Miss Na'lees Egg Hunt

Joshua with his loot

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8 Kids

Meadow, Saedi, Brooke, Ellie & Emmy

Riley and I went on a date last weekend to Kohana, Target & Books a Million (exciting, I know) while our friends Jen & Trey watched our 3 kiddos. (We returned the favor the following night so they could go out.) We kept the 3 Moon kids at the same time- totaling 8 kids. We had a blast hosting on a cheat night. We stuffed their little faces with corn dogs, pizza, & roasted marshmallows. Riley & Trey were the masterminds behind it all so they could take their lovely wives out for an evening without kids, and I'm so impressed with men that would rather play with the kids instead of pay a babysitter. Kudos to them! Riley pretty much kept watch over the 5 oldest while I took care of the babies. On a funny note, I asked Ry if he would prefer playing with 8 kids as his full-time job or if he would prefer his current job. You guessed right, he's gonna stay in the Army. :)

Brody (4m), Jeremiah (6m), & Isaac (8m)

Saedi & Meadow bumming around

Ellie (5) , Emmy (3), Brooke(4)

Ellie, Emmy, Brooke, Saedi, Meadow, Jack, Brody, Jeremiah (Isaac was on my back)

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Together on Easter

Thankful our family is together for Easter

Thankful that Jesus Christ died for us, even as sinners. God's plan is always perfect and we celebrate Jesus raising from the dead to give us life! Jesus is our Redeemer, Healer, Lord Almighty, Defender, Savior, King:

Your Great Name
written by Krissy Nordhoff and Michael Neale

Lost are saved, find their way
At the sound of Your great name
All condemned feel no shame
At the sound of Your great name
Every fear has no place
At the sound of Your great name
The enemy has to flee
At the sound of Your great name

Jesus, worthy is the Lamb
That was slain for us
The Son of God and man
You are high and lifted up
And all the world will praise
Your great name

All the weak find their strength
At the sound of Your great name
Hungry souls receive grace
At the sound of Your great name
The fatherless find their rest
At the sound of Your great name
The sick are healed the dead are raised
At the sound of Your great name

Redeemer, my Healer, Lord Almighty
Defender, my Savior, You are my King

Ha ha...you try getting 3 kiddos to smile and look at the camera at the same time :)

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Court Date & a Name

We finally have our first adoption court dates in Ethiopia! On Monday I was hiking with Isaac when I get the call from Sue! I called Riley with the good new and bad news. The good news:

May 23 is the first court hearing (we don't have to attend this one). Although we will not be present, the hearing is a major hurdle as it determines Solomon's eligibility for adoption. In the past, 50% of cases were approved at their first court hearing and 50% were not. We're praying that all the necessary people needed to testify will show up & that our judge sees fit for the case to move forward. Our second court date (the one we attend) is on the 31st of May! During this hearing, we will state our desire to adopt Solomon and the judge will (God willing!) approve the adoption. Riley and I are thrilled that we got a court date so soon amidst all the recent changes in the Ethiopian government. (Just a reminder that we will NOT be bringing Solomon Edilu home yet...that will be a different trip)

The bad news: that's the weekend we were supposed to be moving! ha ha. It's not "bad" news, really. I just have to laugh at God's timing sometimes. Still not sure of the logistics of it all yet, but we close on our house 1 May, Riley's change of command is 26 of May & then we'll try to leave Ft Campbell that night. Grandparents will keep the kids, we'll skip our planned trip to NY to be a part of the housing draw, & Ry and I will hop on a plane!

I know I just threw it out there, but Solomon Edilu is right! We agreed on the name and are happy to call him by name now. Edilu is what he is being called in Ethiopia right now and we wanted to keep that as his middle name. We can't wait to meet this beautiful boy face to face in just 6 weeks and now you all can pray for him by name.


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The RunAway

We were invited to a fun costume party this past weekend. Tara (pictured above with little Claire) wanted to throw her husband Joe a welcome home party, but she was creative enough to celebrate all of the missed holidays. Decorations were a mix of Christmas trees, fourth of July stars, & valentine plates. Everyone dressed in their Halloween costumes, and we all brought a Thanksgiving dish. We toasted to champagne for missed anniversaries & dessert was birthday cake. I've probably missed a holiday or two in there, but it was a great time!

Riley & Joe shooting off 4th of July tanks for the kids. Notice Riley's costume? ha ha. We thought it best to duck tape over David's man-parts.

Saedi enjoying Emmy's piggy costume for one-last party! I love the wear her little piggy buns stick out!

The kids cheering for more fireworks!

Mr. Trey changing the princesses slipper.

And that concludes our fun, holiday party. However, when we arrived home at approx 7:00 that evening we noticed that Jack was missing. Unbeknownest to us the underground fence was off and he was gone. Riley scoured the woods. I got the kids in jammies and then loaded them in the van and stuck in a movie. I roamed the neighborhood stopping at random houses that I knew had dogs asking if they had seen "this dog." Riley didn't find Jack in the woods so he ran through the neighborhood on foot calling him. Friends offered to come help but there wasn't much else to do but to hang signs. Finally, one of the last houses I knocked on had seen Jack. She said a man and little girl came by around 6 with him on a leash asking if he belonged to her. She pointed us to the house they returned to, but no one was home. So, we hung signs and went to bed. In the morning as were heading out the door for church we got a call they someone had Jack. Riley went to pick him up, and the stories began!...

"Oh what a good dog he is! We didn't have any dog food so we went out and bought some for him. Then he slept at the foot of our bed like a good dog. At 4 I woke up to him staring me in the face cause he needed to be let out. What a great dog."

"We didn't know his name and our granddaughter thought he was the color of a donut so she named him "donut."

Those neighbors had taken such good care of Jack-er. Riley didn't have the heart to tell them that we don't even let him sleep at the foot of our bed! He returned to us fat and happy like he was king of the world. That rascal! Needless to say, the girls are thrilled to have their dog back. And his new name is Jack Donut Post.

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Lots o' Guests

We've been hosting a lot of guests lately. This birds nest full of sweet little eggs were the first to arrive. I love Spring, love our yard, love our deck, and I love entertaining. We put off grilling as long as possible hoping the eggs would have time to hatch, but that was not the case. We moved the nest onto a box on the deck, knowing that more than likely the Mommy would not come back. Needless to say, we think Jack got the eggs.

Our next set of friends to come over were the Q-Course Crew. Once we realized the Peters were set to move immediately we threw together a party within 24 hours. These guys graduated from the course together at Ft Bragg 4 years ago, and while we couldn't stay with all of our friends from that era we were blessed enough to get stationed with these friends here at Ft Campbell. Definitely going to be bitter-sweet when we all go our separate ways in just a few weeks:
Trey: staying at Ft Campbell; Chuck: Dubai; Riley: West Point, NY, Dave: Monterey, CA

Of course, it would only be expected that Mr. Trey would be the 1st to let Isaac suck on the beer bottle

Enjoying perfect Spring weather on the deck

Tindolls, Peters, Kenneys, Posts

And The Toths came over for a last-minute get-together, which really are my favorite kind. Less planning equals less stress! They came over to borrow our Camry for a few weeks and we ended up feasting on pizza, roasting marshmallows over the campfire, and chatting til almost 10 o'clock, which is pretty much unheard of given our crew of 7 kiddos. The Toth's take off for Monterey, CA soon, so it was nice to have them to ourselves one last time!

Gideon, Kristen, Isaac, Evelyn, Kevin, Joshua, Saedi, Ellie, Caleb, Riley

Best Friends, Ellie & Caleb. Ellie's already asking how far away New York & California are from each other.

Kevin with his 3 boys

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Weekend at Phila's

Daddy's with all the kiddos exploring the creek

Isaac (almost 8 mo & Jeremiah 61/2 mo)

Jesse with Brooke (4y), Ellie (5y), Saedi (3y) & Meadow (3y)

Saedi, Brooke, Meadow & Ellie on their be-loved bridge

For the past year or two my friend Meghan has been telling me about an amazing Bed and Breakfast getaway run by Phila Hach. (Just google Phila Hach and you can read about her impressive credentials) A few weeks ago Natalie and I went to check it out on a random trip to Nashville. We were beyond impressed with Phila and her place, so we booked a two-night stay to give our families one last vacation together before Jesse deploys and before we move.

Meadow proud of her catch

I couldn't have asked for a more relaxing family vacation. It was 80's and sunny the entire time. The kids entertained themselves by picking flowers, catching minnows in the creek, and exploring the 3-story farmhouse. We went on walks, had a campfire, slept with the windows open, drank coffee on the balcony, and simply enjoyed being together. Even Jack came along and was in heaven. With Riley just getting home we wanted family time but we knew this was the only time for he and Jesse to spend time together...one last time. And we've always had a blast vacationing with the Moons. It really worked out great. Natalie even brought her kettlebell so we could do a workout together.

Ellie & Meadow, the fireballs. Saedi & Brookey, the tender-hearts.

Isaac (almost 8mo) and Mommy (30y)

Michelle (30y), Isaac (8mo), Riley (31), Saedi (3), Ellie (5), Jack (1)

Brooke (4), Natalie, Jeremiah (6.4mo), Jesse, Meadow (3)

Natalie & Jeremiah

View of old tobacco barn from our cabin. Phila uses this to host parties, etc.

Riley & Jack

Isaac & Jeremiah, 6 weeks apart

Saedi & Meadow, 4 weeks apart

Brooke & Ellie, 9 months apart

Daddy & Isaac

Mr. Jesse exploring water creatures with the girls

Riley with the kiddos & grilling dinner...very impressive!

Natalie discovered these quilt coats and we couldn't resist modeling them

Best Friends

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Tea Parties, Annie Oakley, & Fishing

Within the first few hours of Daddy being home, the girls wanted to host a tea party for him.

Presents from Daddy! Ellie received a pink Red Ryder BB Gun & Saedi got her very own tackle box with fake worms to organize!

Shooting Glasses

The set-up. Ellie got a balloon on first shot!

Good old trampoline how we love you! Daddy let Jack on it too.

Mommy got an ingrown toenail cut out yesterday and is gimped up on the couch so Daddy took the girls for the afternoon. Saedi finally got to use her fishing pole, which was a birthday present from Mimi & Papa (back in January)

El & her fishy

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