Author: Laura Kent

Andrew loves doing his science kit from Christmas.

We went to the Magic House and I helped Andrew make a custom button to wear.  I asked him what do you want it to look like?  And he looks at me and says, “a button.” 😂 So literal

It was a relaxing Christmas at home this year and then right before going back to school, 7.5 inches of snow!  So much fun.

We had a fun trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving. 

As Andrew gets older he starts understanding more what adoption means.  He knows that he has a birth mother and what her name is.  He knows that he grew in her tummy and then he came to live with us. 

On this day every year we thank God for Andrew’s birth mother and all the birth mothers who make the selfless decision to choose an adoptive family for their child.  We’re so grateful that Andrew’s birth mom chose life and chose us!

Andrew’s such a talented, loving child and such a gift to our family.

Andrew celebrated today with some more pancake art.

We celebrated Andrew’s 6th birthday with a Sonic/Captain America/Lego celebration with friends and family.

Then the summer fun continued with a trip to Meramac Caverns and some experimenting with kool-aid hair dying!  (Andrew requested blue hair, it didn’t take the first time but we’ll try again.)

Andrew’s been enjoying summer so far.  He’s trying out some new camps like Vacation Bible School, Kindergarten camp and tennis camp. He had a fun time at the RYZE climbing tower celebrating his birthday with his friends. 

Andrew entered his first car in the Pinewood Derby today and won fastest in the family division!  He was really excited about the trophy! He colored the car himself with tiger stripes.  It was really creative.

Andrew’s been enjoying the cold weather we’ve had. He insisted on going out to play when it was 3 degrees but we didn’t stay out too long. We also had a fun family ski day.

Christmas was so warm this year, our Christmas fun involved bike riding and ice skating. We also went to see Christmas lights at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Andrew asked Santa for costumes this year and then spent Christmas day being Darth Vader. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Lots of fall fun.

Andrew has gotten really into drawing lately! And he’s quite good for his age. He drew all these things below starting with a blank page and a pencil and watching a YouTube tutorial. He’s so focused when he does it! Everyday now he asks to draw something.

Andrew had a fun birthday week that included rock climbing, a playdate with friends, a Cardinals baseball game (Star Wars themed), and dinner with family. He’s very excited to be 5!

Here are some of the fun things we did over Christmas 🎄

Cheers to 2023!

Andrew likes to have a bedtime snack. Tonight he got all these ingredients (Ritz, Velveeta, raisins) and made himself a plate of sandwiches 😂

We’ve had a fun October from pumpkin farm to trick or treating.

Andrew started preschool this past week. It’s nice to now have both boys at the same school as me. Andrew’s doing well with the transition.

We got to celebrate Andrew’s adoption day with family this year as we were staying in Door County with them on vacation.

We’re so blessed to have Andrew in our family. And we especially remember in prayer this day Andrew’s birth mother who made such a difficult and brave choice.

And more from Wisconsin….hiking, kayaking, food delivered by a train and fun cousin time!

We celebrated Andrew’s fourth birthday and he’s very excited to be “big” now.  He’s pumping himself on the swings and buckling himself in the carseat and overall feeling very independent.  Andrew had a fun birthday week including petting stingrays at the zoo, dressing up for the World’s Fair at the history museum and having a Sonic party!

Two days before we left I told Andrew, “two more sleeps until we leave.” The next day after I picked him up from school he said, “I took a sleep at school, so we can go to the airport now.” 😂 He was very excited to get to Arizona to see the cactuses.

January turned out to be a drag as we kept getting quarantined due to covid, but we’ve had some fun along the way too. And now that Andrew has immunity, we’ve finally gotten him into gymnastics classes.

Andrew on the monkey bars.

Unfortunately the boys and I got sick the week before Christmas so we cancelled all our plans with family. Then we found out Christmas morning, we were positive for covid. So our Christmas was very casual this year. But we were blessed to receive lots of gifts from family so the boys will be able to stay busy during quarantine! Here are a few pics from casual Christmas.

We’re having a nice California Thanksgiving this year with the Kents.

This is a little belated, but we’re still eating the candy, so I think it counts. The boys had lots of fun for Halloween. Tommy was a zombie and Andrew was a dragon.

Summer ended too soon and fall is flying by but we’ve been having lots of fun.

Andrew’s become a very confident climber! Luckily there are lots of great playgrounds around us to visit.

And of course we visited the pumpkin patch!

I can’t believe three years ago we brought home this little nugget and now he’s a confident, independent, sweet little boy.

We especially remember and pray for Andrew’s birthmother on this day and thank her for making such a loving and brave decision.

We had a Star Wars themed birthday party for Andrew today. It was lots of fun!

We took a fun trip to Smoky Mountain National Park with Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Pat.

Ready to hike!

Sometimes hiking got a little too tiring though. Luckily Daddy comes with a built-in head rest.

We saw lots of bears, but luckily none approached us while hiking.

Andrew’s a big fan of dinosaurs these days, so we had to go check out the new dinosaurs at the zoo.

And we got a great view of the bears as well!

Now that we’re all vaccinated, we got to have an almost normal Easter with family. We had some Easter eggs in the morning at home and then again at Grandma’s later.