Slaven Away: 2015

Saturday, December 19, 2015

A Christmas Card

For the "Virginia Slavens" this year has passed by quickly and in many ways unremarkably. There are no new additions to the family. Everyone is a year older; the parents tireder and Leo and Piper zanier (there's a correlation, trust us!). Leo is as active as they come. Lately he has taken to running laps outside while chanting, "runnin' around, runnin' around". Inside he loves to play with his cars and trucks. He loves them so much that he'll drift away from the dinner table to play, forgetting that he was in the middle of his meal. As a family, we went on some fun outings. In February, we traveled to Kansas to visit the ever growing Slaven family. In the summer the family went camping in the Shenandoah mountains. Leo didn't mind roughing it. He got to bathe in a trash bag-lined laundry basket with water warmed over the camp stove and he discovered wild blueberries for us to eat while hiking. In August Leo went on a father and son trip to watch a mud bog down in North Carolina. The real life monster trucks were fun but really loud and threw up mud on the crowd! In November Ronnie ran the Richmond Marathon (again) and got his best time: 3:09:38. Heather, Leo and Heather's parents were very supportive and cheered him on at rally points with signs and high-fives. Holidays have been extra fun this year, with Leo getting more and more into the action. For Halloween he dressed up as Bob the Builder and was a natural at trick-or-treating. Currently, we are doing advent activities for the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Leo helped pick our Christmas tree; we rode in a horse drawn carriage and met Santa Claus; we watched two Christmas classics ("Home Alone" and "Elf"); we saw Christmas lights and a life size Nativity at the Washington DC LDS Temple; and (tried) to put together a gingerbread house (Leo thought eating the candy trim work was more fun than sticking it on the roof). All in all, we are very happy and blessed as a family. We are thankful for our belief in Christ, and we hope that the Christmas Spirit will help lead others to Him at this special time of year. We send our love and wish each of you a very merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 5, 2015

On the day after Thanksgiving we went and picked out our Christmas tree. Leo was excited to go! He thought all the Christmas trees were pretty! He kept saying, "I like this one!" to almost all of them!

We picked one and brought it home to decorate.

Its fun to see how much more Leo is into everything this year!

Thanksgiving 2015

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Adoption Month Cont'd

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https://slavenadoption.blogspot.com

Sunday, November 15, 2015

26.2

We went up to Richmond this weekend so Ronnie could run the Richmond marathon! My parents came with us. Ronnie's foot had been hurting the past couple weeks but he decided to go ahead and run. His goal was to come in at 3hours 10minutes which is about 8 minutes faster than the one he ran in 2013. He ended up finishing at 3:09:38! His foot hurt but he still finished before his goal. I have to say my hubby is pretty awesome!

Leo was so excited to cheer on the runners and especially his daddy. He kept saying, "yay, daddy!"

Here is a video of Ronnie crossing the finish line.

(I don't think apple users can see the videos for some reason. Any ideas on how to fix that?)

Adoption Month Cont'd

Happy Sunday!

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https://slavenadoption.blogspot.com

Friday, November 13, 2015

National Adoption Month Cont'd

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https://slavenadoption.blogspot.com

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

National Adoption Month

It's national adoption month! Adoption has profoundly affected my family. We can't imagine life without our dear Leo and look forward to the day when another little one joins our family. Adoption is hard and scary and you have no control but is so worth it! I've linked our adoption blog in our profile and will post some more adoption quotes through out the month. Thanks for all your support and love!

(I'm sharing this on my instagram account and figured I'd go ahead and share it here to! )

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https://slavenadoption.blogspot.com

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Real Life

On Saturday, we TRIED to get a family picture for our Christmas card/update adoption picture etc. We wore fall attire but it was 80 and super humid that day (which normally I don't mind but not so great for chasing littles and taking pics). My mom is always gracious enough to take some pics for us. We went to this pretty little park next to the Intercoastal waterway to get the shots.

Lets just say we have some crazy peeps. Sitting or standing for a brief second is not even an option.

Here are a few outtakes...which was pretty much every picture...

Bye Leo....

A little strategy going on here.

Almost had it!

Piper finally sits...

Rough day....

The struggle is real ya'll! I could of posted about 100 similar pictures...so hilarious. Leo was so exhausted from being anti picture he fell asleep on the way home. Piper was even calm on the way home...

So if you get a Christmas card from us this year...don't judge ;)

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Halloween!

Leo was Bob the Builder this year and a pretty good one if you ask me. He owned trick or tricking. When he was done he came home and stayed on the porch with me. He yelled "KIDS! Come get candy!" Then after they came and went he would stand in front of me and say trick or treat and pick some candy. Such a fun kid. Ronnie was Rambo at the trunk or treat on Friday night ;) He had a great mullet.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Leo

Leo is so hilarious. The end. ;)

Monday, September 28, 2015

Anything for chicken

On Sunday we were over my parents house for dinner. My mom had some chicken leftover (she made chicken pot pie ...yum!) and told Ronnie to give it to Piper. So Ronnie was having Piper do tricks for the chicken and Leo said he wanted a piece (which we all thought he would give to the dog of course) but he took it for himself! Then Leo proceeded to do tricks with Piper for the chicken. It was hilarious. I don't think Piper anticipated having to share her treats with Leo (since he pretty much takes everything else ;))

Other cute things....

Ronnie got me flowers one night and Leo said, "That's so nice!" and then took the flowers to smell them.

Went to the zoo and another family was taking pictures at the otters....of course Leo wanted in on the action.

Some guys were holding the door for Leo and I at Chick-fil-a and I said, "Thanks guys." and Leo repeated, "Thanks guys!" They thought it was hilarious. When I was ordering the food, Leo repeated everything I said to the cashier. Then of course when we were "done" with our lunch he wanted "icemean!"

We went to the library and afterwards we were running errands and Leo says, "library!" I told him we already went. He replies, "Silly goose!"

He says the funniest things! I wish I was better at recording them!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Beach with the Grandparents

Ronnie's parents came for a few days. The first day we took them to the beach to enjoy the sun. Of course Leo loves the beach so he happily went ;) He keeps saying, "Let's go beach!" I had to take him in the hall during our church meeting on Sunday because he kept saying it very loud!

Photos courtesy of my mother in law's right appendage....aka her camera ;)

(3 generations!)

Another beautiful day at the beach!

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Mud Bog

Ronnie took Leo for a little Father/son outing last Saturday to the Mud Bog in NC (and he actually took pictures/videos and they're all of Leo ;)). Leo was a little nervous about the mud flinging but loved the trucks. It was nice for the guys to get out and also for mom to get a little break!