Easter fun!

We have been busy since spring has arrived with working outside and spending time with the family. We all went to the Circus in Pittsburgh... the boys LOVED it. They talked about it nonstop for days after we saw it. Logan had a spring program and he was really excited about it! He did a great job, he know all his dance moves and words to the songs... he was too cute!

Then it was Easter weekend. Matt went to the cabin for some guy time and the boys and I hung out together. We met up with cousin Nick at the Fun Center for some fun and they had a great tme... at least until we got home. The boys and Nick were riding their bicycles on the motocross track and all was well until... Jacob came in screaming after getting his middle finger caught between the spoke and the chain and ripped the pad of his finger practically off. It was ugly and shortly after Nick and Lori went home. In hindsight he should have been stiched... I wanted to take him to the ER but Matt talked me out of it.

By Easter morning all was forgotten. His finger was still tender, but he was able to hunt for eggs like a champ! At our house the bunny hides eggs, stuffed with candy, all over the house and the boys have to search for the eggs with their intial on it. It's always tons of fun and this year they got some motocross gear to boot... a very sucessful morning!


We shared a wonderful afternoon with family... there were 2 more missing this year from the table and that always makes hoildays difficult, but it has brought the whole family closer together. Summer is coming before we know it and the boys just can't wait. They have their first motocross race on May 2nd and are so excited! As for our daughter we still wait... the process is still slow :( We'll update again!

The room is painted!

Ok so here we go with the saga of Mia's room, it's actually not that dramatic, but required some thought. The boys now share a bedroom. They actually prefer it this way, Jacob has a lot of anxiety and likes to have Logan with him at night. So we got their room situated first... motocross themed of course. Then it was to tackle her room. There is brown carpeting in that room and I wasn't about to re-carpet so I had to pick a color that would work well. I went to Lowe's and got some colors and in the end went with Peach Ash (or peach ass as Matt liked to call it). When I was done painting the room we all thought it was really bright and PINK. Matt and I thought it was alittle crazy, but we never had a girl, so I had some friends (with girls) look at it and the color passed, so we were done with that part. Then it was off to look at wallpapers and that was as stressful as picking the color. Do I go with Wallies or a border??? When I started looking I didn't like anything. Most of the borders had a pink background, which wouldn't work, or were themed. Not that there is anything wrong with a Disney Princess room, but it was not appealing to me. So now what.. it was quite a dilemma. A few weeks later I was at my neighbors house and she showed me her bedroom that she stenciled and I thought that could be an idea for Mia's room. So I started looking online and found one that I thought was really cute. I ordered it and went to work!

The first job was to paint a lighter background for the stencils. So I mixed white paint with the leftover peach paint and created a very light peach. Then I measured, leveled, and taped a border, and finally painted the strip.

Then the stenciling began... below are pictures of the first stencil completed and the details over it, as well as a close up of the wall stencils.

I think it turned out well, but it was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be! Now all we need is a baby to put in it ;-)

Spring is here! (Or so we hope..)

I have not updated in some time, so I thought I could update now. We did a whole bunch of nothin' during the month of February. It was cold and crappy and we spent most of our time huddled in the house. But now that it's warmer, the boys are outside playing, there is less fighting, and much better sleeping for my ADHD buddies! We have also had our first motocross practice which all of the boys (Matt included) were excited about. The boys (Matt included again) plan to race this Spring so we are in full practice mode here at the Vogel house!

Jacob has gotten a new dirtbike and really loves it. Here are some pictures of him in action!

Logan has also gotten a new dirtbike as well and is also enjoying it! He is a bit crazier that Jacob on it though... for those of you who know Logan well- I'm sure you are just shocked by this!

As for our adoption... we still wait. I have gotten a call from my agency that they have some information that the wait could speed up... I just keep my fingers crossed. I have finally decided what to do with the nursery, so once I finish it I will post the pictures!

I will continue to let you know as the adoption and the craziness of out household progresses!

Getting through the winter blues... hopefully with some sanity!?!

I just thought I would update our blog to let everyone know that we are trying to get through the winter blues here and everyone is anxious for Spring to get here. All the boys, matt included, can't wait to get outside and RIDE! So to pass the time the boys play in the snow, play wii, shoot nerf darts at the ceiling, build forts out of blankets, and did i forget to mention... get into LOTS of mischief together. Here are some pictures of passing the time.

With all this free time, I have decided what I am going to do with Mia's room. I have picked a stencil pattern and will be senciling her room. I still have yet to order it, but I plan to have it done before the weather gets nice. We still have 7 months of perople waiting ahead of us... ugh! We are in it for the long haul and can't wait to see her face! Take care everyone!

Recapping the holiday

Well, Christmas was eveything and a bag of chips!! The boys were so excited that Santa brought them a Wii. They have been playing it nonstop ever since. Jacob loves Carnival games and Logan is really into Lego indiana jones for Wii. I think that they will go through Wii withdrawl when they go back to school.

We spent alot of time with family and traveling during their break from school and I am finally getting the boys on schedule for Monday. We have all been off for 12 days, talk about a painful return to work and school!

We are hoping that this new year will bless us with out daughter from China, but there are still many people in line ahead of us, so we will continue to wait our turn. At the very least we can hope for a better year than the year before right? Here is wishing everyone a very happy New Year!!!

Thoughts of China...

I know that the next few days will be a whirlwind, so I have decided to blog some of my thoughts today. The first thought that I have is of our baby Killian. This will be our 5th Christmas without him. Logan asked me about him yesterday and was asking why a baby would die. Logan is really understanding death at this time, since his Grandpa recently died, but struggled with his younger brother's death, because this does not make sense... yes I understand that too, but his is our path in this life. And although I would trade any lessons I have learned, to be my shallow self before his death, I can't deny that my life has changed since loosing him. I am grateful for my healthy and happy boys. I appreciate family more, and have to believe that we are adopting a daughter now because Killian knows this will heal us. Killian is always with us... I can feel him and see his signs from time to time. And our baby in China... so many unanswered questions. Is she born, where was she abandoned, is she loved this Christmas, is she warm, is she being held, is her belly full??? All these questions that we don't know the answers to.. we can only hope that we will be holding her soon.

Revving up for Christmas!

Well the Vogel house is revving up for Christmas. We went to see the man in red yesterday. That was fun. Of course when they saw Santa, they completely changed their list... ugh! The picture below is of them waiting in line. I wasn't allowed to take a picture of them with Santa, unless I wanted to pay for it, and we said no thanks. I think that if I tried the lady would have tackled me to the ground and taken my camera. As it was I had to walk through to the exit while they talked to Santa. The bear in the picture is Winston. Winston travels through Logan's class and then the kids have to write about their adventures with him. It was very exciting to take Winston to the mall with us!!

There were 2 really great things that happened at the mall though. The first is that Logan reminded Santa not to come down the chimney because he will be burnt by the wood burner. The second awesome thing is that Jacob gave some of his money to the bell ringer. This is a big step for Jacob, because he is somewhat of a miser. It was really cool to see him donate his money, independently. They are both such sweet boys and we are really blessed.

We also made cut out cookies. Well at least the first batch, because they have both eaten 5 each today alone and the cookies will never make it to Christmas. They have a sweet tooth, like their mom!

We will update again to tell everyone how Christmas turned out :)