A new twist on Garage Sales!

We had a garage sale at our house this weekend. BUT it wasn't just any garage sale. We got together with our missional community group and decided we wanted to do something to serve others as a group. We have a new friend named Chris Marlow who works for HELP. HELP's goal is for 50 groups to have 50 garage sales to raise $50,000 this year for a new orphanage in Haiti. http://www.helpendlocalpoverty.com/take-action/garage-sale-for-orphans/ So this weekend we had our sale! Daniel also posted pics from the weekend (His blog is MUCH MORE COOLER than mine http://danieldavisphoto.com/blog/ )

One of the guys in our group made these super sweet signs!

Every penny we raised will go to building an orphanage in Haiti.

The kids ran a little bake sale while we ran the garage sale.

Here's Connor and his friend being the best little "sales men". Who could say no to those cuties?

We raised $630 and some change! It was a good 4 hours of work and we are all excited about doing this garage sale again next year.

Had to put a picture of my little angel!

We also began sponsoring an orphan from Zimbabwe named Tadiwanshe. (We call him Shawnee not sure how the boys came up with that name, but it works) We pray for him every night and it really gives the kids a great tangible way to see how we can help others. We'll get to write him and recieve letters and pics from him. If you are interested in sponsoring an orphan go here http://www.helponenow.com/ and learn more.

Upgrade

Connor is riding a two wheeler by himself, but the little bike was just too small. So we upgraded to his bigger bike. He's still a little too small for it so he has to get on the curb to get on the bike. But once he's on he is GONE! He loved riding and is really getting good at it. Now he's trying to learn tricks. We have NOT had a wipe out yet and I pray that we don't, he loves that bike so much.

Tour de McManus

Cycling! Adam loves it. I love it (even though it has to be indoor so I can have the kids in childcare) We even love watching it.(The Tour De France is a 3 week holiday to us) So you can imagine how excited we were when we took the training wheels off Connor's bike and HE GOT IT. First try and that boy just took off. We were just as proud when Bryce hopped on his first "big kid" bike and starting pedaling his little feet away. We've spent every afternoon and evening since that day riding bikes together and we LOVE IT. (We need to get baby girl's weight up before she can ride with Mom and Dad, but hopefully that will be soon too) Austin is a VERY cyclist-friendly city and we can't wait to go riding as a family. Here's the video I promised! ENJOY!

Tour de McManus from Adam McManus on Vimeo.

Granny and Grandaddy

Granny and Grandaddy came and visited us for the weekend. We had a blast playing with them! Adam and I had foster class all day Saturday so G & G were are babysitting duty. We love when they visit and can't wait for the next time. We love you!

A little bike riding!

Tonight was a big night in our house for 2 reasons! Bryce got a big boy bike for his 3rd birthday!

Thanks Granny and Grandaddy!

And Connor starting riding his bike with no training wheels. He got it on the first try! Tonight when we tucked him into bed he said "Mommy I'm really proud of myself!". That boys cracks me up.

Adoption Journey: Family Photo Time

We have to make a photo book about our family for CPS workers, the judges, and families before our certification to foster/adopt. So our roomie Daniel hooked us up! Enjoy....

The whole Fam
We love the park near our house
Aren't baby kisses the best?!

I love the story behind this picture! Alexis just tried to eat Adam's hair and this was her reaction!
Just playin'
Swinging

Daddy and the boys exploring
I love this one of Bryce
Ready to jump to Daddy
Think a judge or CPS worker will like em? We had a blast playing and it was a bonus that Daniel took such AWESOME pictures.

A photo essay

We got home the other day from the gym and Daniel our roomie asked if he could do a photo essay of the kids. "Umm I guess, but what is it?" was my first thought. Basically, Daniel played with the kids all morning and took pictures. He wanted to tell a story using the pictures. I couldn't jump in and pose the kids, couldn't make funny faces and try to get the perfect shot, no matching cute outfits or even combed hair, HECK I couldn't even wipe the food off their faces. It's just a story of their morning playing. I might be a little biased but I think they came out BEAUTIFULLY!
Here's a sneak peek:
See the rest of the story here: http://danieldavisphoto.com/blog/

The boys had a blast and LOVE looking at the pictures. Got me thinking that it would be fun to do this sometime by myself. You should give it a try!

Hoppy Easter

Time to start preparing our hearts for Easter, but first let's smile at the cutest Easter Bunny I've ever seen.
What Easter traditions do you do with your family?

Adoption Journey: Whoa! Slow Down.

So for awhile now I felt like we were in limbo with our certification to foster/adopt. We went to class week after week and turned in more paperwork, but that was it.
But now I feel like we are in fast forward. We had our fire inspection last week. And just got a call at 4:00pm the night before our health inspection which is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:00am. Some guy or gal will walk through our house and could potently go through everything we own in order to decide if our house is safe to raise a child or two in. Ha too funny if we didn't pass. NOT. Then we have our fingerprints next week, family portraits, 2 online courses, the last of our paperwork, 3 classes and WE ARE DONE!
If you haven't started already, please begin praying for the little baby who will be placed in our home very SOON.