Lola's 3 Year Referral Day

Three years ago today we saw Lauren for the very first time. The waiting felt so very long. Many a day I felt so very sad waiting to meet my little girl. I get it when I read others blogs and they are feeling the sadness. Even though it has been three years since we were blessed to be chosen to be her parents it doesn't feel that long. I am such a lucky Momma. We love our Lola girl. We cherish that you are our daughter.

The Super Bowl...a little late

We had a great time watching the Patriots play in the Super Bowl this year. Yeah, I know that they lost and I am posting this late, but I think everyone looks so cute in their Patriots gear. Also, I finally figured out how to upload pictures from my new MacB00k.

Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh turned 12 this month. That is just crazy! He is getting so tall and turning into such a great young man. His voice is getting deeper and I am not used to the big boy sound of it just yet. Josh continues to be a really hardworking, thoughtful, considerate and kind. He is a joy to be with.

Last year for his birthday he asked to go to a Patriots game. The season had ended and there were no ways of getting tickets for him to unwrap. He waited patiently for a November game. Unfortunately we had a huge storm right before Halloween and most of the area lost power for days. Halloween was postponed and then rescheduled on the same night as his big game. He went to the game and Matt collected double the candy so that he would have some when he came home. Now we had moved so nobody knew Matt or Josh but they kindly gave him an extra candy at each house when he explained that his big brother wasn't able to come out. It didn't hurt that the game was playing in the background of every house too. Bummer that the Pat's lost the game:(

This year the Patriots did really great. We were offered Playoff tickets from a friend who was not able to go. We surprised Josh with an early birthday present and gave him the tickets. He was beyond shocked! He could not have been more excited. The game was amazing, close to the very end with an amazing finish. Josh said it was the best day of his life.
Having given Josh a surprise birthday present early also eased the guilt of me not being home for his actual birthday. My best college girlfriends had planned a girls weekend away the same weekend. I talked with Josh about not going so that I could be with him on his birthday but he told me he was okay if I went. I did get to attend the cake and small present ceremony in spirit. THe boys called me up, put me on speaker phone and I was able to sing Happy Birthday with everyone. Matt then narrated Josh opening a few small presents that we got him ( a couple of fun t-shirts and the famous birthday coupons that I make for the kids each year).

Here are a few pictures that Josh took from the game.

February Break

We have enjoyed having some time off from school and homework. I took the kids to the Aquarium the other day. They love it there. I have been many times and it is not my favorite place to go but the kids LOVE IT. Here are the kiddos before we went in. I like this picture because I have one of the 3 boys with the penguin that went into our photo book that we sent to Taiwan. Lauren was trying to do some kind of smile and a wink. Too funny.



Watching the penguins. One of their favorite things.





Lauren loved the touch tank. Here she is with a starfish. She did not want to give it back. After the touch tank she thought she could touch all the fish in all the exhibits. I don't have a any good pictures of Josh or Matt. I think my hands were always with Lauren. They all had a great time. We went out to dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant in town and the kids enjoyed an early yet fancy meal. After we took them to a famous bakery and everyone picked out a special dessert to bring home. I love that the kids told me how great the day was on the way home.



This anemone exhibit was pretty.