Where did February go?

I still don't know where February went... but can definitely attest to the fact the snow is still here!

Such a busy month for the 3M's and little A.  We were so fortunate to connect with many friends and family during our 3 different weekends of road trips.

We started off the month with an impromptu trip to Door County with the fabulous VA's.  What a great get away it was for us - including pool/hot tub time, hours of cross country skiing (thanks again Courtney for hanging with the kids while we were out), lively conversation, sledding and a dinner out.



Tiz, Courtney and Handi cozied up with Clifford

The next weekend the four of took the train to Chicago for a little birthday celebrating (Michael's) with my family... and an adult night out for the two of us!  We had a couple of outings with the boys too, including a very chilly walk to a lake front park.  The windy city truly lived up to its name that day.

We did our best to keep smiling and moving :)

At least the adults were smiling and the kids were moving!

Michael and Handi had a race around the track for a little warm up too.

Here are the boys smiles back at my parents' home.  Love this pic of Abera sitting in the little rocking chair that has been in our family for at least 3 generations.

Best Buds and Brothers



Michael, Mehandis, my dad and I took a trip to the mecca for boys (and I am sure many girls too) - the LEGO Store.  Our 4 year old has been asking to go to the LEGO store for months.  I don't think there is one in Wisconsin so we had to fit it into the schedule while in Chicago.  Glad that the age recommendations on most all of the Lego's prohibited us from purchasing them at this time.  We did nab a very cool Toy Story 3 set that has large enough pieces to still be out by Abera.

The last week in February brought us to Michigan.  Again a last minute trip due to a death in the family.  We were very pleased to be able to connect with several groups of people also available on very short notice.  The visits included aunts, uncles and extended family - most of whom had not yet met Abera.  They were very kind to host us for a meals, soccer fun, cartoon watching and night of lodging. 

Abera was familiar with another family we had the chance to visit... twins he shared a care center room with while living in Ethiopia.  Melissa and Kurt were part of the same July travel group as I was in when meeting Abera in Addis.  Can you believe they and their twins live about 5 minutes away from family of mine in Michigan?  It was so fun seeing how much their kids have grown as they too enjoyed how much Abera has changed.  All three of these kiddos are 10 months old too. The following pics are from our visit... they are all so sweet I couldn't edit them down!

Abera is in the plaid shirt.  He seemed very happy to be re-connected with his previous room mates, or at least happy to be playing with some fun babies and cool toys!

Mehandis got in on the photo attempts.  How many pics does it to get 3 10 month old kiddos smiling or at least looking in all the same direction?  We will just have to make another play date for retake attempts for that feat!

What a smile she has :)  Like the hand holding here too.

Such expressive eyes these boys have!

The vocal skills are not lacking either!!!