Journey: 4 Months Gotcha!

This is his "cheese" face!

Thursday marks 4 months for our family to be together~ WOW! It is hard to believe that it's only been 4 months since we met David in China!! It seems like we've been together forever!!  David has continued to do great and he is growing so much!!
Our summer is coming to an end which makes me very sad though I am looking forward to the fall! I can't wait for his first Baylor football game, fall festivals, pumpkin patch, and Thanksgiving. I also like the cooler temperatures of fall!
David had his two year check up last week. He is in the 30% for height and weight. His heart continues to be healthy and we are so very thankful for God's healing! He had to get a shot and a finger prick but he handled them like a champ!
David is saying more and more words and now he is putting them together. He says "thank you" a lot and it's too darn cute when he says "thank you mama", just makes my heart happy! He continues to be a pretty good eater though he doesn't eat many vegetables. Some days he'll eat a ton of food and then the next he won't eat much- guess that's a 2 year old for ya! His sleep is going great too. We moved bedtime up and hour and he's done pretty good with that change. He's started wanting to do many hugs and kisses before we leave his room- we certainly don't mind that at all!!

Walking in to school!

I started back to work last week and Steve begins classes at Baylor on Monday. With summer over David has started at daycare which we're calling 'school'. Today was his second day and so far he is really enjoying it! The first day he went in with a smile and said "bye bye" to us with no hesitation- Praise!! I think going to church child care has helped with the transition. Tomorrow he will stay most of the day and I'm hoping for smiles when he gets picked up. I'm excited to see him make new friends and learn many new things. I also think school will help with his language development. We feel blessed to have a place where we know he is being cared for each day! He's been tired the past two nights so I know he's playing hard!

Ready for his first day of school!
All smiles!!

We got him a tricycle for his birthday.
It's a BIG hit!!

Journey: We have a 2 year old!!!

He loved his cake!

August 2nd is a very special day for us! 10 years ago Steve and I were married on August 2nd. Steve's dad's birthday is on August 2nd. And 2 years ago our precious son was born! August 2nd was already a very special day for us but now it's even more special!! When we got our referral for David I was actually researching our 10 year anniversary trip which was going to be a river cruise in Europe. Instead we went to China, thank goodness!!

Daniel Tiger!

When I found out that we would be in Florida for David's first birthday with us I was super excited. I knew that being with family would be lots of fun. Since we missed his first birthday I think 2 birthday cakes are in order! My awesome sister is a master at cakes thank goodness! I decided that for his Florida birthday we would do a "Daniel Tiger" cake. David loves Daniel Tiger which is on PBS and a take-off of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. It is possible that I like it more than him :)
On his birthday we started with a great morning at the beach. Steve and I went out to lunch to celebrate our anniversary at a local place which was very yummy. We had a wonderful dinner and then did cake and presents with David. He LOVED his cake! He also really enjoyed having us sing Happy Birthday to him. Thanks to all of our June birthdays he knew exactly what to do when it came time to blow out the candles. What a fun day!!!

Happy Birthday David!!

He's too cool!

 Like I said, since we missed his first birthday we thought 2 birthdays would be great! It being August in Texas meant that his party needed to be inside or involving water so we chose both. We  took advantage of our Baylor connection and used the SLC pool!
It was easy to come up with a swim theme and thanks to Pintrest, my mom and my sister we had lots of fun ideas. David enjoyed having new friends play with and he loved the cakes and candle. We had a special candle from China that lights up and plays "happy birthday". We brought home several from China! I enlisted my sister again to make a fabulous cake~ a beach ball. Drew loves to bake as well and made a yummy dolphin cake! It was the best party he won't remember :)


David loves his cousins!!

Blowing out his special candle!

He loved his cake!

Cousin Drew made a yummy cake!

Thank you Aunt Cheryl for a perfect cake!

He loves the water!

Journey: Pictures on the Beach

While in Florida I wanted to get some family pictures on the beach. We did professional pictures with the whole family early in the week. It will take 4 weeks to see those and we're all hoping they turn out great!
Knowing that we have a semi-professional photographers in the family we decided to take advantage of his nice camera and talent for a mini-shoot! Drew and my dad both took pictures one morning. and we had a lot of fun though it was so darn humid!! David's a natural at taking pictures~ let's face it, that's an important thing in this family! It was fun and we got some great pictures. Below are a few to enjoy :)

We're squinty but David looks great!

Another good one of David!

Behind the scenes

LOVE this picture of David and my parents!

Cousins!

Seriously, could he be cuter :)

Thank you Drew!!!

Journey: more beach

Our days at Blue Mountain were spent relaxing at the beach and pool and fun family times together! The beach was so beautiful and our time was spent playing in the sand and enjoying the waves. Having a pool at the house was very fun too! David enjoyed making a float into his own little boat. He liked the steps and pouring water into and out of pails and buckets.
On Tuesday the boys (minus David) went deep sea fishing. They had pretty good luck catching fish and had a lot of fun. While the boys were out fishing the girls went shopping, of course!! We enjoyed finding some good deals and David enjoyed riding the little train at one of the shops.

Ready to catch some fish!

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Journey: Family Vacation 2013

He loves his books!

For the past few years my parents have taken my sister's family and us on a family vacation. We've had amazing trips to Walt Disney World, Hawaii, Family Camp in Colorado, Branson, and Washington D.C. We've also been on a cruise. This year was supposed to be a cruise year but with our recent addition we decided to stick to something a little closer to home.

A stop at the Florida visitors center.

Last year Steve and I traveled through Florida after our family trip to Branson. We enjoyed visiting many parts of the state including Destin. When we found out that we were being blessed with David we suggested that going to Destin might be a fun alternative to the cruise. My parents got busy looking for a place for the 10 of us to stay. With help from my friend, whose family visits the area every summer, they found a great house in a great location. Blue Mountain Beach, Florida is east of Destin and between Grayton Beach and Santa Rosa Beach. It has the sugary white sand of the Florida panhandle and the emerald water of the "Emerald Coast". It was a beautiful setting for our family vacation and David's first birthday in our family!!

A stop at Cracker Barrel

We decided it would be best to break the drive into 2 days for David's sake. I got some ideas on how to keep him occupied and had a basket of ideas. He did GREAT!! Though the trip was long he found the activities enjoyable and we didn't even use the dvd player on the way there.

My parents rented a fabulous house and we all really enjoyed it. There was a lot of room for all of us and we really enjoyed the pool. David loved having everyone under the same roof! He really enjoyed some great cousin time and family dinners each night!

Each day (except one rainy one) we headed down to the beach during the morning. David was a bit unsure of the sand and salty water the first day. It took him a little while to like playing in the sand but by the end of the week he was loving it.

Precious baby!!

Our house for the week- loved all the porches!!

The backyard- we spent a lot of time at the pool!

Having fun with family!



Blue Mountain Beach

David's first time in the ocean!

We did professional pictures our first evening.
We hope they turn out great. The setting was awesome at Grayton State Park.

David is starting to like ice cream.
We loved the creamery that was right down the street!