InstaFriday

How is it Friday already?  I really did intend to post other pictures this week.  Here are just a few of the little things that have made our life perfect this week...

Hannah loves her baby dolls and is allowed
to have several in her bed to sleep with.
But I think it may be getting a little out of control...
what do you think?  :)

We love to be crafty and creative at our house!
Hannah has painted a couple of the dollar
 wooden birdhouses found at WalMart or JoAnns.

We dropped Dad off at the airport this week,
and headed to IKEA with Mamaw, Aunt Jamie, and Jamie's Tyler.

Hannah is an expert at trying out every chair,
opening every cabinet door, and,

of course, testing out the slides and toys.

I painted our bedroom this week.
It was a dark chocolate brown.  I loved it when we first painted it.

It was very cozy but, lately, it was beginning to feel too much like a cave.
I wanted a happier color.  Now it is a light blue.  I love it!

Hannah started her summer camp this week!
Two days a week for four weeks at the same school
 where she goes to preschool.  She was so excited
the first morning that she ran into the office proclaiming,
"I am going to school today!"

InstaFriday

Most weeks, I end up taking more pictures with my iPhone camera than I do with my nice (yet big and heavy) camera.  I recently downloaded the Instagram app, a photo tool on the phone that takes the photos in a square format and applies fun filters to them (they look like old Polaroids).  The pictures aren't the best, but it is more about the content than the quality of the photo.  It is just a fun and quirky way to share the little things in life that make our life perfect.

I got the idea for InstaFriday from another blog that I follow occassionally, Life Rearranged.  It is a silly way to document the everyday moments and share what we’ve been up to (and a great way to keep the blog updated a little more than once or twice or month!)

Here's what we've been up to this week...

Swimming with cousins on July 4

followed by fireworks from our driveway.

These girls are just precious together.  Best friends.

Love shopping with this girl.  She collects her "favorites"
up with her and always needs her purse. 

We have been cleaning, organizing, and decorating
during our quiet, stay-at-home summer.
The most recent project: Hannah's office. Cost: >$20

Made from an old desk, other pieces from around the
house and a few things from the dollar store.
(I'll post better pictures later.)

Hannah loves her mini travel-agency.

It is in our office so she can "work" while we are working.

You should hear the phone conversations she has with Mickey!

Hannah has ended the week with the croup.

Not a fun way to end the week.

Her annual check-up was scheduled for this morning anyways.

We have been preparing her all week for the visit to the doctor.

Since she was so brave and did so great at the doctor,

we headed to Target (as promised) to pick a new baby.

 

Of course, she isn't feeling too bad since
she is dancing to the music in the aisles.  :)

Happy Father's Day!

So blessed by these wonderful dads in my life...

my husband,

my Dad,

my father-in-law,

and my Grandpa.

Happy Father's Day to each of you!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives!  Love to you all!

Four Years

I realized today that we have had our blog now for four years (and three days).  As I look back over the last four years, I am amazed at how much we have accomplished, all of the adventures we have had, all of the ups and downs.

We started this blog as a way to keep family and friends up to date with our journey to adopt a little boy from Vietnam.  About six weeks later, we found out that we were pregnant with our Hannah.  Since then...

• We both quit our jobs at the other travel agency (at about five months pregnant!) and started our own Disney-focused travel agency.  Our company has grown more than we ever could have imagined, but more importantly, we are happier than we ever were at the other agency.  We love having the freedom to "skip" work for the day to go to the zoo with Hannah.  We have an amazing group of agents that are as Disney-crazy as we are (if not more!).
• Chet resigned from his worship minister position at the church in Irving to pursue his speaking ministry full time.  Even more doors opened up when a travel client contact heard what Chet was doing and was working for a Speaker's Bureau at the time.  Now, Kyle works as Chet's manager and we are so blessed to have him and his family in our lives.  (We just wished we lived closer to them!)  God continues to bless us in this ministry providing more opportunities for Chet (and his Dad) to speak to all different types of events.  They (and sometimes Hannah and I join them) travel across the country to speak to pro-life ministries, corporate events, churches, universities, and even a few government offices.  We are so blessed by these events and uplifted by meeting people with their own stories to tell.
• Our sweet little girl was born in March 2008 and is now a happy little three year old.  She blesses our lives more and more each day.  She makes us laugh with her sweet sense of humor, loves to dance and sing, do crafts with Mom, and play house with her babies.  She plays computer games with Daddy, loves going to school and to bible class, and loves to read.  She loves to play outside (as long as there are no bugs!), swim, and spend time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We thank God for her every day!
• We have traveled to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and have been on more Disney cruises than I keep up with.  We have visited Baltimore, Hershey, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C, Denver, Nebraska, Nashville, Kansas City and Wichita, St. Louis, and many others that I can't think of right now.  With speaking and traveling for the travel business and vacation, there is a rarely a time that we are home for the entire month.  But I wouldn't trade our life for anything.  We have created amazing memories and feel that Hannah (and us, too!) learn so much by being out in the world and experiencing it rather than reading it from a book.  We love meeting new people, talking with them, and are blessed by their stories.
• This one is a hard one to write as not many know this.  We have struggled with fertility these last four (plus) years.  After struggling for over a year,  we decided to look into adoption.  Just a few short few weeks later, we got an incredible surprise.  We have been trying for a little brother or sister for almost two years now.  On Hannah's third birthday, we found out that she was going to be a big sister.  One month later, we discovered that the baby had stopped growing and I was trying to miscarry.  The loss of our little one is still a daily struggle for me only made easier by my sweet husband, precious daughter, and relying on God.  Please pray for us as we continue on this difficult road.

Thanks so much to all of you "involved" in our lives by reading our blog!  We are blessed by each one of you.

Here is a picture of my sweet girl at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens.  We headed out there a few weeks ago on that one random day that was only 80 degrees!  Perfect day for walking around, feeding the fish, and playing on the playground.

Arboretum

Now that school is out for the summer, we are going to try to do at least one outing a week to experience some fun and different things around town.  We live in such a large city with so much to do, yet, we haven't done much more than the zoo with Hannah.

Today, we headed to the Dallas Arboretum.  They are having a fun exhibit right now with Fairytale Castles and Peter Rabbit's village.  It was such a beautiful day to be outside.  Hannah loved walking through the castles and the houses in village that were made of flowers.

My favorite picture from the day!  Hannah has a habit of not looking at the camera if I ask her to smile.  I was able to snag this with the promise of a Cherry Limeade from Sonic, her favorite treat!

We'd love some different ideas and suggestions for fun things to do around Dallas/ Fort Worth with little ones (as well as friends to join us!).

Walt Disney World Highlights

As always, we had a wonderful time in Walt Disney World last week, maybe, even more so than usual.  This was a much needed time for us to get away and reconnect as a family, to recharge, and to escape from the reality of life. 

Hannah received this Cheshire cat as a gift from Alice in Wonderland. We were waiting for the afternoon parade, and a few cast members brought this to her, telling her that Alice wanted her to have it.  Definitely made our day, and especially Hannah's.  She showed her cat to everyone, proud to say that Alice gave it to her.

Love this picture!

Of course, we saw all of our friends, including the princesses.

We rode all of our favorite rides, plus a few "new" ones.  Hannah rode Splash Mountain for the first time.  She is finally tall enough for it.  We couldn't get her to ride the whole week until we decided we could do one more ride before we needed to leave.  She was so brave and only cried a few tears of relief after the last drop.  She proudly tells everyone now that she rode "the big hill!"

Disney always has beautiful landscaping, but this time of year is no exception.  Epcot hosts a Flower and Garden Festival every spring and this was my first time to go.  There are beautiful flower arrangements, a butterfly house, and topiaries of several favorite characters throughout the parks.

Hannah keeps telling us that she wants to ride "it's a small world" tomorrow.  Or maybe she'd like to go to Disneyland tomorrow.  Or tomorrow we'll go watch the Tinker Bell parade. She keeps telling me to fix the countdown so she can take off the circles so it will be time to go again.  If only it were that easy!  :)

School Program Follies

We made it back from Walt Disney World (pictures coming soon) just in time for Hannah's end of the year program and last day of school.  She loves singing and dancing and did a great job in her program this year... until she saw me taking a picture!  After that, she clammed up.  Sounds a little bit like last year's program.  Next year, we'll try to hide a little better and maybe she'll make it through the entire program!

Playing her trombone before she spotted us.

Walking out at the end of the program... this look means,
"Mom, I can't believe you are taking my picture again!"

Hannah and her best friend.  They are the only little girls in their class (for the second year!).  She is not going to be at the school next year and will definitely be missed.  Hannah may be ruling the class as the only girl next year!