Easter

We had our second annual Easter Egg hunt, and it was a blast. But, I have to say, it is hard to entertain and be a mom at the same time. I kept realizing that it was my child that was running into the street, it was my child that was covered in chocolate and had wrappers all over the floor, or it was my children that hadn't eaten any dinner :)  We had about 50 people, over half were children, I didn't get as many pictures as I had wanted to, but enjoy!

Ben teaching the Easter lesson

 

 Happy Easter!

Getting back to normal life

I really hate to admit it, but I had some unrealistic expectations of myself. I thought that I would be able to keep up with all my normal life stuff and welcome Deven into our home. I was wrong, and this blog has suffered. I have been taking pictures and videos, but they just have been dumped into files on my computer and never edited or looked at. I also realize that I need to revamp the look of the blog, it will come with time.
After 5 months I feel like I am moving back into normal life and out of survival mode. I thought it would happen sooner, but I need to readjust my expectations. So thank you for you patience and not bugging me about posting more.
We have been keeping very busy but are enjoying every minute most of it :) I have to keep most of this to a brief overview, once Deven's adoption is finalized (hopefully in June or July) I'll be able to share more about our life experiences.

Ari is in love with her cousin Joe

She loves her wings :)

 Ari has grown so much in the last 5 months. She can talk. I mean really talk. It really started to explode after Deven came and hasn't stopped. Of course now she is talking about superheros, building and fixing things a long with princesses, Hello Kitty, and Winne the Pooh. I love it when she runs around the house yelling "Super _______(monkey, princess, snoopy, Ari, books, ect...) to the rescue!"  She loves to sit at the piano to sing and play and still loves to read books.
 
Deven has also come a long way. I can see how much more comfortable he is here and how he is letting me be his mom. He is one of the sweetest little boys I know (and yes I know I am partial). It is also really neat to see his creativity start to come out. He is all boy and loves to build, create, and figure out how things work. He loves being outside and is better at cleaning and organizing than I am.
So some of our adventures:
  We build lots of forts...

 We have some kind of cooking adventure at least once a week...

 We went up to St. Louis to visit my family and had a great time:

The kids playing with the "Flintstone mobile" that was mine when I was little.

 We visited the Science Center:

Ari and Nana

Deven could have spent the whole time just building bridges

Ari and Aunt Skylar

Deven stood in awe for about 5 minutes

We welcomed spring with Ice Cream cones and an Easter egg tree:

Picture Dump

So I have been adjusting to a crazy life with 2 kids and the blog has been completely neglected. I still don't have the presence of mind or energy to write a full blog post, so here is a picture dump. That is what you all want anyway right? :)
Lets call this the Christmas Season post. Sorry, no order or explanations for the pictures, but comment if you want to know!