FFF-Silly Smiles, again! :O) Posted on TUESDAY!!

We were out of town this past weekend, and I tried to get my post together on Friday morning, but, it is difficult to post while packing for a trip-with 3 little ones screaming, "Mommyyyyyyyyyy...."

So, here are a few more silly smiles from the Maslin family...

Here is Bob-doing his thing-laying around, and simply doing nothing but shedding, scratching and sleeping, oh, yeah, and smiling!!

Here is an oldie of Sofia-she was tiny-and she is smiling so much in this picture, it looks like it hurts!! ;O)

Maya has "the smile" down perfect, so it is VERY hard to find one of her being silly!!  Here she is doing her best to be silly!

I found this one while digging for silly smiles, and I have to say this oldie of Caleb is hilarious!  I took a series of these pics-because the shirt he was wearing was too little, and it rode up his tummy!  We were laughing so hard at him, that he performed silly smiles for us, and ran all around the living room!

Again, I have another one who has the smile perfected, so finding silly ones of her is a little more difficult!  In this picture, we were being silly by baring our teeth at Bus!  (Still not a bad pic-although, I have a much nicer one, where we aren't smiling quite so loudly!) Ha ha!

And out of sheer madness, I am sharing an insanely silly smile with you from me!  Ok, so I had a little help with my Mac, and "Photobooth", but you have to admit-it is super silly!! How's about that tiny little nose?  Ha ha!  

Well, there ya go!  Hope you are having a great week!  Hope my silliness makes you smile today, and encourages you to be silly, too!

FFF-Hope

"The power of HOPE is a beautiful thing. It gives us something to look forward to on our darkest days. It is a light in the darkness. It is the anticipation of good things to come."-Heather"Faithfull Froggers"

Above is a quote from the inspiration of this weeks theme-Hope. I have to say that this one threw me for a loop, and although I could come up with a lot of things in my life that give me hope, I couldn't find a picture that could quite describe the amazing topic of "Hope".


So, I will describe a time in my life, where there was great hope, and share a few meaningful pictures from that time of great hope.

You see, although we have one bio child, and three beautiful and amazing children adopted from Guatemala, there was a time in our life that I thought we would be going to a completely different country to find the children that God always meant to be ours-Russia.

I can remember the excitement, and hope we had while filling out paperwork, or as many of you know, the dossier, and waiting to receive our referral. A lot went on during that long year of waiting, with the closing and reopening of the adoption process in Russia, and at last, in July of 2005, we received two photos-one of a toddler boy, and one of a baby girl.

In August of 2005, we boarded a plane to Russia with our hearts bursting with joy in anticipation of meeting our new son and daughter. We were ecstatic, and the hope that filled our hearts was overflowing.

Every thing we saw represented hope, and I can't even begin to express to you in words the feelings of excitement, joy and hope we were experiencing as we arrived at the orphanage in Izhevsk, Russia!

The beautiful fields of sunflowers that lined the highways(2 lane, very rough roads) to the orphanage

The orphanage

Clothes hanging out to dry in the yard of the orphanage.

The playground at the orphanage

To make a long story short, we came home shattered and broken, and the children we thought would be ours, were in truth not meant to be.

And for a short while,our days were dark, as our hope was gone.

In early September of 2005, we received a new referral picture, of a beautiful baby boy living in Guatemala. With our hope renewed, we accepted the referral of this sweet little guy, and our journey that is journaled in this blog, to a family of 6 began...

Caleb Michael born August 24, 2005-the day after we arrived home from Russia.

You see, we were really never meant to go to Russia, and why the Lord sent us there, is beyond me. Hopefully one day he will reveal to me the reasons, but for now, I know that Guatemala is where my children were always waiting for me.

Maya Mishelle

Sofia Grace

Happy birthday, Maya!!

Saturday was Maya's 4th birthday!!!  We had a great day, and celebrated in the evening with a little cake, and her present!  She got a new bike!  She loves it, and rides it wonderfully!! :O)  On Sunday, we had family over for a BIG birthday party, and she loved being the center of attention!!  

Here are a few pictures of our sweet little 4 year old, and her birthday!  If you have a minute, and want to check them out, click on the play button in the middle of the picture, let it load, and then click on the arrows to turn the pages!  There is music, so if you are sneaking a peek at work, you might want to turn your speakers down! ;O)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Favorite Fotos Friday-Silly Smiles

As I was searching through my database of pictures searching for a clever FFF to post this week, I came across so many pictures of this silly little smile! You know, they all do it-especially when they are learning to smile for the camera! Or maybe they are just simply sick of smiling for the camera, and this is the result! :O)

Here are several pics of Caleb sporting his "CHEESE" smile!!

"CHEESE"

This is the "SHOCKED" CHEESE smile!

This is the "Shut your eyes" CHEESE smile!!

This is the "Surprise" CHEESE look!!

"Gosh, this is starting to hurt" CHEESE smile!

"This is the LAST picture I am allowing you to take" CHEESE smile!

"Praying that I will quit taking his picture" CHEESE smile!

And, if those CHEESE pictures weren't enough, Here is Sofia sporting a few CHEESE smiles!

"CHEESE"

"After the nap" CHEESE smile!

My personal favorite-the "Oh, say can you see...." CHEESE smile!

Awwww...and here is "Bed head" CHEESE smile, very similar to her "Nap" CHEESE smile! ;O)

I can't wait to see what topics everybody else picked for this week!!

Have a great week, and thanks for looking! :O)

Caleb's first day of Preschool!

Well, I had to take my little guy to preschool and drop him off this morning! It was sooooo hard to do! You know, Hannah and Maya went before him, and it wasn't a problem-I think both girls were well past ready to go preschool, but my little Caleb-I was so worried about him! What if he needed me? Who was going to remind him to go potty??! What if he got a boo boo-who was going to kiss it for him and make it better??

Well, here is a picture of her-his new teacher, Mrs. Donna!

Can you tell he is saying cheese?

It really was hard to leave him-he is my little buddy, and it is hard to believe he is in preschool already! The good thing for me, is that he only goes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for about 3 hours-so, it will be some special bonding time for me and Miss Sofia. I am excited that he will learn some independence, though. Not to mention, he is thrilled to be going! I told him I was leaving this morning, and he said,"Bye!", and turned back to his choo choo table! Yep-a choo choo table-what a life-great preschool!! He was beyond thrilled that they had a choo choo table! :O)

Here are a few more pics of his super fun first day of preschool!

Did I say fun? Well, this is a picture that I made him stand in front of the tree for! Everyone else was getting in the car, and he thought that I wasn't going to take him to school. He was broken hearted-just like his mommy was, while he was at school! ;O)

But, he really wasn't as sad as he was pretending to be! Like his new backpack?? (Dog gone sun!)

After I took Caleb's picture, Sofia ran over and stood in front of the tree! Ha ha! She wanted me to take her picture, so , you know me-I obliged! :O)

The infamous choo choo table!! All the boys were hanging out here!!

Choo choo!!!!

Sofia enjoying the playroom, too!!!

Where, oh where did my little baby go??

Lately, I have noticed changes in all my kiddos, but particularly the youngest! Yes, Sofia has turned from the sweetest, cuddliest, coziest, little angel to a little firecracker with very strong opinions, full of attitude, demanding, and challenging being some of her strongest new traits! I guess you could say we have embarked on a new adventure-the terrible 2's!!!!!

Yeah, I guess Ialways knew it would happen, but with Maya, we didn't experience her terrible 2's, and with Caleb-he was just a stinker from the beginning, and with Hannah, she skipped the terrible 2's and went straight to the terrible teenager stage, and is still in it! Ha ha!!

Oh, if you could only see the looks I get from Sofia, and then the tantrums, and fits! She actually throws herself to the ground and rolls, or cries at the drop of a hat! I used to would have thought she was sick, or not feeling well, but now, I know she is just trying to see how far she can take me! Shame that she is the youngest of 4, and I have already been down this road before, and am aware of exactly what she is doing! Poor thing really can't shake and rattle me-I just ignore her behavior, which makes her even madder! ;O) I have to say, she is still an absolute cutie with her angry little challenging face! It helps me to realize that she will not grow up to be a push over! Ya know, though, it makes me sad to think that this may be my last little 2 year old-of course if we could lose the diapers-I think it would make me feel better!! :O)

Now, as I sit here typing this-my little firecracker is cuddled up next to me, watching Elmo-her FAVORITE thing to do in the whole wide world. So, ya see, even though she is changing, there are still those fabulous moments that Sweet little Sofia appears, and I know that this is just a short, passing time in our lives, where she is learning independence, and that she has a voice and opinion in life, and as a result- it makes her a stronger person, and me! Ha ha!

Here is a recent picture of my soon to be not-so-terrible 2 year old! ;O)