Chug-a-Chug Woo Woo!

Allow me to introduce you to Ben, Bill, and the other Ben. Yes, the people who make Thomas the Train are smart people. They created the exact same trains and changed their names. But, we do have two Ben's.



We've spent a lot of time playing trains over the past couple of days. Which, is actually a great thing, because Reed does have about 15 trains that are just dying to be played with.



Reed is constantly asking me to change the batteries.



We told him that we would only change their batteries once a month.





He was a little bit perturbed with me taking pictures of him the yesterday.





We had a lot of fun playing with trains and making sure that we were keeping them on the tracks. Sometimes they go off the tracks and they will be runaway trains.





This is going to be a busy week for sure. We're really excited that our 10-day Mandatory Wait period is up! So, the birthmother can sign the final ruling and the boys will officially be ours. We'll travel as soon as we get our AIT appointment.



So please pray that we'll get our final ruling and AIT appointment as soon as possible!



Tonight Uncle Danny and Aunt Megan came over after church and he played trains with Reed.





Reed will be even happier when he gets to bring his little brothers home!

Bubbles

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous over the past few days.



Reed just cannot believe how nice it is.



Reed and Abbey stayed at the park for a long time yesterday, but while Reed was waiting to go, he played with trains.



He LOVES trains!



Really, really, really loves trains!



Tonight we grilled pizzas with our dear friends Danny, Michelle, Carah, Cate, and Caleb. Reed was so excited about them coming over.



Reed and I hung out in the backyard while we were waiting on them to arrive. The hieroglyphics on our brick are some chalk drawings. They aren't permanent.



I got out the bubble machine which Reed loved.



He kept trying to pop the bubbles as fast as possible.



But some of them were a little high.



Some of them were JUST right!



Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the kids playing together, but we did have a good time hanging out with them.



Reed tried competing with the bubble machine by blowing his own bubbles.





Once the Davidson's arrived and Reed finally warmed up to them, they had a lot of fun playing together.





Now, we're all ready for the weekend! Can't wait for some time off. Abbey has a few things to do on Saturday, but Reed and I have a pretty low-key weekend planned.

Playing With My Best Friend

Tonight, Britton came over to play with Reed while Abbey, Tamara, and Brandon went to church. Unfortunately, our church doesn't really offer anything for preschoolers on Wednesday nights during the summer, so we just decided to stay home and play.



The weather has been much cooler over the past couple of days. After the sun goes down, the weather is even cooler.



It was nice to be able to sit outside and watch the boys play without sweating like a pig!





It is so much fun to watch the boys play, but it is even funnier to listen to their conversations. Reed will say to Britton, "You need some help little buddy?" It's the cutest thing ever.



I know this is a terrible picture in terms of quality, but I want you to notice the phone in Reed's hand. I've been selling some excess household items over the past couple of days on CL. I sold a club chair last night and I was making sure there wasn't anything between the cushions and we found this old flip phone that one of us used to use.



Reed thought the flip phone was the coolest thing. He said to Abbey, "Did you get this for me Mama?" He's been carrying it around since then. Apparently, Reed would have been more happy with our less modern phones than he is with our current
phones.



Click on the picture above and below to see a video.



Well ... gotta go. Reed has just assured me that he and Britton are about to be really careful jumping on the bed.

Playing in the Backyard

It has been so stinking hot this summer! Reed has been having much time inside and not a lot of time outside, because its been almost too hot to go outside.



The other day, when I finally decided to brave the heat and mow our yard, Reed played outside in the backyard. He was thrilled to be able to get out there and play, but as you can tell, he was completely sweaty by the end.



He was also having a lot of fun on his slide!



This past weekend, Abbey had to go to Shreveport, LA to teach a conference. Reed and I went to Mississippi for a conference where I also had to teach.



On Thursday, we headed out towards Memphis so that we could spend the night with Pop and Lola. Reed loved the "we wental car" that we were rolling in.



Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so I don't have any pictures from the weekend. Reed loved playing with Enna and Poppy in Mississippi. He was able to talk Enna into buying him a new train. They also enjoyed playing in the "whale pool" in her backyard.



In other news, Reed has figured out how to get into Will's bed.



Yeah ... that's comforting.

So Much to Report!

We have been so busy lately, and on top of that, our Mac's hard drive decided to fail, so it was not really exciting for us. We were so glad today when my friend was able to finish working on it and put a new hard drive in. In the meantime, we decided to get our old laptop's hard drive replaced, so that next time we are in this situation, we'll at least have something to fall back on. Even though it is ... a PC.



The past couple of days, I've been in meeting with several children's ministers from around the US who were helping us with deciding the direction of some of our resources at work. Abbey was a gracious hostess that decided to fix some wonderful goodies for everyone to eat. But, before we served them, we decided Reed needed to taste test them.



The minicupcakes definitely got his approval. Reed also started a new preschool since we last blogged. He is going to the school with several of his friends from church including his best friend, Britton. Reed goes on Mondays and Fridays from 9-12 which is a nice break for Abbey (which is really not a break, just time for her to get a few things done.).



Today, we got EXCELLENT news.



WE got the first ruling for our boys!!! Nash and Will are closer to coming home than ever!



So, now we are in a 10 day waiting period. After the 10 day waiting period, the agency will apply for final ruling and depending on how fast the birthmother signs the decree will depend on when we can ask for an appointment from AIT. We're hoping that it will be mid-September, which is not really far away. If it is mid-September, Will will only be 4.5 months when we get him. We got Reed when he was 6.5 months. It will be really different having a baby that little.



Tonight, our good friend Abbie stopped by since she was in town for business.





We also shopped at the consignment sale last week, and got some INCREDIBLE deals. We are so excited about everything that we were able to get. We saw Santa Claus and he found quite a few awesome toys for the boys for Christmas.





Reed loves it when Mommy makes Mr. Potato Head say "What the What?"