Happy Birthday Gracie

We celebrated Gracie (and PaulPaul) birthday on Saturday. It was our usual family and extended family. We didn't want to do anything too big since she has only been home two months. She can still be shy around new people and surroundings. She seem to enjoy it. As my daughter blew out her candles I couldn't help but think of the first 3 birthdays that we have missed, it is hard to think of the things that I've missed with her. It is something I guess you learn to live with. I'm sure that her birth mother and foster mother thought of her on her birthday. I wish they could see how beautiful she is and how happy she is and much she is truly loved. My biggest wish is that my baby girl never has to question how loved she is.

I have discovered she does not like to share. I'm not sure if that comes from being a four year old, or just everything that she has been through. We are working on that.

We started enforcing all kinds of things lately. We put her to bed (yes our bed) by herself and she is good at going to sleep there by herself. So were hoping to start getting her in her bed soon. She has started to really push the NO thing and not want to listen, so I've had to explain to her that she has to listen to Mommy and she is usually pretty good about saying she is sorry and doing what she is told. She has also picked up the Pretty Please, "where did she get that".

Never a dull moment here!


I sent Paul Paul to pick up her cake and to get some balloons, now I was pretty clear on what I wanted. A princess balloon with some pink ones.

I guess I should have stated " NO CAMO" BALLOONS.

How Beautiful is my baby girl!
Her castle cake
Playing pin the tail on the donkey didnt really work very well, we'll try again in a year or so.
Cool shades #1
Do I even need to tell you who the guitar is from. Yes, her oldest brother, Brandon who by the way, cut his hair! I was so happy to see his new hair.

Cool Shades #2 Liz, Bill & the kids got her these camo glasses, they will look great when she goes hunting with her daddy. No I dont really think she will go hunting.

We must thank Aunt Erin for the doodlebops tape, now we rotate the two. REPEATLY. I'm slowly cutting her time back from the tv, its just when I need to work, it is so easy to turn it on. Bad habit.

Gracie got so many nice things, we want to thank everyone for coming and sharing this special day with us.

How cute is this, Brandon and David were outside playing guitars, so Grace went and got hers.

Here ya go Aunt Bonny, the bottoms are a little big, but she loves it.

Happy Birthday to my baby boy PaulPaul. He is now 19. He is taking his Senior Pics on Friday. He is so excited to finally be a senior.