and the winner is…

Hello! Remember the raffle we’ve had open over the last few weeks? (see below)

Well, today we drew and are announcing a winner! First of all, truly, THANK YOU again and again to everyone who have given and supported us along the way and specifically now through the raffle. We are, as I’ve said and hope to continue to say, blown away!

Are you ready for it?! Drum roll please!!!!

You know who you are Cay-Jay! Looking forward to a sweet session with you two lovelies!

Until next time, if you’d simply like to support our adoption and be a part of bringing our little one(s) home, click here to help carry the load!

Rain boots and dancing

Because we like boots and rain, mullets and three-year-olds, love-you-so-bad-it-hurts kind of hugs, ‘who can shout ‘yay’ the loudest’ contests, and all around awesomeness. Who wouldn’t want to be their siblings?! To help bring home LL & W’s little sis and/or sis/bro and/or sis/sis Click Here!

 Yep she’s three and loving it.

 And I am so loving this.

Heyo! The Mighty Mullet.

 Sabotage.

I call this one ‘angry hands’.

Let the competition begin…

yaaaayy!!!!

There they are! The two bestests. Now let’s bring the other Asay Littles HOME!

 

LL is THREE!

Our girl is three. THREE! I realize that next year I’ll be saying (Lord willing) that she’s four. FOUR! But right now, three is just so big. She is such a treasure to us from The Lord. A clever, strong-willed, tender-hearted, sweet and sassy treasure. And we love her so.

Here are a few snippets from our celebration:

Do you see what I see?!

It’s Larry Boy!

A dear friend of mine from Bite-Sized Bakery hand crafted these little pieces of edible artwork for Linley’s birthday party – and though my tummy would throw a major upheaval if I would have chosen to partake, I have had MANY in my day and can assure you (as can the nanas and papas and grandpas and grandmas) that they are DE-LI-CIOUS!

But for the sake of not having to javelin the cake balls with the birthday candles, I opted to make some coconut cupcakes as well (which I CAN eat, were also super delicious, and SCD legal.)

Linners seems to get stage freight when there are too many people starring at her without her planning the event, so she required some candle blowing assistance from daddy and Whitter. She clearly needed no help, however, taking the first bite.

Some people wanted to preserve the Larry boys, but Grandpa Rob new that Larry was a treat meant to enjoy, and that he did!

It was 80º on the day we celebrated and LL did NOT want to come inside for cake and gifts, but once we sat down, I think she felt like we made a good choice. . . Especially since there were BOOKS involved. Her fave.

Sleepy little brother. He’s a love.

Baby C with his Papa.

It was just too nice to stay inside, and too warm to wear a long sleeved dress – so of course we decided to wear a new dress!

Oh how they love each other soooo much.

Girl at play.

Boy at play.

I told her she could take mom’s photo if she let mom take some for her special day. She played along.

And then go into it!

I’m three! Tell the world!

LL’s turn!

Nearing quitin’ time?

Yes. Yes, I think so.

The end!

Happy year #3 LL! Askign the Lord to bless you with a fruitful year of growth and peace sweet girl. So SOO thankful I get to be your momsies.

LL is going to be THREE!

…and it blows my mind. Family celebration for LL coming right up!

Skinny dippin!

What’s new when it’s 100 degrees outside?

Happy Birthday America! … or something like it.

I realize I still haven’t posted photos from other special events (Linley’s SECOND birthday for example), but these are right here and handy, so enjoy!

This year’s Hodge Ave parade/block party: Linley helped decorate the wagon and Whittaker had fun riding.

Whittaker’s shirt did say, ‘my first word: HUSKERS’… so we made a little patch for it. The bell at the end of the parade. Linley wasn’t so sure about it – or anything really at first. We’re okay with that. It’s best to proceed with caution.   Whittaker catching they eyes of the ladies… what’s new?!Hamin’ it up. Yay! The big parade! Then we all strolled on home and took some much needed naps. Here’s to hoping America stays free and brave. Happy celebrating everyone!

a bit of Linley (28 months)

 

 

 

This is what we see a lot of when something ‘unfavorable’ is said… I wish I could recall. 

But then our neighbors pulled in and that caught her attention.

There’s a smile!

Just in case it’s not clear, she is pointing at their car.

My favorite!

I asked her to show me her teeth… she did a good job. And she wanted to make sure that I took a picture of her toe (nails).

There she is! Still one of my greatest sources of joy – sass and all.

I am starting to explore having fun with video so I put together a short interview with linley… it begins with a spinning dance, of course. Just a note: when asked what we did today, Linley is starting to say that we were screaming – because that’s what we were excited to do once we got outside!

she’ll be a great mother.

We were just having some harmless fun. (i love them)And then something happened. He probably was smashed or bonked somehow. I maybe was upset for a moment, until I looked and saw how great of a mother LL will be one day. see her compassion?And everyone was fine after a bit of snuggling and maybe some singing.

enjoying the mail.

We LOVE mail! And stickers. And surprises…like things that pop-up.

heart stamped valentines!

LL and I seem to share a love of crafting, so to enjoy a morning together during W’s nap and bless some certain family members with a fun handmade valentine, LL put daddy’s old undershirt her paint shirt on and went to town making heart stamped cards!

I had made this heart stamp from a used toilet paper roll last month and have been very much looking forward to watching LL use it.

While I was getting the paint ready, LL became a bit anxious and slurring her words said something that probably meant, ‘paint now? please paint now mommy? pleeeease?!’ 

So we began as soon as I had the paint ready and showed her how to use her new stamp.

And then I got smart and put some newspaper down. It was (usually always is) a good idea because after a couple of minutes she decided that other things were fun to stamp also.

Then I gave her this love birdie stamp to try. She got super excited and may have gone overboard with the birds.

That’s okay. We like birdies.

It wouldn’t be an LL craft experience without acknowledging (and maybe whining a little) about having dirty hands. She’s so proper. (It’s good to know the context behind the photo below. Without it, this could look not so pretty!)Needless to say, we both seemed to have had lots of happy feelings while using our handmade heart stamp and even had a pretty decent yield! (I may have ‘helped’ toward the end when attention spans began to wane…)

Here’s to a joyful Thursday February 14 everyone! Heart stamped cards are headed your way grandpas and grandmas!