Family pictures

We finally had a professional family photo done with our complete family on Friday. I have to wait til Monday to get my hands on the rest of them! Amy Fraughton does such fantastic work and is so flexible and fun to work with. She is responsible for the amazing photo on my header. That picture was actually at the very end of Lexi's 1st phot shoot back in December. We had only been home from China for about 3 weeks. Lexi wasn't pulling herself to stand yet but we wanted a shot of her standing in her little pettiskirt. Well after I leaned her up to a bench, she toppled over and fell in the dirt! I quickly scooped her up and was just giving her kisses and cuddling her and Amy caught that little face going WOE WHAT JUST HAPPENED as she looked over my shoulder. It was an unposed candid shot, the very last of the shoot and it is by far my very favorite!

Look how much she has grown.

Happy Father's Day

There is no love like the love of a father. Bryan is such an amazing Daddy! He loves his kids so unconditionally. He loves to play with them and watch them do the things that are important to them. He encourages their independence and is always ready to cheer them on. He treats dance recital days like very special occasions and has never missed any of them. He loves when they fall on Fathers Day weekend (and they often do), saying that makes his Fathers Day the best ever!!! And he means it. He is so proud of all his girls. So proud of Q getting straight A's her first year at ASU. Amazing! And her new independence!

He's very much a "Go with the flow" kind of dad. He loves having a son and doing all these "boys only" things. They have so much fun together these two. Brady adores his dad and is so much like him.
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He is so stinkin in love with his newest little peanut! There is nothing she can do to make him anything less than spilling with joy around her. When she looks at him it is with such awe of her daddy. And when he looks at her you feel his love for her. She say's DaDa and he melts EVERY TIME!!! She is becoming a Daddy's girl, it started a few weeks ago. It was her early father's day gift I guess. You see this daddy has been the most patient man on the planet waiting for her to realize what a special daddy she has here. And she see's it now! Boy does she see it. Today, all day it was "DaDa Go?" Every time he left the room. She follows him around and she shows off for him doing all the cute things she can think of and saying all her new words for him.

Here they are in China, just getting to know eachother. My how quickly 7 months has gone by. I wish I could freeze time and keep all my kids just where they are right now. We have so much fun in our house, all these kids, all different ages, all different stages. I fall in love with my family all over again every summer. Mostly because we all spend sooo much time together with there being no school and less sports. They really are spectacular kids! And Lexi gave us all reason to stop, slow down, and enjoy every moment. She brings us all even closer.

Thank you Bryan, for being such an amazing Daddy to our 5 children, for working so hard and making it possible for me to stay home and raise our children, for loving us all so much, and for listening to God when he told you that you had another daughter who was waiting for you in China. We all love you so much. Happy Father's Day!

7 months ago we were on our way to Guangzhou

A flight we could not wait to get on!

You were all bundled up in your snowsuit.

Because Mommy and Daddy didn't want anyone to think

you might be anything less than super warm.

You were very patient through all of the waiting!

And your cute little face attracted lots of paparazzi

And Daddy was proud to pose with you for them.




You had no problem sleeping through the entire flight.



And you loved finally arriving to our room at

the White Swan Hotel. There were lots of fun things

waiting there for you!

We loved Guangzhou and all of the friends we made there. We loved meeting Jordan and Kenny especially. Both of them faithfully prayed for us while we awaited our referral for Lexi and while we were traveling back to Changsha. I will never forget the joy in both their faces when we showed up the next week, back in Guangzhou with her in our arms.

My most fantastic news for tonight..... Hua went home with her forever family last Monday!! She was adopted by an American couple whom I will forever love and give thanks for.

1 1/2 today.

Lexi is 1 1/2 yrs old today.
She is 19 pounds and 29 inches tall
She loves Trains, Planes, Merry Go Rounds and rides of any kind. She loves to Dance and practice summersaults, she loves ice cream cones (mostly just the cone), She loves hearing childrens songs, going to Gymboree and playing hide and seek or hide ANYTHING. She loves to be outside, she loves all things pretty and she loves to read books. She says lots of words, sings lalala and knows all her body parts. She is very happy, is a super good eater and sleeps 11 hours at night.

We Love Summer

No words needed!

Arizona Sea Life trip

We had so much fun visiting this Arizona Sea Life, the new aquarium in Tempe. Lexi thought the "Dishies" (that's Lexi for Fishies) were so cool! The place is super geared for little kids (7 and under) so everything is low and smaller scaled. I think her favorite might have been the light show on the ground that the kids could dance on at the end.






These port holes were outside so we had something to do while we waited to go in.

"Dishies"

Cassidy and her Best Friend Juliette

Brady

7 Wonderful Days!

With Grandma~

Watching for airplanes!

Memorial Day. Thank you all who serve or have served.

Getting ready to go in for dinner. This is before Lexi threw up birthday ice cream all over the birthday girl!! Poor Rylee!

So Happy to celebrate Rylee's Birthday!!

Playing at the Splash Pad

Being crazygirls, Swimming in our pool

Loves swimming with her big sisters and big brother

This is the darling face she makes when she thinks there

is going to be a big splash or a loud noise!

We had 7 wonderful days with Grandma and can I just say, Lexi ~LOVES~ her Grandma.

She is still very hesitant to go to anyone but her family (all the rest of our family is out of state, Grandma included) BUT...... She jumped right in her Grandmas arms when she arrived last Wednesday from Northern California. She knew right away who she was and she was soooo cute with her the whole week! My mom was here when we came from China, we then went to visit there 2 times and now my mom came back this week. The efforts to keep these 2 connected have far more than paid off! I love seeing these 2 together. My mom will stop whatever she is doing to play and love on Lexi. She brings her so much joy and loves her like crazy. We miss you already mom! Lexi went in the guest room this morning looking for you. She put her little finger on her mouth and said shhhhh, I guess she thought you were sleeping. When she saw the room was empty she did her little hmmmm sound that she does when she is looking for something or when you ask her where something is. It was so sad and so cute at the same time. I told her we will be going on the big airplane to see Grandma real soon!

It was a fun and very low key week. Did some sunflower planting, a big giant Birthday shopping day for Rylee, way too much eating out, a trip to IKEA, some sewing (well Grandma did anyway), lots and lots of swimming and MAN IS MY BABY TAN!!! She is like the coppertone baby! She has the most beautiful skin OMW if I could have just an ounce of the pigment please!!