Easter 2016

Today is the celebration of the greatest day in history.  It's Easter, y'all.

You know - most people celebrate a person's life.  And while Jesus' life was pretty special, it's His DEATH and then RESURRECTION that we really celebrate.  I'm so thankful that He took my place on that cross to pay the debt for my sins.  No greater gift.  

My parents came up for the day.  Davis was out of town so Kristi came on over too, and we all went to church together.  I taught our 3 year olds through 1st graders, and while I missed being able to worship with my family, today was an extra-special day to get to teach our kids about Jesus!

After lunch at Fatz (because the restaurant that we TRIED to go to was closed), we all went back to our house to see if the Easter bunny had come.  He did not disappoint. 

New swimsuits, sunglasses, water bottles, note pads, bubbles and of course some candy (or yogurt packs)!   We did a little indoor easter egg hunting, and then stepped outside to take a few quick pictures. 

Our family sure has grown in the past few years.  Our girls have gotten so big, not to mention that we have TWO of them.  I sure do love our family and thank God for them daily.  Here's what our Easter has looked like the past few years: 

2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015

Happy, happy Easter! 

He is Risen!!

Happy (or Sad) Feet?

Kate had her very first (ever!) soccer game last week.  Unfortunately, her first soccer practice got rained out so they only had ONE practice before games started.  And only one kid on our whole team had ever played soccer before. AND, the first team we played against were all 5 year olds who had played together last year.  Needless to say, the game didn't go so well and Kate was not impressed.  This picture does a pretty great job of describing her first soccer game...

See the cute kid in pink?  See the ball?  Yep - that is pretty much how it went.

I will say, the first 20 minutes or so was warm-up and practice. THIS part, Kate loved.

And then it was game-time.  Time to huddle up and strategize.

We had 8 kids on our team, and they played 4v4 on a pretty small field.  For a competitive person, it was painful to watch.  One of our kids cried the whole time she was on the field.  One ran around trying to pick it up. Kate kept running off of the field to get a sip of water, or to "rest" or asking for a snack. 

She touched the ball a handful of times, but mostly just ran around.  At this point, none of our kids really get the concept of soccer, except that you don't touch the ball with your hands. (Well, we do have that one kid that doesn't get that part yet either...)

This may be the one time Kate really had the ball! What you don't see is that when the other 7 kids swarmed her, she stopped, put her hands up and then turned around and walked off of the field.  I asked her what happened and she said "They stepped on my toes!"

I sure do love this kid.  She may not know much about soccer.  Shoot - she may not ever even like sports at all.  But that's okay.  One thing that she is great at is making friends.  I hope that never changes!

Hello! (SUYL)

Call me tired, or call me lazy.  Either way, the blog has been a bit on the back burner lately and I've let it go more than I ever intended.  I've decided that THIS week is going to be the week for me to catch up.  At least I think it is.  I hope it is!  Regardless, I'm going to try.  Ha!

One of the very first blogs that I ever started reading was Kelly's Korner.  She just re-started one of her blogging series so I figured this was as good of a time as any to recommit to blogging regularly. So, I'm joining up with her on the "Show Us Your Life" series, which first starts off with introducing yourself and your family.  Here goes...

I'm Kelley.  I'm a 29+2 year old CPA and I've been blogging for five years now, which is just crazy for me to think about.  My husband, Kevin, is a pastor and he and I have been married since August 2007.  I first started this blog back in 2011 when we started our adoption journey with Bethany Christian Services.

Our daughter Kate was born in August 2011 and a few years later we adopted again and brought Karsten home.  Kate is our outgoing, strong willed, independent, spunky girly-girl.  Karsten is more reserved and a mamas girl!  As any parent would say, our life is definitely a bit crazier than it was before kids, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  God has greatly blessed our family with these two girls! (You can read more about their adoptions here: Adoption #1 and here Adoption #2)

I'm a Clemson alumni (Go Tigers!) and a definite southern girl, who could eat Mexican food and drink sweet tea every day.  We live in upstate SC with our two golden labradors, Max and Cooper.

If you have followed me for any amount of time, you'll know that I blog mostly about my family and my faith.  I'm so very thankful for the grace of Jesus, and can't help but share it.

I hope you'll join me, and I can't wait to meet new friends along the way!

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Winter is such a hard time of year when you've got little kids.  Right?  Right.  The sun goes down at 5pm and it is freezing outside, so you're forced to stay inside ALL THE TIME.  Cabin fever is real, y'all.

Earlier this week, the sun (and warmth) finally came out!!  And you better believe we took advantage of it.

A little sunshine, a little chalk - these two were good to go!

Karsten LOVES to color.  She is happiest with a marker in her hand, so when she saw all of the chalk, she let out the happiest shrieks and kept yelling "Colors! Colors!"

And Kate was pretty thrilled too.  She is our little artist, and drew about 15 colorful hearts all over our sidewalk.  

 What better way to lead you to our front door than a pathway of happy hearts?

We are so thankful for this sunny, warm, spring day in March and look forward to more to come!

Mwah!  Welcome spring!  We hope you are here to stay.