A Day with Bekah and Leah!

Bekah, Kate, Leah, and AnnaClaire... sweet friends/China sisters!
The little girls brought together by the miracle of adoption!
Leah and AnnaClaire had sweet hugs for eachother when they first met!
Bekah and AC... they have grown so much since that first play date in China when they were only 13 months old! Almost 2.5 years ago!!
The four girls again
Precious Leah, who just turned two last week!
Bekah tickling Kate!
The two 2 year olds/Jiangxi princesses!
Love this one... united by LOVE
Eating chocolate chips as their treat for cooperating :)
The mommies, the girls, and me
AC and Bekah again. Just love looking at then and now pictures... they have changed SO much!
Making homemade ice cream was a hit...
The girls churning the ice cream!

Eating the ice cream was an even bigger hit:)

Today, we were excited to have Bekah and Leah's family swing by to visit us on their way home from Myrtle Beach! Their family are some very dear friends of ours who were in our travel group when we went to China for AnnaClaire. In fact, here's some pictures of AnnaClaire and Bekah playing in China! They had visited us back 2 years ago (there's a few group pictures here and a bunch more here.) but the last time we saw them was in Nov. 2007 at our travel group/chatty sister renuion at Disney*World. Anyway, since then, both of our families have brought home another sweet China girl! We, of course, brought Kate home in Oct. and they came home with Leah in Jan. of this year. AC and Bekah are about a week apart (both are 3 and a half) and Kate and Leah are two months apart in age (new twos!) It was hard to believe that the last time we saw the D. family, Bekah and AC were Kate and Leah's age! Anyway, we had such a fun time just visiting and letting the girls run around. They all played so well together! They loved just running around, playing hide and seek, playing on riding toys, and making homemade ice cream again! I had to leave our little party early to work... but we had such a fun afternoon! It was so fun to finally meet precious Leah, who we have heard so much about, and to see Bekah and her parents again. Bekah, of course, has grown so much. She and AnnaClaire loved hearing about how they played in China together!! I just love adoption... the friends we have made on this incredible journey are irreplaceble and our girls will always have a special friendship, no matter how far away they live... just love that!

UPDATE: AnnaClaire bawled when her friends left and woke up crying on Saturday night because she was so sad they were gone. Hopefully it will be sooner than two years before we see you guys again!

Dairy Farm Pictures... Finally!

On May 13th, which was actually Mia's birthday, Mom and Mia's mom took the little girls to a dairy farm not too far from here. Mom had wanted to take the girls for awhile, so it was fun that they finally got to go... and with a friend made it even more fun! A good time was had by all and I think we will definitely be back sometime!

Oh and I can't take credit for the pictures... Mom actually brought the camera... and she did good capturing some sweet moments, too, didn't she?! :)

Some pictures from this month...

Precious Kate in her sweet dress which was a coming home present from our best friends!
For Mother's Day, AnnaClaire and Kate planted flowers in our front and back yard! Here they are getting all the flowers at W*alM*art
And here they are planting the flowers... so sweet :)
AnnaClaire and Kate recently got Princess Co*zy Cou*pes! They love them!

One more of precious Kate! This was actually on Mother's Day... isn't she sweet?!
I have been giving AnnaClaire swim lessons the past month! She has done so well and is really swimming!
AnnaClaire and Sadie, a friend of mine (and their family and our family are very good friends... they are the ones who gave Kate the dress that she's wearing in the picture at the top of this post!) at Will's graduation party!

Kate and Liz (Sadie, Liz, and I have been friends for forever! Sadie and Liz are sisters) making ice cream!

All the girls making home made ice cream!!!

AnnaClaire LOVED making the ice cream! She was so good at churning it, too!

Kate's baby is really AnnaClaire's, so Grandma brought Kate her own baby! Kate likes to push around the "twins" in her stroller! Kate loved the home made ice cream at Will's graduation party... can you tell? :)

(Not Quite) Wordless Wednesday

Yes, that's my history book.

Seven Months!

Today marks seven months since we became a forever family of seven! It's hard to believe that Miss Kate has been here for seven whole months. She has brought so much to our family... so much joy, so much sweetness, so much fun! Have I mentioned how absolutely SWEET she is? She is the sweetest little thing I have ever known. My heart grows more and more in love with her daily. She has such a precious little heart and I have loved watching her grow over these seven months! She may still be tiny (18.8 pounds to be exact!) but she has grown so much in other areas. She was considered language delayed at Philip Hayden, yet she is speaking full sentences! She has also started going potty on the potty! The first day we held her, and for so many after, she was quite stubborn and whiney. How that has changed!!! She does anything you ask her (well... except eat!) and always has a big smile across her face. You can just see the joy in the above picture. I have loved seeing her love of life grow deeper and her smile grow wider these past months. I have also loved watching her come to love her FAMILY and become the best of friends with AnnaClaire. They love eachother so much and it just melts my heart :) I love this little girl so much and am so blessed to be her big sister!

Happy seven months together, Kate! I love you SO much, precious baby girl!

To see pictures from our past 6 family days, go here.

Graduation Pictures~

Here's more graduation pictures than you've probably ever wanted to see :) Congrats again, Will!