Miss My Girls!

My girls are on a cruise with my parents and grandma and won't get back until Wednesday. While I don't miss the bickering and noise level, I do miss seeing them sleep in their beds, holding them, hearing their conversations and seeing their sweet faces. Here are some pics from a long time ago. Time flies...

Married to Mr. Romance

If you know Vince and I a little, you know Vince is very good with the charm towards his wife. The latest "Stupid Thing That Vince Said" happened yesterday. We were in the bathroom and out of his mouth he said "Julie, I am not saying you're fat or anything, but don't you miss working out?"

Other famous words:

As I'm crawling into bed one miserably depressing winter, I asked if I was fat and he said "No baby, that's just your winter coat."

A couple of years ago I tried on a bikini for him to see what his opinion was and his encouraging words came out "I've seen fatter people wear bikinis". And he was seriously trying to be positive :)

I have MANY others, but I'll post them throughout the year. Some of my friends think I should make a book out of them--it would be a hit!

Mr. T

On Tuesday, we cut Tariku's hair--his 1st haircut! He did very well with no tears at all. I started with a 3 and then went to a 2 and then did a one. The girls wanted me to do a mohawk (well, except Haley, who cried huge tears, not wanting Tariku to look like that). Vince thinks we need to throw some gold chains on him and a fake earring and have him be "Mr. T" for Halloween. I don't know if I like the look or not, but with boys, it will grow back fast! What do you think? Honestly...

Titus Tariku Avila

It's official!!! Well, we're one step closer at least, to having him "re-adopted" in the state of Kansas. We officially changed his name to Titus Tariku Avila from Tariku Vicente Avila. There is something that is hurting my heart though, and that is his birthday. It wasn't recorded correctly in Ethiopia, and though we could possibly change it in the state of Kansas, to change it at the Federal level, which affects his Social Security and Visa stuff, is very difficult. We have decided that the best thing is to keep his paper birthdate which is in October. So this year, he gets 2 birthdays! He actually shares his birthday with my cousin Jacqueline, as my daughter Haley shares her day with Jacqueline's dad, Uncle Serrel. Here is a couple of pics we took with the Judge who did our case.

Our Budding Photographer

Tariku LOVES my camera! Here is some of his latest work...

The Next Pro Golfer

This was taken from our friend Chad, who had the privilege of gleaning golf instruction from Vince. :) He golfs once a year at the Westar Golf Tournament. I bet its something to see. Vince said he really started getting in the groove at about hour 3.