New Baby, Old Friends, Thumbsucking & Adoption Update…

Last weekend, Michael, Myla, and I headed to Jackson to meet the newest member of our family, baby Luke!  He decided to make his appearance a little earlier than anticipated, being born 3 weeks early!  But, he is GREAT, and I think Mary Jennifer and Spencer are adjusting to life with a new baby!  He is so adorable, and I loved getting to hold him!

Me and Luke

Myla, Michael and Luke.  Myla wouldn’t hold him although she had talked all week about getting to hold him when we went to Jackson!  Oh, well!

The three of us with Luke.  Selah stayed with my mom and Frank for this trip!

Isn’t he precious!!

After we visited with Luke for a while, we headed over to our friends’, the White’s, house.  Two of our other couple friends, the Burchfields and the Fortenberrys, came over for dinner.  We had so much fun visiting and letting the kids play!  Here were all of the big kids eating supper!

The girls loved playing in Abby’s room!

Ellyn, Abby, Ellen Claire and Myla

Baby Emily gave her Daddy, Brian, a present!

Sweet Ellen Claire!

While we were there, Dr. Susan looked at Myla’s teeth.  If you live in Jackson, Susan is a pediatric dentist there and she is wonderful!

Trying to get a group shot of all of the kids.  Hysterical!

Before she left, Dr. Susan gave Myla a little talk about sucking her thumb.  She told her that it was time to stop doing it!

So, when we got home, we took Dr. Susan’s advice and took the steps to help Myla stop sucking her thumb.  We painted some yucky smelling/tasting stuff called Mavala Stop on her thumbnail. The first night was a little rough.  She didn’t fall asleep for several hours, and she woke up several times in the night crying after she had put her thumb in her mouth without thinking and it tasted bad.  But, last night (the 2nd night), she did great!  She went to sleep much faster, slept all night without waking up, and even slept late this morning!  I am so proud of her!

Now, on the adoption front….today I am mailing off to get our LAST piece of paperwork for our dossier.  It is a letter that we must get from the government that basically says we can bring an orphan back into the country.  It can take up to 4 months to come back, but we are hoping it doesn’t take that long!  Once we get that back, we will submit our dossier, then we will “officially” begin waiting!!! 

Feeling a Little Reminiscent..

 

This morning for some reason I was feeling a little reminiscent and sentimental.  I started thinking about a song that Michael and I had sung at our wedding, and I really wanted to listen to it.  There was only 1 video of it on youtube!  I wish that I could put the video from our wedding on here since two of my very favorite people, Melissa Jackson and Steven Smith, were singing it, but since we got married before the digital age, that’s not really possible!!  Anyway, I just love the words to this song, and it is the exact way I feel about my husband…I see Jesus in him every day.  My favorite line of the song is, “And I trust you with my love because you’re His.  I see Him….I see Him in you.”  I am so blessed and thankful to have a Godly husband.  If you haven’t heard it before, I hope you enjoy it!!

This is not the original artist, but I really like his version!! 

Watch Out Broadway…

A few days ago Myla and Selah were performing on Myla’s stage!  Sorry for the t-shirt only attire.  After naptime each day that is the norm around here!

Don’t you love how Selah applauds for them at the end??  Too cute!

VBS…

Last week Myla and her friend, Haley, went to VBS at the Methodist church.  Myla had so much fun and looked forward to going each day.  The first day I asked her what her story was about and she said, “Um, it was something about gardening.”  It stumped me for a minute, and I said, “Was it about Adam and Eve in the garden?”  She started smiling and said, “Oh yeah, it was about them too!”  On the second day, I asked her the same question and she confidently answered, “The good Spamaritan…he was really nice to others.”  I was so proud of her for listening and remembering!  Her teachers were so sweet and bragged on how kind and sweet she was.  It is always a good feeling when you know your kids are well behaved for other people!  Ha!  I’m so thankful she is learning about Jesus and his love at an early age!

Poor Daddy…

 

Poor Michael had to have a dental implant on Friday morning.  He has been feeling pretty puny this weekend!  Michael’s mom kept the girls for us on Thursday night, so we were thankful for that.  We were happy to see them yesterday afternoon.  Myla didn’t know quite what to think with Daddy and his head wrap, but Selah could have cared less.  She was just happy to see her Daddy!  He is feeling better today, though, so we are excited that he is on the mend.

Just in case…

 

Just in case you didn’t get enough pictures of Selah eating her corn, here is an additional video…

Suppers with Selah…

If there is one thing about Selah, she really loves to eat!!  Recently I got some funny pictures of her eating spaghetti one night and corn on the cob (for the first time) another night.  Honestly, I don’t want to think of a caption for each picture so here you go…

Vacation—Part 4…

-For our last full day in the mountains, we went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and did a little “hiking”.  Not really, just leisurely walked down one of the trails and took some pictures.  The kids loved it and it really was beautiful!

Being the true “tourists” that we are, we got our picture in front of the sign.  All of these pictures are from my mom’s camera because my battery died this particular day.  I did reload the batteries, but I was so scared that Selah was going to fall down the side of the trail into the water, I carried her and didn’t have many opportunities to snap pictures! I’m not sure why we are all glowing like ghosts in the above picture!

The kid tourists!!

The grandparents and grandbabies

Henry on the trail.  Of course, Myla had to warm up to the nature trail and didn’t want to pose in front of the water.

Henry, Bodie and Myla (clinging to Bodie like a monkey!)

Mimi, Bodie and the big kids

I’m glad my mom took this picture because this is one of the things that Myla won at the arcade with her 1000 tickets.  Did I mention that she just wanted candy when we went to pick out her prizes????  Considering most of the candy was 5 tickets, I knew we were going to have to get a “big ticket” item.  Well, she finally decided on this stuffed frog, and she carried it around the whole next day! She also got PLENTY of candy and other knickknacks.

Myla and Mimi

Myla and me

All of the “grands” again.

Selah enjoyed her nature walk…a little too much.  She creeped over to the edge several times!

Bodie and the big kids put their feet in the cold mountain stream!

Henry being silly in the water

On Friday night Mom and Frank went out to eat by themselves.  On Tuesday, June 7th, they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.  I guess they had someone take this picture for them at the restaurant.

When they got back to the condo, they loaded the big kids up at about 10 o’clock and took them for ice cream!  Gotta love vacation!!!

Vacation—Part 3…

Thursday we kind of took it easy since we had had 3 pretty busy days the days before!  We stayed around the condo and went swimming that morning.

Myla in her bathing suit ready to swim.  Can you tell that she did not want to take this picture?

Strike a pose, Selah!

Sisters ready to swim!

After swimming, Myla decided to watch a movie.  She set up a little pallet in the closet.  Silly girl!!

Later on in the afternoon, I took the big kids to the activities center to make a bear claw necklace.  Here is Myla showing hers off!

Henry working hard on his necklace!

The proud artists!

Myla could hardly work on her necklace because after we walked in, she spotted the stage, and she couldn’t wait to perform!!!!

Acting crazy on the stage!

One of Selah’s favorite things about vacation was the HUGE whirlpool bathtub in the condo.  She LOVED taking a bath, and she was even perfectly content after the water had been let out.

Blowing raspberries on the bottom of the tub.

“Do I have to get out, Mom?”

While Selah napped and got a bath, Mimi and Bodie took the big kids to the Forbidden Caverns because Henry wanted to see a cave.  Henry loved it, but Mimi had to hang out with Myla in the gift store because she didn’t want to go in the cave!

For supper on Thursday night, we went to Mr. Gatti’s, which is like a Chuck-E-Cheese.  Of course, the kids loved the arcade!  Myla spun this big wheel and won 1000 tickets.  We picked out prizes for forever because she had so many!  She also loved riding on this little car.

And you know that baby sister loved it too!