On February 4th we celebrated one year of being home from China with Lily. So much has changed in one year. Miss Lily is a happy, spirited, sweet (loves to give random kisses) little girl who has adjusted beautifully into our family. She's grown so much she's hardly recognizable. We too are very different than we were a year ago-for one thing sleep is a precious commodity!

We decided to spend the day at Downtown Disney. She had such a great time that we are making plans to celebrate her second birthday in the Magic Kingdom.

Looking forward to this next year!

365 days ago....

You were handed to me in a hotel conference room. I was scared, nervous, and anxious-the same feelings I had when I was delivering your brother and sister. How incredible that you came into our lives! What did we do to be so blessed? You've added joy, richness, and love to our family each and every day. I look forward to the many years of being your Mom.
I love you Lily!

Happy New Year!

This is my Christmas dress-I sure was a cute candy cane....

My cousin M is my favorite friend ;-)
As soon as my mom learns how to use blogger she'll be a able to put the pictures in chronological order! This was my first Christmas morning! So many toys...
My favorite toy-a play kitchen. I think my mom is hoping I like to cook.

A Year Ago...

I saw your face for the first time and fell in love.
What a difference a year makes! I love you even more today. You are all mine (We won't tell Dad about this-he thinks you are all his ;-).

November!

Love my antennas

Mom was squatting so she squatted....

I love to play the piano-and am quite good actually....

This is my rendition of Mozart's 40th

As close to a smile as I could capture-you can't see her dimples here

Hard to believe that we are very quickly approaching our referral one year anniversary. Really does seem like yesterday that I saw Lily's face for the very first time! I've included some of the latest pics of our little dynamo-as usual-they are blurry or she's looking away. The moment she sees the camera she's all over the place or imitating my stance so it's hard to get a good pic. Maybe I need a new camera? Hmm going to look into this....

Enjoy our Halloween/November pictures.

xoxo

Fall Update

I guess I can't really call it Fall since I live in So. Florida and it is still very very HOT! Lily has really blossomed into quite the beautiful flower. She is so incredibly cute and smart-no motherly bias of course. Lily loves to run and climb-such a difference from that little baby girl that couldn't even sit up without help from pillows! So many told me that she would catch up-but I will confess-at the time I didn't really believe it. Those were some dark moments. I feel very blessed that she is in my life. As you have seen, I have not been on the blog much - I'll confess that I HAVE NO TIME! From the moment I get home from school until she goes to sleep, Lily and I are attached at the hip. I've never really had that kind of attention from anybody-not even my two older children. Sleep is still a work in progress for us-she had been doing well in this department, but double ear infections and teething have added dark circles under mom's eyes. Even during the worse nights, I thought to myself: this time is so fleeting.....enjoy while I can.

I'll try to post more often as I would like this to be a record for Lily of her early years with us as a family. These pictures are some of the latest ones I've taken of Lily. Once again, they are blurry-I can't seem to get her to stop moving long enough for me to take her picture.