Cocoa Beach - Moon Festival weekend

Our first outing with FCC-CF. It was great meeting new families. It's hard to tell from this picture but Kylie was enjoying her new photography skills

Kylie's first time at the beach

Hand full of sand

Waiting patiently for a dinner table

Daddy putting together a kite for Kylie

Kylie and Natalie. These two had so much fun running up and down the hotel hallway and goofing around on this chair and we enjoyed watching them play
Pizza!!
Piggy back ride

Gotcha Day Anniversary!

A year ago today at 8ish p.m. we were blessed with our beautiful daughter! We celebrated by having a nice quiet dinner at home prepared by our wonderful Chef aka "Daddy". We raised our wine glasses to toast, Kylie joined in by clinking her sippy cup and we reminisced about our grueling scheduled and emotionally charged 20 hr day a year ago today! We also went out for ice cream after dinner and took a few pics to remember our first anniversary. Oh my how how our lives have changed is an understatement to say the least.

Potty training is in full swing and we couldn't be prouder of our girl! I hope I'm not celebrating too soon but this weekend we thought Kylie was frantically trying to get our attention because she had to go...but in fact she came to get us because she had already gone! Yes, this actually happened twice this weekend and this is the first weekend that I decided to give the potty training a go. Our little Ms. Independant is so proud of hersefl as she should be and she is well on her way to training under pants. We are officially off diapers and on to pull ups for her convenience. She also surprised us this evening by putting 5 words together..."tac you mommy and daddy". I'm still not quite sure what she was thanking us for but we were thrilled. So far she has been putting two and at times 3 words together. Conveniently enough they help her get what she wants i.e. "I want more", "more daddy (or substitue for mama), p-e-e-a-s-e" and some other cute ones that are not coming to me at the moment. Another big thrill for me is the fact that she is now calling us mommy and daddy and her manners are no longer prompted by us 'all the time':-)

Our daughter has filled our lives with so much love and joy. We never take for granted how lucky we feel to have such a blessing.

Mommy and Daddy LOVE YOU SO MUCH baby girl! Muah!

October 2006 - Our precious baby

September 2007 - Oh my she is our big girl now

Final homestudy complete!

We are excited beyond words to finally have our last homestudy completed as of yesterday by 5:30pm. What a huge difference this HS was compared to the first one 2 yrs ago where I dusted off base boards and literally wiped down the walls. Nope not this time...I barely mopped the floors as I was too busy keeping Kylie entertained as we waited for our wonderful little friend Ellie to arrive for a playdate. I felt at ease and we were eager parents waiting to bore our case worker to death about all of Kylie's milestones. Kylie just moved to the 2yr old classroom in day care and potty training is a big focus in this class. In her first week, I was told that Kylie is ready for pull-ups! Can I get an oh yeah!! Also, Kylie is talking tons. She repeats at least one word from our sentences and she is putting together two and at times 3 words together. Kylie can be really silly and loves to laugh. We are in love with our little angel and we are continually thankful for our little blessing. She also loves to swim and I've taken the liberty to present our first video thanks to blogger's latest update. I have not taken the time to get acquainted with other softwares that allow for video so this new feature is a + +. Enjoy watching our little fish.

Birthday pics

Our dear sweet princess is now 2 yrs old! We celebrated her birthday with a pool party at our house. We had lots of family and friends over (approx 50 ppl which included 16 kids). Everyone was really excited about celebrating this special occassion with us. We are truly blessed to have a loving family and wonderful friends. It was definitely Kylie's day. She did not take a nap that day (down right scary) and she went swimming at least three different times throughout the day. With that much activity I really thought we would see new levels of crankiness. Low and behold this little tot had a great spirit, at times she was cautious around new people and she loved showing off her swimming skills. At 8:45pm she was still not ready for bed! Thank goodness for warm milk and books, she did not protest about having to stay in bed and she was out like a light within 10 minutes. Whew!


The Birthday Girl!

Notice the D*ra stickers on her leg? Don't even think about asking her to take them off. I did and it wasn't pretty. I'm learning to pick my battles. I never thought I would be trying to compromise with a feisty 2 yr old. Stickers are compliments of our friends Robin & Natalie. Thanks guys!
Great friends united through the wonderful world of adoption. Jeanne, Krista & Lily should have been in this picture! They were just a few feet away watching us pose for this pic.
Our little fish

Proud mommy

Yummy food

No toy was left untouched in Kylie's room. Of course, Kylie suddenly had a renewed interest in her toys again!

I'm still not sure if Kylie really blew out the candles.

Proud parents

Yum, yum, yum, yum...delicioso!

My sweet niece helping Kylie with her gift. These sunglasses came with a cute swimsuit set.

We only opened gifts upon request. We felt that it would be too overwhelming for Kylie. Judging from this pic it would have taken a very long time to get through most of them. They were really paying close attention to detail!

Did I mention we have a sweet angel?

Pool fun with her cousin Cole

Our fearless dare devil jumping into the pool

Daniel, his dad and Kylie. Daniel's mom and I have been friends since we were young kids, oh... 30+ years give or take- Yikes!

I love watching Kylie laugh and having lots of fun.

And last but certainly not the least our great friends Mer, (left) and Lizzy (right) These ladies were amazing and helped us keep this shindig together. They helped with everything from prepping the food and getting the food out ready for guests, to cleaning everything and anything, assisting and greeting our guests to finally taking all of the pictures featured here and then some! If it were not for them, I would not have a single picture to post or share the memories with Kylie. I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Mer and Lizette for all of your help! I love you guys!! You are the best!!

Here is what I've been up to lately...

At first I was excited to meet the "red guy" then I couldn't figure out why he decided to stand so close to daddy and me...

N-o-o-o-o....

Hey he is pretty cool after all - we gave each other bumps and then "Elm*" went "night-night" ("Elm*" went on a break but we told Kylie he had to go to take nap.

"Blue cheese"

It's a tough job being me...

I really enjoy water play every Wednesday at school with my friends...

I also enjoy gymnastics every Saturday morning with my buddies

I love the occassional ice cream treats!
Being goofy with mommy and daddy... Trying to stay out of trouble...

I wrapped up my safestart swimming lessons...

This floating thing is a piece of cake.

Speaking of cakes, I've attended birthday parties practically every weekend.

Showing off my swimming skillzzz....

and surfing style.

Showing off my fashion sense...

Trying to keep a low profile...

For some reason everyone kept stopping to comment how adorable I was. Maybe they won't see me anymore if I scrunch my face:-)

Mommy and Daddy are planning my birthday party. I will be 2 yrs old this coming Saturday. I can't wait to see my family and friends. Stay tune for my birthday photos on the next post! Love, Kylie

Vacation pics

Our plane trip was wonderfully uneventful. Kylie watched a DVD for approx 1 hr of the 2hr flight on our way to St. Louis. She didn't care to be buckled in and I didn't want to push the issue. I knew she wouldn't go for the car seat and I'm glad I did not bring one. I had visions of being escorted off the plane if we attempted to keep Kylie in a car seat. I decided to let her skip the nap time on the way back which was a huge risk. She would either fall asleep on the flight home or tip the scale on the crank o' meter. I'm happy to report that she slept on the 2hr flight back home. We were prepared with lots of activities to keep her occupied and ended up not needing half of the items we brought. I hope the next time around is just as smooth. I can hope right?

We had a blast visiting my in-laws. I was very sad to leave. Kylie loves her grandpa (pop pop) and grandma (emma) as she called them:-) Lots of milestones too, she used the potty the first night we were there! There were no repeat performances but it was a milestone either way. She learned lots of new words and got along great with her cousin Abby. Grandma taught Kylie how to ride a tricycle, bake cookies and blow bubbles. We all had a great time at the St. Louis Zoo. My in-laws invited the rest of the family i.e. aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids one afternoon to come hang out with us and meet Kylie. It was definitely a much needed and wonderful vacation. I can't wait to do it again.

Leaving on a jet plane...

The count down is on for our first vacation as a family of three:-) This will be the first time on an airplane since we've been home with Kylie for almost a year now. I'm really surprised at myself for not being the list bit worried about how Kylie will handle the flight. This is unusual for me not to worry but I feel a sense of calm. Although we didn't have to, we've purchased a seat for her and I know we can keep her plenty occupied and comfortable during the 3 hr flight. After all she was a trooper on her longest airplane ride of 13 hours last September. Of course, my next post could be how this feeling of tranquility hit me in the face with a dose of reality. Wish me luck!

In the meantime enjoy these happy pics with our baby girl!