November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

November is National Adoption month, a month set aside to raise awareness about the adoption of children and youth from foster care. This year's theme,” You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent," includes a more focused effort that reaches out to the African American community and builds on the Ad Council's new (PSA) campaign of the Children’s Bureau, the Adoption Exchange Association, and AdoptUsKids.

What's the purpose? To put it plainly and simply: it is the month recognized for promoting adoption within in our communities, states, and nation. The focus is meant to be on children who are in the foster care system and are currently waiting to be adopted.

For those closest to us you know how passionate we are about adoption. Without adoption our family would NOT be complete. We would not have had the experiences we have without it and we certainly wouldn’t have our Callie. Please join me in raising awareness for adoption this month

Carving Pumpkins!!

This is one of our favorite fall family activities. Callie really enjoys cleaning out the “guts”. McCall takes extra time to pick just the right design and I love cooking the seeds to eat.

We all love Halloween!!

Pizza and a limo ride!!

Callie was one of the TOP 10 SALLY FOSTER (wrapping paper and gifts) sellers at her school. She won a pizza lunch as well as a limo ride to and from. She worked especially hard and was really excited when they announced her name at a school assembly.

Here she is getting ready to leave!

Getting so big!
Callie and Maya

WOW! What a beautiful limo.

A group photo.

WITCHES PARTY!!

Pretty witches, ugly witches, little witches and big witches too!
We are having a party just for you.
Put on your favorite witch costume
and come join us for a
“Witches Night Out”.
(No boys….scaring starts at 5pm!!)

You know how much I love Halloween, so any occasion to get dressed up is fine by me. McCall was at a birthday party so Callie and I decided to go. Nelda throws a great party. The food, decorations, atmosphere and costumes were over the top. It has inspired me to have a party next year.

I love Halloween!!

Callie and mom heading out the door!
Looking pretty scary!

One of the many great decorations at the party. YUM!

Some of the "witches"!

Nelda and Janine

Meeting MILEY CYRUS!

A fun story I wanted to share:

My cute cousins got together and decorated this cute sign for a contest with 97.1ZHT (radio station) and MILEY CYRUS. They made the top 50 photos. The city got to vote on the best photos. After a week or so of voting….THEY WON!!! Last night at the concert they got to go back stage and meet MILEY CYRUS.

I am not much of a MILEY fan, but thought it was a real cute idea. Their daughters were so excited and thankful for all the hard work their moms put into it.

What fun memories!!

HAPPY 16th ANNIVERSARY!!

I can’t believe it has been 16 years since we got married!! Where did the time go? Thanks babe for giving me 2 girls, security, faithfulness, laughs, encouragement, support and all your love.

We went out to our favorite restaurant for sushi. YUM! Had drinks and enjoyed being together. McCall had soccer practice and doesn’t like sushi so we took Callie with us (she loves it as much as us) and we even tried a few new rolls.

Here is to many more years to come.

Sleepover fun....

Last weekend we watched my 3 nieces and nephew so my SIL and BIL could have a night out. Having 6 kids is a lot or work, but it sure was fun. The boys played video games while the girls ran around playing dress up and gymnastics. We had pizza for dinner and also made a fire for marshmallows and smores.

We rented "17 Again" and had movie night in the basement.

The following morning Jeff made everyone waffles and we played a little more. We love playing with our cousins. Come back and play with us again!!

Callie-Raina-Adia and Jaylin

AJ teaching Jaylin how to play (my favorite picture)
yummy marshmallows
Getting their marshmallows just right!

Jeff and AJ playing Xbox