Cowboy Sam!!!!

Sam was riding the rocking horse the other day, and Laney raced to get him her cowboy hat!! She is an accessorizer and she is trying to raise up her brothers accordingly!!! Sam fell into absolute love with the hat. He did not let go of it for several days!!
He makes one cute cowboy!



Now, he walks all over the house with it strapped around his neck and dangling down his back. I can pretty much count on seeing him in it at some point every day!!!


Miles got a turn, and while he was equally as cute, he did not develop the attachment to the hat that Sam did!

Gotcha Day!

Laney's Gotcha Day was on Friday! Three whole years have passed since that amazing day that we climbed the steps of the Chung Yi home, anticipation mounting with every step! Three years since they walked through the door with her and put that precious little bundle in my arms. What a miraculous day that was. Will I ever be able to put into words what a wonder it was? I felt like the floodgates had opened and the Lord's blessings were gushing over us. I still feel that way. I am amazed that we were chosen to be Laney's family. As she grows up, my prayers are becoming even more fervent that she will always know how special she is and how desperately we wanted her. Like most adoptive parents, I worry. I worry that she will look at her story and interpret it differently than what it is. I don't ever want her to have a moment's pause about her worth and her place in our family. Laney is loved and she is treasured. I don't think that she will ever question that, I just know that she will have questions about her past and that scares me. Will she know, truly know in her heart of hearts. that I couldn't have imagined a more perfect daughter for us; that I wouldn't trade one single tiny thing about her for all the world. I will tell her. I will always tell her that she is my dream come true. But will she always KNOW it? Know it with every fiber of her being? Like I said, my prayers become more fervent everyday!

To celebrate Laney's Gotcha Day, we usually have a party. Since Todd is only here on Mondays and Tuesdays, we will save her party for one of those times. We celebrated with Grommy at home and with the Goods on her actual day. We met the Goods at Pure Bliss, which Laney seriously just calls, "My Favorite." She waves to it whenever we drive by. "Hi, my favorite!" They helped make it a fun and special day for her!
These are the shirts that we sold to fundraise while we were in the process of bringing Laney home. I saved this one so that Laney could wear it someday. It literally brings tears to my eyes to remember how all of our friends and family rallied in such amazing ways to partner with us in bringing Laney home!

You can watch the video of our Gotcha Day here. Try to ignore all my ugly crying.

Mountain Goat!

Miles loves climbing up on Grommy's chair. If the foot rest is extended, then he can get up and down easily. He climbs up and starts cheering for himself, which reminds me that I have not yet documented Miles's official first words. He says, "Good Job!!!" all the time. Lots of times he just repeats it after he hears me say it to him, but lately I have been hearing him say it all by himself. He stacked three play doh tubs on top of each other the other day, and started looking around at everybody saying "Dood Dob!!! Dood Dob!!!" So cute!
So, if these pictures were in video format, I am sure that we would have been hearing a lot of that from this little encourager!



Laney gets very protective of both of her brothers. She switches over into her nurturing tone of voice and rushes to their aid when she thinks that they might be in danger. It looks like she and her mittens were able to save Miles from any and all threat!

Salon de Laney!

This might look like a type of car ride or choo choo train, but it's not. It is Laney's personal hair salon! The boys are getting washed and styled by the very best and they are loving it!
Laney gets really really into character when she is playing games like this. She totally believes in her own little make believe world. I love it.
She is protecting Miles's ear from "water" in this picture. He hadn't been back to the doctor yet since his ear drum ruptured, so we are still putting an ear plug in when he takes baths. She wanted me to go get her a real ear plug, so that her game could be a little more authentic.

She puts her hand up right there over his eyes to make sure that no water gets in them while she is rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. She is a very considerate hair dresser!

Accessorizing!

If ever Miles finds one of Laney's headbands lying around, he quickly converts it to his very own. He doesn't use it the conventional way though! His preference is to utilize it as eyewear!

He absolutely cracks himself up by doing this. I am sure it helps that Laney, Grommy and I are laughing pretty hard at his silliness too!
He looks a little Star Trek, right!?

Plate Play!

Santa brought the brothers these little plates with suction rings on the bottom. I was really excited about putting them into play because much of their food usually ends up on the ground each meal! Sadly the suction is no match for these twinados!
But the rings have proven to be most useful in other ways.
They have brought much joy to our little Moo Man.
It's an almost perfect fit!!! He got that circle face straight from his mama!!!
Big Sister loves a chance to join in fun!!
She got this Line Leader tag earlier in the week, but since she plays school every single day at home, it has seen a lot of play!!

Strawberry Shortcake Dance Revolution!

I wrote about how Todd's cousin Ali gave Laney this game for Christmas. She was so excited to get it out and get started! I think that it was a little too hard for her, but she had tons of fun trying and even more fun watching me and Todd and Grommy give it a go!

Walking Babies!

Obviously the orientation of these pictures is wrong. That never happens to me and I don't have time to figure it out right now. Sorry!!! I know that I can fix it when I convert my blog to a book, so I am not worried about it for my sake. I apologize that you are going to have to cock your head for the next few minutes!

Sam is a total walker now. He has been for weeks, but I am behind! We went to the park with Todd while he was here for Christmas and Sam had a blast demonstrating his skills!!!


Miles and Laney teamed up on the see saw!!! Laney has always loved the see saw, and I am so excited that her brothers are getting big enough to do things like that with her!



More of that great walking!

Miles is just a few steps behind Sam. He is seriously the fastest crawler I have ever seen, and for a long time seemed perfectly content to rely on that mode of transportation. This week, he has started walking. He takes about twelve steps at a time, but is primarily still crawling. It won't be long now though!

Happy New Year!

I am obviously working on an almost three week delay here, but I wanted to get some of our pictures from New Year's up. Todd and I got to hang out with lots of friends on New Year's Eve. We started out the night at my sisters house for her fantastic Marble Slab party. Then we went met up with some of our friends who were back in town for the holidays. It was lots of fun. One more reason that we are so blessed to be staying at Lezlie's right now is that she is always willing to let us head out after the kids go down ( or before!) So, over the holidays we got to spend lots of time together on our own and with our friends! Thanks Groms!!!

We have so many pictures with this same backdrop from when we were dating!

We got some hugs from the Bug before it was time to go party!!!
Every New Year's Day we go to Grommy's house for black eyed peas and cornbread. This year we carried on the tradition. Even the boys got in on the action!


A yummy start to 2010!!! It's gonna be a good one!!!