FFF... Laughter and Smiles!

Hey guys!! Have you missed me? I have absolutely LOVED watching FFF continue over at Hannah's Blog and have missed posting my own!! This week, Hannah has asked me to host FFF for her so she can enjoy some much deserved away time to celebrate her 138th Birthday (yes, she is THAT OLD and wrinkly!!) and Dmitry's 10th Family Day!

This week's theme is Laughter and Smiles!! We sure have been experiencing a lot of that around here lately as spring has definitely sprung! As a matter of fact, several weeks ago during Spring Break week, Hannah and I got our kids together as some of you have already seen and had a little Princess and Pettiskirt photo session with the Sophias! They were FULL of laughs and giggles that day! Thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share some of those beautiful smiles on their cute little budding friendship!

Even some tickle tackles occurred and the girls LOVED it!

Dmitry was a sport and posed for the mamarazzi but would not wear a tutu!!! ha ha

Sophia was teaching Sophie the ropes on how to pose effectively!!

Yep, I think the tips were effective!! LOL!
Look at their little tudes!!!

Can't see their smiles, but this is one of my favorite shots!

Loads of laughter and smiles!!

Thanks Hannah for showing me the ropes of my new camera! And, I can't wait to get together again for another round of fun!!!

As Hannah says... Link Up and Leave Some Love!!!! See you next week back at Hannah's!!!

Favorite Foto Friday #105 - Happy 15th Birthday Grant!

Thank you all so much for your comments and private e-mails regarding my decision to take my blog private. I am so touched with all the stories that you have shared with me and feel honored that so many care about my family and have been touched by our adoption journey. I really have mixed emotions about closing it down, but feel it is the right thing to do at this time in our lives. I hope that sometime I will be able to make it public again once we find a better flow in our lives.

In the meantime, for this week's FFF... I want to wish a very Happy 15th Birthday to my son, Grant. He turned 15 on Wednesday, September 30th and we were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate with family and friends at his favorite Japanese Hibachi restaurant. I forgot to take my camera to his celebratory dinner but did manage a picture before we left of him opening his birthday gifts at home with his little sister by his side...

It is definitely my favorite foto of the week even though the flash went off in the fireplace screen and is slightly out of focus. Oh well... it has two of my three favorite people in this world in it! More pictures are on Morgan's camera but she has lost her cable to download them, so this will have to do!!

As I announced earlier this week... this is the final FFF that I will be hosting on this blog until further notice. Starting next week, you will find the FFF linkup on Hannah's blog! I know she will take really good care of everybody there!! Please be sure to leave her loads of comments thanking her for hosting as well as how much you love her AMAZING photography skills of her gorgeous children!!!

Here is MckLinky! I hope we have a great turnout this week!!!



I will post some pictures from our trip to Guatoberfest when we return next week! Sophie~Bug and I are so excited to spend time with the many wonderful families we have been looking forward to meeting in person!

Love, Hugs and FROG (Fully Rely On God)!!

ANNOUNCEMENT

I have decided that I am going to take the blog private. I just don't have it in me to blog recently and 2009 has not been the most stellar year for my family. Hard to share intimate details with people that I may not really know.

I will host one more Favorite Foto Friday this week on this blog and hope we get a fabulous turnout. After that, my sweet friend, Hannah from Me-Me and Monkey's BIG Adventures, has agreed to host future FFF's. I know she will do a fabulous job and create a fresh new atmosphere for all to gather each week. She has been a part of FFF from almost the beginning and I am so grateful that she will help it continue!! Please give her a huge shout out and thank you for taking on the task of keeping us connected through the beautiful picture carnival showcasing our greatest blessings!

Sophie~Bug and I am heading off to Guatoberfest next week in celebration of her 4th Forever Family Day and plan to take things private when we return. So, if you are interested in an invitation, please leave a comment here with an e-mail address and when I get back into the blogosphere, I will share the password for those of you that I know, love and trust. If you are not sure that I know you, please let me know our connection. I hope you understand this difficult decision to protect the privacy of my family.

God Bless You and thank you so much for your support and prayers! This blog has opened up so many connections and friendships over the years and I am hopeful that those wonderful friendships will remain. I am hopeful that someday I may reopen the blog when we are ready.

Love, Hugs and FROG (Fully Rely On God)!!

Favorite Foto Friday #104

I have not taken any photos almost this entire month! And, I have been battling a cold that I feared was the flu this week and am feeling a bit medicine heady... so please excuse me for the lack of creativity this week.

I am sweating a bit thinking about that... but I did manage a Back to School Picture of Sophie...

I know you will be much more creative than me!!! Have a fabulous weekend!!

Here is MckLinky!



See you next week for Octoberfest!!!!

Favorite Foto Friday #103

Hey guys... I am still here... things are still very unsettled. But, all the fabulous support you have given me this week has me coming back for another FFF. I will continue to host them as long as you keep stopping by! I have hardly taken any photos at all... so, I am posting some favorite pictures from this summer of my two girls... this was at Morgan's senior portrait session. I asked Morgan to pose with her baby sister for a few and they all turned out fabulously. She will be able to look back at these someday and see just how little her baby sister was the year before she left to go away on her own. Such a bittersweet time for me...




Here is MckLinky!



Let's continue to keep the themes open for a while! I love everybody's creativity! Sorry if I have not commented lately... but I do read and check them out. I hope I am back up to speed very soon! Love you all!

Favorite Foto Friday #102

I really thought I was ready to get back to blogging but some uncertainty has come up in my life at the moment and I feel I must extend my blogging break until the crisis is averted. I have not taken pictures of my kids in a couple weeks, so you know that something is consuming much more of my time and energy.

I may even have to take the blog private, which is something I have considered doing for a while. I don't feel comfortable putting my private life out there when difficulties arise not knowing who may be reading it. I know we all must struggle with this at times and I wish blogger allowed the option to password protect posts so that I could be open with those that I want to share our private details with. But... sigh... not really sure what to do.

I feel like I have fallen off the bandwagon of chronicling my family's life and am a little overwhelmed with how to make up for the lack of posts. Maybe that is what is really bothering me. I, like most of you, blog to create a keepsake for your kids someday. I had hoped that this too would be the same thing for us. But, I don't know how to start back up.

So, for this week... I am off the theme that was chosen last week... I really need to take pictures of the kids back to school, but they have already been back for a couple weeks. So, I will post a picture I did take recently of Grant and Sophie enjoying some time on the front porch last weekend. The mutual adoration of these two is simply amazing. I have no idea who could love each other more...

One thing that has not changed is how much I love my kids... they are the ones who keep me going day in and day out.

Here is MckLinky!



I would like to hear from you if you would like to keep Favorite Foto Friday going... maybe that will be my motivation to at least pop in here once a week until things settle back into a rhythm.

Love you guys!

Favorite Foto Friday #101 - FRIENDS!

If I can be thankful for nothing else, I am most thankful for my friends. They have become my family and I am extremely blessed!! It has been so sweet watching my youngest learn what friendship is about... I would have to say that she is also very blessed!!!

Most recently, we had a cruise on a local Paddlewheel Steamboat with some of our friends with other Guat Tots... Sophie had a blast dancing and playing with her friends... old and new...

Sophie~Bug, Ella and Sophia

Sophia, Kate, Sophie and Ella

Proud to be Guatemalan Americans!

Come on Sophia, let's dance!!

Let's ride off into the sunset on my faithful pony, Ella!!

Here is Mcklinky!! Can't wait to see your FRIENDS pictures!!



Since many of us have kids that have gone back to school recently, next week's theme is BACKPACKS!!

FFF Winner!

I am so thrilled that we have returned to Favorite Foto Friday! Welcome back!

Sorry to have been so secretive about the prize... but the prize is a beautiful custom picture frame like the one modeled here by the beautiful Sophie~Bug!!


I ordered ours and fell in love with it... handcrafted by another blogging mommy, Kelley! She has an etsy shop called Shorty Bananas, that you can link to here.

The winner can choose the frame or anything else from her etsy shop.


I just love her sayings that are engraved into the frames... and the winner can choose which saying and choose the colors for the frame.

So, without further delay... the winner, determined by random.org is the 14th commenter, Kerri!! I think Kerri may just be ordering two for her beautiful girls, Medina and Ruby! Congratulations Kerri and thanks for always being a loyal FFF participant!!

Favorite Foto Friday #100!! - TINY DANCER!

My tiny dancer has been so excited for her ballet classes to start! She has been dressing up in her leotard, tutu and ballet shoes for our dance parties on the porch, and even though I messed up the lighting, I just love this series of pictures... there is something so precious about seeing the joy on a little girl's face when she thinks she is a ballerina!

Love this action twirl shot!

Yeah! My 100th Favorite Foto Friday post! This calls for a little giveaway for my FFF friends! To enter, please post a direct link to your FFF for today AND leave a comment letting me know that you are entering! I will draw a winner on Sunday evening! I promise you will love the prize... but it will remain a surprise until I draw the winner!

In the meantime... here is MckLinky to help get you linked up!!



The theme for next week's FFF is FRIENDS!

Favorite Foto Friday #99 - MY GIRLS!

My oldest baby girl is a SENIOR in High School!! Morgan had her senior pictures taken last month and they turned out GORGEOUS! It is sometimes hard for me to look at her and realize that my baby has become a young woman!


We also had a mini session for Sophie~Bug during the shoot while Sissy was changing her clothes... and I was so pleased with how ALL of them turned out! I am much poorer than I was before I saw these pictures! I could not walk away from all the amazing pictures (over 275 poses) of my beautiful baby girls.


I wanted a picture of the two of them together so that someday, they could look back and see just how much they loved each other at this time of their lives! These two were always meant to be sisters! I thank God for the gift of all three of my children every day!!


Grant did not come to this photo session and I know that many of you have sent me private messages asking about him. He is doing very well and I will share some pictures of my growing boy very soon!

Here is MckLinky!! Be sure you are linking your blog post and not just your blog address in the linky!! Can't wait to reconnect with all of you!



We are going to finish out the rest of August without any themes... just continue to post your favorite FFF of the week and link back to here to join in! Next week is my 100th FFF post. I am going to do a surprise giveaway to one of you who link up here next Friday!!

Favorite Foto Friday #98 - RED, WHITE & BLUE!

Summer is just flying by and I know I am the worst blogger out there as far as updates. Great intentions, but not so great on the follow through. With that... I am taking a bloggy break for an undetermined amount of time. I won't be hosting Favorite Foto Fridays for the rest of the month of July... check back in August and we will resume when presumably things will be settling down into more of a routine! No linkies will be posted here but feel free to keep on posting those FFF and check back here in August for the resumption of FFF. And, you never know... may have to do a little giveaway for FFF post #100!!

No need to worry about us... just lots of things going on.

To follow the theme this week, I am posting a little Fourth of July through the years of my littlest US citizen!!

2006

2007

2008

2009

Here is MckLinky!! It has worked great for us! Hopefully, when we return in August, we will have more families participating again and MckLinky will be our best friend! This list will remain open through Saturday and after that, the linky will be closed to additions!



As always, thank you so much for stopping by! I love all my bloggy buddies! See most of you around Facebook!

Favorite Foto Friday #97 - HOME!

I am excited about this week's theme because my first born baby, Morgan, is HOME from her month long exchange trip to Argentina! She had a fabulous time and an experience she will never forget! We missed her so much!!

She arrived home to a gathering at the airport and one very excited little sister who ran up to give her a giant hug!




Here is one excited little cutie-patootie helping her sissy with her luggage! Tee hee... couldn't resist!


Plus, I have "home" on the brain! I am in the process of getting my current home ready and staged to sell. I am so incredibly sad about moving my family from the place we have taken from house to home and made it perfect in our eyes. Yet, I am excited about the possibility of a new start for all of us! With the economy the way it is, some instability in my career and some very deep debt I have found myself in from medical bills, school tuition, failed investments, etc... it is time for us to move down to a more affordable home and lifestyle.

Here is our current home now... I just love it...


I am going to miss it so much!! The nightly dance parties and gently swinging on the porch are my absolute favorite time of day!

Looking forward to visiting all your HOME pictures this week!!

I am so excited about our new MckLinky system! I feel like we are finally able to reconnect by seeing everybody right here in one place! Hope you all love it too! Thanks to MckMama and Brent (Abby's Dad) for developing our new linky widget!



Next week's theme... your favorite RED, WHITE and BLUE picture! Have a fabulous Fourth of July holiday weekend! Happy Birthday, America!!