Our 4 year anniversary- wow, how things have changed

Mark and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary yesterday. September 3rd. It's crazy to think how different things are for us now, compared to our 3 year anniversary. We didn't even know about the boys, this time last year. We received the call from the referral department of our adoption agency on September 9th- telling us about 2 boys, brothers, that were available and being referred to us. Mark and I chuckle too- we would have been 5 months pregnant with Maks at our wedding. Hysterical- we just love thinking about that. In fact, even funnier- is that my Dad pointed that out to us in an email wishing us a Happy Anniversary... ha! Happy Anniversary it is.. we have enjoyed all 4 years together.  The 3 of us quickly became the 5 of us... Mark, Colleen, Maks, Fin and Buster. Even Buster is loving every minute of it! To celebrate our anniversary, we enjoyed a quiet dinner together, without any interuptions. HA!  Many thanks to the Dietz girls for watching the boys.

We sure are going to miss this place!
Although we don't have a set date for moving back east, we have decided to spend Thanksgiving through early January back in Baltimore. It will be great to be back and spending the holidays without the pressure of travel and time together with family and friends. In the upcoming months, we've decided to do quite a few "Austin" things to enjoy it while we are here. We really do pinch ourselves with the joys of how life is just perfect here, aside from the lack of immeidate family close by. We just love our neighborhood, our house, our friends, the weather, lots of fun family things to do and the close proximity to the pool (that's the boys' favorite thing about being here!). We can't get over how great it all is- we take the wagon every where we go.. to friends houses, to the pool, to t-ball games, etc. It doesn't get any more American than that!!! Today we enjoyed some time on Brushy Creek, kayaking with the boys. That's about 10 minutes from us. Just too good to be true. And we 've enjoyed a lot of evenings just hanging in the backyard... with the baby pool, slide, sand box, wagon, bikes, Buster, the grill, and lots of drinks flowing for Mom and Pop (the boys still call Mark, Pop. It's a European thing but pretty cute to let go of. ha!)

Some funny stories:
Maks and Fin have gotten quite good at dropping their drawers and tinkling in the grass in the back yard. Maks decided it was time to try the back porch and tinkle right on the screened porch. I wasn't happy about it, but it was pretty funny watching him drop his pants and just go for it on his own.

"Pop has a big diddy (in a deep voice). Maks has a little diddy (in a high pitch voice)." Enough said.

Baby cousin Olivia joined us this past week. Congrats to Michael and Laura. The boys had a hard time getting her full name. It became "Ooooooooo-livia" after the many tries... we just let that be. Baby cousin Ooooooo-livia- we can't wait to meet you.

enjoying some kayaking

Heading to the pool

Who's faster- Maks and Pop or Fin and Mom?