Birth-mom Birth-day!

This weekend we celebrated Landrie's birthmom's birthday!  Brianna came in town for our 2nd annual birthday dinner celebration. :) 

Yeah for Brianna's birthday!

Look at itty- bitty 5 week old Landrie at Brianna's birthday celebration last year!  

Between Brynn making silly faces for Landrie and running for cover every time it started to rain, there was never a dull moment at dinner!!  Landrie thought Brynn was hilarious! 

Trying to get a group shot is getting harder and harder! :)

What a big helper!

Happy birthday to you!

Beautiful girls!

We are so thankful that Brianna and Brynn are in our lives.  Happy birthday, Brianna!!

Landrie's Nursery!

Over at Kelly's Korner, she's doing kid's rooms and baby nurseries today!  If you've never visited her blog, you should check it out!  Hundreds of people have linked their blogs and you can get a ton of ideas!  

Here's an updated version of the post I wrote when sweet Landrie was just a few months old.  It's hard to believe we just celebrated her first birthday!!

When Mark and I finally felt peace about adopting and started the process last January, we both knew our baby would be a little girl. When Brianna chose us, I was SO excited that our little girl was due in just a few weeks! Forget sterilizing bottles, I had to get started on her nursery right away! :)

As most of you know, Landrie arrived just 5 1/2 weeks after we got matched. We managed to get all the furniture, paint the room and sew the crib skirt. It wasn't exactly the finished product I hoped for, but with Landrie in our arms, it didn't matter quite so much anymore.

Here's Landrie's finished nursery FINALLY DONE! :)

Her room is not very big, so it's hard to take pictures. Imagine that you are in the center of the room and spinning in a circle to look at everything. If you want to see any of the pictures enlarged, just click on them!

This is the view when you walk in the room. When I first saw these big letters at my friend Mindy's, I knew I had to have one when we had a baby! I made the window valance by covering foam board with batting and this adorable pink and green paisley fabric.

The original plan was to paint stripes in different shades of pink below a chair rail. That never happened, but I still love how it turned out. If our next baby comes as quickly as Landrie did, we may be glad to at least have a neutral color on the walls!

The changing table is Landrie's FAVORITE place to be in the house! She just grins and kicks like crazy the moment you put her on it.  The mat of the frame on the left is signed by all the friends at our baby shower (the one that Brianna went into labor during!)

Are you dizzy yet?? :)

I love her "L" hair bow holder. We use it every single day. Really. Even if we are not going anywhere, LG needs her bow!

And now for some close ups...

We are so glad Bennett got his big boy bed while we were waiting to be matched. It's the exact crib I wanted to get! I love how her bedding turned out SO girly!  Have I mentioned how much I love the pink and green paisley fabric??

Have you ever seen such comfy bumpers?? Without Mark's sister Megan, I don't know that I ever would have finished these! The inside is a pink minky fur.  I have never felt anything softer! The back panel has her name monogrammed on it (of course!). Unfortunately, this paranoid first time mom removed all the bumpers except the one by her feet. They'll be back in her crib before too long!

I saw these signs online selling for almost $100, and I LOVED them, but couldn't justify paying that much. Now, I can! It was a labor of love, but it was worth every minute! I matched the colors and used one of my school's overheads to draw the letters of her name.

The edges have little polka dots too!

Can you find all the names?? Two of my sister in laws have monogram machines, so Landrie is constantly decked out by Aunt Beth and Aunt Melissa! I made a little quilt with the fabrics and put that super-soft minky fabric on the back. I hope she loves it when she's older!

Here's a close up of the quilt that we keep on the glider. It's SO soft!  

I was planning on using her prints from the hospital, but when I dug them out a few weeks ago, it was only her footprints (somehow I thought they did hand prints too) and they were too wide for the frame. Thankfully, her 4 month prints fit just perfectly.

This girl has more clothes and accessories than I could ever dream of! We are so thankful for all of the sweet baby gifts and boxes of hand me downs too. I want to buy her clothes, but there's no room in her closet for anymore 3-6 month stuff! She is so blessed. I know I'll look back on this in a few years and think, "Really, I wanted to have a need to buy her clothes??" :) We use the over the door shoe hanger for her hats, shoes, tights, headbands, and all those other fun girly accessories.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to sew bedding was so I could use the fabric to make pillows, window treatments, blankets and fun stuff like this lamp! I bought this self- adhesive lamp shade at Hobby Lobby. You just peel and stick your fabric to it! I glued the edges down and glued a little trim on the top and bottom.

Is it a little crazy to spend this much time and energy on a room for a baby who is highly entertained by her own toes? Maybe a little bit... but I had to do something with this love pouring out of my heart. I could never do anything so grand that it would show how loved and wanted this sweet baby girl is. Landrie, we love you so much!!!

Adoption Gear :)

Our agency posted a link to this website on facebook.  I got a kick out of all the funny adoption stuff they have!  Just click on the pictures to make them larger if you need to!

This reminds me of registering at Babies R Us.  The woman was utterly perplexed with what to put in the "due date" field because we hadn't been matched yet.  She had to call a manager!

One of the perks! :)

Want to see joy?  Look at the face of a woman who is knows she is FINALLY going to hold a baby in her arms!!!

hahaha!

This one reminds me of our friends, Bill and Kelli.  Want to help them bring home little Lilli?  Click here for ways to help!

They have things for lots of different countries.

Hallmark has a cute one, but it doesn't exactly work if your belly isn't big!  This one is perfect for when you are "expecting" but there's no baby in your arms yet!!

These next few are perfect for babies who join the family through adoption, but could be perfect for so many other precious gifts too!

Want to see your mom cry?  Put your baby in this one!!  It's from Faith Baby.

WOW!  The baby model they used for this onesie is GORGEOUS!  :)  This one is also from Faith Baby.  We love it!  (You also have to check out their ruffled bloomers.  SO over the top.  I love it!)

Have fun celebrating the little ones in your life, no matter how their join the family!

7 years ago today...

7 years ago today, I got the shock of my life when my honey proposed to me!!  We'd been dating for about 15 months and knew we were going to get married.  Wow, that doesn't sound like nearly as long as it did back then!  At the time, it seemed like EONS.  I'd better not let Landrie know that we barely dated more than a year!  :)

All of my family was in town to celebrate my sweet niece Anna's "One year, one month, one week and one day" party because they were moving during the week of her actual birthday.  She was totally okay with it. :)  

Little cutie birthday girl!  

About 2 weeks after the party, Mark and I had plans to go see Mama Mia at Bass Hall.  

Mama Mia, you know, the musical about getting married??  It was SO obvious that he was going to propose to me then.  He could ask my dad during the birthday weekend, then propose a few weeks later.  I thought I had it all figured out.  :)

While we were prepping for the party, I was FREAKING OUT.  Do you see what I saw out in the back? If you click on the picture, it should make it bigger.  That's Mark way out in the pasture asking my dad for his permission to marry me!!  I had to take this picture.  I was the only one who realized what was going on out there!!  I love that my sister-in-law's dad helped me take this "shot of Abbie" from a better angle so the sun wasn't coming in the windows after I took this one.  hahahaha!

Well, my dad could not have been MORE EXCITED when he found out Mark wanted to marry me.  (If you know my dad, you know how happy he is!!)  As they were about to walk in the back door, my dad turned to Mark and said, "I can't wait to go in and make the announcement!!!"  Mark had to think quickly!  He stalled with the whole don't-want-to-overshadow-the-party excuse, then got on the phone!  My whole family was already there for the party, but Mark called his parents and they raced up from Austin and his sister raced up from Waxahachie.  Beth HAD to be there.  Mark had hidden the ring at her house!  His other sister would have been there too, but we couldn't wait 9 hours. :)

All through the party, my dad kept hugging me and saying sweet things to me, and my sister-in-laws and mom were whispering fiercely in the kitchen.  After the party, Mark's family all showed up.  OHHH!  I got it!  I figured out the surprise!  He brought his family over to meet mine!  So sweet!  I thought I knew it all...

The families were getting along great, and it was time to eat dinner.  Mark announced, "Could I get everyone to come in the living room?"  At that point, I was telling myself that we were about to pray over the food.

  Then, I saw everyone's faces.  

Then, I saw Mark's face.  

Then, he asked me to sit in a certain chair and stood in front of me.

OH MY GOODNESS!  It dawned on me!  It was really happening!  I was about to get engaged!

Mark said the sweetest speech in front of all of our family.  I can't remember a word of what he said, but I do remember loving it all!  (He even got teary-eyed at one point!)

He got down on one knee...

"Will you marry me?"

I said. "YES!"  

I love how you can see Mark's mom clapping in the background!  It was SUCH a happy moment!!

My sister-in-law Melissa saw Mark for the first time and said, "I like him.  We need more dark-haired people in the family!"  It was at Megan's wedding, and only the second time I'd ever seen him in my life!

Abbie, my parents, the newly engaged couple! and Mark's parents

8 months later we blissfully walked down the aisle as man and wife!

I love you, Baby!!

1st Mani Pedi

Well, we'd waited long enough for this major milestone.  Today Landrie had her first manicure and pedicure, which seemed a fitting celebration since today she turned 13...months!  :)

 She’s at such a fun age right now!  I want to remember so I snapped a bunch of pictures of our sweet baby girl today.  You’ll feel like you are right here!  She’s such the girly-girl!

 This is Landrie’s favorite and only way she sits.  She did not get that from me!  J

 She opens and shuts this door 100 times a day.

 Landrie took her first steps just a few weeks after her first birthday!  Her daddy and I were watching on October 8^th when the big event happened!  Mark yelled more for that than during last night’s Ranger victory!

 This week she started turning all baskets into purses.  She flings them over her shoulder!

 Cooking up a storm, just like her mommyJ

 She's already figured out how to put the baby's bottle in her mouth to make the little eating noises!  

 Kisses for her baby (She also drops her on her head and throws her over her shoulder when she’s done playing with her, but we’ll just focus on the kisses and hugs!)  Really, though, there's not much sweeter than when I'm playing with Landrie and she leans over and gives me a kiss!  My heart just melts!

There she goes with a basket/purse again!

  Everything is a hairbrush or phone.  She will brush her hair all day!  The phone that she gets the most frustrated with is the one that has the little cord.  She can’t understand a phone that’s attached to something!  When she talks on the phone to Mark, she kisses it!  So sweet!

 So inquisitive!

 She does love to play with the boys’ toys too.  She manages to mix the car in with the purple kitchen just fine.   I had to clean the dirt out from under her nails before I could paint them!  She played hard in the backyard with Lake, Smith and Thomas yesterday!

 

Mark finished putting the latches on all of the cabinets, which is highly frustrating to LG.  She was ecstatic to find these that he missed!

 Sweet smileJ

We taught her baby sign language for “finished” and “more” for when she's eating and this week she’s taken off with it!  This is Landrie's favorite version of "more."  She started signing all the time now.  When she doesn’t like something, she’ll sign “finished” and when she wants a toy she’ll sign “more!” Today I asked her if it was time for a bottle and she dropped her toys, turned around, and frantically signed “MORE!”

Speaking of the bottle, if it was socially acceptable, I’d have her on it until kindergarten.  I love that snuggle time!  I attempted to go cold turkey today.  The sippy cup thing lasted about 3 hours.  She only drank 1 ounce.  I’ve revised my plan and am just going to be better about offering it at every meal.  Anyone else love that bottle??  Any tips on transitioning?  (for me or Landrie!)

It's MUCH harder to get sweet girl to look at the camera these days!

Happy 13 months, Baby Girl!  Your daddy and I couldn't possibly love you any more!!!