Easter is a love-hate subject with Benny. He hasn't embraced the Easter Bunny, he loves hunting Easter eggs-but hates the chocolate treats inside. Let me correct the last sentence. Benny loves hunting Easter eggs in a controlled environment. A picture below shows his sentiment on hunting on a very cold morning. On the other hand, Bennys Mama loves Easter...after all, it's another occasion to dress up the kiddos. As for the stickers on his face.. stickers from a book we had to buy for his "Easter Basket"...we were at Barnes & Noble when he started pulling stickers off the book (which we hadn't planned on purchasing).

This has been a busy week. It started off with Randy/Pam/Van/Tatum, followed by Wessie /Uncle Darrel/Abby/Carly. On Friday we prematurely celebrated Benny's 3rd birthday.

My apologies for not posting pictures recently. Of note, we took a family trip to Chicago weekend before last. Of course, we forgot the camera. We will have family up this week, so there will be lots of "cousin" pictures to follow.

In this household, we like to showcase any talent. Everlie has a talent of being very flexible. After all, not anyone can suck their toes.

It is incredibly satisfying having a family that you look at and love. I have the most beautiful (inside and outside) wife, and some amazingly wonderful and downright pretty kids. Like a gambler that feels a winning streak coming on, we even feel strongly enough to be open to enlarging our family even more...of course gambling is no factor in the equation. It's totally God. And of course, Geri is not censoring this post...although she would probably agree.

Knowing the snows were forecasted for the weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and $10 parking at the Zoo (the cars were out in force cherrypicking the free parking spots). Today I left work early to build a snowman with Benny and pull him around in the makeshift sled, which was actually a boogie board. Benny kept falling off, but we had a BLAST. We also built a snowman. I have to admit. The finished product was quite lame thanks to me, but the joy was in the journey...not the end result.

Did I mention I love this season in my life?

Here are a few family shots we had taken

Last week we had Michelle Ross come out and take some family pictures. If anyone in STL is interested in a great, Christian professional photographer...she is awesome.
Here's a slideshow of some more family pics on her blog

The Science Center

St Louis has an amazing Science Center. Sadly it took us 4 years to visit. I guess that's par for the course. We left many things "on the table" when we left Denver.

Benny loved the dinosaurs (life sized and moving) as well as the aircraft/space exhibits. Everlie loved to sleep.

Everlie's foster family gave us a traditional Korean dress for her first birthday. They were kind enough to film her while trying it on. They also sent us a video on how to tie the belt. She is quite beautiful in it...don't you think?

This morning Geri made breakfast and propped up the kiddos to look at the snow, squirrels and trees.

Benny's riveting phone conversation

A nice thing about another baby is that old, forgotten toys come out of retirement. Benny is finally reunited with his old phone.

Can this girl eat! Formula, rice cereal, Cheerios, Gerber jars of assorted food. Day and night. Yes, even a strand of her Mama's hair...do not ask specifics. Only know this was confirmed.

This first week, we are simply observing her mannerisms and personality. She is very observant and likes to know what is going on around her. She smiles and laughs when you make sounds. She is ticklish on her ribs and tummy. She loves dangling from Geri in the Baby Bjorn. She still closes her eyes and cringes when I try to give her a smack on the lips (that's ok. I'm used to that dramatic reaction). Evidently she likes to tinkle when we take off her diapers. This has happened twice at night during diaper changes (2 different beds), and last night all over my jeans and shirt as I was about to put her in the bath with Geri.

Today is extremely icy, and I am thankful we are all "buttoned up" at home. Cold outside and warm inside always makes for a good combination. Don't you think?
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For some perspective, I wanted to post this picture of Benny. He was Everlie's age when this was taken. We certainly have beautiful children. People might quickly realize that our kids are adopted (at least when I walk in the room, and they put 2 and 2 together), but my heart makes no distinction as to their genetics. I look at them and love them. Nothing more, nothing less.