We waited an extra week to celebrate Millie Janalee's birthday with family and friends.  Having just moved into our home from Missouri and a storage unit in the midst of major paint jobs...it wasn't the best time to invite everyone into our home.  But thanks to sweet friends and amazing family, we got it done!  At least the main areas were completed.  The rest - we just shut some doors!  Ha!  We enjoyed a summer-themed pool party.

A slice of summer!

As usual, my sister outdid herself on details.  I basically sent her ideas and she made it happen.  It was a HOT late afternoon in July. Which makes the perfect excuse for a swim!

At this point, I had not even attempted potty training.  Give me a break!  We were in the midst of a huge transition.  And to be honest, we traveled way too much for potty training before moving.  The problem is that I completely forgot to put a swim diaper on Millie Janalee before the party.  So...she may or may not have had a diaper explosion when I realized it and tried to change her.  What a mess! And a lesson for me.  Haha!  One day she will roll her eyes at this picture...

We loved having everyone gather in our home.  We finally have a place to welcome others into.  We enjoyed visiting with our family and friends out by the pool or on the back porch.  Several of our friends we hadn't seen in quite some time.  It's good to be home again!  With a house and back yard FULL of our favorite people!

Smith and PawPaw

Elle and Grace

Roan and Lynn

Me with Matt, Leah, and Curry - ALWAYS so happy when Matt brings his camera!  All the professional pictures here were taken by him.

Russ and I spent our time in the pool.  Millie Janalee hadn't mastered swimming and her cousins needed a break to have a little fun themselves.  So we jumped in and joined the fun!  As you can see...we may be older in years...but always young at heart!

Russ, Clay, Jared, and Sam

Our home was also filled with friends and family inside trying to stay cool.  I didn't really get to visit much with those inside, but I'm pretty sure most of them stayed around for the after-party.

Maw Maw

Hughes - our youngest nephew

She She

We had to drag Millie Janalee out of the pool to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out her candles.  There were lots of cheers, and she got a bit overwhelmed.  Ending with a meltdown asking to get back in the pool.  Ha!  Three year olds.  Who ever said it was "terrible twos" was way wrong!  But I love this spunky, opinionated girl more than life!

As the sun set, the guests began to trickle out.  And the after-party soon began!

My brother, Uncie Buck

My brother-in-law, Uncie Lee

Millie Janalee spent some time with family opening her gifts.  The karaoke machine was among her favorites.  And she karaoke'd for the rest of the night!  Some of the best princess performances I've ever seen.  Ariel would surely be proud!

"Part of Their World"

Part of her audience

Second row audience

After all the gifts had been opened, Pawpaw and Susu presented Millie Janalee with her final gift.  A Barbie Jeep!  She was so excited!  I know this because of her gasp and her exclaiming "my new car!"

It was a successful party ending with a happy happy three year old princess!!  Such a joy to mother her!  Such a privilege!  So thankful for everyone who came to celebrate with us and love on our Millie Janalee!

Happy Birthday, Millie Janalee!

I probably should back up a bit and tell you that Millie Janalee had a birthday too!  Our baby - the one that made me a mama - turned THREE years old just weeks after we moved.  It was a chaotic time, but we did manage to move into our home, in the midst of all the painting being done, and have her third birthday in our new home as a little family of four.

What can I say?  I don't really cook too much.  And I rarely cook breakfast for sure.  So donuts is always our birthday treat of choice.  Ha!  She was just as excited over a donut as she would have been over anything I could have made.  Probably more so.  Smith was pretty excited too.  He had just begun pulling up at this point.

July 18, 2012.  The day our entire world changed for the better.  God is so good!

Millie Janalee wanted to swim for her birthday, so we did just that!  It really was the first time we spent a day in our pool with just us.  We enjoyed it very much!  Having our own pool has some major perks.  For example, when Smith was ready for his nap...I put him down and came back out to the pool for fun.  Thankful for that luxury and all Russ's hard work for so many years to get us to this point. Finally home!  Permanently.

Millie Janalee had a BALL!  We had a sweet friend come teach swimming lessons in our home the week before, and Millie Janalee had really warmed up to the water.  She is just a little fish.  Not swimming on her own, but not afraid of going under water at all!  We had her swim instructor come back for a second week in August.

After a fun day in the water, we rested and loaded everyone up for a trip to Corinth.  We visited Russ's parents for her birthday and opened her gifts there.  This was the last night we saw Russ's dad awake.  We told him good night and gave him a kiss before he retired for the evening.  Such a special memory on Millie Janalee's third birthday.

We are so thankful for the three years of pure JOY...and maybe a test in patience too...we have been given.  So much more than we ever could have imagined or asked for.  God knew the desires of our hearts much better than we did.  Thankful always that He knows more!

The New Kid in Class

This year is a whole new "first" for me and for our family.  Our first permanent home, Russ's first job after medical school and training, our first time to be so close to family, and our first year with a preschooler.  That means doing the  normal school things like checking weekly folders, making lunches, and car lines.  We love our new little life of "firsts!"

To say that Millie Janalee loves school would be an understatement!  Her excitement each morning and her questions about school before bed are just a small reason I know she loves it.  You all know from just reading our blog that Millie Janalee is a social butterfly who loves her friends and meeting new people.  I knew she would love it, and I feel so blessed that God placed us in the perfect spot for our children to grow and learn and love.

Millie Janalee has been blessed with such a sweet class of 3 year olds and amazing teachers.  My heart literally explodes when I hear from other teachers and how much they love our girl.  She is learning new things and making us so proud.  Every time I check her weekly folder, I can't wait to see what new skill she learned that week.  And if I listen very carefully at the most random moments, she may tell me all about school and her friends and her teachers.  The other night we were driving home from Jackson after our cousin's birthday party...and she begins to recite the entire Pledge of Allegiance.  You just never know!

She's a little sponge!  For the good and the bad.  So we really have to watch ourselves.  Ha!

We conquered our first homework assignment and created a page all about Millie Janalee and her family for the class family book.  We got the class book a couple weeks ago to help us learn all her classmates and their families.  Such a great way for the families to get to know each other!  Especially us newbies.

Being the teacher and new parent that I am...I have already talked to her teachers asking how she was doing.  Is she making friends?  Is she being nice?  Is she following directions?  I am thankful for the responses from her teachers and so happy to know she is playing with everyone.  Specifically wanting everyone to play dress-up!  Ha!

Moving can be hard.  But those around us have made it so much easier!

Happy Birthday, Smith!

We celebrated Smith all week for his birthday.  Having an October birthday in a football family proves a little challenging.  So we planned his party around game days and just celebrated him all week.  Beginning with his actual birthday.  Russ took off for the week, and we were delighted to spend the morning with our little family.

We got Smith up for his first birthday surprise - a sugary, sprinkled donut!  He was so intrigued and after inspection dug right in!  I think we have a sweet tooth on our hands.  And that's close to how many actual teeth he has on his first birthday...2 little bottom teeth.  Sweet boy!

After breakfast, he enjoyed playing with his gifts.  I have learned so many things along the way after my first baby.  And one of those is don't even worry about wrapping the gifts!  Stick a bow on it and be done.  Haha!

We were so happy to have Susu, Kay Kay, and Hughes come visit us while Millie Janalee was in school.  They took us all out to eat lunch and even brought a few surprises for the birthday boy.

And no birthday is complete without cake and lots of icing.  After lunch, we lit another candle and sang another version of "Happy Birthday" for our one year old.  He wasn't sure at first, but ended up devouring the cupcake.

That's a happy birthday boy!

It still blows my mind how quickly this year has flown.  I've been beyond terrible at documenting Smith's little life on the blog, but I have cherished every moment and memory made!  Such a blessing to our family.  We love him so!

Happy Birthday, Smith!

OH How the Years Go By

How is it possible?!  Where did this year go?!

October 13, 2014 our precious baby boy entered this world.  In a whirlwind that hasn't slowed down since!  Everything about his arrival was immeasurably more than we had ever imagined.  A complete surprise and JOY!  From the day I got the call and had to sit down to finish the conversation to the day we finally were able to bring him home to Missouri, where we lived at the time...it was all so crazy and joyful and challenging and PERFECT.  Perfectly planned by God.

He created this precious life, and He entrusted Smith to his birthparents first...and then to us.  The magnitude of that never escapes me.

And OH, how the years go by!  

Oh how the love brings tears to my eyes.  

All through the changes, the soul never dies.  

We fight, we laugh, we cry 

As the years go by.

My sister made Smith a DVD, as she has always done for Millie Janalee, full of pictures from this year put to perfectly selected music.  Russ and I watched it today with tears in our eyes.  Memories flooding our minds.  Many of those tears were wishing for moments back...moments we could hold a little longer, love a little better, laugh instead of stress.  A haunting memory of how quickly the years go by.  A fresh breeze through our hearts reminding us to cherish these days.  The busy days, the hard days, the lazy days, the little things and big.  Because very soon, we will look back on these days and realize just how quickly they escaped our grasp.

Our beautiful Smith has grown into such a happy, fun, and mobile toddler.  He's walking all over the place!  He loves loves loves to play with balls!  He carries them, throws them, kicks them and holds them.  Any shape or size - footballs, baseballs, soccer balls.  It doesn't matter.  He is all boy!  With quite an arm.  He still adores Millie Janalee and prefers to play with her above any toy in the room.  I hope they always love well.

Smith is wearing 12/18 months in clothes and a size 4 shoe.  He is taking 3 bottles a day - morning, afternoon, and night.  He is eating some big boy food too, in addition to his baby food.  He really is growing up so fast!

So fast that I don't even get a chance to blog all his monthly photos.  But I promise I take the picture! Hopefully, one day he will have two young children and understand how the second child may get the shaft on lots of things.  The positive side is when it comes to discipline and anything of major importance...we had to practice on Millie Janalee before we learned lessons and did it better with Smith.  Every family position has it's perks.  Smith will have his!  Ha!

Yesterday, our little family had the delight and joy of spending some time with his birthmother.  Precious time spent with the angel who placed Smith in our arms one year ago.  Adoption is such a beautiful picture of love.  I pray Smith always understands how deep, how wide, how high is the Father's love for him.  And may he always feel the immeasurable love that surrounds him on this earth.  From his beginnings in his mother's womb.  Though it wasn't my womb...he was loved by us all.  Prayed for.  Named.  Planned.

He gets his dimples from her

God's plans for Smith's life are just as our entire journey has been - immeasurably more than we could ever dream of.  I pray that Smith follow His will for his little life.  Loving his Father and following after Him.

Happy birthday to my youngest love and favorite little boy!!  We love you way more than you could ever know!