Sweet Sadie....

Our big princess turned 4 today!  We had such a wonderful time celebrating her sweet sassy self.  She has taught me so much about s.l.o.w.i.n.g down.  She has reminded me that girls feel things deeply, that laughing truly is medicine, that hugs heal, that giggles do too.  Her smile can light up an entire room and so can her silly booty dance.  She is starting pre-school at church and loves going to "school".  She goes 3 days a week and boy do I miss her when she is there.  Her favorite color is pink, favorite drink is "melonaid" or lemonaid ;)  She still screams at the top of her lungs if her brothers push her buttons, and she's still got her daddy wrapped around her finger.  She loves music, singing, dancing, Princess Tiana, painting nails, play dough, coloring, cooking, brownies, cookies, oatmeal, hot dogs, Emery Faith, swinging, and baby dolls. 

Her daddy caught this cute shot of her as we were all singing!  ADORABLE!

Here she is holding up "I'm 4"!!!  She is also a new swimmer!  This girl can swim without a life vest!  Wahoo Sadie girl.  We love you to the moon and I pray that I can be the best mama possible for you.  I thank Mama G for giving you life and choosing us to be your forever family.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of G and praise God for her life.  Lord, use us, even as broken as we are, to show Sadie your love.  If she learns nothing else from us, may she know how loved and treasured she is by you!!!

How is he 5?

I swear this was yesterday. Oh how I miss her. When people ask if we are liking Atlanta and if we think we will stay, I have a hard time not laughing. We love it here, don't get me wrong. But we have so much more in Oklahoma. We not only have our friends and family, we have our birth families that we miss so so much. And as every birthday creeps up, my heart can't help but cling to those sweet moments we shared with each of them surrounding the birth of these miracles. I can't live without them in my life.

And now he's 5. He is an incredible young man. Blake and I are so proud of him for the decisions he makes to love others and serve others. He is sensitive. He is patient. He is passionate. He now wants to be a sword fighter when he grows up. "Well play football and practice sword fighting". Huh? It makes sense to him! He is curious about God and Jesus and wants to know so badly what it feels like to have Jesus in your heart. Oh how I love those talks...

So last night for his special day we let him choose the plans for the day and or dinner. Despite my awesome skills in the kitchen, he chose the local burger joint. Blake surprised us all with ice cream afterwards! Yummo! Do you see it running down her hand? It's possible I picked the ice cream flavor for her. One day I will have to get my own cone!

Isn't he a pumpkin? Sharing with the slobbery baby. He doesn't care. This guy loves his baby slobber and all.

Cooper picked going to park over every other option I gave him for his birthday. Isn't that funny? The park we go to daily. My kids are easily pleased. This is Sadie's first time to climb a real tree. She has mastered the large Crape Myrtles here. In Georgia, the Crape Myrtles are massive and climbable.

The boys had so much fun wrestling in the leaves. I love it because there are quite a few boys the same age that come to the park...they know each other from school. They all joined in!

Opening presents first thing in the morning! HE COULD NOT WAIT!!!

Pushing his sissy. Too bad she hated it. She was screaming!!!

Birthday party pics!!! We had some friends come to play at the park for Cooper's costume party. It was so much fun! Sadie rocking her dress up wedding shoes. It's scary how good she is in heels!

Cooper looks thrilled. These are two of his friends from PreK! He has met such sweet friends at school.

Getting ready to sing! Can you see those cute Star Wars cupcakes?

The kids got to decorate their own Star Wars sugar cookies. Well, that is until Sadie started licking the sprinkles dispenser and the knives. Lil stinker.

We took all of our dress up clothes and costumes. The kids had fun traded costumes and trying on new stuff. We just might have to do this again one year!

I even found a cool Darth Vader pinata.
We have so many things to be thankful for this year. This day I was thankful for new friends in our life that could help us make Cooper feel loved and special since we didn't have our family. I have never felt so indebted to people showing up for this...but I was scared to death no one would come. You know how things get busy and you forget a party? Thank you Jesus for these precious people! And thank you for the sunshine so that we could play at the park!!!

Look Who's Two!

My dainty daughter

These are all out of order and even though I am normally extremely anal about getting these straight...I simply cannot do it tonight. But I wanted to share these sweet pics from Sadie's special day!

At the park with the family

She's telling me something, I just don't know what!

Notice who is trying to get in?

She was not too sure of the early morning birthday wishes and singing!!!She chose eggs for breakfast, so we made them pink! The boys were so cute and insisted she sit in the tallest stool we have (which they never let her have)!She had quite a few birthday calls and gasped everytime someone would sing to her!Aw, I love this one!

A nice lady saw me taking pics of the kids and Blake and asked if she could take one of all of us!

Thanks Auntie Stephanie for all our new chef stuff! It made baking that much more adorable!Cooper and Sadie had a blast making birthday cookies. Man I love how that dude can pull off pink without a sweat. She chose purple sugar cookies, but evidently I can't mix food coloring well. They turned out lavendar-ish. But they sure were yummy

Out of order...these are back at the park...

Hello chunk! Man I lub those cheeks! We can't seem to quit kissing them! Is anyone shocked that she already doubled her birth weight?

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Owen

Holy moly. Five years has somehow seemed to be so slow and at the same time fly by.

How does that happen?

It was five years ago that I was just becoming a mommy and watching my best friend become a dad.

Five years ago today I watched a woman I loved so dearly give birth to this child and ever so selflessly place him in my arms as she watched me become his mother too. I will never forget those precious days we spent with her in the hospital. Mandy, I will spend the rest of my life trying to thank you. Thank you not only for choosing life, but for choosing and trusting Blake and I, and even more...for choosing to continue to be a part of our lives. What would we do without you?

I will never forget that we both promised we'd never have to have a reunion, that we'd always know where the other was and we'd always somehow keep in touch. It's incredible to think that in the last 5 years we are right where we wanted to be...if not closer.

She was the first birthday phone call we got this morning. How cool is that?

I know that someday soon birthdays might start to sting for this little guy as he understands that this is the day he was given life and given a family, but it came at the cost of losing his first mama. Lord prepare me now to walk through that with our children, and may I always teach them through my life that you can and will carry them through anything.

Today we had an incredible 5th birthday! Sadie and Cooper went to school so that left me with Owen and Emery! It was such a blast letting Owen pick whatever he wanted to do and not having to agree with anyone about it!

Owen and I had so much fun together! I really do love getting to spend such great quality time with him...it's such a treasure to just get to talk and give him my undivided attention. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade our family dynamics for anything. WE LOVE HAVING OUR KIDS CLOSE! But I think because of that, it makes days like today all that more special.

After only 5 hours without his two buddies he told me that he did miss them and was ready to pick them up from school. How sweet is that?

We were trying to get a pic of just Owen, Blake and I but Cooper wanted in on the fun. This didn't make O too happy!

His choice for birthday breakfast is pancakes. And not the homemade kind...he likes the frozen ones peeps. That should tell you how good of a cook I am!

And his choice of what to do for the day...the library!!! I was dying! Happy birthday sweetheart. We could not be more proud of you. Not sure how in the world they expect me to drop you off for pre-K in the morning. *sniff sniff*