Pretty girls

The weather has been picture perfect. : ) So, I have had to grab the camera and take a few shots here and there of the girls.

Fall Fun

Well the last few days have been full but fun ones. Friday was fall field day at Evie's school, party (mini fall fest) and trick or treat for Emelia at school, merchant trick or treat and then a youth lock in (all nighter). Whew, I don't think one more thing could have been packed in on Friday. Oh, there was one other thing. We had a birthday breakfast at work for my boss who turned 50. We did get a few hours sleep Saturday morning. The girls spent the night with Grandma so we had a little recovery. Saturday, we were glad cousin Mason (aka Darth) was here to trick or treat and then go to our fall festival at church. The weather was just perfect and it was a very enjoyable evening. I think Emelia's favorite activity was the cake walk. She and Mamaw Flora won right behind each other.

Sweet Baby Girl

We had child dedication in our Sunday service. This was the first since Emelia joined our family and we definitely wanted to participate. She loves attention and had prepared herself for such. The sweetest thing was how she spent the rest of the service turning page by page in her new Bible. Rather than the typical gift Bible for a baby, she was presented with a children's study Bible, very nice. Emelia could not have been more proud of any gift. She is certainly a child that gives us a parenting workout and I guess God certainly knows those areas we need work on. We could not imagine our family without her. Her spice and spunk keep us going.

Just a little post to say we are vey proud of Evelyn. She got her first 1st grade report card and “A”ced it. This is her first report card with letter grades. Great job, Evelyn! Yesterday was celebration assembly at her school. The photos were taken there. She had a smile on her face in one photo because she got checked out early, went out to lunch with us and spent the afternoon at Grandma's.

Autumn Moon

We have enjoyed the weekend, adding some extra family time. This weekend was mid-autumn or autumn moon festival so we celebrated with a little version of our own. We took snacks, including moon pies (not moon cakes), to the camp. We were able to see a beautiful round moon prior to the clouds rolling back in. The girls and I have been to "the land" with Scott a few times lately. It has been fun but the mosquitoes were tough this time since the wet moved in.

The additional photo is of my little Wildcats. :)

I hesitated in logging on to post because it has been so long since I have been here. Wow, things are really great just busy as ever. Emelia did have a short time of complaining about school right after I bragged, but is doing great now. Evelyn stopped complaining as well and is doing really well in school. She has also brought home superb grades. Evelyn had a fair holiday and we took advantage of it with one more run to the beach. This time we tried out the camper. It was fun. The weather cooperated and all was well for the short visit. We checked out the new pier. It is really nice. Oh and the close up of Evelyn is when she recently lost her first tooth. As you can see, the new one was well on its way coming in. She pulled it all by herself. Whew, that was a relief. My baby is growing up.

Emelia, the school girl

I had to stop and brag on Miss Emelia. She started preschool yesterday and has had two great days. She is such a trooper. I am so glad to have one that adjusts quickly. I was even able to step in and say hello without her getting upset. Emelia is attending the lab school on our campus and it is so nice to have her close and know how well she is taken care of.

We had another full but great week. Scott and I squeezed in a date early in the week. It is not often that we do that. It was a late anniversary celebration. We had a nice dinner and did some shopping. All of this was done on his new ride. :) Look for it in the photos. At the time of the date, there was no sissy bar. A 45 minute ride without the sissy bar was a little uncomfortable but we had fun. My big girl Evelyn is now a 1st grader. I am so proud of her response to the start of school. She likes her teacher and 2 of her close friends are in her class. Thank you, Lord. And, believe it or not, we headed back to Gulf Shores for the second weekend in a row. Scott's brother and family were there for a few days and we had never done the beach with them. We stayed across the bay Friday night and then spent most of the day Saturday with them rolling back in around ten that night. Whew, I think we will be slowing down a bit now. We all had a great day!

Pandamonium 2009

What a great extended weekend we had with our Pandamonium family. This is the group that we shared our adoption of Evelyn with in China. Ten of our twelve families gathered at Gulf Shores for our third reunion. Families traveled from as far as Wisconsin and Michigan for the event. We just pick up where we left off and share such a special bond. I think this is an important part of the girls adoption story. They did spend almost the first year of their lives together. We all talked of looking forward to our next event. Big thank yous to those who opened up their beach properties to all of us. Emelia definitely received a warm welcome and fit right in the family. We also celebrated that one of our families is finally seeing a nearness of the adoption of their second daughter.

Camping

Well, the teardop has been parked way too long. We just have not had a chance to go camping. Summer has been crazy. Even though Evelyn and I had a bug and did not feel our best, we pulled things together and took a quick camping trip. It was fun. We left off the swimming but did get in a little hiking and roasted marshmallows. It is always fun to take an adventure.

P.S. - Camping with air conditioning sure was nice.

Celebrate good times, come on. That is what Emelia would say and that is what she did as we celebrated her 4th birthday, just too hard to believe. She is such a fun girl to have a party for. She loves the activity and definitely loves being the center of it. We had her party on Sunday afternoon with family and a few friends. Tink was the choice of decor. Emelia had planned for a long time to have a Dora party until we went to Disney. By the way, I have only shared photos but do plan to share some about our Disney trip. Anyway, thanks to all who made Emelia's day special. On Monday, the actual birthday, we planned to continue celebrating and eat lunch at the girls favorite restaurant, Chinese Inn. Miss Kathy is so very sweet and we love eating there. As you can see in one of the photos, the food is good to the last drop. Before we left, they brought Emelia a cake with candles.

God Gave us Emelia Day

We had a very good day celebrating this one year anniversary of God bringing Emelia to our family. As planned, Evelyn showered Emelia with the candy bouquet and such a sweet card she made before Emelia got up. It had words relating to God's beautiful plan of making little girls, too sweet. We had lunch out with my niece and sister. One grandma is under the weather and papa had a doctor's appointment, and in case you are wondering, Scott is out of town. We sure wished he had been in on the celebrating. The photo of Emelia just before lunch shows how tired she was. The girls are on their second week of swimming lessons and they go right before lunch. After lunch, Evelyn went back to my sister's flower shop and put some creativity to work. She came home with jewelry, a flower bouquet she arranged with a balloon for Emelia and a corsage that she did all the work on except the bow. I am glad to see her natural talent because I am lacking in that area. Anyway, after work the girls and I played on the slip-n-slide and in their tiny pool. I probably will not be able to move tomorrow. Notice the photo of Emelia on the phone. She loves talking on the phone. Mamaw Flora was getting the run down of the day. It was a very good day!