Making Things Official!

People frequently talk about making things Facebook official, but today I am making things "Blog" official.  Most all of our family and friends know this, but just in case there are any stragglers we want to officailly say we are starting the adoption process to adopt a precious little baby from Ethiopia!  Over the next few weeks and months I will be making lots of changes to our blog so those of you not familiar with the adoption process, Ethiopia, and what God is doing in our hearts and through our adoption can be in the loop.  I have been putting this post off for a bit because I just haven't had much time to devote to it, but I decided I would just make it short and sweet and put all the details on their own pages at a later time. . . .the old divide and conquer technique.

If you would like to help our first fundraiser is currently going on! My dear friend Lindsey is doing on online catalogue party for ThirtyOne to support us in these early stages.  If you aren't familiar with ThirtyOne you are missing out!  They have tons of cute bags, purses, accessories, and organizational helpers that can all be embroidered.  I don't know about you all but, I LOVE anything monogrammed and if it was within my power even our underwear would be monogrammed! If you want to take a look go to the link below and shop away!

www.mythirtyone.com/lindssizemore
click on "my events"
and shop under my name.

Thank you for your support in caring for the fatherless! God Bless!!

Healthy Treat

Seeing that I am completely exhausted because I have two sick little girls I will keep tonight's post on the lighter side....literally this is healthy!  I stumbled upon this recipe for chocolate banana "ice cream" while browsing my latest addiction, Pinterest.  I had all the ingredients on hand so I figured what the hey.  Here's how it works;

Cut up three freckly bananas, you want them sweet but not banana bread grade ripeness.  Freeze your banana slices in a zip lock bag for at least 2 hours.
Then put the following in a good blender or food processor;

3 Frozen bananas
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp milk

Then you just let that thing go until it is nice and creamy, comparable to soft serve ice cream.  My bananas were not quite ripe enough so I did add a little sugar just to sweeten it up since the cocoa is unsweetened.  I poured ours into a dish and just kept it in the freezer until after supper.  After thawing for about 5 minutes I served it right up.  Josh loved it and was blown away that it was basically just bananas.  Cameryn thought it was okay.  She is like her momma in that we love our sweet treats, so she knew this was not quite the real deal.  As for me I liked it, but was not in love.  It would definitely get me through when I was in need of sweets while dieting.  Overall, a success.  I did see some bloggers add a tbsp of peanut butter so I may do that next time to see if it can get me to love this healthy dessert.

This Sums Up the Day

I hope everyone listens to all the words of this song and ends it feeling HAPPY!!!  The girls and I were having a dance party in the basement this morning and this song popped up on our itunes list and it was just perfect.  God has blessed us so much more than we deserve.  What can we do to make Him happy too?  What can we do to make sure others know Him too?  Don't keep your happy to yourself.

God Bless!

Bed Time

For the past few months we have been having a rough time getting Hadley to sleep through the night, take regular naps, and not think 4:30 am qualifies as "morning".  Our little Boo Boo bear just isn't our sleeper, but she is doing 100% better lately (Praise the Lord!)
With that being said, I am going to be completely transparent about something.  This may subject me to parental judgement from my probably 3 readers, but we just took Cameryn's binky away for bed time when she turned 3 years old.  I know this is old to have a pacifier and I can admit that the comfort and ease of putting her to bed with that thing was just as much for me as it was for her.  But we have gotten rid of all big girl binkies in this house! Can a get an amen : ) Each night as she goes to bed we do get a list of demands that must be met before she can go to sleep.
"Mommy, I want you to get me a drink of water, hold me, and sing me a wuwabye (lullaby)."   So after bath time, lotion, brushing teeth, drying hair, and saying prayers we do our final leg of this relay.  I get the water and snuggle up to my first born and sing (I use this term very loosely!)  the sweetest lullaby I know.  I recently found out my grandmother who passed away this summer used to sing this to my mom and it completely  melted my heart. And since this blog is to keep all of our family memories in tact I thought I would share it so we can always remember it.
A tiny turned up nose,
two cheeks just like a rose,
so sweet from head to toe,
That little girl of mine

Two arms to hold me tight,
two eyes that shine so bright,
two lips to kiss good night,
That little girl of mine

No one will ever know,
just what your coming has meant,
because I love you so,
you must have been heaven sent

You're all the world to  me,
you climb upon my knee,
to me you'll always be,
That little girl of mine.

I sing it to Hadley from time to time, but she usually falls asleep on her bottle and doesn't need much coaxing to get to sleep.  I can't wait until she is big enough to understand what it means, and most importantly for both my girls to know what they mean to me.  I suspect that time is very far off, probably when they make me a grandma.  Then they will know, but even then they will still be my little girls.  Good night all (probably 3 of you! ha!) ; )

Princess Party Day!!!

We had Cameryn's Princess birthday party this weekend and it was so much fun!!! All the kids, well at least the little girls, dressed up in their princess dresses and had a ball.  They made crowns, smashed a pinata, and had enough sugar to make their parents feel like they had been to grandma's.  I loved seeing them all laugh and play.  I especially loved seeing my big three year old girl have such a fun birthday.Thank you to everyone that could make it, and for all her awesome gifts.  Family and friends are precious things.  Love you all!

We have a 9 Month Old!

Just a few photos of our precious Hadley Michelle! 9 months sure goes a lot quicker when the baby is on the outside instead of the inside. I don't know what our family was like without her and I'm so thankful to be her mommy. A little info about our girl so far:
At 9 Months Hadley.....
Cruises around the coffee table and couches
Stands briefly on her own
Sniffs air in and out of her nose in this noisy way that makes her the cutest thing ever!
Crawls at a remarkable speed
Loves any form of danger, ie electrical outlets, sharp corners, cords, putting small objects in her mouth, and just today used her stuffed chair as a ladder to try and climb on top of the coffee table
Babbles all the time saying mamma and dadda, baba
She does not require a lot of sleep but is doing much better as of late
She does not like much baby food but is becoming more fond of at least the fruits
She eats Cheerios with her fingers like a pro
We have introduced the sippy cup but she would rather bite the bottom of it than drink from the top
She wears size 9 months but is starting to fit into some 12 months
She has tiny feet! Still size 2 shoes if we wear any
Her hair is getting so thick and wavy and now holds a bow with no headband
She is very content and loves to just sit and play. She can be very snuggly too, but she will let you know when she wants to be free and play.
She has the biggest, most sparkly brown eyes that just melt my heart (sigh...)

What can I say, to know her is to love her! Happy 9 months baby girl. We love you and God bless you baby!

Big Sister Turns 3!!

 Birthday Cupcake from Gigi's

 Amazingly her hair did not catch on fire!

 Sweet girl!

 Sissy helping to open gifts

 Flower's from Nana, she felt like such a big girl

 Momma and her girl

 Waking up to a room of balloons!

 Birthday pancakes

 First birthday together as sisters, precious!

Who's birthday could it be?