HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARIN

Darin you mean so much to our family!!
You are an amazing daddy
and I could not imagine going through this life
with out you!
Your my rock and best friend!

You have made these 2 little ones daddy's girls

Your the best chauffeur I know.

You are my best friend, although Claire would argue that SHE is your best friend!!

You are the comforter.

You protect and love our kiddos and that is so beautiful to me!

For all you are to me and our little ones
I hope that on today, your birthday,
I can show you how thankful I am to have you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARIN!!

A girl and her Grandpa

Claire has many, many amazing relationships.
Claire is such a sweet and lovable child.

But,
One of the most precious relationships Claire has is with her Grandpa.
It makes me smile how she talks about him all the time!
Her and her grandpa have sweet songs they sing together.
They tell the most fabulous stories to each other,
about how birds land on their shoulders,
and squirrels run under their legs.

They go on walks, ride on tractors, go fishing,
read books, watch movies, have slumber parties, eat popcorn,
they are making some great memories.

And love between them is unconditional.



Now that we are all a little older, (sigh...)
take some time to think about someone who spent extra time with YOU
someone who made you feel special.
I would love to hear your precious memories and
I am sure my other readers would enjoy
hearing about them too!

Sisters

I was just looking through my pictures and I came across this one and I just burst into tears. As I was thinking about why I was crying I realized these things.

1- My sister is my best friend. And I pray for these 2 girls that they will find that in each other.

2- I just went out to dinner with my mom and sister last night and we were just like 3 best buddies hanging out! I can see my life with these 2 girls in 20 years...going out to dinner as 3 best friends!

3- This picture is so precious to me. We were leaving the airport after traveling 32 hours, bringing Stella and Benjamin home. And we had been away from Claire for 10 days! So to see them united was mind blowing.

4- This picture was of their first meeting and that moment for me was SO full of emotions! It brought me SO MUCH JOY to see them together and loving being together!

5-It is absolutely amazing how God brought these 2 girls into our family to become sisters...


Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. ~Margaret Mead

How is your relationship with your sister,
or
do you have a friend who is a sister to you?!?

Life at the Shrocks

They are getting so big so fast!!

Stella rockin' her mad writing skills

Stella wants to do EVERYTHING her big sister does..she is 16 months and even wants to sit on the potty... and can accomplish the task from time to time...

Ben rockin a giant smile.

This little boy brings so much silliness to our home...Oh and he has learned how to defend himself...the girls do not take advantage of him quite so much!!

Claire rocking her new bike

She is such a big girl!!
She is smart as a whip
(what ever that means) ;)
And is really starting to get the hang of the big sister thing!
I am seeing glimmers of hope because
she likes to make them smile, she likes to share, and she likes to tell everyone about them!

Breakfast at the Shrock's.
I am normally sitting in the seat between Ben and Stella shoveling food in to their little mouths.

I am so thankful that we are now falling into the grove and life is smoothing out!
(it took 5 months) ...But that's OK.

Thank you Lord!
All Glory is His.

I miss Miss Macy...

I want you all to meet this A.mazing little girl! Her name is Macy and she is my favorite little cousin!

Macy spent this whole summer with me! She is an A-1 baby sitter! She knows how to play and love on my babies…but the girl can also lay down the law!! She feed them, changed dirty diapers, laid them down for naps...you name it she did it!!

So how do you repay an 11 year old for being your side kick in takin care of 3 little ones 2 and under?!?!?!

You take her to get her nails done for the 1^st time…not just a paint job...oh no we went all out acrylics with hot pink zebra stripes!!

You get lunch at Sonic…somewhere I had never been...but I gotta say I liked it!! Thanks for introducing me Mae Mae!

Then you spend a few hours at the mall…get an Auntie Anne's pretzel.

Let her try on some shoes you PRAY she never actually wears!!

And last but not least…

You buy the girl some duct tape so she and her friends can make…bracelets, bags, and bows!!

Oh yes that’s right.

She is a little entrepreneur.

She is selling these sweet bags once orders come in they are making them! You can find them on FB here.

I love you so much sweet Macy! Thank you for all of your hard work!
I know God has Huge plans for your life!

Linking up Joy

Joy

Joy is: A daddy and his baby girl.

Joy is: Knowing Darin is the love of my life and I will spend the rest of my days with him!

Joy is: Benjamin with a full belly!

Joy is: Watching my baby girl try to be a big girl.

Joy is: Bringing hope to the hopeless in Kechene Ethiopia.

My little climber...

I am more then positive that Stella will be my child who goes to the hospital the most...
How do I get her to stop?!?!
Help!

It is FUN FRIDAY

Lots of fun happening around here today!!

We are celebrating my little sisters 24th birthday at my parents house tonight! She pick out quite a menu for this evening I am mostly looking forward to the brownie cheese cake!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE SISTER!!!!

We are also busy packing for one of the most fun weekends I can think of!! We are going to the Celebrate Children Reunion!!!


While we are at the reunion we will get to see some of the kiddos we met in the orphanages and we will get to see the amazing transformation that happens once they are placed in to a loving home!! The kids become full of life and it is so beautiful to see what a parents love does to a child!!

The reunion is going to be in Nashville, TN! So you better believe that we are taking our 2 year old and both 1 year olds on an 8 hour trip!!! It will be interesting but Darin and I have already decided to just have our expectations of them really low so we are not frustrated all weekend. HA.



Whats the longest you have ever traveled with young children? I would love to hear some funny stories to keep myself sane on the trip ;)

Have a lovely weekend!

Moody Monday

Sometimes I wish I could throw fits like this again. They only last a minute or so. This girl sure does know how to let her emotions out!! Its a good thing that she knows how to express herself, but she really needs to keep it in check sometimes... but ya know she is only 14 months... whats a girl suppose to do???

you can still see the "tears" in her eyes... but she wants to smile.

And by the way all of these "mood's" happened in about 15 seconds.
Yep that's my Stella!

Sleepy Sunday

We have had one crazy weekend! (sigh)

I love nothing more then the weekends. Darin is home and the kids enjoy having him around. He is always pumped and excited to spend time with them after working all week.

So sleepy


Darin and I celebrated 7 wonderful year of marriage.
It has been so much fun taking time this weekend to be together, just the two of us!!

But that meant that the kiddos have been with grandmas all weekend. And they are beat.

What did you all do this weekend? Do you notice a difference in your kiddos after they are at grandmas house too?

Fun Friday

So lets be real, every day here is fun! But I will now be making it a point to make sure we do something "extra fun." But unfortunately since I just decided to make this format for my blog last night I really did not have much time to plan anything. So this is our typical Friday. Macy my cousin is here. She is 11 and helps me out a ton! She loves my kids almost as much as I do!!
Benny Boo eating breakfast.
He loves to eat!!

Claire got into my tupper ware cabinet and decided this would make a "fun" hat. And that poor bunny she is holding has been through the ringer. He is not allowed to come in the house any more because he is so dirty and has been put in the kiddy pool a few too many times. But she loves him anyways.

A little bit of play time with mommy.

Holy Smokes she just keeps getting prettier and prettier.

Gorgeous! Stella is such a gem! She is SO funny. I might just do an entire Funny Friday on her because she could take an entire blog post with all the funny stuff she does.

My promise to you.

Moody Monday

Wordless Wednesday

FUN Friday

Sleepy Sunday

So to say the least I have been preoccupied. My blog tends to come last these days. But it should be priority. It is how I will look back in 5 years and say... Oh how I miss those days and ...I totally forgot about "this, or that."

So this is not only my promise to all of you, but to myself and my family. I will make it more of a priority to keep up to date on the happens of the Shrocks.

So tomorrow is going to be our Fun Friday! Expect something tomorrow evening!! Until then here are a few pictures.

Too much fun with Meggan!!

Breakfast in the morning.

Just an average day doing laundry.

Best friends in the making!!

Fun Fun Fun!