fast passes to Toy Story Mania (LOVED THIS RIDE... I REPEAT ... LOVED THIS RIDE). After the fast passes, we went to the show Beauty and the Beast. It was EXCELLENT! It had the BEST preshow!!! What we thought were maintenance guys were really this singing group. One guy acted like he was doing a mic check and then bowed... the audience clapped and so he went back to the mic. Then 3 others joined him (but in the most comical way) and they were this incredible singing group. They did all their music with their voices. I can't explain it but it was SO GOOD! And then we thoroughly enjoyed the show as well.

This little guy (below) loves STARWARS!

Here's my favorite ride... Toy Story Mania. I wanted to ride it OVER AND OVER... only problem. The wait was an hour long. I only got to go on it two times.

Look at that face!

I would like to thank the academy....

After we left MGM (and I dried my eyes... because I was slipping into my Post Vacation Blues), we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner.

Here are S and S with Cinderella... wouldn't they be great princesses at Disney?

This was one of those moments I want to keep forever in my mind! Addie was dancing in the streets. There was music playing and the girl could not contain herself. She started HARD CORE dancing. Then she started doing the robot. I could hardly stand it! I wish I had a video camera!

I have a few more pictures from our last day... and then I have some fun character pictures.... I am gonna share more. I am trying to figure out what to do with all of my pictures. I think I took about 900 pictures. Ok.. maybe a little less... BUT A LOT!

Thanks for reading about our time at Disney. It was such a HUGE deal for our family to get to go. What a blessing! We are so grateful!!!! We don't know when we'll get to go again but what a great time and what great memories!