Catching Up!

I am so excited... we are getting ready to go see Mickey Mouse at Disneyland this weekend!  We're going to celebrate Camryn's graduation from 6th grade, Caleb's graduation from 8th grade, plus we're celebrating Kelly's birthday and our one-year anniversary since she's been ours- so Disneyland seemed the perfect place to do a triple header celebration.  I really should be packing right now, but I'm desperate to catch up and have so many photos to post, so I'm going to do my best to work a post or two in before we leave!

The next few posts will be dedicated to updating you on everything I can remember from the past month or so that I haven't blogged about... 

Things I will cover in the days (weeks) to follow:

1)  1) Our trip to Colorado- I'm so behind!  It's been over a month since we were there- that will be what I talk about in this post.  

2)   2) Kelly's progress with attachment & development 

3)   3) More on Kelly’s Birthday

4)   4) Little Gym

COLORADO

Wow!  Was it ever wonderful to get to spend some time with my sister and all our extended family in Colorado.  These are some of the people that I love the most in the whole entire world, so anytime I get to go to Colorado, I am one very happy girl!  

Joel took some pictures of the girls and I played around with them.  Can you guess whose eyes those are in the one above?    

This one was my favorite of Hannah.

This was Joel (my B-I-L) and Rinnie’s (my step-mom’s) first time to meet Kelly, so that made it extra special.  Joel was so sweet with Kelly, and Rinnie, well- let’s just say she did all she could to spoil Kelly rotten in a week’s time... which I loved, by the way, and wouldn’t have wanted it any other way!

Rinnie let Kelly pretend she was drinking straight from that big old juice bottle.  Of course, there was no juice in it, but Kelly sure had fun with it, as you can see!

She thought Rinnie and her juice bottle game was the bomb!

Look at Rinnie's big smile, and look how Kelly gave one right back to her!  LOVE IT!

Of course, later that evening, Rinnie sealed her new bond with Kelly with a yummy lollipop!  Oh boy, does she ever know the way to her grandbabygirl's heart!

Although going to Colorado to see my sister is usually one of my most “favoritest” things to do in the whole world, I must confess; it wasn’t the best visit I’ve ever had...

It had nothing to do with my sister or anything like that- it was just that Kelly had a hard time with the adjustment of being out of her familiar surroundings, so it took it’s toll on my ability to enjoy myself like I normally would.  I think both Kelly and I were in a bit of a funk, and I hated it.  I knew I had limited time with everyone and I wanted to make every second matter, but dealing with Kelly was exhausting, so despite my best efforts to snap myself out of it, I knew I just wasn’t fully myself.   

With Kelly's struggles with everything, she acted out by hitting the dogs or the kids.  She was hitting so much that we thought we might need a straightjacket for her... so here's Caleb's version!

The kids were hoping for a big snow while we were there. We never got one, but they did enjoy getting to see it fall a little here and there...

    

Another thing was that I couldn’t really leave Kelly, so my sister and I didn’t get to go do anything - just the two of us- like we usually do, so that was disappointing as I LOVE to spend girl time with my sissy all to myself… I often refer to her as “my happy place.”  LOL

Here's my sister feeding Kelly frosting from the tube... I think my sister is now Kelly's happy place too! 

If you saw my post about Camryn's birthday from Colorado, you know my sister baked and decorated a beautiful butterfly cake for her. I will never forget what a sweet gesture of love that was- it took a LO-O-O-O-NG time for her to do it- and for a mother of four, that's quite a feat!

Look at how Kelly's smiling up at my sister... so sweet!

Here's the finished product.  See- I told you it was beautiful.  Don't Emma and Camryn look adorable?

My nieces and nephews are so precious and I loved spending time with them also, but again, with Kelly’s issues, I didn’t get nearly enough time to fully enjoy them as much as I’d have liked.  They’re growing and changing so fast, so I treasure any time I am able to spend with them, and we did have some sweet moments together as you’ll see in the pictures below.   They are all the loveliest, most precious children and I really wanted to pack them all up in my suitcases and take them home with me!

Eli is so sweet- he enjoys pampering the mommies.  One night, he agreed to style our hair for us...

He had some interesting styling ideas...

Did I mention that getting my hair styled is probably the most relaxing thing on earth for me?  More so than a massage or a pedicure... as you can see by the ridiculous look on my face in the picture below.

Here we are, all dolled up by Eli!  It was so much fun.

The girls got in on the fun too.  Emma and Hannah loved playing with Camryn's hair.

I think Camryn loved it too.

Caleb and Camryn enjoyed their time with everyone.  They always love to spend time with their Grammie (aka Rinnie) and uncle Joel.  Grammie had to work most of the time we were there, but they stole every moment they could get together.  She also made us a beautiful breakfast the day before we left which was such a treat.  You could taste the love she sprinkled all over every biscuit, every bite of fruit, every egg and every slice of bacon…. mmmm, good!   

Uncle Joel took the big boys out star gazing one night, which was so cool for Caleb. Colorado Springs has so many beautiful places to go to appreciate the great outdoors, and Joel is always so good about getting the kids out to enjoy those places.

Caleb and Camryn have such a close relationship with my sister and their cousins since they spent so much time together last summer when we went to China, so it was really special to see them all reconnect and to watch how close they’ve all become.  I am envious of their bond, actually… I haven’t had a chance to spend that much time with my sister’s kids alone since they were much younger (before Eli and Hannah came home) and I realize how it is through those extended times together that you really get close.  Caleb, Camryn and my sister share such a special bond that they have several “inside jokes” that I’m not even on the inside of!  HEY!  No, it truly brings my heart such incredible joy to see the ones I love most loving and knowing each other the way that they do.

I’m so blessed to have such a beautiful, loving sister who did so much to spoil us while we were there.  The hardest part is waiting until we can be together again.  Thank God for phones, Facebook, and e-mail!