the catch up game

shame on us.  it's been a very long while since we've shared anything with the blog world.  absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? 

to get caught up i am going to have to break it down into a little list.  y'all, we've been busy!

• went to conference in new york for work.  it was a long 72 hours!
• surprised sweet boy with a trip to disney world for his fifth birthday.  we felt like it was the right age to go and experience the magic and hopefully be able to handle all of the long days of walking!  we'd been telling him all year long that if he saved his money we'd try and go to disney world.  well, he saved every cent he got his hands on and we cashed in all of my starwood points and a lot of our delta skymiles to earn us as free of a trip to disney as we could score.  (highly recommend staying at the swan hotel.  stayed there on points and loved every second.)  we had a surprise party for dax on a friday night and told him at the party that we were boarding a plane for florida the next morning.  pulling this off was a huge feat, but we did it and we had the trip of our lives.  would not change one single second of it.  we had fantastic weather, a relaxing time by the pool, beautifully fun days at all of the parks, and a super happy and cooperative little fella.  daxton still talks about it two months later and is ready to go back!  
• for thanksgiving we headed to adri's folks and then to adri's uncle's house for turkey day.  it was great to spend the day with all of the littles and get to spend time with that side of the family.  we always have a great time and the scenery is amazing at the lake!
• daxton had lots of performances!  my favorite was his hip hop dance performance where he really put on the show with his personality!  it was amazing to watch him and his little friends do their routine!  our boy did an unbelievable job and we were so proud!
• for Christmas this year we celebrated at home with will's folks.  it was great to not have to be traveling and spending time on the roads.  i'd been away from home for the entire month of november and it was good to be home!  we had a very laid back Christmas with lots of cooking, eating, church, light tours, games, and movies.  it was a very relaxing and wonderful time!
• for new years we traveled back to roanoke to celebrate with adri's side of the family.  it was amazing to have everyone at one event to ring in the new year.  we all got dressed up in our fanciest clothes and enjoyed dinner and dancing together.  what a wonderful way to celebrate!  (even daxton stayed up until 2am!  sorry to the baby sitter!)
• 2017 has started out with some more gas in our tank in pursuing our second adoption.  we really feel like the last 18 months of waiting has been kind of a waste of time and don't want to be in this same place 18 more months down the road.  we never imagined we'd wait this long.  in the midst of all of the above, our homestudy had to be renewed in december and we hope that will be the last time we're doing that for this situation.  we are going to create more of an online presence with our profile and work on some marketing.  we hope this will boost our chances of finding a potential situation.  dax really longs for a sibling and we cannot wait to continue to grow our family.  

  

dax had a wonderful time with all of the rides, meet and greets, parades, shows, and performances!

the four cousins with great granny

 

 

the covey, taylor, mutispaugh, ryder, rolf, white families!

daxton on the night of his hip hop dance recital

 

dax had a speaking part in this year's christmas musical at preschool.  we were so proud of this big boy on stage!

daxton loves this cereal, so he got it for a gift from santa.

we had one winter storm that kept us trapped in our neighborhood for about a week.  it was just the right amount of winter weather and we're thankful to be back in the sixties now!

falling off the radar

we've been busy lately.  summer ended, life took hold and there was zero time for blogging.  however, we're thankful fall has finally arrived, we have to wear shoes that aren't sandals/flip flops, and everything is pumpkin flavored.  take a deep breath, and time is settling a bit before everything ramps up for the holidays.

spring and summer were rough with the passing of the dogs.  we miss them every day, but we know they are where they needed to be.  our sweet old girls both lived amazing long lives and brought us much joy and laughter.  the end was hard, i won't lie - and we ended up having to put their extreme level of discomfort and the lack of ability for dr.s to perform operations to alleviate any issues above our desires to keep them here suffering on this planet.  despite it being the right thing, it was a terribly sad time and i still cry about it often.

adoption:
we're having to update our homestudy on halloween.  it's kind of interesting to me because we received the call to meet with daxton's birthmother on halloween of 2011.  we honestly never thought we'd be waiting on our second adoption so long and even after updating our profile books this summer, we still did not think we'd make it to the dreaded homestudy update phase.  sigh, but here we are.  dax goes through phases where he asks "why is it taking so long?" because he is ready for "his baby" to be here.  he's ready to have someone to play with and someone to share things with.  he plays in the nursery often, and loves pulling out baby toys.

daxton:
daxton's schedule is busy, but he loves being on the go.  he goes to preschool m - th (half days) and then has an activity every night, except mondays.  every day he asks me "what are we doing today?"  tuesdays he has gymnastics which he LOVES and has been doing for over a year.  wednesday nights are awana and he's in the cubbie class.  he loves being with his friends and he does a really good job memorizing his verses.  thursday night activities are new, and for the past three weeks he's been taking hip hop dance lessons.  it's the cutest thing i've ever seen.  dax loves dancing.  he creates his own moves, mostly some form of pop and lock and break dancing, all incorporated with a strange eye roll and head shake.  (all of his dancing really started with the movie "home" and he loves to "wave his hands in the air like he just does not care".)  dance class gives him a chance to learn some "real" moves and we cannot wait to see it all come together.  will wanted to have him pick between gymnastics and hip hop, but dax said he loved both, so will's given in - at least through the holidays.  friday nights are for soccer practice and then games are on saturday mornings.  dax loves soccer and he's pretty good at it.  his only set back is understanding that while you play against your team at practice, you play with them at the game.  that shift is pretty complicated for him and he sometimes gets upset when his teammates get the ball or even score a goal!  he'll get it soon though!

will and i celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on the 18th of august.  when we were first married we said we'd take a trip back to hawaii (where we went on our honeymoon) to celebrate the 15th, but we didn't make it.  life changed and our priorities shifted to using all of our airline miles and hotel points to take dax to disney world for his 5th birthday.  the surprise party and trip reveal are coming up soon and we can hardly wait to blow daxton's mind!  in lieu of the romantic trip we settled for a romantic dinner to a five star restaurant i've wanted to go to forever.  it was perfect in every way and we were thankful for auntie conti and uncle keek watching dax for the night so we didn't have to worry about getting home late and we could sleep in the following morning! 

hopefully we'll have something exciting on the horizon to share sooner rather than later, but until then it's just business as usual at the white house!