8 Years Ago......

On March 5th, 2002, we welcomed our 9 pound, 2 ounce baby boy into the world! It is hard to believe that 8 years have passed! Here is Beckett posing for my annual birthday picture by the flag! You can check him out here (last year), when I put his first b-day pic and his seventh b-day pic on the blog! I just love looking back at pictures like this! They just grow up so fast! Isn't he handsome??
So tonight, we had both sets of grandparents, two cousins and three buddies join us for birthday supper. Papa John's pizza, salads and brownie sundaes! My kids haven't wanted cakes for the last couple of years....so all I have to do is prepare a pan of brownies, add some vanilla ice cream and some hot chocolate sauce and they are happy! Here is a silly picture of all of the kids at supper tonight!

Here is a picture of Helen and Lille. After supper, they went home with Nana and Papa to spend the night while the boys all stayed here for a sleepover.

And I just had to add this one because it is so sweet. Will loves to read books and he and Grankaki spent quite a bit of time with this Grover book tonight!

This last Wednesday, Will, Helen and I went to Beckett's enrichment class that he attends once a week and brought a birthday cookie for him to share with his classmates! Here they are in front of the door to his classroom.

Here is a picture of one of the cookies we took. I actually took two to feed all of the kiddos. I got it at Krogers and although Beckett said it tasted really good, I was disappointed in the design and the handwriting. I guess it is the teacher in me....but I wish they would have handed me the bag of icing. I could have done a better job than that! Beckett even noticed that it was kind of sloppy and he usually doesn't say a word about that kind of thing! After he looked at it, we were walking to the front of the store to pay for it and he told me that he thought we might ought to talk with a manager about it! Ha!

Here he is with his classmates. This is a group of 2nd-5th graders and Beckett has really enjoyed his time in this class this year. He has made many friends and had some wonderful lessons in Science, History and Art Appreciation!

And last, but not least, here was the life of the party. Mr. Will had himself quite a large time in the classroom. He enjoyed roaming around and greeting all the kids. He also enjoyed pretending to type on the keyboard at one of the computers! He just looks too big! He will be turning 8 before I know it! Yikes!

Boy Time

We have been quite busy these last two weeks, but I really haven't taken many pictures. I just take a few here and there. So when I downloaded these last pictures, I realized that the majority of them were of Beckett and Will doing boy stuff! This first picture is of Beckett playing Outdoor Adventure on the Wii and Will just loves to sit on the mat while Beckett plays. Too cute!
Beckett LOVED Elmo when he was little. Helen never cared a thing about Elmo, Sesame Street or really anything on TV. Now Will is really enjoying Elmo these days. He gets so excited if he sees a picture of Elmo and he will sit and watch Sesame Street as long as Elmo is on the screen. If Elmo goes away, Will loses interest quickly!

Another thing that Beckett and Will have in common is trains! It has been a while since we have had the Brio trains out, but Beckett started building train tracks for Will and they both are loving it. Of course, part of what Will enjoys is tearing up the tracks so that is why Beckett is holding him in this picture. The engine runs on a little AAA battery and they enjoy watching the train go around the track!

Just a few pictures from this morning. Yes, it is March 2nd and it has been snowing all morning. It is a thick, wet snow. We bundled up and went out for a bit to enjoy what will hopefully be the last snow of this winter! We are ready for warm weather!

Will wasn't too sure about being in this big box and getting ready to slide down the hill. Yes, that box says baseball. We picked up all of Coach Harper's equipment at Dick's Sporting Goods last Saturday and the Marlins (Beckett's team this year) had their first practice last Sunday afternoon when the temperature was 40 degrees! Crazy!

Our little snow ewok. Will is wearing a little snow suit that my aunt gave him for Christmas and we think he looks like an ewok from Star Wars! So sweet!

Welcome Home Anna

Last Friday, we had the opportunity to go back to the airport and welcome home a new baby girl from Ethiopia! We haven't been back to the airport since we came home with Will last June and it brought back many happy memories of our welcome home celebration! There have been at least four families that I know of that have brought home their children from Ethiopia since we have been home with Will, but this is the first airport celebration that we have been able to attend! It was so much fun! Our friend, Julie, who we go to church with, flew in last Friday afternoon with her baby Anna! I think I counted 13 Ethiopian/American cuties there with their families to meet Anna. Julie also had many friends from her small group at church and a lot of the ladies that she works with who all came out to welcome them home!

Here is a picture of the crowd of friends and family waiting to welcome them home! Of course, Beckett and Helen ended up being front and center in the picture and the flash seemed to have hi-lighted them, but look past them at the wonderful crowd that was there!

I loved this sign that someone had made. It was the first picture I had seen of Julie and Anna together! She had sent it to some of her family and friends from the day that she met Anna and they had made the cutest poster with the picture! I was so excited to see that picture!
The arrival! They were welcomed like rock stars to cheers from the crowd! So fun!

Julie looked beautiful after the long trip home from Ethiopia! Motherhood looks good on this gal! She was so sweet to visit with everyone and let us all get our first looks at precious baby Anna!

This is the best close-up that I have of Anna.

To check in on Miss Anna and her sweet mommy Julie, go visit her blog! And check out this link with a great video from their welcome home celebration! You can see many of the sweet Ethiopian/American cuties from our area in this beautiful video that was created by one of our local mommas who has a little boy from Ethiopia! You might also see a few Harpers! :)

More. Please. Thank-You!

Just a quick video to show Will's signing skills! OK, so maybe they aren't perfect, but it's fun to try! I did this video at breakfast this morning. First he shows the sign for more. Then he asks please, and finally he says thank you! He is a little confused with the sign for thank you. He starts on the side of his head instead of his mouth, but we are getting there! Enjoy!

Check out Beckett's blog, "The Slam"! I finally got around to letting him post an update this morning! It's been a while!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Diggin' Elmo

Within the last couple of weeks, Will has become interested in Elmo! He gets all excited when he sees Elmo and points and says all kinds of stuff that we can't understand! Beckett used to love Elmo as well, so we have quite a few books and Elmo stuffed animals around the house. I caught this sweet moment the other day and had to take a picture. Will loves to get a book, hand it to you and then turn around and back up into your lap so you will read it to him. He was excited to be looking at this Elmo book with his bro! (Please excuse Beckett's "holy" sleep pants!) These are his favorite soft sleep pants and he does not care one bit that the knees are totally worn out of them!

Looking at the cover!

Tickling Elmo's tummy!
Had to share this cute one too! I took this a few days ago when Will fell asleep in his high chair. Poor guy. He had not had much of a nap that day and I got a phone call that went extra long. It looks like he was going for a peach, and just gave up!

Mountain Cabin Weekend

So, this was "home" for the weekend! Rough, huh? We had a great time these last four days with Sean's side of the family in the mountains. Nana and Papa rented a cabin for their three children and their families so that we could spend some good family time together! It was a great weekend for it because we had SNOW! It was so beautiful and the kids had a great time playing together!

Here is a picture of all seven grandkids in the snow!
If we weren't outside playing in snow, we were eating or doing a lot of this.......

Or this! How fun to be in the hot tub while it was snowing!

I'm not sure this very loaded down sled went very far!

This was the view from the back porch yesterday afternoon!

Beautiful!

Oh Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possesions! Psalm 104:24