caterpillar

When I was on leave I took the girls to the park. They have a butterfly garden and Halli was so excited to find a caterpillar. We actually found two, but the first one had died already. Halli did give it a proper burial in some sand she found. She even put a flower on top. The other caterpillar we found ended up coming home with us.
Halli named the caterpillar "Corina". She was with us for a few weeks. We finally told Halli that the caterpillar needed to be outside. After many, many tears Hal let the caterpillar go outside. This girl loves her animals and bugs!

Miss Corina

Well, Hope's birthmom is coming for a visit this week. It is much sooner than we had planned. She will be staying with her best friend's mom. She is here also for a visit. Corina's best friend is staying in Portland for awhile. So, since Corina is visiting her best friend, she of course wants to see us.

We will be going to the Children's Museum one day and I have asked her to come with me to get Hope's picture taken another day. We may think of other things to do. I still haven't decided if I want her to come to the house. I'm not exactly sure of the reason behind my hesitation.

So, please keep us in your prayers the next couple of weeks. I'm sure there will be all kinds of emotions going on while she is here.

Halli

Halli looked at me today and said, "Mom, I'm going to give Jesus a ride in my heart!" She then took off running across the living room. You never know what she's going to say or do. :)

November

A reminder that November is National Adoption Month. Because of adoption our family has been blessed twice. Last night Halli looked at me and said, "I have two moms. Barbara is my first mom and you are my second. Hope has two moms too. Corina and you." Because of these two women and the sacrife they made, I can be called mom. I will always be grateful to them.

I love my girls!

Smiles

I was finally able to catch some of Hope's smiles on film. She's been smiling since she was 3 weeks old, but she wouldn't do it very often. Yesterday she decided to give me smiles all day. And now that she has had a good sleep and been fed, she is giving me lots of smiles today. It's good to be the mom. :)

Happy Birthday Grandma Hurley! For my mom's birthday I took the girls down for a visit. Little did I know that I would be too tired to drive back home and had to spend the night. And of course that night Hope decided she didn't want to sleep, so the drive home was still bad. Oh well. The kids decorated cupcakes for Grandma and had soooo much fun.



Look! I can eat my whole hand. Silly Jacob!

Want a frosting kiss?

Halli's cupcake

Jacob's cupcake

Halli, our photographer

Halli decided that since mom takes a lot of pictures, she can too. She used my camera and went around the house taking pictures of everything she likes. There are far too many to post. But here are a few.

Yes, I am tired. :)

Bath Time

I was giving Hope a bath and Halli asked if she could help. I was very surprised! She washed her all up and rinsed her off. There are times when she does want to be a big sister and help out. But for the most part Hal just wants to wait till Hope is older and doesn't cry so much.