Wow it has been a bit of time since I last posted.  Things have been absolutely hopping here at our house and in our lives.  So, I thought I would bullet point and illustrate life around here.

• I celebrated my 41st birthday.  I absolutely love my birthdays!!!  In fact not one other member of my family has a birthday in April so it is all mine,hahahahaha!!!!!
• We received our Article 5 with Bulgaria which means now we are submitted to the MOJ and soon courts.  
• Ethan finished his 3rd tball season. This was his first year he actually played coach pitch.  Ethan played on his favorite and original tball team with most of his original teammates.  What a great coach we had and fun time watching as Ethan grew in his skills. He has earned the nickname of Ethan "Cheeks" Burman as he has the biggest cheeks especially when he puts on the batting helmet.
• Madelaine finished her drama course with the community theatre. She has been doing drama for 6 years now and loves it!
• The triplets are growing like weeds.  Hudson thinks he is a funny guy and will stand in front of the mirror and make his own self laugh.  Evelyn is now signing to us for a few things she wants. Her latest sign is .....drum roll please......MOMMY.  This is a step in the direction of at least knowing who I am.  Owen has begun to accept small amounts of totally pureed food.
• Reagan Faith has lost her 2 front teeth.  The dentist told me to pull it out when it got real loose and when I did she looked at me and said "why did you do that Mom?".  She loves to show everyone her missing teeth.  She has started to wear big girl panties but must wear diaper pads in them. Due to her spina bifida she will never be potty trained in a typical way but she so desperately wanted to wear "big girl panties" like her sister and mommy so this is the way we can do that. I got the idea from another mom who does the same thing for her daughter with special needs.
• Carrington has just grown grown grown!! She now weighs over 25 lbs and is in size 2T clothes. Today marks one year she came home from her 5 week stay at Cook Children's Hospital.  Here is a great big thank you to everyone at Cooks for taking such great care of our Princess. Carrington is making some new noises and even new faces.  She just continues to amaze us with everything she does!  Daddy is completely wrapped around her finger as is mommy and big sister and anyone else who is around her.
• I have been blessed to be working with some amazing people to help bring donations of formula to the children in the boys' orphanage.  The children, as you all have followed, are in such desperate need of nutrition amongst other things.  Efforts are being coordinated for traveling families to take over as much formula in their suitcases as possible.  The overwhelming response to this need has been nothing short of the work of God!  Recently we found out that the interim director has decided that he will not allow any formula to be given to the children because it was not bought in Bulgaria.  This will not deter our efforts but rather we will continue to accept donations of this formula and when God shows us the timing is right we will bring it to the children.
• Major nesting has hit this mommy of nine to be!  We have rearranged rooms for all the little ones.  Madelaine has changed bedrooms so that the Kelten and Teagan will now be in the front bedroom. We pulled the carpet out and put in wood floors, put up 2 cribs we were so generously given, stripped and painted a dresser to change it into a changing table, and begun adding little personal touches to their room.  
• Last weekend we hosted a home project party with several friends to help get a lot of projects done in order to be ready for the boys' homecoming.

Little Julianna Moreno was so sweet each time she came over to play with Carrington. Our DFW Reece's Rainbow group had our get together at our house this time and we all enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing outside.

All this growing is so tiring for our Princess. She is sleeping in  her favorite place in the whole world! Take a look at those legs and arms!

I could stare at these yummy chunky cheeks all day long!

Ethan and his buddy Carter all ready to play ball. Go Riverdogs!

Ashlee is all geared up for a day of projects for our bring the boys home improvement project.

Steve is such an expert at this electric sanding thing when just a few minutes prior he had never even used one . This once was a 80s stained cabinet. Way to go Steve!

Paul is starting work on the new dining room table he is building for us. Our new table will  let all 11 members of our family eat together!

Scott lent his time helping us to put up a new front fence to our backyard.

Take a look at the transformation of that once stained 80s cabinet. You will get to see all of the finished projects on another post. Stay tuned.

Ethan loves Carrington so much that he decided she could see his dragon.

"Wow big brother!  I like your dragon!"

Ok so this is a totally random picture but the story behind it is funny. Ethan was at the GI doctor with me for Carrington when he asked me what this was. Being the home school mom I started in with the lesson about this is a colon and what all parts do what. When we got to the rectum part he laughed and said "do you mean my tushie looks like that?" I tried to explain more but then he wanted to know where a certain other body part was and well, thank heavens the doctor walked in at that point.

Our house is such disarray right now with all of the projects so Ethan decided he needed to make a cave to sleep in just like Batman.

Even superheros have to sleep sometime.

Reagan is such a mommy in training. She always wants to help me especially when it comes to the kids. She told me she was going to feed Owen.  No complaints from me and obviously Owen had none either.  Just look at the totally happy face on my Reagan!

She was so proud of herself for helping Mommy feed Owen.

Carrington and I stopped by the Parker's house to visit. Kennedi is one of my former students and an absolute joy for me to be around. She is the inspiration for me as to what my children with Ds can do.  Her little brother Miles is such a hoot he was trying to find games for Carrington to do on his iPad.

Movie Time