A girl's favorite present

Halli got a snuggie! She has wanted one for a longggggg time! Grandma got her one for Christmas. She has worn it every night to bed. On Christmas day I think she wore all day long. It's nice to know how much she loves her present.

Thank you is not enough

With my youngest brother joining the army, this means so much more to me. He is home for two weeks then back at boot camp for several months. He is married and and has three young children.

Thank you to all who are serving!

1st Lost Tooth

Halli finally lost her 1st tooth last night! It has been loose for about three weeks. She did not want to pull it or have anyone else touch it. Finally last night she was showing me how loose it was and it looked like it wasn't even attached. When I asked how it was even holding on, that is when it popped out. Halli was very surprised and very happy!!!!

A big grin!!

Doesn't she look happy?

She had to brush the new hole first. She was a little worried.

Putting her tooth in the tooth fairy pillow Grandma made for her.

Ready for bed!!!!

She did ask how the Tooth Fairy was going to get in the house.

I told her it is magic.

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since I've blogged. I have many things to post, but need to find the time. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hope's birthmom was here for a week. We also got to enjoy family from out of town.

We are now getting ready for Christmas and Halli's birthday.

I will try and post some pictures this week. My girls are just too cute to not show them off! :)

Tom and Jerry

My little cat and mouse are so cute! Halli doesn't like to trick-or-treat, so we go to Grandma and Grandpa's have pizza and pass out candy. Then the Great Pumpkin visit's our house and hides candy. Halli loves finding all the candy!

1st Birthday Bash

Hope's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe my baby is one. The year has gone by so fast. What a blessing our little Hope is. After we adopted Halli I didn't think we would really be able to adopt again. But, God had other plans for our family. With a simple prayer request, an e-mail and a phone call we were going to be parents again.

Hope has such personality! She always tells us what she is thinking. Most of the time it is by yelling at us. She is saying more words. She can say, "mama", "dada", "kitty", "meow", "woof", "bye", "quack" and "moo". She says a lot of animal sounds. :) He favorite word is kitty. She says it all the time.

Miss Hope loves music. Anytime she hears music she starts dancing. It is really cute. It doesn't matter if the music is on t.v., the radio, a toy or if you sing a song. She will start dancing. It's really cute when she starts clapping to the music.

Hope also really loves soft things. She has a couple of stuffed animals she really likes and a couple of blankets. She likes to hold onto the ears of her stuffed animal and hold it against her cheek and suck her thumb. She also likes to lay down on her blanket and suck her thumb.

Have I mentioned how much she loves food? The girl loves to eat. I don't think there is anything she doesn't like. Sometimes she is a very slow eater and can eat more than Halli. Hope loves mashed potatoes. She also likes fruit. I hope she continues to be a good eater.

Hope got some adorable clothes. I know this blue outfit will look really cute on her. Her blue eyes will look even more blue.

Grandma got her this big giraffe pillow. It is super soft. Hope already likes to lay on it.

Hope's birthgrandma, Charity, made a scrapbook for Hope. We opened and only made it to the first page. The first page was a picture of Corina on her 1st birthday. For some reason I got really emotional and had to put the book away. I later looked at it and found Charity and her other daughter Sarah had each written a letter to Hope. It was a very thoughtful gift.

I am so thankful that Corina chose us to be Hope's parents. I can't imagine my life with out her.

Hope's birthday cake.

Hope did try and blow her candle out. She's much better at blowing on her food to cool it down so she can eat. Halli ended up blowing the candle out.

Hope wasn't a very messy eater. I think she didn't like everyone looking at her.

She is now all done. As you can see, she didn't eat much of her cake. That's ok, because Halli helped her later.

Our guests. We had to move the party to our house. It rained all morning. Of course this was the only day it rained all week. We still enjoyed our party.

Our family. :)

Popcorn!

As a treat tonight, we made popcorn with the air popper. Halli loves popcorn this way. Well, Hope hasn't had popcorn. So, I thought I would let her have a little.

She then discovered sister had the big bowl of that fluffy white stuff.

We couldn't get her out of the popcorn. I've come to the conclusion that there really isn't any food that Hope doesn't like. She is an excellent eater! Explains why she is in the 95%. Saturday is Hope's 1st birthday. I can't wait!!!

Adoption Diaries

There's a new show on the WE Network on Saturday nights, Adoption Diaries. I did watch it and I think it will be a good show. It shows both sides of adoption. I really liked the case worker that worked with the birthmom and the couple wishing to adopt.

I look forward to the next show, but I will always watch these by myself. I cry so much everytime I watch a show on adoption.

ROAR

I am working a 1/2 day today so we can go to the zoo! Our zoo is bringing back the lions. We are all very excited. I hope I can get some good pictures. Halli is very excited about the lions. She has been asking all summer when the lions are coming. They are now here!!!!! We'll also get to see the other animals that are part of this new exhibit. It's very exciting! I love our zoo.

First Day of School

My girl is a kindergartener!!! She said that she liked recess and snack. They got to eat snack outside! I'm sure over the week I'll be able to find out more about school. She doesn't like to share a lot at once.

Isn't she the cutest???

Peach Picking

We were at Grandma's house and Halli decided she wanted peach cobble. So Grandma though we should go pick peaches. I've never picked peaches before. Halli was thrilled. My sister and her kids were with us, so they went too. It was fun, except for the bees.

We didn't pick that many peaches. I couldn't stand the bees. I eventually went back to the little store and drooled over the fresh vegetables.

My sister and my niece.

Grandma with the kiddos.

Who doesn't love a wagon ride. Maybe next year we will pick some fruits and vegetables. It was just too hard with Hope this year. I did enjoy the tomatoes and cucumber I brought home. I should have taken a picture of the cucumber. It was the longest and oddest shape cucumber I've ever seen! When you cut it into slices it has a ruffled edge. It's delicious. :)

Halli's Check-Up

Halli will be starting kindergarten this year and we had to get shots updated and to have a check-up. She was excited about the check-up, but not about the shots.

Getting blood pressure taken. They always tell you the numbers and I have no clue what they mean. I figure if it's bad, they'll let me know.
Time for the hearing test. She was very worried that the beeps where going to be loud. She doesn't like loud noises. Once she was assured that the beeps were quiet, she took the test. Her arm was up a lot. She passed!

Now the vision test. Halli always tell us how good her eye sight is. She did great. Got them all right.

Now time to put the gown on for the rest of the check-up. She felt very grown up wearing a gown. Our doctor is very good with her. I forgot to get his picture. He was very impressed that she has taught herself to read. She was reading all the posters in the room.

Halli is soooooo excited to be starting school. One of the little girls from pre-school will be in her class. That will be nice. Since Halli has been in pre-school since she was 2, going to school won't be too much different for her. The one thing she won't like is HOMEWORK! She will have some almost every day. She will be attending a charter school. We feel this will be good for her. I can't believe she will be a kindergartener.

Brushing Teeth

With all of Hope's teeth it was time to start brushing. I wasn't sure how she was going to like it. She doesn't even like us to put our finger in her mouth to see if she is getting a new tooth.

To my surprise, she opened up her mouth and LOVED having her teeth brushed!

We brushed and brushed and she smiled bigger and bigger.

She didn't want to stop. I'm so glad that she loves it. It will make it much easier to do this every day. She's such a sweetie.

Summer Fun

Halli got to take Hope for a ride in her Jeep. They had sooooo much fun! Hope looks like she is crying, but she is really laughing. I see many more rides in our future.
Hope enjoying the beach. She did really good staying on the blanket and not eating the sand.

I think Halli could live outside. She loves it when we go camping. Thank goodness we had good weather on the coast this weekend.

I love her sweet little face.

Hope likes to make silly faces. She is learning to do so much with her face. It's funny to see what she will come up with each day.

Welcome to Bug Safari

Our church did vacation bible school for 3-5 yrs old. Thank goodness they limited it 150 kiddos. Since they were doing Bug Safari they decided to do it outside. Of course this week is the hottest it has been all summer. Today's temp was 105! Since we are meeting in the morning it isn't as hot, but it is still HOT! I'm doing snacks and Halli is in a group. It was a fun day, but very hot and hectic. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Halli during snack time. All the kids got to prepare there own trail mix while sitting on a blanket. Hopefully tomorrow we can get them some shade.

Thank goodness for pools. There were LOTS of water activities. Halli was soaked before it even started. She really enjoyed getting me wet.

I'm already tired and hot and we haven't even started.

I just got done putting together all the snacks.

Oh to be a kid.... I did join her afterwards. It's a nice way to cool down.

Halli actually found a real grasshopper. She was VERY upset when the cup he was in got misplaced. She's hoping to find another one tomorrow.