April and Elise April

Today is April's birthday (six days from Elise's). We saw her this week (along with Roger and W and April's aunt). It was a good experience. Elise was a little shy at W's house (partly because all of us were staring at her... waiting for her to do something cute). Afterwards, we met up with Roger and went to a park. Elise was right at home with Roger. She warmed up to both of them and started doing her cute tricks (like giving kisses and babbling).

People usually wonder if it is strange for us to see Roger and April. And really it isn't. I expected it to be weird before I met them, but it just seems normal now. The only thing I worry about is how they are after we leave. April says its a little tough for her. When I see them, I remember the sacrifice they made and all they went through so the adoption could happen. Naturally, I've thought about it a lot this May with so many thing happening (Mother's Day, birth-Mother's day {day before Mom's day}, Elise's and April's bdays, anniversary of the placement, etc). Sometimes I forget that Elise didn't come to us in the traditional way, so its good for me to be reminded that it is because of two people's love and unselfishness that we have her in our family.

On birth mother's day, I listened to some songs on my "adoption CD." Here are part of the lyrics to one of my favorites... "Delivery" by Cherie Call. (If the spacing turns out strange... sorry... I changed it several times and for some reason, it wouldn't stay the way I wanted it.)

She was only seventeen and she knew she couldn't keep him
But at that very moment she wished that she could try
He was sleeping in her arms with his hand around her finger
When a woman came and told her it was time to say goodbye
So she wrapped him in a blanket as her tears fell on his head
And she sent him with a letter, and this is what it said;

"I delivered you from Heaven, from God's gentle loving care

And I've entrusted you to mortals who have wished and prayed you there

They will be your earthly parents

Listen well to what they say

So they can deliver you back to Heaven

And I'll meet you there someday"

One day a few weeks later someone gave her a letter

And as she read the words she had to wipe the tears away

It said, "We don't know how to thank you

There are things that words can't say

He's the sunshine and the happiness that brightens all our days

And we couldn't live without him, and we love him as our own

He has filled the empty spaces in our family and our home

"You delivered him from Heaven, something only you could do

And you have trusted us to love him and to teach him what is true

You have been our earthly angel

And I hope you know we pray

That we can deliver him back to Heaven

And that we'll meet you there someday

"And even though you may not get to hold him for a while

A piece of you will be with him

Every time he smiles

And when he looks at his reflection, he'll see traces of the face

Of the one who made the sacrifice to send him to this place"

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Sharing

One for you...
...and one for you.
(Excuse Austin's pink cupcake bib and Elise's bare belly. I'm way behind in laundry)

Austin at 6 months

Elise's birthday celebrations

As promised and for the sake of the blog book, I want to write a little more about Elise's 1st birthday. I'm a little slow ... but here goes...

Lucy's birthday card to Elise

One of the blogs I like to check on is Bakerella. She has all sorts of ideas, but the one that "got her on the map" is her cupcake pops. It didn't look too hard and I like to bake, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I have this great cake mix recipe from my friend that makes an extra moist cake, but for cupcake pops, it was just TOO moist (but much tastier to lick off fingers).

Here's Lucy "crumbling" up bits of cake into the chopper... and Elise wondering what in the world she is doing.


The picture on the left are the cupcake pops after shaping. The big one in the back was supposed to be her personal "birthday cake".

The picture on the right is after the bottoms were dipped in white chocolate. I ended up pulling out the sticks on half of them (for party #1) because I didn't have styrofoam or something to stick them in. I also made some regular cupcakes for the parties too. The cupcake pops were yummy, but too gooey if left in the fridge for more than a few days. It was fun to try, but Bakerella is definitely the pro. She makes it look so easy...

Here is a picture "before" the present unwrapping...

She wasn't too interested in opening the presents, but big sis was there to lend a hand. One of the highlights was her first baby doll.

Awwww... sweet!

And here is the aftermath...

The lucky little girl got some fun new summer clothes, blocks, and a "phone" (that is actually a remote control... oops! Oh well, she likes anything with buttons).
George had a crazy work schedule so we ended up having three small parties: one pool party/goodbye party at playgroup, one the day after her birthday (so Geo could be there), and one with Roger and April. Three chances to eat cupcakes... lucky kid! We are sure grateful to have Elise in the family. She is a ray of sunshine! I love her little run (with her arms back and head ducked down... so funny!) She gives kisses (open-mouthed :) and babbles a lot. She likes to play "chase" with Lucy and has a great time splashing in water. She is a mama's girl, but prefers men if she can't have her mom. What a smart kid! She's a petite little thing, but has lots of energy bundled up in that small package.

We sure love our little sweetheart!

Happy 1st birthday little Elle!

Today my little one turned ONE! She enjoyed her first sip of milk for breakfast this morning...YUM! What a great birthday treat! Lucy announced to her friends that now Elise can drink "people milk." :) I love my sweet Elise more than I can say. She is a little ball of fire and has a smile to melt my heart. We had a great pre-birthday party on Thursday with our playgroup buddies. But I am too tired to write anything about it... here's some pics and video (thanks to Wendy) as a teaser until I get some energy...

Great news... there are more parties to come!

Do you like my dress?

Moving season is upon us .... School year is ending, job changes, military moves, graduation, etc. Blah! I really don't like "good-bye's." Just not fun. We will miss our buddies dearly. We've already attended a few good-bye parties (wish I took pictures) and more are coming up this week. Today I tended the Cain girls while the packers came and boxed up their stuff... boo hoo! We will miss the whole family a bunch! Sadie's life represents the length of residency for us... she was born right after it started. Their girls have been so good to Lucy the whole time and now love my babies. Although there were times when residency life has really DRUG on and seemed like those terribly busy months would NEVER end (ummmm... the current one being an example), all in all, it has flown by... especially this last year. And wonderful friends made it all worthwhile!

Here's a fun little video I captured today... they are ALL GIRL! We will surely miss these little sweethearts!

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

Here are my three little birds... mouths open, waiting for breakfast...

Just to make you smile

BOO!

One of the girls favorite games is "chase"... either around the table (danger!) or around and around in a circle (dizzy!) or wherever...

Change of plans

Yesterday was a non-flying adventure for Geo and Elise. Thanks to some sky miles help from Geo's parents, they were off to Utah to attend Grandma Harden's funeral. I drove them to the airport right after Geo finished work. He called an hour later and said he wasn't going to make his connection in Minneapolis (bad weather... major delays). You read that correctly... he was flying to Minneapolis to get to UT... best we could do. Anyway, they rescheduled him for an EARLY morning flight (rather than make him stay overnight in MN) and the new flight was direct which cut his flying time by more than half. Because of some other issues, they also gave him a $300 voucher. So everything turned out better than the original plan and we even got some "money" for the whole ordeal. The other half of our fam drove back to the airport to pick up two happy non-passengers. I got a report this evening... funeral went well, Elise did okay on her first flight solo with her dad, and they are enjoying two days with family.

A little Organization high

I really get excited about organizational products. I've never been a fabulous cleaner, but I really like to organize things. I love it when I can actually find what I am looking for and find it rather quickly. We have this store here in TX called "The Container Store" (which is appropriate because it sells containers for everything imaginable) that I love. I am a real sucker for stuff like that. I could spend hours looking at stuff and lots of money buying it. Really, a good secret to organization for me is to improve in tossing things out ...... but that is a subject for another day.


Recently, I bought a few organizational items that I want to share. I think I should get paid for product promotion. :)

One thing is a Cansolidator from Shelf Reliance. Geo knows the founders of this company (went to school with them) and I must say, what business sense they had to come up with something like this! I would bet they are doing quite well financially. Anyway, the Cansolidator rotates canned food items. I purchased four sets to cover 2 shelves in my pantry. I like the thing, but its not necessarily a "space saver". I think I could actually fit more cans just stacking them. But, I can FIND the right can much quicker and I like the FIFO (link is to a commercial on how it works) idea behind it. So I'd say I'm mildly excited about this product. Its not dirt cheap, but I liked this product better than the other can rotation devices I searched mainly because it is front-loading and holds a lot of cans. (I did way too much research on this, by the way.)
I am VERY excited about the next two products. In fact, I LOVE them. Chances are, if you've come to my house recently, I've pointed out all the great features.... doesn't matter if you are a friend or stranger. So... for those of you who have not been to my house, you get the benefit as well. Here goes...


The first thing is a spice rack from Todco (some say its "Tagco"... strange... not sure which is correct). It has three drawers that tilt downward when you open them. LOVE THAT! If I had one of those previously, I would have realized I already had 3 jars of nutmeg, 3 jars of cloves, 3 jars of ginger, etc. This thing is a gem! Would you believe I bought this from walmart.com (free site-to-store shipping)? However, when I searched it to paste in the link, it wasn't there... maybe it will come back. Amazon still has it though.

The next item is from The Container Store. I was in there looking for some stackable drawer things for my daughters' hair elastics, bows, etc. I don't have ANY drawers in my bathrooms (lame) so I was thinking I'd get some shelf-type stuff to put under the sink. I searched the store over and found a few good options. THEN.... I found THIS! It is similar to those over the door shoe hangers, but this is double sided and a lot smaller. It is actually a jewelry holder (comes in a small and large size), but is absolutely perfect for all the girls hair stuff. Love it! Now I might go back and get the small one for my jewelry...

They have one of these things for bags/tissue paper that I bought a while ago and I love it too. But that is where the "tossing things out" comes into play... it is STUFFED to the brim and doesn't look so organized anymore. Hence... no picture. :)

Grandma Harden

George's grandma Harden passed away Tuesday morning. I will miss this sweet woman. Its always sad to loose someone, especially a dear family member, but grandma Harden hasn't been the real grandma Harden for a while. Its been almost eight years since we've been married and I don't think I really know the "real" grandma Harden. Alzheimer's has had her mind for a while now. But when we all get to heaven, I feel like she and I will have some great conversations.

mini mommy

Since Elise's birth, it has been fun for me to watch Lucy be a "mommy" too. She loved dolls before, but with all the real baby stuff around, she was in heaven. I'd find the bouncer, swing, cradle, bumbo, high chair, stroller, etc filled with her baby dolls. Lucy takes very good care of her baby dolls. For nap time, she turns off the light, climbs on the chest to pull the blinds shut and says "SHHHHHhhhh! Don't say one word. Addy's sleeping." (Addy is Lucy's favorite doll. We bought it for her 1st birthday. Addy is well loved and in desperate need of new PJ's.) She'd always watch very closely to see when I burped my baby and knew just how we swaddled her. One of my favorite times was before naps when I'd rock Elise and Lucy would rock her baby. I didn't want it to end. We'd sing songs to our babies and she was always so cute saying, "What song do you think they'd like next?" I'd suggest one and she'd say "No. That's not her favorite." until I'd get the "right" one. George got one of those times on video, but you'll have to turn the volume up. Just notice all the "sleeping" babies around the room...

All that mothering seems to be a very natural thing for little girls. They love it and embrace it. And most days, I do too! That is one of the things I love about being a woman... that God gave us the "nature to nurture."

Happy Mother's Day!

Austin at 5

I love my son! Austin is a little over 5 months and oh so cute! I've always hoped one of our kids would get Geo's relaxed personality and if Austin continues like he is now, I think he inherited it! He is a happy boy and it is very easy to get him to grin.... usually all it takes is saying his name. He has a cute belly laugh too.
He and Elise smile back and forth from opposite ends of the dinner table now and touch hand to hand or hand to belly when I lay them side by side to diaper change. They are aware of each other now. Its a nice change from the smacks to the face that used to happen (but they still come back occasionally).

Austin rolls, but not real often. Part of that is probably due to Lucy carting him where ever she thinks is a good place. I've outlawed the couch though (she likes to pretend its a boat and they are sailing away).

He is a great kicker and is really stiff when you hold him. He likes to put both arms around your shoulders and squeeze (or claw) and rub his face into your collar bone. The poor kid has had eczema on his cheeks for the past six weeks. I'm thinking its improved a bit lately.

Austin LOVES to eat (we've added a few vegetables to his diet) and is a big fan of the Jumperoo. We sure love this little guy!

Introducing...

... the newest member of the family (pretty much goes with us everywhere).

And here are some untouched photos of the Easter Lilies in the backyard. These are the flowers George has given me for Easter the past three years. Won't it be fun when we're in a place for a long while... there will be quite a collection! This new camera is a good one, but still doesn't do these flowers justice. The smell is just divine!