SIX MONTHS!!

Yes, it has actually been six months already since our sweet Alena made such an impact on our lives. She is an amazing little person.

In six months she has:

~ Gone from creeping to RUNNING

~ Learned to say: mama, mommy, dada, nana, up, light, hot, bye, baba and she also signs "more".

~ She freely gives kisses to all who want them

~ She climbs EVERYTHING

~ loves to JUMP in the pool!

~ She eats a wide array of food but picks and chooses when she wants to eat them!! : )

She is such a character. She does a lot of mimicking and she's just very comical.

It does my heart good to see her so content. Each morning she reaches for either her nana or Aunt Denise to take her, while I go off to work.

I love coming home to my girls. They are so special.

I love that so many of you have followed our journey since the beginning of our adoption process. I can't believe that it has been 2 1/2 years since we began exploring adoption. What an amazing door to open. We are so blessed to have Alena as our daughter and are so thankful for our trip to China and can't wait to bring the girls back again some day.

Love to all,

Jenni

Slowing down

Feels good to slow things down for a bit. Voice lessons and Brownies have ended for Soph and today is her last full day of school. Sophie did great in their end of the year musical. It was cute! We went out for dinner and ice cream afterwards.

This past week was my last trip out to Vegas for quite a while and I have to say that the flight home was NOT fun!! I do my best to make the best of things and to try to find the positive in whatever I can, but when two smelly, grumpy men have you pressed up against a window for five hours while they argue and suck on lollipops to supress their urge to smoke, I have difficulty finding the bright side!!!!

Needless to say, I arrived home very tired. The kids were away camping, so I got a nap in and then Fred and I had a nice dinner with Bernie and Tracy on the waterfront.

Dee and I did a little sightseeing while in Vegas since we sun poisoned our selves and couldn't spend another second in the sun (LOL!). We visited the lions in MGM Grand and toured M&M's World. Doc made fun of my sunglasses, saying they were too big, so I purchased a HUGE pair of bright red ones and wore them for most of the last day out there and while in the airport. The looks were too funny!

Fred with some help from Bernie and George did an awesome job creating a playground for the girls. They have been loving it!! It really is cool and looks great out back also.

Hope everyone has a wonderful season!!

Love to all,

Jenni

It's the sparkle in her eyes that worries me!!

Miss Alena looks innocent, but she has that "special" sparkle in her eyes! She is a sweetheart through and through, as well as spunky and inquisitive!!

Memorial Day Weekend

I took the girls and Sophia's friend Jesse, camping with us last weekend. Fred was on call, so he had to stay behind and endure peace and quiet!! Friday afternoon we spent some time at the pool and Saturday we had lots of fun at the ocean. It was Alena's first time at the beach and she really enjoyed digging in the sand while Soph & Jess enjoyed the water. We tried to catch some crabs on the rocky pier before we left, but the tide was just coming in and we were HUNGRY, so we headed out!!

Sunday I took them to Nature's Art to dig for gemstones and pan for gold. That was fun! I made them pose with their mining hats on and goods-they were thrilled!!

Besides our little getaway, everything has been pretty normal. The pond looks great and we have some BIG frogs this year. Fred just added some solar lights that shine on the waterfall at night-very pretty.

Sophia got new glasses, she looks so pretty and updates me daily on how many days are left of school. Hehehe......

Alena is as mischievous as ever. She is all over the place!! She climbed up on the kitchen table last night and proceeded to stand up as she got a nice long lecture from mommy!! She is something else. Such a character!

Heading out to Vegas again in a little over a week. It's going to be a scorcher out there.

Love to all,

Jenni