Sunday Snapshot~ 3 years today

really??

can it really, truly be that long? three years ago today we were on a 16 hour flight home with a screaming, wailing, unhappy Lil' Lady who didn't know us from a hill of beans and let everyone on that plane know it. it's taken me these three years to even speak of that plane ride again, but I can tell you now that just like childbirth, it was completely worth it. just look at that smile...  

as always i couldn't get her to even look at the camera let alone smile. she just wasn't interested in having her picture taken this afternoon.

step in- the First Lady. if it wasn't for her we couldn't have gotten the job done. she put on such an act that the smile and laughs kept comin'

i look way back and i just can't believe there was ever a time without her. she has made our family complete.

just a side note...the dress she wore today is the matching dress her big sister wore to meet us at the airport that day. she can already wear it!

 

 Happy Homecoming Lil' Lady

 we love you so very much

God is Good:)

Sunday Snapshot~ lil' update on the Lil' Lady

 this girl is amazing, i tell ya. baseball and softball season for her sibs has now come to a close and she sat through just about every game. that's a 60+ total not counting the school season games! the only ones she missed were a few of the back to back games on tournament weekends. they got medals and trophies but this Lil' Lady should have gotten the best spectator award! she cheered them on, never argued with the ump and kept her composure which is more than I can say for some of us:)

 she's graduated to arm floaties this summer and loves being in the water which is great for her muscles.

 still so easily worn out though, especially after a few hours in the pool.

she still loves playing doctor and will give you a complete work up if you let her.

 these next few pics are a bit older but I can't not include them. here she is dressed up to attend her big brother's play.

 and here she is taking every one's dinner order...including the dogs too apparently!

 and this was Easter...but hey, I can't let it get lost forever, so here she is dressed by her brothers and nibbling on her bunny pop.

she just turned 4 a week ago which is so hard to believe. those pictures will come as soon as I have them sorted but for now just wanted to share what an amazing lil' person she is becoming.  

God is good:)

Favorite Photo Friday~ chance encounters

from an early age our boys have always been brave enough to shake a veterans hand when they spot one in public. the First Lady is a bit shy at times but if her big brothers are there to approach someone with her she will go. most seem to know the routine, perhaps they are used to it. some are truly surprised, and a few have talked our ears off. i'll never forget the fellow in the Walmart candy aisle who told us the story about when the plane he was piloting ran out of fuel as he was flying over Japan. he was quite the story teller and he knew he had an audience! 

{John in front of Fishtales and Pigtales Buffet in Bristol, TN}

since we brought the Lil' Lady home we've been lucky enough to meet a few Korean War veterans. at one point I got the idea to start taking a few pictures thinking I might compile enough to make a small album for her someday. i was worried these fine gentlemen would think I was a nut ball but it's been a wonderful experience so far. i have missed occasions when i didn't have my camera but now i always carry it with me never knowing where or when we may run in to America's finest!

{Phillip at Sam's Club in Apple Valley,MN}

Sunday Snapshot~ Santa

So we found out that as hyped as the Lil' Lady has been about Santa in the last month she definitely has her doubts. We went for our annual ornament trip to a local nursery and when we pulled into the parking lot the jolly ol' man himself was standing at the entrance greeting everyone. well, she couldn't get out of the car fast enough! she was hollerin' Santa! Santa! as we were trying to unbuckle her. she tried to hurry across the gravel lot stumbling the entire way, but as soon as she got to him and he held his hand out it you would've thought he was the boogey man! she started to shake and turned to reach for me to pick her up. "i'm scared of Santa" she said over and over.

say what?

so much like chuck e. cheese, Santa's going to have to keep his distance if this Lil' Lady's around and just be admired from afar.

 

the First Lady decided later that night that she was going to help. all i know is that sometime during dinner prep she disappeared into the bathroom with some paper, scissors and tape and came out as Santa.

 bless her heart she played the part pretty good and the Lil' Lady quite enjoyed it....

 even told "Santa" what she wanted for Christmas!

 according to the First Lady she has now been rehabilitated and is ready for another shot at the mall.

something tells me though it's going to be another year before we attempt that!

10 days of thankfulness~ day 6 {Sunday Snapshot}

i am thankful for this Lil' Lady.

 i am thankful she's been growing in so many areas. recently she had her checkup and we learned she is still in the 95th percentile for height. she towers over some of her friends her age and when we tell her age some are surprised she is only three.

 we also learned at her check up that she had a "foreign object" up her nose. say what? the doctor couldn't tell what it was and she also couldn't get it out when she attempted to so it was off to the emergency room! 

  it turned out to be a sparkly fuzzy blue pom pom. the last time i saw those was while i was prepping materials for a craft at church. this mama's embarrassed to say that was 27 days ago. so yes, she had that in there for 27 days. thanks goodness the doc found that!  

  but it wasn't a pretty sight in the ER. there was a side of the Lil' Lady that came out that i had never seen before. a badger comes to mind... and not a very polite one! and that was before they stuck anything in her nose, that was just when the nurse wanted to put the bracelet on her wrist. 

 it's all good now though:) 

 this girl makes us laugh every day. especially now that she's using her words so much more.

  just this morning when she was having her bath i told her Thanksgiving was only 3 days away. 

 she responded with yay! i started to name all of the things we would eat for dinner that day. i said, "we'll eat turkey, and mashed potatoes and corn and stuffing" then she chimed in with "and pizza!"

this girl loves her pizza, she's been known to put away 3 whole slices and part of a fourth!

yep, i am so very thankful for this new little one we have in our family. i seriously could not imagine this crazy clan without her!

Sunday Snapshot~ Changes

Our girl is growing and gaining some independence lately 

with going to pre-school everyday now i think she's decided she can do everything by herself which has caused quite a few messes lately.

  like just this morning she filled the toilet with one 9 ft. strip of toilet paper she used to blow her nose.....
she used to come to me for that. she also decided to make her own breakfast by going to the pantry with her step stool and getting out a bag of sour gummy worms. there have been other incidents which have required the steam cleaner but we won't discuss it so close to dinner:) i'm sure she figures she's savin' mom the trouble of trying to tackle these tasks on her own but this mama's a little worried about what she'll try on her own next. it all boils down to her desire to do whatever the big people are doing. from the moment we brought her home she's observed and emulated. her toys at 13 months were calculators, cell phones, pens, keyboards and whatever else we had in OUR hands; it took her forever to be interested in age appropriate toys. at the end of last school year, grandma surprised me by bringing her into my classroom to visit. it wasn't long before she hopped onto one of the art stools at table 3 and drew right along with my fourth graders! along with the independence has also come this crazy creative eye. she' making connections with what she sees in her books to real life and she can even repeat what she's learned in school for the day which is huge. this was her breakfast plate awhile back. she kept saying "duck mama, duck" and i'd look out the screen door thinking they were out in the field as they usually are but she kept pointing to her plate and then I saw it. of course i was so impressed i grabbed my camera, but she had even done the same thing with a shadow on the ceiling that the light fixture was making too another time. She said 'butterfly" and it definitely looked like one! i'm thinking, hey, maybe i've passed on my creative genes:)  have no idea where she learned this from though but i love that she had to have both of them.





yep, our Lil' Lady sure has changed but i have to say we love her just the same, if not more:)

Wordless Wednesday