adoption prayers...

Isn't this family just adorable!?! Abby is my oldest sister and God has blessed her with an amazing husband and three precious daughters. I love how they have obeyed God's calling and followed in His Will of adoption for their family. God has also asked them to open their loving home up to another beautiful daughter, Elani! I can't wait to meet my new li'l niecey and in the mean time... I am praying that she is dearly LOVED until my sis' family can go pick her up in China. We are praying that their adoption paperwork moves quickly without any gliches so they can get our sweet Elani home to begin her life as a Spear!

Elani is 2 and my sis was told that they might be able to fly to China in October to bring her home!

Here is my other sweet Chinese niece, Malea. She is so excited to have a little sister that looks like her! I love that both of these girls are the perfect addition to our family, just like all of us are perfectly adopted and changed by God. Sis, my prayers are with your growing family and with Elani. Love you and thanks for following God's plan! You can keep updated on their family blog.

And here are Jeremy and Amanda, some of our favorite friends! These guys are another amazing Christian family that are obediently following God to add #5! They have 4 super adorable children AND they have so much more room in their huge loving hearts. I am also praying for them as they prayerfully wait for God to bring the perfect little baby into their waiting arms. Currently, they are not going through an adoption agency because they have felt led to be available for any unplanned pregnancy, locally or from another state. So, if you know of any mom that needs a loving family for her baby... please visit their adoption blog and feel free to pass their website on to any young momma! Jeremy and Amanda are set to adopt; they have completed their home study and they have a lawyer ready to do the paperwork. We are all prayerfully and anxiously awaiting to meet their sweet#5!

Spears and J & A... know that you are LoVeD and covered in PrAyEr. Love you guys!

Parker hits the slopes

The Kroons are a skiing and biking family so our kiddos have no choice but to learn to do both! So far both boys love biking and we are still working on the skiing part! It takes major effort to pump them up with motivational chats and bribes. Then, once they've gained the confidence... they are good to GO! So, we spent all week prepping Parker for his debut ski at Alyeska. Kep and Popeye took the day off and they ALL had a blast! I love seeing my guys come home all jazzed and hearing Kep say "THAT was the highlight of my winter"!

Here's just a quick li'l video of Parker's first time taking turns on his skis. I was amazed with how quick he caught on to the turning. He looks a TON more confident than I did as a 9th grader... pretty sure I "snowplowed" the whole way! ;)

You might notice that he ran into the last foam obstacle, instead of knocking it down, which has caused him to hobble around the last few days! Minor injury on his first day at Alyeska... hopefully it won't set his confidence back the next time around!!! hehehe ;)

owwwww!!!

only 3 days of this and it BURNS to:
sneeze,
giggle,
cough,
sit,
do stairs,
and so much more!!!

Guess I'm BIG time out of SHAPE!

valentine mailboxes

We LOVE our 3 children so very much and I love that Valentine's comes around to show them our love in new and cutesy ways! This year I went back to the Target $ aisle and picked up 2 more mailboxes so they each have their own mail every morning. They also got to decorate their mailboxes with puffy paint/stickers so they're now super tacky, I mean "cool"!!! Every other year, we've written them li'l "love notes" but this year I made a "What we LOVE about _____" (#ed 1-14) chart for each of them so they get one word to add to their chart. I love this because I hear them talking about their sticky notes throughout the day and encouraging eachother with them as well. Simple yet meaningful to them!

And, here is Noah with the first treat... a mini can of COKE! His smile was this huge before the can was even gone at 9am!!!

sissy in her sleigh

awww... Savannah looks so little in her sleigh bed! We had to move her out of her crib before Christmas because my parents were coming to sleep in her room. So, I have been on Craigslist ever since searching for a girley bed. I don't know which "Craig" invented Craigslist but I need to write him a personal "thank~you" note because we have been buying/selling all year!!! Love that my trash is someone else's treasure and vice versa! ;)

We still need to paint this bed white to match her trim and freshen it up but it's still just a tad bit too cold in AK to break out a paint sprayer. So, the boys were thrilled to "help" Kep set up Savannah's bed this week! Now, they'll just get to set it up a few more times so we can paint it this summer.

celebrate February!

Every year I LOVE February because it's time for ...
Valentine's, my nephew's birthday, my grandma's birthday, my uncle's birthday, my #1 hubby's birthday, my birthday and a few friends... also have bdays!!! Just when winter seems to be taking a toll on my cabin "feverness"... there's a TON to celebrate in February!

AND THIS YEAR, I have one more super BIG thingy to celebrate in February... a 9~day trip to Kona with my mom and 2 older sisters!!! 7~1/2 years ago I was the last sibling to get married and I remember my eldest sis, Abby~the~planner, saying, "OK, when us girls are all done having babies... just the sisters and mom are headed to Hawaii!" I remember thinking that was so surreal but it's actually happening in 20 days! woohoo!

I am so blessed by these women in my life and I can't wait to spend time with just THEM in paradise! I am still hoping that my younger sis will surprise us with her presence as this would make our Kona trip... positively perfect! But, if she doesn't it will just be a great excuse to go back as a complete set of "Hogan" women in another year, well probably 7~1/2 years would be more realistic!!!

So, I have 20 more days to; research Kona's options, pack MY suitcase (packing only MY clothes and sitting in a plane without any kiddos is... possibly... my fav part of this trip!!!), work on getting this AKan whiteness... tan, eat less chocolate, start doing my new exercise video religiously, find all my summer essentials AND love on my kiddos/hubby... because I know I will be missing them a TON for 9 days!

this is one magazine I'm ordering to help with the Kona research. Let me know if you have ever been to Kona and your fav thing to do/see!

ps: I know I use a lot of ...'s but... I like them!!! I've never been a big fan of grammar, even though I am a teacher, so the ...'s go in the spots where I am unsure of... my grammar!!! ;) And, I'm OK with being known as the "... blog girl"!!!

Parker's 1st email

Hi magin and it WUZ a good time SYN u at Chrch and IL see u agn at chrch

bye Parker

So, could you figure out our 5 yr. old's phonics? Parker has these 2 adorable and sweet 5 year old friends, who happen to be best friends... Megan and Morgan. Well, Parker had fun chasing Megan around the church gym last night so he wanted to write her a "computer note" today! Ha, he is going to be a heart breaker if he already has the skills to write girls little notes. No worries~ that won't be encouraged until WAY later! ;) They'll always be my li'l boys, right!?!

Before pressing "send", I made sure his note was totally innocent. Parker loves drawing pictures and writing notes to relatives so he is used to ending all his family notes with "love". But he remembered that he couldn't sign off with "love" on "Magin's" note!!! Our boys are true innocent boys... clueless that girls are "girls"! ;) This is why I didn't want to make a big deal of his note AND fortunately he doesn't read our blog, yet! We shall save this li'l note for sure... how stinkin' adorable!!!

my 2010's song and prayer~

Jesus, be the centre

Be my source, be my light

Jesus

Jesus, be the centre

Be my hope,

Be my song

Jesus

Be the fire in my heart

Be the wind in these sails

Be the reason that I live

Jesus, Jesus

Jesus, be my vision

Be my path, be my guide

Jesus

I lOvE this song. The words are so simple but the meaning is so RICH! Our church sang this song on our first Sunday of 2010 and it's been on my mind ever since. It is my goal to make JESUS be my center for 2010 and every year to come. (and the pictures are back from 2007 and I just needed a "blast from the past", ha... short past!)

Christmas morn

We spend all of December reading books about the cutesy part of Christmas... Santa! So, our boys were thrilled to wake up on Christmas morn to a handwritten note from Santa and to see that Santa ate ALL but a few crumbs of their frosted cookies!

Candy!?! All Noah ever needs is candy, gum or a li'l car! ;)

Then, once the cutesy part of Christmas is over we talk about the AMAZING and REAL part of Christmas... JESUS! All December the kids act out the Nativity scene with their favorite Little People sets so it comes as no surprise on Christmas morn that each of them get 3 gifts... just like Jesus did! So, here's Noah with one of his 3... his first remote controlled car. This thing is indestructible, it will go through the bath and spring puddles!

And, our li'l girl opening her sweet baby from Bap 'n Nan! This baby spends the majority of the time undressed, easier to rip off the clothes then put them on over and over!

family

I am so thankful for the families that God has given us~ we are bLeSsEd! I LOVE that my parents were able to come and spend Christmas 09 with our li'l gang~ it will be a Christmas to remember ;). We had sickness after sickness and one extremely whiney toddler BUT it was still most definitely a blessing to be with my parents. God knew what HE was doing... especially when HE designed 'the family relationship'!

"one of these 'sledders' is not like the others"... yep, li'l sissy was indeed miss fussy ;)

LOVE you mom and dad! and miss you, too!

again... "one of these 'sledders' is not like the others"!!!

the pink sledders

there's Noah clarming the camera~ AGAIN!

our brave sledder!

tennis shoes, sweatshirt and working gloves... I guess he's a true AKan, no need for all the gear!

the boy and his board! LoVe this shot of Parker

Savannah's actually smiling on her sled! woohoo

And, God also knew what HE was doing when HE designed sunsets and winter wonderlands! Can't beat a view like this... it was fun to show off God's beautiful "wintery" AKan creations to my parents! Thank you Lord for fAmIlY!