7 years together

I can not believe that today is our 7th Gotcha Day with Leanne, Cameron and Justin. It seems like just yesterday I got the phone call that changed my life forever. It seems like just yesterday we walked into that dirty office building and looked into the tear stained faces of the three most beautiful children I had ever seen. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting across from a judge vowing to be the best parents possible. Promising to love and care for them for the rest of their lives. It really does seem like it was "just yesterday". Where has the time gone?

My precious little boys are growing bigger everyday. They are eating me out of house and home. They are playing sports and climbing trees. They are building snow forts in the front yard. They are telling me silly jokes and laughing at mine. Cameron is looking me in the eye now when he kisses me good night or gives me a hug. Justin keeps me hopping and I never know what he is going to say next.

My precious little girl is almost a teenager. She no longer lets me put her hair in piggy tails or braid it everyday. She wants Hollist*er instead of Gymbor*ee. She wants to go to the skating rink with friends instead of holding my hand while she skates around the rink. She like her younger brother is looking me eye to eye when we are standing together.

I do not understand how it can feel like yesterday yet at the same time I can not remember my life without them? I can not imagine a life without goodnight kisses, silly laughing, practical jokes, sibling fights, mountains on laundry, hearing them call me mommy, watching the succeed and drying their tears when they don't.

I do remember a time when I cried myself to sleep longing for a baby to hold, a toddler to dress and a preschooler to sing with and read books too. I mourned the thought of not having children to take on trips to the zoo, to see children's movies, to take on vacations to Disney World... I cried thinking I would never have a baby to rock to sleep or a someone to tuck in and kiss goodnight. It was a sad time in my life. I wish I knew then that the Lord was perfectly orchestrating our lives and weaving our paths to become a family. We had to experience the pain and sadness to become the family we are today. Hanging over my couch is a collage of pictures of the kids and the words "Family: A journey to forever". It completely sums up how I feel. My journey lead me to these 4 precious children. I can not wait to spend 7 more year with them on our journey to forever, as a family.

Happy Birthday Princess

My sweet baby girl is 5. Oh, my baby girl is 5. I can not believe she is 5! Is it obvious this is a bit difficult for me? You may remember from her 4th birthday how well I do when one of my kids get a year older. I take it hard. Like 2 cookies and a cupcake hard! Yep! I ate all three. I am happy to report I dried the tears and I'm back on the wagon today.

Back to Princess.... Katie turned 5 and boy was she excited. Since July I have been teasing her and asking her to please turn 4 one more time. To which she always replied "But that is bad for the law.". I don't know where she comes up with half the things she says. Chad and I went in a kissed her good night right after midnight. I whispered Happy Birthday to her and quietly sang her the song I made up for her when I used to rock her as a baby. It goes like this:

Katie, you are my baby. Your daddy's love and mommies heart.

Kind of goofy and makes no sense especially without knowing the tune. But, she loves it when I sing her "my song" and I love singing it to her.

Our day started out with a trip to the pediatrician for her check up. She needed to have her preschool form filled out, so she could go back on Monday and it was the only day they could get her in. She is now 33 lbs and 39 inches tall. She is finally on the charts and is hanging out near the bottom in the 10 percentile. We followed the very traumatic doctor visit (she got 2 shots and I delayed 2 more) with a happy meal at McDonald's with a play land. Katie played for a while and then it was off to preschool. At preschool they were learning about transportation this week and yesterday was train day. Katie got to be the engineer and she loved it. We brought cookies in for her treat since we took cupcakes in for her cheer team the night before. The class sang to her and she loved that as well. At home she had a Dora cake and opened presents from our family. It was a very low key night. The kids even ate left over pizza for dinner since it is what Katie wanted. We will be having a birthday party in a few weeks. Cheerleading is in full swing and the girls compete the next two weekends. She is so excited to celebrate again.

Happy birthday Katie! I love you sweet princess.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse....

In October Katie and I went to see Mickey, Minnie and all their friends. We left Daddy and the big kids home and took on "The World" together. We were not totally alone. We traveled with my friend Sarah and her son Adam, who is Katie's buddy. We had THE BEST TIME!!!!

Katie and I missed our family at home, but we really enjoyed the time we spent together. It was all about Katie. She was treated like (and called) Princess from the moment we arrived. Let me tell you that is just the way she likes to be treated. Like the princess she is!

We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside resort. It was beautiful and the rooms were so nice. The resort had a great pool and many wonderful amenities. We were able to go during the free dining promotion, and enjoyed many wonderful Disney restaurants like the Coral Reef at Epcot and Tusker House at the Animal Kingdom. We also had breakfast with the princesses at Cinderella's Castle and lunched with them at Epcot. We ate with the cast of play house Disney at Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios , which was definitely the most fun character meal we had. We were able to get hopper passes and enjoyed all of the parks at least once. We spent most of our time at the Magic Kingdom of course! We had a ball at Mickeys not so scary Halloween party where Katie arrived as Tinkerbelle and changed into a Princess Tiana gown. She had so much fun dancing with Donald and Daisy at the dance party. She was showing them all of her best moves. Her moves were so great that Cinderella's wicked step sisters came from across the park to watch her and have their pictures taken with Katie in her "horseless carriage" aka her stroller. Katie's favorite thing to do was to see the characters and get their autographs. She loved it!

The car ride was long, the temperature was hot and we missed daddy and "the kids".... But, it was a magical trip. I loved spending that time with my girl. I feel so blessed that we were able to afford such a wonderful trip for the two of us. These are memories that will last a life time for me. I can not wait to take her back. Next time we will all go as a family. Katie never wants to go back without her Daddy, Leanne, her boys and her Grandma Tina. We will make her wish come true.....

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip. I made Katie an outfit to wear each day. She had a Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora dress, an Animal Kingdom animal print set and a Minnie Dot set to wear. She also had matching bows for each outfit of course! She got so much attention in her Disney customs. She loved the Snow White dress and wore it twice. We had to save Aurora for our next trip. Get ready for too many Katie's:


We litterally dropped our car and bags off at the resort and hit the Magic Kingdom.


We stood in line to see Minnie twice. The fist night we waited in line for 30 minutes and when we got to Minnie... Katie lost her mind, threw a fit and refused to get close to her decided she wanted to see something else.


Katie loved Donald Duck. She even sang him a song about how much she loved ducks. He was so sweet and spent a lot of time with her. Most of the characters did. She loved interacting with them.


Katie loved the Pooh at Animal Kingdom. She ran to him and gave him the biggest hug. It was so sweet.


We both loved Eyore.


Snow White loved Katie's dress. She asked Katie if her "woodland friends" made her dress too. Katie said "No, my mommy made my dress." It was so sweet.



Katie loved Buzz and Woody the most of all of the characters. I must admit... I love them too! They hold a special place in my heart because my boys loved them so much when they were little. Katie dragged her big Woody doll all over the place while we were there. When Woody saw Katie with his doll he immediately took it from her and showed it to everyone. He then put it in his holster which made Katie laugh and laugh. Buzz got in on the action and the two of them were "fighting" over Katie and who she like the best. She loved every second of it! She kissed Woody on the cheek and then Buzz needed a kiss too. It was sweet. They spent about 10 minutes playing with Katie and having a good time with her. I am sure the people in line behind us were not too happy about the wait. But, they made some precious memories for my sweet girl.





Well, I think that is enough pictures for tonight. I will add some more later. There are so many cute ones I just can't stop.

Three months with no blogging....

I have been a BAD blogger. I am sure I have no readers left. I know I drop blogs I love when they do not update. Sorry!!! I have started a few posts and vow to get them up tonight. The kids are keeping me so busy.

Since blogs are no fun without pictures I will leave you with one from Leanne and Katie's photo shot a month ago. They are some of my favorite pictures of the girls.