Dallas World Aquarium

We took Marisa, Kenya, Natalie and Judah to the Dallas World Aquarium on Saturday and we had a blast. It is basically a HUGE indoor zoo/aquarium.
 

This is is a giant anteater and was one of Judah's favorite animals there. Every time it would come by the glass he would scream with delight.

Marisa and Natalie were waiting to feed blueberries to some birds.

I was shocked that Kenya wanted to do it too. She is normally scared of things like this but she did great!

Jason, Judah, Natalie, Marisa and Kenya checking out the sting rays.

Judah also loved the giant otters.

This lizard was creepy but cool. Not sure what the kids are looking at cause it is right below Kenya ha.

One of my favorite parts was this viewing area where the manatee would swim right up to the glass.

I thought Kenya was so cute trying to play with this turtle.

The highlight of Judah's day was finding Nemo. He yelled as loud as he could "NEMO, NEMO, NEMO!!!!"

I loved the design on this fishes face.

Natalie

and Marisa chillin with the penguins!

Here we are with our kids :)

This was a super cool tunnel that you could walk through and see the SHARKS!!!

Kenya loved getting to spend the day at the aquarium and has decided (after watching Dolphin Tales) that she wants to be a marine biologist. 

My sweet Baby A

Dear Baby A,
 I haven't written a letter to you in a while but I can not get you off of my mind so I just wanted to write a letter to tell you how much I love you. I had a dream last night that your "Papa" and I were back at the hospital. I picked you up and danced and danced around the room with you. You laid you face against mine and I lost it. I just cried and cried as we danced around the room. I remember how heavy you felt in my arms and how warm your cheeks were against mine. I remember how much I loved to have such a sweet moment with you.

I woke up and was so disappointed that it was just a dream. I can't wait to go back to Eastern Europe for court I can't wait for the day they finally say we can take you home. I can't wait until you get to meet your sister and brother.

 Your birthday is coming up and I am so sad we wont be there to celebrate with you. I have a bit of Mommy guilt because we brought your birthday gift with us the first trip but I was too excited so I gave it to you early. Now I am sad because you wont have anything to open from your Mommy and Daddy on your birthday. I am so so blessed though that you are surrounded by people who love you and will celebrate your birthday with you. I am so so glad you will be held on your birthday and told how special you are. I can't wait for the day I get to tell you Happy Birthday and tell you how much I love you but until then just know how much you are loved sweet boy.

 I miss you so much and I can't stop thinking about you. We have been working hard to get everything ready to bring you home. You are going to love it here sweet boy. I know it is going to be hard on you at first. I know you are going to miss your nanny, your room at the hospital and all the staff but I just want you to know that we love you and we will help you to adjust to your new life here. We can't wait to have you in our arms again.

 You are so so special and so so loved. I wish I could make time fly by so we can see you again but it will be here before we know it. I can't wait to post pictures of you for everyone to see. You are getting so big and are growing so much. I can't wait for the day we officially get to announce that YOU ARE OUR SON! Today my heart is heavy because I miss you so much but I know we will see you soon.

 I love you and I can't wait to kiss your sweet face again sweet boy! Enjoy your day and love on your Nanny. I know she will miss you so much and my heart breaks for her. You are so special and so loved. I will see you again soon!

Love,
  YOUR Mommy

2011 highlights

January:

We celebrated Judah's 1st birthday!

February:

We found out about Baby A and started working as fast and as hard as we could to bring him home.

We got to meet Ella and her Mom Katie. Ella has the same type of EB as Baby A. It was so neat to meet Ella and such a huge blessing to get to talk to Katie about Ella's day to day life.

March: 

I went to stay with the Williams Family so I could learn all about day to day life with EB.

Jonah is such a joy to be around and made me so excited to bring Baby A home.

Once I got back from staying with the Williams Family we had our home study. 

Jason and I celebrated 6 years of marriage March 5th!

April:

We celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

May:

We celebrated Mother's Day.

June:

I turned 27 WOO HOO getting up there in age ;)

We celebrated Fathers Day!!!

July:

The kids and I went on vacation with Jason's family. We went to Disney Land, California Adventure, Sea World and ended the vacation at Jason's family reunion. Unfortunately Jason couldn't go because he was saving up his vacation days for when we went to Eastern Europe.

We also had a HUGE garage sale to raise money for the adoption.

August:

I only took 47 pictures in August and not my normal 1500 so not a whole lot to share from August :)

September:

We celebrated my nephew Blake's 4th birthday and my nephew Dilan's 5th birthday.

October:

We celebrated Kenya's 5th birthday!

November:

Jason turned 29 and enjoyed participating in no shave November :)

Melody and Madison have been in Heaven for 3 years. I can't believe that much time has gone by. We still miss them a ton but are comforted knowing we will see them again!

We got to meet Baby A and officially commit to his adoption!

December:

We celebrated Jesus' Birthday and enjoyed hanging out with our family and friends.

2011 Was a super busy but great year. We can't wait to see what God has for us in 2012!

THIS is why Jesus came

2 minute video worth watching!

My sweet girl and her tender heart...

Kenya talks about Melody and Madison a lot. Sometimes she ask us why they are not here and sometimes she says, "But I didn't want them to die." but that's about as far as it goes. I can never remember her crying because they died or every being really sad about it but that all changed a few nights ago.

The day before yesterday Kenya told me that she really missed her sisters and she broke down in tears. We talked about her sisters and I prayed for God to comfort Kenya as she was missing them. We talked about how exciting it will be to get to see them again in Heaven. Then she was ready to move on and I thought that was the end of it.

Last night after Kenya was supposed to be asleep she came out into the living room burst into tears and said "But I didn't want my sisters to die!" She came over to me and I held her as she cried and talked about her sisters. She said that she just wanted to go to Heaven so she could be with her sisters. I told her how exciting that day will be and one day it will come but for right now we want to live our lives and enjoy being here while we are still alive. We talked for a long time and I prayed for her and loved one her. She just cried and cried and cried. I will tell you right now that holding your 5 year old as she cries herself to sleep because she misses her sisters is a lot harder than missing them yourself. Kenya and I both ended up falling asleep on the couch after we were done talking about her sisters.

She seems to be getting sad about them at bed time so I was trying to think of something tonight that would help her and I remembered we had a lot of toys that remind us of the girls. So I went through the whole house and found them all. I put them in her room and told her the toys would help her to remember her sisters and she could snuggle with them all. Here she is getting ready to go to sleep with all of them.

We got these Zebras at Kenya's baby shower and after we had the twins Kenya started calling them Melody and Madison. So these remind her of her sisters.

My friend Laura brought these lambs to the girls funeral I thought they were a  really sweet and thoughtful gift. These are Kenya's Melody and Madison lambs.  

Jason and I hot glued two baby dolls together when I was pregnant with Melody and Madison to try to prepare Kenya for when she met her sisters. HERE is the original post I wrote about the dolls. She loved them and still does. She still plays with them and she tells her friends they are her Melody and Madison dolls and they are stuck together like her sisters. 

Wita (Jason's Mom) got these panda bears for Kenya at the San Diego Zoo because they reminded her of the girls. Kenya fell asleep holding them tonight.

Here is Kenya loving on her sisters the day they were born.

Kenya was really excited to go to sleep with all of the things that reminded her of her sisters. She fell right to sleep with out a single tear. I love her so much and it is so hard to watch her be in pain knowing there is nothing I can do to fix it. I am so glad that she talks about her sisters and they are still a super important part of our family.

Melody and Madison we will miss you until we get to see you again but I am rejoicing knowing that you have been made whole in Heaven!

Judah's loves....

When I was pregnant with Judah we were out shopping when Kenya spotted a bear wearing a dino costume.  She said, "Mommy can we get this for my baby brother?" (we waited until after Judah was born to find out if he was a boy or girl but she thought she knew for sure he was a boy) It was so sweet how could we say no??? Wita (Jason's Mom) bought it for her to give to her baby brother. Once Judah was born she gave that to him in the hospital

This is right after she gave it to him (see the bear right under Judah?) and decided no one else could hold her brother.

Here he is one day old with his bear.

The bear and Judah were always together.

My goal was to take a picture of the bear and Judah every month for Judah's first year of life... That only lasted for the first few months... my bad!

Judah at one month old.

Judah at 2 months old wearing my favorite P.J's he has ever owned.

 Judah eating his bear (yes he is unbuckled, we were at a drive through zoo thing so it was okay)

I wanted Judah to be attached to a blanket but I didn't want him to be attached to any one blanket so I gave him a different one as much as I could. Well this plan backfired because he became attached to a CHRISTMAS blanket. It is super cute DURING Christmas not in July when he HAS to have his blanket with Christmas trees all over it. I guess I really don't mind it so much anymore but it drove me nuts when it first happened. It bothered me so much (I don't know why I cared...) that I tried to get him attached to a different blanket which also backfired because now he is attached to his Christmas blanket, his bear blanket and his bear that Kenya gave him.

Here he is watching a movie with all of his loves!

When Judah gets hurt he runs over to me crying so I love on him then he gets down finds his blanket and comes back for more love. If he hits his head at all he has to have ice. He puts it on top of his head even if that's not where he hit it and just leaves it there.

He thought he needed his sister, ice, his bear and blanket this time :)

I walked into Judah's room and found the poor bear trapped in Judah's toddler bed. I thought it was a fluke but now it happens all the time. For some reason Judah loves to trap his bear.

poor bear... I can't help but laugh!

Here he is setting it free after nap time.

I never would have let Kenya be attached to anything but with Judah I think it's cute. It is amazing how parenting styles can change from one kid to the other. What are some things you have noticed changing in your parenting styles as you have added more kids to your family?