Three

She is officially a three-year-old!  Part of me cannot believe almost two years have passed since she joined our family, but the other part of me just knows her as always being here.  Our family is complete with her, and I love being her mama and watching her grow.  It is difficult to say whether she experienced a bigger transformation this past year or the year before.  Regardless though, each year with our precious girl just gets more awesome.  She makes my life brighter and I can see God's handiwork in her every single day (even when she's throwing a temper tantrum!).  She is sassy, loud, sweet, and funny; and she always has a big, crashing hug for my legs.  She bursts with energy and talks a mile a minute (much of which I am still trying to decipher).  She is smart.  Oh so very smart.  She knows what she wants and does what it takes to get it.  And she is always willing to lend a helping hand.  She is my girl, and I love her to the moon and back. Happy Birthday sweet Sunshine, I am excited to see what this next year holds for you my little love!

A getaway

My friend, Kelly, so graciously let us crash her family beach stay this weekend.  We needed it.  Like really needed it.  It truly was just what the doctor ordered.  Maybe more for me than the kids.  But regardless, I am so thrilled with the friendships that were formed ... of course Kelly and I talked (a lot).  But the kids ... oh the kids ... lots of new friendships were created!  What a beautiful sight to witness!  Between getting soaked in the ocean, building sand castles, collecting sand crabs, hitting boardwalk rides, exploring outdoors, playing wii and every i-thing you could imagine ... ohmygoodness, it was pure bliss.  And that doesn't even include the talks I shared with Kelly  (one lasting until 2am!).  It was such a great weekend, and I am feeling so thankful for Kelly and her family.  The kids are already asking about the next time we'll get to see them again. 

A lasting friendship

Sometimes you just know instantly when you are going to be friends with someone.  That's what happened with these two.  They met on the first day of Kindergarten, and it was friendship at first sight.  Although they hadn't seen each other in a year, being together today was just like they had never been apart.  Her mom and I both agreed we needed to do a better job at getting the girls together ... and I really hope we do!

My sweet friend

I will never forget when Melissa first contacted me about adoption almost two years ago.  It's a total God story that I won't retell because Melissa did such a great job.  But since then, an amazingly close, bonding friendship has formed between us.  I'm so thankful for her and her adorable family, and am even more blessed to call her one of my very best friends.  My kids adore her and I'm just in love with her little Giddy.

She and her family brought us dinner on Thursday night, and we had such a great time.  It was really just what we needed!  Melissa and I chatted for a bit afterward too - girl time is always a fantastic bonus to help bring you back to reality when you need it :-)

Sorry, the lighting is terrible and the file is very noisy!  But I love it anyway :-)

QT

We've been doing a lot of visiting over this past week.  Nana (my mom) came for a visit yesterday and this little scene was just too precious not to capture.  I love that Sunshine can verbalize her desires now!  I need to do an update on her speech progress sometimes soon.  But suffice it to say, she kept Nana busy by asking her to draw many different kinds of things, including a cat, a dog, a flower, and her drinking cup.  Oh this girl!