A Year Ago Today...

We were finally able to bring our daughter home!!

It was Easter Sunday and nearly every day that week we were hopeful that THAT would be the day, but something always prevented us from getting the OK from the doctors... usually having to do with Lydia eating her bottle fast enough and without any breathing issues.

We went to an outdoor Easter service at the church we attended before moving south and that was extremely close to the hospital. From there we raced over to the hospital in hopes of hearing the magic words. The nurse thought she was ready and had us watch the required car seat video - which is boring anyways, but we could hardly stand it as we waited for the Doctor. to do his rounds.

That afternoon we finally got clearance to go home with our darling baby girl! Can't you just see the excitement on my face??!!

I remember when we got home, we gave her a bottle for the first time without all the fancy machines - with only an apnea monitor to tell us if something was REALLY  wrong. We were both so scared something would go wrong, but we made it through the first day and the round the clock feeds somehow.

My little 5 lb cutie is now almost 19 lbs, on the verge of walking, climbs on anything and everything (if given the chance), pats the dog sweetly, talks non-stop -- sometimes real words, but mostly just babble, has the cutest little toothy grin and has a touch of sass!

Happy Homecoming Little Girl! We love you very much!!!

Easter 2012

I love celebrating Easter every year, but its even more dear to my heart since getting to bring our precious Lydia home on Easter 2011. Althought not the same day each year, it will always be a special memory for us.

We celebrated Easter this year with my family at First Baptist Woodstock and then afterwards with a cookout and egg hunt at my sister's house.

What a difference a year can make! Here is Lydia on the day we brought her home - Easter Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 9 weeks and then her at 13 months this year on Easter Sunday, April 8th 2012.

14lbs and 4 teeth later, the only thing that has stayed the same is the amount of hair on her head! Maybe by next Easter we'll have some longer locks.

We had a blast hanging out with family and cousins. Lydia seemed excited to hunt eggs - even though she's not walking independently quite yet.

All Dressed Up:

Egg Hunt Time:



Cousin Photo shoot

While we were in FL for Kyle's birthday, we took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot in the cute matching outfits Bella got for Lydia and Noah. I took about 100 shots and tried to narrow down to some of my favorites.

PS - I'm loving the collage feature on Picasa so I can do a photo bomb without all the scrolling and looks pretty cute too, if I do say so myself.

THREE- OH!!

We are finally done with family birthdays...phew!! The year starts off with a bang... my birthday in January, Lydia's in February and Kyle's in March. My birthday was easy! All I had to do was show up and be surprised and eat cake, but the last two took more planning on my part.

After we finished the 1st birthday extravangza for Lydia, I started planning Kyle's 30th birthday surprise. My original plan was to surprise him and take him on a trip, but things didn't go quite as planned.

Kyle's birthday was in the middle of the week and I wanted to surprise him with a trip to see his family as well as do a fun activity that weekend. I had come up with the idea of going to a golf tournament that was taking place in his home town the same weekend as his birthday. Win-Win for seeing family and fun activity.

I ended up caving and telling him ahead of time due to work issues that came up and didn't want to purchase airfare, tickets, etc... if it wasn't going to work out. So, I was a little bummed it wasn't a total surprise, but at least he didn't have to plan anything!

I'm so glad we are finally both 30, so he can stop giving me a hard time about it!!

Here are some of the pics from his birthday morning. I got him the grown up gift of sports coats... haha! Nothing says old man like a sports coat, but seriously, he needs these so BADLY!

 

 Kyle's fav - cookie cake!

  

 

 Opening the Sports Coat

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 My girlie showing off her new teeth
(Excuse the blurriness. She's always too busy to sit still these days)

 Here is a little collage from Kyle's party at his parents house.

We had a fantastic time celebrating Kyle's birthday with friends and family. Also glad we survived our first plane ride with a baby. She did great and was amazed by everything to look at along the way.