Saturday, August 21, 2010

Two years ago...




Wow, I can't believe it has been 2 years since we made that crazy trip from Guatemala to Atlanta, pit stop in Birmingham, then HOME with our beautiful girls. It has been a whirlwind. Our girls are so big. Fernanda is 4 years-5 months and Rosa is 2 years-10 months and Lily is 11 1/2 months old. What a blessing the last 2 years have been, overwhelming at times, but a blessing for sure.


Fern just started her 2nd year of Mother's Day Out/Pre-K and dance. She is an entertainer. She LOVES to dance, sing, play dress up, watch TV, dance, be a big sister, play with her babies, play games, color/draw, did I mention dance? She is such a joy. She is hardheaded, asks a million questions a day, loves talking about her birthday. The first thing she does every morning when she gets up is put on her tutu, crown and princess shoes, I think she really believes she is a princess, and she is! She tells me that she is going to go to Heaven with Jesus and wants all her family and friends to go with her. Anytime she or someone is sick or hurt, she wants to pray for them and always wants to be the one to say the blessing. She is so smart and says the funniest things, and she knows it. She knows everyone thinks she's cute and boy is she a ham! She can pose for pictures like a superstar! I am so thankful we have had a healthy year, I don't think she has been sick once this year. Fern has the BEST smile! I can't believe that she is so big!


Rosa just started her 2nd year of Mother's Day Out and her 1st year of dance. She is so funny and such a sweet girl. Rosa knows all her colors and can recognize a few letters. She loves to play with her sisters. She is always correcting my misspeaks, like if I call her the wrong name, she says, "I'm Rosa". Rosa is definitely a momma's girl, but loves her Papi so much and asks me every day where he is. She is mostly potty trained and is so proud of herself. Rosa will be having her tonsils and adenoids removed next month to help with sleep apnea, otherwise she has been healthy this year, only 1 ear infection. She has gone from being shy and quiet to talking to everyone. When we went to Disney World in May, she overcame her fear of the characters. She is such a big girl and tells me everyday she loves me the big whole world! She has picked up Fern's love of all ting birthday and tells me EVERYDAY, "my birtday coming up today, I want to have pumpkin patch for my birtday". How is it possible that she is almost 3?


Lily is my sweet baby! I cannot believe that in just 2 weeks we will be celebrating her 1st birthday! She is on the verge of walking. She has been standing for a few weeks now but just hasn't gotten brave enough to take that step. She now has 2 teeth all the way in and 1 more up top that has broken through the gum. She is a great eater, will eat almost anything. She says momma, but not necessarily directed at me, just out of frustration or exhaustion. She crawls everywhere and chases after her big sisters. If we leave her in a room, it's not long before she has caught up with us. She still has her paci and her "lovie", can't go to sleep without them. She sleeps through the night, only wakes to get her paci back in her mouth. I can see we are gonna have a time taking that away. She loves her sisters, gets so excited when she sees them. Lily lights up when her Papi walks into the room. She plays pat-a-cake and will "bonk heads" which is one of the first things I remember Rosa doing at this age. I have been trying to teach her a little sign language and I think she actually did the sign to eat yesterday. Lily is such a joy, almost make us want to have another, but I think we'll wait a while!

It has been a busy year, we went to Disney World in May and then to Gatlinburg in July/August. Here are a couple of pics from both trips. I love all my girls, am so thankful for them and can't wait to see what this next year has in store!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Yes, we're still alive

I am soooooo bad at keeping t his up, sorry. I think most of the readers are on Facebook anyway and I at least update there a little. Life is crazy, hectic. Lily is wonderful and we are enjoying her so much. Fernanda and Rosa are both such great big sisters. They love their baby so much and want to hold her and help feed her. We have had a few struggles with Lily in her short life. She was born with a Syrinx, so we are having to have that monitored yearly by a neurosurgeon, but weems to be ok for now so no worries. A few weeks after she was born, she developed a hemangioma on her back, actually right across the syrinx (although not related to it) so we will take her to a dermatologist in Dec just to have it checked out. And at one of her appointments, they thougth they heard a heart murmur so we visited a cardiologist, but all is well with that. Man little girl, you sure know how to make mommy and daddy worry!
We have also had a little trouble getting her weight up so we are feeding every 2 hours for now until she puts on the lbs...
Fern and Rosa have been troopers and have adjusted well to having a baby in the house. They love that all the grandparents have been coming over ALOT!
We sold our house and bought another one so we are moving next week!!! We are so excited but a little frazzled with everything going on. I told Bill that my New Year's Resolution is to do NOTHING- no adopting, getting pregnant, having a baby, moving, no getting sick or having surgeries (I hope), NOTHING!!! I just want us to relax and enjoy our new house with our family.
We had new family pictures taken a few weeks ago so I'll leave you with them...
And if I don't blog again before Thanksgiving (which is likely) Happy Thanksgiving, we are so thankful this year!





Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Meet Lily Anne...

Our beautiful daughter arrived at 7:14pm this evening. After arriving at the hospital at 5am to be induced, I never dilated past 3cm after 12 hours so Dr. Cimino decided to deliver her via C-section.
He came in to check me at 6:36pm and she was born by 7:14pm, it all happened so fast.
Lily weighed 6lbs, 15oz, and was 19.5 in long. She has a head full of wavy brownish blond hair. She has already captured our hearts.
After cleaning her up, mommy got to give her a quick kiss and then she and daddy were whisked away to the nursery for her checkups and a real bath.
Mommy got to finally hold her at about 10pm.
I can't believe that she is ours. She is a perfect blend of both of us. I can't wait to see what her eye color will be, but for now they are blue. She has long feet and fingers, not sure where she got those...
Here are a few pictures of the day & night.

Mom waiting on something to happen...


Dad getting ready!


Mom, waiting to hear Lily cry.


She's here!


Our first photo with her.


The grandparents are just a little excited, don't you think?


Mom finally gets to hold her!

Friday, September 4, 2009

One more update before the BIG day!

I had another doctor's appt Thursday and he said that Lily is ready to go and he will induce me on Tuesday morning! I can't believe that it is finally here. The first half of the pregnancy went really slow and then it sped up, now it seems like it is dragging again. So unless she decides she is ready before then, we will meet our daughter sometime on Tuesday. Until then...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

quick update

tomorrow is the big day, we will find out if Lily is still breech (which I am pretty sure she is) and what day we will finally hold her in our arms.

Here is a picture of Fern on her first day of MDO. It was pouring rain and I had to get her and Rosa out of the car and into school so I don't have a picture of her in her classroom that day.



But, here is a picture of her with her teacher at the Open House.



And here is a picture of Fern and two friends on her first night of dance



A few weeks ago Mary Ellen came over and took maternity pictures. Here are a few shots she got that day.





Last week I had two baby showers. One was with friends we go to church with and the other was a group of ladies who also have adopted from Guatemala and a friend from the church we used to attend. Both nights we went to dinner and on Friday night, we also went to a movie. It was so nice to have a girls night out (ok 2 GNOs) with some really great friends!



Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Crazy Days!

I can't believe that we are about to have a baby! It is exciting and scary all at the same time. My due date is Sep 11th, but we found out last Thursday that our little Lily is head up. I have another appointment tomorrow (37 weeks) to see if she has turned (don't think she has) and if not, we will go ahead and schedule a C-section. That's not really how I imagined this whole thing going down, but I am thankful that there are ways to safely deliver a breech baby and that we know ahead of time she is breech. Our thoughts are that we will schedule the C-section for the first week of Sep, hopefully Sep 4th.
If we didn't have enough on our plate with 2 little ones at home and a baby on the way, Fern started MDO and her dance classes started up again this week. We weren't planning to let her go to dance this fall but she loves it so much we thought it would be a good distraction for her with Lily coming. She is going to MDO on Tuesday and Thursday and dance on Wednesday.
That's what's going on with us, so if you don't hear from me for a while, now you know why... One day I plan to do some type of photo collage of our summer, but who knows when I'll find time.
I will definitely update when Miss Lily Anne arrives!