Way to go boys!

This past Saturday was the Country Music Half Marathon and A (hubby) ran it for the first time. He did great. He finished at 2:14....which by the way was just under 10 minutes behind Eddie George. Way to run, daddy! The kiddos and I braved the crowd of 30,000 to try to spot A at the finish line. We weren't able to catch him there, but found him later. My batteries died in my camera while we were waiting, so no glorious post-run pics :(

C had his 2nd soccer game later in the day and he was in a much better mood than last time. He had a lot of fun and that's all that matters. He started a round of ring-around-the-rosies at one point with players from the opposing team! He came over to the sidelines to give us a high five after every other play, even if it did not involve him at all. Our team did not win, but I don't think they keep score at this age. The other team looked like giants compared to our little guys. I think they recruited :)

Saturday night A and I went on another date! That's 2 in the last 2 weeks. All of the racers got tickets to the Sara Evans concert. I was actually considered a racer too since I registered and paid, but then quit training for a little reason named AP :) So we enjoyed the concert and time together. Here is a self portrait on our way out the door.

On the AP front, she is feeling much better now. She stopped running a fever by Saturday night and her apettite is back to normal, as of today. Shots can be cruel.

Clean Bills of Health

C and AP had their 4 year and 1 year check-ups today. Both are doing great. For the first time, C received no shots. He was excited about that. He passed the hearing test with flying colors. He had refused to do it at his 3 year appointment. He passed the vision test with one eye, then when he switched to the other eye he said he couldn't see. Personally, I think he was tired of cooperating, but they took pics of his eyes to determine if they see any problems. He is up to a whopping 33 pounds and is 3'6". AP is now up to 17 pounds. Poor girl got 3 shots and goes back in 6 weeks for more, then 6 weeks later for more...then she should be about caught up. Needless to say, she is not a happy camper today...but it has not affected her appetite :)

UPDATE** No problems with C's eyes. I guess he just got tired of playing the "tell me what you see" game. The shots have really taken a toll on AP. She has had a fever all day and did lose her appetite, which for her is a big deal :(

A Day on the Farm

The kiddos and I went to Honeysucklehill Farm today with a Parents of Preschoolers group from our church. The kids had a great time. They got to go on a hayride, pet and feed the animals, eat a picnic lunch, and then play on a great playground. C was scared of the big slide. He was willing to go if I would "save him", so I had to slide, too. C and his friend J said their favorite part was the seesaw. AP liked the airplane swing (although she has one just like it at home)

(you can see from the pic above that AP is not afraid to hit somebody in the head if she needs to)

Good Friends, Fine Dining, and Busy Birthdays

On Friday my girlfriends (from the spa day) and their husbands, along with Andy and I, went to Maggiano's for a great dinner. The boys had attempted to plan a surpise dinner celebrating S and D's birthdays. However, there were several nagging wives that broke their husbands down until they let the cat out of the bag (me being one of them). It was a lot of fun...and our first date since bringing AP home. We only called home once to check in :) There was soooooooooooooo much tasty food. We all left stuffed and somewhat miserable, but it was well worth it.




Saturday was C's 4th birthday. It was such a busy day. We started out with birthday muffins for breakfast. We had soccer pictures, followed by the first game that has actually not been cancelled due to weather. C was not in good spirits. Game time coincided with a nap we were missing. C actually fell asleep at one point on the bench :( He eventually refused to play and just watched.

After running home to pick up a few things, we headed to C's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. C fell asleep on the way there, but the power nap made a world of difference. C had a blast at his party. He was so into Chuck E. He danced with him and even climbed on stage at one point. He loved having everone sing to him. He got a lot of great presents, then it was off to play all the games. He had so many tokens that after another hour or so we were trying to find ways to waste them. I think he played every game in the place. He had 1700 tickets by the end! That only translates into a racecar, a hammer, and a few plastic snakes, but to C it was great. He had so much fun with family and friends. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate!

Happy Birthday Nanna

Happy Birthday to you. We'll see you soon! At C's request, we went to the balloon store and picked out a balloon just for Nanna's birthday.

(that's not me with C, it is the balloon store helper)

And just because it's cute....

Yoga Crawl

That's what we call AP's newest crawling adaptation. She has gone from the army crawl to the big girl crawl to this...

the downward dog crawl! (it's a yoga pose for those that don't know) It is quite entertaining to watch. She has also learned a new trick from her daddy...

PEEK-A-BOO!

Happy Birthday AP

What a busy birthday she had! We were invited over for a little playgroup in the morning. C had a lot of fun with the boys there. AP held her own quite well. Mrs. T was so nice, she had cupcakes there for AP's birthday. AP really liked the icing. This is her "I really like this" smile.

Then we went home to finish cleaning up the house and decorating for her little party. It was a little bit sad for me to think about her first year being gone and we got to share so little of it. Anyway, we had a great time with family at the party. AP really liked getting her own birthday cake.........until it became an icing trainwreck!

She didn't care too much about presents, so big brother stepped in to help out.

Isn't his shirt cute? It says "I'm the Big Brother". Thanks Aunt Heather.

On Tuesday we had AP's 1 year pictures and C's 4 year pictures made. Here are my favorites. I bought the CD, so I think it gives me the right to share the pics online (I hope). If not, don't call and turn me in.Have you ever seen anything so cute? We are truly blessed.

Happy Easter

...the reason for our hope and joy. C was excited that the Easter Bunny hopped all the way from his igloo to visit him. Our response:....umm...sure. Who knows where he got that idea, I guess the bunny can live anywhere you want him to. AP was just excited to get Puffs and she was not going to let them go.

Here is my first attempt at a bunny cake, not bad, eh? C said it didn't really look like a bunny.

Freezing our tails off

Well, today was the big day for the first Socceroo game, but it is 20 degrees here! We secretly hoped they would call it off, but they did not...so we bundled everyone in layers and headed to the fields. The wind was soooooooooo cold. After about 20 minutes of practice and C crying twice b/c it was too cold, the coaches finally called the game off. C sure was cute though.

You can see we resorted to the handwarmer in the bathroom to ward off frostbite.

Shout out to grandparents

A BIG Thanks from the kiddos to Nanna, Daddy Bob, and Grandma Judy for their Easter packages. They loved them!

Oh yeah, AP's TB skin test was negative! Praise God, no nine months worth of applesauce medicine.

She Drinks!

This is a huge step at our house. Drinking has been a battle with our girl. For the last few weeks it was Capri-Suns only, much to the dismay of nutritionists everywhere. Every few days I would try a new kind of cup or a different drink with no luck. Tuesday night I tried the same pink cup that I have tried at least ten other times, but for some reason she just drank. and drank. and drank. Now she won't stop. So no need to worry anymore about her calcium intake, believe me she is getting it.



The doc from Vandy called this morning after breakfast. I was a little worried to hear the actual doc on the other end, I thought for a second that the doc only calls when the news is not too good, otherwise it would be a nurse on the other end of the line. But, I guess he's just a nice guy b/c all of her labwork so far has been negative, woohoo! The only things that haven't come back yet are the syphillis and the stool tests (that's another story not appropriate to post here, but it it is one of those things that earns your Mom badge). We go today to get her TB test read. She has the same scar from the TB vaccine that her brother had, so I am hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

This pic is one I took this week to make her birthday party invites. We are only having a small family gathering, so I thought I'd post it so everyone else can see just how cute it is!

Beautiful Easter Christmas Tree

At C's request, we now have an Easter Christmas tree. This was what he requested after seeing other trees in the neighborhood with eggs hanging on them. Here was our feeble attempt.









We had an Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos in our small group last night. C dominated and took home most of the candy. He had already perched somewhere and was unwrapping chocolate before the other kids even finished. He loves his chocolate.



AP and her little friend had fun eating grass and chewing on the wrappers of candy that they wished they could eat. They were really cute doing it, though.





AP had her big appt at the International Adoption Clinic at Vandy today. So far, so good. We won't have any of the results of the bloodwork back for a while, but he was very pleased with her development. We were actually scheduled to stay and meet with the OT, but doc didn't even feel like she needed it. He says she is really close to being on target, at least as far as development goes. She really put on a show for him...she talked non-stop, did her big girl crawl, pulled up, and even did what looked like a little dance move. She has 2 Mongolian spots, I had thought that was what they were, but wanted to make sure. For those who don't know, that is just a type of birthmark and should go away by age 2 or so. They look like bruises, though, so it can be kind of scary if you don't know what they are. She is still a petite little pumkinhead, but we are proud to report that she is on the chart at least. Her weight was between 1 and 3 % and her head and length were just over 3 %...way to grow, AP! To say that she was mad about having her blood drawn was an understatement. She screamed, stopped breathing, started sweating, then just gave up and went to sleep. It must have taken a toll on her b/c she is now taking a marathon afternoon nap.

Pretty Toes

I consider myself lucky to have four great women that have been my friends for what seems like forever. There are 5 of us that have been friends since jr high..and have actually been to school together since kindergarten. We have remained close over the years and have been to/in each other's weddings, been at the births and additions of children, and have been there for each other during sad times too. I know that it is rare to have such friends and I know that I am blessed. All five of us are getting old as well. We all hit the big 3-0 this year.

In an effort to celebrate this milestone we treated ourselves to a child-free spa day. We enjoyed manis, pedis, and lunch.

The fellowship was the best part. I love you all!