Fun in the snow

We got our first decent snow a couple weeks ago. I finally have time to post some pictures. Mike and Julie are in Guatamala right now. They have Sofie and Samuel for a week, Samuel gets to come home with them and they will soon go back and get Sofie. A link to their blog is in the upper right hand corner of our blog.

Six months!!!

What an amazing six months, I remember standing outside that conference room on the third floor, my knees were shaking so bad, I don't recall ever be that nervous before. This picture is of Lily and her foster mom just minutes after she entered the room. I remember leaning to Jeff and saying, "she is so beautiful", not knowing yet that she was my daughter!!!! Lily has been such a blessing to our life, you many people say, "how lucky she is", truly we are the lucky ones. Although we had a very rough first few hours, she is now a very happy and outgoing little girl. She is full of energy and makes us laugh alot, we love you Lily so very much and are so happy that we are your forever family.

Dare Devil

Well Lily has now become a dare devil, almost falling as I type. She loves to be on the couch, runs back and forth and has almost gotten the "getting off" figure out. We still have to gate most of the house, she is great at climbing stairs but not so good on coming down and with 15 wooden steps I am in no hurry with her doing that by herself. Her big brother go her a recliner for Christmas and she thinks she is pretty big stuff, she now thinks it's pretty funny to stand up, now climbs on the armrest and just smiles and claps for herself!!!! She is so funny and so full of energy, can't believe we have had her six months!!!! She has a fear of nothing, with her brothers always throwing her in the air, no wonder she thinks she can stand on furniture???

Samuel is Coming!!

We just heard that Samuel has his Consulate Appointment on February 12th, which is also his birthday!!! YIPPY!!!!! We cannot wait to get this little cutie pie home, and praying Sohpie comes soon after so Miss Lily can get to know her new cousins.

Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas is over. We had a great first Christmas with Lily. She has plenty of new toys to play with I think we may have to add on to the house to make room for everything.

Pictures Finally!!!!

We finally took Lily to get her picture taken, she never sits still for us so I was a little worried, but Sears did a great job getting her to smile. Of course now we had to order ALL of them. lol Enjoy!

Santa please bring a Play Kitchen

Here are just a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. Jeff got me some p.j.'s for my birthday so Lily and I could match, I love them!!!
Thank goodness Santa is bringing Lily her own play kitchen, hopefully she will like it as much as she likes getting into the cabinets. LOL
This is Fun!!!!

The Maninfior elves

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1411346677

Copy and paste the link to see the Maninfior elves

Shopping in St. Louis

We spent Saturday shopping in St. Louis with one of our travel group members, Mike and Gina. It was nice to see them again and see how their daughter Olivia has changed. I'm not sure if Lily and Olivia remember each other or not but they seemed to like playing together. Lily had her first visit with Santa, as you can see in the picture she didn't think too much of him.

Time to decorate

We had fun decorating for Lily's first Christmas with us. It was a little tough keeping her out of the tree, but it was still fun. If we can keep her from eating the ornaments it will be a miracle.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to post a few pictures from Thanksgiving and a few from the day before.

Pictures from Lily's 1st Birthday Party

Happy 1st Birthday Lily

Happy Birthday Lily!!!! This morning Lily's picture appeared on a local news program in a segment called Wonderful 1's, so cute. We started the morning out with breakfast and mom singing Happy Birthday about 10 times to her, she just starred and by the 5th time she was shaking her head NO to me, not sure what that was about. LOL We took cupcakes to Aunt Shelly's house, she watches Lily during the day, to share with the other kids. We are planning on eating Chinese tonight and taking Miss Lily to Toys R Us for some birthday gifts. We are having the family party tomorrow with around 40 some people there!! What a wonderful celebration it will be even if it get's a little crazy.
My heart aches for her birthmother today and the loss she must be feeling, my prayer for her would be that some small voice is telling her that it's ok, her daughter is being well taken care of and is LOVED soooo much.
Will be posting pictures of her big day.

Amy

Rosebud Dedication at Church

Sunday October 28th was a very special day, we had Lily dedicated at church. This is where we as the family vow to raise her with Christian values and also includes the congregation who also makes this promise to help guide her to Love the Lord as she grows. Both boys who have been such a huge part of her life also went forward with this vow and I cannot tell you how much it meant. With that being said Lily now how a new "cheesy" smile and decided to show the congregation. This is one part of her amazing personality that we love so much, she has been such a blessing to our lives.