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!!

My name is...

SOPHIE!!

And I can write it all by myself (with a little help from mom with my "S")!!

Mommy is so proud of her baby bug!! I am pretty proud too!

Favorite Foto Friday #96

So much sadness this week... hard to post a FFF with everything that is going on.

Please pray for beautiful little Aviana. She is battling for her life after a very serious accident where she and her beloved grandfather were hit by a car. Please stop by her blog and leave a message for her mommy and daddy who are steadfast in their vigil in praying for Aviana to recover from her injuries!

The world lost three icons... Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon... all in one week. Hard to wrap your mind around the fact that these people who were such an integral part of your childhood memories and even your adulthood are gone.

Missing my big girl... missing my boy...

But this face, this beautiful little girl... it has been four years since I first held her in my arms (on my visit trip to Guatemala)... she makes me smile... even when she is trying to make a grumpy face.

We are changing over to the new McLinky system this week developed by none other than our Brent Riggs (daddy to Abby). Please remember to link directly to your blog post and not just to your blog URL.



Next week, we are back to some themes... how about HOME!

Way Back Wednesday

(June 2006)

Three years ago... we had Daniel and Sophie at the exact same lake together for their first photo shoot. Look at how tiny they were! Sophie had just turned 1 and Daniel turned 2.

(June 2009)

However, this year... Sophie is freaked out by the sight of ducks and would not sit in the grass anywhere near where they may happen to be! This year, Sophie had just turned 4 and Daniel turned 5.

Look forward to many repeat photo sessions like this in the future!

Birthday Bash for Daniel and Disney Cuteness

I think I am the worst blogger out there! I have not had one "real" post in forever! Things have been so busy but in a good way!

As you probably guessed, we were blessed to spend some time in Florida with Daniel and his family! The kids had such a good time and this was the first time we witnessed a true connection between the two of them. They began calling themselves each other's sister and brother and if you asked Sophie, she would say she has 3 brothers... Grant, Daniel and Joseph! I do believe this girl is on to something! Our families are forever connected because of these two precious miracles brought to us through adoption! The blood does not connect us, the love does!


We were able to celebrate Daniel's 5th Birthday in high style! We took the kids to the Magic Kingdom for the day! The kids (and adults) had a ball! We had to alternate attractions that were inside just for the A/C with standing in line outside in the sun! Sophie is still bewildered by the fact that we did not see Mickey the entire day we were there! It was blazing hot and we missed the parade, so I think it was more her mother's fault that she still can't get past that she did not see him!


Even made it to Mickey's house and he was not there (of course he was in the tent behind us with a 35 minute wait in line to see him).





We were also able to enjoy some time at the beach! It was absolutely a picture perfect day! Blue skies with the fluffiest of white clouds and a wonderful ocean breeze. The kids had so much fun boogey boarding, kite flying, building sand castles, swimming in the pool and throwing water balloons! It was one of those picture perfect days!

Look at this handsome little man... could you just eat him up?

We were even able to meet up with Alleen and Gabriella for a morning at the splash park. Unfortunately, Sophie was terrified of the water sprays and Gabriella was full steam forward having a blast! This is the only time we had the two of them together for a photo op! I don't think Alleen even managed to pull out her camera! Are they not two of the most precious little girls anywhere?

Sophie was more into her new goggles than playing in the water!

We did manage lunch at the golden arches before the kids melted into tired little puddles. It was great spending time with them! Maybe next time, we can meet where we can keep them contained, Alleen, so we can catch up more!!

It was a whirlwind of fun and the days passed much too quickly! But, we realize how blessed we are with this connection for our children. I will end with some wonderful images from their photo session together. Won't they love having these someday?






OK, hopefully I am out of the dog house with all of you who have patiently waited for a real post!!

Favorite Foto Friday #95 - A HELPING HAND

I chose A HELPING HAND as the theme this week for my FFF post as Sophie and I just returned from a fabulous trip to visit some wonderful friends in Delaware. We had such a great time and had no idea how beautiful it can be up there! I have heard it rumored but love that we were able to experience it with our great friends, T, G & E and A & N!

E's Poppy so graciously became Sophie's surrogate grandpa for our trip to the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk. I could not resist taking this picture of him holding Bug's hand. I literally got tears in my eyes seeing how sweet and gentle he was with her helping her onto the rides. Poppy is one of a kind!

Sophie was very out of sorts the entire visit, kept asking to go home and was rather crabby. It was wonderful to finally see her have some fun our last night there. Just look at that smile!

Because I did not ask permission to post pictures of E and N, I will post just a couple of these pictures of Sophie and E's budding little friendship!

Here, Sophie~Girl. Let me help you down that slide!

Everybody needs a helping hand up sometimes too! Thanks, E!

Love this...

And, not to be left out... here is little N's sweet hands and toes in the sand at the beach!! It was her very first time to be at the beach and she loved it!!

Finally, here is my amazing friend, G, taking all three girls over to play Ring Around the Rosie. Thanks G for a fabulous visit! You ROCK!

Mr. Linky is still not back up, so we will continue to use the Image Linkies for now. Here he is!!



Looking forward to seeing all your FFF pictures from the week! Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are enjoying ours!