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Savannah was a beautiful Bee for Halloween. She loved it. We did too, especially the eyelashes!

The original spider man was Isaac's pick this year. Up until the day before he was not sure if he wanted to be Spider Man or a Skeleton. We made him a spider man bag for his candy also. He was a little disappointed on Sunday when James asked him to take a different bag to church. He settled on using the Spider man bag for his library bag, instead of his church bag.

With the family cabin just half an hour from Yellowstone we often get to explore the park. It is so huge, so we always find something interesting and exciting. AJ stayed with a cousin at the cabin this time, but the rest of us had an afternoon adventure. I think the best part this trip was the park ranger who told us all about bears while we waited for Old Faithful to erupt.

My computer has been down for a few months. Because James is a computer guy, we actually have several. I just like mine best( I don't have the same programs as him), so I have not done much updating.
In this picture Savannah and her cousin Brooke were shooting off fireworks on the 4th of July at the Family cabin. As many of the Frankman kids as possible, gather each 4th of July for food, fun, and our own fireworks.

We had a great time on the 4th of July trying out grandpa's boat and playing with cousins. The cabin is such a fun gathering place.

Summer is in full swing. Well, minus the weather. We have had tons of rain. It has come in handy for the lawn/garden, but now we would like some sun so the plants have some of that much needed sun light.
We actually all would like to see the sun again. Every night the kids ask us if they can sleep out on the trampoline, and every night we have to say it is supposed to rain and it is rather chilly. They did sleep out on the deck one night, but on the part that has a roof.

Meanwhile we seem to find plenty to do to keep busy.

Savannah has started swim team and loves it. She swims in the morning before the thunderstorms start. Her friend Brynlee is having her tonsils out this week, and they plan to spend most of this next week together.They have a plan for Savannah to come over and be Brynlee's nurse and watch movies and play games.

Isaac is riding bikes through puddles, and jumping on the trampoline at least 12 hours a day-rain or shine. He is very excited to start T-ball for his second season. We should be hearing from his coach any day with his practice schedule.

AJ has had 4 sleepovers in 7 days. He loves playing the Wii late into the night with his buddies until we call "first down". Which at our house means, "come on up for family prayer so we can go to sleep."

He and Isaac are also working for a neighbor feeding his dog and cat while he is out of town. Another neighbor has hired him to water while they take their cute little daughters to Chinese Heritage Camp. Both of their daughters were adopted from China.

James took the scouts camping again this weekend in preparation for Scout camp coming up in a few weeks. He is very busy at work, and is actually scheduled on a short business trip this week to Montana.

Xochi is loving having the kids home. She has been having a great time getting ready {growing wheat grass for centerpieces, buying all sorts of white flowers and greenery at the nursery and finding the very best ways to combine lime green, black and white} to do the flowers for our niece Vanessa's wedding in three weeks. Also cub scout day camp is coming up, and she is glad to help on staff for that again this session. It will be fun!

The kids loved every minute of horse back riding. They are anxious to have another occasion to visit Aunt Allyson's parents home and ride the horses!

We always have something fun going on around here.

What a fun month!
Jason and Lucia welcomed Athen. Dave and Allyson brought home Max two weeks later. We have had so much fun visiting and snuggling our new little nephews/cousins.
The icing on our cake this month was visiting with an AMAZING mommy, as she explored all options for her unplanned pregnancy. With about a month to go in her pregnancy she has decided that parenting is her best choice. We are so grateful that she has found the decision that she can be at peace with. We respect that, and know that she will care for and love her baby perfectly! Our profound admiration for those with an unplanned pregnancy grows with each contact we have. They have such heart wrenching searching and planning to do.
Spring is in full force. The 200 plus bulbs buried last fall are up and beautiful, the fruit trees we planted last summer all survived the long winter and are blossoming. Our front yard tree has adorned it's lilac colored blossoms, and Robins are nesting in our trees and bathing in Savannah's bird bath.
Life is great!

Savannah was not all to happy to find that we had several inches of snow arrive on her Birthday. She had not planned that as part of "her" day. In her mind, snow has a time and a place. On her birthday, at our home was not acceptable! With spring in full swing though it was melted by the time she arrived home from school.

Savannah chose spaghetti for her Birthday dinner. It turned out that she had over 25 family members over and it was a very lively party. We set up a kids table in the living room and everyone had sauce covered hands and faces before too long. When Savannah crawled into bed exhausted, she had forgotten all about the unwanted birthday snow.

Baby Max (James brother Dave/Allyson's baby) is here. He had a little trouble making it out, but finally did. Unfortunately, he had a rather large bruise on his little head and needs some oxygen for a bit while his head stops hurting and he can remember to breathe deeply.
We are so glad he and Allyson are alright and can hardly wait to meet him in person!

AJ is loving driving. He just reached the minimum weight requirement for our little tractor. He is very excited. We had him drive down through our baby orchard to the triplex to pick up some yard bricks. We are all so glad it is spring.

We are getting serious about yard work. A previous tenant left us this little trailer. It is a perfect fit for our lawn tractor. A little silly looking but we actually enjoyed feeling a little like farmers!

Isaac built this house from the box our rocking recliner came in. Now that the weather has warmed up it is being stored out on the deck. AJ and Savannah who were "too old" to play house, have enjoyed this invention almost as much as Isaac. This is the three of them peeking out through the "sunroof".

We just got back from Spring Break. Most would imagine we are now sun baked and sandy. Well, because of all the snow this winter we actually spent our break covered in snow at the family cabin. We drove the snow mobile, dug a really cool snow fort with four different entrances, watched movies and relaxed. We wanted to stay much longer.

The sunsets from our home are breath taking. We can see them from almost every room. We really enjoy our neighborhood. The snow is melted and bulbs (we planted about 100 new ones last fall) are popping up from the ground. Spring is one of our favorite times of year.

Isaac's kindergarten teacher really had his class convinced that Leprechaun's are real. He has been thrilled for a week, because the Leprechaun keeps playing tricks on his class at night. He put the calendar upside, mixed up the alphabet etc. Today he even left a Pot Of Gold. They found it, and all got to make three wishes. According to Isaac the three wishes he made were:
1- "That no one ever has chores again"
2-"That we are ready for our baby"
3- "That our baby comes home"
hmmm, I wonder what is on our minds these days =)

I can hardly believe that Easter is this week! We decided to decorate eggs last night. The "Food safe Easter Egg Markers" were alright, but we think we will use the traditional dipping method in the future. It seems to yield much prettier eggs, with less effort.

Our house is often the after school play place. When AJ, Savannah, and Isaac all have a friend over we are at six children.
It just happened that we also had a little neighbor family over while their mom went to the dentist. So from 3-5 we had 9 kids. The older girls loved mothering the 6 week old baby. I could barely sneak in a turn.

MY HOUSE by SAVANNAH
I like my house
it is as quiet as a mouse
and, when my cousins are there
it is just like a fair....

Savannah wrote this for a school assignment and we have been laughing all weekend at her accurate portrayal of the atmosphere when cousins arrive. We have 24 first cousins and more on the way. Plus most of these families are not done growing. We love our cousins SO much and enjoy having them over and visiting them often!

We enjoy making and EATING sugar cookies! Everybody helped eat them, but Savannah and I mostly baked them!

The kids love the snow. We have had lots this winter! Our yard has part of the neighborhood sledding hill. Grandpa and Grandma G. live across the street from our other favorite sledding spot.
I (Xochi) think the snow is very pretty and happily participate in sledding outings. However, my preferred winter activities are indoors. We are in the midst of replacing our kitchen cabinet hardware and repainting the kitchen walls . Today I also planted about 30 bulbs. I have several planting pots in our living room. It has two full walls of floor to ceiling windows, so the bulbs should get plenty of light. I planted a few about two weeks ago and they are coming up strong.
Also the crib comforter for baby came today! We picked it months ago, but have been bidding on E-bay for it. We finally won last week- it is as cute as we imagined. It is white and yellow with some little bees. Savannah has a matching comforter. She wants baby to share a room with her. So, the crib and changing table are all set up in the Nursery/Savannah room. We shall see if she likes the idea as well when baby wakes her a few times a night crying=)
Isaac also volunteered to have the baby for a room mate. He said " it would be perfect, I would just wake up and very carefully carry the baby upstairs to you and dad whenever it cried." Although his offer is very sweet, we think the room next to ours is a better fit for a new little one.

Merry Christmas! What an amazing holiday we have had! We spent time with both sides of our family making memories.
**Uncle David and Aunt Allyson made a double batch of homemade donuts- probably close to 100 hot fresh donuts, and not one left over. They may have started a new tradition. The snow piled knee high. Sledding was a must on Christmas Eve day. After sharing in a fun filled day, and a short program with James' side of the family we packed the kids into the Yukon for the snowy drive home. They are always sad to leave the cousins. You would think it would be easy since we do it so often, but these cousins just can't get enough of each other!

We asked the kids to not wake up before 6am today for presents if they could stand it. Much to our surprise they didn't wake until 6:30. Xochithl's parents and single brother were waiting for the call saying "come on over the kids are up". They quickly arrived to watch the kids open gifts. AJ was very pleased with his new Guitar, as was Savannah with her Keyboard, and Issac's Moon Shoes are as fun as he imagined. After eating our traditional favorite sugar cereal it was time to play. Next, more fun with Xochithl's parents, siblings and their families which involved more presents,visiting, and food.

Grandma F. plays games with the kids all the time. She even brings out "The Christmas Game" each Christmas. She can usually even get the boys to sit down and play it with her.

Two new boy cousins are on the way for 2008. We are so excited and all have hopes that we will also have a little one to join the 2008 cousin group! These pictures are Jason and Lucia and their cute Diego and Brooklyn, the day of their ultrasound. Dave and Allyson also are having a boy. This is the first baby for them and he is very much anticipated by all. We shopped for a Dallas Cowboys Jersey for the new little guys, but were not able to find them small enough for next football season.

Savannah had her Winter Piano Recital. She gets so nervous that she shakes from head to toe. We are so proud that she got up and played her piece anyway.(Last time she needed Mom to accompany
her up front and sit by her on the bench).
Afterwords she picked Chili's for ribs. When we went to Georgia this past summer she acquired a taste for BBQ ribs. They sell them absolutely everywhere.

Today some of our good friends finalized the adoption of their third daughter(two of which have been adopted-same birth mom). I(Xochi) was invited to attend, and I am so glad that I did.
It was neat to hear the parents talk to the judge about how they came to adopt this little girl, and express the tender feelings they have for their new little daughter.
The judge asked them what feelings they had for the birth mother.
I was a bit emotional, as he-dad- expressed his gratitude for her and she-mom- expressed love and sincere respect for her. They acknowledged the sacrifices she has made to allow them to adopt these children.
Each experience related to adoption we are part of as we prepare, just rekindles our desire to adopt. We are so very excited for the day when we have our own birth mom and precious little one.

AJ and James went up in the mountains with Grandpa F, Uncle Brian,and two cousins Sam and Cameron to get our tree. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving we go "Tree Hunting". It is always fun to get the tree home and get it decorated. As parents we help get the lights on it, and then watch as the kids enjoy decorating it.

We like camping enough that the tent that was set up on the deck to dry after the scout camp out is still up. The kids have slept out for the past two nights. Much to their dismay we plan to get it put away today.

When James and AJ went camping with the scouts tonight we took a vote on what to do. Savannah had tickets for Applebee's she had earned at school and Isaac wanted to see Under Dog, so it didn't take us long to head out the door for a fun evening.

Since our home study was complete about 5 months ago we have been sending out a periodic friend and family e-mail, explaining our adoption process. I think posting a portion of that here will allow a little more insight into our world.

..."We do not yet have our baby, but we have experienced extra happiness in our family as we become closer by working towards our family growing. The kids have all expressed that sooner would sure be nicer than later. They say the cutest things. Isaac took in a deep breath a few days ago and said ," If we don't get our baby before I turn seven, I will be soooo mad..." Surely that is not the case, but being newly six, I believe his patience is age appropriate. AJ who is 10 3/4 is a little more composed, but did ask rather timidly, if James and I could reschedule the class that we taught to other adoptive couples about getting an online adoption profile up. He wanted to see if we could wait and
not teach it until "after we get our baby". He had a concern that if we helped them, we might have some competition. Thankfully we believe "our" adoption will be just that "our" baby...

We really have benefited thus far as a family going through this adoption process. Friends and family often ask if it is hard waiting? We seem to be at peace (at least age appropriately). Preparing for a baby there is always much to do. We keep busy getting ready -painting the nursery, putting up a the crib, buying diapers and formula when they are on sale, and of course irresistible outfits in both genders as we don't know which to expect =) We are enjoying the process and will definitely be very prepared when baby comes.

My(xochi) birthday was so fun. I slept in, went to lunch with friends,came home from that to these flowers James had sent me.
Looked at the flowers.Smelled the flowers. Took a picture of the flowers.Went to the Bee Movie with the Family. Went out for Mongolian BBQ. Climbed in bed about ten.

It's just a little over a week until we start on our 13th year of marriage. It really does keep getting better!

Isaac enjoyed Halloween the most this year. Being six he really enjoys all the candy, and is not frightened by neighbors costumes. The "bad" spider man is so cool to him. He has taken it off only to bathe and sleep for over a week.

Savannah was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. The cutest I have ever seen. We now have red glitter all over from making and wearing the ruby red slippers.

AJ decided to be a football player as he felt "a little too old to dress up", but wanted to go Trick or Treating with friends.

We passed out at least 15 bags of candy bars, plus lots of tangerines, and fruit snacks. The weather was perfect which made for a very fun evening.

We love playing in our yard and goofing off.