Summer Vacation Part 1

Back in June, we went on vacation for about 12 days. It was such a wonderful time!!! We took a road trip down South to visit family and do some fun sightseeing as well. It had been years since we’d been to visit family and it was a good chance for everyone to get to meet Khloe too!

Our first stop was to visit some of my family in South Louisiana. The first day, we got to hang out with some of my mom’s side of the family. My Aunt Michelle basically let us hijack her back yard and hang out there all day!

Here’s some pics of the FUN!!

Here’s me and the kiddos with my grandparents before we left. I’m thankful they invited us to spend some time with them!

What a fun day! Thank you to everyone who came to visit with us while we were in town!!!

K Baby Dedication

In June, we did Khloe’s baby dedication at church. Baby/Child dedication is just a special time when parents come before their church family with a desire to say that we will raise our child up to know God and serve Him, that we want to thank God for entrusting this precious life to us and that we want to dedicate this child to Him.

We pray that Khloe will love God with her whole heart all the days of her life! Our church is so amazing and does the coolest and most special dedication service! We got to record voice overs for our children ahead of time for the dedication service. I still can’t watch it without crying. This was one of the most special moments we have experienced with our precious Khloe.

Before the service started, we had just enough time to go snap a few pictures outside.

Rachel and I took the family pics of each other’s families.

What a beautiful family my sweet hubby and I have been blessed with! I am so thankful!!!

What’s better than sweet sisters in matching outfits? Not much, I tell you. I waited a L.O.N.G time to be able to do this! :)

My heart is so full!!

I have to include this pic of our sweet, wonderful, awesome (and down right photogenic!) friends The Benningtons! So thankful for these 5!! Don’t know what we’d do without them!

Here’s the video of our portions of the dedication service

After church, we loaded up and headed back to our house for a family/friend BBQ to celebrate sweet Khloe and MaeLynn.

As I was going through all these pictures I realized that I never took my camera around to get pictures of everyone :( That makes me SO sad :( I remember that just as I was grabbing it to go outside and get some pics, it had started raining and everyone was coming inside. Then everyone was getting ready to leave and I just forgot. Darn it! I’m recording who was in attendance just so I don’t forget those very special people who were here to celebrate with us! It’s important for me to remember so I can tell Khloe one day when I document everything about her life for her!

It was our family and the Benningtons, MeMe and PaPa, Nanny, Poppy, Ela, Tre, Ma Ma Dennie and Aunt Adele from Louisiana, and our friends The Hutchisons and the Burleighs. Everyone drove a long ways and took the time to come celebrate with us and to make our sweet baby girl feel special. We are so thankful for each person who came!!!

We did get pics of the girls with their cake, which was super cute. They weren’t really sure what to do with it at first, but it didn’t take them long to figure it out!

PaPa had to get in there and try to show them what this thing was all about

Mae Mae says HEEEEEYYYYY friends! There’s cake!!!!! Let’s party!!!!

Khloe getting a taste of the icing from her PaPa

Oh yeah! I think I’ll have some more of that!!!

Mae says, “Girl! Here, you’ve just GOT to try this purple one! It’s amazing!!”

Khloe got tired of sitting so far away from the cake, so she decided to make herself comfy right next to it! Trust me, little Mae was trying to figure it out too! :)

What a very wonderful and very special day!!

G Dance Recital

G had her dance recital in June. She took hip hop class last year and she really loved it. Most of the kids in her class were older than her and she had to work really hard to learn the choreography. She practiced at home a lot and we were really proud of her for working hard! She was just about the cutest thing alive doing this dance. I watched her do it a thousand times and it made me smile every single time :)

For some reason I couldn’t get the camera settings just right for the no flash photography, but Meme was able to get some really cute shots anyway.

And, of course, I have to include a video :) She is just cute as a button!

Baby girl’s 1st photo shoot

I didn’t want to wait too long to take some really nice pictures of our little love bug. One  beautiful May evening Daddy and I took her to the park and took some pictures. We had to work for her to sit still and smile, but in the end we got some great pictures!!

Mama and Daddy weren’t prepared to be in pictures, but we couldn’t resist snapping a few pics of each other with her!

We are so very, very much in love with this little bundle of joy!

I must share a true story about the dress that she’s wearing in these pictures.

I bought this dress in the Summer of 2010, a few months after we started the adoption process. I saw it on a rack in the store and couldn’t resist it. We thought we’d have our girl home by the following summer, after all. I bought a few things here and there when I just couldn’t resist. When my heart felt so empty and I missed this child I’d never met so much… it helped a little bit to buy something for her. After another year passed by and the chances of us meeting our baby girl were getting slimmer and slimmer and the timeline getting longer and longer… one by one I took those sweet little items and put them in a place where I wouldn’t see them. This one little dress was the one that I kept out the longest and although it was like a knife in the heart when I would open this particular closet and see this dress, it gave me a little glimmer of home too. Reminded me that there was a little girl out there somewhere that would one day call me Mama.

When we finally got that phone call and saw the face of our gorgeous little bundle of joy my life changed forever. And once the shock wore off, I started to prepare for my girl. Buying clothes, shoes and hair bows, of course! As I was organizing her closet, I remembered this dress. I got it out and held it as I smiled at how long I’d held on to that dress.

When it came time to take her first good pics, there was no doubt what she would be wearing!

R turned double digits!

Shortly after we got home with our Baby K, our Rhett-man turned the big 1-0! Double digits! What?!?! My baby boy just isn’t a baby anymore!

His Mama, Daddy and Baby Sister were still REALLLY jet lagged at the time of his party and he didn’t get to have the sleepover he wanted to. But he was really, super sweet about it. Sweet boy didn’t complain, but he was happy that we promised him a rain check on the sleepover :)

We had a fun afternoon playing some military style laser tag at one of the boys’ favorite places with family and friends!

Here’s the big, bad birthday boy himself

Here’s Sissy- not to be outdone on the mission field!

Braden & our friend London getting ready

Big Bubba & Lil’ Sis resting and having snacks after their missions were complete

Sweet little Mae and Ko hanging out and having drinks and snacks. Sweet, sweet girls!

One excited Lego fanatic!

Blowing out his candles on his camo cake

Braden aka the baby whisperer. He LOVES these sweet little asian princesses in his life!

Poppy taking his new niece for a stroll with big girl Lilly’s help.

We were so happy to have our friends and family join us for a little fun on this nice Spring afternoon to celebrate our sweet boy.

Another year has gone by and each year I seem to realize more and more how fast time is going by. My little ornery boy is growing up right before my very eyes. He is still just as sweet as  ever. He loves to hug and kiss his Mama and his smile melts my heart every time he flashes it. And sometimes, he’s still just as ornery :) I love him so much and pray that this year is his very best year yet!!

First Day Home

When we left the airport, MeMe drove us and the kids back to the house and we all hung out a bit. J, K and I were so tired, but the others were so excited to see us that we stayed up for a while so each of the kids could get a turn holding and loving on K while we told stories of our day and our trip and even sorted through the luggage to get their souvenirs :)

After an hour or so, MeMe headed home and we decided we’d get everyone in bed. We fell asleep quickly, but we were up and wide awake at 3am! K and I shared a bowl of cheerios in the bed and watched cartoons on tv for a few hours before going back to sleep for a bit.

The next day was a school day, but we had already arranged for all of the kids to stay home so we could all spend some time together.

First bottle of the day

Getting some snuggles and getting to know those sweet big bubbas and big sissy!

The big kids were absolutely in love with their little sister from the very first moment they met her. Our family is now complete and we just couldn’t have imagined little K would do so well with us and being introduced to her new siblings. She let them hold her and gave them lots of smiles from the very beginning. So, so very blessed!