birthday party, first day of preschool and some other things

So yes, things have been crazy and I have been a terrible blogger, facebooker, and just in my own world. Things here have been pretty good. We still have baby boy and he just turned 5 months old. He is getting so big! He is such a happy baby and he is doing great. I wish I could post pictures of him, but maybe someday. These pics are a little old, but I thought I would start with these.

A picture of when it was still warm out! Mia LOVES caterpillars and would play with them for quite a while and she was so gentle. No caterpillars were harmed during our photography.

Mia's first day of preschool.

She wasn't quite sure.

Trying to get her used to it. So the first day was TERRIBLE. She cried the entire 2 and half hours and was a mess when we picked her up. The second day she did the same thing. Then she gradually got better and better. Now she LOVES to go and wants to go. She still gets a little sad at drop off, but she doesn't even cry. I didn't think we were going to ever get this far and I would have never thought my mama's girl would do so well. We even found a babysitter out of it and she loves her! So we can go out and do things.


Onto her birthday party....

She loved her balloons!


she loved every second of her birthday party...


and check out her new Escalade in the background...


opening her presents...


opening her new Dora doll...


driving her birthday present.


my beautiful girl

doing her gymnastics

posing for a picture

here I come...

my big girl swinging all by herself.

flying through the air

carving her pumpkin

doesn't she look like a big girl?!?

She is only 3, but looks like she is 5. I want my baby back.

I know, I know

So I am terrible, shoot me : )  I have a good excuse though!  We finally got a call on August 4th for a baby boy!  We changed our preferences the Friday before we got the call to up to 2 children and one could be a boy.  Then we get a call for a 1 month old baby boy who was still in the hospital.  We said yes!  He is still unfortunately in the hospital.  He was born addicted to a drug and he took a little longer to wean then they expected and now that he is completely off of any drug, he is sick.  We are really hoping that he will be home this week.  I can't post pictures or give too much info because he is not ours.  If anyone wants more info email me and I will send pictures and more info!  

Mia is growing by leaps and bounds!  She will be three in a few weeks and starts preschool tomorrow!  She is going 2 days a week for 3 hours.  We had the meed the teacher night last week and she loved it, although both her mama's were still with her.  We will see how she will do tomorrow.  I have mixed feelings, it is only 6 hours a week and it will be good for her, but she is my baby and I want to keep her home FOREVER and home school her, not really , but part of me does ; ) 

We are having her third birthday party this weekend!  She is super excited and I can't wait to see how she reacts to everything.  Three is much more challenging than I thought it would be!  Two, wasn't really that bad, but three is proving to be much more difficult!  She is still pretty well behaved and she has her moments, but she is so fun and full of personality it is worth every second!  Here are some random pictures of Mia....

Sometimes she wants to sit in her high chair...

and she is beautiful...

and then the paparazzi get too close and this face comes out...

but she is excited about her ramen noodles!

she always wants to have her picture taken with her dog!  She will pose and say, "take my picture with Pongo."  sometimes I just pretend I have a camera.

Doesn't she look like she is 5 years old here?!?

We went to crossroads village and this is before all the fun!

my girls doing 3D chalk

We rented a house with Jen, Dean and Gracie on the lake for a week!  We had a great time!  Here are the two girls, one a princess, feeding the ducks.

Mia loves the water and would go swimming if it was 60 degrees!  

She is getting so good at swimming.

My girls before preschool orientation!

Looking through her telescope.

Isn't she a beauty!

Look over there...

Check out all the bandaids, she has 7 band aids on her two arms, 5 on one arm and 2 on the other.  We went to preschool orientation like this too : )  Whatever makes princess happy.

Peek a boo I see you!

Boat rides, camping, and fireworks...

So every 2 weeks posting isn't really that bad, right?!?

Mia is such a handful these days. She says the funniest things and dances around the house singing and then 3 seconds later is crying about something. She is a drama queen! A couple of weeks ago marked her being home for 2 years. It is so crazy to me because 2 years seems like so long and it seems like just yesterday she wasn't walking or talking. Some days she drives me crazy, wakes me up way too early, and I wouldn't change it for a second. She is my little side kick who constantly makes me laugh and makes every moment worth while. We are so lucky to have her in our life. With all that said, it makes me think her foster mother, Maria, and her birth mother who both don't get to see her grow and I think about how much they much miss her.

On a much lighter note, we went and visited Jenny's dad and went for a ride on the boat.

Posing for one of our many pics while on the boat.

Enjoying the wind in our hair.

Playing in the water at Papa Joe's house.

Pointing at the gross things in the water...like snails, sea weed, and frogs.

She is really sick of me following her around with the camera (I am her paparazzi) so she sometimes makes this faces.

Yes, Pongo is still here! Isn't he cute.
He really wants me play ball ALL THE TIME!!

Our camping trip in the dirty cabin where Jenny had to sweep the bed before we put our sheets on it. Oh and the bed was so hard that I actually checked to be sure it wasn't plywood.

Going on a walk with her walking stick.

Look over there...

while I eat my walking stick...

Just kidding, I am so funny, I wouldn't eat a stick.

my beautiful girls!

here they are again.

hanging out on a log.

Again the face when the paparazzi gets too close.

Can you guess it was the 4th of July?

"Let's go to a party, mama." is what she is saying here. So I bought this awesome (I think so) outfit with shorts, shirt, matching shoes, and bows. Then it was only 70 degrees so we had to change out of the shorts.

This is the only pic I have of her from the party...

This is Katelyn, Jen and Dean's (from Jen, Dean, and Gracie who live in Chicago [a.k.a Chi-town]) neice. She is one and Jen and I thought it would be hilarious if we gave Katelyn a tramp stamp! So we did. It says we the people. At least we are patriotic.