Trick or Treat!

My Little Cowgirl!!!

We had such a great Halloween with our friends! Sugar overload accomplished!!

Happy Halloween!!

My punkins!

Do you know why the smile on this baby girl is as big as it is??

Somebody surprised us this weekend with a little visit home to see her family!! Sissy was just in time to help us carve pumpkins!!

Grant had a blast carving his too... I wonder what it is about a boy with a knife and a pumpkin??

He was quite entertaining!!

Sophie's masterpiece!

BOO!

Pumpkin Patch

Grant and Sophie and I made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful, unusually warm sunny day! Sophie LOVED choosing her own pumpkin and obliged me with a few smiles.

The great pumpkin!!

She chose the best one!!!

She posed herself and asked me to take her picture in the parking lot!!
My little tree hugger!!

Grant would not allow me to take his picture the entire day... so this is the best I got of him. He is a wonderful big brother and even though he thinks he is too old to go to the pumpkin patch, I think he enjoyed helping his little sister.

I love this picture...

A Season of Change

This fall marks a season of great change for our family! All three of my children are embarking on new adventures as they each start new chapters in their lives. I do not want to forget this time in our lives together so before everybody headed out, we had a little family photo session that I wanted to share.

My soon to be college girl... spreading her wings and learning to fly!!


Grant starting an exciting new chapter in his life and starting his sophomore year in high school. He is making some incredible and mature decisions in his life and I am very proud of how hard this young man has worked to get himself where he is now.


She likes to think her mom knows nothing... and I may be lacking in some brain cells that have slowly been lost to all the challenges these children have blessed me with... but I am so excited for this new chapter in our life as mother and daughter... becoming less the person who tells her what to do with her life and more the confidant who supports her in her decisions as a young adult.

One baby girl is already lamenting the fact that Sissy is going away and will not be home every day to kiss goodnight. How blessed are they to be sisters??


I love my family... just the four of us...

So, without any more words... here are my three greatest blessings in my life.

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

I can hardly believe it... my baby girl is going to KINDERGARTEN! She was SOOOO excited for her first day of school and can hardly wait for all the fun!

Here she is with her backpack that is nearly as big as she is on her first morning of school.


Her school mascot is the Dolphin!!


And, even though they are in different classes, her BFF who she has been in daycare with since they were tiny babies, are at the same school together! See how tiny my girl is?


We celebrated the first day of school with a trip to Build A Bear. She was so excited to make her pink bear and named her "Sissy Bear" so she can hug her at night whenever she misses her real Sissy.



And, in case you were wondering... the Boo Hoo Breakfast was well attended. There were a few tears shed, but amazingly, not me this morning. I cried my fair share when I delivered my oldest baby off at college and then turned the car around and drove back home without her. But, I loved the poem they gave out with the little packet of kleenex.

Tap, Tap, Tap...

... this thing still on??? Anybody still here?

I am the world's worst blogger... I have so much to catch up on that I am frozen in my tracks and don't know where to begin... so how about some cute pictures to make up for things???

Have you been missing this big guy? I don't know what happened over the past 15 months... but my boy has turned into a young man! He has grown 9 inches!! Yes, you heard that right! No more shopping in the boy's section for him anymore! He has matured so much and finally got his braces and is just so handsome, if I do say so myself! He is still the world's greatest big brother! I am so proud of him!

This girl? She went and turned 18 on me... and in just a few short weeks, will be spreading her wings and going off to college. I truly am not ready for my nest to start emptying... but I am so happy and excited for her and all that is yet to come! What an exciting time of her life! I am so blessed to move from raising her to being a witness and hopefully a confidant that she will turn to every once in a while for advice. I am trying to hold back the tears while I type... what a gift I was given to have had the privilege of being this gorgeous young woman's mom.

And my little Bug... well, she is coming out of her little shell with a vengeance! Just catch a look at this little attitude being thrown around. My friend, Hannah, was able to catch it on camera! Am I in trouble or what?

I have more of her 5th Birthday photo shoot to share. I even tried my hand at a few! Stay tuned! And can you believe that Sophie will be starting kindergarten in just a few weeks? Me either! Her elementary school holds a Boo Hoo Breakfast for the kindergarten parents each year... with both my girls moving into new chapters of their lives, I think I may be the mom with the loudest sobs over in the corner!

I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by! It is filled with so much preparation, so much fun and so much love. Big things happening around here, hold tight to your pants! Talk about milestones for this family! They are happening right and left!

PS... I really want to update my blog and be able to post big pictures. Anybody know how I can do that?

Love, hugs and FROG!

Love at first sight... five years later.

May has been such an exciting month for us... filled with two girls' birthdays, the Kentucky Derby, prom, two graduations, Mothers Day and an annual adoption picnic among many other things. Pictures soon, I promise!

However, a day that I never want to forget is the day five years ago when my world changed for forever. It was the day that I first glimpsed the face of a tiny little angel who became my daughter the moment my eyes saw her. No going back... I was in love!


All five pounds, three ounces of pink dreams come true! I am lucky that I still have this little pink sleeper and the Humpty Dumpty/ Cow Jumping Over the Moon blanket she is pictured in. Her foster mother brought her to us in them when we went to visit when she was 10 weeks old... and yes, they still fit with room to spare! What I treasure about this picture is the fact that she is being cradled in her birth mother's hands... presenting her for this photograph... knowing well what this picture meant. She made a plan for her daughter and I think of CL every day when I look into the eyes of our daughter, who looks much like the woman who made a sacrifice that I can never begin to understand.

Here is my dream come true five years later! My beautiful Sophie~Bug!! She was so excited to hear her story today and willingly posed with her referral picture that we keep beside her bed.



How on Earth did I ever deserve the gift of being able to be this child's mommy. I am so blessed!!


Five years... and all 32 pounds of her later, I still fall in love with her every. single. day.