David Turns 3

On June 24th our big boy turned 3!  

He loves construction equipment so I went with that for his theme.  Most Saturdays he still asks if he is having another "dump truck party."  "I LOVE my dump truck party!"  :)

It was an extra hot Saturday morning, but this boy loves outside and it is kind of hard to have a dump truck party inside so everyone braved the heat for him.

We had a few refuel stations with bottled water, popsicles, and capri suns.

We did keep the food inside.  :)

We had cupcakes....

And cake!  Its hard to tell in this picture (thankfully) but he had already snuck in the dining room and driven the front loader across the cake!  Ha!  That boy!

Just a few more decor pictures.

He loved this sandbox!

David gave all of his friends a hard hat and a bucket with a coloring book.  He loved it!

He loved opening presents!

He did great blowing out his candles!

Our family of 5!

He was SO excited to have nanny, Aunt Malinda, Uncle Roy, and Rylee and Jordan here!

And he was super excited to have Logan, Braden, and Memama, too!

Thanks again for the pictures, Marianne!

My 3 construction workers!  :)

Thanks again to everyone who came and helped us celebrate David.  He had such a great day!  And just for fun, here he is at his 2nd birthday...

What a difference a year makes!

Rae

Forever Day Party: Pirate or Mermaid?

The Saturday after the adoption we had a fun party at our house.  Our celebration was a pirate or mermaid theme.  I had a blast planning the party!

Marianne took pictures for me again.  And I love them!  

We had Oysters (vanilla wafers, strawberry icing, and a marshmallows).

A goldfish bar and cupcakes.

And Pearls (Cream Puffs).  We had lemonade and blue Hawaiian punch to drink. And popsicles and capri suns for the kiddos.

My pirates and my mermaid.

My Mermaid girl.

And her sweet friends Ruby Grace and Harper.

And the super fun water slide!

The boys climbed up the stairs and went down the slide non stop for 2 hours!  Ha!

The kids loved the swords, eye patches, crowns, and wands.  The bubbles were a hit with the little ones, too!

Another shot of the slide.  We are definitely renting one of these again!

Thank you SO much to everyone who came and helped us celebrate one last time that we get to be the forever parents of these 3 precious kids.  A family of 5...it still doesn't seem real!

Rae

Adoption Day: Part 2

The morning of our adoption was actually the shortest amount of time we have spent in the court room ever!  So we had a full day of fun with family and friends.  First stop:  Memama took us to Chuck E Cheese!

Sweet girl and Poppy!

Silly Boy!

Elliott and Ruby Grace!

Daniel and Daddy!

Rylee and Jordan came too!

We all had a great time!  It wasn't very crowded at all which was super nice.  And, it was a very clean Chuck E Cheese!  Gets an A+ in my book!

Then after lunch we went to Nanny and Poppy's house to rest before the kids big welcome to the family party that night.

Nanny had a sweet cake made for the kiddos!

I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was way to busy eating the awesome food and chatting with family that we don't get to see much.  I did get a sweet picture of all of the baby girl cousins.

Mary Blanche, Darby, Fallon, and Kaiya.  I'm so excited that MB has these sweet girl cousins to grow up with.  :)

And the boys:  Jordan, Harrison, Daniel, Connor, and David.  Love these boys!  And I love that they have each other to play with at family stuff!

And then we drove home. 

 It was a super special fun filled packed with family and friends day.  Thank you so much to everyone who was a part of it and helped make it special for our kiddos!

Rae

Our Adoption Day

There are WAY too many reasons to list on this blog of why these 3 children were meant to be ours.  God made some of the reason's pretty obvious :), but there are even more that are much more personal. I really respect a friend/fellow foster parent who says that her adopted children's stories are their stories to tell, not hers.  And if they want to tell their personal story someday, she will be more than happy to help them.  But, until then, she will keep them private.

Our adoption day was a very long awaited day. And just like any and every other part of our foster parenting story there was the question of is it really going to happen?  For real, we didn't know for sure until 2 days before, but I was still a little leery.  Joe was scared to death that someone hadn't done one little piece of paperwork and it was going to throw everything off and I would end up losing my mind and doing something not very smart!  Ha!  I can laugh about it now, but I was stressing to the max until the lawyer announced before court began that there was an adoption about to happen in the judges chambers before court could begin.  Then they actually called us back.  And the judge actually granted the adoption.  Which took all of 2 minutes.  But, it actually happened.  I have to admit, it was a little bit of a "all of this for that" moment.  ha!  But it was also super special.  And I am very thankful for the special people who were there to share it with us!  Okay, I'll shut up now and show you the precious pictures that my awesome friend Marianne took for me!

My favorite picture from the whole day.  Probably my favorite picture ever taken of these 3.  It just captures their personalities perfectly!  This is in front of the court house before we went in.

A few of the outtakes just because they make me laugh!

Lets choke our sissy while smiling.  I mean, why not!?!  Oh that boy.

The best one of our family of 5.  I gave up on the "perfect picture" a long time ago!  Ha!  

Some family shots.

More family shots.

With Marianne and Ruby Grace.  Really not sure how I would have made it through the last 20 months without her!  And one of my favorite memories of the adoption will always be MB and RG squeaking around the judges chambers in their squeaky shoes playing during the adoption.  It really was precious!  And they have no choice but to be friends for life, so it is wonderful that they got to share this day together.

Here is the official picture with Judge Goodson.  I was a little sad that Judge Wilson, who had been the judge the whole time the kids were in care, was recovering from heart surgery so he couldn't be there.  We might have to make a special trip to see him.

And the kids with Tjuana Byrd, their attorney ad litem.  She is absolutely wonderful!  I cannot say enough good things about her.  She truly has the children's best interest at heart.  And is absolutely wonderful at her job!!  We feel very lucky that she has been looking out for these 3 from the beginning!

I'll share more about our day in another post because this one is getting ridiculously long!  Ha!

Rae

Finally Final

Hello again!  It is FINALLY FINAL!  Joe and I are officially the parents to 3 sweet precious kiddos!  I can hardly believe it!

Announcing.....

In case you are wondering:  

Robert = my daddy

Daniel = Joe's middle name

Tyler = his birth name

(I have 2 middle names so he gets that from me)

Charles = Joe's Grandpa

David = tons of family on my mom's side that I love

Mary = my grandmother

Blanche = Joe's grandmother

We call them Daniel, David, and Mary Blanche.

I LOVE the way our announcements turned out!  We used our beach pictures that Tony Thagard at Tony Thagard Photography took.  And Lindsey Watson at LindseyFaith Photography designed the announcements.  She was wonderful to work with!

I have always enjoyed blogging, but I always seem to take long breaks for no reason.  Oh well.  I'm back now!  Blogging with no pictures is just, well, no fun!  (And a little challenging, too!)  BUT, since the adoption is finally final, I can share pictures of these sweet babies with the blog world (which probably consists of a few close friends and family who already know all about our sweet kiddos, but hey, its a great way to journal.)

I plan to do a few catch up posts, but not too many.  That's WAY too much pressure!  Ha!  But, there are a few important posts that I missed that I plan to go back and do. Next up, I'm hoping to share all about our adoption day.  Stay tuned.....

But, before I go, I would really like to thank everyone...Our good friends, our friends we haven't talked to or seen in forever, our close family, our distant relatives, our church family, our work friends, our acquaintances, and total strangers that just heard our story.... for all of the well wishes, prayers, and support.  It truly is unbelievably overwhelming!  When deciding to become foster parents, I never considered for 1 second that our friends and family would not totally accept whatever children we had in our home as our own.  But you guys have gone above and beyond.  For real.  Thank you!

Rae

One Year Ago-Gotcha Day

One year ago this week (Well actually February 29th, but since that only happens every 4 years we will have to celebrate on the 28th.) was Miss Priss' Gotcha Day.  Gotcha Day=the day she came to live with us.  It was a day that I will never forget.  Along with all of our family and friends....they will probably never forget that day either.  Will we get her or won't we get her? That was the question of the day....All the way up to the moment I had her in my car driving down the interstate.  It just didn't seem real.

So many memories from that day.  Meeting her sweet foster dad who along with her foster mom had taken such great care of her since the day she came home from the hospital.  Who thankfully I have gotten a chance to know and love!  Besides these precious kids, new friends have been my favorite part of fostering.  And the poor sweet worker who signed her into our home....she had no idea what she was walking into.  A whole dorm of college kids were waiting outside and peaking out of all of the windows and doors to try to sneak a peak of Miss Priss as I carried her up to our apartment door.  The worker told me she has never experienced anything quite like it.  :)  I will always remember the girls and guys who came to see her that day and were a part of our lives everyday. 

I remember what a cute (bald) chunky baby she was.  Not a lot has changed in a year.  She is still my cute (bald) chunky baby.  :) My mama of course came to meet Miss Priss and fed her her first bottle.  And our good friends Matthew and Marianne came to meet this long awaited baby.  And it's the first time Miss Priss met her BFF Ruby Grace even though Ruby Grace was still cooking in her mama's belly.  :) I had taken off work for the next 2 weeks to get to spend some time getting used to having a baby in our lives for the first time.  I'm so glad I did!

Miss Priss didn't sleep much the first night we kept her.  We noticed pretty quickly how easily that baby girl got cold, which by the way hasn't changed at all.  Joe held her in the recliner while she slept for most of the night.  Of course she was warm while he was holding her so she was happy. But a few minutes after he would put  her down in the cradle, every time........she would wake up crying.  He would get her and they would go back to the recliner.  :)  He too was off work for a few days, so he requested the night shift so I could be awake with her during the day.  As Annslie says every time she comes to our place, "You could hang meat in here!"    We do keep it pretty cool, especially at night, so we knew we would need something to help keep that baby girl warm.  We went to Wal-Mart the next morning after eating her first breakfast in the Cafe at ASU Beebe to purchase a swaddling blanket....our new best friend.  (Baby girl only woke up once the next night!  Success!  :))  Baby girl slept in that swaddle blanket every night and nap for the next 4 months.  Wal-Mart would be our first outing together.  :)  We also stopped by Textbook Corner to see Miss Priss' future BFFs mom and dad.  

So much healing also happened that day.  A day Joe and I had longed for....the day we would be a mom and a dad.  No, not "officially" but when we are the ones feeding the child, getting up in the night with the child, taking that sweet baby to the doctor and having to give her medicine every day, bathing the child, and changing all of those diapers along with all of the hugs, kisses and love we could give, we are the parents....even if only for a little while.  That even for a little while recently turned into forever.  :)  We don't know the date of when that forever might be.  Could be up to six months.  But that is okay.  From a family of 2 to a family of 5 in 3 months.  It's still a little unbelievable.  In a good way.

Miss Priss-

I couldn't have asked for a more precious baby girl to be my daughter.  God definitely knew what he was doing when he gave you to your daddy and I.  A year ago this week you changed our lives forever.  A friend of mine uses the words custom made to describe her daughter, and you are definitely our custom made baby girl.  You and your brothers make our family complete.  I love it when I take you out in public with your brothers and I get so many "oh, you finally got your baby girl" comments.  You are very well known for your bows and cute frilly clothes.  And I love it that you love it all.  The attention, bows, shoes, and clothes.  :)  I love it that your first sentence was "Uh-oh, bow!"  And you now request "bow" and pat your head when I put you on the changing table in the mornings.  So, of course, I let you wear your bows with your pajamas if it isn't time to get dressed yet.  But even more than all of the frilly clothes and bows, I love your sweet feisty spirit.  I love how much you love to be loved.  You love your hugs and kisses, and you love to give them.  But you have just enough feisty that I am not ever going to have to worry about anyone taking advantage of or running over you.  I know you won't let that happen. And even though it can be a challenge sometimes, I love how independent you are.  I love it that you insist on walking every where by yourself now.  Well, I love it most of the time.  :)  And of course it is just a mom's opinion, but you are so stinking smart!  Sometimes that is not to my advantage.  But I love your smarts anyway.  I love it that our prayers were answered and you are going to be ours forever.  Your Gotcha Day will always be precious to me.  I love you with all my heart. 

Mama

 

Miss Priss Turns 1

On Saturday, January 5th, we had Miss Priss' 1st birthday party at our house.  (notice the at our house.....not sure I will do that again.  Don't get me wrong, it was great to have everyone over, but double the stress to get the house clean and presentable AND everything ready for the party.  :)  And not to mention the 3 little people who are constantly making another mess as soon as I get one cleaned up.  I wouldn't have it any other way though!)  I had a blast planning/crafting/preparing for the party.  The theme was Winter Onederland.  I have a few pictures without the super cute baby girl I can share.  But, just know that she looked absolutely precious in her very fluffy tutu dress, enormous bow, and white fur boots.  :)

The cake was one of my favorite parts of the party.  I thought it turned out wonderful!  It was beautiful and tasted great.  One of my friends from high school who also lives in Conway now made it.  She has a small business on the side.  Isn't it great!?!

Some more of the sweets table.  Everything was pink, white, and glittery.  Imagine that!?!

I thought her smash cake was equally as beautiful and fitting.  :)

I had a wonderful time painting an decorating her high chair.  Thanks to Tara and Tony for finding it at the flea market for a great price!

Of course she had a few pink balloons tied on her chair.  :)

The princess car was our gift to her.  :)  She loves it!

And we had a hot chocolate bar.  It was very cold outside so I think everyone enjoyed it.  We also had pink lemonade.  It had to be pink.  :)

 Another picture of the sweets table.  :)

Another picture of Miss Priss' chair.  I had fun making her birthday banner.  And the pictures on the mantle are her monthly pictures.  We got her when she was two months and 1 week old.  I am so very thankful to her wonderful foster mom for emailing me pictures of her first 2 months.  I even got to include her 1 month picture that they took of her with all of the ones we took.  It really means a lot.  And I am so thankful that they were there to help us celebrate her special day!! And that Debbie took all of these awesome pictures for me! :)

And this was the favor table.  We had to have wands for all the sweet little girls who came.  And who doesn't love cotton candy!?!  The big marshmallows turned out to be a big hit.  I gave all of the big kids that came each a bag of marshmallows and they had a "snowball" fight in the front yard.  It looked like they had a ton of fun!

And this is what I called the Sissy Tree.  I took all of the ornaments off our Christmas tree and had a bunch of pictures of Sis printed, glued them to scrapbook paper, and hung them with ribbon from the tree.  It was a fun way to display pictures from all of her first holidays and some more fun firsts.  And it was a fun place to put all of her gifts.  

Gotta love these precious 1st birthday bloomers that her Memama got her.  :)

We are SO very thankful to our friends and family who did get to come and celebrate this precious baby's special day!

Miss Priss has been blessed with some wonderful little girls to get to grow up with.  It just happens to be a plus for me that I get to be friends with their mamas.  :)

It really truly meant a lot to us that so many of you took the time to come and celebrate our special girl with us!  And we really missed those of you who could not come.

It will definitely be a day that I will always remember!  

 

 Miss Priss:  

Planning, preparing for, and having your first birthday party was everything I ever dreamed it would be.  We love you with all of our hearts and are so very thankful that we got to spend this day with you.   I LOVE it that you danced and wiggled in your high chair while everyone sang happy birthday to you.  Your eyes were very big and you didn't crack a smile because I'm pretty sure you were a little overwhelmed, but you know what you are supposed to do if you hear music.  Dance, of course!

  I love it that you did not lay into and devour your cake.  You definitely enjoyed it, just one little bite at a time.  I love it that I was going to give you your cake last, right before everyone went home because it is so messy, but you had other plans and as soon as you saw everyone else eating (which is what we did first) you kept demanding "MORE" until I gave in and let you have your cake.  :)  You are definitely a girl who knows what she wants.  I also love it that you have got this present opening thing down.  You sure know how to pull some tissue paper out of a sack.  I'm so very glad that God decided to make you my daughter and I can't wait to show your sweet picture to everyone one day.  (Hopefully sooner than later.)  Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  We love you so very much!

Rae