Umm...oops...2 years later.....!

Ook, quite frankly I'm embarrassed with myself that it has taken me 2 years to update this blog.  So quick summary.....2010 we moved to Ohio for Dave to attend AFIT and get another Masters degree. 
June 2011 Ella's adoption finalized and we moved to Northern Virginia. 
August 2012, we flew to CA to have Ella sealed to us in the Oakland Temple.
So 2012, here we are with Dave working at the Pentagon, Anna is in 3rd grade, and Caiden and Ella are in preschool.  It's been a warm winter here.  Which is too bad since  I had prepared for snow!  Darn!
the children have grown so much!  I'll cover them individually in their blogs.  We are enjoying living here in our home.  The kids are involved in Gymnastics and having a blast with it!  So being quick here, now that I have a working computer again, I will try to keeps this updated more!

Car News

Ahhh, nothing like pulling up into the garage and finding all three kids asleep. I wondered why it got so quiet..lol. Sigh.
Anyway, it had to happen sometime that we would discover after two months of trying that 2 carseats and a seven year old in the back seat of a Jeep or a Neon make for a very tight fit! But very cute when they all fall asleep together! So we decided to trade in our Neon for a Dodge Grand Caravan. So there it is. I am driving a "soccor mom" car. but he additional space is nice as is all the gadgets (such as stow and go) that it has! So with a larger family comes the larger car. But we did have some great times with that small Neon before we got Anna and when we were just a one child family..lol. But the larger family is great and totally worth looking older!...lol.

Hah! See I'm catching up on my blogging!

Okay, so I finally sat down and have been catching up on posting pictures to this main blog and each of the kids.  It's easier now because I can load the pictures from my netbook (which I love) and it's faster than our poor desktop..lol).  So, life here is a little crazy.  Suddenly jumping to having two toddlers keeps me on my feet.  Caiden is warming up to Ella now.  Both are pretty clingy and Mama's lap space and attention are a premium.  But spontaneous hugs and kisses make it all worth it.  We've had Ella for almost two months now and while it's an adjustment, I think it was meant to be.
SO we finally hired a moving company and are getting rewady for our move to Ohio.  Last month I met Charisse in Ohio and we found a cute home for us to live in for hte short time we are there.  We are only going to be there for about 14 months or so, just while Dave does the master porgram at AFIT.  But I am so going to miss San Pedro!  The ocean, the fresh breezes from the sea, the community.....but I'm looking forward to moving to a four bedroom!!!!
Anna is doing great in school.  She really loves it, but hates homework!  She took up violin this year and I am so proud of her!  I wish I had kept up with mine, but we have been able to play together.
So what else...well how about off to find a bigger car!  Three kids in the back of my jeep is just not working as well as it should!  lol  OH and any spelling errors...darn blog doesn't have a spell checker!  Ha ha ha ha ha

See ya all!
Casi

Valentines

Look at me I'm running around during the church picnic!

No one can catch me!

Uh oh, Daddy caught me finally!

Emerson

Well, Just in case anyone ever wondered (lol), okay and because I wanted to, I am posting this picture of our sweet cat Emerson. He is abot 15-16 yrs old and a sweetie. He's so tolerant of the little ones!

Our First Whole Day Out

I'm going back and picking up some of the pictures from when we were in Oregon. This was on Saturday, our first whole day out together. Apparently we wore Ella out because this is what she did during lunch time at Burgerville.











Once she woke up we were at the park and played on the swings and the slide while Mommy stayed in the car with sleeping Caiden.

More Pic. from the Science Museum

California Science Museum

Jan. 4th. Anna, Caid and I met some church frinds at the CA Science Museum. It was pretty cool. We have been trying to the cool stuff before we move.

Anna's science Fair

Anna holding Ella at her school science fair. She loves to show off her new sister!

Almost Home

Tomorrow Ella will go with us and Tuesday we will fly home! We are so excited to welcome her to our family and welcome her to her new home! We will try to post up pictures as soon as we can and add pictures to her blog that I just set up. I wanted to express our love and appreciation to her incredible foster family that have welcomed us into their lives and into their family!

How fast they grow!!

This was Jan 30 2009 and yes it was beautiful weather that day! And my sweeet boy who has grown soi fast and so independent. The shirt he wears says "Mommys little Monster" and it sao suits him! He is go, go, go and what can I destroy after I distract Mommt with something else I have already destroyed...lol. But his smiles light up each day and his sweet voice talking in "toddlerese" make me wish these days would never end. I never thought I could feel this way, how much love fills my heart when I look at my incredible children. I thank God everyday for the miracle of adoption and for our wonderful birthmother's who trusted us with these angels.

Playing at the park

On Friday afternoons after school, some of the kids (and parents of course) go to a local park to play. Here Anna was playing with her friend Hayley.

On this particular day, I was struck on how much full circle I have come. I had a brief flash of a long forgotten memory of playing in a park kind of like this one when I was Anna's age. There was kind of a nostagia in the memory. And its amazing how much time has gone and here I was watching my children play in a park on a sunny day.

Chinese New Year

Anna's school had this very cute celebration for Chinese New Year. It was fun to watch adn she loved doing it.

Don't kill me!

Okay, okay, Okay, I know it's been too long since I have blogged, so don't shoot me! Here have these!!! We were having a FHE lesson adn after all this time, I sadly don't remember what, but we did color these crowns. SO here we are showing off out crowns! Dave and I shared a crown and we each did half and I colored Caidens, since to him crayons are edible!

Santa trouble

This is the very best picture of Caiden with Santa this year. This picture was taken at the base Christmas tree lighting. After waiting in line for half an hour there we were Anna was sitting on his lap, Caiden was put on his lap and we had to be quick!
AS you can see but ten seconds later the situation deteriorated! Later when I took the two to meet Santa in the mall, I ended up only getting pictures for Anna. 6 feet away from Santa Caiden was fussy. 5 feet he was nervous. 4 feet he was crying and 3 feet he was crying, panicking, and shaking so hard! The poor boy was absolutely terrified! We tried one more time at the ward Christmas party and the same thing happened. Santa is Caiden's bad list!

Another fall day at the beach Oct 2008

Anna is the supreme big sister! She adores helping her little brother (almost smothering Caiden in helping, in the process). But they are so sweet together and he adores her too.

For those who have not been to the beach in awhile.......this is what sand looks like, ha ha ha ha.
This is one of the views of Carbrillo Beach looking out at the Pacific Ocean.