E. Beach

Took a little weekend trip to our "family" Beach!!! This beach is where I spent my summers growing up. While we don't get there as much as I would like, we go when we can and de-stress (as much as we can with 5 kids and 4 dog in tow) and reconnect!!! It is a wonderful place to be!!!

New (kind of) clothes

I have a wonderful friend who regularly gives me bags full of clothes that her adorable daughter out grows. YES!!!! She is a huge bargain shopper and gets many of her clothes from Good Will. Talk about hand-me-downs!!! Over the years, she has given me some really beautiful things - from Good Will!!! Well, she recently gave us a box full of stuff for the girls and we had a great time going through them and trying some on!! You cannot tell me that boys and girls are not biologically different! I have tried my best not to make our girls into girly girls (although I think I was one), but put a box of new (kind of) clothes in front of them and watch them go WILD!!!! Our boys would have dumped out the clothes and used the box to slide down the stairs in, but could have cared less about some new (kind of) clothes!!! I had to take a couple of pics of Lizzie trying out the cutest hat and a rain poncho of all things and a dress that I found at Target for a mere $2!! I love a good deal too!!! She was really enjoying herself and that makes me smile!! My littlest angel was actually able to fit into a size 4 shirt!!! My guess is that it had been washed and dried about a million times, but hey, it was a size 4!!!

The Poncho



My Bargain!!




Lizzie can also open just about any piece of candy (her fav thing) that you give her. So far, her so called "special need" has been such a non-issue! I wish more people would understand how special, indeed, these beautiful children who wait far too long for a family are!!!

The Dog Wash

So Kendal (our foster dog) had gotten to the point of dropping huge clumps of hair and trailing a cloud of less than perfume quality air behind him!!! Time for a bath! Not only did Kendal get a bath but so did all our other furry (very furry) children. My vaccum cleaner is thanking me today!! Only Memow the cat escaped the dreaded B word today!! Even the kids ended up WET!! They hated that - yeah right!!!

Poor Tazzie



Take Cover!!



The Shake!!



Kendal's Turn!



Revenge!!!



All Done!!



The Wet Ones!!!

Summer Soccer = HOT

The boys competed in a 3 v 3 soccer tourney this weekend and did pretty good, but boy was it LONG and HOT!! Three boys x four games each equals way too many soccer games in one day!!! They whined about this tourney (summer practice) in the weeks prior but on this very long and hot day, they had a blast!! It was the parents who were whining that day and thinking why in the world did we think that soccer in June in the South would be a good idea???? I did manage to get some cool pics of my boys in their element!! The girls also got to see some really cool girls teams battling it out with the boys!!! Go girls!!!! I think Em has finally realized that she doesn't necessarily have to magically turn into a boy to be able to play soccer!!! They were real troopers that day. I don't know who I am more proud of, the boys for playing their hearts out under intense pressure and HEAT, or the girls for not smacking us for making them hang out in the heat and mud ALL day!!!! I have a new found respect for snocones!!!!

Images of summer

There are some things that just scream summer!!! Some of my fav summertime memories are riding my bike to the Cash-U-Save with a dollar (so telling my age here) to buy Rip-N-Dips or a Chuncky Bar, buying little glass bottles of Coke, specifically for the purpose of pouring in a salty bag of peanuts (yum), eating vienna sausages and slim jims on the boat (yes, I admit, the vegitarian ate vienna sausages and slim jims - yuck), hours spent in the pool, and of course the beach (and the sand - which bothers me so much more now than it did then - go figure). I know summer has just started but boy were we ready for it here!! No more tests or projects or soccer 24/7 or homework or 5:00 am wake up calls!!!! It's time for frogs and swings and pools and bikes and popsicles and NO wake up calls!!! Yippeee!!!!!

The Dragonfly

A very cool dragonfly decided that he rather liked Christian! I can't blame him!

One year ago today...

One year ago today, a very scared but very brave little girl was placed in my arms for the first time. She only wimpered once and then clung to me for dear life. It was almost as if she was saying, "Where have you been? I have been waiting for you! What took you so long?" Our family was changed in such a beautiful way that day!!! Happy Gotcha Day sweet baby girl! We celebrated the day at our pool with snacks (Lizzie's fav food) and chocolate chip cookie cake (Mommie's fav food)!!!

My new blog!

This is my new blog. Created to keep family and friends up on all the crazy happenings around here. I also wanted a place to be able to talk about adoption and what it has meant to our family. Our journey into adoption is chronicled at http://www.ourlittlelizzie.com/. Lizzie has touched our family in so many wonderful ways and has absolutely changed my life forever! Can't wait to start blogging about our crazy, beautiful family and how great adoption is!!! I have chosen to start this blog with the video that I created for Lizzie's One Year Home Anniversary. Although it celebrates Lizzie's first year with us, it also describes our families journey to Lizzie and, I hope, a testimate for others on the "awesomeness" of adoption - as my kids would put it!!!