6 years home

On September 13th, we celebrated Riley's 6th Gotcha Day! As is our family's tradition, we made airplane cookies. Riley wanted to take them into his class, so we made a big batch and he shared them with his classmates. This past May when we flew to Boston for Karoline's graduation, we had a connecting flight in Detroit. I was so excited to get to fly through Detroit because it meant the chance to be back at the airport where I was handed my sweet boy for the first time! In 2006, Riley's flight came from Korea so he arrived in the international part of the terminal. We weren't able to go to that part of the airport on this day, but we still posed to take a picture with our boy and paused to reminisce about that amazing and miraculous day when we became parents and met the most amazing baby boy! 2006

2012

Mary Kenzie

Mary Kenzie:

"Mommy, I'm doing my action kick to try to get myself going."
Maybe that's what I'm missing in the mornings...my action kick.

"Mommy, why do you always change your mind?" This after I let her do something after first saying "no."

"Sleep...that's what matters to Santa and the Tooth Fairy. If you aren't asleep they won't come; if you are asleep they will come!"

Here are some pictures of my cute girl and her new glasses. At Mary Kenzie's four year old check-up she failed the eye screening. She couldn't see anything on the chart using her left eye. We then took her to a pediatric opthamologist who diagnosed her with amblyopia. Basically her left eye was either nearsighted or farsighted but her right eye worked perfectly, so her brain started telling her left eye to stop working and it did.

She has to wear glasses full time until she's eleven and currently has to wear a patch over her working eye for six consecutive hours a day.

Mary Kenzie has done so great with it all! She loves her glasses and doesn't complain at all about having to wear her patch.

Going to the Chapel...

Yesterday, my sister closest to me in age...Susannah...got married!

It was a beautiful wedding and reception with lots of "miracles" big and small. The rain held off until everyone was safely under the reception tent. The clouds made the ceremony a lot more bearable temperature wise. It was so amazing to have all of my siblings together at the wedding...John came from Oklahoma, Kaitlin from Arkansas, Meredith from New York, and the rest of us live in North Carolina. We haven't all been together since Christmas 2010. This is a picture of me and all of my sisters:

And here is a picture of my brothers:

It was so fun to be in a wedding with my own little girl...I was a bridesmaid and Mary Kenzie was a flower girl.

How is it August?

Annalise is my vacuuming pal! Whenever I pull out the vacuum cleaner she goes and finds her toy vacuum cleaner and stands right beside me. This is in stark contrast to my Mary Kenzie girl who still screams when she hears me in the vacuum cleaner closet and runs to the couch for safety.

Annalise and her first encounter with pudding...messy, messy, messy!!!

Riley bought this snake with his own money at the Dollar store. The package promised that if you put it in water it would grow. Well, that snake grew and grew! I finally had to tell Riley that I couldn't live with the snake in my kitchen any longer. He was a good sport and moved it to the playroom.

And, finally, here's Mary Kenzie with her sweet Aunt KK. We've had such a great week having Kaitlin home! We will be sad to see her head back to school on Tuesday. But, it will be easier to say good-bye because we will see her in just two weeks for Susannah's wedding!

Happy 4th Birthday!

Mary Kenzie is 4!!!! She woke me up first thing yesterday morning and said, "I'm four!"

It's hard to believe that sweet baby we met at nine months old has grown to be our sweet four year old girl!



We decided not to do a birthday party with friends this year since she had a big one last year, but we were trying to think of something fun to do. We decided to take a quick 24 hour trip up to Busch Gardens. Aunt Beth and Austin came along, too! We didn't tell the kids we were going...they thought we were going shopping somewhere. For the entire four hour trip they never questioned where we were going! When we pulled up to Busch Gardens this was their response:

Mary Kenzie had fun riding some of the bigger rides for the first time...the big swings and the pirate ship. She also was content to ride some of the little rides with Annalise!














Here are some pictures of the birthday girl:








Happy, happy birthday to our sweet Mary Kenzie! You bring so much joy into our family with your smile and your happy-go-lucky attitude! We are so blessed because you are in our family. Always praying God's very best for your life!!

Riley's notes

Riley loves to write notes for people. Most of the time he will go in the kitchen, pull some paper out of the cabinet and begin writing a note and/or drawing a picture.
At the end of the school year he told me he wanted to write a note for Mr. Ron. Mr. Ron is the crossing guard at Riley's school. This is the note he wrote and gave to Mr. Ron:


If you can't read it it says, "Dear Mr. Ron, Thank you for helping are school! You are the best Mr. Ron!" The picture is of a man holding up a stop sign like Mr. Ron's.

Today was my sweet girl's very first dance recital! It was so much fun to see her on the stage having so much fun! The video of the actual recital didn't turn out too great because we were just too far back, but at the dress rehearsal I recorded it so you can at least get an idea of what their tap routine was like!

How has my baby girl grown so much? (Her answer was "Mom, it's because I eat lots of healthy food!)

Here are some pictures of our little dancer!

Conversations

MK "Are we going to the Harris Teeter close to our house?"
Me "Yes."
MK "Oh good! That is my favorite! Well, actually my real favorite is chocolate cake!"

R "When I grow up I think I want to be a Michigan!"
Me "Do you mean a missionary?"
R "Yes! A missionary!"

MK to me "Mom, when you say no to me it makes God sad!"

MK "Riley, you are so handsome!"
R "Thank you, Mary Kenzie! You are the prettiest girl in the whole world!"
MK "I know! Thank you!"