Haylie's 1st Picnic!!

Haylie & Julia
Daddy, Julia, & Haylie
My 1st Memorial Day
Cousins Julia & Haylie
In the flowers in the front yard

We had a really nice Memorial Day Weekend, and the weather was gorgeous. On Saturday, my entire family went to Natural Bridge State Park for a picnic. It was Haylie's first picnic ever, and probably the longest time she has spent outside. She absolutely loved it!!! It was such a beautiful day with the temperatures in the low to mid 70's and clear blue skies. My mom made her homemade fried chicken and all the fixins, so we ate like kings. We spent almost 5 hours there, and Haylie of course would absolutely not have any part of taking a nap. So she was a very tired little girl by the end of the day, but she sure had a blast running all over the place. She wore her old parents out chasing her around all day.

Then on Sunday, after church my mom, Haylie, & I spent the day together. Memorial Day weekend is always a hard one for our family since it is the anniversary of when my father died. He died on the Friday before Memorial Day, 4 years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long--in some ways it seems like it was only yesterday. We sure do miss our Pawpaw, and sure wish he could have met Haylie--he would have been nuts over her. Anyway, my mom and I and Haylie went out to the cemetery where he is buried on Sunday. We're not really cemetery decorating people, but he is out at Camp Nelson Cemetery which is a federal veterans cemetery. It is absolutely gorgeous decorated with big flags about every 10 feet on Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. So we went out to visit my dad, and took Haylie for the first time. Of course, she loved running thru the grass, and it was also a really pretty day. We stopped for ice cream on the way home, so it was a really nice day.

Today, we all stayed home and puttered around the house. I finally got my potted flowers planted while Haylie napped. I'm posting some pictures of the picnic and also some of Haylie, out playing in our yard today. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend--we sure did.

My First Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day this past weekend with my entire family as a 2 day event. Since the forecast for Sunday the "official" Mother's Day was for rain, we all got together on Saturday for a cook-out at my sister Marcia's house. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time and a delicious meal. We cooked out steaks on the grill, with baked potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and lemonade pie for dessert. The entire family was there. It was really a nice evening and a great 1st mothers day for me too, as well as for my sweet mother and my sister Marcia, who is mother to JuJu. We all exchanged gifts making just like Christmas. My sweet husband, and of course Haylie, got me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a sweet card--he did good!!

On Sunday, sure enough it was cold and poured the rain, so we were glad we had held the cookout the previous day. After church we all went out for lunch to Bella Notte. It became an eternal wait with all the crowds out for the big Mother's Day Celebration. Long story short, we were there over 3 hours for our meal, and the manager gave us all free dessert because the wait for our food was so long. So, it was not as nice as the previous day and pretty frustrating.

However, I'm not complaining. It was such a joy to actually be a mother on Mothers Day--something I never really thought would happen. It's actually kind of surreal...for all these years I just thought of it as a day for my sweet mother. And this year I'm actually part of the "mom club". Haylie of course was the star of both our celebrations. Don't tell Julia, but I think she was a little jealous. She's been the only kiddo for the past 12 years, and now suddenly Haylie is stealing some of her limelight. Of course being the retard I am, I didn't take ANY pictures of the entire weekend, so I am posting some recent shots of our princess...I apologize for the red eyes...I can't fix them on this particular computer.

Hope everyone out in blog land had a great Mother's Day too.

Our First Out of Town Trip

Haylie's "Nest Egg" Sooo Cute
Visiting with Grandmom Holl
With both Grandmom and Grandpop Holl
Riding on Daddy--one of her favorite activities
Such a happy girlie

We took Haylie for her longest car ride yet, and an overnight hotel trip this weekend. She did pretty well considering it got her totally off her normal schedule. The sweet folks Rich works with threw us a baby shower yesterday at the college in Jackson, KY. That had been planned for awhile, but last week the dean asked if we could come to a cookout she was having at her house on Sunday night. Her daughter would be in from out of town, and she is interested in adopting from Russia, so she wanted to meet Haylie. She wasn't able to stay for the shower. So, long story short we went up Sunday afternoon (after going to my neice Julia's 12th birthday party) from Lexington to Jackson. It's about a 2 hour trip which so far is the longest Haylie has had to sit in one spell in her car seat. We went to the cookout which was just lovely, then spent the night in a hotel in Jackson. We had taken the pack-and-play for Haylie which worked out really well. Only thing, she normally goes to bed around 8-8:30, but she would NOT go to sleep with us still up in the hotel room. We tried putting her in bed with us, but she would just play and try to jump off the bed!! We finally went to bed ourselves around 10:30 so she would go to sleep too. I figured she would be cranky the next day, but she was just a little angel for the shower. Of course she was the hit of the party, and everyone marveld how much she looks like Rich. We got lots of wonderful gifts--everyone has been sooooo generous. Haylie remains the best dressed little girl in town thanks to all of the wonderful gifts she has gotten. I forgot to take my camera to the shower, but somebody he works with was taking pictures and will forward them on. I'll try and post some when we get them.

Because I'm such a procrastinator, I forgot to post pictures of the shower that my friends at work gave us when I came back. They knew that our church shower had provided lots of clothes, so they had a great idea for the little girl who has everything. They got her the cutest little bank that says "My Nest Egg" and filled it with money!! Again, everyone was so generous. We are going to litterally save it for her for when she gets bigger--who knows maybe the start of her college fund!!

I'm also posting some recent pictures of when Rich's parents visited from Florida. It was their first time seeing Haylie, who is their only grandchild. So of course they had a big time and we had a really nice visit with them. She really rates, as this was only the 3rd time they have visited us in the 11 years we've been married.

Family Picture

I'm posting a picture of the entire family that was taken at church for our directory. It's one of the few of all 3 of us that we have, and even more rare of us all dressed up!! It's hard to get a group shot when I have to take the picture. I know, I know I could do the self-timer, but holding Haylie still long enough to get it set up would be a nightmare!! So, I didn't think this one turned out too badly. I intend to take Haylie to get some professional pictures done soon, and send them out to everybody. But seems like every weekend is taken up with other "must do's".

Our Booster is growing up and learning new things so fast. We don't go back to the doctor for an official weigh-in for another couple of weeks, but I'm sure she's gained weight and also length since she is quickly growing out of her 12 month size clothes. She's even starting to get a little belly on her!! She is now saying "hello, bye-bye, mama, dada, cracker, and thank you". She absolutely loves the telephone and to her everything is a telephone. Pens, toys, papers, you name it. Yesterday, she even picked up a sock and put it to her ear and said "ell-o".

We had 1st Steps evaluate her and started speech and occupational therapy, just because she was behind a little, and also because of the whole not eating solid foods issue. The big news is that just within the last week she has started eating goldfish, cheerios, and some stage 3 baby food--yahoo!! It was like she flipped a switch and just started sticking them in her mouth and swallowing. That was before ANY OT visits. The therapist was amazed and says she really doesn't need to work with her any more for that. The speech therapist also was amazed at how quickly she has started picking up words. Guess we'll continue that, but doesn't seem like we'll need to for long. She is just a little genius as my mother has predicted all along!!

Happy Easter--(a week late)

Here are some great pictures of my girl on Easter. She looked so adorable in her Easter dress my sister Lisa gave her. Unfortuneately, she didn't want to pose so there isn't a great picture of her where you can see the whole outfit, but you can get the idea. Then, after church we changed her into another adorable Easter outfit Aunt Lisa got her. She also loved her 2 Easter Baskets--one from Grandma and another from Mom & Dad via the Easter Bunny. Aunt Marcia and Julia got her a great beach wagon and sand bucket & shovel which she loved. It was such a nice Easter--it was so nice to have a little one to enjoy the fun with. We are so thankful to God who blessed us with such a precious little girl.

I'm in Philadelphia without Haylie

She's still playing with the ballooons my family brought when they welcomed us home from Russia on Jan. 23!!! She has had soooo much fun with them

Dont' you love this hairdo!!
Pretty blue eyes
Walking all by myself!!!
Such a happy girl

I've been here in Philadelphia for the past 4 days for a meeting for work. Lots of meetings to go to. I've also been able to walk around downtown Philly quite a bit, so it's been nice, BUT after going back to work for only 2 days after 8 weeks off, and then having to leave for this meeting, I'm missing my baby!!! She's in great hands, staying with my Mom, but I still miss her. My sister has watched her a little too, so I know she has probably had a great time without me, but I will be very happy to get home tomorrow evening and see my Boo!!!

I promised pictures, so I'm posting some recent ones of our girl--enjoy!!

Back to Work--boooooo!!!

Well, I must confess I've been a bad blogger. I didn't even realize it had been so long since I posted. Seems like there was never any time while I was off from work. I had to come back to work yesterday and am now updating on my lunch hour. I don't even have my camera with me, so I have to add pictures maybe tomorrow of our Haylie--because of course, we have a ton of new pictures. Coming back to work was actually not as bad as I had dreaded...of course the fact that my mother is taking care of her helps soooo much--thank the Lord for my wonderful mother!! The worst part is I came back and worked 2 days, and then I have to leave tomorrow for a conference in Philadelphia. Again my mom is going to keep her the 6 days I'm gone. It will be interesting to see how we do!!

Haylie has made great progress in the month and half we've been home. She is now walking everywhere and getting into everything. Within just 3 weeks of being home she had gone from crawling to practically running. Her giardia was totally gone after her antibiotics. We went back to the pediatrician last week and she has gained 2 1/2 pounds and grown an inch since we got home!! They did titers for her vaccinations, and although we have records where she supposedly had them all in Russia, none of her titers were protective except her Tetanus, so we are going to have to redo them all. They gave her 3 shots that day (actually 5 different vaccines in combined shots). She was a little fussy the next day, but overall did well with them. I just hate that she has to do them all again.

She continues to have issues with any solid foods and will only eat pureed/baby food. She now drinks milk without any problems, so I'm sure that's helping pack on those pounds. We had First Steps come out for an evaluation and we are going to do some Occupational Therapy to help with the food aversion issue--they think it probably isn't a true aversion, just that she was never given anything solid in the orphanage. They are also going to do speech therapy, just because she is delayed with her speech and having to learn English. She says Mama, Dada, Bye, and Uh-oh, but that is about it. I am so glad that she LOVES books and goes and gets them for me to read to her, so hopefully that will speed up her language development.

She is still such a happy and good baby and bonding without any problems. We feel so fortunate and blessed that the Lord sent us such a wonderful child. In addition, it's amazing how many people tell us how much she looks like us, especially my husband Rich--and I must admit it is true. Unless we choose to tell anyone she is adopted, I don't think anybody could tell just by looking at her (not that we care that everyone knows she is adopted!!)

I'll try and post some pictures in the next few days so you can see my beautiful girl yourself!!