The Birthday Fun Continues

After the party we enjoyed dinner with the family, including my parents and my sister, Kelly and her family and then let the girls ride carousel. Grace always picks the zebra. I think because of the movie Racing Stripes.
And finished up with a train ride

Yes that made us ride too...

And back home to open her presents from Nana and PawPaw and from us. Nana and PawPaw got her a bike and she loved it! She hoped right on and went for a ride, but the pedaling isn't happening yet ...work to do there.

Nana and Pawpaw with Grace and her new bike! And yes she put her tiger in the back seat.

So cute

Mommy and Grace

Her other grandparents got her this scooter. She was thrilled. She calls it her skateboard.

And a big bag of goodies from Mommy and Daddy. Funny how $1 Pez can be such a hit!

Tons of little figurines which she loves to play with Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Toy Store, My Little Pony.....

It was a great day! Happy Birthday Princess!

It's Time For A Birthday Party

We celebrated this year's birthday at Build A Bear! It was the perfect choice because Grace loves stuffed animals. She loved the party! Her pick...a tiger. She loves lions and tigers!!! No surprise she is a little lion herself. She even roars from time to time....Layne Bailey who does photography here locally and is a friend of ours we met in China took a couple great shots and this is one one of them. Blowing out her candles on her teddy bear cake.
Another amazing shot caught by Layne. Lily insisted on helping Grace and about burnt her little chin. Precious right. These two really love each other.

enjoying blowing her blower as we setup for the party

Mommy and Grace

Daddy and his little girl

Grace's speed quickly changed when Lily arrived and they went to chasing each other around one of the tables

Grace stuffing her lion, amazed at the whole stuffing concept

Grace and her friend Braelyn (who came home from China one month after Grace) giving their animals a bath

Then Jaidyn joined Grace at the tub (Jaidyn is Layne's daughter). Grace and Jaidyn met in China!

The gang...

Love it, check out the grip she has on her cousin Mason's neck

and the cheek she turned for a kiss

Holding up the lion...she loves him!

The teddy bear birthday cake

Cupcakes of course...love a cupcake cake!

Grace and Jaidyn giving hugs before they say good-bye

It was a great party with great friends!

The Birthday Girl!

Doesn't the laugh and joy on her face make you smile! Our Grace has turned 3!!!! It is so hard to believe, she is growing up so quick before our eyes. She is so beautiful, so much fun. Enjoy some photos of her before we headed out for the birthday festivities. Her facial expressions kill me, she has so much personality. This little girl will keep you laughing. Thank you God for the gift of Grace and the priveledge of celebrating her life! Enjoy the "faces of Grace" below and her little priss pot posing. Gotta love her.

Received I-797C Today - OH YEAH!

So excited today to received our I-797C. This is the last form we were waiting on from USCIS(Immigration) for our dossier (paperwork that goes to China). We received it on Grace's 3 year old birthday so that makes it an extra special day too!!! I had hoped to get it notarized and mailed off to Raleigh for certification today but, that will have to wait until tomorrow morning because after all this is Grace's day!!!! We are off to Build-A-Bear to celebrate with her family and friends this afternoon, but first thing in the morning these papers will be notarized and on their way to Raleigh for certification!!!!! We hope to have them back from Raleigh by end of next week so we can put in the mail to Washington, DC for authentication, the last step before we can send to our agency for packaging to China!

A Trip to Atlanta and A Day With Friends

This weekend was full of fun! Christian and Guy took a trip this weekend to Atlanta. It is a tradition for him to take each of the boys for a guy's 1:1 trip to discuss well "guy" stuff before they go off to high school, with the help of some James Dobson cds. Oh course they tied in some fun too of course. Christian picked Atlanta for his location. They went to Centennial Park (and threw baseball of course), went to Coca- Cola Factory, the Aquarium as well as the Braves game. They had a lot of fun

A highlight for Christian was seeing this fool run out on the baseball field and walk off in cuffs.

Another highlight, two home runs in a row for the Braves

Coca Cola Factory

The rest of us enjoyed a fun time this afternoon at a end of summer pool party with other local families who also have adopted from China. Here are a few shots of Grace who stayed in the pool the ENTIRE time!

I think this is my favorite! This is so Grace and Lily.

My Grace went to the doctor this week for her 3 year old check up and 1 year follow-up from China. She has gained 5 pounds and grown 3 inches since we have been home. Still 75% in height and 50% for weight. Can't believe in 4 more days our baby will be 3 years old!

The Finale

We had a gorgeous tree outside our villa at the beach which was a great place for some photos
Christian

Love that smile

Christian had Lily and Grace laughing so hard, isn't this precious!

This shot kills me it is like please Christian stop I can't take it any more you are killing me!

And this one Lily still laughing, and Grace turns to Natalie all serious with a look like "you talking to me" - love to know what they were talking about

Precious - just precious - all the girls, Amy, Lily, Grace and Natalie (minus Morgan, not sure where she was)

My most favorite picture of all - all our kiddos - it was a great time!

Grace Fell Hard Twice!

So although Noah was the little one that is Grace's age that we met in China. It was Ben who is 4 who first stole Grace's heart. He too is from China. Ben won her heart on the first day when he brought the whale back to her after taking it from Noah. Then fed her gummies. Next thing we knew they were hand in hand headed to the lazy river. They later enjoyed dinner at Calabash sitting in the same chair, watching Cars on the Itouch, playing with cars and eating seafood. But......this all changed by Saturday. By Saturday her heart began to beat for Luke who is 6. Now the funny thing is Luke is all boy and from what Emily his mom says he will have nothing to do with girls of any age so as you will see from some shots I captured this weekend this all changed too as he adored Grace! It began with sitting on the lap and tugging on his ear. Notice Luke wasn't too comfortable with the closeness her, tehis was all new to him, but this was all about to change...Ben wasn't to happy about it either, he tried to bring her a necklace to the beach and even tried the way back to her heart through food again and offered her a cracker. But no luck, in fact when he handed her the cracker, she threw it down on the ground and stepped on it...cruel right? Poor Ben
Later they enjoyed a snack on the beach together, check them out as the gaze at each other .....so precious! Hummm, Luke must be thinking she's not so bad after all

By the end of the day they came over to feed the ducks with us and Luke grabbed Grace's hand and took her off to feed the ducks..yes he took her hand!

By the evening well he even embraced the hug and posed for us and the smile and their face tells all

Adorable right?