Benjamin's 11th Birthday

Wow, it is hard to believe my baby is turning 11 today. He is my first born, the one we could not fathom loving another child as much as (of coarse we do). I am so proud to be his mother. He is a kind and thoughtful child. He is more introverted than his brother, a little more shy. He came into this world stubbornly, have to be forced from me with forceps - he still has that stubborn streak :). The way he protects, and loves his little sister makes my heart melt. I can't wait to see what he will grow up and become or do.

I pray a special blessing over him today, he is one of the joys of my life. I love you Benjamin.

Birthday dinner at Friendly's





Laser Tag and sleepover











Mia was not going to be left out !!!

Camping Fun

Last weekend we went camping at Smith Mountain Lake. I am not a huge camper and never went growing up, well we never went tent camping. Having 3 sisters and no brothers it was never something we wanted to do, urrr yucky spiders, bugs and no electricity!!! I have since been semi-converted, 2 nights is about my limit, but I actually enjoy it - being married to an ex-boy scout has definitely helped. My wonderful husband makes sure we have all the necessities - for me this pretty much means a way to boil water so I can have tea, a mattress to sleep on, and a flushing toilet, we only camp where there are bathrooms - this chick is not really in to out houses !! Do I sound like a spoilt princess - maybe - but I'm ok with that :).

It was a great way to spend Fathers Day weekend. I am married to the most amazing father, and man, he is my best friend. Before we had our first son he had not ever even held a baby, but he jumped in from day one and has been hands on ever since. He has probably changed more diapers than me. We have this on going unofficial competition as to who has cleaned up the most poop, unfortunately I usually win because I cheat and pull the work card - I am a pediatric nurse, so poop is my life :).




It took us a while to remember how to put up the tent, but we got eventually :)



































We went to a drive in movie and saw UP - so much fun, it was a first for the kids.

Visitors

Today we had a family of Canadian Geese visit us !!!












Goodbye

A day with Mia

Today Chris took the boys out to the river for a hike, so Mia and I spent the day together at home. We actually spent a lot of the day cleaning, which happens to be one of her favorite things to do. It takes a little longer, but she makes it a lot more fun. Her other favorite thing to do is to pose for pictures, so here is a few shots from her photo shoot.

Physical

Tuesday I had my adoption physical done. This is what they did :

Blood drawn
Tetanus shot
Chest X-ray
Weight / Height
EKG
Head to toe physical

Mia came with me, and she was an absolute angel. As usual she was her cute self, and the staff gave her lots of attention.

Chris is going today - he is not very excited about it. He wants me to promise him that this will be the only time he will have to do this, but unfortunately I can't. There is no guarantee how fast we will receive a referral from China, if our wait goes over 18mo we will have to repeat the physical :( !!! I explained to him that when you go through pregnancy and birth of a child there are parts that involve pain, so this is a small amount of pain in comparison that we are going through for our daughter, and this way he gets to experience it with me :). Not sure he bought it, but it made me feel better.