Under The Big Top

The circus came to town and these little cuties were beyond excited.

With overpriced snacks in hand...well, both hands.....we were ready to take in "The Greatest Show on Earth."

The show was actually really good...better than the last few years for sure. 

All of my kids loved every minute, but this girl....she was elated the entire time. She cackled, clapped and cheered for each act. She was precious.

EK loved the acrobat group.  Walker loved the dogs that did tricks. Emma loved everything. I loved the elephants. They are just so cute!

A great big thank you to my parents for such a fun afternoon! We had a blast!

And, just because they asked for me to take individual pictures....

Love them so!

Food Truck Fest

We were feeling a bit adventurous and just a little bit hipster and decided to try out the Food Truck Festival downtown last night.

The turnout was LARGE...like insane, so we had quite a long wait for our food.  Luckily, some sweet volunteers were passing out coloring books for the kids.

We found some snacks in the bag to pass the time as well.

We ran in to our friends the Largens and my crew was pumped up to see their friends.

Boys and girls are SOOOOOO different!

Finally.....FOOD!  Chicken fries are a fan favorite for my little people.

Emma girl loved the live music and all the puppy dogs that were wandering around.

Walker BEGGED to play in the fountain. By the time we got ready to leave, it was drizzling and breezy, but he still insisted. His playing lasted maybe 30 seconds and then he was "SOOOO COLD!" On that note, we headed to the house.

Ella Kate was pumped up to see the pink fountains as we made our way back to the van.

It was a good night!

What A Week!

This has been quite a busy week! Our church had a service day last Sunday instead of our normal worship/ Sunday School schedule.  I love that the church encourages us to get outside of the four walls of the sanctuary and love on our community!  I was in charge of coordinating a project at The Methodist Children's Home. We had around 20 adults and an army of eager children ready for demolition, clean up and painting in one of the homes.  It was truly an amazing time and made for some great conversations with our kids!

Tuesday night was our huge fundraiser for the United Methodist Women (yes, I'm an 80 year old lady!) my friend Laura and I were somehow given the responsibility of doing the tablescape for our circle group. We went with an "orphan care" theme...shocker since we are the leaders of the orphan care ministry! I love how our table turned out and it was so fun to see all the creative tables that filled the Fellowship Hall!  And as an added bonus, I even scored a beautiful handmade dress in the silent auction for Emma to wear to the wedding!!

We celebrated 4 months with Emma this week!  She and I snuck in a little swinging at the park time in between all the rain that has poured down on us this week.

I don't even know what to say about this guy!  I asked him what in the world he was doing and he said "I'm a working man!"  Um, what! What "working men" have you seen lately?

Thursday we got to watch the girls at dance and video their recital piece so they can practice at home.  I love watching her dance! She is seriously filled with so much joy!

Love her!

To celebrate the fact that we made it to the weekend, we enjoyed some Popsicles and bike riding in between downpours .

I love getting pictures of things that EK does at school. Her teacher sent this and I think my heart pretty much melted into a giant puddle on the floor!

Yesterday was Emma's 2nd birthday. It was super low key and honestly, it was so nice!

Mom, EK and I went to see The Little Mermaid at MRA. One of our students from church was Ariel, so that was extra special. EK absolutely loved every minute of the play! 

Fingers crossed that we will be back to our normal weekly happenings this coming week! Mama needs a nap!!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Today our littlest love turned two!  Emma is just amazing and the Lord has been so gracious in weaving our little family together as only He could. Sweet baby has been through so much in her two years....much more than anyone should ever have to deal with....abandonment, loss, trauma, surgeries, loneliness, being taken away from all she has ever known, and so on we could go.  BUT today, we choose to focus on the good and the life that she has now as a Nelson.  I think she's pretty happy here!

Emma loves to sing and dance. She tries to sing along to several songs and especially loves the ABCs and to sing the blessing.  As soon as she gets in her high chair, she immediately puts her hands together and starts to pray. It's precious. The prayer must quickly be followed by food, because girlfriend loves to eat.  She is my best eater by far and we haven't really found anything that she doesn't like.  She loves fruits, green beans, and anything sweet. All that has led to her 3 pound weight gain since she has been home! She is still a tiny little peanut and is in the less than 2% for her height and weight. She wears mainly 12 month clothing and some 18 months. 

She started speech therapy this past week.  She will meet weekly in our home with her therapist to hopefully help her catch up to where she should be for her age. It's no huge surprise that she is behind due to her mouth and obviously the fact that she has only been exposed to English for the last 4 months!  She understands everything you say to her and soon she will be able to communicate more effectively what she wants from us with words instead of the grunting and pointing. She is a stubborn little booger and makes the "grumpy baby" face when she doesn't get her way. She wants all the attention on her...all the time.  You can imagine how well that goes over at times!  She mimics everything the big two do...for better or worse.  She thinks she is so big. 

We have been blown away by this little one and feel so blessed by her. Happiest of birthdays sweet Emma. You are loved deeply!

Emma's "Cute As A Button" Party

Today, we celebrated that our Emma Kyle is turning 2!

Our theme was "cute as a button,"  because well, she is!

We had some tasty treats...GiGi's cupcakes, Cookie Mama cookies, and homemade ice cream! Yummo!!

These three had a blast and all fell asleep with zero arguments tonight! Victory!

  

We sang "Happy Birthday."

We opened presents....which she was most definitely a fan of!

We visited with lots of family and friends that are more like family.

The Sykes kids provided some great entertainment for my 3!

Hey, it's Uncle Robert!!! I called him Haley's fiancé twice today. It sounded so strange!!! So thankful for these two!

My nephews were able to come today as well.  It's always good to see the Nelson grands together.

And seriously, could we be any luckier to have these people as our Nana and Pop....

And these two as our Kay Kay and G?!?!  We are so blessed!

Emma adores her Uncle Frank.  Aunt Bethany isn't so bad either! We have the best village to help us raise our kids!

Today could not have been any more perfect, so we took advantage of the blue skies and freshly cut grass (thanks Pop) and got an afternoon of playtime in together.

In all the party hoopla, I failed to take pictures of my kids with several folks (including my family of 5, Aunt Carolyn, and Ren and Lee Ellen ...oops), but I do have this picture with Aunt Carloyn from our playtime on Friday. So thankful she drove up to celebrate with us.

Emma, we had such a fabulous day celebrating you!! Thank you to our families for making today so special! We appreciate you being with us and loving on our family so well!

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