Bond, Liam Bond

Mr. Sophisticated - cool and calm.

Ladies man.

Off to fight crime.

A Hello Kitty Party!

 We celebrated Maggie's birthday with a fun party on Saturday. We were blessed to have many of our family and friends there including Jack and Liam's birth families! There was a lot of love in that school basement.

 Matthew was not a happy camper. Took him to the doctor today and he has an ear infection. My sad little baby. And he wanted his momma most of the time.

 A future graduate of the Big Flirt University.

 It was a Hello Kitty kind of Day.

 Family

 She doesn't seem too excited but she wasn't crying. Liam did decide to help himself to some icing before we were ready to serve the cake. Some things never change.

 She liked her cake, icing and ice cream. Maggie was a happy girl.

 Fun manicure set with dollars shaped into hearts - very neat idea. Maggie was thrilled to rip the hearts off the tape.

 Reading one of her birthday cards.

 Does this come in my size? Maggie is going to be a fashionista this summer.

 There's a smile.

 Jack and Meaghan kept posing for my nephew Christopher who had apps that, well, let's see, killed them with heat seeking missiles, bombed them, stomped them with a transformer type robot and let their behinds give birth to an alien. They thought it was so cool. It's obvious that we are fortunate to live in a country where planes that fly overhead are non threatening.

 Working it.

 You go Miss Thang.

 And Mike, well, you just go. He was modeling Maggie's crown.

 My niece's artwork of her fish on display in the school basement.

An image of all the pictures from the most recent parish directory made into the shape of the church and surrounding scenery. Somewhere on there are pictures of my mom and dad and my brother and his family. Very neat.

Scenes from Maggie's Birthday

 "Here, let me help you."

 Baby bottles and diapers for her babies!

Maggie doesn't seem very excited but she loved her new outfit from her daycare provider.

Ring pops - yum.

Squirrel.

Sweet Treats

 Last year, I won a pair of tickets to a Roots, Blues, BBQ event. With four children, I knew there was little possibility that I would be able to attend. A co-worker really wanted to go and offered to make me a cake for each of my children's birthdays in exchange for the tickets. Let's just say I think I got the better deal. She made pink lemonade flavored cake lollipops with white chocolate icing for Maggie's celebration at daycare tomorrow. I sampled one yesterday. They're awesome!!

So cute. See if you can spot the one with the paw prints.

Sweet Birthday Surprise!

 Maggie in her birthday outfit thanks to our wonderful China travel friends.

 All the kids were super excited!

My little slugger!

Keeping It Real

It's been a while but today after telling someone about my four children, she asked, "Are those all your real children?"

I cringed inside like I always do. Yet I know at the same time she wasn't being ignorant out of a desire to hurt me. And, as I always do, I told her that I they were all my real children but I was blessed to have adopted three of them.

Yes, those monkeys drive me crazy sometimes, but when I look in my van's rear view mirror, I see four snuggle bunnies who I am blessed to call my children. I can remember the times when I looked back and saw an empty back seat. Now I hear the melodies of "A,B,Cs" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." I love my real children.

They Call Me Beautiful But I Go By Maggie

My little princess is turning 2 on Valentine's Day. We took some fun photos this weekend - she actually kept her piggy tails in for like an entire 5 minutes! It was enough time to snap these two cute photos.

So stinkin' cute. Maggie Rose rocks those piggy tails and she knows it.

Maggie looks like she is posing here. I can't believe I captured this moment. She had her head tilted just right. And there is Matthew on the right side photobombing the picture. He turned 11 months old on Saturday. It was difficult to snap a good photo of him this weekend since he wasn't feeling good.