Happy Adoption Day, Zach!

Last Tuesday, we celebrated one of my favorite days ever... Zach's Adoption Day!

He started the day off with some school. Btw, He LOVES "school" and asks to do it every morning!

He's getting really good with his phonics!

Later in the day, he made a visit to the barber.

Our handsome boy. Look at that face! I just want to kiss it all over! And I do! 💋💋

He's the cutest!

We look nothing alike and but our love is thicker than blood.

In the evening, we celebrated at Macario's with Mexican food,

all the guacamole and chips, and live festive music.  

I told our server we were there to celebrate a special occasion and before we knew it, they were bringing out the sombrero, the sundae, and all the musical instruments. They huddled around him and sang,

"Happy Birthday to you!" Ha!

  

As you can see, he was absolutely giddy! If you think about it, an Adoption Day is very much like a birthday! All day long, we were telling him that it was his adoption day so afterwards, we also sang "Happy Adoption Day" to him, too!

He's still not a big fan of ice cream but lately, he's all about the chocolate!

Sharing his treat with daddy. Zach IS our cherry on top!

Oh my goodness...This boy has my heart! He kept calling his sombrero a cowboy hat. 😂

It was seriously such a sweet and fun family celebration. Just perfect!

This day marks one of the happiest days in my life because after spending his first 75 days in the NICU (much of it, touch and go), our son was finally able to come home. I can remember it like it was yesterday and yet, time has moved so quickly since then. He's 3 now and I'm turning 47 next month. It's not at all what I imagined for this stage in my life but so much better.

God writes the most amazing stories.

To think that we could've missed it all if we didn't obey and trust God. It just takes my breath away when I think about how this little soul was meant to be in our family all along.

At 38.5 weeks, despite all the hardship he went through in the NICU, our strong and mighty miracle was finally able to come home. In our family, we celebrate our children's homecoming day. We call it "Adoption Day" but in actuality, it has nothing to do with the day the courts made us a "legal" family. Nor is it the day we laid our eyes on them for the first time. To us, we celebrate and commemorate their homecoming.

It makes me think of how happy God must be, the day His children finally come home. Adoption is hard and sometimes messy, friends. But at its core, it's also a beautiful picture of the gospel itself.

Happy Adoption Day, Zachy-Roo! It's been a wild ride so far and I can't wait to see how the rest of your unfolds. We love you so much and we thank God for the joy and privilege of being your family.

Melissa's Birthday!

On Sunday, my girlfriends and I got together to celebrate Melissa, my beautiful soul sister!

 Cheers! The gang's all here!

 The restaurant brought us out this delicious dessert of chocolate mousse and caramelized waffle with syrup and berries. OH MY!!  

 May all your birthday wishes come true, sweet friend!

And then Jill baked us all these individual coconut cakes with lemon curd and raspberries to take home.

My family was so happy!

Thanks so much, Jilly. You're the best!   

The birthday girl chose lunch at Si Bon... Again!

That's 3x's in a row at Si Bon for our birthday lunch bunch. Yes, it's THAT good!

Melissa grew up as an only child and I grew up with a brother so we both agree that it's so nice to have a "sister" in each other. Like sisters, we're very close... and we also love to share clothes!

She's a trusted friend who's wise beyond her years, full of grace and encouragement, and beautifies my life in every way. I'm just so blessed to do life with her!

Happy Birthday, dear friend!

I love you and I thank God for you.

First Week Back to School

Last week, after taking 6 weeks off, the girls officially started back to school. I've got a lot on my plate this year so this was the perfect verse from my One Year Bible reading that morning to kick things off.

I like to make the first day back special so we started off with a fall favorite... Pumpkin Pancakes with cinnamon syrup! Yum! My breakfast loving girls also had bacon, fruit, and not pictured-- pumpkin spiced yogurt! #hellofall

Give him all the pumpkin and cinnamon spice, too!

Then I had the girls fill out this interview to start the year.

A special thanks to my friend, Hailey for creating it!  

I just loved their answers! I keep this in their school file so it'll be fun to look back on as they get older.

 We snapped a couple of photos to mark the beginning of 6th grade. My beautiful growing girls!!

The preschooler wanted to get in, too.

The kids had a light day as we eased our way back into a full schedule each day.

Zach worked on his letter of the week. Technically, this was his second week of school.

 He sorted his big B's from his little b's.

Cute little thing.

He played outside and we welcomed fall by hanging up our fall wreath.

 He practiced some glue sticking skills.

B is for Bear!

Later in the week, he had fun with watercolors.

 We're all so pumped to start CBS! Year #8, we're coming for you!
(And I can finally wear my hair down without sweating to death!)

 Love these sweet friends.

First day of class for me and my crew. 💕💕

And guess what?

It FINALLY cooled off around here so our golf cart adventures have resumed!

Yes, we are that wild, crazy, and LOUD family in our neighborhood. Ha!

Praise the Lord, our first full week back was fantastic! 

We're looking forward to all that the Lord will do, in us and through us, this year!

Summer's Last Stand Part 4

On one of our last days, Morgan found an aviation museum in Miramar for our airplane loving boy.

 They even let you sit inside the cockpit of these military planes.

 Zach kept wondering why it wouldn't fly? 😄

Here he is, climbing on board and peeking inside.

 How incredible to think of the countless soldiers who either died or were rescued in this aircraft.

The cockpit.

Me and my girls.

 Next to each aircraft, there was a sign that explained the name, details, and what the plane was used for, as well as the particular war it was used in.

Zach said the shark was smiling. 😀

My little hero.

Fun little gift shop, too!

We were totally blown away by the caliber, quality, and commitment of this museum. Especially since it was FREE! The military history was enlightening and the hands on experience just made the planes come to life. In the end, we walked away with a greater appreciation and thankfulness for the brave men and women in our military.  

 Next, we hit Balboa Park to ride the carousel and the train.

 We walked around for a bit afterwards but someone got really hot and cranky so we called it a day and headed back to the resort. 😏

So there you have it. This marks the end of our vacation photos. Hey, despite the phone incident, I still had a ton of pictures! Imagine that. Ha! We really packed in a ton of fun things on our week away. Only a few short steps from our villa, we had a rec center where there were various activities each day. We played pool, ping pong, and discovered a game that all 5 of us could play and enjoy together... Foos-ball! With two of us on each side, Zach stands on a chair and plays for a side as well. I'm pretty sure the employees thought we were one LOUD and crazy family. We also had the cool experience of being immersed in virtual reality for the first time. We're still laughing about the fact that I was screaming and almost fell over in my alpine skiing attempt, dodging imaginary trees. 😂 The employee almost had to pick me up off the ground! The girls also participated in things like Science Lab and Spy Camp (learning how to be a spy.) One night, Morgan even took the girls to an escape room, right on the resort. They said it was awesome!

The Welk had plenty for us to do and we made the most out of our last vacation of the summer.  

But see this cute little guy? He doesn't sleep well when he's away from home. He's way too big to fit in a pack n' play so he has to sleep with one of us in bed. He also happens to be the world's lightest sleeper EVER. He wakes up and frets, even when you sneak way to use the bathroom in the middle of the night! It's also difficult for him to take naps away from home unless someone is sleeping with him.

So despite all the fun things we did on vacation, we were thrilled to be going home so everyone could get some sleep... in their own beds! Ha!

After sleeping in his own bed and bedroom, he was one happy kid. Happy kid=happy mom=happy family! Vacations are fun and memorable (this one was no exception!) but HOME is the sweetest place to be!