Baxter Family Six!: 2014

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Advent

In the busy-ness of the season, it seems like the entire reason for Chrismas gets over looked. This year I am super excited to do an Advent calendar with the girls. We are actually doing two.

One is a set of Disney Princess ornaments with numbers on the back. The ornaments open so they can be filled with goodies or notes. For the princess ornaments, I used the alphabet and made each letter correspond to some part of the nativity story. Some also have candy or a special note to pick a prize.

The second one is a little house with 25 little drawers. In each of those, I printed bible verses that tell the entire story of Jesus' birth.

It didn't take me long to do, and the verses in the little house were actually found on the internet so I just had to print, cut and get the girls to help me put in the drawers.

How about you?? What do you do to keep Jesus in the season?

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Bad Blogger

Ok, I admit I've been REALLY bad about blogging lately. Life has been incredibly busy lately with football season in full swing. Dylan is playing HS varsity on Friday nights, and Colt is playing college football on Saturday and sometimes Sunday. This past weekend, for example, we spent a total of 26 hours traveling, attending, tailgating, and more traveling for football. Crazy, right? But, if we can swing it, we do it. We would hate to miss that "winning touchdown" or awesome catch...and we want to fully support our kids in whatever they do. Thankfully, we only have 4 weeks left! Amen! We thoroughly enjoy watching the boys play, and it's a chance for us to hang out with Colt after his games at college and catch up with what's going on in his life... oh yeah, did I mention he went away to college (no, because I'm a bad blogger)!!

The girls are growing like weeds and soaking in knowledge like a bunch of sponges. Ellie started occupational therapy a few months ago and it is doing wonders for her balance, coordination, and self-esteem! We are now getting into the phase of noticing that we are all different in look (and color). It's been a challenging time, but we are getting through it! Faith is our little engineer always wondering how things work and are built. Too bad we can't get her to care about letters or numbers or writing her name!

So anyway... because life has been a little crazy lately, most of my daily or weekly life happenings have been posted on Instagram, since I can capture a picture with my phone and quickly post it. . . and a picture is worth a Thousand words, right? I placed my account pics on the top of the blog so you can see what's going on in our life lately. If you belong to Instagram, feel free to follow us.

Hoping to get back in the swing of things soon and share what's been going on in our world.

Hope you enjoy the beautiful fall weather (and colors) if you are in the Northeast!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Referralversary

For those of you who follow my blog, you've probably already heard most of this story, but I just can't pass up the opportunity to reflect again on how God always knows my heart, and always does what is best for His kingdom. I'll admit, it's not always what is "easiest" but He knows that too!

For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts (1 Chronicles 28:9)

3 years ago today, we were given a referral for this little beauty, Geneme, decked out in her green thermal footie jammies and fuzzy little hair (believe me, I've studied this picture from front to back and can close my eyes and still see it):

We were originally told that we would most-likely be referred an infant, but to our surprise, we were referred a sweet 14 month old 'toddler.' Our Agency had told us that we didn't have to take her. What...? I was confused . . ? They explained that many families do not want toddlers, rather they prefer infants.

But you see... even before we knew her name and face, this sweet 'toddler' fit perfectly into our Family, and God knew that!

Back story

When began our adoption story nearly 6 years ago, we began to call our future child, Baby "E." She was "Baby E" because of our silly alphabet family (Angie, Brad, Colton, Dylan).. and the next letter was E. I must admit, I was a little nervous starting over again, and a bit worried about not having a play-mate sibling for Baby E, like Colton and Dylan had each other. But we had plenty of friends with wee-ones, so everything would be fine.

As we planned, and waited for Baby E, God gave us a little surprise nearly a year into our wait . . . a bio pregnancy with Baby F! Among other things, my OCD kicked in when I realized that our silly little name game was going to be out of order now. Baby F would most likely be older than Baby E (still assuming we would be getting an infant). "Oh well," I thought . . . "It will make an interesting story..." Little did I know!

As excited as I was for our pregnancy, I still felt a loss, since our adoption would be put on hold until our baby was 6 months old.

As my heart grieved for Baby E, God knew she wasn't yet born. Baby E was born just a few days after we found out about Baby F. [of course we didn't know that at the time]

As my heart ached that we were leaving an orphan waiting, God knew she wasn't even in an orphanage yet.

As my heart grew anxious for a referral, God knew her paperwork would be complete, the day our name came up for a referral.

And most of all, God knew Elliana Geneme Jayne would even fit into our silly little name game. She is 7 months older than Baby Faith.

-- Now, mama, on the other hand, wasn't so sure God's plan was going to work -- going from a family of 4 to 6 in less than a year . . . but that's a whole other story . . . --

And what's more remarkable, God knew 2 little girls in our family of mostly-boys would explode our emotions and melt our hearts with things only little girls can see, say and do . . . and He knew these 2 little girls would be forever sisters. They both know they came from different mommy's tummys, but that doesn't change the fact that they are 100% sisters.

They are the chip to each other's dip, the cheese in each other's macaroni, the flip to each other's flop . . . and the milk in each other's cookies. Their personalities are complete opposite, but yet compliment each other . . . and God knew that. . .

. . . and I can't imagine one without the other!

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts"

Isaiah 55:8-9

So blessed to have you in our family, Princess Ellie.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Happy Birthday Elliana Geneme Jayne

We love your spunk, kindness and your sweet giggle. Happy 4th birthday!!

Monday, June 16, 2014

31 Little Words of Wisdom

Colton's high school football number was 31, so we decided to give him 31 little words of wisdom for graduation. It's funny when you have one graduating, you hope and pray that you've taught them everything they need to know... and then you find yourself (at least I do) in the middle of the night wondering if you every told him 'this' or 'that'.....

All I know is that we have people (sometimes strangers that know Colt but not us) tell us what a great kid he is. We are so thankful for those words of praise for him and it reassures us that maybe he did hear a few things that we've tried to pass along over the years!

For fun, I thought I'd post them here. His College football number is 85. Guess I better get started on his college words of wisdom now!!

1. Never say something you can't take back

2. Remember you have 3 siblings that look up to you

3. Know you will make mistakes. Pray that you learn from them and grow in the process.

4. Don't ever make a split second decision that will change your life forever.

5. Don't be afraid to have fun!

6. Always open the door for your girlfriend, wife, etc.

7. Learn to cook at least one good thing ;)

8. Be the type of person you were made to be.

9. Work hard.. Play hard (but work first) ;)

10. Look people in the eye when you speak.

11. Have confidence in all that you do, and do it for the glory of God.

12. Invite God into your day, daily.

13. Learn to manage your time wisely. You can't get it back.

14. Don't get too busy doing life, that you forget to live and enjoy it.

15. Visit your mother ;)

16. Learn to say no and not feel guilty about it.

17. Be Slow to anger -- quick to forgive.

18. Learn to give grace - you will need it someday too!

19. It's ok to be a leader that leads from behind.

20. Everybody makes mistakes (see 18 above)

21. Learn to say I'm sorry and really mean it.

22. Learn to forgive and not hold grudges. Unforgiveness will make you a bitter person.

23. Understand that good intended people will hurt you (see 22 above)

24. Take time to enjoy a sunrise and say a prayer before you start your day.

25. Take time to enjoy a sunset knowing that you gave your best to the day.

26. Stand up for those who can't do it themselves. Defend the defenseless.

27. Make each day count -- make an effort. You will never get today back.

28. It’s better to GIVE than to receive.

29. Encourage others and help them get ahead.

30. Never take anything for granted!

31. Never forget that we love you… no matter what.

Senior Moments

It's official. We have a 2014 Graduate! This year has flown by and the last month has been no exception. Luckily, we've been so busy that I haven't had time to comprehend the fact that our firstborn has graduated and will be heading to college in just 9 short weeks!!!

Colts baseball team went into district playoffs and won their district title. For a "planner" who plans out every last minute and has to figure out how to shuffle 4 kids to where they need to be, this stressed me out a bit. We had 4 extra games that weren't planned on (one of which we traveled to 3 times [2 hours away] before we actually played the game due to rain postponements and delays-- but wow, talk about a couple of exciting games!! And all the rain in our area made getting all these district games in before the deadline a nightmare. But this group of guys did it!!! Unfortunately, we got knocked out in our first round of states, but it was an awesome ride!!! It was an honor to watch these young men play -- 9 of which were seniors!

Here's a few pics of the district championship game. So glad we were all there to share in the moment.

Next it was "signing day" at school. That's when all the student athletes that will be playing a college sport get together (news cameras and all) and sign their letters of intent etc (even though most of these kids didn't really sign anything) :) it's just a fun day to celebrate all these kids who are heading off to college and playing a sport that they love! Such an awesome achievement.

Colton will be going to a private college in Pa and will be playing football. He will be majoring in physics (yikes, I'm not even sure I can spell that!!). We are super proud of him and his college choice. It's a really great school with loads of opportunities.

Next came graduation -- in the midst of baseball -- well actually we finished up a few days beforehand. We haven't gotten the chance to officially celebrate, but plan to do so in July!! Here's a few pics of Colton with grandparents and all of us. He only was allowed seven guests at graduation ... But no worries .. I have a big enough scream that he definitely wasn't lacking any cheers!!!

His superintendent spoke about Square One -- and how that's not necessarily a bad or scary thing and that's where most of these seniors are finding themselves. I can certainly attest to that. I've personally found myself at square one a few times, and trusting God's plan each time has brought me to the finish line -- not that it was easy and not that I didn't slide back down a few times -- but knowing God has a plan and trusting Him in that is the first step.

A man’s heart plans his way,

But the Lord directs his steps. - Proverbs 16:9.

We are proud of you Colton~ Can't wait to see what plans God has in store for you!

Saturday, May 17, 2014

May happenings

May has been super busy already for our family and graduation in June is just around the corner. It hard, in these milestone moments, to "enjoy the moment" and not stress about everything else going on, or what's happening tomorrow! But we are

surviving one "moment" at a time and celebrating God's goodness along the way.

Dylan is done with JV baseball but just starting his summer league, and Colt's varsity team made it to the playoffs, slightly extending their season.

The girls graduated from preschool and start part-time daycare next week. They are excited for a fun summer with new friends.

Here are some glimpses of our last few weeks of God's goodness

Colt's Sr. Prom (with 2 little escorts)

C & D

Beautiful!

Dyl and his best girl hijacking the limo from prom :)

Dylan stealing home

Sr Night/Parent's Night

Colt as Team Captain

The girls and I had time to make a "Fairy" Garden. Too Cute!

Ellie cheering on the team!

Faith at baseball game (of course!)

A rainy game

Rainy game

Faith at preschool graduation

Ellie - preschool graduation

Butterfly

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Princesses and Pirates --

Yeah, I know... this was like over 2 months ago! Our schedule has been a little hectic lately... so I'm just now getting to go through pictures and happenings in our family over the last few months :) Here's some pics of our pirate and princess party. It was fun!

A Princess

A Princess Pirate...?

oh boy, the things you don't do for your kids...
Pirate Princess Mommy and Pirate Daddy....

Birthday Boy Dylan -- opted not to dress up....

Deep Conversation happening here.... :)

Pin the Kiss on the Frog

Pirate!

Pirate with beard and stash! Love it

Cup cake time!

Sisters

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.

Happy Birthday Mr. Colton

It's hard to believe that our first born is now 18. Time goes by so quickly, and the last 4 years of high school has gone double-time. Colton has been such a joy to parent, mostly easy-going, friendly and just a pretty darn good kid (and a great BIG brother to his 3 siblings!) Thanks Colt, for making me the mom I am today.