Grandma and Grandpa First Meeting

This is the first time Grace met her Grandma and Grandpa (Terry's parents). As you can see she was pretty excited, and they were very delighted to meet their new little granddaughter for the first time. This was the weekend of our busy Recital Shows, (May 1st) so we all had a great time. They live very far away from us, but we really want to go visit them really soon. We just need to get Gracie to ride more than 10 miles in her carseat first. :-) We miss you guys!

Video: Should I Sleep OR Eat my Snack?

First day at the pool!

Today I took Bailey and Amanda to the new water park in town. Terry stayed home with Gracie and had great daddy bonding time with her. He took her to the park, and played alot then he popped on over to the water park with her to see how she would do. Luckily she did great and really loved the water and all the kids!..We met some friends and my sister there and had a great time relaxing in the sun. It feels so good to finally be warm outside! We plan on this alot this summer!

Cutie Pie Amanda....she is like a fish!!

Sweet little young man....My other Fish!!

Fun in the sun!

Grace has said dada a few times. Today she waved goodbye for the first time when I told her to say bye bye to our friends. It was sooooooo stinkin adorable!! She is really catching onto so many things around her...Thank you God for this great day!

5 weeks Home!

Wow, it is amazing how fast time flys by! Grace has been home for 5 weeks already. I have to say we are all head over heels sooo in love with this sweetie pie. God sure knows what He is doing when He matches families with their child. She is the best easy going baby and so happy all the time. She will sign "more". She knows how to dance when I say "dancing". She loves music, and loves Baby Einstein "baby MacDonald" a day on the farm movie. It is a great learning video and it is amazing how she looks forward to seeing it. I highly recommend it to anyone with a 9 month old baby. We are sooo enjoying the nice spring weather and going for walks. She will usually fall asleep after about 2 blocks. ...wish she would do that in car rides. She loves outdoors and swinging! She has definetly discovered her voice! Im sure the neighbors hear her experimenting with all the new sounds she says. Of course my favorite sound is mama!! :-)

Bless the USA

Yeah I have my new two front teeth...can you see them?

Today we give Thanks to all the Veterans that have dedicated themselves to our country so that we and many generations down can have the same freedoms that we do today.

God bless the USA!

Sharing sweet pics

Big brother and Gracie! Soooo cutePeek A Boo!
This is the best little toy in the whole wide world!

Children are a gift from God!

Weekend of fun....

Kids make the world go round! Today we had fun introducing Grace to her cousins Dillan and Rylan and her Great Grandma Hope. They had sooo much fun hanging out and playing. Dillan (5) said she loves Baby Grace, and kept saying "she is soooo cute". She was so good with her and gave her lots of hugs and kisses! It was very cute to see them all get to spend time together and just be kids and have fun! I took this picture of all their hands today. I just thought it was so cute going from oldest to youngest on the top. They grow up sooo fast it is crazy. Great Grandma Hope also came out and met baby Grace for the first time. Grace really like Grandma alot! Here she is with all her Great Grandkids. I love so much that my children know and are close to their great grandparents!

Nanna and Papa also came out and brought out their camper. We just had to get a pic of them with all the grandkiddos!! AFter the scare the other day with Grace going boom boom, my mom (nanna) could not wait to give her kisses!

This was Grace's and My first girl day out to eat. With a nine month old, it is a brave thing to do. We picked up my sister and headed out to eat. IT was a fun fun time! ohhh and did I mention a busy time too :-)

Grace Update..doing great!

Thank you all for your comments and prayers that were going out for Grace. I know Prayer always makes a difference, and I'm so happy and relieved to let you know that Grace is doing really good. The first night ....of course I did not sleep at all, just watching over her, and being sure she would be awake every 4 hours. It was a very scary thing, but we just Thank God totally that she is not hurt, did not break anything, and is doing really good. I put a note on the gate..so that when we are passing through we will have a little reminder to actually shut it. Seems we are all obsessed with making sure it is shut. It is amazing how fast things like that can happen in a split second! The ER doctors were great...they all kept saying how beautiful she is..even with all her tears. I think the ER was just as traumatizing as the actual fall was. We were all worried about possible bleeding, my mom was ready to fly out here in a split second! Her and papa sure love Gracie. We are on day 2, so we will just continue praying everything continues to remain healthy. They just said to monitor her closely for 3 days after a fall like that. God is good, God is Faithful!!

Trip to ER

Tonight as we were all rushing around to get ready for the kids school program, the gate on our stairs got left open. Next thing we know we heard a big boom. Oh my Lord...Grace fell down the stairs. the gate got left open. My heart stopped at that point. I have never ran so fast in my life after her as I ran tonight. What a helpless feeling! She cried and cried, then fell asleep. Soon after she threw up all over me, that was sign that I did not feel things were ok with her. She was a little out of it and limp to me. Bailey fell down the stairs when he was little, and was fine, she was different. So the other two kids caught a ride with some friends to the school, while Terry and I rushed Grace to the ER to have her checked over. YOu know you have good friends when they show up at the ER with you. Our great Friend Scott came over , and it was great just to have that support right at that time. THey checked her back, her head, neck, eyes, temp and watched her for a little bit. The doc has to go over everything....so He talked about chances of beeding in the brain ....just to hear that is scarey...but he said chances are very small, but we need to really watch her. ..not let her sleep more than 4 hours at a time for the next 24 hours and watch her eye contact. He also was positive and said that she most likely will not have any problem and children are pretty resiliant when so little. We walked in to the last part of the school program. I know our kids had a hard time and were very worried , and they looked relieved when we walked into the church that the program was being held. A lady I had never met before "happen" to be near me as i was walking Grace in the back , she started talking to me, and me flustered told her what we had just been through. She layed hands on Grace right away...and Prayed over her, she promised she would ask all her friends to also pray and would pray for her tonight. She as an angel from God! She loved Grace and kept giving her kisses on the head. Later on...as we were leaving the program, I was thanking her, and found out that she is a pastors wife. What an amazing lady. What a heart for God! And He placed her right there at that exact time. She gave me such comfort! If you are reading this please pray for our little sweetie tonight. ...and always be sure if you have little ones to keep those gates closed!

First New Shoes!

Thank God for great friends like you....This weekend Stacey ("aunt Stacey") called to see what size shoes Grace wore. I did not know since I had not yet been shoe shopping....but I did tell her what size shoe I wear! Guess Im not cute enough though...just kidding....Tonight she stopped by with the cutest new shoes for Grace, and also since she knows Grace loves cell phones, she gave her her old one. What a great friend..she is always spoiling us, we love her to pieces. Oh plus she brought us dilly bars from DQ!
wowza what fun!

We can tell Grace is chunking up a bit...what cute little chubby cheeks!!

She says "Hellllo"!

here you can see the cutie little shoes! Oh my gosh!!

School Character Awards Day!

Bailey got the Temperate Character award today at school. "He always has a smile, and is never negative!"

Amanda got the Optimistic Character award..."She is always positive no matter what!"

We are very happy we have always been able to send our kids to the Christian school. All the things they both have learned this year has been all worth it. But especially the values, and the love for God we see in each of them is music to our ears. The teachers all work so hard and give everything they have to these kids!

Spring is in the air!

Big brother and Peek a boo!

Fun in the sun! Planting flowers on Sunday was fun!

Peek a boo mama!!

Grace said Mom so clearly on Sunday. Now she says mom allllllll the time. Im so happy!! Yeah!Daddy is soo jealous!!

Today was 85 degrees ..wowza! Great day to wear the cute outfit from my friend Becky!

Bailey was so dizzy he was sick to his stomach last night!

Bad Dreams..

Last night Grace had a bad dream. This has happend a couple times. She was still sleeping, but had a very sad cry. We of course hop up right away to get her and cuddle her! It made me so sad wondering what my little baby could be dreaming about. She is doing so great and is so happy and full of laughs all day long, but Im sure with all the changes she has been through some things may come back to her in her dreams. As soon as I hold her and cuddle her she is totally fine. I read in our adoption information that dreams may sometimes happen and are a normal part of the process. ..even knowing that..it still made me sad last night as I was holding her tears ran down my face too. My prayers last night and every night for her are that God will fill that place in her heart...the place that only He can fill with His love! That he comforts her in the ways He knows she needs comfort, and that he will help her along with adjusting, bonding, and trusting in her forever parents! That He will help and guide us as her parents to do our best with all of our children and to bring them up with the knowledge, love and passion for HIM!

1st Place Trackster

We are so proud ...Amanda got first place at this years track meet. She ran the 200. She loves track now and really wants to keep running.

Mommy Dance Dedicated to Grace and our Journey to bring her home! -(mute sound at bottom of page first)

My dream came true...Grace was home before our big show...I could dedicate a dance to her and our journey that brought her home to her forever family! (mute the music at the bottom of this page so that you can enjoy the sound from this video) Enjoy and God Bless!

Totally Funny Bath Time Video! "Big Sister is funny"!

1 Month Home!

I am totally in Love with this sweet little angel. She is the joy of our hearts every day! Today we celebrate her being home for a month now. WOW, time really went fast. It does not seem like one month, but yet at the same time it seems we have had her forever!! We have had her in our hearts forever that is for sure. Cool how God works. I tell her every day "your the love of my lifetime". I love my family, and all my kids are so great. They bring so much joy to our lives.
This is how attached we are to mommy now....Yep mommy can't do anything by herself, such as wash her hands, do dishes etc......when I try, this is who is climbing up my leg. Yes we are bonding! Thank God!

Say Cheese mommies little angel!

Yep "I will even lay on mommies legs....as long as we are close"!

Ohh So Sweet....

Seems Grace is really feeling at home. Looking back at some older photos of just three weeks ago you can see her face seems more relaxed now. She is babbling alot, and oh my goodness what a great personality she has now shining through. I think she definetly knows she is now home forever. What a difference a few weeks make that is for sure. She is growing much more attached to us now. Today for the first time, someone talked to her and she cried and reached out for me. That was a "good thing". It shows she is growing more of a bond and attachement to me. It has been wonderful just being home and focusing on her. I love being home with my kids and we are all getting very excited for school to be out.

"Fun to be me"!!

"Daddy's my Prince"!

Happy Mother's Day!!

What a very special Day for me today...Mothers Day with Three Children! I love it! What a dream come true. It was such a very special day just hanging out in the park with my family and enjoying the nice spring weather. We found that Grace loves to swing. She would giggle so hard..it was so funny! Im so very happy to be a mommy, and God has really blessed me with the best kids in the Whole World! I will always remember this day....just as I remember my very first mothers day. Then a mothers Day with two , and now mothers day with three! Thank you Lord for all you have blessed me with! Keep us safe and healthy always!

Grace's big brother and sister are madly in love with her! It is so very sweet!

wheeeee!!!