The Best Christmas

This Christmas was one of the best for our family.

We always miss our family that is far away, but every now and then it is great to just focus on your own little family. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with absolutely no one but each other and nowhere to rush off to. It was so relaxing and we had so much fun!

The tree after Santa came about 1:30 am.

Our tree looked a little sad by the end of season. This year I didn't worry about keeping up with everything the little ones took off or put on. It was gorgeous on day one, but not nearly as loved.

Mags with her IPod on Christmas morning.

Chillin' with Dad, a candy cane, and a Lightning McQueen phone.
Cooper loved opening presents! The first present under the tree this year was for Cooper from his sisters. It was wrapped in tissue paper and then put in a cellophane bag. Also in the cellophane bag was candy! Cooper tried to get that candy out of the bag for 3 weeks. When we opened that gift (a baseball mitt & ball) he tossed it aside and started tearing into the candy. We were all laughing. What a cutie!

Mar, also with a candy cane and a phone. I'm assuming she's "calling" Nana. Calling Nana is always at the top of Marlee's list.

Marlee's favorite spot, Dad's lap.

Santa brought Marlee the Tinkerbell movie and Maggie & Cooper got her Fawn (the animal fairy) Barbie doll. I love watching the kids open their presents from each other. The one giving is always so excited to see the receiver's reaction. They just know they've given them the perfect gift.

Cora with her guitar that Mom & Dad have already busted. Oops!

Why is she dressed you ask? After trying to get us to open presents at 2:00 am & again at 4:30, as soon as she heard Cooper wake up at 6:30 she got up, got dressed and said "I'm ready to open presents now."

New jammie pants! She thinks the monkey on a cell phone is pretty cool.

Traditional Gadd family breakfast.

Aebleskivers!

This Christmas morning tradition was one of Grandma Neen's. (Kevin's mom)

This year we had Aeblskivers, a delicious egg casserole, and fruit.

It was so yummy! And the best part was everyone ate so much candy all morning we didn't have breakfast until noon!

Not pictured in this post - Mom!

I'm hoping now that Kevin bought me a new fancy camera he'll feel like taking a few pictures with it. I'm sure everyone is beginning to think the Gadd family consists of 4 children, a single dad, and a live-in picture taker!

Merry Christmas!!!

After sending 50 of these photos to the wrong store (Lindon, UT), I'm resorting to this post.

We hope all of our family and friends around the globe are happy and well.

We are grateful for the part each of you has played in our lives over the years and always look forward to times when our paths cross.

Our family has had an eventful and miraculous year.

Like most families we have stayed busy with school, work, church, sports, and music lessons, taken some exciting trips and weekend excursions.
However, the majority of the excitement & travel revolved around the newest addition to our family. At the beginning of 2010 we decided to adopt Marlee, a beautiful 3 yr. old little girl. The next few months were spent traveling to Arizona for visits as we were preparing for and anticipating bringing her home.

We were able to bring Marlee to Missouri in April. Although there were obvious adjustments to make Marlee fit right into our family dynamics. Maggie, Cora & Cooper were thrilled to have another sister and we all wonder what life was like without Marlee in it.

The adoption was finalized on November 4th. One month later we traveled to Rochester, NY and were sealed as an eternal family in the Palmyra, NY temple.

Needless to say, as our numbers increase so does the craziness, but our joy increases even more! What a wonderful blessing this entire experience has been for each member of our family.

Merry Christmas!

We love you!

The Gadd Family

Kevin, Molly, Maggie (9), Cora (7), Marlee (3), & Cooper (1)

p.s. if you would like a physical picture, please ask.

I am more then happy to order more (at the correct store) and send one to you.

Adoption Day!

What a crazy wonderful day!

The little ones didn't wake up at the crack of dawn as usual, so we woke up at 8:00 am and needed to get six people ready and out the door by 8:30!

We made it out by 8:45 and in the doors of the court at exactly 9:30.

In all the craziness I forgot my camera. I was so upset. Luckily we had our phone. This is right after the judge approved the adoption and told us we were good to go. Our sweet adoption worker, Beth, did the best she could with our phone.

Afterwards we celebrated with breakfast at Cracker Barrell, our favorite.

We finished off the day with a little dance party in the kitchen and a great family home evening, since we missed it on Monday.

Marlee gave us a wonderful lesson about the Smith Family frame home & the sacred grove. We are getting ready to visit my parents on their mission in Rochester, NY, as well as preparing to take our family to the Palmyra temple to be sealed for time and eternity.

Our next great family adventure!

Thank you everyone for your love and support.

So many have worked hard for our family to make this adoption possible.

Others have loved and cared for Marlee until it was the right time for her to join our family.

While still more people helped and supported us while we went through the throws of the adoption process.

Not to mention the countless prayers we know were offered in our behalf.

THANK YOU!!!!

It's the Little Things

It's the little things that make me realize how much my life has changed in one year.

Things like the number of pumpkins glowing on my porch this Halloween.

When I found this photo of last years pumpkins it served as a tangible reminder that I actually have four children now. You'd think the actual children wreaking havoc through the house would be reminder enough, but sometimes it truly is the seemingly insignificant things that hit me the hardest. I set the picture of the three pumpkins as our desktop background. When Cora came home from school even she said, "Oh ya! We didn't have four pumpkins last year."
Which served as more proof to me, that things are just as they should be. This sweet little girl who as rounded off our number of kids from 3 to 4 is right where she belongs and it feels like she has always been here.

We had a great Halloween, with a lot of celebrating.
We trunk-or-treated at the church, had Cora's birthday and passed out Candy on Halloween.
Cowgirl Maggie

Cora the Cheerleader & her biggest fan.

The cutest little witch.

(Marlee got yet another cast last week, so we made sure to color coordinate with her costume)

Littlest Fly Boy, Cooper J

Passing out candy on Halloween. The kids actually loved this, and I have to admit I was grateful not to have to get them all dressed up again and traipse around in the cold.

Mar was being such a nut. I took about 5 pictures and she pulled this face in every one!

Halloween Birthday Party

Cora turned 7 yesterday and we had her much anticipated Halloween birthday party.

It turned out so fun!

We played games, had pizza & cake, opened presents, bobbed for apples & roasted marshmallows.

Fortunately it stayed warm enabling us to have the whole party outside. Unfortunately no one got to see my cute set up on the table. However, I'd rather not have 16 first grade girls running amok in my house with chocolate cake!

Party this way!

Bean Bag Toss Babes

Naomi getting mummified.

The final product!

Happy Birthday Cora!

The girls loved bobbing for apples. Most of them figured out how to grab the apples by the stems. Cora had a rough time since she has no front teeth!

The best part of the party: Impromptu Dance Party!

S'mores!

We had a great night last Friday roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

Not all these pics turned out great, but they show what a good time we had.

Thanks Hendricksons for letting us borrow your fire pit!

Notre Dame Fly Over

Kevin's squadron did the flyover at a Notre Dame game a few weeks ago.

It was the chance of a lifetime, and Kevin had the time of his life!

The night before the game the pilots had the chance to tour parts of the campus and attend the pep rally.

On game day six pilots set off to fly the jets and Kevin and one other pilot headed to the field to work as the ground crew. The ground crew calls the planes in, trying to make sure they flyover right at the end of The National Anthem. Pretty sure that is my dumbed down explanation of what they do.
After the flyover the pilots were able to watch the game from the field.

Kevin is the one who didn't get the "blue shirt" memo.

When he emailed me this pic the caption was "I thought you'd enjoy this picture (maybe)."

He's always had a weakness for cheerleaders!

After the game they walked around the different tail gate parties and ended up hanging out with the Irish Leprechaun and his family. Kev thought they were pretty cool and had good time chillin' and watching more football.

God Bless the USA

and their Air Force

for giving our family such amazing opportunities and experiences.

Boo!

Each year when October hits I feel as if a little ghost pops around the corner and says,

"Boo! It's here!"

And what is it that's here you might ask?

Every major event in a mother's life that causes her to work her tail off in the hopes that all attending have the most wonderful experience they can possibly imagine for each of these special days.

Including: 6 Birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and a Wedding Anniversary.

Starting off our marathon of celebration is Cora.

She's turning 7 this year and is having a Halloween party. These are the cute invites we made for her party.

As crazy as this time of year gets, I love it! There's so much excitement and so many reasons to think about each person in my family and what will make them happy.

However, to save my sanity we only do parties every other year. Now I'm re-thinking whether we should all be having parties on the same year!

Red River Rivalry

The Red River Rivalry between OU & Texas is the biggest rivalry in college football and has been played for 105 years. Kevin had tickets this year and we took the whole family.

(Just so you don't think we are pathetic, it should be noted that Kevin bought extra tickets with the intent of selling them. When they wouldn't sale at the price we wanted we decided to use them instead)

This really is quite the event. The game is played at the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, TX. It is held on the grounds of the Texas State Fair. Your ticket to the game is also your ticket to the fair. So fun!

You can barely see it in this picture, but the stadium is split at the 50 yd line (arrow) with OU fans (red) on one side of the stadium, and Texas fans (orange) on the other.

We rode the train into the city, and took a bus to the stadium. Played at the fair, went to the game and played at the fair some more. Despite the obvious challenges that come with dragging four kids around in the heat, trying to do what everyone wants to do, and sitting through 4 quarters of a very loud football game where no one sits, execpt during time outs, we had a great time.

Maggie is hitting her parental defiance phase and refused to wear on OU shirt. She even goes as far as claiming to be a Texas Longhorns fan. We're going with it.

Another oddity of the OU experience is standing in a crowd of hundreds of people and having one person yell "Boomer," and those hundreds of people answer back with "Sooner!"

On a smaller scale, this is something that happens at our house quite frequently. This was Marlee's first OU experience and she was in the spirit of it all. While walking through a crowd a the fair, she was on Kevin's shoulders and yelled out "Boomer!" as loud as she could. She was thrilled when the crowd answered back, "Sooner!"

In the end Oklahoma won 28 - 20.

Go OU!

Texas State Fair

We had a great time at the Texas State Fair. Ignoring the fact that there were so many people walking around it was like trying to get somewhere while everyone is waiting in line. Once we got to where we were going it was a blast!

Happy Helpers Farm.

The kids loved this little farm, where they got to walk through and be the farmers.

I love this pic of Cooper & Cora.


Little Farmer

Tractor Pull!

The Barnyard

This was the best petting Zoo I have ever been to!

Here's a list of some of the animals they had: Giraffe, Zebras, Yaks, Llamas, Cows, All kinds of Goats, Kangaroos, Camels, and the list goes on.

Kevin and I could barely keep track of the kids they were so excited to see, pet, and feed so many awesome animals.

Marlee was especially in her element. I couldn't even get a picture of her because she couldn't stand still for more then 10 seconds, literally.

Cora & Cooper petting the goats.

Marlee feeding a baby Llama

This was the highlight of the visit.

We watched these tiny baby piglets with their enormous mama for quite awhile.

Piglets are one of the cutest baby animals.

Yet, one day they will all look like this!

Here piggy, piggy!

Speaking of pigs. One of the funnest things we did was watch the pig races.

The little piglets race around a track into a cage that has a platter in it with one Oreo, and some crumbs for the losers. It was hilarious.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good pic and this video didn't turn out too great either.

But we all loved it!

Suey!!!!

Morning Walk

Things have finally cooled down, so the little one's and I decided to get out. We have a favorite trail we like to walk. It's gorgeous, and a great work out!

I had just found my camera and couldn't get enough of these two cuitie or the beautiful scenery.

This is a pic from before we left. I just loved the way it turned out.